Wine Tasting Group: 2007's from around the world

This was a bi-monthly meeting of our wine tasting group. I chose to taste 4 wines from the 2007 vintage from around the world.

• 2007 Anderson's Conn Valley Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Estate Reserve 93 Points

  USA, California, Napa Valley

  Largely consistent with my previous notes. This wine took a while to show its stuff and got better through the course of the 2-hour tasting. Gorgeous nose of red fruits, with forest floor and eucalyptus (?) or something similar. Really nice. On the palate, it is medium weight with typical Cab flavors and good balancing acidity. No gloppiness or heat. The finish was initially disjointed and a bit astringent, but this got better as it took on air. This is certainly drinkable now, but I think it will be substantially better in a few years. Will hold off on my remaining 4 bottles. Would buy more if I could find it around $50-55 again. My #1. Group's #1.

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• 2007 Tenuta Caparzo Brunello di Montalcino Vigna La Casa 92 Points

  Italy, Tuscany, Montalcino, Brunello di Montalcino

  The nose on this wine was initially giving up nothing -- very closed. It got a little bit better with time, but was still the most aromatically challenged of the 4 wines by far. On the palate, this had traditional brunello character, but was very tight and a bit disjointed. It improved steadily over the course of 2+ hours, and this bodes very well for additional bottle age. This is drinkable now with a long decant, but I think this will be much better in 3-5 years and beyond. Quality stuff with considerable scoring upside. My #2. Group's #2.

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• 2007 Mitolo Shiraz Savitar 90 Points

  Australia, South Australia, Fleurieu, McLaren Vale

  Overall, this was a pretty good Shiraz (and I am usually not a fan these days). I expected a gloppy fruit bomb, but this was substantially more balanced than I expected. The nose was expressive with red and blue fruits and a bit of the cotton candy aspect that I often find in Aussie Shiraz. The palate was solid with lots of fruit. There was little in the way of secondaries or complexity however, which held this back for me. This one might have gotten a bit worse over the course of the evening as it warmed and took on air. Not sure this will improve with age. Some in the group liked this a lot. My #4. Group's #3.

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• 2007 Domaine Saint Préfert Châteauneuf-du-Pape Réserve Auguste Favier 91 Points

  France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape

  This was was polarizing for our group. Folks with new world preferences did not like it at all. It is very earthy/dirty/funky on both the nose and the palate. Considerable notes of garrigue also. But there is also high quality fruit here and lots of complexity. This is very well made CdP and would probably have scored a lot better among folks with inclinations toward old world wines. I did not find this to change much over the course of the evening, but I think it has considerable upside with additional aging. I will leave my other bottles to sit for at least a few years. Karen really disliked this, as she often does with french wines that are very dirty/earthy. This would probably be much better with the right food. My #3. Group's #4.

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This was a very interesting tasting overall. All of the wines were good to excellent quality, and the difference in styles was quite clear. Some in the group clearly preferred the new world wines and others preferred the old world wines. Each person ranked the wines 1 to 4, and the cumulative ranking points were as follows (where lower is better):
Conn Valley Cab: 12
La Casa Brunello: 13
Mitolo Shiraz: 20
St. Prefert CdP: 25

Interestingly, the wine with the highest critic scores (WS and WA) finished last, but this is not because the St. Prefert CdP was not good. It was really more of a style preference issue among this group.

With the possible exception of the Mitolo, all of these wines seemed young and should benefit considerably from at least a few more years of bottle age.