Bruno Giacosa Barbaresco Riserva Asili 1996
Ordered from a restaurant wine list. Quite luminescent full garnet-red, slight pink only just verging on orange at the rim. Still young and a in need of half an hour’s to an hour’s airing (but not too much, as it starts shutting down after a couple of hours or so). Lovely fruit purity, the complexity takes a while to reveal itself (the wine is still too young and nervy for prime time drinking, and probably will be at least until it reaches age twenty). The complexity, perhaps meaty-animal potential and depth of minerality have never been on the level of the 1996 Falletto Riserva from the same vintage, nor ever will be, but what a great wine it is all the same. Perfectly balanced, my companions actually thought it smooth and harmonious. A suggestion of blackcurrant to dried rose petal and rose-hip. Mouthwatering and mouth-cleansing, complex black tea-like and faintly gingery-fresh tannin that is not too dry at all, and with airing, amply covered by deep, complex and quite thickly sweet fruit. Increasingly longer with airing. In a mental comparison of the greatest Giacosa Barbarescos I have had, the 1996 Asili Riserva seems to me to have the greatest tannin quality of all, the 2001 Rabajà Riserva the most exotic fruit and by far most attractive terroir/soil notes, whereas the 1978 Santo Stefano Riserva spans a wider and more tense contrast of sweetly perfumed fruit and a tough backbone, the likes of which only the 1996s come at all close to nowadays. Rating: 95+/96
Robert Weil Riesling Spätlese #026 Kiedrich Gräfenberg 2005
98,2 g/l residual sugar. Almost colourless, pale yellow-green. Not too closed yet at all. Retains some CO2. Honey dew melon, apple and complex stone-dusty minerality of great subtlety with blackcurrant cough drop and cherry blossom top notes. Beautifully aromatic, ripe, a bit pink grapefruity acidity. A little viscosity. Long, deep and so finesseful. Pretty tiny tannic pink grapefruit bitter note. Not the intensity of the 1996, but definitely one of the most successful vintages for this bottling. Rating: 93+
Trimbach Riesling Vendanges Tardives Cuvée Frédéric Émile 1989
Lighter, greener, brighter colour than the CSH VT. Cut, precise, a super bottle, virtually dry, herbs, fresh lime, fresh dandelion, nice body, long finish. Not much botrytis, actually seems as if unbotrytised next to the CSH VT, more like a 1983, superripe and firm. Did not improve with airing, keeping up perfectly well for 24 hours, seemingly less round and oily-smooth after 48 hours. Rating: 94+/-?
Trimbach Riesling Vendanges Tardives Clos Ste-Hune 1989
The second-worst bottle of this wine I have had (the one at the January 2003 vertical in Zürich was undrinkably oxidized), this was perfectly stored, but had an extremely soft and wet cork that crumbled to pieces when I tried to extract it from the bottle. Started out faintly oxidized (that little makes a lot of difference for a wine on this level of quality), then improved for a couple of days, tasting less convincing again on the third day. Golden yellow colour. More minerally and yellow-fruity, thick and botrytised than the CFE VT. Faint cabbage note, saffron. Not the integration of acidity of the finest bottles, but improving all the time. Tangerine, limey pineapple, highly concentrated, the light touch of oxidation seemed to blow off increasingly with airing. Longer, too, a beauty of a wine even in this slightly hampered condition. Thick late harvest sweet wine-like brown-bread-botrytised yellow fruit after 48 hours, the 22 g/l residual sugar really makes itself felt. The acidity started sticking out a bit after 60 hours. On the whole, this came reasonably close to the best bottles of this wine we have had, but never showed the floral freshness, cut, precision and endlessness it usually does. Rating: N/R
Fromm Winery La Strada Pinot Noir Clayvin Vineyard 2001
Full ruby, soft black hue, watery at the rim. Gantenbein-like style (that is, reminiscent of Swiss Pinot Noir), my dad said. As Rainer noted, the tiny touch of brettanomyces seemed to prove otherwise. Peppery marzipan oak. Quite well concentrated. Intense red beet, somewhat jammy-smooth, not particularly refreshing, but nicely firm and lively enough dark fruit, peppery raw meat. Quite nice leady-steely, as Albino noted “cool” acids. Not too oaky. Held up well with 24 hours of airing, fruitier but also more marzipan-sented and -flavoured. Really most reminiscent of a Studach Pinot Noir (again, Swiss...). Not the Burgundian finesse and minerally style of Pinot Noir I like, but by far the most successful and tastiest Fromm any of us has ever tasted. Rating: 91-?
Leroy Chambolle-Musigny Les Fremières 1996
Bottle number 610 of 1755. Forgot to note the colour, but it retains a full, fresh ruby colour with black reflections. A wine of blood-orange and morello subtlety and finesse – if not the complexity and depth of the finest Grand Cru bottlings, then still more than most 1er Crus of other producers. Crisp red onion-like acidity, smoky fruit tea-like tannin. Refreshing, racy wine, more red-fruity with airing, raspberry. Smokier forest floor earth, pine resin. Everyone except Albino, who thought this “high-acid and thin”, loved this. Rating: 92+?
