Tag Archives: Europe

January 15, 2013 · 2:20 pm

Polarising (Umbria, Italy – Day Three)

I have had the pleasure of meeting a great many people who work in wine over the course of my journey who have all imparted wisdom to me, and I hope that I have given some small amount in return as this is the essence of wine communication, that in travels in two directions. Most of the people have been hosts at wineries that I have visited, but a few of them I either met also visiting wineries or simply in unconnected situations, like a woman who consults business strategy and communication to small wineries in Italy whilst having lunch in Beaune, France. Someone I met whilst in Sicily was a wine journalist and blogger originally from Verona but now living with his recently married wife in Perugia. At the time he was making a much smaller version of my own journey in the south of Italy, including Campania, Calabria, Molise and Abruzzo. His name is Jacopo Cossater and he not only contributes to the most important wine magazine in Italy and the most visited wine website in Italy, but he also regularly writes on his own site enoicheillusioni. We met whilst visiting one of my favourite winemakers in Italy, Arianna Occhipinti, and shared some discussions over several meals whilst in Sicily. I was thrilled to catch up over dinner with Jacopo and his lovely wife Laura with my parents when we visited Perugia, and even more so when he invited me to visit a few of his favourite producers around Perugia in Montefalco and Spoleto. Regretfully I forgot to bring my camera so the images in this post have been taken with many thanks from the websites of the producers in question.
Vines are only outnumbered by olive trees here

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January 12, 2013 · 5:13 pm

Collecapretta – 10/01/2013

2012 Trebbiano Spoletino
Again, lovely floral aromatics, juicy fresh musky, clean salty stone fruits. Some sharpness but also crispness, sweet core of fruit with lots of body and weight, nice roundness and density, not too fruity but generous and full of character.

Terre dei Preti 2011
Same orange colour, skin contact and oxygen contact. Honeyed syrupy dried floral, glazed apricot, betrays the wine as it smells like a dessert wine. Syrupy and weighty like a dessert wine, textural and full in flavour, consistent with aromatics. Sharp and plenty of acidity, but not a commercial wine in my opinion. Too different.

Il Rosato 2011
Apparently closed initially, tight and savoury at first, a little wild and earthy, very interesting for a rose wine, expect more fruit. Full warm and dense, very ripe and rich in darker fruit, certainly savoury with some sharpness to it but a fascinating style of rose. Great food wine, opening up over time. Raspberries and red apricots, plenty of acidity.

Le cese Sangiovese 2010
Deep dark earthy and intense, full rough around the edges, savoury and rustic, oodles of black fruit. Sweet core of black fruits, dark molasses consistency, very late harvested and quite hot. Not heavy or aggressive tannins, but extremely hot, hiding a lot of the other components of the wine.

Selezione Le Cese 2007
Wild earthy savoury meaty and leathery, dark red fruits, oxidatively old-world. Intense bright and fresh on the front, wonderful fruit and density, plenty of tannin and warmth, intense round and generous, extremely high quality, a product of the vintage and the vines, delicate and very long finish.

Le Cese 2005
Tighter and more focused, earthy and sharp, dusty and the character of bosco, a tad green, lean and mean. Fresh and intense, good sound dark fruits, round and dense with plenty of depth. Concentrated full and warm. Lovely generous tannins, nice and round, less characteristically old-world, could possibly come from anywhere. Great with parmigiano.

Copyright Az.Agr.Mattioli Vittorio Aprile 2011

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January 12, 2013 · 4:57 pm

Paolo Bea – 10/01/2013

2012 Trebbiano Spoleto
Incredibly aromatic, very floral with some musk characteristics not unlike moscato, nice spicy apricot and peach, some aniseed and anejo. Textural wild and dense, full and concentrated, dark and brooding for a white wine, chewy and gruff, skin contact and lees having a huge impact on texture and weight.

2011 Trebbiano Spoleto
Very different fruit notes, brighter fresher and cleaner but no less complex; seashell salinity, very oyster mussel like, quince citrus. Lighter fresher and more pure on the palate, less spice and more honey elements, less density and rough edges, cleaner fruit profile and finish. Nicer balance and approachability. Still has a nice savoury sharpness to it, less than the 2012.

