1997 Saffredi, Tuscany, Italy

(Glass; Riedel Sommeliers Bordeaux Grand Cru)

It’s been a while since I have tasted a sexy Italian IGT wine. Served with a mouth-watering olive risotto the wine was simply the perfect marriage. There are black fruits – blackberries and blackcurrant mixed with herbs, new saddle leather, cappuccino and after each pour a nice note of buttermilk and animal fur. The taste is filled with juicy fruit and lots of concentration, resulting in a velvet coating finish. To some point the wine is a bit easy going on the intellectual scale, and it doesn’t have the same strong personality of a Sangiovese based wine, however the nose holds lots of depth, and I guess at some point, wine should not always be compared, but just drunk with pleasure.

31/10-2008

1995 Clos de Tart, Burgundy, France

I have tasted this wine many times before, but this is the best example I have ever had. In the huge Riedel Sommeliers Burgundy Grand Cru glass a sublime and fresh nose of forest, cherries, bicycle tube and sweet licorice emerges. The freshness of the nose, gives this beautiful purity and lightness and it’s divine to just smell this wine. The taste has this wonderful light curl in the mouth, but it has a bit of bitterness on the last drops. For me this is typical for the 1995 Vintage across Europe where fruit is overpowered by tannic structure. Overall still – a beautiful and pleasurable wine to drink.

Tasted 30/10-2008

1992 Jos. Christoffel Riesling "Ürziger Würzgarten" Auslese **, Germany

Sometimes a TN could be one sentence – so why note quote the person who gave me this bottle, as his comment was spot on:

“The wine is like a summer breeze”

Thank for the bottle, Martin – I enjoyed immensely and Signe especially loved it. We had it after dinner while we watched “Sex and the City” – the movie on DVD – I liked the wine more than the movie ;-).

Tasted 20/10-2008

/Thomas

2001 Marcel Deiss, "Altenberg de Bergheim", Alsace

(Glass; Zalto Universal)

It’s rare that I come across a wine of this character and it’s even rarer, that I find myself in conflict of the simple question – do I like this wine? The ravishing sherry colour tells you that it’s not your everyday bonanza wine in the glass, but the work biodynamic wild man number one; Marcel Deiss. The nose is incredible wild – super complex with notes of, apricot, rubber, smoke, mild botrytis, flowers, caramel, oxidized sherry notes and even malt. But to twist things a bit, and what at first hand seemed to be an opulent wine, it’s really not. Here on day two the wine shows incredible freshness and I would even go as far as calling it elegant. The taste is a little bit dominated by the viscosity of the wine as it hides the mineral snap and acidity. But it’s not heavy at all to drink and really has a subtle feeling. The bad thing about the taste is the fact that you simply end of with too much chewing on the flavours instead of a mouth cleansing feeling. The dilemma is the style and the sweetness of the wine, which causes it, to be a little bit too silky for my palate. But what a nose – wow.

26/10-2008

NV Selosse Version Originale "V.O", Champagne

(Deg. 27/10-2007 - Production 3.600 btls.; Glass Zalto Champagne)

Must confess that I almost didn’t open this bottle. Coming home from another insane week, in the eye of the financial hurricane – I was completely wasted and it’s now clear that some significant amount of stress is starting to build up among my colleagues and me. Anyway – we had something to celebrate, so of course we drank Champagne.
Version Originale is typical Selosse and a sort of all-round Champagne to his style. This is still a young bottle and it’s holding back a bit, but when it’s Selosse in the glass you always get something home with you. The main notes of the nose are; walnuts, caramel, corn and the fat and exotic flowers giving it a sensual evening perfume. The taste is round and full, but its young age caused it to hold back a bit. Overall – rather pleasing, but there will be awarding drinking pleasure if you give it 3-4 years more in the cellar.

24/10-2008

New book from Champagne guru of them all; Richard Juhlin

If you have a Champagne disease, like me – you will most certainly hear the name Richard Juhlin at some stage. If you want to label Champagne expert on a wine journalist on Planet earth – Richard Juhlin is the one. Personally he hates the term Champagne expert, as he finds it pretentious and a narrowing spectrum of the human being behind this title. This is typical for Juhlin and for those I know you have met him several times. His is, despite what people beliefs of luxurious Champagne habits might be, a very humble and down to earth person. He even characterizes himself as a romantic. It seems from reading between the lines of his books, that his alert senses is a vital part of his personality and the reason why his passion shines throughout all of his work.


There is a reason why Juhlin is beyond any competitors on the Champagne field. Few wine experts have solely committed themselves to a single wine or region, like our Swedish friend here, and the database consist of nearly 6.500 tasted Champagnes – a Guinness World Record.

2003, Richard Juhlin participated in the” Spectacle du Monde” tasting, held in Paris. 10 Professional tasters got a simple task – blind guess 50 champagnes. They only thing they where told, was that the bottles where available in France. I am not 100% sure, but I think nr. 2 got 13 out of 50 correct. Richard Juhlin on the other hand, did rather well. His tactic was simple – the easiest first, to build up some confidence. When he had tasted 40 Champagnes, he had nailed all 40 correctly – even Richard was surprised of his own abilities that day. His final result was 43/50 correct – pretty good if you ask me ;-)
No doubt that Richard Juhlin is born with some extraordinary good radar sensors and the leading voice on Champagne. He writes with passion and inspiration and you will get awful thirsty if you start to have a look inside his universe.


His new book is a small guide in pocket format useful to have with you if you just happened to be in the region or just traveling and looking to buy some Champagne. The book is like all other books from Richard Juhlin with beautiful illustrations and nicely organized, so that you can easily search for your favorite champagne, producer or vintage. There are only the actually score, not the full tasting note – you will have to buy 4.000 Champanes book or join his http://www.champagneclub.com/ to get those. Even though this new guide is an update, with 2.500 more tasted wines since 4.000 Champagnes – you won’t get all of the scores. You get an update on the latest vintages and releases and probably those you can still find on the market, and additional you get scores on “Old highlights”. I guess at some stage a new “X.000 Champagnes” book will hit the shelves as his database is constantly growing.

The new Champagne guide also includes Restaurants and Hotel accommodations in Champagne.

So overall, even if I feel rather well updated in the Richard Juhlin universe, and this book is only a supplement for me, I could still see myself and others running around in Champagne with this Benchmark guide in my hand.

For more information http://www.champagneclub.com/

/Thomas

2001 San Polino Brunello di Montalcino

(Tasted over two days – initially not decanted, but gave it a couple of hours to open it up; Glass(es) various – no difference)

This wine is like a big hope. It starts of with a shy nose of dust, black fruits and herbs. These herbs are not fresh, but a bit rough, like dried thyme. The taste is lacking in depth and especially in fruit – which is not good at all. There where moments just after filling the next glass, where fractions of something called fruit came forward, but it quickly evaporated. “Give me some love” – “Show me the money” or at least “Give me some hope” - but nothing came. The wine curls nicely around the tongue and has in that perspective some sort of Sangiovese trade mark, but the level of fruit and the overall quality is by far not approved. It’s worth mentioning that San Polino blew me when I first taste it, just after its release. It’s certainly possible that I might have caught the wine is a sleeping phase, even if I remained concerned with some of its characteristics. Time will tell – that’s the beauty of wine.

19/10-2008