Penfolds Grange Hermitage 1983
Thanks to Albino, who quickly took us all to his wine cellar to get this, as he wanted to share something not so “high-acid and thin” as my 1996 Fremières ;^) A blend of 94% Shiraz and 6% Cabernet Sauvignon aged 20 months in American hogsheads. 13.3% alcohol, 7.10 g/l acidity, pH 3.41, 7,950 cases made. Plummy ruby-black, opaque at the center, ruby-red at the rim. This 24-years-old is not even close to maturity! Hugely jammy and coffee-scented plum, chocolate and minty eucalyptus. Rather sweet for a so-called dry red. Overcooked blackberry and fig compote with vanilla oak chips, someone said. With airing rounder, smoother, more milk chocolatey, soft mocha. A touch lactic. Highly concentrated. Chocolatey tannin and not at all low acidity, neither particularly interesting in flavour, if “improving” with airing. Ridiculously youthful, rated this precisely the same as six years ago, but even more so than back then, I find wines like this should be left to those who like the style (and indeed, there was no disagreement when Albino poured the rest back into the bottle and took it home). Kept a glassful to retaste the following day, when it had turned lightly blackcurranty and intensely blueberry yoghurt-like, almost as if the small percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon were gaining the upper hand. Yet more Port-like, nicely integrated now, “tastier” tannin. Rating: 92+/93(+?)
Úri Borok (Vince Gergely) Tokaji Eszencia “Lot 2” 2003
A split half bottle thanks to Andrea, Albino and Rainer. From the new (not the French design, the slightly less nineteenth-century-like Hungarian) 375 ml bottle. Bottled unfiltered and labelled 0% alcohol, as it apparently never started fermenting. There are two lots, the “bigger” one I reported on earlier being sold entirely to private clientele before it was even bottled, and this. Same bottle and label, no lot indication differentiation indicated whatsoever. As Rainer showed me, bubbles in a bottle of the first lot (if turned on its head and back) seem to take forever to surface, whereas this is more like liquid honey. Probably also holds about 700 g/l residual sugar. Lightly milky-looking orange colour. Pours like a faintly foamy jelly or honey. Quince, tangerine, (blood) orange marmalade, soaked pollen, sweet paprika and curry powder, vitamins, and white chocolate. Lovely tangerine bitter note. Some minerals. Rather aromatic acidity. Quite long. Less intensity, dry extract, acidity, complexity, depth and, if I remember correctly, minerality. Certainly less huge and overwhelming. Note this was a bottle with a tiny piece of cellar mould in it (was even shown one with a dead ant), Albino said others may be better. Even so, I find the difference between the two lots more significant than my friends have suggested. It seems this “lighter” lot may be more approachable, though. Rating: 95+?
Joh. Jos. Prüm Riesling Auslese #14 Wehlener Sonnenuhr 2005
Thanks to Rainer, who just came back from the Mosel and several winery visits there, and who informed me that he finds the step up from the standard Auslese to the Gold Capsule version more important in 2006 than 2005 (he was actually given barrel samples to taste, rare at Prüm). Pale green colour. Elderflower, clean and pure little botrytis kiss, sultana, ripe apple, soft spring herbs, faint vanilla to the minerality, nicely tannic with some CO2. Prettily sweet and thick in this vintage. Barely, certainly not nearly as exotic as the 2003. Round, ripe acids, aromatic and refreshing. Quite long on the finish. Concentrated but not too much so, as usually in recent vintages. Love this wine, one of the most perfectly balanced Prüm standard Auslesen in years. Showed a touch of sweet blackcurrant cough drop after 48 hours of airing, tasted fresh and blossomy, even so, more concentration and density would not hurt. But one to buy, drink now or cellar. Rating: 92
Knoll Grüner Veltliner Vinothekfüllung 2005
Ordered from a restaurant wine list. Medium yellow. Perhaps a tiny bit more closed than earlier this year, but just as tasty, and perfect with the Asian food. Not a particularly herbaceous GV, quite smooth and yellow-fruity, pineappley spice, pepper and smoky minerality. Good intensity, body and length. Rating: 93
Vincent Girardin Mersault Les Tillets 1999
Thanks to restaurant owner Jin. Served blind, guessed Chardonnay Burgundy-styled, but was not immediately convinced it was indeed Burgundy, at least not as long as it was still chilled. Nice oak, French as if with a little thistle-scented Slovenian (of which there is probably none). Lightly strawy aged lemon and apple, and half-dried herbs of good depth and complexity. Nicely concentrated. Good medium-plus body. Attractive, a bit grey-peppery minerality. Lime and aged lemon acidity. Started out a bit short, getting a bit longer but also warmer with alcohol with airing. Lovely, a bit creamy aftertaste. Prefer this to the Leroy négociant bottling, the only other I have had from the same site and vintage. Rating: 90+/91?
Greetings from Switzerland, David.