2019 Guerrieri Rizzardi Chiaretto Bardolino rose Keya

NHB. Savoury and fragrant and carelessly bold. This is a wine that flings its arms wide open, and then dances paso doble across the palate. Fierce, fiery spice. Spine and flair. Tannins tingle up and down the full stretch of the wine, shaping it without defining it. Glorious. When I tasted it the next day (blind, with other rosés), I wrote:  Intense nose, despite being cold. Blood orange and guava, nougat and pistachio and quince. Wonderful sweet-citrus shaft driving fragrance and cool rigour through the wine, leaving an almost glittery cloud of flavour in its wake. It’s everything on the nose and more. It’s crunchy and clenched, notes of Aperol and pan-roasted cumin, almost chewy with texture and density. There’s even a sense of dry, bitter marmalade on dark rye toast, sage leaf crumbled on top. Extraordinarily complex, it quite took my breath away! (TC)