Selbach-Oster Riesling Auslese* #38 Zeltinger Sonnenuhr 2007
Thanks to Remo. Sweet, round, quite lovely fruit and acidity, ripe and quite long, nice viscosity, some florality, a vanilla touch to mild botrytis, soft blackcurrant cough drop. An early-mature style, but lovely – even if it should still age respectably well, there is no reason not to drink this now. Rating: 90-/89
Bruno Giacosa Barbaresco Asili 1998
Thanks to Oliver. Never Giacosa’s best 1998, this seemed like a fractionally more evolved bottle. Garnet-ruby-orange, watery orange at the rim. Very meaty if a bit drier than usual, macerated cherry, a bit pruney, soft lovely truffle and broth cube spice. Could offer greater density. Medium-crisp tannin. Medium length, if longer with airing. Rating: 90-/89
Bruno Giacosa Barbaresco Asili 2001
Thanks to Remo. Medium ruby-black. Tiny (!) residual SO2 addled egg top note. Fresher, more precise and racier than the 1998, better cut. Ginger, grass and hay, and a touch of cured beef to the semi-closed but finesseful fruit. Nicely firm, higher-acid than the 1998, but also more concentrated. More expressiveness and depth to the tannin – Christian found this “slightly bitter” (youthful?). Rating: 91+/92
Albino Rocca Barbaresco Brich Ronchi 1996
My only contribution that day was badly cork-tainted. Seemed youthful and highly concentrated in comparison to the Giacosas, at least that is what I was told by the others (did not taste it). Rating: N/R
Tenuta San Guido Vino da Tavola Sassicaia 2006
Thanks to Christian. A blend of 85% Cabernet Sauvignon and 15% Cabernet Franc. Opaque plummy purple-ruby. Quite a bit of residual SO2. Quite oaky with touches of mocha, cinnamon and nutmeg. Dense plummy fruit, fresh and dried prune, strong dried violet, cocoa powder. Blackcurrant, and soft blackberry and cherry jam. Finely grained tannin. Quite long. Oakier with airing. But relatively fresh for the Bolgheri vintage. Impressive potential. One to cellar rather than drink young (it not just that this needs and deserves bottle age, I would not want to drink it as it is, in its primary-oaky youth). May turn out to be the finest Sassicaia since the 1985. Rating: 93+/94(+?)
Tenuta dell'Ornellaia Vino da Tavola Ornellaia 2006
Thanks to Christian. A blend of 56% Cabernet Sauvignon, 27% Merlot, 12% Cabernet Franc and 5% Petit Verdot. No different from the bottle with Patrick and Remo in July last year. Fresher-looking purple-ruby (opaque at the center) than the Sassicaia. Fuller-bodied, too (15% versus 13.5% alcohol). More concentrated, certainly tighter. More intense, showing greater depth at this early stage. Longer. Nicely complex. My favourite Ornellaia since the 1997. Rating: 94(+?)
Dunn Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Howell Mountain 2004
Thanks to Remo. Opaque purple-ruby-black. Stronger iodine and metal top notes and minerality this time, tighter, firmer, by far the most typical bottle of the 2004 we have had thus far. And not too oaky at all. Firm blackcurrant and lightly crystallized blackberry. Smooth fruit as of a young Château Latour. Has density, thoroughly ripe, round, big, quite firm, has the potential for great sweetness. Long, even longer with airing. The relative stylistic modernity is much less apparent, tempting to say this was the first bottle of the 2004 I really liked. Rating: 93+/94(+?
Tommaso Bussola Recioto della Valpolicella Classico TB 1995
Thanks to Dani. More evolved, even faintly oxidative half liter bottle than usual (if less cedary-racy, honeyed and finesseful than the best). Sweeter prune, creamy mild mocha and chocolate. Quite long. Rating: 93
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