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Tasting Notes
March/April, 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. 

Bordeaux Burgundy Calif/USA Dessert/Sparkling Germany Italy Rhone/S/SW France

Bordeaux(except dessert/sparkling)
1989 Chateau Grand Puy Lacoste
Well, this is why we have cellars. From other bottles at other times, not always pristine perhaps, this wine never impressed me. But, noting that 1989s as a group, were slow to evolve and open, a tortoise-and-hare story, this is now singing. It is low in alcohol (listed at 12.5%), gentle and charming, with tertiary notes and a bright succulence that makes the wine seem sunny and refreshing on the palate. It is fairly light--perhaps what the British would call a luncheon claret--but it is also classic claret, delicious and perfectly balanced. It was hard to argue with this, its complexity and its crisp, delicious finish. Is it a truly distinguished wine? Probably not. In particular, it is lacking a bit in depth. But in its own way, considering its own virtues, it should make a lot of folks very happy. 90 points.

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Burgundy (except dessert/sparkling)
1996 Nuits St. Georges "Cuvée No. 1" (Dominique Laurent)
On the label it is called "Nuits-Saint-Georges"--just so you know what it looks like. Early on, I thought this was a beautiful village wine from the 1996 Laurent collection--and it has certainly fulfilled its promise, proving to be ageworthy and developing character. No longer showing the intense raspberry fruit it once gloried in, it is a more intellectual wine now, the acidity making it silky and caressing the palate, the power giving it a hard edge early on. There were also some hints of game and an earthier quality to the wine. Now, it is the complexity on display, although there is still a nice, subdued cherry fruit note. It really needed to hang around in the glass for 20 minutes or show to begin to show its stuff, and then it became quite elegant. It has always been a superlative village wine, lacking only the depth of big boys. Those who thought it needed a good long while to show its stuff, and that it would hold very well, were right on the money. It is still in fine shape, with many years to go. 90 points.

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California/USA (except dessert/sparkling)
2001 Carignane "Buchignani Ranch" (Ridge)
The good news is that this has not declined much since I last tried one several years back. The bad news...it still seems one dimensional, acidic, overly oaky and by-the-numbers, a feel to it that a lot of basic Ridge wines have, often due to the familiar oak overlay. The sweet oak, with some of the natural acidity of the grape cutting through, will please some, but this seems to be a rather simple wine, pleasant, but nothing more. 85 points.

2004 Zinfandel "Dragon" (Turley)
Showing some welcome restraint, this is a rather elegant Turley, modest in the mid-palate, but juicy and flavorful, quite charming and laid back. It is drinking perfectly now and is quite delectable. Don't expect it to improve further. 90 points.

2008 Lytton Springs (Ridge)
Young and a bit burly at the moment, this is still juicy and delicious, nicely focused, with a bit of a hard edge. Both elegant and sexy, it is a well structured Zin that should hold gracefully for the rest of the decade. 90 points.

2002 Cabernet Franc "Little Creek" (Soter)
A fair bit of oak up front makes this seem rather one dimensional at first, but an hour or so of aeration really helps this. It fleshes out a bit, shows more focus and the oak happily integrates a bit. This is not a Cab Franc that will please Loire fans, who look for lean, muscular and somewhat green fruit, but it has some merits. 88 points.

2008 Traminette (Penns Woods)
When I first had this a year or so back, I thought this hybrid white wine was delightful, but needed to be drunk young. A year on, it has declined slightly, but still held pretty well. It is still charming, although needing to be drunk. This Pennsylvania winery is doing some nice things. This is their under-the-radar pick that is quite delightful. It may be this winery's best value point, its most under-the-radar wine. Drink it young. 86 points.

2000 Pinot Noir "Russian River Valley (Williams Selyem)
This has held quite beautifully, now seeming soft, round and gentle, with a little earthy complexity cutting through the flamboyant notes, namely its sweet fruit. That nuance is still quite prominent and it stands out like a sore thumb tasted next to some mature Burgundies. Overall, it is quite charming, though, laced with a little Old World complexity, then New World fruitiness. 88 points.

2005 Proprietor Reserve (Penns Woods)
This is a wine that has its moments, but ultimately is only a shadow of the winery's top of the line 2005 Ameritage, reviewed some time back (revisited recently, impressions were much the same, although it has peaked and thinned, and will not improve further). This Reserve, a Cabernet-Merlot blend, opened rather tart and shrill, but a little air settled it down. It became a tasty little blend that drank very well for a short time, but ultimately became rather too thin, with a modest finish and a sharp note. I did not taste this early on, but I suspect this has nowhere to go but down now. While I rather liked it at brief moments in times, it opened poorly and finished poorly. 84 points.

2009 Chardonnay Reserve (Penns Woods)
Like a lot of Pennsylvania Chards, this seems a little on lean side, not particularly deep or fleshy. That said, it is a beautifully constructed wine,with oak well integrated, providing some bite on the finish, and the fruit and acidity mingling well. This is very much more in the Burgundian than California style, focused, pointed and precise, with fine crispness. If you are looking for an easygoing, fruit bomb--look elsewhere. 88 points.

