Those of the Swiss “contingent” of our little wine lovers’ cycle (none of whom, unfortunately, came along) have been singing it from the same hymn sheet, of course, that what Victor needed was not a new home, but a more spacious wine cellar. I really like the house they built around it, though. Great, great housewarming party, too, imaginative and yummy dishes, lovely wines, gracious hosts and cheerful guests, artistic performances by host, daughters and guests (I shall never forget Victor’s own vocal part in “Là ci darem la mano”) alike – all that the heart can desire!
Almost finished typing my backlog of tasting notes – ample time to (re-)listen to Bernstein’s complete sixties Mahler for Columbia Masterworks, actually multiple times, plus compare alternatives...
Franz Hirtzberger Riesling Smaragd Singerriedel 2005
Thanks to Victor. From several standard size bottles. Full yellow colour. Darkly minerally-earthy. Curiously dark bitter note, partly due to the fact that the per se firm fruit is somewhat closed. Good body, sound 14% alcohol, currently a fraction less well-integrated. Quite long. Darkly minerally aftertaste, “sweetening” touch of alcohol. Personally liked this better young, but must admit I lack experience with the ageworthiness of Hirtzberger’s wines (even if the structure certainly seems promising). Victor thinks Hirtzberger Grüner Veltliner age better than his Riesling. Rating: 91+/92(+?)
Rustenberg Stellenbosch Superior 1986
Thanks to Victor. Two standard size bottles of this Bordeaux blend from a great vintage. Medium-light ruby-black. Perfumy, truffley nose (and inner-mouth perfume), a bit “like a light Gruaud Larose”, as Martin noticed (or like “diluted old-style Ausone”, as Victor suggested). Harmonious smoky tree bark, undergrowth, medium-light body, soft red fruit, light, quite ethereal and graceful, elegant (partly in the British sense of “light”, but also finesseful, with softened tannin). Fairly long if indeed a bit diluted on the finish. Rating: 84-
Numanthia Toro 2004
Thanks to Victor. From 70- to 100-year-old vines. Aged in new French oak for 19 months. Barrel sample like opaque purple colour. Sweet marzipan and soft vanilla, cinnamon and clove oak, jammy red and dark berry and plum fruit. Full body. Precise, pure and quite pretty, if a bit superficially fruity on entry, but the finely dusty tannin seems wholly oak-induced, if not artificial. Oaky vanilla on the back end, finish and especially aftertaste. From a stylistic perspective, apart from the fact that one needs to like modernistic fruit bombs, perhaps best to drink in its fruit phase (when, no doubt, it was less oaky in balance), but then, I must admit I simply lack the curiosity to find out what will happen to the tannin in a wine like this (reminds me there are at least two definitions of “balance”: on the on hand, there is the presence of all component parts in equal measure, on the other hand, a wine’s potential to age harmoniously – it is tempting to think they are mutually dependent, as if the quality of those component parts were a given). An impressively concentrated, fairly complex, ultimately (in terms of depth and/or potential to express more of it) one-dimensional wine, but that I have no doubt will make friends easily (given the choice, I would love to serve this to some of my wine-loving friends in Switzerland, just to see what they think). Curiously enough, it tasted drier as well as fruitier from a second bottle, and none the worse for it. Rating: 92(+/-?)
Kollwentz Steinzeiler 2005
Thanks to Sam. A Burgenländer blend of Blaufränkisch, Cabernet Sauvignon and Zweigelt. Deep ruby-black. Quite concentrated and powerful, fairly minerally, almost salty. High quality but lots of oak that should still integrate with bottle age. Petrolly fruit, touch meaty (dried lamb?). Fairly full-bodied, but the 14% alcohol shows. Touch of green to the slightly tough tannin. Nice little metal note to good acidity. Medium length, quite powerful on the finish. Deserves time in the cellar, but ultimately, the question will be whether this is a bit too green (over-extracted?) to age harmoniously. Rating: 90+/91(-?)
Winkler-Hermaden Olivin 2006
Thanks to Sam. Blauer Zweigelt. Lighter ruby-black colour. Nomen est omen: smells and tastes of olive (the wood) indeed! Green pepper and bell pepper, meat spice, medium-short on the finish. Rating: 83
Heribert Bayer Necktenmarkter Cuvée trocken In Signo Leonis 2001
Thanks to Sam. Lightly black ruby-red. Indian spice mix (stale Garam Masala?), oak and a suggestion of lightly nutty “fruit”. Medium-plus body, with the 13.5% alcohol well integrated. A bit lifeless. Rating: 80-
Dal Forno Romano Recioto della Valpolicella Vigneto di Monte Lodoletta 1988
From magnum thanks to Victor, yet no less evolved than from the half bottles I know, which were marketed years earlier. Glossy-deep prune juice colour. By now lightly evolved fig and prune sweetness. “More old-fashioned style” Victor said, I assume he meant of Dal Forno, as it is not a secret he was considered a modernist back then. Black cherry chocolate truffle, lovely marzipan oak, absorbed by the fruit. A touch of aged wax and honey. Nicely warming alcohol, but not at all hot. Slight viscosity. Low-acid, less precise and pure than the more fruit-drenched 1997. Soft coffee chocolate and black, as well as rose-hip tea to slightly drier and grainier tannin. What has become more apparent over the years is that the tannin quality suffers from the per se minor botrytis (compared to e.g. Quintarelli’s Recioto from the same vintage), giving it a restrained flavourfulness, now increasingly a walnut skin like muteness or dryness. At the snail’s pace this has been evolving, it will take many more years until the wine is going to show any signs of brittleness, it merely seems to me it is too good, too rare and too expensive to wait for it to become old. What a beauty, and what a privilege to have this from magnum! Rating: 96-/95(-?)
