Another year end wine dinner featuring unusual wines

We had the year end PWC wine dinner last Friday, with the recurring theme of unusual wines and grapes. Starting with two rare champagne grapes, Arbane and Petit Meslier, made into varietal sparklers, there were a couple each of unusual Italian against Bulgarian wines. The Italians were a Lacryma Christi made from Piedirosso grapes and a Pignolo, whilst the Bulgarians comprise a Melnik and a Caladoc blended with 2 Cabernets. The other two wines of the night were the One Wine One World white and a Bouzeron from de Villaine.

The wines were not all new to me, with say the Arbane having been tasted over a number of previous occasions. That proved less acidic than before but still nevertheless proved suitable to the Brillat-Savrin bought to match it. The Pignolo which was initially matched with a Chinese duck with plums was reasonable with the duck breast. That, together with two new (to the gathering) couples proving to be very good company, made for a very nice evening.

Kapcsandy Rose 2007

I opened this wine to go with ham that was part of Xmas dinner, but ended up nearly finishing it before the main course because it was so good with the smoked salmon (from the Grand Hyatt hotel). The wine was a free gift from a wine order, and I must confess I would not have bought it myself. I know Kapcsandy as a fashionable Californian winery which produces popular Bordeaux blend red wines, some of which are as pricey as their Bordeaux counterparts.

As for this wine, it was a deep rose, with a crisp slightly alcoholic slightly fruity nose. The palate was dry with little fruity notes, well supported by an acid backbone.

A German GG Pinot Noir with fruit from the German-French border

I took this wine to a Xmas Eve family dinner to go with a loin of pork. As you can see from the symbol next to the vineyard name "Sankt Paul" is an Erste Lage site, and on the back it says it is a Grosses Gewaches wine, with the "climat" of Schweigener Sonnenberg. I suppose the Sankt Paul site is a portion of that, which is  a monopole of Weingut Friedrich Becker, being named after a St Paul's monastery which was nearby . The vendor tells me that the vineyard is actually across the border in Alsace (or Elsass in German). Although I cannot find any info on this from their Website, there are other postings on the web which attests to that fact. Anyway it was an interesting drink, somewhat between a deep rose and a very light red. It was good with the pork.

Cuvee WS from Weingut W Sitzius

Although I had met the wines from Weingut Sitzius through the local agent, the Cuvee Sitzius was something that I was going to seek out at this year's Wine Fair due to its curious cepage - Acolon, Cabernet Dorsa and Dunkelfelder. Of the three, I had only tasted Cabernet Dorsa, from a Swiss wine carried as it happened by the Sitzius importer. Acolon was created in 1971 by crossing Blaufrankisch with Dornfelder, whilst Dunkelfleder (though it was bred in the 1930s) has a slightly confused parentage - Wikipedia quoted VIVC (from 2008 though) as a cross between probably Farbertraube and Blauer Portugieser but now VIVC records the parentage of the grape as Madeleine Angevine with a teinturier grape.

Enough about the parentage of obscure grapes, what about the wine? The wine was a ruby colour with a slightly fruity acid nose. The palate was sweet with red fruit notes  and acid, well supported by an acid backbone.

Ch Pavie 1996

The 2003 vintage of Chateau Pavie was the subject of trans-Atlantic controversy about the "Parkerisation" of Bordeaux wines, as I had previously noted. Although I had the other Pavie estates, Pavie-Macquin and I believe Pavie-Decesse as well, I had never tried Ch Pavie itself. I finally got to taste one vintage (though not of the controversial 2003) at the Wine and Dine Festival this year.

The 1996 Pavie was a nice ruby red, with a fruity leathery nose. Slightly sweet on entry, the palate showed nice savoury notes, well supported by a nice tannic backbone (which is a bit surprising given its age). I suppose that tannic backbone would suggest that further aging is still possible.

More pottery fermented Georgian wines

I had previously blogged that I had met a Georgian wine fermented traditionally in pottery vessels (Qveri) a couple of years ago. It turned out that it was far from being unique. The same winery was exhibiting in this year's Wine Fair and they had presenting two more pottery fermented Georgian wines as well as the previous one. As it turned out, one of these was made from an indigenous grapes that I had never tasted before.

