By billn on September 29, 2010
So let’s try that champion du monde. Shame it was delivered just after I left for Beaune – it would have been good to open with the team. 2008 Donatsch, Pinot Noir ‘Passion’ [Switzerland] The nose needs a bit of time to open, but when it does there’s a small impression of chalky fruit, then a reasonably concentrated and high-toned raspberry, finally a forward brûlée (mainly vanilla) note. Actually the fruit/brûlée mix is quite nice. In the mouth it is round, very well textured – very smooth – and like the nose has lots of additional mid-palate dimension that is vanilla oak derived. It reminds me of a Beaune – actually a slightly fatter version of the very good 2007 Beaune 1er Blanche Fleurs from [....]
Posted in Degustation, Etrangers |
By billn on September 23, 2010
Martin Donatsch from Weingut Donatsch in Malans, Graubunden (Grisons, Switzerland) has apparently won this year’s competition for “Champion du Monde des Producteurs du Pinot Noir” – the world champion among the pinot noir producers to you and me. The wine concerned was Martin’s 2008 Malanser Pinot Noir «Passion». No fewer than 1,100 wines were tasted in July by ‘an international jury’ in Sierre, Switzerland. 71 wines (6 percent) won gold medals and 260 won silver – even some French wines acheived a silver medal! I wonder how that percentage compares to the IWC(?) – I looked at the IWC site but it looked like I would have had to do lots of counting! Anyway I’ve bought a couple of bottles to see how it squares [....]
Posted in Etrangers |
By William Rusty Gaffney on August 12, 2010
Nick Mills, who had picked up French in travels to France as a child with his winegrower father, Rolfe Mills, returned to Burgundy after a short-lived, injury-ending career as a world-class snow skier. He started as a cellar rat at Domaine Jean-Jacques Confuron, and stayed in Burgundy from 1998 to 2002, studying enology and viticulture in Beaune and working at some of Burgundy’s most celebrated domaines including Nicolas Potel, de la Vougeraie, and de la Romanee-Conti. Upon urgings from his mother in 2002, he returned to Rippon on the shores of Lake Wanaka in Central Otago, where some of the oldest Pinot Noir vines (some dating to 1985) in New Zealand are located. 80% of the Rippon vineyard is planted on its own roots and [....]
Posted in Etrangers, Rusty's Posts |
By billn on June 27, 2010
The Prince of Pinot needn’t worry – I won’t make a habit of it – but this is rather good…. 2006 Rhys, Alpine Vineyard Medium, medium-plus colour. The nose starts all baked red fruit, perhaps faint Geranium too, then it takes on a more stemmy dimension – not in the gothic manner of l’Arlot or some Dujac of similar age – rather the balance that both those (and Bourée come to think of it) can achieve with about 6 or 7 years bottle age – so the early integration here is mega-commendable. With each sniff I think I can put my finger on something specific, but each time I return it’s changed again – certainly a little sweet, stewed rhubarb (I like rhubarb). In the [....]
Posted in Degustation, Etrangers, Rebuy - Yes (2010) |
By billn on May 20, 2010
The boys of Noble Wine (who are occasional advertisers here) are some of the rare importers of Kevin Harvey’s wines from the US into Europe. Kevin is a very keen follower of things burgundian so I was very interested in what his personal rendition of pinot noir might be. I have this and a ‘Rhys’ (though it also says Rhys on the cork of this wine) which I’ll also open in the next days. I’m not really expecting ‘burgundy’, but given the costs of export/import, these cost me (even with a ‘good price’) something in the order of a cheaper grand cru. 2006 Alesia, San Mateo County Medium, medium-plus colour. The nose wears a heavy, musky pinot fruit and it’s edged first with a fine [....]
