Caprai "Collepiano" Sangrantino di Montefalco 2003

Red/purple.

Packed, vibrant nose of red and black cherry, sausage, basil, iodine ... Can't keep up as it airs.

Extremely intense/linear in the mouth, with huge, acid-driven, tannic clout. But there's a great deal of mid-palate flesh to battle the embedded structure. Ultimately, it's obvious that many years are needed, but this really isn't all that difficult to drink right now, assuming a corpulent (dead) animal is on the table.

Intense and pure - tough to beat that combination.

Day 4 - Nose even more fruit-filled now, red cherry and raspberry. Still pure and precise. Structure hits a bit later. Packed, yet accessible.

Day 5 - Holy shit on a stick - what a ridiculous value in great wine.

$45