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Dessert/Sparkling
NV Lacrima Dolce (Penns Woods)
This unusual Pennsylvania wine is a Merlot/Pinot Noir blend, $26 direct from winery. With long cryomaceration, it was made from two different yeasts and cold fermented for two days, then pressed. The fermentation finished without skins. Residual sugar was 21 grams. Modest in the mid-palate, it is just off dry, with some acidity and just hints of intensity. To be clear, it is not by any means a flat, syrupy wine. It is quite elegant, in fact, the sugar controlled, and not particularly rich. It is also simply a guilty pleasure. It is hard to score wines like this because they are so different and may draw such strong and divergent reactions. There is little benchmark for them. Still, this seems to have a cinnamon spice aspect to it that reminds you a little of apple cider in the holiday season. Yet, it is never overdone, and quite frankly, it is simply delicious. Served for a discerning group, everyone initially looked askance at it and wound up wanting more. The sugary aspects are light. The spice aspects are strong. The whole is quite delicious. I feel compelled to note, since it is a red dessert wine, that it is not fortified. The alcohol was 14.5%. Never having seen this before, I have no idea how it will age--but I can't imagine how it will show any better than it does right now. 89 points.

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Germany (except dessert/sparkling)
2004 Weisser Burgunder Kabinett (Munzer)
This opened perky and fresh, but a little reticent, and then kept getting better. Just off dry, with integrated acidity and sugar, it was a pleasure to drink, with a lovely, succulent finish that made it delicious. It has held well and seems to be in fine shape. 88 points.

2009 Scheurebe Spatlese (Kruger-Rumpf)
This is a grape that often produces wildly herbaceous wines. This, however, is well dominated by the sugar, which balances things out quite nicely. Some grassy notes pop up and may become more prominent with age, but at the moment, I thoroughly enjoyed how this showed, refreshing and controlled. That said, it seems to lack a bit in acidity and tension. It is fun, but rather straightforward. Perhaps when the sugary notes moderate, it will show something more. 88 points.

2002 Riesling Spatlese "Roxheimer Berg" (Prinz zu Salm-Dalberg'sches)
You have to let this warm up a bit--drinking it ice cold just projects tertiary aromatics and hints of decay. But when it warms up, it is quite lovely, gentle, but still lively, mature, yet with tasty fruit and a beautiful balance of acidity and fruit. Every time I went back to this, I liked it more. 89 points.
 

2009 Riesling Spatlese "Wintricher Ohligsberger" (Reinhold-Haart)
This is all potential at the moment, but it is poised to be quite lovely. Sweet and young, with little tension or acidity noticeable early on, this seems delicate and friendly and little else. Stick with it. The acidity emerges, along with some steel and minerality, and suddenly this is pretty interesting. I confess to erring on the side of caution and not being completely positive as to just how interesting it will become, but it is worth cellaring some for 4-5 years to find out. 89 points.

QPR Winner  2009 Riesling Spatlese "Graacher Domprobst" (Selbach-Oster)
This young beauty is sweet but rich, with enough depth to soak up the sugar, and acidity and steel lurking underneath. Bottled in screwcap, this is a wine that seems to be ageworthy, likely to hold 20 some years without problem. Although quite delicious now--in fact, quite irresistible--it will show better balance and integration of its parts around 2015 or so, when you will see that it indeed has good acidity and minerality. At $22 or so, it is well priced. 92 points.

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Italy (except dessert/sparkling)

2006 Crognolo (Tenuta Sette Ponti)
Perhaps the best performance I've seen from this wine, it is drinking quite well now. Always on the elegant side in mid-palate weight, it has fleshed out a bit, also showing more power and more of an earthy character--not that it will ever be considered a really complex wine. Still, it has fine balance and many interesting attributes. It became quite tannic with an hour's air, but it never lost its footing, while becoming both penetrating and gripping. 89 points.

 

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Rhone/South/Southwest France (except dessert/sparkling)
1998 Chateauneuf-du-Pape "Vielles Vignes" (Texier)
There comes a moment in the life of every quality wine where it is à point, as the French might put it, singing perfectly in tune. For this wine, this time is now. There have been moments where this seemed a bit closed and reticent, but that is now history. Intensely flavorful, nuanced with a touch of garrigue, this is quite delicious. Unlike a lot of Chateauneufs these days, it is also crisp and bright, elegant and graceful. Give it half an hour of air. Then, stand back. The sunny, succulent demeanor makes it a pleasure to drink, but nothing is spared in terms of projecting intensity of flavor.  After an hour, the underlying tannins provide a little tightness and intensity, proving that this can hold gracefully for awhile--at least another decade, I'd think. It's the best I've ever seen it show. 90 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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