2010 Trebbiano Spoleto
Significantly more colour development. Darker riper and more concentrated fruit nose, almost stewed and preserved apricots and nectarines, honey spice and dried floral elements. Opulent oily texture, generous and rich, some seashell but good integrated fruit, more complex and long, balanced and subtle.

Arboreus Trebbiano Spoleto 2009
Natural wine colour, quite orange, huge impact from the extended skin contact. Smells like a dessert wine, somewhere between passito and vinsanto. Smoky spicy honey bacon, limited fruit, very different aromatically. Dense round yet sharp and focused, biting and quite aldehydic. Honeyed banana warmth and density, but still fresh. Unlike any white wine I’ve tasted, somewhat acquired, far from approachable in style. Polarising wine.

San Valentino Rosso Umbria 2006
Fairly closed aromatically, deep dark berry fruits with some spicy plum in there, a little floral. Dense rich ripe ruby intense savoury and sweet at the same time, generous velvety and full, but not heavy nor too aggressive. Nice long tannins. Bright fresh and yet complex.

San Valentino Rosso Umbria 2007
Deeper and more intense, ripe and dark, more earthiness. More dark chocolate influence. Fuller and denser tannins, cleaner less complex finish, plum blackberries, cocoa and coffee.

Pipparello Rosso di Montefalco Riserva 2006
Savoury earthy old world stink, leathery and slightly meaty, more red fruits. Tighter and brighter, more savoury than fruity, straighter and more integrated with balance between fruit and savoury. A lot more complex as well, seriously long tannins.

Rosso de Veo Umbria IGT 2005
Extreme old world lack of freshness, oxidative oxidised VA, wild and untamed, little to no fruit. Hot wild intense meaty complex, leathery and oxidised. In my humble opinion faulty. In a natural wine lovers opinion, gloriously complex.

Pagliaro Sagrantino di Montefalco 2005
More integrated and complex, certainly more approachable and relatable. Complex in an old bottle kind of way. Very intense and dark with lot’s of tannin and oodles of structure, round long full and dark but still bright. Typical of sagrantino(?)

Pagliaro Sagrantino di ontefalco 2006
Most certainly faulty, not sure what it is but it is faulty. Too wild and extreme. Undrinkable. Bottle..?

The only wine that suits this approach is the passito wine. The sugar perhaps hides all the flaws with this approach. There is a reason people don’t make wine like this any more.

©2005 Paolobea.com

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January 10, 2013 · 9:14 am

Continuing traditions (Soave, Italy)

Due to a few inconveniences both good and bad I lost at least seven days of potential visits whilst I was in Italy. Some of these interruptions were for holidays, including Easter which I spent with wonderful family friends in Milano, and who my parents and I also spent Christmas with last week. Other inconveniences were due either to the inability to find wineries thanks to inaccurate directions or addresses, or to wineries not replying to my emails. A final inconvenience was Vinitaly held in Verona, which was a fascinating insight into the world of trade shows but not a particularly good way to learn about wines and regions as not only are you simply tasting wines in a convention centre but the hosts are also extremely distracted with countless other things and therefore not able to give the best introduction to their winery. Whilst I was in Verona I did manage to visit a few producers in Valpolicella which is to the north of the city extending from the east to the west, but there are a number of other areas in Veneto that were left unexplored, including the highest volume DOCG, Prosecco. I had the chance to join a group from Australia for dinner in Verona at the invitation of their Soave producer, and being familiar with their quality I was thrilled to have the chance to take my parents there on my return.
The castle sits overlooking the village of Soave

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December 31, 2012 · 10:38 pm

Pieropan – 28/12/2012

Soave 2011
Lovely bright citrus honeyed slightly grassy and herbaceous, a little oily on the nose, very aromatic and soapy. Wonderfully textural, ripe and oily with some warmth but still wonderfully fresh, bright tight, floral influence on the palate. A little creaminess and very subtle sweet nuttiness, roasted chestnuts.

Calvarino 2010
Deeper richer and riper on the nose with more concentration, more subdued spice and green notes, ripe citrus and melon notes. Bright tight focused acids, very intense but also quite subtle fruit characters, soft generous extremely long and complex, rolling around the palate, stone fruit and some pear as well.

