We had a friend over for dinner Fri night and tried:
1. PetiteBurja Zelen VipavskaDolina/VipavaVlly/Slovenia (11.5%) PrimozLavrencic/Podraga 2010: Med.gold color; fairly strong earthy/minerally/bit metallic some pineapple/appley/florak quite attractive nose; bit tart/tangy/minerally light pineapple/apple/pear somewhat lush flavor; med.short tangy/metallic/mineral some apple/pear/pineapple finish; quite a pretty/interesting white. $21.00 (BWM)
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2. J.Vidal-Fleury AC: CdR (12.5%; www.VidalFleury.com) Ampuis 1988: Med.dark some browning color; rather earthy/smokey/roasted slight bretty no fruit quite complex/old NR nose; soft rather horsecollar/leather/bit bretty some earthy/smokey/roasted/olive some cedary/old red bit tannic/dried out flavor; med.long some roasted/olive/NR/smokey bit cedary/old red some tannic/dried out finish; still clinging to life and yielding up some intellectual pleasure; turned to a dark/murky/cloudy brown color by evening's end. $10.00 (Arg)
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3. la famiglia Pirovano Barbera DOC: OltrepoPavese (13%) Calco NV(L12130): Dark/garnet color; strong grapey/Barbera/spicy/spicy Italian sausage/raspberry bit graphite/earthy slight pungent quite interesting/attractive/clean nose; somewhat tart/tangy slight tannic/bitey rather Italian sausage/spicy/grapey/raspberry light earthy/pungent/graphite somewhat rich/grapey flavor; med.long tart bit tannic/bitey rather grapey/spicy Italian sausage/raspberry bit earthy/graphite/pungent finish; rather rich/lush in style and not as lean/austere as many Piemontese Barberas; quite a tasty wine for a great price. $11.00 (WF)
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A wee BP:
1. Zelen is an ancient/rare autochthonous grape grown only in the Primorje region of Slovenia. The name means "green" in Slovene. The skin is actually a rather squash color to it. It was abandoned long ago because of its stingy yields, but is now enjoying a comeback. Based on this one data point (we LosAlamos types can often reach grand conclusions based on no data points), they should be planting this grape all up&down the Coast in Calif.
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2. Barbera: I stumbled upon this at WholeFoods this weekend. A label I'd not seen before. I was attracted to it because a pure Barbera from the OltrepoPavese in Lombardy is pretty rare (I think...don't recall seeing one before). When I queried Tommy the next day at WholeFoods, thinking it to be a quite esoteric wine to find in WF...he just shrugged his shoulders and muttered "corporate"...meaning he was told to buy it by headquarters in Texas. Sometimes, "corporate" wins one.
Tom