Have I mentioned that Ruffino has released a Grappa of its Chianti Classico Riserva Ducale Oro? No? Ooops. Well, finding decent Grappa in my neck of the woods is pretty tough. I was never a Grappa fan, in fact I was quite the opposite until I tried a few of them over in Italy and realized that the tough, astringent, cleaning fluid taste-a-likes I'd had here weren't even poor excuses for the real thing. Since then, I've made it a point to search out anything approximating that thing. The Ruffino, which I found, amazingly enough, in the Pennsylvania State Store, is definitely in the right ballpark. Of course, it's no longer available on the shelves and the special order stock will probably be gone soon. Thankfully, no one reads this blog, so we may have one more shot. We're plowing through our last 6 (375 ml) bottles pretty fast.

Oh, and, in the revised assessment category, BTW, back in February, it seems I said of the 1998 Calera Chardonnay that it was "way short of showing its best stuff yet." That comment was based in large part upon my past experience with other vintages of this wine but was, unfortunately, wrong. The '98 is already showing serious signs of decay. That's a huge bummer, although the good news is that the wine was so good young that I have very little left. I hope this is a foible of the vintage and doesn't reflect a change in Calera's winemaking style, which has always, in the past, produced delicious, long-lived Chardonnays that far outstripped anything else at their price point. Stay tuned.