Steven Spielmann
Steven Spielmann
As always, hoping to compare notes, learn new things, etc.
February 2-3
Noussan Vallee dAoste Torrette 2005. The kind of wine I love I could drink Petite Rouge (or the terroir, perhaps) every day. Black cherry nose, spicy purple fruit on the palate, light-bodied with good acid but not at all painful on the palate. Some mellow tannin. Yum. Not sure there was a more pleasant bottle all month afterwards.
February 4
Montevertine IGT Toscana 2004. Serious infanticide here. Beguiling nose: elegant, brambly, rich, mellow, quintessential. Big flavor on an elegant frame, uncompromising sangiovese palate (people who dislike sangiovese wont enjoy this so much, though that might change when it mellows with age - fortunately for me this is one of my favorite grapes). Raw, pure, bitter in the best way with food it works though, and the Rigatoni con Cinghiale we ate it with was just right. The palate grows silkier with air but its still not remotely ready, though its not shut down either. Deep with good acid and lift drink 2019-2044.
February 5
Clos du Tue-Boeuf Touraine Gamay 2007. Rich, dark, unfiltered, nice fruit way on the dark spectrum of gamay. Grows smoother and more balanced with air, but the unmistakable signature of this wine is massive acid without crunch or other forms of textural integration, and it really overwhelms all its other aspects. This kind of doesnt work for me although the fruit thats under that acid is quite nice.
February 6
Domaine de Bongran Macon-Clesse Quintaine 1993. Fresh and young except around the edges; only a very slight orange tint in the deep gold hints at its age. Sweet yellow apple and RS/botrytis highlights around a pure, straightforward chardonnay core. No hazelnuts and no flab the acid of the vintage has kept this together nicely. There is not much development here, just glorious preservation of youth, and I wouldnt expect any more; further, the cork was saturated up to just a centimeter or so below the top, so we got to this one just in time.
February 7
De Tarczal Trentino Superiore Marzemino di Isera 2005. Purple! This is a grape of distinctive color and scent, with a big nose of light plum, purple fruits, and a suggestion of minerality somewhere in the range between Gamay and Cabernet Franc. Palate-staining fruit between waves of acid; a little tart with a hint of cardamom on the back end. Worth drinking.
February 9
Colognole Chianti Rufina 2003. Really surprisingly good overall, classic sangiovese and Rufina profile with a well water element. I guess these folks are at high altitude which clearly helped them in 2003, this doesnt taste like a hot year wine, but it has the fruit.
February 11
Chateau Roumieu-Lacoste Sauternes 2006. Typical sauternes nose, on the lighter side. The palate has honey, orange rind, honeydew melon, cashew, some botrytis more concentrated flavor and much better than the 2005 was at this stage. Nice acidity too.
Zind Humbrecht Heimbourg Turckheim Gewurztraminer 2005. Way too early, but good regardless. Theres a nice floral element that gradually comes out with air. Honey and oranges on the nose, racy, leafy acidity that definitely moves around on the palate as you consider it. Good palate complexity as well. Almost no varietal character at first, though a little spice comes out with air. If you open one of these please let it breathe.
Two Hands Padthaway Shiraz Sophies Garden 2003. Strangely, a food wine. Huge, soaring nose of red fruit and pepper; the palate is searingly intense strawberries with black pepper like Venetian meatballs. 16% alcohol and hot but the burning flavors cover it, so its not unbalanced or particularly overextracted (a little hint of this on the nose). Some mesquite. This is extreme winemaking and not exactly to my taste but I respect this bottle, its a really interesting example of what can be done with the grape. Still tastes young and forceful. If you need a wine pairing for 2-alarm chili, which we did, its hard to do much better actually.
