Château d’Aiguilhe Côtes de Castillon 2005
80% Merlot and 20% Cabernet Franc. Typical Neipperg modernity, a style I find almost unbearable. Aussie-like is what Oliver said. Opaque purple with a minor ruby-red rim. Black Forest cake said Oliver, with a touch of glue said my parents. Thick for the Château, almost like drying jam, the biggest d’Aiguilhe I have ever tasted, and the most impressive, provided one can bear its modernistic superficiality. Petrol superripeness note to some blackberry-tinged baked plum. Very oaky, lots of coconut and vanilla. Chocolate and cherry coulis covered charcoal tannin. The most positive aspect about this is that the 14.5% alcohol does not stick out like a sore thumb, and the price, provided one wanted any of this. Rating: 88(+?)
Cockburn Vintage Port 1991
Thanks to my parents. Macerated plum mainly, some strawberry liqueur, soft spice, cedar and orange finesse notes. A bit hot with alcohol. Showed a little oxidation after 24 hours plus in the decanter, indicating it is not among the most stable Cockburn vintages ever. Mature enough to enjoy now, as well as over a number of years, if perfectly stored. Rating: 89-/88
Marius Delarche Corton-Renardes 1996
A touch raspberry-red to the ruby-black. Well-integrated, nicely nutty oak, lovely shallot, raspberry and redcurrant, mace and soft brown spice, very long finish. Finesseful and long for Corton (Oliver said it dances across the palate), not super-concentrated, but certainly concentrated and dense enough. Good raw meat sweetness. Pretty smoke with airing, nice little forest earth and faint sweat. Fairly ready for a 1996 Grand Cru. Rating: 91+/92
Eredi Fuligni Brunello di Montalcino Vigneti dei Cottimelli 1993
Thanks to my parents. Pretty, luminescent garnet ruby-black with slight orange at the rim. Looks more youthful than it is. Crisp fruit and acids, slowly wearing out, but still showing firm and dry, mouthwatering and palate-cleansing, faintly blood-orangey cherry, perhaps a suggestion of dried rose-hip, minor graphite note to stone-dusty/pebbly minerality. Little walnutty charcoal oak, a bit walnut black tea like tannin, stale orange flavoured acidity. Still fairly racy and long, but showing less sweetness on the finish and aftertaste. Opened up nicely with airing, showing somewhat more complexity after an hour plus. Best enjoyed with food. Drink up! Rating: 88-
Vincent Girardin Pommard Chanlins Vieilles Vignes 1995
Thanks to my parents. Same as always, another bottle that makes me think this is starting to taste a fraction leaner, covering up its acid backbone slightly less. Still a pleasure to drink, complex and terroir-expressive, of course. Rating: 92-/91-?
Franz Hirtzberger Riesling Smaragd Singerriedel 2005
From a restaurant wine list. Full yellow colour. Very well-balanced and concentrated, not at all heavy and alcoholic Smaragd, quite intense, very bright and lively and uplifting, minerally and nicely spicy, long and firm. Elegant for such an intense and complex wine. Great food wine, but drinking nicely on its own as well. Rating: 94(+?)
Schloss Lieser Riesling Auslese Gold Capsule #10 Niederberg Helden 2007
From half bottle thanks to Remo, who finds this ”offensively sweet and low in minerality”, as well as lacking, for his taste, residual CO2. I do not see anything inherently “wrong” with this wine, only that there have been greater vintages of the same, the 2007 is a fraction loosely structured compared to the best, and again, one wonders if some/many 2007s lack a little in dry extract. Very pale green colour. The typical vanilla-scented slate. Nice little viscosity, blackcurrant cough drop top note to sweet apple blossom and linden flower, minor pineapple tropicality, medium-plus length. Rating: 89(+?)
Produttori del Barbaresco Barbaresco Riserva Asili 2001
Thanks to Oliver. Blacker ruby perhaps than the Rabajà a month earlier, with less orange, looks less evolved but also less dense. Which is what the wine tastes like, too. Marzipan, a little black cherry, dried oregano-tinged tarragon, asphalt, medium-dried rose petal. Lightly dry tannin, nice but not high acidity. Nicely racy-fruity and perhaps a fraction more floral, but less dense and long than the superficially more evolved Rabajà, which we all prefer as the more structured, complex and deep effort of the two, as well as the one with the more attractive terroir expression. Even so, the qualitative difference seems slight at this early stage. Rating: 90
Rossignol-Trapet Latricières-Chambertin 1995
Ordered from a restaurant wine list. Maroon hue to transparent ruby-black. Beautifully mature and harmonious wine, nothing brute or gritty about it. Forest floor, nice tobacco smoke, round and sweet autumnal “fruit” (not very fruity anymore), mild irony/blood-orangey raspberry and marinated ginger. Good medium-plus body. Nice, lightly refreshing tannin, quite soft, faintly citrusy acidity. A bit short on the finish, if a bit longer and “sweeter” with airing. Possibly a bit stripped by filtering, as too many Burgundies still are (although I remember a time when there were almost no others), but quite full-flavoured, even powerful (if more in a 1er Cru than Grand Cru sense). Not quite the depth, complexity and finesse of a Grand Cru from a top producer, but a terrific QPR at 115 CHF. Rating: 91-
Taylor's Vintage Port Quinta de Vargellas 1987
My last half bottle. Virtually unchanged since last time: still deep ruby-black colour. Sweet macerated, now less honeyed violet, pretty tannin, soft acidity, a bit hot, with a touch of viscous cedar, soft but still shows enough of that racy plum and cherry finish and aftertaste. Earlier bottles used to be fruitier and rounder, as well as a bit more finesseful, and a bit less lean, an indication that at least in this bottle size this wine is reaching a limit (certainly in terms of upwards potential). In comparison, the 1991 comes across as more youthful than the age difference of four years suggests. Rating: 90-
Trimbach Riesling Clos Ste-Hune 1994
Thanks to my parents. Same as always, another reassuring showing after a first bottle at release had been rubbery-weird. Not the greatest vintage of all time, but typical and quite expressive of its hallowed terroir, and thankfully not as evolved (if not premature) as the CFE from the same vintage. Drink or hold. Rating: ~90
Fattoria Valtellina Vino da Tavola Convivio 1997
The same barrique-aged blend of 80% Sangiovese and 20% Cabernet Sauvignon I reported on in January, exactly the same as then. Even if some Bolgheri Vini da Tavola such as Ornellaia (and in particular, Macchiole’s pure Merlot Messorio) are greater wines in 1997, as soon as I start thinking about style and what I am going to miss most especially with food, these modern-yet-rustic Fattoria Valtellina wines come to mind (among other, of course – that is, wines that are either no longer made, or no longer made in the style I used to like). Rating: ~90
Greetings from Switzerland, David.
_________________
„J'ai gâché vingt ans de mes plus belles années au billard. Si c'était à refaire, je recommencerais.“ – Roger Conti
.