Pieropan Soave Classico 2007
Lemon, melon, and apple blossom nose with a medium weight yet somehow light palate with some tannic austerity and good acidity keeping it all fresh. A nice dry finish. This is about purity and freshness IMO and just great for a light summer lunch.
El Coto Rioja Crianza 2004
A volatile nose of crushed oxidised strawberries that are about to go over the hill, water-tank rusty metal, old wet cellar wood, and almost a touch of horse. This has enough complexity: it’s got the fruit and countryside combo that I love.
The palate has tannins present on the palate from front to back, though with a slight hole in the middle. The tannins a very fine chalkiness, they actually feel more like a very soft, wet, light-brown clay. There’s fluidity, the freshness is a current running underneath the flavours, driving the engine. The flavours are a kind of dilute raspberry cordial with the faintest whiff of vanilla in the finish, but with almost-animal/rotting vegetation and violet top notes rising from it that mean there’s enough to hold the image together.
Though not incredibly complex it’s a wine without pretension and stands as being just solidly enjoyable.
It reminds me of hilly northern Spanish countryside where herbs grow by the side of the road. It successfully conjures that image for me, and perhaps that’s a big part of why I like it. When I drink fantastic red Burgundy, for example, I can almost feel the first chills of winter coming over the forest floor in autumn, with red berries and mushrooms growing beside the path, and a touch of woodsmoke from some warm cottage in the air. Oh, and there’s the scent of a deer on the wind (or is it a cow, let me dip back into the glass and find out). It might sound overly fanciful, but perhaps that’s in fact a big part of what people look for in wine, at least subconsciously.
Quinta do Crasto Douro 2006
This has a perfumed nose of beautiful-summer-ripe purpley plums, crushed sweet blueberry and violets, but there’s a confected cherry / ethyl acetate note that I don’t like. The palate has a lighter body than I expect, but there’s plenty of silty-sand tannins. The deep picked-earlier purpliness of the fruit is delicious and the acid is all good, but there’s something that just feels a bit lacking about it. It’s doesn’t all come together for me, and it feels a bit manufactured.
Camus VS Elegance Cognac
Quite a floral nosed Cognac, showing orange blossom and apricot with some honey, cream and a touch of lifted vanilla bean. The palate’s smooth, with the floral/fruit profile continuing and perhaps a touch of spice, good acidity and warmth, and good length.