February 12
Paul Zinck Cremant dAlsace NV. QPR surprise. A spring flower character (from the pinot blanc?) uplifts what would otherwise be a sort of generic (but perfectly nice) champagne-knockoff nose. Big bubbles? No troubles. The palate has apples and a nice hint of salinity within the usual spectrum. It is not at all sour or astringent and it gets better as you drink it this has a lot of what I want from an inexpensive sparkler.
Tablas Creek Esprit de Beaucastel Rouge Paso Robles 2003. The nose smells overextracted with pepper and raspberry; I think I can pick out the cinsault. The palate is way too thick. Makes the Padthaway look light on its feet (but with more defined and intense flavors). Not for me.
Ridge Mataro ATP Pagani Vineyard Sonoma 1996. The 25% zinfandel electrifies the nose. Multifaceted red fruit profile. Still has a certain youth but the acid is starting to overtake the fruit this is a very acidic wine. Pretty good though. Some sweet vanilla on the nose from oak? This is actually driven by the zin and acid as far as I can tell, I think the mourvedre mostly contributes mellow red fruit.
February 12-13
Egly-Ouriet Coteaux Champenoise Ambonnay Rouge Cuvee des Grands Cotes Vielles Vignes 2005. If you have any of this, put it away until 2025. It is not ready yet. We got a lot out of it over two days, though many of the pleasures were intellectual due to the wines youth. Medium ruby color. Opened to a soaring nose of pure beautiful essence of pinot noir. Tremendous purity of fruit on the palate but also great tartness which grows into a strong cranberry character with air; after a couple of hours this is so strong it rattles the whole inside of your mouth, painfully. This is not a tamed wine; it has a kind of rough country character to it despite the quality of fruit. After about six hours or so the Champagne terroir is very clearly discernible, which is a cool experience in a still wine (probably a lot of you know this already but I didnt). Constantly changing, some baking chocolate notes emerge after a while. Very, very long finish. On Day 2 the cranberry has receded and the fruit has faded some but the palate has become much more integrated, viscous, and pleasant. It is less pinot but more beguiling, with exquisite texture.
February 13
Jean-Paul Brun FRV 100 NV. Sparkling gamay natural fruit soda pop! The strawberries have a certain syrupy and vinous character which is richer than most Bugey-Cerdon Ive had and quite appealing.
Bois de Boursan Chateauneuf-du-Pape Cuvee Felix 2003. Only a hint of the vintage on the nose and none on the palate, which is a good thing. Pretty and full-fruited with decent acid: grenache, currants, blackberries, anise, smoke. Bullseye barbecue sauce on the finish? Good stuff and I suspect it would go a while longer, though this bottle didnt.
February 18
Domaine de la Madone Beaujolais Villages Nouveau 2009. We inhaled this. Its very classic Beaujolais, nice florals, silky palate, a little on the stiff and rich side. Good winemaking. Woudnt have called it as a nouveau blind. Spring flowers, violets, and grapes.
February 19
Bisson Prosecco dei Colli Trevigiani 2006. Flowers and orange rind on the nose. Very fresh and natural tasting, and dry, yet the medicinal flavors tend towards acacia, quinine, gin & tonic. Plenty of character at any rate.
Tenuta di Sesta Rosso Toscana Camponovo 2007. Very disappointing given the QPR raves some of my local winemongers lavished upon it. Deeply unpleasant nose oak? merlot? overcooked fruit? - whatever it is, I dont like it in my sangiovese. The palate is better though undistinguished. The nose starts to clear up after a little while but on the whole this is a strong wine (14%) but not a good one.
Antiyal Valle del Maipo Cabernet/Carmenere/Syrah 2006. Bottle #5749. Big though not absurdly so, but straddles the edge of overdone. Cabernet dominates the taste and scent profiles though the other grapes do contribute some complexity. Drinkable I guess I drank it at any rate.
February 20
La Cana Rias Baixas Albarino 2008. Smooth and pleasantly quaffable. Modest varietal character: a little lemon, grass, and spice, but not too much of anything. Just fine for the backyard on a sunny day.
