#19-12, 11.5% abv. Whoa, this is a lot more explosive and expressive than I remember it being. Really wild and funky nose, with sweet longan fruit, honeycomb, and yellow apple. The palate is ridiculously dense, with sweet fruit notes again (longans and tart apple), as well as a slight touch of perceptible sweetness -- whether or not there is still residual sugar, I've no clue. Very ripe acids and a coarse mousse. Really good stuff (and as a side note, this is nothing at all like the bony and skeletal -- but still convincing in its own right -- 1992).
Served blind. Herbal and elegant nose with some notes of lemongrass and green apple. The palate has reasonably good acidity, as well as the same herbal and green apple elements. Fermented to a feinherb level. Not as minerally and crisp as a Mosel riesling, and there's a slight creaminess to it. I guessed young feinherb Nahe.
Double-decanted 8 hours before dinner. Served blind. The nose is herbal, meaty, and has a pleasant bright red cherry tone as well. The palate is a bit darker than the nose, and also has some pleasant florals. Good acidity, but I thought the palate was a bit low in density. The tannins are pretty soft and smoothed out. Playing the player a little bit, I had a pretty good inkling that this was sangiovese, but pegged it as something younger than ten years, since it was showing pretty much no secondary characteristics.
Italy, Tuscany, Montalcino, Brunello di Montalcino
Double-decanted 8 hours before dinner. Served blind. The nose on this is by far the richest and darkest of the three. More gamey and smoky, and showing lots of rich sweet black plums. The palate has a lot of that same rich quality, and is extremely fruit forward. That said, there's lots of good acid on this to. I loved the density on this. I came into dinner knowing that the theme was three reds with some things in common, so the call of sangiovese wasn't too hard, if you played the player a bit.
Double-decanted 8 hours before dinner. Served blind. The nose is extremely herbaceous, and shows quite a few of the green-meanie elements you might find in 2004 red Burgundy. There's a distinct note that is the smell of the veins of sugar snap peas. Hightoned, there are some really pleasant red fruit flavours on the palate, and the light texture with fresh acids is really nice. But that vein of green just kept getting worse and worse through the evening. I was told the wine was nothing like this when it was opened (and I believe it), but to have caught it at this point? Sad.
1990 Peter Lauer Saar Riesling Brut Reserve 95 Points
Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer
#19-12, 11.5% abv. Whoa, this is a lot more explosive and expressive than I remember it being. Really wild and funky nose, with sweet longan fruit, honeycomb, and yellow apple. The palate is ridiculously dense, with sweet fruit notes again (longans and tart apple), as well as a slight touch of perceptible sweetness -- whether or not there is still residual sugar, I've no clue. Very ripe acids and a coarse mousse. Really good stuff (and as a side note, this is nothing at all like the bony and skeletal -- but still convincing in its own right -- 1992).
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2011 Germano Ettore Langhe Riesling Hérzu 93 Points
Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Langhe DOC
Served blind. Herbal and elegant nose with some notes of lemongrass and green apple. The palate has reasonably good acidity, as well as the same herbal and green apple elements. Fermented to a feinherb level. Not as minerally and crisp as a Mosel riesling, and there's a slight creaminess to it. I guessed young feinherb Nahe.
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2004 Fattoria di Fèlsina Berardenga Chianti Classico Riserva Rancia 90 Points
Italy, Tuscany, Chianti, Chianti Classico DOCG
Double-decanted 8 hours before dinner. Served blind. The nose is herbal, meaty, and has a pleasant bright red cherry tone as well. The palate is a bit darker than the nose, and also has some pleasant florals. Good acidity, but I thought the palate was a bit low in density. The tannins are pretty soft and smoothed out. Playing the player a little bit, I had a pretty good inkling that this was sangiovese, but pegged it as something younger than ten years, since it was showing pretty much no secondary characteristics.
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2004 Uccelliera Brunello di Montalcino 93 Points
Italy, Tuscany, Montalcino, Brunello di Montalcino
Double-decanted 8 hours before dinner. Served blind. The nose on this is by far the richest and darkest of the three. More gamey and smoky, and showing lots of rich sweet black plums. The palate has a lot of that same rich quality, and is extremely fruit forward. That said, there's lots of good acid on this to. I loved the density on this. I came into dinner knowing that the theme was three reds with some things in common, so the call of sangiovese wasn't too hard, if you played the player a bit.
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2004 Fontodi Flaccianello della Pieve Colli della Toscana Centrale IGT 80 Points
Italy, Tuscany, Colli della Toscana Centrale IGT
Double-decanted 8 hours before dinner. Served blind. The nose is extremely herbaceous, and shows quite a few of the green-meanie elements you might find in 2004 red Burgundy. There's a distinct note that is the smell of the veins of sugar snap peas. Hightoned, there are some really pleasant red fruit flavours on the palate, and the light texture with fresh acids is really nice. But that vein of green just kept getting worse and worse through the evening. I was told the wine was nothing like this when it was opened (and I believe it), but to have caught it at this point? Sad.
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