Wines for the Year of the Horse?

Kung Hei Fat Choy! Greetings on the first day of the Year of the Horse! The first wine that comes to mind with an equine connection is Chateau Cheval Blanc - the St Emilion Premiere Grand Cru Classe (A) and its second wine Le Petit Cheval. Sometimes you can also find a St Emilion Grand Cru called Chateau Cheval Noir, from the Mahler Besse portfolio. This prestige cuvee has been produced since 2011 under consultation with Hubert de Bouard of Chateau Angelus.

Another famous winery with a horse connection is the Iron Horse Winery which is one of the top Sonoma producers of sparkling wine. Of course, there are lots of other wines with either cheval, horse or equus etc in the name, of every level of price and quality, which might be deemed appropriate for a celebration of the year of the horse. So raise a glass ... and cheers!

Monica Castanys art label for the Galena 2008

Some wines are associated with art labels, such as Ch Mouton-Rothschild and the Leuwin Estate Art Series (and Ch Siran for some years) whilst others commission special labels for special occasions, like Ch Rauzan Segla did in 2009 hiring Karl Lagerfield for a one-off label to celebrate 350 years of wine making at the estate. At present I have not been able to ascertain why there is this art label for certain bottlings of the wine (there is also an ordinary "plain" version of this wine).

Monica Castanys is a contemporary artist from Barcelona, usually painting figures (mostly women) often from the back, using a colour palette reminiscent of the Impressionists. The subjects are usually depicted in the middle of some everyday activity, but the sense of leisure is always present in the paintings (Indeed there was an exhibition of hers called Sense Presses (Unhurried in English)). This label is typical of the sort of pictures in her portfolio.

Pavillon Blanc de Chateau Margaux

Although Pavillon Rouge is the second wine for Chateau Marguax, Pavillon Blanc is anything but a second wine - it is the white from the esteemed estate and is reckoned by Hugh Johnson the best white of the Medoc. Sold in the 19th century as "white Sauvignon wine", it was renamed Pavillon Blanc de Chateau Margaux in 1920 and the label on the bottle has more or less remain unchanged from that time. Made from 100% Sauvignon Blanc from an old plot which had remained outside the Margaux appellation, the wine is oak aged for some 7 to 8 months prior to bottling.

I tasted the 2003 vintage in a Bordeaux Blanc dinner in 2008. The wine was a deep yellow, with a crisp closed nose sporting a hint of tuna meatiness. The palate was rather clean with hints of fruit, well supported by an acid backbone. Reading the tasting notes in the official website, it would seem that the wine could have been tasted during a dumb phase, as the later tasting (in 2011) yielded better results.

The grapes of Arimei Passito Secco

I came across this unique wine at last year's Wine Fair. This wine from the volcanic island of Ischia is made from a collection of local grapes: Biancolella, Forastera, Uva Rilla, San Lunardo and Coglionara. All apart from the last are recorded in the VIVC database that I turn to for reference, but other than that, little information seem to be available about these grapes. There were short articles on the first two in Wikipedia, but the Forastera one refers to a Spanish grape (either Mantuo or Doradilla) rather than the Italian one (3 different entries on Forestera exist in VIVC). Uva Rilla and San Lunardo are known by different Prime Names (Arilla and S. Lunardo respectively) but no information was available for Coglionara. As I have not met any of these before, that's another five for my collection!!

PS The wine itself will require another tidbit.

Quintarelli Bianco Secco 2011

I had blogged about trying the reds of Quintarelli and dal Forno at last year's Wine and Dine a couple of months ago. It turns out that I had also tried their white in the subsequent Wine Fair.This IGT white wine is made from a blend of grapes including Garganega, Trebbiano Toscano, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and the rather local Saorin (believed to be a local clone of Tocai). The average age of vines is around 30 years and the grapes are pressed immediately after harvesting. A 12 hour cold soak is followed by temperature controlled fermentation with regular battonage.

The wine was a straw yellow, with a crisp acid nose with grapefruit notes. The palate was off dry, crisp and acid (with some fruitiness), well supported by a nice acid backbone.

Ermitage Le Meal

There are two wines from the stables of Maison Chapoutier, a red which is 100% Syrah and a white made from 100% Marsanne. The fruit for both wines are grown on the Meal hillside in the Hermitage appellation and the vines are of some age, mostly over 50 years old. The story of the Hermitage appellation was recounted in the entry on Jaboulet's Hermitage La Chapelle. I tasted this red at last year's Wine and Dine Festival. The fruit for this wine comes from even older plants (average age >80 yrs) and were hand harvested and then destemmed before fermentation in concrete tanks for 4 weeks with temperature kept under 32degC. The free run wine is then transferred to new and one year old casks for 18 to 20 months maturation.