Jean-Louis Chave Hermitage 2000
From magnum thanks to Victor. The best showing of this wine I have witnessed so far (found it a bit questionable at release). Light prune juice coloured ruby-black, lighter at the rim. Impressive roasted rosemary, lavender, thyme, pink and green pepper, lightly earthy undergrowth, faint tree bark. Olive oil flavoured “fruit”, faintly glyceric. Lean on fruit, if complex, an austere wine, with tannin that is not, but borders on being slightly mean: slightly tough and not too flavourful or potentially expressive. Firm acidity, not metallic, nor ideally fresh and lively. But quite impressive vinosity, fair enough body. Lightly smoky minerality and tobacco leaf. Spiced olives aftertaste. Victor’s wine of the night. Rating: 93(+/-?)
Paul Jaboulet Aîné Chave Hermitage La Chapelle 1996
Thanks to Erik. Soft orange rim to mahogany-tinged ruby with black reflections. A slightly evolved bottle, as all those who know the wine agreed. Fig sweetness, American hazelnut coffee, lightly stale canned tomato, sweet sweat, black licorice. A somewhat finesseless, but not at all austere bottle – from one of the “gentler” lots of 1996 La Chapelle (some are a bit tart). Rating: 89-/88
Dunn Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Howell Mountain 1996
From magnum thanks to Victor. In contrast to Dal Forno’s 1988 Recioto, this is a bit more backward from magnum than standard size bottle. Aged 20 months in 50% new, 50% one-year-old Vicard Nevers M+. Sterile filtered but no fined. Full ruby-black, still with a purple hue. Intense iodine top note, almost toothpaste-like medicinality. Ripe yet tight, sweet yet firm blackcurrant and cherry of cough syrup like intensity. Charcoal and smoky forest earth, opened up complex and deep roasted (as if Tuscan) herbs, black pepper. Youthfully hard but immensely flavourful tannin. Full body. Powerful persistent finish. Not an easy to interpret wine, some found it overpowering, others quickly recognized its potential. My wine of the night. Rating: 96+/97(+?)
Fonseca Guimaraens Vintage Port 1976
Contribution of mine. Opaque to black prune juice. Density and sweetness of a Recioto. One of the faintly volatile and hot bottles, so that it is almost perfumier than normal, not one of the very best, but still a delicious bottle. A bit Rhône-like, although not too dried-fruity or roasted. Youthful, never too finesseful (and yet, as Sam said, this was rather more finesseful than the 1977 Taylor), quite huge, powerful, full-bodied, and long. Tannic and firm. Rating: 96(+?)
Taylor’s Vintage Port 1977
Thanks to Victor. Medium red beet juice coloured medium ruby, soft black hue (light in colour of course compared to the 1976 Fonseca, but also lighter-coloured then e.g. the 1970 or 1963). Even beyond the drier Taylor style on the nose and the palate, I was wondering if the 1977 is slowly wearing out – this made me, exceptionally, leaf through earlier tasting notes of mine, as it is a wine I have, with one or two exceptions, invariably been unimpressed. Much more evolved than the 1976 Fonseca, and nowhere as thick, dense and sweet. Dried violet, highly reserved fruit even for Taylor (slightly expressionless, as if the house style’s elegance had been taken a bit too far), some freshly cracked pepper, soft tobacco, sandalwood. A touch of alcoholic sweetness. Markus guessed 1975 – a savage sentence, as in my opinion, there was nothing wrong with the bottle (except that the wine might have profited from more airing). The 1977 Taylor’s may still turn the corner, but the earlier promise of power and complexity seems largely gone. The tannin remains nicely firm, finely grained and lightly black tea like, even if it is not too flavourful, a bit on the dry side. It would be tempting to suggest the 1977 is a classic example of Taylor elegance (and I will not deny that to some extent it is) also in the sense of finesseful, but as Sam said, “without substance and density (of fruit), there can be no finesse”. I thought the wine became a tiny bit fuller-flavoured and more glyceric with airing. All in all, I did not find this showing subpar, even if I have had rare bottles of 1977 Taylor that appeared to hold more promise. Then again, this already showed that stale bee’s wax note one usually meets in mature Port that is not really going anywhere anymore. My guess is, but I will not be held responsible, that there is little choice now than to keep one’s fingers crossed and wait for another few years. Rating: 93(+/-?)
Heinrich Spindler Riesling Spätlese trocken Forster Freundstück 2008
Thanks to Sam. Pale green. Bitter-sweet apple, perfumed nose for Pfalz Riesling. Quite high-acid and relatively light in concentration; although this could use more stuffing to buffer both acidity and its 13% alcohol, it still integrates the latter reasonably well. In general, however, I must admit it is the combination of characteristics I like least in dry German Riesling. Rating: 82(+/-?)
Pfirmann Riesling QbA trocken Leinsweiler Sonnenberg 2008
Thanks to Sam. Pale, almost colourless. Slightly heavy herbs, Thai basil among other. Exceptionally ripe fruit and acidity for a 2008, almost exotic. Attractive, lightly flintstony acidity. Fairly long. The 13% alcohol make taste this a bit warm. Rating: 83+?
Greetings from Switzerland, David.
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„J'ai gâché vingt ans de mes plus belles années au billard. Si c'était à refaire, je recommencerais.“ – Roger Conti