I've never been into Italian wine. Most of the time, we had Chianti at Italian restaurants since they always carry it as house wine. My experience with Chianti hasn't been good - the ones I tried had very high acidity and tannin esp. the horrible one Buca di Beppo carries (probably I should stop eating there).
I found this Straccali at the grocery next to my place. It's in the "clearance tray" with $6 price tag for 1.5L bottle. Can't remember the year but I think it's 2003. No expectation for quality at all - just buy and bring it to large party, I thought.
We had a house-warming party last night an a friend's place. There were me and my friend who were not against red wine so I was a little reluctant to open it in case it was lemon. Man... it turned out to be an amazing wine even when you don't consider the price - medium-body, great taste, and super drinkable. Between two of us, we finished 2/3 of the bottle even before the appetizer was ready - it was duck foie gras brought directly from Paris. I absolutely enjoyed it since alcohol has turned off my sense of liver stinky smell.
Someone also brought 1.5L Yellow Tail Shiraz and we opened it. A few other people helped us on that bottle but I could tell that the toilet bowl at that place was quite purple last night ;)
