Monthly Archives: July 2012

July 25, 2012 · 6:44 pm

Chateau Leoville-Barton – 25/07/2012

2011 Chateau Langoa-Barton
A little sharp on the nose, not very expressive fruit or floral elements, very dusty cabernet sauvignon dominant aromas, quite reductive and shut down. Shy and reserved fruit, good structure, not full or heavy, a little shy and not full, clean texture, good freshness, nice and lean but not sure how it will react to another nine months in barrel.

2011 Chateau Leoville-Barton
A much darker inkier colour. A lot more ripe cabernet influence, certainly more ripeness of dark fruits and expression, denser and still with that stalky dustiness. Showing slightly more new oak characters. Great structure and texture, wonderfully fresh and bright, tight and lean tannins and excellent core of acidity through the palate. Excellent potential given time to be a structured food friendly wine that is both approachable but with good character. Excellent fruits.

Leoville-Barton 2010 Jeraboam

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July 24, 2012 · 5:06 pm

Chateau Pichon-Longueville – 24/07/2012

2011 Chateau Pibran (Pauillac)
Very intense purple, quite bright and spirited. Bright dark fruits, berries and cherries, slightly creamy and vanilla notes. Creamy texture, almost like wild berry yoghurt, soft but dense with good concentration.

2011 Les Tourelles de Longueville
A little denser and tighter on the nose, slightly stalkier and a little green herb element, nice bright florals and small berry notes. Fresh full and soft, dense and ripe tannins, quite savoury in fact with just a hint of vanilla oak influence. Good lines but still far too early.

2011 Baron Pichon-Longueville
Very mature, old vine elements, much more complexity, density and finesse, less expressive but this will come. Very intense but also fresh and precise. Great structure and density, the cabernet sauvignon is very refined and well balanced. Nice combination of fruit and savoury elements, well managed oak but that may change given more time in barrel.

Baron Pichon-Longueville 2010
Very floral, rosy and violets, lovely intensity of dark fruit, fairly classic Pauillac cabernet sauvignon. Bright intense fresh, quite tannic and showing a lot of barrel at the moment, balanced and structured well with a good long finish. Density and maturity in the flavours and the tannins, mouth-filling but also good acidity. Dominated by youthful tannins and oak, but will develop over the next ten years.

Baron Pichon-Longueville 2009
Fuller but softer notes, fleshier juicier fruits, less floral elements and more intense oak integration. Full dense and soft, robust and broad. Approachable and soft yet well structured, doesn’t have the same concentration and core of acidity though. Looks good now, will improve for ten years or more but won’t last as long as the 2010.

Baron Pichon-Longeuville in all it’s glory

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July 24, 2012 · 5:01 pm

Chateau Montrose – 24/07/2012

Chateau Montrose 2008
Nice classic colour. Classic Medoc nose, cassis tar, cigar leather, dusty ripe stalks. Precise and fresh, straight lines of tannin and acid, soft mellow and rich, good structure and approachable now, with lots of potential for ageing. Nice slight astringency and volatility and a very slight bret character that adds to the complexity. Tight and lean, slight green notes from the petit verdot. Fruit needs more time to open up and express itself.

Chateau Montrose 2008

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July 24, 2012 · 4:31 pm

Chateau d’Yquem – 23/07/2012

Chateau d’Yquem 2006
Bright golden colour, not a hint of orange. Very concentrated oily nose, apricot peach pear, dry honey and vanilla beans, finesse and elegance but very aromatic. Intense creamy texture, vanilla lanolin, fresh fruits, some delicate sweet spice, quite bracing in the acidity and astringency, needs some more time to soften and develop, A very textured wine, hiding a lot of its complexity under creaminess and alcohol.

Chateau d’Yquem from the year of my birth, not a real bottle and not tasted regretfully

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July 24, 2012 · 4:29 pm

Chateau L’Eglise Clinet – 23/07/2012

2011 Le Petite Eglise
Nice delicate colour, light and fresh with ruby undertones. Very charcuterie-like on the nose, with bright but closed red fruits. Tight fresh and lively, deep concentration without being heavy or fat, slightly candied o the back of the palate, density of fruit looking nice and approachable, with some developing oak notes of caramel and char.

2011 Chateau L’Eglise Clinet
More intense dark purple colour. Darker fruits, more intense floral aromas, a little dusty molasses. Much more intense structure and texture, more robust fruit tannins, but soft and approachable, just youthful and intense. Some tightness from the cab franc perhaps, a refined merlot structure.

