Château Batailley Pauillac 1995
Thanks to my parents. Deep ruby-red, fresh-looking colour. Remains a youthful, archetypal Pauillac: blackcurrant, lead pencil, tobacco, all backed by solid tannins – and yet, not too foursquare at all, a joy to drink, fairly complex. Perfectly integrated, traditional amount of oak – even if clean, pure and fruity, a throwback to the left bank Bordeaux I once grew up with. My mother went so far as to exclaim, considering the fact this is both Pauillac and was rather inexpensive, that “one must wonder why anyone outside of Bordeaux is even trying to make Cabernet Sauvignon at all!” (I realize it is really only 70% CS, but it actually took an hour for the Merlot softness to make its mark, yes, there is probably a little Cabernet Franc in this, too.) This should continue to age slowly and well. Drink or hold. Rating: 88(+?)
Château Calon-Ségur St. Estèphe 2006
Tasted in passing at a local wine shop. A blend of 66% Cabernet Sauvignon, 33% Merlot, and 1% Petit Verdot. Full lightly plummy-purple ruby-red colour. Another relatively burly young Calon-Ségur, fairly full-bodied for the vintage. Some oak to black cherry with a touch of blackcurrant, undergrowth and wet earth, some minerality, soft iron, faint tobacco leaf. More rustic tannin than the Montrose, some grip, but not dry. Medium-plus length. Not quite the texture and flesh of a top vintage, but seems a relative success. Like the youthful austerity here, but apart from being bigger and denser, this could also be yet fresher and more precise. This could use some bottle age. Rating: 90(+?)
Tenuta Campo al Mare Bolgheri Rosso Vigna dei Pini 2007
Tasted in passing at a local wine shop. A blend of 60% Merlot plus Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot, aged 12 months in new 500 liter French oak barrels. Plummy ruby-black almost to the rim. Typical modern crowd pleaser style, thoroughly grown through with oak, quite thick, round, rich, with the ripe Merlot coming to the fore right now. Finely-grained tannin that is not chocolatey, but oak induced and not otherwise flavourful. Worth consideration only insofar as it differs little from other modernistic Bolgheri/Supertuscan trophy bottlings – an uncomplicated and fairly priced wine that needs no bottle age (and will keep for a little while), but that even my dad thought this too obvious for its own good. Rating: 86-
Casa al Vento Vino da Tavola Tosco 2006
Thanks to my parents. Medium-full purple-ruby-red. The best Tosco Cristina and Kurt Haller have made so far, I believe, much less reductive, nicely red-fruity and open, with very little of a Chianti metal note or minerality (technically, this is Chianti), more structure and balance and an overall freshness to the fruit and medium tannin. Haller believes this should reach age ten without problems, guess he is right. The only aspect I do not like is that tiny camphor or rhubarb bitterness to the acidity. Drier and more tannic after 12 hours in the open bottle, but nicely precise. Rating: 85+/86?
and:
A second bottle of the same, which I pulled from my parents’ cellar by mistake the same night we had the 2003 Barrico (the point would have been to compare that to the 2006 Barrico), a noticeably red-fruitier and higher-acid vintage. Quite pretty wine, albeit not especially complex. Rating: 86
Casa al Vento Vino da Tavola Il Barrico 2006
Thanks to my parents. Basically the same wine as the Tosco, the barrique-aged version tastes a bit more rounded-off in this high-acid vintage, and not too oaky at all except when it is aired for many hours (such as until the following day, when it was still nice, but like many a barrique-aged wine, tasted a bit internationalized, and less like the Chianti it is/should be). Nicely red-fruity and precise, softly tannic, medium-plus length. At 8 Euros, the barrique-aged version costs 2 Euros more – really a matter of taste. My impression is that while it may drink as well or better early on, the two wines will probably become more alike as they age in bottle. Rating: 86+/87?
Casa al Vento Vino da Tavola Il Barrico 2003
Thanks to my parents. My mother told me Kurt Haller’s story of having been scared by the ripeness and sugar readings of the grape material, that he did not dare press it, but merely crushed the berries used their free run juice, than sat for weeks next to his only vat of 2003, listening and praying that it would ferment through. Thanks no doubt to the help of his friend Andreas Stössel, this nonetheless turned out the most impressive wine Haller has yet made. Needs decanting as there is lots of sediment in the bottle. Opaque garnet-black with slight ruby-red at the rim, a dark, healthy-looking colour that makes this look like a Super Tuscan rather than Chianti (which technically speaking, it is). High alcohol, quite concentrated, very intense, big and rich, with the terroir typicity partly gone (I would not say “cooked out”, as the fruit flavours, albeit not red-fruity, fresh and lively as in the 2006, do not come across as jammy in a negative way, just partly dried, a bit as in Amarone, and liqueur-like, the latter due more to the alcohol level than the superripeness of the fruit itself). Quite long on the finish. My parents guests Ursi, who loves full-throttle wine, and her daughter Bettina, who apparently does, too, loved this, and so did my dad – it is really only a matter of ignoring the fact that this should taste like Chianti (minerality and metal note are virtually absent), and recognizing that there are not all that many 2003s that are (apart from the alcoholic warmth that partly blew off with airing) as balanced and pleasurable to drink as this. No coarseness to the tannin whatsoever. Rating: 89
Casanova di Neri Brunello di Montalcino Tenuta Nuova 1993
Medium-full ruby colour, some black reflections, retains a little gloss. Not too different from the normale, just a fraction more deeply coloured, fuller-bodied, and more complex – although not enough so to justify the difference in price. Slightly more youthful black cherry and soft herbs. Little finesse. In the main, the Tenuta Nuova is firmer and more tannic (as well as more rustic and residually oaky). Rating: 89-/88(-?)