AS for this wine, it was ruby with a rich (yet slightly savoury) blueberry nose. The palate was sweet with rich berry fruit giving way to a nice tannic backbone giving structure to the whole wine.

Lambrusco Rosato

I have blogged about different kinds of Lambrusco in the past and how it is different from the popular image of the frothy sweet red that is the commercial version. Apart from the dry red bubbly, it seems that there is also a rose (or rosato in Italian) version too and that is apparently a comparatively new member of the Lambrusco family. There is a version which is fully fermented dry to a minimum alcohol of 11%, but equally there are amabile wines with alcohol around 8-9%. Part of the fermentation is done off the skins for a pink rather than a full blooded red colouration.

I had a taste of an amabile wine recently. Deep rose with an effervescence that disappeared rather quickly, the wine had a sweet fruity nose, but unfortunately with a metallic note. The sweet slightly berry fruit carried onto the palate which was well accompanied by an acid prickle, leading onto a a short acid tail which was just about adequate for structure. OK for a party wine needing no cerebration.

Alkada Winery Feodoro 2012

This was a wine I sought out as part of the grape collection exercise. The exhibitor's listing gave the information as being made from early Magarach Ruby, Danko and Moldova. Magarach Ruby is a crossing between Cabernet Sauvignon and Saperavi which was created in 1928 at the Magarach viticultural institute in Yalta. Danko is Blaufrankisch crossed with a mixture of Rkatsiteli and Saperavi pollen created in the same institute in 1972, whilst Moldova is a cross of Guzal Kara and Villard Blanc.

After all these obscure grapes, the wine turned out to be as ordinary as the exhibitors told me when I asked for a tasting. The straw yellow wine had slight acid and wood cabinet notes on the nose, with an acid slightly fruity palate giving way to an acid finish. I sup[pose they were right in that this is not a wine I would want to try except for the fact I had gone grape variety collecting.

Chateau Rollan de By 2009

Chateau Rollan de By is a cru bourgeois estate that I have met time and again on the shelves, but it was only at the last Wine and Dine Festival that I got round to tasting the 2009 vintage. Looking it up on its website, I was surprised to note a couple of things. There was a full range of kosher wines, and there was a hotel on the estate. The former was the first time I had seen kosher wines so prominent in a Website, although I had seen kosher clarets in a London food store in an area where there was quite a large Jewish population. As for the wine, it was a deep ruby, with a fruity acid leafy nose. The palate was sweet berry with a good dose of tannins, giving way to a tannic acid backbone giving sterling support.

Galena 2008 Monica Castanys

We had this bottle of wine for the Doctors' Association Wine Dinner last year, the theme of which is wines from the Iberian Peninsula. This wine is actually from the winery of Domini de la Cartoixa (the Priory's Domain), which used to owned by the Carthusian monks of the Scala Dei Priory. The winery makes both traditional and organic wines, to the latter of which this Galena belongs. With a cepage of Grenache, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Carignan, the grapes are individually fermented before belnding. The resultent blend then undergoes 12 months aging in French (80%) and American oak before egg white fining and bottling.

The wine was a deep ruby, with a sweet fruity vanilla oak nose. The sweet berry fruit continued onto the palate with the wine appearing a touch hot (probably due to its 14.5% alcohol), which gives way to a nice acid backbone giving ample structure and support.

PS. The art label by Monica Castanys is another feature of this bottle, and will be dealt with in another tidbit.

Chateau Coutet St Emilion Grand Cru

Mention Chateau Coutet to me and I immediately think of the Premier Cru Barsac estate, described vy David Peppercorn as the "twin" of the other 1er Cru Barsac estate, Ch Climens. But this is a completely unrelated chateau in a different appelation on the right back (Barsac which in part of the Graves subregion is on the left bank of the Garonne).

With both estates tracing their history to the 17th century (at least as wine producing entities), the St Emilion one has remained intimately connected with one family throughout this time (whereas the Barsac property changed hands a few times and had once been connected to the Lur-Saluces family and Yquem). However, one Internet also connects the two estates with common ownership by the Lur-Saluces family. The St Emilion property produces around 4000 cases of grand vin a year as well as a second wine, La Chatreuse de Coutet.

