Thurnhof - St. Magdalener 2008

So I've already started my first post with procrastinating, yes this review if you want to call it that is for a bottle that was tasted last Sunday March 7th when I declared Un Anno Di Vino.  First let me tell you how I acquired this week’s bottle; my wife Natascia is from Italy and knows how much I love Italian wine especially from her region.  March 7th was my Birthday and being the difficult guy I am to shop for who wants something and just buys it, she nailed this one on the nose.  Not only did she give me 3 very nice bottles of wine but she gave me the boost and motivation to start this blog and insisted that I pop the cork on this beauty that night...which was also my birthday/ Oscar party.

As the title explains this week’s bottle is a St. Magdalener, produced by Thurnhof.  All I have to say is boy did I pick the wrong bottle for my first post... not because of the taste, I mean this was delightful.  No the reason is that I don't quite know how to write about wine quite yet and when you Google these guys you get nothing, guess I'm on my own for this.  The facts:  This is a red wine from a very northern region of Italy called Alto-Adige, this particular variety, St. Magdalener is from the north of that region as you can probably guess from the brand name very close to Germany.  I've personally been in this area and cannot begin to explain how picturesque the vineyards are there on their mountain sides. 

Now for my extremely humble opinion of this wine, which I need to emphasize that I will rarely have bottles this nice in this blog but hey gotta start off with a bang I guess.  I will be very short and to the point with this, first I have to say I loved this wine.  It had a nice strong fruity taste that hit your palate quite gently and moved into subtle smokey earthy hints.  There was a light acidity to this wine, but my favorite experience was although this was a quite bold persistent wine it ended so smoothly and had a great finish.  The best part about this experience was...The experience.  I shared this bottle with a bunch of friends and family and kicked off my Year of Wine.  No we didn't compare what cheese this paired best with or HAVE to have a perfectly cooked steak to enjoy this wine, all we needed was each other and a bunch of glasses.  I'll be happy to say this bottle received rave reviews from everyone and many had a chance to try this with me so in my book that is a fine bottle.

My final thought for this first post is that no matter how great a bottle of wine is and how tasty it may be, it's all about the experience.  I wasn't sitting around an uptight place criticizing the tannins or how undeveloped this bottle was; rather I was enjoying this fine bottle with great people having a great time.  Don't worry how much you don't know about wine... and if you do, great!  use that knowledge to help others understand what they are enjoying.  There's a good chance they know what they taste and have some great insight and thoughts on the wine, maybe they just don't know the “proper” words to explain it.

So I encourage you, don't wait for a special occasion to open that bottle of wine that you've been saving, make opening it the occasion!