The wine I previously blogged about was white and made from Mtsvane. The other two were both red, one from the more familiar Saperavi and the other from Otskhanuri Sapere, which despite the similarity of its name to Saperavi is not related. Otskhanuri Sapere is one of the oldest grapes in Georgia and is found mainly in west Georgia, especially in Imereti. This wine is a deep ruby, with a sweet fruity nose. The palate is dry , slightly fruity and with slight earthy notes (probably from the Qveri vessels) well supported by an acid backbone with slight tannins.

Cesanese d Piglio

I blogged about the Cesanese grapes recently, now I will deal with the two wines made from the grapes that I tried at this year's Wine Fair. Both were from the 2011 vintage. The lesser offering was called Hermanico, and was a deep purple ruby with a sweet berry nose. The palate was sweet acid with berry fruit notes, supported by an acid tannic backbone.

The better wine was called Romanico and had been awarded Tre Bicchieri. A deep purple ruby as well, the nose was still berry and fruity but has orangey citrus notes. These orangey citrus notes carried through to the sweet berry palate and the backbone was more dominated by tannins with the acid staying in the background of the sterling backbone.

Cru Beaujolais as standby?

Many a times Cru Beaujolais suffers from association with Beaujolais Nouveau, yet it is often a reasonable standby when the direction of a meal is not at all clear. A 2 year old Cru Beaujolais will usually not clash greatly with most things one is likely to eat and can complement many dishes in a typical Chinese meal, with the exception of perhaps the more delicate steamed fishes.

Recently at home over dinner with a few guests, a Cru Beaujolais was opened because the meal was a real mix (like what the Singaporeans would call a pot luck meal). That was not particularly well received. Yet when many a critic would nevertheless call Cru Beaujolais a well kept secret. I know for certain that some years ago, a well made example (Regnie) was on the wine list of the Peninsula Hotel as a house red.

A mini-vertical of Ch Hourtin-Ducasse

We were at some booth or another at this year's Wine Fair when the owner of Chateau Hourtin-Ducasse (a cru bourgeois from St Saveur in the Haut-Medoc) who was passing by that booth invited us over for a tasting. He had three vintages on show: 2008, 2010 and 2011. Now the addition of 2009 would have made it a nice consecutive 4 year vertical. Even if one is unfamiliar with the chateau (as I was not), a lot can be gained from such a mini vertical tasting.

The basic elements common to all three vintages were that of a deep ruby wine with varying degrees of fruitiness on the nose and sweet fruit on the palate. A backbone of varying degrees of acidity and tannin gave support to these wines. The 2008 was going through a closed phase not only on the nose but a little on the palate too. The 2010 tasted rather unripe with leafy notes on the nose but with a degree of evolution in that there were meaty notes as well as white pepper. Strangely it was the most recent of the vintages, 2011, that seemed most balanced with fruity and meaty notes on the nose, a mix of sweet fruit and tannins on the palate and an acid backbone ending in a tannic finish.

Vecchio Samperi

This is a special wine from the winery of Marco de Bortoli, who is famous for his Marsalas. I had previously blogged about dry Marsala before and I was able to taste both a sweet version as well as this dry Vecchio Samperi at the Wine Fair this year. The experience was all the better for having Sebastiano from the winery introduce the wines.

The 10 yr old Marsala Superiore was a golden orange with a nutty sherry nose. The palate was sweet and nutty with the nutty and dried fruit notes forming a good structural backbone. As for the Vecchio Samperi (which was aged 20 years in a solera system), the wine was a golden orange colour with a similar nutty sherry nose. The palate was dry nutty (also with hints of dried fruits) with a touch of acid, and this time the nuttiness was not enough to cover the acid backbone. Nice!

