Over the last 2 weeks, giving these a whirl.
Purchased at Total WIne w discount all @ $40-45

These wines are surprisingly quite consistent in intensity flavor and best of all price $40.00-45.00.
'96- last bottle
More earthy almost smoky beef, and blackberry, some chocolate.

'97- only and last bottle
Extremely loaded full bodied plum and blackberry, almost raisiny with earth and clay.

'98- several left
Full bodied with blackberry, mushroom, not as complex.

'99- several left
A baby '97, with high octane up front alcohol followed by intensely progressive plum and blackberry with clay and mushroom.

These wines are to my tastes like the best Zinfandels, but with more earth and clay or mushroom and perhaps less hot high alcohol sweetness. Most impressively, the consistency over this 4 year period is impressive. The '98 and '99 need some decanting and were awesome on day 2, the '96 and a '95 I had 3-4 months ago are ready to go. These wines have the stuffing to go 8-10+ years.

Thanks for the notes, Dr. T. I like a bit more bottle age on my Amarone, so I'll be holding the '98 Allegrini that I have for at least another couple years before popping the first.

futronic-

Agree. These are a bit primary, especially the '98 and '99, even the '97. The '96 and the '95 are close to peak.

I had the 1998 tonight and... I gotta say... in my bood... this is the best Italian wine I have ever had!

Huge nose of deep, dark berries and plums. The creamy vanilla explodes in the mouth leaving flavors of sweet plums and cherrys. Big, big, big. 25 second finish. I absolutely loved this wine.

My socks rolled down and up four or five times!

dn 99 points!

You be your sweet bippy! I couldn't get over the wonderful cassis and chocolate aromas and flavors from the charred vanillan oak.

Just wait until the wine is more mature! Mmmmm ... aged Amarone ...

*drool*

davidn-

Happy that you've enjoyed it. I always worry about steering people wrong [ well maybe, for 10 seconds anyway], acknowledging we all have different tastes. But a 99 davidn!! . That's a barn burner or a brew thru-er!

It's funny. I'm not real knowledgeable on Italians and the meager supply locally compounds this. The only Italian wine I buy locally is the Isole e Olena Cepparello in some vintages and this, after I tried the '95 and liked it so. These latter are all low to mid 90 pt wines, in a style most of us Americanos might like...but a big reason is that they're priced so affordably @ $45-55.00.

I think I'm the only person in VA Beach that purchases these and the QC's that come in.
Fine by me.

I gotta say Dr. T. I had this last night and since I had it I have had nine other 90 point to 100 point (well, maybe the Caliope shouldn't count) wines. This stuff had it all. I'm thinking now about raising my 99 dn point rating.

Found seven bottles of the '98 in Santa Barbara for $60 ea.

PJ Wine in NYC has the 98 for $55.

David,

Do me a favour and hold onto some of those bottles until 2008. If you were that impressed with the raw power of the wine now, wait until the secondary and tertiary parts of the wine start to come into play.

This is available locally for $54.

I did find it a few bucks cheaper but it would involve paying shipping.

No shipping from Santa Barbara plus I get a 10% credit at the end of the year.

Are there two levels to this wine? We had this (I think) at the DC Crü offline the other night, the 98, but I did not type down 'Classico' but everything else matches. Is this the same thing?

It's the same wine, tj.

Ah, grazie!