Vina Godeval Valdeorras 2007. Smoky Godello, with a peanut note and some celery and lemon; in some ways reminiscent of outer-borough white Burgundy. This is a wine with some genuine character and very worthwhile for an under $20 bottle. I preferred this to the other things we drank, except the next wine.
D. Ventura Ribera Sacra Vina Caneiro 2007. The wine of the tasting by a wide margin. Incredibly silky with a lot of what I love about gamay, pinot noir, and cab franc all rolled up into one package. Viva mencia! Decent acid and a rich mouth-coating sweet dark fruit character without any heaviness.
Abad Dom Bueno Roble Bierzo 2006. Oak and fruit on the nose. This is a little greener than the 2005 version, and not in a good way. It does have the iron note that distinguishes this wine and would probably be better with food. More ripeness and sweetness would improve it, but its not bad. It would be tough for any mencia wine to follow the Caneiro.
Riba Guda Rioja Crianza Cepas Viejas NV. This was surely a vintage wine, but it was a trade-only bottle without a vintage mark on it. Tons of fairly high-quality oak with good old vines fruit and a fairly traditional tempranillo character underneath it. Not ready, and I would probably have preferred it without the oak even when it gets ready.
Altos de Luzon Jumilla 2006. Oak monster, and decidedly inferior to all the previous wines.
Tagonas Madrid Crianza 2004. A blend of tempranillo, cabernet sauvignon, syrah, and merlot. Pleasant enough but without any discernible character from any of the grape varieties within. Robert M. Parker gave this Red Wine with Oak 91 points, and if you are a fan of the Red Wine with Oak genre you could do a lot worse.
Can Blau Montsant 2007. Not great, but also not an oak monster! What a relief. Blueberries, barbecue, espresso, and graphite can be perceived on the palate. Reasonably pleasant with solid fruit.
Gran Feudo Navarra Reserva 2001. 10% each Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, with the rest Tempranillo, though you wouldnt know it. This was pleasant in the way that a good $12 Bordeaux is pleasant, though the oak character again is a little odd. Some sweet red fruit and plums, a little brightness.
Castano Solanera 2005. Mostly cabernet in the flavor profile though the body is sort of mourvedre. Inoffensive and it has fruit. A more moderate and sweeter rendition of Ninety Point Red Wine with Oak.
Finca Cerrada La Mancha Crianza 2005. Tempranillo, Cabernet, and Syrah! What unique genius, to blend these varieties so unconventionally! Only six months of oak treatment to emphasize the generic fruit character! How can I decide between this and the Castano and the Tagonas?
February 24
Tardy Chambolle-Musigny Les Athets 1995. Opens to a rich pinot nose without fat and with undertones of kirsch, cinnamon, and dusty clove. Hooked tannins are still in effect, as is the soft fruit. Suspect this is nearing peak. There is a mirroring effect where a juicy red fruit layer and a tart acid/spicy tannin layer that seem about a centimeter apart (in some metaphorical space) echo on your palate. There is some good spice with darker shades on the back end. Fried chicken and collard greens made a good pairing.
February 25
Cascina degli Ulivi Montemarino Vino da Tavola Bianco 2007. Old vines cortese. Deep bright gold; rich and unctuous with crazy flavor intensity. Good acid with a (to me somewhat unpleasant) sweetness to the strong varietal character. Kind of like a fermented biodynamic Payday bar. Floral notes and a bracing tonic finish. No idea what might happen to this with age. This is a big wine with good acid and lots of flavor and assuming people can tolerate the grape would probably impress a variety of palates.
February 26
Domaine La Tour Vielle Collioure La Pinede 2007. Nose like a nicely floral Chateauneuf, though not very expressive. Palate big and needs air, with expansive fruit and marshmallow; very hot. Too sweet but OK with food. Later the alcohol almost integrates (or I have become desensitized) and there are moments approaching prettiness. Not up to the standard of their excellent Banyuls.
