Fasoli Gino Orgno 2016

Fasoli Gino is a long established organic estate in the Veneto, a region better known for white wine, and the family planted Merlot here in 1978 when it was still a rarity. Orgno is their flagship red, and the high stated strength of 17% points to very ripe, concentrated fruit, in keeping with the region's tradition of partially drying grapes to build sugar and depth. That concentration carries through the whole wine. It then spends a long thirty six months in oak; this extended barrel ageing, with its slow oxygen exchange through the wood, softens the tannin and adds chocolate, tobacco and sweet spice, while the wine settles and gains complexity. The colour is a dense purplish red with garnet at the rim. The nose is deep and layered, with ripe plum, dark cherry and prune, over dark chocolate, liquorice and oak spice. The palate is full bodied and intense, warming, with ripe tannin and a long, savoury finish. Serve at 18C in a large glass and decant beforehand. It is a wine for rich, slow cooked meat and mature cheese.