Traditional Tuscan wine with Cabernet Sauvignon

One might be forgiven to think that the Supertuscans were the first wines to use Cabernet Sauvignon, but the truth is that the wines of Carmignano were the first to use this grape, probably from as long ago as the 17th century. Carmignano also had the distinction of being one of the first wines to be legally protected (1716) and was in the past a prized wine of Tuscany. However, it was subsumed in 1932 into a subzone of Chianti and was only gicen a separate DOC in 1975, and promoted to DOCG in 1990. A second DOC was granted for the younger wine of the same area and cepage - Barco Reale.

I tasted both Carmignano (also the Riserva) and the Barco Reale in the Wine Fair this year. The plain DOCG 2013 was a deep ruby with a sweet berry fruity nose. The palate was sweet acid and plummy with an acid backbone. As for the rest, it is better to do another post.

Caberlot

I tried this wine at this year's Wine Fair. This IGT wine from Tuscany is made from what the winery believes to be a natural crossing of Cabernet Franc and Merlot in the wild and subsequently planted on their estate. The plants are organoleptically close to Cabernet Franc but ampelographically the vines are like Merlot! It is a pity that the winery have refrained from DNA fingerprinting the vines.

Back to the wines, there was only the Caberlot (only bottled in magnums) first made inn 1988 until the second wine Carniscale (750 ml bottles only) was produced in 2000. The wines have acquired cult status and are very sought after. AS for this wine, it was a nice deep ruby with a green acid fruity nose. The palate was soft and fruity with good acidity, well supported by an acid backbone.

An adventurous house wine

I had this white wine at the reception and lunch at a wedding at the Repulse Bay Hotel over the weekend. (The Champagne (Cattier) and red wine (Santa Cristina) are much more conventional.) The surprise here is that Gros Manseng was featured on the label. The Website says there is only 5% in the cuvee, so technically this could count as a varietal Chardonnay.

Gros Manseng is a grape from the Pyrenee foothills in South West France and is more associated with Jurancon, Bearn, Pacherenc and Cotes de Gascogne wines as well as Floc d'Armagnac. Being also a mutation of Manseng Noir (cf Pinot Noir) like Petit Manseng, it nevertheless makes wines of less elegance and quality than the latter, though it can give well flavoured wines with high acidity. Back to the wine, it was nice lemon yellow, with a slightly sweet and slightly fruity nose. The palate was dry and acidic with hintas of fruit, well supported by an acid backbone.

Clos du Tart

I tasted this at the Wine and Dine Festival this year. A monopole of the Mommessin family, I had read about it some time ago, but had not encountered it till now. The vineyard was sold to the Cistercian nuns of the Tart Abbey in the 12th Century and remained in their possession until the French Revolution when  it was seized by the state. The Momessin family bought it in 1932. It is currently the largest Grand Cru classified property in Burgundy.

The 2009 vintage which I tasted was a ruby colour with a sweet berry nose garnished with a hint of meat. The palate was sweet and fruity and well supported by a nice acid backbone.

Buyers' palate

It would not be unreasonable to assume that people going to the Wine Fair to evaluate wines would have a certain sophistication of palate. However an incident at this year's Wine Fair would certainly make me revisit this assumption. I was at a booth tasting their various offerings when I thought their flagship wine a touch strange, to be truthful perhaps slightly corked. Sometimes there are problems with the glass (though I had tasted other wines from the same producer with the same glass without any problems). I asked to sniff the bottle and then the cork, but nothing definite was confirmed, by which time the exhibitor got ruffled. After some swilling and more sniffing on the part of both of us, we jointly decided that the bottle in question was definitely and slightly corked. He opened a new bottle and everything was fine, but not before he cursed the palates of the previous tasters, none of whom had picked up the problem!!

Nino Negri's 5 Stelle Sfursat

This 5-star wine (5 Stelle literally means 5 stars) gained 3 glasses in the newest Gambero Rosso guide. I was curious to try it out, because the name of the denomination is so special: Sforzato (Sfursat is in the local dialect) is also a musical expression meaning emphasis and is a bit like an accent on the note(s) or chord(s) with which it has been marked. It is similar to the similar sounding Sforzando and some music dictionaries regard them as the same.

Returning to Sforzato the wine, it is a 100% Nebbiolo wine with Valtellina being the only major region outside Piedmont which focuses on this grape. Sforzato is made from dried Nebbiolo, a bit like how Amarone is made. The wine itself was a pale ruby, with a vanilla woody fruity nose. The palate was soft and fruity with a nice acid backbone giving good support.