February 2-3
Noussan Vallee dAoste Torrette 2005. The kind of wine I love I could drink Petite Rouge (or the terroir, perhaps) every day. Black cherry nose, spicy purple fruit on the palate, light-bodied with good acid but not at all painful on the palate. Some mellow tannin. Yum. Not sure there was a more pleasant bottle all month afterwards.
February 4
Montevertine IGT Toscana 2004. Serious infanticide here. Beguiling nose: elegant, brambly, rich, mellow, quintessential. Big flavor on an elegant frame, uncompromising sangiovese palate (people who dislike sangiovese wont enjoy this so much, though that might change when it mellows with age - fortunately for me this is one of my favorite grapes). Raw, pure, bitter in the best way with food it works though, and the Rigatoni con Cinghiale we ate it with was just right. The palate grows silkier with air but its still not remotely ready, though its not shut down either. Deep with good acid and lift drink 2019-2044.
February 5
Clos du Tue-Boeuf Touraine Gamay 2007. Rich, dark, unfiltered, nice fruit way on the dark spectrum of gamay. Grows smoother and more balanced with air, but the unmistakable signature of this wine is massive acid without crunch or other forms of textural integration, and it really overwhelms all its other aspects. This kind of doesnt work for me although the fruit thats under that acid is quite nice.
February 6
Domaine de Bongran Macon-Clesse Quintaine 1993. Fresh and young except around the edges; only a very slight orange tint in the deep gold hints at its age. Sweet yellow apple and RS/botrytis highlights around a pure, straightforward chardonnay core. No hazelnuts and no flab the acid of the vintage has kept this together nicely. There is not much development here, just glorious preservation of youth, and I wouldnt expect any more; further, the cork was saturated up to just a centimeter or so below the top, so we got to this one just in time.
February 7
De Tarczal Trentino Superiore Marzemino di Isera 2005. Purple! This is a grape of distinctive color and scent, with a big nose of light plum, purple fruits, and a suggestion of minerality somewhere in the range between Gamay and Cabernet Franc. Palate-staining fruit between waves of acid; a little tart with a hint of cardamom on the back end. Worth drinking.
February 9
Colognole Chianti Rufina 2003. Really surprisingly good overall, classic sangiovese and Rufina profile with a well water element. I guess these folks are at high altitude which clearly helped them in 2003, this doesnt taste like a hot year wine, but it has the fruit.
February 11
Chateau Roumieu-Lacoste Sauternes 2006. Typical sauternes nose, on the lighter side. The palate has honey, orange rind, honeydew melon, cashew, some botrytis more concentrated flavor and much better than the 2005 was at this stage. Nice acidity too.
Zind Humbrecht Heimbourg Turckheim Gewurztraminer 2005. Way too early, but good regardless. Theres a nice floral element that gradually comes out with air. Honey and oranges on the nose, racy, leafy acidity that definitely moves around on the palate as you consider it. Good palate complexity as well. Almost no varietal character at first, though a little spice comes out with air. If you open one of these please let it breathe.
Two Hands Padthaway Shiraz Sophies Garden 2003. Strangely, a food wine. Huge, soaring nose of red fruit and pepper; the palate is searingly intense strawberries with black pepper like Venetian meatballs. 16% alcohol and hot but the burning flavors cover it, so its not unbalanced or particularly overextracted (a little hint of this on the nose). Some mesquite. This is extreme winemaking and not exactly to my taste but I respect this bottle, its a really interesting example of what can be done with the grape. Still tastes young and forceful. If you need a wine pairing for 2-alarm chili, which we did, its hard to do much better actually.
February 12
Paul Zinck Cremant dAlsace NV. QPR surprise. A spring flower character (from the pinot blanc?) uplifts what would otherwise be a sort of generic (but perfectly nice) champagne-knockoff nose. Big bubbles? No troubles. The palate has apples and a nice hint of salinity within the usual spectrum. It is not at all sour or astringent and it gets better as you drink it this has a lot of what I want from an inexpensive sparkler.
