12% abv; 11,89€; Stelvin closure. Deep salmon pink. Really lovely, slightly earthy and brightly berried aromas. Pleasant weight, lovely tanginess and fruitiness combined make this very moreish. Nice!
Weingut Willi Bründlmayer Riesling Langenloiser Steinmassel 2008 - Langenlois, Kamptal
12% abv; 17,80€; Stelvin closure. I have seen this with both cork and Stelvin. This time I tried the Stelvin and on the first day it seemed too reductive and sulphurous to be enjoyable. But tonight it is very enjoyable. Very pure Riesling aromas, mineral and quite forceful - tonight there is little elegance, rather it is very in-your-face. Dry but fruity, pure and clean and with a nice, thirst-quenching quinine bitterness on the finish. Nice!
Pipers Brook Vineyard Pinot Noir Estate 2008 - Devil-may-care
13,5% abv; at this young stage there is absolutely no sense of the grape: the toffee and cedary, spicy new oak obliterate everything else from the fruit except for a vague sense of dark fruit concentrate. Very full bodied, artificially concentrated and more like liqueur than wine in its density. The high acidity and the bitterness of the oak clash in a most unpleasant way. The cranberry finish is bracing but just like in Ocean Spray, there is an annoying sweetness that blurs the tartness. There is, aside from the high acidity, nothing in this wine that would indicate that it is a cool-climate Pinot. At least in this early stage of its evolution, I found this wine quite repulsive.