Elba bianco

This is another wine I tasted at the same booth as the Cinque Terre wine I blogged about yesterday. Elba is the third largest Italian island after Sicily and Sardinia and some may remember this palindrome "Able was I ere I saw Elba" which highlighted one of its claims to fame - the island where Napoleon Bonaparte was exiled the first time round.

Elba makes white, red and sweet wines, of which the last is their own version of vin santo. Red Elba wines include a minimu of 60% Sangiovese, ahilst white ones contain Ansonica, Trebbiano Toscano(locally called Brocanico) and Vermentino. This wine was a straw yellow, with a sweet fragrant fruity nose. The palate was slightly sweet, slightly fruity with a lemony acidity, giving way to an acidic backbone.

Cinque Terre wines

At last year's Wine and Dine Festival, I tried a wine from Cinque Terre, a dry one that is. Cinque Terre is a strip of beautiful rugged coastline where the "boot of Italy joins onto the European mainland on the French side. It basically consists of five fishing villages which were only accessible by boat until the railways were built in the late 19th century. Tourism is booming but agriculture especially viticulture has suffered. I remember reading in Decanter some time back (turned out to be 2001) that the local authorities would give you free vineyard land provided that you cultivated it and made wine, (or employ the locals to do the same). As for its wines, I had already tried the sweet passito version Sciacchetra before and written it up in the blog previously. The dry version shares the same cepage: Bosco, Albarola, Vermentino etc, but with fresh as opposed to dry grapes, the sugar is all fermented out.

The wine I tried last year was a golden yellow colour, with a crisp acid nose with a touch of fruitiness. There was a hint of sweetness to the fruity acid palate, giving way to a lemony acid backbone.

Foglia Tonda

This is a grape variety with a long history which has been used (like others) in giving colour to Sangiovese blends. The wine I tasted it in (above) at last year's Wine Fair was therefore unsurprising a blend with Sangiovese and from Tuscany where this grape originates. The name of this grape means round leaves although this is by no means the only grapes with this feature. (Having mis-typed the name, I also found a web page about a Foja Tonda which is actually Casetta which has also has round leaves). VIVC lists Casetta (without synonyms) but offers the information that Foglia Tonda has Sangiovese as a parent (the other one is unknown). Apart from having much more colour than Sangiovese, Foglia Tonda is both softer and more tannic than its parent.

Trepat

We had some rosado cava over Xmas and that reminded me of the grape Trepat which was the partner to Garnacha in the cava's cepage. Of course I had tasted the grape before, but I am sure all those times I had tasted it, it was as a component of rosado cava.

Trepat is a red wine grape from the Conca de Barbera and Costers del Segre regions in Catalonia, where it is used as a component in blended roses of those regions. there they are blended with Grenache, Cabernet Sauvignon, Tempranillo and a few other grapes which vary with the two regions. Trepat by itself makes fairly light, fruity wines with medium alcohol and balanced acidity.

Ch Duhart-Milon 1986

This wine was tasted at last year's Wine Fair, At the time when the grapes for this wine was harvested, this 4th growth estate was at a reasonable price for what it is, but with the craze for Chateau Lafite-Rothschild from our brothers on the mainland spilling over to anything and everything associated with Lafite, this wine from their portfolio (and which had once been the second wine of Lafite in the 18th century) is also subject to the same type of irrational speculation.

When I tasted the wine last November, it was ruby red, with a cardboardy leafy nose. The palate was fruity acid and tannic, with an acid tannic backbone for support.

Barolo Cannubi

I tasted this Barolo Cannubi 2005 at the Hong Kong Food Festival recently. I was surprised to learn from the people manning the stall at which I tasted the wine, that I was one of very few people who had know of the cru of Cannubi in Barolo. Now Barolo is not a wine I know a great deal about but Cannubi is one of the crus which are more often encountered in wines one sees here in Hong Kong.

Although there is no strict legal definition of the crus of Barolo wine, a number of areas have been traditionally designated as such, like Cannubi (also Cannubi Boschi), San Lorenzo, Bricco Roche, Cerequeio, Monprivato etc amongst others. These designations first appeared at the end of the 19th century but things got out of control. A systematic study of the various terroirs by Renato Ratti has led to a map which is widely accepted, although the detailed labeling practices are still subjected to arguments and even court battles.

Baroque (grape)

This was one of the grapes I tasted in the wines of Tursan at the end of last year's Wine and Dine Festival. It is a white wine grape more or less restricted to that area and is suspected to be a crossing between Folle Blanche and Sauvignon Blanc. It produces full bodied wines with nutty flavours, but it was also noted in Wikipedia that Baroque also has similar aroma characteristics to Sauvignon Blanc (one of its putative parents).

