WTN: Kamptal, Chinon, Barolo

• 2007 Jurtschitsch/Sonnhof Grüner Veltliner Alte Reben Dechant - Austria, Niederösterreich, Kamptal, Langenlois (11/13/2008)
  23,60€; 13,5% abv; 5,1g/l acidity; 8g/l RS. Light gold. A rather lovely scent of minerals, hay and some very ripe, creamy but typically GV fruit with that slight, green aroma that I so love with this grape. Full bodied and ripe, sweet fruit, mineral and long but not strongly structured. It does have enough acidity to carry all that fruit, but though I enjoyed this, I would ideally prefer a crisper style. Nice!
• 2002 Marc Brédif Chinon Réserve Privée - France, Loire Valley, Touraine, Chinon (11/13/2008)
  
  25,90€; 12,5%. Dark, very young colour. The scent seems like pretty classic Cab Franc with its cool, slightly leafy/green aromas and tobacco scents. But it also has very ripe and juicy fruit. Quite full bodied, sweetly fruity, well structured and in need of more age, savoury. Clean and refreshing. It all seems like something I should enjoy - but I wasn't overwhelmed or underwhelmed but rather semiwhelmed.
• 2004 Giacomo Fenocchio Barolo - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo (11/15/2008)
  24,10€; 14% abv. Classic Nebbiolo: tar, bright red fruit, cherry - young but open scent, not terribly complex but very pleasant and true to the grape so I'm not complaining at this price. Deep, tangy palate, good concentration of fruit, tannic but not too much, moderate acidity. It is very refreshing and moreish and though young, it is pleasurable drink. Nice!

Posted from CellarTracker

[David M. Bueker]

Semiwhelmed...great term!

Semiwhelmed...great term!

Makes you wonder (if) there is a word "whelmed" and it's historical use

Semiwhelmed...great term!

Makes you wonder (if) there is a word "whelmed" and it's historical use

From Dictionary.com.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/whelm

Other citations agree that it dates to about 1300 AD.
Charles

"Whelm
...1. To cover with water or other fluid; to cover by immersion in something that envelops on all sides; to overwhelm; to ingulf.
She is my prize, or ocean whelm them all! --Shak.
The whelming billow and the faithless oar. --Gay.
2. Fig.: To cover completely, as if with water; to immerse; to overcome; as, to whelm one in sorrows. "The whelming weight of crime." --J. H. Newman.
...

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc."

[David M. Bueker]

Facts...bah.

I think English words made with prefixes and suffixes can be fun because they have can have such strange lives: why do we have unkempt, inept and ruthless but don't have kempt, ept and ruth? Which is why I wondered why there are both over and underwhelmed but nothing in between, so a word had to be invented, hence semiwhelmed. I don't know if I am ept at inventing new words, but it sure is fun!

-O

I think English words made with prefixes and suffixes can be fun because they have can have such strange lives: why do we have unkempt, inept and ruthless but don't have kempt, ept and ruth? Which is why I wondered why there are both over and underwhelmed but nothing in between, so a word had to be invented, hence semiwhelmed. I don't know if I am ept at inventing new words, but it sure is fun!

-O

I agree you are ept. In fact, I think you have a lot of feck.
Charles

Interesting to see your note on the Marc Brédif Chinon, as I haven't seen anything outside of Vouvray from this producer. I wonder if you might be a little more whelmed with more bottle age?

[David M. Bueker]

Interesting to see your note on the Marc Brédif Chinon, as I haven't seen anything outside of Vouvray from this producer. I wonder if you might be a little more whelmed with more bottle age?

Now there's the question - how long to age Chinon. I tend to drink it fairly young, and now that the cognoscenti tell me I need to age my Beaujolais I am really running out of young wines to open. Please don't tell me that I have to keep my hands off of Chinon as well.

Please don't tell me that I have to keep my hands off of Chinon as well.

It depends on the Chinon. Most good producers have several cuvées, of which some are meant for early drinking like Bernard Baudry's Les Granges and even so its 2000 was still showing beautifully a few months. My notes on the Joguet line-up are still on the front page here, just; I wasn't greatly taken by their early drinking 2007 Les Petites Roches but the age-worthy cuvées were impressive; one of my best Chinon memories was Joguet's Chêne Vert 1985 a couple of years ago. My 96s from Joguet and Raffault are still vigorous wines drinking very well.

Interesting to see your note on the Marc Brédif Chinon, as I haven't seen anything outside of Vouvray from this producer. I wonder if you might be a little more whelmed with more bottle age?

Now there's the question - how long to age Chinon. I tend to drink it fairly young, and now that the cognoscenti tell me I need to age my Beaujolais I am really running out of young wines to open. Please don't tell me that I have to keep my hands off of Chinon as well.

Pif! Trinch! What Tim said.

Mark Lipton

Interesting to see your note on the Marc Brédif Chinon, as I haven't seen anything outside of Vouvray from this producer. I wonder if you might be a little more whelmed with more bottle age?

I haven't seen one before either, but I did see some very positive notes on the '03 Chinon, so I knew of its existence. As I hoped to imply in my note, I certainly imagine I would enjoy it in a few more years.

I find that even "humble" Chinons can age pretty well: e.g. I've been drinking Couly-Dutheil's La Baronnie Madeleine 2001 for a couple years now and it is getting better all the time - and this is priced here so that one would not expect it to improve with age, c.12€. We also have C-D's Olive '89 and '97 (but at 40€) which are both still drinking well and could use time to lose some fat!

-O

Now there's the question - how long to age Chinon. I tend to drink it fairly young, and now that the cognoscenti tell me I need to age my Beaujolais I am really running out of young wines to open. Please don't tell me that I have to keep my hands off of Chinon as well.[/quote]

I tend to treat the better cuvees like Bordeaux when it come to aging-particularly the Baudrys. In good yrs 10-15 yrs is required for them to really shine.

I think English words made with prefixes and suffixes can be fun because they have can have such strange lives: why do we have unkempt, inept and ruthless but don't have kempt, ept and ruth? Which is why I wondered why there are both over and underwhelmed but nothing in between, so a word had to be invented, hence semiwhelmed. I don't know if I am ept at inventing new words, but it sure is fun!

Otto,
Apropos of a post in an earlier thread, what you're noticing is the shifting pronunciation (and spelling) of some English words. Unkempt, for instance, is un- + kempt, the past participle of kemb, and older form of comb. Thus, unkempt in modern English is "uncombed," for which the opposite combed works just fine. Inept is from an older spelling of apt, so apt is the opposite of inept. And "ruth" is a word (meaning pity for the miserable) that has fallen out of use in English, but is still a valid word related to the Icelandic hrygg and the still-used verb "rue." I agree, though, that it is fun to consider these "orphan" words.

Mark Lipton