B-day refreshments

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Joel Stewart

Joel Stewart
not "Accuweather" said 91 degrees for yesterday....so we biked down to see the Boston Museum collection show (Vincent wins, Pablo's early cubist a second, Hals portrait, third...Monet shockingly better than expected)...turned out to be 99 on the way back. Time for a visit to the baths, sauna and sit in the cold well water bath for 10 minutes.....then...dinner....and wines..

NV Coste Piane, Prosecco sur lie, Valdobbiadene, 11% (stelvin? bottle cap, LO209) - Tighter than the 08 magnum, but with air, sake kasu joins the lemon peel nose...must be the lees? Palate is crisp, yet savory, salty, limey and long. You can slake your thirst or ponder a sunset (and the wine) or all three. Soft, tiny, but persistant frizz...and a bit of quinine on the finish. Great stuff....but I wish I had another mag of the '08, or three.

2007 Coenobium, Bianco, Lazio, IGT, 13% - What a contrast to the above....this is a food wine, in ways nearly red. Voluptuous in aroma and flavor...oily like a viognier dosed with overripe papaya and melon, a pinch of tobacco and a huge swath of salt, soy and butter down the middle. Intriguing, perplexing, delicious. I preferred it colder...but it may just be the ambient heat influencing me. How would this develop? Are there some data points of older stuff? In the category of geeky, but-non-wine-geek foodies can appreciate kind of wines.....it stretched people, but excited them as well.
 
Happy B-Day! I have one each of the two 07 Cistercian sisses waiting to be contrasted sometime soon, ironically when the weather warms a little down here. Oily made me reticent, but as long as there's acidity (which, btw, you didn't mention).
 
Thanks, Oswaldo....re-reading the notes, I think they are somewhat lacking. While it was certainly pungent, it wasn't flabby...just a bigger wine than expected. Must re-check the winemaking, which, as I recall is of the orange sort, no? Yet not orangey in look...and different from Friulian type. What do those nuns have up their...sleeves?
 
originally posted by Joel Stewart:
What do those nuns have up their...sleeves?
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giampiero bea makes the wines, or at least helps out (the vineyard is enclosed by walls and i believe no men are allowed in...). there is some skin contact.
 
Oswaldo, yes, oily doesn't sound overtly good and acidity was not bracing by any stretch....still, it had a very decent balance. What can one say when one tastes something that one likes before the left brain kicks in? It was a full and rich white....not one of those wimpy, nervous Loirish things (that I tend to love). To me this was definitely in the more Rhonian white camp.
 
The 08 coenobium may be my favorite iteration of that wine. Precise, lower in OH than the 07, and more dialed as a whole. The grechetto has been dropped a bit from the equation this vintage...maybe that makes it lighter on its feet.

give me some skin.
 
Sorry you must do so in winter, Oswaldo, but your devotion is noted. Come to think of it tho, this wine is not a very summery white anyway. It could be nicely fitted with a hearty winter dish like veal with some roasted vegetables actually.

And adding to Matteo's notes, I would say that the malvasia in the blend seemed to be the dominant note....which means you're in good hands, if you like malvasia (and I do)...but it takes a certain mood for me to be eagerly so.
 
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