2015 Wine Fair

I went as usual to the Wine Fair this year. There was some disappointment as I had blogged a few days ago, yet I was able still to taste new grapes as well as find some interesting wines. Although the emphasis (as always) is on the newly released wines, that does not mean that old wines are nowhere to be found. There continue to be new releases of old vintages of VDNs from Southern France and I managed to taste an 80 year old wine.

I also did a survey of Vin Santos from different wineries and different areas, and managed to try the traditional wine with Cabernet Sauvignon (& Franc) in its grape blend. I did wonder about trying out some Japanese Whiskey but that did not happen, though I managed to go through the whole range of Tequilas (from white to Extra Anejo) from the same distiller.

An impromptu Barolo Cru tasting

I mentioned that this was one of the highlights of my Wine and Dine experiences this year. It just occurred to me whilst visitng the booth of one supplier inside the Grand Tasting Pavilion that this would be a nice thing to do, seeing as three wines made by the Marchesi di Barolo from three different sites were presented that day. Although the classification of vineyard sites in Barolo is not yet "official" ( as in defined by law, like say the Grand Cru sites in Burgundy), nevertheless they are wide accepted.

I tasted these three wines from the 2007 vintage from left to right. The Coste di Rose was ruby with a slightly sweet slightly acid slightly flowery and slightly berry nose. The palate was sweet fruity acid and tannic palate with an acid backbone finishing with a touch of tannin. The Sarmassa was similarly ruby in colour, with a sweet fruity vanilla wood nose. The palate was sweet acid a touch of tannin, well supported by an acid tannic backbone. The Cannubi was a deep ruby with a hint of garnet, and the nose was sweet rich and fruity nose. The palate was sweet fruity acid and tannic,  with a tannic acid backbone.

Wine Fair Disappointment

There are different ways in which one could be disappointed at this year's Wine Fair, such as a smaller exhibition (only on 3/F and no 5/F halls), it was the problem with the Exhibitor's list that really annoyed me. As one can see from the picture above, there are pages and pages where the basic company data was the only available, but with no information as to what products they are promoting. I had been in the habit of diligently going through this information to mark out a strategy for visiting the booths that had the products of most interest for me.

Maybe I was also unlucky. Time and again the wines that I am interested was not showing, or simply ran out (because they brought only a few bottles) but this time there was wrong data. One entry had a local company dealing mainly with Scotch whiskey showing a Scottish wine (also see previous entry on Scottish wine). When I came to the booth, it turned out that it was a South African wine they had previously sold, which was subsequently mislabeled in this year's catalogue.

Tre Bicchieri 2015 Tasting

I went to the Tre Bicchieri tasting the afternoon before Wine Fair. This was the second time for my wife and I, and the previous time (in 2011) was also on the afternoon before the Wine Fair. I have to be honest and say that I am not really that familiar with Italian wines outside the popular denominations, although I have tried a good number of obscure Italian grapes too. One of the wines I tasted for the first time at this event was Sfursat from Valtellina. Another first was a Bianco di Custoza by Monte del Fra. I had also got to re-acquaint myself with Lugana and Morellino di Scansano, though previous wines I had tasted were far from award winners. There were also some very interesting wines from Elena Walsh, a top grower from Alto-Adige.

RP100 disappointment

I saw this Parker 100-point rated wine being offered for tasting at the Wine and Dine event last month, so I thought I might give it a try. Maybe it is the expectation of a RP100 wine, but although the wine was nice, it did not have the fireworks that I had come to expect of those perfect score wines. I suppose this is rather like the 1984 Yquem, but then the similarly rated Don PX 1946 could also be said to be disappointing as well.

As for the wine itself, it was purple ruby with a sweet acid fruity nose sporting a hint of meat. The palate was slightly sweet with acid and fruit, with an acid backbone giving good support. Nice wine, but really perfection??

Niepoort Colheita 1937

I tasted this 78 year old wine at Wine and Dine this year (in the Grand Tasting Pavilion). It must be the oldest wine offered for tasting in that event, but being a port, not something that attracted a lot of interest (some say more's the pity; but I find it welcoming not needing to fight for tasting a wine I fancy at these types of events). It was entirely what I expected from the wine.

It was a dark mahogany with a smoky savoury sweet raisiny nose. The palate was sweet and raisiny with a good smattering of acid, with the acid carrying over to form a bracing backbone. Delicious!