I had these south italian wine neatly named "The Tear of Christ from Vesuvius" on Sunday evening.

Initially very closed. I don't know if this was because it was served just a little too cold or because of lack of air, but it took an hour before it opened up, after decanting. Even then, it remained very tight, so I think a year or two in the cellar would help.

Dark, almost opaque with thick, slow tears.

On the nose, lots of spice and dark fruit. Clear note of fennel-seed and some lingonberry. Complex spice, but very tight fruit that probably could evolve.

On the palate the nose is reinforced, but with more of the fruit. At first it was hard, but mellowed out later. Rather full bodied. Good balance with refreshign acidity.

All in all, this one is somwhere arounf 80-85 points. I think it will get better with a little age. The price was 13 € which makes it fair although not very good QPR.

If anyone else hase tasted this wine, I'd be interested to hear their opinions on ageability.

I have a friend who is a 'cheap wine-o'. He likes wine, but I do not think the guy has ever paid more than $20 for a bottle (ok, he did once). He prefers the $8-$15 price point and he buys them and drinks them.

Anyway, he's always loved this label/wine you have posted on here. I tried a different vintage once and I was equally unimpressed. It was OK, not bad, but not more than an 80-82 point wine IMO.

Still, a good experience as it helps calibrate the old palate!

Thankyou TJ.

Do you remember what you thought about ageworthiness? This is one of those wines which I think really could improve with a year, but I don't feel that confident predicting that.

My initial reaction was not to buy another bottle, but I'm thinking of still buying one to stash away for a year and see then.

It certainly couldn't hurt as an experiment. Do you know how recently this was released? If it was fairly recently, the bottle might also be suffering from bottle shock and it might be better in 6-8 months. Who knows? It's cheap enough to try an experiement and not feel lousy about it if it turns out to still suck in 6 months. You never know, it might end up being a mid-upper 80's wine.

Or not.

Yep, you're right.

I have no idea when the wine was released. Maybe this could be a case of bottle shock.

I got curious and had to see what a couple of Finnish qine critics that I respect had thought about it, and they'd given it four out of five and figured it was well worth its price, even though it wasn't great QPR. So, I guess that pretty much lands it where I did too.

I think I'll pick up a bottle and stash it in my cellar.