La Rocca 2010
Rich ripe very strong creamy crunchy oak character, very burgundian in style, plenty of malolactic and battonage characters, dried stone fruit and citrus. Pretty extreme toastiness. Soft and gentle on the front, but builds with some very intense work characters, at the moment it is difficult to see past the winemaking characters of the wine, particularly in this vintage the fruit and terroir is not showing as much. Approaching Californian chardonnay characters. Opens up nicely once allowed to breathe.

Ruberpan Valpolicella Superiore 2010
Wonderfully spicy and peppery, sloe berries, dark fruit and florals, crushed rosemary. Lovely and soft and fresh, still bright but excellently approachable with lovely depth and length, fills the palate, tight and bright but generous and ageable for at least five years.

Amarone Vigna Garron 2009
Soft ruby nose with some dark cherry and plum characters but also some lovely savoury notes as well. Soft generous smooth velvety tannins, dried berries lovely and intense, certainly in the ripe sweet region, the tannins are very long and grippy. Very balanced alcohol, deceptively well balanced.

Le Colombare Recioto di Soave 2008
Subtle but intense citrus marmalade oxidative characters, some lemon curds and lemon tart, still a little spice and grass notes. Very fresh and not cloying at all, subtle and generous, focused and bright, rolling and yet lifted, exceptional acid holding things together. Wonderfully balanced and full of personality.

Pieropan

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December 21, 2012 · 8:07 am

Recapturing the vibe (Montalcino, Italy – Day Two)

It’s such a relief to simply be in holiday mode after most of the past 14 months have been spent not only travelling but researching and arranging appointments and then writing as much as I can. I have joined my parents who have flown up from Melbourne for us to travel in Italy for my last six weeks in Europe. Not only is this a great experience for me not having seen them for over 14 months, but also my mother brought me as a baby to Italy for five months whilst she worked on her masters in a dialect from Campania. I may have mentioned in a post back in April that I was actually returning to Italy after almost 30 years, and now my mother and I are reunited in Italy as well. As I am travelling I won’t be doing much writing in the hope of making the most of the trip with my parents, but they are interested to visit a few wineries whilst we are here so I will write about them. I raved to them about how beautiful Montalcino was, and as we were staying a few nights in Siena to the north and we were passing through, I made an appointment to a winery that I didn’t visit when I was here before.

Poggio di Sotto

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December 19, 2012 · 8:21 am

Impressions of France

This post has been almost twelve months in the making, as the first region I visited in Europe was Champagne way back in the third week of January, and my final one in Europe was Burgundy. Over the year I have made periodic visits to France which was not intentional but merely a product of its very central location in Western Europe, and the fact that most of the regions happen to be quite close to the borders of other countries. It is important to keep this in mind as I collect my thoughts and look back on my experiences on the most famous wine producing country in the world. It is also important to keep in mind that my visits to different regions in France have come at different stages in my experience and thus each new region I visited in France was actually a big jump forward in my development having focused on another country entirely (Germany, Italy, Spain etc.) By the time I got to Burgundy I had seen the best that the rest of Europe had to offer and had a significantly better understanding about wine production, viticulture and the concept of terroir. So without further ado, here are my impressions of France.
Day 1 in French wine country

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December 17, 2012 · 8:53 pm

Poggio di Sotto – 17/12/2012

Rosso di Montalcino 2007
Very light delicate pure colour, fine and lovely brick colour. Bright and fresh on the nose, good red fruit but showing some lovely maturity and finesse. Light clean and yet subtle and pure. Wonderfully light fresh and clean, good fruit concentration without being dark and dense. Not simple fruit, refined and balanced with some lovely savoury notes as well. Good core of acidity but lovely soft round tannin structure.

Brunello di Montalcino 2007
A little darker and denser showing a little sweet cherry oak character. Slightly rosy red floral elements as well. More complex and a little closed still, certainly ripe and juicy. Bright fresh lovely dark red fruit, wonderfully fresh with excellent acids, still youthful in fruit and tannins, but dense with plenty of complexity and time to develop over time. The same soft ripe rich tannin structure but plenty of freshness and mouth-feel very important.

