It's Montes week here at Casa de Pinkus ... yesterday I opened a bottle of 2006 Limited Selection Red Blend ... tonight I went for the single variety: Cabernet Sauvignon, but this time I've gone back 2 more years, to 2004. I opened this bottle a little early because tonight's dinner is cedar plant salmon Provencale, and as much as I am into trying different wines with different kinds of food, the Cab Sauv / Salmon pairing is not one that (from my experience) works very well. So I will have a glass now and maybe one after I finish dinner ... though as a glutton for punishment I will most likely still try it with the fish. Tonight's wine is hugely better than last night's so-so affair ... this 2004 still has weight and structure, the tannins aren't big in-your-face bruisers and the oak is well-balanced and delicate on the tongue. There's an an element of fruit that still seems lively and vibrant right down the heart of this wine. Sure there's a touch of dried fruit here but it is counter-balanced with a nice baker's cocoa that comes through, and while the tannins are most definitely present they do not interfere with what the cocoa and the fruit have going on ... in fact it seems to add just the right amount of a drying effect along with a lovely smokiness to make me want to take sip after sip after sip - and the finish lingers with a delicacy that seems to say "take another sip, I won't disappoint." This bottle shows an elegance and finesse that last night's bottle could only dream about ... and it's 2 years older. This is one you could still hold a few more years, but it's drinking very well right now.
Monday, June 3, 2013
Sunday, June 2, 2013
Montes 2006 Limited Selection Cabernet Sauvignon/Carmenere (Chile)
At times I get in a little hot water for this column (and my other two aged wine columns: Taste it Again / Lost & Found) for waiting too long to enjoy some of these bottles I review. Comments and emails from winemakers that tell me it wasn't fair to write about it because the wine was "past its prime", "too old", "never meant to age this long", etc. etc. etc. But that's the nature of both the business and people - you don't always get to a bottle on time within its peak period, especially if you collect bottles of fermented grapes. The purpose of this column is to discover wines at various stages of their lifespan: some have over-shot their mark, some are too early in their life and other are exactly where they need to be (reached their fullest potential). If you want to enjoy wine you have to be willing to accept the good with the bad. All this is preamble to a so-so bottle of Montes 2006 Limited Selection Cabernet Sauvignon/Carmenere, a 70/30 blend from Chile. I have tasted this wine at better stages in its life ... now some 7 years from vintage date things are a little drier than the fruit forward wine I remember. The nose is dried mint with clove and dried blackberries. The palate is all over the place, in both good and bad ways. Dried mint shows, as it does on the nose, along with the dried blackberries, cassis and saliva-sucking tannins ... the finish is an interesting blend of cassis, mint, cedar, and pencil shavings with some clove and anise thrown in for seasoning. Missed the sweet spot of this wine? For sure, but it's an interesting older wine that deserved to be discovered in this state.
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Reichsgraf von Kesselstatt 2002 Brauneberger Juffer-Sonnenuhr Riesling Spatlese (Germany)
From the name alone you can probably tell this is a German wine ... thanks to two colliding incidents today I find myself drinking a bottle of von Kesselstatt Spatlese. One: today was the day of the German wine tasting in Toronto, over 100 wines of which 90% were Riesling - you would expect after leaving such a tasting that one would have no interest in tasting Riesling for quite some time, but that's where you are wrong, it only whet the appetite for something aged and interesting in the Riesling department. Two: on my way home from the tasting I tweeted from the train a choice of wines I was thinking of drinking, one was a local Gamay, the other a German Riesling (which I was pairing with fish) ... within seconds of posting my friend Alex Good from Calgary wrote back: "Riesling. Pick the Riesling." And so the table was set for the Reichsgraf. And how right he was. At 11-years-old this wine showed very little sign of its age, in fact the only thing my wife noted, when I poured her a glass, was the wine seemed dark in colour ... golden. From there it was all uphill ... the nose was apple and apricot with some lemon rind and minerality showing through. The palate just made you want to take sip after sip, and at only 8% alcohol it was so easy to do. A lovely sweetness filled the mouth mixing with it apricot, pear and some intense sweet lemon notes - my wife called it "apple juice" - but there was so much more here. The acidity helped to balance it out, but it did not get in the way of the gulpability of this wine ... I think my Riesling-loving friend, Alex, would have loved this one ... my wife will stick to her dry Rieslings ... but there's something to be said for a well-made, well-executed Spatlese that one just can't quite put into words except to say: "you've got to try this."
Monday, May 27, 2013
Hardys 2005 Bankside Shiraz (Australia)
Oh Baby what beauty of a wine this is ... was. We were grilling up some inch thick steaks on the new charcoal grill tonight and it seemed only right to pull out something with a little heft. I had my choice between a 15% Kaesler blend (also from Australia) or this Bankside (at 14%) ... and I am glad I picked this one. The nose had a beautiful spiced-raspberry aroma, along with some white pepper that really brought out that fruit. The palate was loaded with dark berries, cassis, pepper with touches of smoke and vanilla notes for extra accents. This wine was delicious with the steaks and was nicely aged ... nice job Hardys and good for me for having the patience to wait.
Saturday, May 25, 2013
Anakena 2005 Carmenere, Single Vineyard (Chile)
Some of the best bottles of wine you drink are those that you have the least expectations from. I have to be honest, I had no idea what to expect from an eight year old bottle of Carmenere. Would the fruit be dried or still fresh? Would the wood over-take the fruit? Would there be anything there worth drinking at all? I'm happy to report that this was one impressive bottle of wine, that over the course of a number of hours showed little of its age. The nose was full of smoky notes with spiced-blueberry backing it up ... the nice part of the aroma was that it never faded, never got stronger, nor did dissipate in any way - the nose remained constant. The palate, on the other hand, did change, but always for the better adding elements that enhanced: starting off with spiced-raspberry along with some tannins notes, then it added hints of cocoa within the first half hour. As time passed it seemed to smooth out yet retained a chalky almost mineral character (kinda like baker's cocoa) then, before I stopped drinking it, there seemed to be an added quality of mint to the mix ... very lovely and it complimented dinner, which was simple as can be: Sloppy Joes.
Sunday, May 19, 2013
A to Z Wineworks 2006 Chemin de Terre (Oregon)
Tonight, once again I pop the cork on a bottle of A to Z Chemin de Terre ... sadly this is my last bottle of this totally delicious wine and I am so happy that I waited to give it one last go. The last time I opened a bottle was in August 2010, before that it was July 2010 and then at some earlier times (because at one point I had 5 bottles of this wine in my cellar). This really is a kitchen sink wine as it had about 7 or 8 different varieties in the blend, and some you never would have pegged to be grown in Oregon (Sangiovese anyone?). But now some 7 years from vintage date I can tell you the wine has held up extremely well and currently has smoky blackberry notes with cassis and black cherry, lots of fruit left in it for a wine of this age - it was smooth, elegant and really sexy in the glass. I know we had some people come over and I have to tell you I have no idea what they drank - I just know I enjoyed this.
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Tale of Two Vintages: Jackson Triggs Okanagan Cabernet Sauvignon (British Columbia)
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