Two Good Valpolicellas

[Botafogo]

From a thread from a couple of years ago entitled "file under 'ASS'":

We had a VERY interesting experience this week: we let five unsuspecting consumers ranging from a 20-something Ad-Grrrrl to a 60-something electrical engineer taste two wines side by side, a VERY famous and expensive Cabernet based wine from Napa and a ten year old Aglianico from Basilicata whose vendor gave it his highest praise when he exclaimed "it smells like ASS!" (as in barnyardy and fecund). We did this in the presence of the winery owner from Napa (but without the consumers being aware of this) and EVERYONE preferred the "rustic", "old style" wine and noted that the fancy Claret was "good" but kind of one dimensional and had too much "fruit" as opposed to "wine". We didn't even tell them that the Aglianico was $12.99 and the Cab WHOLESALED for $40!!!

We think that the people who make and sell wines on a wholesale basis spend WAY too much time talking to restaurant and retail buyers (who don't want to have to work too hard) and not nearly enough time getting a true read on actual consumers. Which led us to this:

"The FUNK-ateers return with a real slice o' life!

Just like George Clinton battling the "R&B Smootherizers" by making the funkiest music on the planet, we are in your corner fighting to bring real wine (not fruit juice) to your table. These are very Old School, know where the One is, get on The Good Foot from the get go and are just plain as funky as they wanna be. Uhhhg! Maceo, hit me one time....Excuse me while I do the Boogaloo.....this stuff makes me feel like a Sex Machine......

Sasso Aglianico del Vulture 1991, Basilicata
Yet another find in our archeological dig at an importer’s warehouse, this is for the “show me the dirt and aged beef” crowd: it’s WINE, not fruit juice! If you are tired of the ongoing trend touting expensive grape juice concentrate as great wine and handing out scores based on the level of fruit concentration rather than the TRANSCENDENCE of fruit into something magical, then you need to try this. We would venture to say that if we let you smell it blindfolded you might have trouble deciding whether the aroma presented to you was coming from a nice piece of aged sausage, a lump of iron rich dirt or a glass of wine (or better yet, a piece of sausage and a lump of iron ore IN a glass of wine). That's a GOOD thing! They don’t call Aglianico “The Barolo of the South” for nothing.....

This sold the wine out (twelve cases) in about 48 hours. No scores, no "gobs and gobs of thick unctuous fruit glazed with sweet vanilla", just the Merde, the Real Merde and nothin but the G-damn Merde! Comments????????? Do you like WINE or fruit juice?

Discuss.........

That ol' shit stirrer Roberto