sweetstuff
Member #4,736 signed up 2/12/2005 and last accessed 7/13/2019
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Profile
Member since February 2005
Real name: John Trombley
Locale: Piqua, Ohio, USA
Favorite region: Mosel, Nahe.
Dream wine: Perfectly stored and aged Riesling from old vines, made in late-harvest style or the dry style.
Retired parmacist, decades-long pursuit of European wines, Germans, Rieslings, and 'sweet-stuff'.
Do some cellar management for those who don't have time for the most fun part of the pursuit (other than imbibing). Other hobbies: calligraphy, spiritual theology, cosmology and astronomy.
2009 Château Malartic-Lagravière
6/12/2018 - sweetstuff wrote: 91 Points
2009 Château Malartic-Lagravière (France, Bordeaux, Graves, Pessac-Léognan) Cru Classe; Cork Finished; via Coravin/Riedel Cab Sauv/Le Cache; Dorothy Lane Market, Oakwood, 14pabv. Cutting Edge Wines.
Plum color, translulcent, edging to 2 mm, profusely teary. Blueberry (mixed 'brambleberries'), rose, violet, perhaps anthranilate. Peppery, juicy, bright entry, cranberry bitters mid-palate, and nicely judged tannin. Oak absorbed to a nicely judged place.
A modern, sculpted, highly expressive Graves, both pretty and drinking beautifully right now. Drink now-2020.
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2011 Marcel Deiss Altenberg de Bergheim
6/8/2018 - sweetstuff wrote: 96 Points
With Coravin (cork finished), Riedel Riesling, and Le Taster. 2011 Marcel Deiss Altenberg de Bergheim (France, Alsace, Alsace Grand Cru), remembering the fight that this most genuine of Alsatian winemakers had to put up when a modern-style 'grand cru' system was installed. This incredible series of field blends are perhaps the most successful demonstration of the concept of terroir in the world, although of course by M. Deiss's definition of it. This wine lifts itself clear outside categories in any case, being so typical as to be atypical of today's Alsatian wine. Sec, $78/750 ml. 12 pabv. Warm gold color; little interaction with the glass inside. Gentlest white peach, slight walnut note, aged raw Puer'h tea. A sweeter wine than expected, yet still in balance with the juicy bright acids; dense mid-palate, umami, one of those integrated wine experiences that seems to proceed smoothly from eye to stomach without a hitch--sometimes an old-vines wine will do this well made and well cellared. Aside from typicity (a matter of definition anyway), this must be the very best wine in its category that I've ever tasted. 96/100. Drink now-2030. (Jackie says that it was like a Prüm Riesling Auslese 2015 Himmelreich we had sipped the night before, but in no way too sweet for the meal.)
After an hour or two, a nice lifted mint note appears on the palate and finish, along with lichee underneath. A wine of both force and finesse; for something not absolutely dry, an energizing tipple.
With salmon, Key West shrimp, mussels, and crab in a Mediterranean-style fumet broth. Very fine match.
This wine belongs on the table with the greatest of white Burgundy, and yet getting the Burgundy would bankrupt you. Not so this Deiss wine.
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NV Valdespino Jerez-Xérès-Sherry Don Gonzalo Oloroso VOS
6/6/2018 - sweetstuff wrote: 94 Points
N.V. Valdespino Don Gonzalo Oloroso VOS [Vinum Optimum Signatum] (20 year old); 21 pabv.José Estevez SA, Rare Wine Company; $35 US per 750 ml: T-Cork.
Brown intensely infused by gold-green; great thickness of extract breaking up into individual droplets at about 30 seconds, witnessing a rare tear or two.
Predominantly caramel, light butter tones, and orange zest, with veal broth mid-nose, and a floral and sweet vanillin filling out the upper register.
Resinous richness on entry, and punchy, with a deft twist of bitterness of white tannins; completely dry but with a slightly oily richness. Finish actually leads you on to further indiscretions and improprieties with this lovely, very complete, very powerful wine. Seldom does an old Oloroso retain this kind of symphonic harmony. 94/100, but will need to be tasted over many days to find out what is a reasonable score. Is it merely high-excellent, or does it belong in that exquisite category of great classics? 94/100.
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