Cramposie

Now the Wine and Dine Festival is not my designated hunting ground for exotic grapes, though I have had many a pleasant surprise there. One of the finds this year was this obscure Moldovan grape Cramposie, used for both wine and table, with a complicated east European pedigree. The grape is a cross between the Bulgarian Beala Debela and the Moldovan Iordan (also Zemoasa or Timpurie, Iordan is the Prime Name). VIVC lists its origin as Moldova although other websites talk of Romania, and in particular the region of Dragasani. Other than that, information does not seem readily available on the Web.

As for this wine, it was a pale straw with a crisp acid slightly fruity nose. The palate was a bit sweet, acid and slightly fruity, with an acid backbone giving good support.

The Almaviva label

If you had wondered whether Almaviva had a Mozartean connection, any doubts would be dismissed on arriving at the home page of the Website, as the music was none other than the overture to the Marriage of Figaro. The wine label has 3 copies of a stylized design from Chile's heritage, a design which represents the vision of earth and the cosmos in the Mapuche civilization, and which was found on a ritual drum from that culture.

The name Almaviva came originally from Beaumarchais' play which was the inspiration of Mozart's opera. The label also has the name Almaviva reproduced in Beaumarchais' handwriting.

The Cesanese grapes

I tasted a couple of Cesanese d Piglio DOC at the Wine Fair this year, having read in the exhibitor's catalgoue that there were made from a grape I had not yet tasted - Cesanese d'Affile. Now that I am checking the facts for writing this entry, things seem a bit more complicated. First of all, the Wikipedia entry is about Cesanese Commune but consideres the Affile version to be a subvariety, and that is confirmed with separate entries in VIVC, although the synonym for the Affile version includes Cesanese d Piglio!

The Cesanese grapes are old varieties which can be traced back to the Romans, but is now rarely seen outside Lazio. In the last 10 or so years, the grape gained attention by being included in the wine Sogno Uno made by the American porn star Savanna Samson. A little Cesanese d'Affile is also include in the cult Tuscan wine Trinoro.

Rimage de Cabernet gernischt

I mentioned in the blog entry on Cabernet gernischt from Inner Mongolia that there was a fortified VDN on show. We got to the booth right at the close and they were very happy to see that there is still interest in their wares. After tasting a couple of vintages of the dry red, they showed us this sweet wine, which as far as we can ascertain is a standard fortified wine in the port model, with the addition of alcohol to arrest fermentation. (I had carefully asked if the must was fermented or not, ie whether it is more in the port mould or more like Pineau de Charentes.)

The wine was a ruby colour, with a sweet fruity nose with some slight capsicum notes. The palate was sweet and fruity with enough acid backbone to give support.

A couple of old vins doux naturels

I mentioned that I had tasted a couple of old vins doux naturels at this year's Wine Fair. I spotted them when I went through the list of exhibitors and noted down the booth to visit. By chance, a couple of friends who were going to the Fair, also wanted to visit that booth. I tasted the 1946 Rivesaultes first. It was a golden tea colour with a sweet nutty nose. The palate was sweet with orange and nut notes well supported by a nutty backbone.

As for the 1950 Banyuls, which tasted older than the 1946 wine, it was tea coloured with hints of pink. There were berry and smoky notes on the nose, which continued onto the sweet palate. That was all nicely held together by a sweet acid backbone.

Another RP90 dinner

I mentioned in yesterday's blog that we were having a Department dinner. This also served as a farewell function for one of our colleagues, who is also a wine lover. The lineup included a Chilean Chardonnay, a Spanish Grenache, a Tuscan Cabernet-Sangiovese blend, an Australian Cabernet from Coonawarra and the Carruades de Lafite discussed yeaterday.

The Chilean Chardonnay was crisp, had good fruit with a touch of wood. The Spanish Grenache was a little less impressive last night. The Tuscan blend did not immediately show well but later blossomed with improved fruit. The Carruades was a little disappointing. The best of night was the second most expensive wine, Katnook Odyssey. Dark ruby rim with an opaque core, the nose was sweet with concentrated berry fruit and wood. The palate was sweet rich woody with rich berry notes, well supported by a tannic woody acid backbone.

