Winetasting Tuesday 15 September 2009

Had a pleasure of being invited to a special winetasting last night downtown Stavanger. We went through 6 white and 6 red wines. Here are the notes from the white wine tasting;

Wine#1 Xarmant Txakoli 2008 from the Basque district in France

Pale yellow green colour with peach and tropical fruit and a very acidic taste. A mix of four grapes out of which petit and gros manseng were two of them. Quite a novelty, but not really something for the cellar...(P)

Wine#2 from Piemonte in Italy (Gavi di Gavi 2005) was unfortunately corked

Wine#3 Pietramina Etna Bianco Superiore 2005 from Sicily

Pale yellow green colour, smell of oak and banana, nice acidity and well balanced taste but somewhat "flat" indicating warm climate. Sre its warm in Sicily even at 950 m above sea level, but a very expensive wine. (P-)

Wine#4 Chablis 2007 by Christian Moreau

Straw yellow colour with hint of green. Smell a bit closed not giving away enough info to work out the grape (+ no sea or minerals). Firm acidic taste. (P)

Wine#5 Chablis 1er cru "Vaillons" 2007 by Christan Moreau

A step up in quality due to more body and complex nose. The very acidic 2007 vintage should give wine for long term stoarge and this should be one for the cellar. (P+)

Wine#6 Meursault "le Limozin"1994 by Michelot

Expressive yellow colour with a "fat" smell and glycerin like taste. Some sort of dry sherry on the palate indicating a old white Burgundy. Lovely stuff, but sort of food goes with this wine?

Meursault in Burgundy

Comments

Leoville Lascases 1988

Last week was a special week for me as I received my last pay check from my previous employer. An event that required some sort of celebration with some good friends. Of the many bottles opened during that evening was a Leoville Lascases 1988. This Bordeaux wine from St. Julien is second Grand cru classee but it has the quality of a first growth. This chateau was also the wine that made me change from beer to wine as I had the pleasure of tasting a Leoville Lascases 1945 back in 88. The 1945 just knocked me off my guard and I remember thinking what a fantastic wine it was and what an experience to drink this wine from the year when world war 2 ended. I was in shock and I then just decided to enter into the world of wine. I have always had a soft spot for this chateau ever since. And to my pleasure it has been performing well at much more reasonable prices than the much more expensive first growths in the 1855 classification. Nowadays a bottle of this wine costs around ...

Condrieu 2014 by Cuilleron

In the steep hills north in the Rhone valley there is a small appelation which is called Condrieu. Here the rare grape of Viognier is grown. A grape not well known to many people but which gives a fantastic wine when grown here. It is a full bodied white with a very pronounced and overwhelming smell of flower, peach, apricot, tropical fruit etc. The taste is dominated by ripe fruit, medium acidity and a long finish. Very good to outstanding quality. This is not a white for the fainthearted as the style is rather opulent. But with 2 year old Comte it is the perfect match. Cuilleron (manager) has many different styles. The wine is pricy and rare to get hold of. Condrieu 2014 "La Petite Cote" Yves Cuilleron ca 30€ or 400 nok

Chianti Riserva 2016

Castello de Farnatello has a basic Chianti and a Riserva on the market. Both of them are good value for money. We tried the Riserva the other day, in two different glasses; Riedel Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah. The Syrah glass is more closed at the top (to the right). The colour of the wine is medium red and the nose discrete smell of cherries, leather and nuts. Attractive acidity with a firm well balanced taste. This is perfect with lamb for ex. 5% Cabernet Sauvignon and 5% Merlot has been added to the wine as well and that gives it more body than the pure Sangiovese. And which glass works best? The Syrah glass enhances the smell much more than the CS glass in which the wine seems much more closed. Chianti Riserva 2016, Castello de Farnatello Ca 230 kr or 13euro

Life is too short to drink bad wine

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