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Tasting Notes
September/October, 2011

Tasting Notes Contents Page

QPR Winner   I give this award to wines that demonstrate an excellent Quality to Price Ratio. They are sometimes more expensive than the wines featured in my Best Buys section (which is cut off at $20), so while every Best Buy is also a QPR Winner,  not every QPR winner is an official Best Buy.  QPR winners are simply wines that are great values for a relatively  reasonable price. 

Italy     Spain

  Italy (except dessert/sparkling)

2006 Barolo (Azelia di Scavino Luigi)
In a rather modern style, this is soft and senusous, with a slighly creamy texture. Decanted for an hour and a half or so before serving, it is sweet and charming, with a gentle, well integrated feel to it. There were some hints of steel underneath, but mostly it seemed to lack the intensity and complexity of top Barolos. Still, it is a fun to drink and tastes great. 89 points.

2001 Barbaresco "Basarin" (Moccagatta)
This is simply lovely, bright and graceful, mouthcoating and piercing. I've had wines from this estate that have considerable more power, but this, while no shy boy, is nicely balanced, too, with the tannins not quite as hard. It is a very bright, elegant Barbaresco this year, with a very sunny demeanor, not particularly fleshy, but providing nice succulence on the finish. Drinking well now, it still has plenty of room to improve over the next 5+ years. 92 points.

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Spain (except dessert/sparkling)
2001 San Roman (Bodegas y Vinedos Maurodos)
This is big, powerful and chunky, with drying tannins on the end, but also simply drenched in oak. While this estate is not shy with oak, and the aging curve should give it some chance to integrate better, this does have a certain generic and clumsy feel to it in this vintage, despite the power and structure, that I rather admired. This still a good vintage, with considerable room to improve with cellaring, but it does have some things to prove in the cellar in order to really show its stuff. 89+ points.

2005 Numanthia
Astringent, drying and powerful, this has a heavy overlay of poorly integrated oak (at least at this point in its lifetime) and intense tannins to spare. This was tasted at a dinner event, not formally, so note that I did not have the time I thought necessary to spend with this. For the time I did have--and I did make a point to retaste it several times over a couple of hours, a methodology that leads to a nice buzz when you're not spitting!--I thought it had tons of potential, but something to prove, as it remained hard edged and tight throughout. I think this is a wine that you throw back in the cellar for 5 years, and see where it is going, but I think it will succeed on many levels, but not before going tertiary. 90 points.

2001 Numanthia
Intense and nicely structured, focused and very precise, this is both delicious and pointed, tasty and lingering. Despite its well focused and constructed mid-palate, this has enough open fruit to be approachable and interesting for that alone. Not yet at peak, it could use a few more years in the cellar to come into better balance relative to both tannins and oak. 93 points.

2001 Pagos Viejos (Artadi)
Big and powerful, chock full of tannins, this is a wine that evolves slowly but well, showing earthier notes as it airs out, character and focus. It is a beauty, well structured, tasty and complex. As in past occasions, this really needed a little wake up time, as it opened thin, sharp and dull. But that stage didn't last long, and it went beautiful places. 95 points.

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 QPR Winner I give this award to wines that are particularly good values, even if well beyond bargain wine pricing. They are not "best buys," which I define as under $20 wines. Every Best Buy is a QPR winner, but the reverse is not true.  Note: wines tasted at trade shows and the like generally will be displayed with ranges, as it is more difficult to get a good read on a wine in those conditions.  Also, many notes on the E-Zine often come from food and wine events, rather than classic, controlled conditions.

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