Carruades de Lafite

We are going to have a departmental dinner tonight and I was asked to organize a mini wine tasting for those interested in taking part. I thought I would repeat the RP90 exercise again as none of the members of the department were there that time. The most expensive wine in the line up, at least as far as the market price is concerned is the Carruades de Lafite 1998.

Lafite's second wine(like anything of Lafite) is subject to speculation, especially by the Chinese. At one point, before the Chinese caught onto Chateau Haut-Brion, the price of Carruades de Lafite nearly equalled that of Haut-Brion, prompting a telling comment from the British magazine Decanter. That of course is unwarranted madness. Now that top Clarets are being viewed as an investment rather than as a drink and their prices have spiraled out of reach on more and more wine lovers, it seems that madness has prevailed.

Virginie de Valandraud 2007

Named after the owner's daughter and established in 1992 as the second wines of Chateau Valandraud, the wine has now evolved into a standalone wine, using a different selection than the grand vin, rather than using the lesser grapes or barrels from the vineyards for the main wine. (There is now a 3 de Valandraud).

I came across this representative of the one of the first members of the garagiste movement at the Wine and Dine Festival this year. (BTW, apparently they actually started off making their first wines in a garage, as they had not obtained funds to build their winery at that time.) A deep ruby colour, with a berry leathery nose, the palate was sweet acid with plenty of berry fruit. There was an acid slightly tannic backbone for support.

Anatomy of a champagne

There was this booth at this year's Wine Fair promoting Champagne 17/319 a brand of Champagne with each wine made exclusively from grapes harvested at a single Grand Cru village. (The numbers mean 17 Grand Cru villages amongst the total of 319 villages in Champagne. It was a new venture and they had only got this one wine from Mailly. The base wines were from 3 years, 2006 to 2008 and the cepage was 85% Pinot Noir and 15% Chardonnay. The latter was from the 2007 vintage. The Pinot Noir was split across 3 years, 60% (of the total) was from 2008, 15% from 2007 and 10% from 2006.

Fruhburgunder

I had always thought that Fruhburgunder and Spatburgunder are both German synonyms for Pinot Noir, but it seems that the two actually count as different varieties, with the former being Pinot Precoce Noir, and only the latter being ordinary Pinot Noir. I found that out when I met the two varieties side by side at one booth exhibiting wines from the same estate. However the grapes received different treatment, with the early variety being aged in old barrels, whilst the ordinary variety was aged in new French barriques.

The nose of the Fruhburgunder was more leathery and leafy as opposed to the fruitiness of the Spatburgunder, even both had notable meaty notes. Both had berry fruitiness on the palate, with the berry elements more pronounced in the late ripening variety and both had adequate acid backbones.

Leiwen Laurentiuslay

I first heard of this site when I met Gerhard Grans some 10 years ago, when he mentioned that his Cuvee Katerina included fruit from a number of top sites, including Leiwen Laurentiuslay. This less well known Erste Lage site, furthest upstream in the Bereich Bernkastel area, was named after the St Laurence Chapel at the top of the hill, with the "lay" bit being the local dialect for slate, which is the soil type for this site.

I finally met this wine at this year's Wine fair. A golden straw colour, the nose of the wine was crisp acidic and slightly fruity. The palate was sweet with peachy fruit, well supported by an acid backbone for structure.

Korean Wines again

I had met Korean grape wines some years ago at the Food Expo, but had not been able to dig up the details for a blog entry before. This year, I found a booth with Korean wines again, so this is as good an opportunity as any other to blog about it again. I cannot remember any details from the last encounter, but this time I tasted two wines made from hybrids rather beloved of that part of the world, in this case, Muscat Bailey A and Kyoho. I am sure there were others too, but I had not factored a tasting in and I was rushed for time then, so these two wines will have to do for this sampling of Korean wines.

The white made from both grapes was a golden yellow and dominated on both nose and palate by Kyoho flavours and smells. The red (made from Muscat Bailey A only) was a nice ruby colour with red fruit on both nose and palate.