Posted in Degustation, Etrangers |
By billn on October 2, 2009
Posted in Asides, Etrangers |
By William Rusty Gaffney on September 6, 2009
Gary Farrell could easily be given the title of Father of Russian River Valley Pinot Noir. After making his first wines for Davis Bynum, Farrell launched his own label in 1982. That year, he crafted the first Pinot Noir for the newly launched Rochioli Vineyard and Winery label, and released his first Gary Farrell Pinot Noir consisted of 50 cases of a blend of Rochioli West Block and the North Hill of Allen Vineyard. It sold for $80 a case. His Pinot Noirs offered elegance, yet intense and nuanced flavors, reasonably low alcohol levels, and generous acidity, and became among the most popular from California. By 1999, Farrell had outgrown the Davis Bynum winery where he had been making his wines, partnered with Bill Hambrecht, [....]
Posted in Etrangers, Rusty's Posts |
By billn on August 22, 2009
no man is an island etc., etc. – thought I’d drink off-shore last night – two nice bottles…
Posted in Etrangers |
By billn on July 29, 2009
2001 Truffière (Vincent Girardin), Puligny-Montrachet 1er Les Caillerets Medium gold. The nose majors on a residue of toasty oak and fainter gun-flint aromas. The bottle lasted under an hour, but was actually becoming less interesting with time. After the younger wines of the previous day, this is significantly more mineral and wiry framed. Good acidity and density, yet the flavours do reflect the aromas. Complex for sure but I never really warmed to it – that’s a pure style judgement, so whilst I wouldn’t buy it again for me, I certainly wouldn’t tell you not to. Rebuy – Maybe 2006 Nicolas Potel, Criots Bâtard-Montrachet The best young white I tasted last year, indeed in the last couple of years – expecations were positioned! Pale yellow. [....]
Posted in Degustation, Etrangers, Rebuy - Maybe (2009), Rebuy - Yes (2009) |
By billn on July 27, 2009
I shouldn’t really call a weekend with dear friends ‘heavy’ I suppose, that said, I (the four of us actually) managed to empty the equivalent of 9 bottles in 2 evenings. I think there was some beer too, but I expect that that doesn’t count! Generally the wines were pretty good, but one fell to the curse of the cork and as elaborated by Murphy, it was the most anticipated bottle. 1997 Raymond Boulard, Champagne Millesime Hand-carried from the domaine from (sadly) my only visit in early 2002, also the last of these 97s. Full but balanced with a very nice (to me) baked apple flavour. Rebuy – Yes 2006 Mischief and Mayhem, Puligny-Montrachet Seems a little fatter and less crisp than last time out [....]
Posted in Degustation, Etrangers, Rebuy - Yes (2009) |
By William Rusty Gaffney on July 15, 2009
Thomas Rivers Brown and his wife and business partner Genevieve Marie Walsh have quietly developed one of California’s most honored Pinot Noir labels: Rivers-Marie. Although Brown crafts wine for at least twelve other wineries where the focus is Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel, Rivers-Marie produces small lots of Pinot Noir from three vineyard sources in the true Sonoma Coast, specifically the Occidental-Freestone area. Summa Vineyard is a 6-acre site owned by Scott and Joan Zeller, Occidental Ridge Vineyard is owned by Richard and Darla Radcliffe, and the Willow Creek Vineyard is owned by Raleigh and Patricia Wilson-Juckett. Total production for Rivers-Marie was 650 cases in 2007 and 1,200 cases in 2008. There are 4,000 people on the waiting list hopelessly biding their time for a spot [....]
Posted in Asides, Etrangers, Rusty's Posts |
By billn on June 19, 2009
Okay – I know that this is is the ‘big red diary’ and that these are whites, but nothing in this page’s title says where the wines have to come from… We’ve had a few sweltering days – really the first of the summer – and given that my last bottle of Deiss 97 Riesling St.Hyppolite was so good, for sipping under the sun umbrella I decided to pull out a few of these whites from (mainly) a little closer to home; Seppi Landmann 06 Pinot Gris, Bott-Geyl 02 GC Riesling Schönenberg, Bott-Geyl 02 GC Riesling Mandelberg and Josmeyer 00 GC Riesling Brand. The first was lovely, soft easy drinking, the second bigger and fatter, the third had more acidity and the last was rounder. [....]
Posted in Etrangers |
