I've been holding on to this bottle for a while now. We didn't get much of it at the store, and I only managed to get my hands on the one bottle for myself. The first thing I thought when I tasted it was "Holy crap, I wish I had a case of this!"This wine completely changed my perception of the winemaker Charles Smith. His wines in general have gotten a lot of critical acclaim, and he's most well known for his syrahs, and most of the ones I've had are very big wines, yet this Guido was astonishingly delicate. It's 86% Sangiovese and 14% Syrah, and it showed more authentic Sangiovese varietal character than any Sangiovese I've ever had from Washington. My wine-drinking teammate and I actually had a bottle of 2005 Vino Nobile di Montepulciano a few weeks ago, and as we were drinking the Guido we both wished we had another bottle of the Vino Nobile just so we could compare the two.
The Guido smelled so perfectly like Sangiovese, full of cherries with just a little red licorice and dried flowers. The palate was delicious and elegant, again showing cherries and raspberries, amazing balance, and pairing extremely well with our Chicago Connection sausage pizza. My only regret is that we drank it so soon. It was so delicious, yet still seemed young, and I'm sure it would have continued to improve for a good long while. I've been keeping my eye on K Vintners' website and talking to my distributor, waiting for this wine's next release and I haven't seen anything so far. I REALLY hope Charles hasn't lost his vineyard source for this wine.
3 Awesomes.
