Brett happens

Montepulciano d’Abruzzo 2011, Ilico, Azienda Agricola Dino Illuminati ($15.95, 10858123)
100% Montepulciano. The grapes are sorted and destemmed, gently crushed, macerated and fermented in stainless steel tanks at 28ºC. Upon completion of malolactic fermentation, the wine is transferred into 250-litre Slavonian oak barrels for ten months’ maturation. Bottle-aged three or four months before release. The cuvée’s name, Ilico, is Latin for “on the spot” and these days is usually spelled illico. 13.5% ABV.
Sawdust, roast beef, dried herbs, black pepper. An hour or so after the bottle was opened, the fruit (black raspberry) and some sweet spice begin to emerge (so carafe it already!). Medium-bodied and supple, with ripe but not heavy fruit, bright acidity, lightly raspy tannins and some background old wood. Fair finish with that typically Italian bitter note and drying astringency. Not memorable but not bad, especially with food, though I kept thinking that a natural version (organic, spontaneously fermented, unmanipulated, unsulphured) would be a lot more fun. As it is, a decent enough weekday dinner wine. (Buy again? Sure.)