Charvin Côtes-du-Rhône 2001
Now fully open and approachable again, complex thanks to ripe fruit and soft tertiary touches of black truffle, Kirsch and strong, lightly roasted rosemary. Good length. Tannin and acidity surface a bit more than they used to, not really a wine to cellar for too long, but very pretty, as it has been right from the start. I have always loved the approachability of the 2001 CdPs, too – while many of them taste early-mature (more tertiary than they should at this still-early stage), nothing wrong with that as they tend to be balanced and harmonious. Rating: 89-/88(-?)
Clos des Papes Châteauneuf-du-Pape 2006
Another half bottle thanks to Remo, this appears to be either closing down in bottle again, slightly confusing as one last month was the first we felt was fully open. The 15.2% alcohol really only integrates in the more perfumy red-fruity bottles. Rating: 92+
Gonzen Sargans Pinot Noir Barrique 2006
Thanks to my parents 05/09. Full ruby-black with a pruney touch, slight watery rim. Gastronomic style wine that is not very complex, let alone deep, but not too modern-styled or oaky. The metal note here is steel rather than iron, typical for the local Wädenswiler clones. Some glycerine, medium tannin, body and length. Not bad. Rating: 84-
Huarpe Wines Mendoza Chardonnay Lancatay 2007
A wine I have had a number of times recently ever since I needed a few bottles for comparative tasting, modern and cheap, made in tank with oak chips, almost Sauvignon-Blanc-like medium weight herb and grass lime, everything here is medium at best, its concentration, acidity etc. It is not disgusting in the least (unless one airs it too long, at which point it turns a fraction rubbery), perhaps even relatively refreshing by modern standards (not enough so for my taste), it just tastes a fractionally artificial. It probably can be kept for a little while, as its elements are all in balance, it just cannot be expect to improve. Rating: 79-
Masson-Blondelet Pouilly-Fumé Villa Paulus 2007
Third bottle within a couple of months. Fermented and aged in steel tank, a pretty, straightforward but not too simple, oak-free (nonetheless has a rounded-off mouthfeel, perhaps due to malo?) Sauvignon Blanc with hardly a suggestion of cat pee, but some of the typical gooseberry and/or grassy kiwi. Medium body and length, soft acidity, fair enough freshness. Fair QPR buy. My father sure loves it. Rating: 86(-?)
Château Montrose St. Estèphe 2006
Tasted in passing at a local wine shop. 72% Cabernet Sauvignon, with the rest Merlot and a little Petit Verdot. Bright ruby-red colour. More red fruit compared to the darker and furrier Calon-Ségur, lighter but nicely cool, clean and precise. Perplexingly approachable medium weight that is only just recognizable as Montrose. Surprisingly “elegant”, if quite refreshing tannin, not too oak-driven at all, but without any youthful rusticity whatsoever (this is young Montrose, after all, or is it?). Softly minerally. Made to drink well early/soon. This has very little to do stylistically with either the Montrose of old, nor even those made in the last few years, shockingly polished, nothing animal, let alone brutish about this anymore. Not on the level of the more fairly priced (relatively speaking) 2001 and 2004. Rating: 88+/89(+?)
Nigl Riesling Senftenberger Piri 2001
Our last bottle. Full yellow-golden colour, definitely looks mature, and it is. Barely peachy anymore, some limey pear to lightly strawy herbs, even the stony minerality is less lively. Like my dad said, this has become a bit dull lately. Of course there is still good acidity for balance, and there is a little of that glyceric thickness about this now that Riesling often shows shortly before it turns brittle. Nigl once explained to us that the Privat selections should not be drunk under the age of about four, and can be held up to the age of ten depending on the vintage. 2001 having been a nice vintage for the standard Senftenberger Piri, I decided to experiment with a couple of bottles, but despite perfect storage, they were better a few years back. Drink up! Rating: 86-/85(-?)
Produttori del Barbaresco Barbaresco Riserva Rabajà 2001
More closed than last year, with the tannin initially seeming drier, but really evolving just as expected, not one of those modern fruit bombs, just a wine that is a bit compact right now, and needs and deserves a little more time. Mainly rose petal and blood orange at present. Drinking better with an hour’s airing, but best left alone in the cellar for a few more years. Not cheap of course, but a fine QPR buy from the perspective that I could not name a better Priedmontese Barolo or Barbaresco in the same price category today (the 2004 costs 10% more – still fairly priced). Rating: 90(+?)
Smith Woodhouse Vintage Port 1983
A bottle I opened for Patrick and his brother Guglielmo. Deep, still virtually opaque prune juice like purple-ruby with ruby-red at the rim. Sweet cherry chocolates and plum juice, actually reminded me of the spiced dark bitter chocolate filled with tonka bean ganache Albino makes sometimes. Good body. A complex and rather long wine. Violet note to nice, finely-grained tannin. Excellent grip. Closed down a little with airing, still quite youthful. Not sure this will ever show better, though, there is much to be said for the still youthful burliness here. Rating: 93(+??)
Fattoria Valtellina Chianti Classico 2001
Thanks to my parents again. We continue to deplore the fact that this may have been our favourite Chianti producer of all. Same as the bottle last month, mature enough to drink, but will still keep. Nice somewhat Brunello-like fruit for Chianti, with a black truffle top note and pretty Malaga-like sweetness on the finish, and almost dissolved, quite round tannin, free from dryness. Quite good length. Rating: 88
Greetings from Switzerland, David.
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„J'ai gâché vingt ans de mes plus belles années au billard. Si c'était à refaire, je recommencerais.“ – Roger Conti