Poggio di Sotto

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December 16, 2012 · 9:33 pm

Here endeth the lesson (Beaujolais, France)

Fourteen and some months after I left Australia I arrived at my last day visiting wineries, and it certainly has been quite a journey. As it turns out I am very glad to be finishing in Burgundy, partly because I generally love the wines and they are amongst my favourite in Europe, but also as Burgundy is such a diverse and often complicated region that I was glad to have had all the previous experience before visiting. Having already visited the Chablis and the Cote d’Or on my previous trip in 2010 there was very little that surprised me in these regions and it was more a question of familiarising myself further. South of the Cote de Beaune on the other hand was a different story, as not only did I know very little about these appelations but I had had almost no tasting experience with them. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to secure any appointments either in the Cote Challonaise or the Cote Maconnaise and had to be content with driving through parts of the area to see the type of landscape it is. One of the more famous appelations in the Cote Maconnaise is the village of Chardonnay, not because of the quality of the wines but because it is supposedly the birthplace of possibly my favourite white grape variety. Technically still part of Macon but a different appelation to the south is the famous Beaujolais which totally took me by surprise, and I was pretty happy to finish somewhere that did. The king of varieties here is gamay, and there are no other parts of the world that grow it in the quantity or quality they do here. There is a separate appelation for Beaujolais Blanc wines which are 100% chardonnay, but really it’s the gamay that makes this region what it is.

A cold day in Beaujolais

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December 15, 2012 · 10:48 am

Domaine du Vissoux – 13/12/2012

Beaujolais Blanc 2011
Nice bright fresh citrus and floral, crisp fruitiness, a little minerality but just nice and clean. Zingy zesty fresh not overly fruity or fat, extremely focused and fresh, clean mineralic acidity, lovely balance and extension on the palate, very complete, but clean and light. Great balance and harmony.

Les Griottes Beaujolais 2012
Lovely and bright and fresh, clean and straight, good acids but nice and short and fresh. Light and a little spicy with good fruit concentration. Cassis and myrtle.

Vielles Vigne 2011
A little stinky at first but blowing off and opening up, spicy and dark, good deep earth characters. Bright intense on the mid-palate, very fresh and great acidity, nice and savoury too, great concentration.

Les Griottes 2011
More closed and fresh, light and clean, more simple less concentrated fruit nose. Light fresh balanced good red fruits, a little earthy. A much more simple vintage, prefer the 2010 and 2012.

Cuvee Traditionelle 2011
Slightly closed and a bit reductive now, needs a little bit longer in the bottle to settle down, soft and subtle, nice dark fruits. Supple tannins with plenty of freshness and liveliness. More on the mid-palate with a little more extension. Integrated spice.

Couer de la Vendage 2011
The vintage isn’t expressing the different terroirs and styles well, bright intense, more tannins on the front but clean finish, very light but very tight, needs more time to open and express more. Very intense and quite concentrated.

Brouilly 2011
Deep dark spicy fruits with some dark salted chocolate and bramble. Soft and fuller, richer and heavier on the palate, intense full expressive tannins, tight and balanced, nice extension with potential for ageing. Lengthy tannins and tighter structure all around.

Fleurie Pensierre 2011
More whole bunch stalk maceration character, dark woody but crisp and intense. Soft and velvety, longer on the palate, fresh bright and light, nice dark red fruit characters, clean and appealing. Lovely and savoury spice.

Fleurie Les Garants 2011
Softer and fuller structure, more fruit less spice and savoury tannin. Round and long.

Moulin-a-Vent 2011
Dark full and round, denser and heavier in structure and darker in fruit, well managed maceration. For those liking fuller wines.

Moulin-a-Vent la Rochelle 2010
Really concentrated and spicy very floral as well, violets and dark marmalade. Deep intense masculine structured concentrated complex with some cassis sweetness on the back.

Extra Brut Cremant de Bourgogne
Crisp mineralic nose, nice lime and lemon aromas, a little autolysis but very fresh and light. Some spice and herb notes, quite complex and interesting, leesy and a little cheesy too. Some soy notes for complexity.

Domaine du Vissoux

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