Tablas Creek Esprit de Beaucastel Rouge Paso Robles 2003. The nose smells overextracted with pepper and raspberry; I think I can pick out the cinsault. The palate is way too thick. Makes the Padthaway look light on its feet (but with more defined and intense flavors). Not for me.
Ridge Mataro ATP Pagani Vineyard Sonoma 1996. The 25% zinfandel electrifies the nose. Multifaceted red fruit profile. Still has a certain youth but the acid is starting to overtake the fruit this is a very acidic wine. Pretty good though. Some sweet vanilla on the nose from oak? This is actually driven by the zin and acid as far as I can tell, I think the mourvedre mostly contributes mellow red fruit.
February 12-13
Egly-Ouriet Coteaux Champenoise Ambonnay Rouge Cuvee des Grands Cotes Vielles Vignes 2005. If you have any of this, put it away until 2025. It is not ready yet. We got a lot out of it over two days, though many of the pleasures were intellectual due to the wines youth. Medium ruby color. Opened to a soaring nose of pure beautiful essence of pinot noir. Tremendous purity of fruit on the palate but also great tartness which grows into a strong cranberry character with air; after a couple of hours this is so strong it rattles the whole inside of your mouth, painfully. This is not a tamed wine; it has a kind of rough country character to it despite the quality of fruit. After about six hours or so the Champagne terroir is very clearly discernible, which is a cool experience in a still wine (probably a lot of you know this already but I didnt). Constantly changing, some baking chocolate notes emerge after a while. Very, very long finish. On Day 2 the cranberry has receded and the fruit has faded some but the palate has become much more integrated, viscous, and pleasant. It is less pinot but more beguiling, with exquisite texture.
February 13
Jean-Paul Brun FRV 100 NV. Sparkling gamay natural fruit soda pop! The strawberries have a certain syrupy and vinous character which is richer than most Bugey-Cerdon Ive had and quite appealing.
Bois de Boursan Chateauneuf-du-Pape Cuvee Felix 2003. Only a hint of the vintage on the nose and none on the palate, which is a good thing. Pretty and full-fruited with decent acid: grenache, currants, blackberries, anise, smoke. Bullseye barbecue sauce on the finish? Good stuff and I suspect it would go a while longer, though this bottle didnt.
February 18
Domaine de la Madone Beaujolais Villages Nouveau 2009. We inhaled this. Its very classic Beaujolais, nice florals, silky palate, a little on the stiff and rich side. Good winemaking. Woudnt have called it as a nouveau blind. Spring flowers, violets, and grapes.
February 19
Bisson Prosecco dei Colli Trevigiani 2006. Flowers and orange rind on the nose. Very fresh and natural tasting, and dry, yet the medicinal flavors tend towards acacia, quinine, gin & tonic. Plenty of character at any rate.
Tenuta di Sesta Rosso Toscana Camponovo 2007. Very disappointing given the QPR raves some of my local winemongers lavished upon it. Deeply unpleasant nose oak? merlot? overcooked fruit? - whatever it is, I dont like it in my sangiovese. The palate is better though undistinguished. The nose starts to clear up after a little while but on the whole this is a strong wine (14%) but not a good one.
Antiyal Valle del Maipo Cabernet/Carmenere/Syrah 2006. Bottle #5749. Big though not absurdly so, but straddles the edge of overdone. Cabernet dominates the taste and scent profiles though the other grapes do contribute some complexity. Drinkable I guess I drank it at any rate.
February 20
La Cana Rias Baixas Albarino 2008. Smooth and pleasantly quaffable. Modest varietal character: a little lemon, grass, and spice, but not too much of anything. Just fine for the backyard on a sunny day.
