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WTN+SchnappsTNs: Cheap Spanish, great Austrian

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Saina

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WTN+SchnappsTNs: Cheap Spanish, great Austrian

by Saina » Wed Oct 07, 2009 3:07 pm

Full disclosure: these are wines and spirits that are imported by the company I worked for. Sadly the whole office was made redundant in the company and therefore I am no longer part-time ITB. The good thing is I can now get back to posting notes on everything I taste. :) (Sadly, due to economic reasons, my bookshop work will end in December, too, so I'm actually starting to panic: no one is hiring. :( )

I have no idea about the prices of these wines in Finland, but they seem to sell for US $11-15. Good value at that price if you're into the weightier wines!

Bodegas Eguren "Mercedes Eguren" Shiraz-Tempranillo 2007 Vino de la Tierra de Castilla

14% abv; 50% Shiraz, 50% Tempranillo. A part of Heredad Ugarte. This is a rather inexpensive wine (below US $15 in most markets IIRC). Rich and buxom, it begins with a rather strange scent of rhubarb jam, but it calms down after a half-hour or so and starts to smell of Shiraz. Not Syrah. (Nor do I see the Tempranillo anywhere in there.) Dark fruit, almost jammy sweetness, a slight touch of vanilla from six months in American oak (but really a touch, not something that I would find terribly off-putting). Full body, sweet fruit, but well structured. But it does seem like a more restrained Aussie Shiraz than say an OTT Barossa, but still this isn't my preferred style. I can imagine many will find the great value, however.

Bodegas Eguren "Mercedes Eguren" Cabernet Sauvignon 2007 Vino de la Tierra de Castilla

14% abv; 100% CS; 6 months in American oak. A very ripe and fruity wine but it does have some of the herbaceous lift, pencil shaving and baked bean aroma I hope to see in the grape. Full body, sweet, pleasantly noticeable acidity, soft tannins that crispen the finish. If one enjoys the bigger style of Cab, this isn't bad at all and should be good QPR.


More to my taste were the outstandingly pure brandies from a collaboration between Gölles and Reisetbauer. Gölles is well known for both vinegars and distillates; Reisetbauer is considered one of the best distillers of Austria (I think Jamie Goode did a report on them a few years back?). This is a new venture from them where they dilute the brandies to 25% abv - all the bottles are "pure x-brandy, pure spring water and nothing else".

To my taste the dilution worked very well; others at the tasting were more critical saying the results were too watery and lacked the power of what they wanted in brandy.

I tried the 25 Willy (from Williams Pear), 25 Cherry, 25 Moscato, 25 Apricot, 25 Plum and 25 Granny. There isn't much point in writing individual notes on these spirits because they all smelled of the pure fruit itself! They were kind of obvious in that way but also terribly elegant (though again, some thought the elegance was only over-dilution!). The apricot was a bit sweet and jammy for me; the Moscato might just have been my favourite because it smelled like a very mineral, even appley expression of Moscato d'Asti - it was such a likeness in aroma that I was half-expecting fizz! :D
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Oswaldo Costa

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Re: WTN+SchnappsTNs: Cheap Spanish, great Austrian

by Oswaldo Costa » Wed Oct 07, 2009 4:52 pm

I am so sorry to hear the news, Otto. Sounds bad, though you gamely put a positive spin on things. I can only hope someone with your obvious virtues won't remain untaken-advantage-of for long.
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Re: WTN+SchnappsTNs: Cheap Spanish, great Austrian

by Rahsaan » Wed Oct 07, 2009 5:36 pm

Otto Nieminen wrote:This is a new venture from them where they dilute the brandies to 25% abv - all the bottles are "pure x-brandy, pure spring water and nothing else".


Interesting concept. I might have been on the side of people saying the results were too watery although you say the apricot was sweet and jammy? How did that happen?

Also, what fruit is 'Granny'?
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Re: WTN+SchnappsTNs: Cheap Spanish, great Austrian

by Saina » Wed Oct 07, 2009 5:46 pm

Thanks Oswaldo, still a couple months to find some job or other...

Rahsaan wrote:Interesting concept. I might have been on the side of people saying the results were too watery although you say the apricot was sweet and jammy? How did that happen?

Also, what fruit is 'Granny'?


The apricot was a surprise and I have no idea how it managed to retain such a jammy scent. Granny Smith apple.
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Re: WTN+SchnappsTNs: Cheap Spanish, great Austrian

by Rahsaan » Wed Oct 07, 2009 6:02 pm

Otto Nieminen wrote:Granny Smith apple.


I was wondering. How was that? You didn't mention a detailed tasting note but from tasting the fruit I imagine it wasn't very flavorful?

It seems that cherry and raspberry schnapps often have such intense and lovely noses, but it doesn't always work on the palate. My favorite for the balance is often Poire Williams, but perhaps apple is in the same register.
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Re: WTN+SchnappsTNs: Cheap Spanish, great Austrian

by Bob Parsons Alberta » Thu Oct 08, 2009 2:47 am

Oswaldo Costa wrote:I am so sorry to hear the news, Otto. Sounds bad, though you gamely put a positive spin on things. I can only hope someone with your obvious virtues won't remain untaken-advantage-of for long.


Yeah, you will do fine Otto. If not move to London and work with Nigel Williams!
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Re: WTN+SchnappsTNs: Cheap Spanish, great Austrian

by Saina » Thu Oct 08, 2009 3:19 pm

Rahsaan wrote:
Otto Nieminen wrote:Granny Smith apple.


I was wondering. How was that? You didn't mention a detailed tasting note but from tasting the fruit I imagine it wasn't very flavorful?

It seems that cherry and raspberry schnapps often have such intense and lovely noses, but it doesn't always work on the palate. My favorite for the balance is often Poire Williams, but perhaps apple is in the same register.


Yes, it was rather like the fruit: tart green aromas. I happen to like these aromas and I thought they were faithfully reproduced in the brandy so I very much enjoyed it - perhaps the one that brought me the most pleasure after the Moscato. It was perhaps the one that divided tasters the most as many did find it bland and neutral. It certainly wasn't like the raspberry or the apricot in being explosively aromatic; it was subtle.
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Re: WTN+SchnappsTNs: Cheap Spanish, great Austrian

by Rahsaan » Thu Oct 08, 2009 8:49 pm

Otto Nieminen wrote:Yes, it was rather like the fruit: tart green aromas. I happen to like these aromas and I thought they were faithfully reproduced in the brandy so I very much enjoyed it - perhaps the one that brought me the most pleasure after the Moscato. It was perhaps the one that divided tasters the most as many did find it bland and neutral. It certainly wasn't like the raspberry or the apricot in being explosively aromatic; it was subtle.


Sounds good. I'll have to look for it.

My in-laws like to buy the Gölles schnapps.

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