Friday night wines

In preparation for the onslaught of commercial tie-ins for the upcoming movie release of The DaVinci Code, the Italian winery Cantine Leonardo da Vinci has marketed a chianti red table wine for the American palate. The Da Vinci Toscana Chianti 2004 is available by the case load at the grocery stores and popular wine shops all over the D.C. metropolitan area, and I hear that there will be tasting and parties with the wine when the movie opens. We tried the wine Friday night, so now the surprise is over. It's a deep burgundy colored wine which tastes very much like a standard everyday chianti. There is a touch of fruitiness and only a minimal amount of tannin. The wine has a good full feel on the tongue, but there is really very little substance and no aftertaste to speak of. Verdict? It's an inoffensive little wine that reminds me very much of the ubiquitous merlots ordinaires which are everywhere in trendy American bars and cafes, and while not particularly interesting for oenophiles, the American mass market should drink this chianti right up, especially since it has a pretty bottle and retails for just $10.

Prior to tasting the Da Vinci, we sampled a 2000 Château Mayne Cassan Médoc that Dale had received as a gift some time ago and brought for us to try. This wine was one of the early 2000 red bordeaux said to be an example of the excellent vintage in France that year, though all of the early wines then were surprisingly inexpensive at release. Our bottle was quite drinkable with a very up-front fruitiness, full body, and dense red color, but I think this bottle was either a touch cooked (we don't know its handling or storage history) or perhaps a bit past its prime (though that would be unusual for a French bordeaux only five years old). The House of Mayne Cassan always does interesting table wines, blending in perhaps more merlot with the cabernet sauvignon than many other houses, and also adding some cabernet franc, so their product is usually light and fruity for a médoc.