Altos R Rioja Reserva 2004
Ruby-black, purple hue. Not too modernistic at all, typical Tempranillo “fruit”, earth, tree bark and tobacco leaf. Good stale orange and cedar scented acidity and firm tannin. Good medium-plus body. Fairly long. Rating: 88
Bernard Ancely Minervois La Muraille 2005
Medium ruby-black, slightly evolved colour, as well as fruit and tannin, for such a young wine. A terrific QPR buy at roughly 12 dollars, an exceptionally pretty, well-balanced and harmonious medium weight, quite complex, nicely juicy, warming and lightly peppery, a suggestion of cured meat, softly glyceric. Still lightly tannic (quite flavourful tannin quality), good finesse, some acidity. Some minerals and faint metal notes. Easy to enjoy in quantity, love natural-tasting wines like this. Rating: 88-/87?
Astrales Ribera del Duero 2007
Tasted in passing at a local wine shop. Darkly coloured, a fairly concentrated, tannic-tight, probably not fruity enough wine on balance, but which nevertheless needs a little bottle age to achieve a little more roundness. Rating: 84+/85(+?)
Brigaldara Recioto della Valpolicella 2003
Lovely, same as always. Shared a whole bottle with my mom watching Didier Defago win a (relative) surprise downhill race gold medal, and it did not even take us all evening to drain it! Retains a full, glossy and still lightly purple ruby with soft black reflections. The heat due to the 15.5% alcohol is completely gone, a well-balanced Recioto with good complexity, intense and mildly chocolaty, with good body and length. Softly tannic, not too sweet (let alone raisiny or pruney). Terrific QPR. Wondering in hindsight if 2003 may have been a greater Recioto than Amarone vintage in general (but then, I have only tasted a handful of Reciotos and many more Amarones). Rating: 92
Clemens Busch Riesling Spätlese #22 Pündericher Marienburg 2004
One of my favourite Spätlesen of the vintage, evolving nicely, with the earlier almost-Auslese sweetness for the most absorbed, exotic sultana and apple fruit, faint vanilla and blackcurrant superripeness top notes, firm minerality, aromatic acidity, long finish. My mom, for whom I had opened this, remarked on how well it went with sushi, although when it comes to the spicy combinations, it is really only wasabi and marinated ginger that do not hurt anything – the cayenne pepper on top of e.g. spicy tuna rolls does. Rating: 91(+?)
Casa al Vento (Cristina & Kurt Haller) Vino da Tavola Tosco 2006
Thanks to my parents. Nice and refreshing as always, high-acid but clean and pure, a pleasure to drink, merely hard to tell if and how much this nicely natural-tasting and typical if slightly monolithic Chianti can improve with bottle age. Rating: 86(+/-?)
Charvin Côtes-du-Rhône 2007
A blend of 85% Grenache, 10% Syrah, and 5% Carignan. Medium purple-ruby-black, perhaps the deepest-coloured Charvin CdR we have had. An almost appley-fresh vintage of Charvin CdR. Bright roasted Provençal herbs, green pepper, Kirsch Schnaps and redcurrant fruit, quite intense, even lightly palate-staining. Lively acids, nice little bitterness from the youthful tannin. Medium-plus body. Good length. A precise, bright, lively, light-on-its feet (without actually being light, of course) and finesseful vintage of Charvin CdR, perhaps my favourite ever (wonder what the CdP is like). Rating: 88(+?)
Birgit Eichinger Grüner Veltliner Hasel 2008
Thanks to my parents, for whom I am always trying to find more QPR Wachau and Kemptal wines. Nicely concentrated and balanced QPR wine, quite good spice and minerality, firm enough fruit, healthy acidity, lightly tannic, a little CO2, fairly long on the finish. Rating: 87
Eredi Fuligni Brunello di Montalcino Vigneti dei Cottimelli 1993
Last bottle. Ruby orange colour. Dried blood orange, tobacco, wet earth, truffle and dried mushrooms, medium dried black cherry, lightly stale meat, all backed by citrusy acidity and slightly dry tannin. Retains fair enough density, but is now shorter on the finish than it used to be. Rating: 89-/88(-?)
Daniel & Martha Gantenbein Pinot Noir 2003
A massive vintage of Gantenbein’s Fläscher, youthful, powerful, oaky but also fruity and complex, quite full-bodied, more unusual albeit no longer exotic in its ripeness, actually quite Burgundian (as well as more elegant) with extended airing (still drinking very well the following day), quite long on the finish. Flavourful, not too much but still firm tannin, the earlier bitterness has disappeared. Underestimated this at release. Rating: 91+/92(+?)
Pago de Cirsus Navarra Single Vineyard Oak Aged 2006
A modernistic, heterogeneous-tasting blend of Tempranillo, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, overtly sweet yet tannic and tough at the same time. Medium-short on the finish. Rating: 82+/83?
Pesquera Ribera del Duero Crianza 2006
Tasted in passing at a local wine shop. On a slightly fast evolutionary track, if more pleasing than a year ago: already a bit plummy-autumnal, mild, round, softly roasted, walnutty and spicy, fairly complex and long. Rating: 88-
Bodegas Roda Rioja Reserva 2004
16 months in barrique, 50% of which new. From half bottle this time. Continues to drink nicely, a somewhat modern-styled, sweetly fruity, still typical Rioja with nice acids, well-balanced wine. Could be longer on the finish. But one of the finest vintages of this bottling that I have had. Rating: 88(+?)
Provins Cornalin Maître de Chais 2007
Faintly purple ruby-black. Nicely firm and fairly intense, not too oaky, minerally-metallic to the point where this tastes a bit inky. Nice peppery-gingery wine, a bit lean on fruit. Slightly hard tannin. Medium body, short of medium length. Rating: 87
Greetings from Switzerland, David.
_________________
„J'ai gâché vingt ans de mes plus belles années au billard. Si c'était à refaire, je recommencerais.“ – Roger Conti