Fiorenzo Nada Barbaresco Rombone 1997
Full garnet ruby-red, watery rim. Retains some marzipan and tar from the oak, but the emphasis is on marinated ginger and fresh blood orange, blood orange rind, truffle and dried porcini. Faint but very nice tobacco. Finely grained, lightly oak-tinged, but also black tea like tannin. Very nice acidity, especially (but not only) for the vintage. Lovely juicy, fruity and dry, fairly finesseful, faintly tarry finish. Ever so slightly viscous with airing. Now reasonably mature, but by no means old. Drinking so well, Wolfgang even preferred this to his Malcolm. Rating: 93(-?)
Magpie Estate Shiraz Barossa Valley The Malcolm 2006
Thanks to Wolfgang. By Rolf Binder of Veritas fame. Sourced from a different vineyard than the 1996 (there apparently was no Malcolm between 1999 and 2005), the only other Malcolm I have had, and indeed an altogether different wine, as Wolfgang put it, not of the uncivilized (if not rough) sort, on the contrary, this is about as polished as it gets, and not just in the negative sense. 125 cases produced. “The wine was sourced from a single, dry-grown vineyard, with vine age ranging from 20-120 years. It was first barrel-fermented and is now receiving the “200% new oak” treatment, spending the first 12 months in new French oak before transfer to new American oak for another 12 months. It will be bottled unfined and unfiltered.” Cannot say this smells nor tastes oakier than any other modern-styled trophy cuvée out there, though. Opaque plummy purple colour. Quite concentrated and ripe blueberry juice grown-through with admittedly prettily spiced oak, sweet cinnamon, nutmeg, clove and chocolate. Pretty enough if yoghurt-like acidity and tannin. Soft, round, early-harmonious. Jammy but not too sweet nor up-front, nor even superficial, and even if there is not much to “discover” here in terms of (potential) depth, we thought the wine quite multi-layered. Reminiscent of a Grange from the early nineties. The 15.5% alcohol is very well integrated. Not the power of the 1996, nor that wine’s mature Vintage Port like evolution and honeyed crude oil rusticity (truly an altogether different wine). But very long. Touch of coffee with airing. Wolfgang thought this very nice, but “not really special”. Served the last glass to Remo the next day, guess what, he simply loved the wine, in particular its “concentration, beautiful colour, superlative fruit and satiny texture”. Rating: 92+/93(+?)
Quinta do Vesúvio Vintage Port 2007
Thanks to Wolfgang. Pitch-black purple, tiny pink-red rim. Albino neither finds the colour dark enough, nor the wine concentrated nor fruit-drenched deep nor tannic. Green and black licorice, nicely spicy, pretty medium-violety florality, darkly fruity, very ripe, syrupy yet fresh, centered around juicy damson. Very sweet, medium marzipan tannin that gives the wine a nice medium tightness. Fairly long, sweet, almost syrupy finish. Very polished, not necessarily a long-term wine, as Albino says (but no doubt a fair-enough mid-term ager). Wolfgang does not mind, to him the 2007s are meant to drink young, nothing wrong with that. Rating: 91+/92(+?)
Schloss Lieser Auslese*** #09 Niederberg Helden 1997
Half bottle thanks to Dani. Medium-pale yellow-gold. Tiny little petrol note to honeyed vanilla slate. Sweet, quite thick and rich, quite complex. Some CO2 left, which almost completely blew off within an hour. Ultimately not super-concentrated for a Three Star Auslese, also seem to remember the AP-#10 as fractionally firmer (but then, I have not retasted it in a while). Medium-plus length. Rating: 91(+?)
Greetings from Switzerland, David.
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„J'ai gâché vingt ans de mes plus belles années au billard. Si c'était à refaire, je recommencerais.“ – Roger Conti