Counting lucky stars over red..

I HAD to go to Decathlon the other day to get fancy powder stuff you add to your water when running to make your water, well better than water.

It’s full of vitamins and electrolytes etc so you don’t collapse in a heap in the middle of a big race up the mountains.

That’s the idea and from experience, having done these sorts of runs without them and with them, I know they work. Having 10 miles of mountains left to go with bad cramps in your legs when you haven’t used them isn’t much fun, I can say with absolute certainty.

With bag of powders in hand, I’d a craving for a different sort of hydration from the big Sainsbury’s next door.

They’ve obviously started taking the Vivino app wild serious as its scores, or star rating system, is stuck next to a few bottles if they’ve got a decent review.

I’ve said before they’re a tough bunch to please the Vivino ones, with not too many wines hitting four out of five stars. A 3.8 seems a decent score to hit to be honest. Obviously, such things are subjective and I’ve found myself thinking wines

deserve both higher and lower ratings than the Vivino people saw fit to hand out.

So when I spied one with a 4.3 I thought it must be worth a touch’. The Sangiovese Appassimento ticked a few boxes for me.

Appassimento you’d usually associate with Italy’s Veneto region and incredible Amarone wine made with Corvina, Corvinone or Rondinella. The grapes are allowed to dry out a little to reduce the water content and therefore increase the concentration. This vino, though, is from a little further south in Emilia Romagna and uses Sangiovese of Tuscany and Chianti fame. After peeling off the slightly awkward wax like seal

this wine was, say my notes, ‘immediately rewarding’. Straight from the bottle you were getting bright cherry and tobacco which followed through on the palate. Ripe and refreshing due to a decent streak of acidity, it’s a wine that can be enjoyed on its own or with plenty of foods.

I did find myself thinking, though, was it benefitting from some wine people call Parker syndrome where wines that are big and ripe get high scores from critics like Robert Parker? This wine is a crowd pleaser and I really enjoyed it. But I’ve had equally decent wines, albeit more subtle, that were down around 3.6 stars.

An interesting insight into the wine hive mind.

Try it or one of these appassimento wines and see how many stars you reckon it deserves.

A 3.8 seems a decent score to be honest with you