Chateau l’Eglise-Clinet 2002, unfortunately not tasted

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July 24, 2012 · 3:38 pm

Nobody expects the Spanish disposition (Rias Baixas, Spain – Day Two)

When people think of Spanish wine 90 times out of 100 they would think of red wine. Nine times they may think of cava depending on where they are from, and maybe one time they would think of sherry. Chances are they wouldn’t think of white wine but there are two places in particular where white wine is pretty much all they make. The first is Rueda where wines made from the verdejo grape are one of the fasting growing in the country. The other place is Rias Baixas where they make wines mostly from albarino. In my opinion Rias Baixas white wines are the most Spanish that a wine can be. Firstly as a country that is mostly surrounded by water they eat a lot of seafood and other fresh and often salty dishes that are perfect matches with albarino thanks to its high acidity and zingy freshness. Secondly the country gets very hot as I have discovered myself, and as a chilled wine albarino is much more refreshing than a glass of Rioja tempranillo or oloroso sherry. As albarino wines are almost always made in a simple way they are also a reflection of the simple lifestyle that Spanish people lead, particularly in the current difficult economic situation. Then add to this the fact that albarino is very cheap to produce and can therefore be more affordable than many wines produced in Spain for the Spanish people. There aren’t really any complicated terms or levels of quality like crianza or reserve that mean almost nothing, it is simply good or it isn’t.  Albarino can be enjoyed across the whole country with any myriad of different dishes and is so easy to drink. What I’m trying to say is that Spanish should be drinking more albarino, but only as long as there is enough for the rest of us too.

Have you ever seen razor clams before?

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July 24, 2012 · 3:35 pm

Comtes Von Neipperg – 23/07/2012

Chateau D’Aiguihe 2007
Nice tarry black fruits cassis blackcurrant with a slight dusty balsamic note. Soft bright, good intensity and freshness, dark fruits but soft and structured. Approachable tannins and very well balanced. Reasonably simple but quite good.

Clos de L’Oratoire Grand Cru 2007
Slightly deeper and earthier, more brooding and yet still bright and fresh with expressive dark fruits. More character in the palate, earthier more savoury elements, definitely oak influence in the flavours and texture. Slightly chewier but balanced through the palate.

Chateau Canon la Gaffeliere Grand Cru 2007
More refined and closed, more mature and assured, earthy and slightly meaty with concentrated red fruits. Very bright lifted and intense, very fresh and pure, late influence on oak, structure but wonderful lines through the palate, very young. A coiled spring will open up with time.

La Mondotte 2007
More floral and dark fruits, nice concentration and lifted aromatics, full on the nose and inviting. Soft mellow and smooth, but balanced and structured through the palate. Very approachable now, not sure it will improve much, it’s great now. Quite different.

Chateau Canon la Gafelliere

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July 23, 2012 · 5:27 pm

Pretty simple, simply pretty (Rias Baixas, Spain – Day One)

Travelling around Europe these past six months I have encountered a select few regions that exemplify my general philosophy of elegance in simplicity, and that there are varieties that express their origin much better than others but should only be grown in certain places. I have mentioned a few of these in the past, but it is safe to say that I would add the albarino variety and Rias Baixas to these lists. Many people have compared albarino to riesling which is a pretty fair assessment, not only for the fact that the wines are generally made without oak in a fresh mineralic style, but also the tendency for mature albarino wines to acquire the same oily aromas and viscosity that riesling does. It is the first reason that I feel so strongly about these wines, as albarino can be amazingly uncomplicated and unpretentious yet filled with character and style, the purest expression you can imagine. These are wines that everyone can enjoy for various reasons, and also everyone can afford. With so little influence from the winemaker there is really nothing to hide; if you don’t have good grapes then you don’t have good wine. Pretty simple really but with the propensity to use so many techniques to influence wines in the winery I think this is lost somehow, and the wines are thought of merely as simple. Why should all white wine be made like white burgundy?
A beautiful albarino leaf

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July 23, 2012 · 3:39 pm

Impressions of Portugal

Firstly I’d like to point out that I only spent two weeks in Portugal and only nine days of which was spent visiting wineries. Secondly I only visited four (five if you treat Oporto separately) regions in Portugal, all of which are in the northern part of the country. I was also able to visit some of the absolute top producers in each of these regions and thus was only able to experience the best of what Portugal produces. This does also mean that I was exposed to the cutting edge and future of Portuguese wines, and meet people with experience in different regions and producers representing different elements of the wine industry. So it seems a little silly to be making assumptions and assessments about a country that requires significantly longer to get to know, but I wanted to talk about Portugal which is a producer that certainly I had very little experience with and understanding of, but feel that everyone out there needs to get to know better.

Traditional method sparkling wine in Bairrada

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July 21, 2012 · 10:19 pm

It’s not easy being green (Vinho Verde, Portugal)

The Vinho Verde region is in the far northern part of Portugal on the border with Galicia, Spain. The astute amongst you would have noticed (if you didn’t already know) that the translation into English is literally ‘green wine’. I’m sure most people would hear this name as I did when I was out for dinner in Lisboa, and be slightly shocked at the idea of green wine. The name of course refers to them being young wines that need to be drunk within 12 months, and the fact that the grapes are harvested a little early to retain the acidity. There are around about 30,000 growers in the region who predominantly grow the fruit in pergolas so that they can grow other crops underneath and more intelligently use the land. The wines are pretty awful in general, and are mass-produced and often pumped with carbon dioxide to give it a little spritz. As far as I know this is the only region where the region is named after the wine rather than the other way around. The associations with the region and the quality of the wine don’t make it way for the few producers who are trying to make higher quality wine, the most prominent of which I visited in the evening.

Duck rice, a typical dish from Minho in northern Portugal

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