With Hart, Yz, Sloke, Liz and Daryl at Sloke. Wine was courtesy of Liz.

I took a whiff of it early in the decant. Then an hour in. Took several sips but kept fairly quiet. I’m absolutely certain the wine is corked.

In the glass: the first clue was this was just brown and extremely tawny, yet had a large meniscus. To be clear, Sangiovese IS garnet/has a brownish hue. But it’s not this.
The second clue was the sharp nose of raisin / sherry that was strong even from the decanter. This calmed with time but remained very sharp.

In the glass and on the nose: sharp smell of sherry, couple with a STRONG nose of earthy mushrooms. There was really no fruits left; certainly nothing that would suggest a Brunello/sangiovese. High acidity. Mid tannins. Strong smell of raisins and mushrooms on the exhale.

Brunellos & Bdx are my most drank wines, and 17 years is a barely middle aged Brunello, and even accounting for vintage variation, should not cause such a dramatic transformation to become unrecognizable. The cork looked good, so it guessing heat damage. I do have a couple of young MastroJanni that I’m now tempted to try.