Vina Godeval Valdeorras 2007. Smoky Godello, with a peanut note and some celery and lemon; in some ways reminiscent of outer-borough white Burgundy. This is a wine with some genuine character and very worthwhile for an under $20 bottle. I preferred this to the other things we drank, except the next wine.
D. Ventura Ribera Sacra Vina Caneiro 2007. The wine of the tasting by a wide margin. Incredibly silky with a lot of what I love about gamay, pinot noir, and cab franc all rolled up into one package. Viva mencia! Decent acid and a rich mouth-coating sweet dark fruit character without any heaviness.
Abad Dom Bueno Roble Bierzo 2006. Oak and fruit on the nose. This is a little greener than the 2005 version, and not in a good way. It does have the iron note that distinguishes this wine and would probably be better with food. More ripeness and sweetness would improve it, but its not bad. It would be tough for any mencia wine to follow the Caneiro.
Riba Guda Rioja Crianza Cepas Viejas NV. This was surely a vintage wine, but it was a trade-only bottle without a vintage mark on it. Tons of fairly high-quality oak with good old vines fruit and a fairly traditional tempranillo character underneath it. Not ready, and I would probably have preferred it without the oak even when it gets ready.
Altos de Luzon Jumilla 2006. Oak monster, and decidedly inferior to all the previous wines.
Tagonas Madrid Crianza 2004. A blend of tempranillo, cabernet sauvignon, syrah, and merlot. Pleasant enough but without any discernible character from any of the grape varieties within. Robert M. Parker gave this Red Wine with Oak 91 points, and if you are a fan of the Red Wine with Oak genre you could do a lot worse.
Can Blau Montsant 2007. Not great, but also not an oak monster! What a relief. Blueberries, barbecue, espresso, and graphite can be perceived on the palate. Reasonably pleasant with solid fruit.
Gran Feudo Navarra Reserva 2001. 10% each Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, with the rest Tempranillo, though you wouldnt know it. This was pleasant in the way that a good $12 Bordeaux is pleasant, though the oak character again is a little odd. Some sweet red fruit and plums, a little brightness.
Castano Solanera 2005. Mostly cabernet in the flavor profile though the body is sort of mourvedre. Inoffensive and it has fruit. A more moderate and sweeter rendition of Ninety Point Red Wine with Oak.
Finca Cerrada La Mancha Crianza 2005. Tempranillo, Cabernet, and Syrah! What unique genius, to blend these varieties so unconventionally! Only six months of oak treatment to emphasize the generic fruit character! How can I decide between this and the Castano and the Tagonas?
February 24
Tardy Chambolle-Musigny Les Athets 1995. Opens to a rich pinot nose without fat and with undertones of kirsch, cinnamon, and dusty clove. Hooked tannins are still in effect, as is the soft fruit. Suspect this is nearing peak. There is a mirroring effect where a juicy red fruit layer and a tart acid/spicy tannin layer that seem about a centimeter apart (in some metaphorical space) echo on your palate. There is some good spice with darker shades on the back end. Fried chicken and collard greens made a good pairing.
February 25
Cascina degli Ulivi Montemarino Vino da Tavola Bianco 2007. Old vines cortese. Deep bright gold; rich and unctuous with crazy flavor intensity. Good acid with a (to me somewhat unpleasant) sweetness to the strong varietal character. Kind of like a fermented biodynamic Payday bar. Floral notes and a bracing tonic finish. No idea what might happen to this with age. This is a big wine with good acid and lots of flavor and assuming people can tolerate the grape would probably impress a variety of palates.
February 26
Domaine La Tour Vielle Collioure La Pinede 2007. Nose like a nicely floral Chateauneuf, though not very expressive. Palate big and needs air, with expansive fruit and marshmallow; very hot. Too sweet but OK with food. Later the alcohol almost integrates (or I have become desensitized) and there are moments approaching prettiness. Not up to the standard of their excellent Banyuls.