Leo Alzinger Grüner Veltliner Federspiel Hochstrasser 2005
Thanks to my parents. Nicely light wine of which I used a part to make Fondue (Rainer told me GV is ideal for this purpose, and so it is). Soft spice and herb fruit, just noticeable minerality, not a wine of great concentration, but fair enough, and no shrill acidity or disintegrated alcohol is sticking out like a sore thumb. Quite pretty if straightforward, well-balanced and quite long, drinking easily, as a Federspiel should. No use aging this. Rating: 85
Leo Alzinger Riesling Smaragd Loibnerberg 2005
Thanks to my parents. Tannic lemon, lemongrass and violety chive. Firm and dry, not too deep, and not yet fully expressive, although with Alzinger wines it is notoriously difficult to say if they ever become more showy (many never do). My mother finds it a bit tough, but added this producer’s are rarely to her taste. Rating: 86+?
Château Battailley Pauillac 1988
A half bottle I opened for my mother. Full, very deep, almost opaque ruby-black, tiny watery rim. Just slightly tired. Soft, not yet “old” blackcurrant with a touch of black cherry, the faintest metal notes to the lightly earthy minerality. Medium acidity with an orangey shallot flavour that may very on beet root soon. Still tasty and nicely glyceric, but also a bit dry in the middle (the fruit rather than the tannin, to be precise). Medium finish at best. Tasty and the nice soil notes still keep one’s attention. Drink up! Rating: 85-
Dominio de Berzal Rioja Crianza 2003
Thanks to my parents, opened for my aunt Kathy, who happens to be an avid Rioja lover. Quite glossy and primary-looking red-ruby colour. Very sweet, verging-on-syrupy blood orange, redcurrant (if not cranberry!) and plum juice. An extremely modern style of Rioja, with superficially well-integrated barrique, but ultimately woody tannin. Low, faintly leady acidity. Fair enough body and length, leaving behind a lemony eucalyptus aftertaste. Stylistic considerations aside, a most impressive QPR buy at roughly 12 Dollars. Rating: 87(+?)
Château de Birot Cadillac 2003
Thanks to my parents. Amazing how the 30% Cabernet Sauvignon blackcurrant dominate the not too opulent 70% Merlot. Rather oaky wine, a bit superficial, and virtually devoid of soil notes (some metal rather than mineral perhaps). My father like it: it is rather cheap, you see. Rating 83+?
Jayer-Gilles Côtes de Nuits-Villages 1998
Thanks to my parents. Beet root juice like ruby-black. Still partly closed, but not a particularly fruity wine anyhow. Beef juice, dried beef, pepper, fresh cork rind, earthy iron, a faint cold ashtray top note to fairly mouthwatering and lightly sweet blood-orangey raspberry. Medium body, a bit short. Not especially complex or expressive, more secondary than primary (fruit) aromas and flavours really. But very stable in the glass, as well as the open bottle until the following day. There may still be a little more to this, certainly an additional year or two will not hurt. Rating: 86+?
Château Magdelaine St. Emilion 1994
A bottle I opened for my billiards “pupil” Remo, who enjoyed this tremendously. Fully ruby-black, still with a garnet hue and centre. Started out a bit dry like many 1994s, then grew in stature, (medium-plus) body, opulence (relatively speaking), length over the course of several hours. The raison d’être of this Château, to me of course, is the terroir, those chalky-minerally soil notes that only seem to give additional lift, depth and precision to the per se not too complex cherry and blackberry fruit. A tasty bottle and a success for the vintage. While I am sure it will still keep for a number of years, it can hardly improve from here. Rating: 88-
Nigl Riesling-Privat Senftenberger Piri 1999
Thanks to my parents, several times in the last months. Still pale yellow-green, but really ideally mature now given this wine has the tendency to become brittle after 10-plus, and medicinal after 15-plus years. Round mature lime and minerals, with soft spices and herbs, nice medium-plus body and length. One bottle would already have rated a point lower. Rating: 90-
La Réméjeanne Côtes-du-Rhône Les Arbousiers 2005
Thanks to my parents. Full ruby-purple. A tasty and inexpensive little wine with some hallmarks of a (possibly) great vintage, certainly offering exceptional purity and precision of fruit. Ripe fruit, tannin that seems sufficiently ripe, showing a slight bitterness without apparent greenishness. Nicely concentrated for what it is (and costs), some herb and metal top notes. Medium complexity and depth. Fairly long, certainly balanced finish. This was very tasty with dinner indeed. Rating: ~86
Studach Malanser Pinot Noir 2003
Ordered from the wine list at Thuri’s Blumenau in Lömmenschwil, where my parents so graciously took me (Thuri Maag is a great chef, perhaps the most imaginative in Eastern Switzerland!). Almost certainly stored a bit too warmly (took a stroll downstairs into the cellar and had a look around), thus the alcoholic heat stuck out more noticeably than usually. Almost a bit Amarone-like, warming, highly glyceric fruit in this extraordinary vintage. Good length. About excellent only this time. My parents loved it as always, though. Rating: 88?
Taylor's Vintage Port Quinta de Vargellas 1987
Half bottle thanks to my parents. Still almost opaque ruby-black colour. Sweet macerated and honeyed violet, pretty tannin, soft acidity, a bit creamy and hot, with a touch of viscous cedar, soft but racy plum and cherry finish and aftertaste. We have had fruitier and rounder bottles, but of all the standard (other than special old-vine selection) Vargellas vintages I know, this is really second only to the 1991. Rating: ~90
Trimbach Riesling Cuvée Frédéric Emile 1994
Thanks to my parents. As good (in a distinctly precocious way for this bottling) as this has been since release, it is getting old rather quickly (once bought several cases for my parents, and checking notes in my databank, I seem to have been worried by the early signs, then had this impression consistently since 2003). Like older CFE vintages before it, it more or less suddenly started to fatten up, with the petrolly-earthy lime oil flavour taking over and increasingly masking everything (finesse and freshness in particular) with the exception of the now already slightly brittle acidity. Airing still helps, but one has to get a bit lucky to pull the open bottle out of the fridge right when the focus reaches a relative maximum, with the acidity’s slight edginess not yet peeking out. Another sure sign of what is happening here is that this used to drink best from larger surface stems, such as the mouthblown Emile Jung, yet at this stage already seems more “harmonious” from smaller stems with an acid-breaking lip. About outstanding once, a bit past its prime now and unlikely to recover – I would drink remaining bottles up (having said that, it can take these wines an uncommonly long time to fully fall apart). Note to myself: plan on retasting the 1994 CSH soon. Rating: 88-
Robert Weil Riesling Auslese #7 Kiedricher Gräfenberg 2004
A half bottle I opened for myself (rarely ever open bottles all by myself), but ended up sharing with Remo anyhow. 130 to 140 g/l residual sugar is what I was told at a early release tasting. Pale yellow-green, almost colourless. Thick on the pour, glyceric and easily of Beerenauslese sweetness, though typically light-on-its-feet Weil Gräfenberg with white blossoms, that blackcurrant superripeness top note, hugely complex yet tender spring flower, sweet bright apple, a touch of surface tannin that seems to give the minerality a stone dust character at this stage, faintly vanillin-like, with an attractive little smokiness. Already shows that proto-saffron note that is going to take years to fully develop. The botrytis here is so clean as to be virtually unnoticeable at this stage. Nice body for such a sweet wine. Long on the finish. Impressively aromatic and flavourful acidity for a 2004, enough of it of course, but there is absolutely nothing shrill about this. Rating: 92+/93?
Greetings from Switzerland, David.