Is this a good deal?

[climberdoc]

http://thewinespies.com/

Anyone have any experience with this Brunello? It seems like a good opportunity to this novice Brunello drinker. I'm interested in hearing the opinions of the more experienced wine hounds.

[climberdoc]

Thanks for the responses. I've decided against it. Easy come, easy go. It does make me a bit dubious about obtaining wine on the internet.

[RicRios]

You are half correct.
Be aware of internet-only vendors.
However, internet vendors whose main business is brick-and-mortar are usually pretty reliable.
Or at least that's my $0.02 worth.

[Chicago Mike]

While the other posters have raised valid concerns, I wouldn't be too afraid of this wine at $45.00.... it's a valid DOCG brunello from a great vintage and with 7 years it should be mellowing enough to at least be a pleasant accompaniment to a well-matched meal.

Plan to decant this at least an hour....

[stevino]

Climber,

The link takes me to a Maremma property. Not sure if the site has already changed the wine...

[climberdoc]

Stevino

I think they are alternating between the two wines. Refresh and you should get the Brunello offer. The question is are they really playing dirty tricks like RicRios suspects? I've ordered from Winespies before and they seem pretty reputable.

[stevino]

Climber,

Verrrry interesting. At first glance, looks like a deal, esp. w/Tanzer giving it a 92-he is more conservative w/his numerical scores than WS or RP. I run the wine program for shoppersvineyard.com in NJ and while 2001 was an outstanding vintage, current vintage coming through the wholesale channels of distribution is 2003, w/ the 2004's soon to come out. As such, any new 2001 properties that have actually squeaked through the proper wholesale channels, at this point in the game, have been of swill and spit quality. RicRios' point about Valeria Selection is important. Typically, in Italy, you can't legally put something like that on the label unless it means something, like the single vineyard where the grapes were sourced or it being a higher quality production, etc. Neither ST nor WS identify the Valeria Selection from Tornesi, so my impression is that Valeria is the name of someone's daughter, girlfriend or favorite mule and that it is re-packaged swill. Also be aware that there's been major scandal rocking Tuscany in the last year because of counterfeit Brunello, causing half of my 2003's to be delayed from hitting US soil b/c of investigations on the Italian side into nearly every Brunello released to market...Hope this helps.

[RicRios]

These guys are playing dirty tricks.

The one rated 91 by Wine Spectator is the 2001 Tornesi Brunello.

The bottle in the picture is labelled "Valeria Selection - Loc. Le Benducce - Montalcino"

The "Tornesi" name is on the label, but not prominently, and then is the "Valeria Selection" that doesn't look too good, and BTW is not rated by anybody.

My wild guess: this is a second, third or nth selection from the original by Tornesi, nothing to do with the rating mentioned above. I'd pass.