Roger Sauvestre Côte-de-Beaune Villages 2007
A cheap Burgundy by our standards at about 15€. And the first sniff I took, I was excited: wonderfully pure, tart, bright Pinosity. Unfortunately, as happens far too often, the more air exposure it got, the nastier it became. I began to see some very off-putting aromas of sea weed and toast and finally googled the specs: 30% new oak. And this just cannot handle that amount. Despite the promising initial 3 minutes where this smelled like wonderful red Burgundy, I ended up quite disliking it. It does have nice, high acidity, but despite my acid-fetish, it wasn't enough to win me over.
Prieler Ungerbergen Cabernet Sauvignon 2005 from Burgenland, Austria. I have enjoyed some of Prieler's lower end wines (like their Johannishöhe Blaufränkisch), so I was interested to try this, though I do tend to prefer the greater Cabernet: the Franc. Despite seeing about a third new oak, it has started to integrate well and the dominant aroma was a lovely aroma of loam and lead and blackcurrant leaves. It's not Bordeaux, though, being in a bit juicier style, but it is attractive (and I can only imagine it becoming even more so once the oak further recedes). Full bodied, nice grip, stronger acidity than I see in most Bx. It is a fairly ripe style of wine so the tannins are softer than I would prefer: I do like palate-cleansing, grippy tannins more than these smooth ones. But it is a nice wine, if one likes the grape.