A good time to catch up on posting notes to wines recently drunk, when one cannot have any at all (temporarily). Seems like a good time to reminisce.
Terra di Vento, Colli di Salerno IGT, Aglianico 'Petrale', 2006
Deep dark cherry red colored. Red liquor-like plums, slight blue/green cheese aroma, sweet aromas. In the glass, this is viscous, with medium-to-full bodied flavors of sweet liquorish cherry fruit with nicely drying tannins on the end. Very complete right now, why wait? 13.5% B+
Stefano Antonucci, Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi Classico, Riserva, 2006
Tropical fruit in a summer field. Tropical fruit, especially pineapple upside-down cake, burnt sugar, and ripe orange implies a sweet rendition, which it tends towards, but this is balanced by good acidity (esp. for a 2006) and a slight amaro bite at the end. Refreshingly summer in a glass. 13.5% A-
Virgile Lignier, Morey-St.-Denis, vieilles vignes, 2004
Ah, the despised 04's! Decent, if only thus. I'm not one to notice (in a negative way) green or herbals, but I didn't really find any in here. Cranberry-cherry, some raspberry and maturing autumn leaf. Better than the last time I had, maybe 2 years ago? 13% B-B+
Rudi Pichler, Wachau, Gruner Veltliner, Terassen, smaragd, 2006
One of the best $10 wines out there. For the big bucks you get salt spray, snow pea leaf and mild white pepper. Delicious. Will keep. B+
Martilde, Oltrepo Pavese, Barbera, 2007
FAKE CORK ALERT. Simple black cherry and tarry black fruit, sweetish and perfumy, not very polished with some heat showing on the end. Liked Porro's 2007 better. B
Domaine de Montbourgeau, 'l'Etoile, 2005
From the Jura comes this interesting white, composed of mostly if not all(?) chardonnay. The color is a light bronzish gold, hinting at the oxidative hazlenut-walnut meats with a lemon verbena florality. Lightly nutty, this has the wet wool-lanolin aspect to it that older chenin blancs morph into. Medium weight. Good, and a wine you don't realize you're drinking until you look at the bottle, but probably not for everyone. B+/A-
Anthony Road, Finger Lakes, Cabernet Franc, 'Martini Reinhardt Selection', 2005
From a stellar year in the Finger Lakes comes this limited production (something like 100 cases) wine with a $35 pricetag. I bought it because I was curious how age would treat it. There is some slight volatility to it, but this settles down to reveal sour plum, cherry stick, floral pastilles of rose and lavender. Medium in weight. Simple, but good. 13.6% B+