Although its resistance to powdery mildew caused it to find favour amongst grape growers in the last century, it nearly became extinct in the 1980s because vineyards were converted to other purposes at the time. However through the efforts of Michelin 3-star chef Michel Guerard who owned a wine estate in Tursan and produced a characterful wine from the grape, interest in Baroque has been revived and the grape saved from extinction.

Sankt Paul Spatburgunder 2009

Apart from the unique position of the vineyard (across the border in Alsace/Elsass), this Franco-German Pinot Noir sports a label depicting Aesop's fable of sour grapes, for which I as yet have found no explanation (actually this picture is used for a large range of their wines). This wine is hand picked and selected before fermentation in open oak tanks and large oak barrels for 2 to 3 weeks before maturation in small oak barrels for 18 months. The wine is bottled without fining or filtration.

The wine was a limpid deep rose pink, with a slightly sweet slightly fruity nose, The palate was sweet berry with a fair dose of wood, and that was well supported by an acid backbone. It went quite well with the pork.

Special treatment at the cellar door shop

The wine above was a special wine which is for sale at the cellar door only, but it was not on offer to all visitors. I got a taste of this wine with a view of getting me to buy it after I had shown more interest than other visitors in the way the winery was growing grapes. At some point in the discussion, the topic wandered to irrigation and I was interested whether they employed a technique called partial root zone irrigation. The man at the winery shop did not know the answer, but having sensed my deep interest in wine growing and making, then proceeded to show me and my wife the bottles "kept under the table top", and we got to taste many more wines, including this one, of which we bought a case. After this, he told us who to ask for at one of the other big wineries on the winery trip; with the result we also got to taste (and buy) some very interesting wines indeed.

Arinarnoa

I stumbled upon the existence of this grape by accident, whilst looking through the Web site of Chateau Ksara in Lebanon - there is a wine which has a cepage of half and half Cabernet Sauvignon and Arinarnoa. At some point I got the impression that it was a cross between Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, but that is simply not the case. Some sites list the grape as a Merlot x Petit Verdot cross, whilst VIVC asserts it to be a Tannat x Cabernet Sauvignon cross.

I finally met this grape in the 2013 Wine Fair, but the Chateau Ksara wine would require an expensive purchase. However at another stand showcasing Moroccan wines, I found this wine made from Tannat, Arinarnoa and Merlot. So I could taste a wine with Arinarnoa at the Wine Fair after all. The wine was a ruby colour with a currant blueberry nose. The palate was soft with less berry fruit, going onto a acid slightly tannic backbone. Interesting!

Wines for the Xmas Turkey

Turkey is often eaten during this time of the year, and many are the wines which are suggested to go with it. If one starts with the premise that a turkey is rather like a large chicken, then roast turkey can be matched with red Burgundies and Pinot Noirs. Yet the Xmas turkey is often traditionally enjoyed with cranberry sauce, stuffing and the like, which does influence the wine match. Hugh Johnson did suggest good sparkling Shiraz when having Xmas turkey with all the trimmings and sure enough, the more complex wines do enhance the enjoyment of this traditional fare.

Clarets are often poured too, but although they do not really clash (especially if one does not do silly things like drinking a mouthful after a piece of turkey smothered in cranberry sauce), it seems that the food and wine tolerate each other more than coming together top generate fireworks. I just had a Reggiano Lambrusco Amabile bought from the supermarket with some Xmas Turkey (admittedly without carnberry sauce). The wine had a touch of wood and more importantly hints of Xmas spice, so that it was rather like a cold bubbly mulled wine. Well it did go rather well with the turkey, and with the mulled wine flavours, approprately festive.

Cartizze

I managed a quick visit on Boxing Day to the Hong Kong Food Festival, where I spent an hour looking at some wines on offer at the various stalls, one of which is this Cartizze. I had tried different versions of Prosecco before but never had I tried Cartizze before. Cartizze is a hill as well as the name of a cru in the heart of the Valdobbiane region, which the the home of Prosecco. Traditionally made Dry rather than Brut, the grapes for Cartizze is harvested unusually late and the fermentation is also slow. This makes for a pleasantly rounded delicate wine with a complex bouquet of fruits and flowers.

As for this wine, it was a pale pale straw, with few streams of fine bubbles (but this was the last remnants of the bottle). The nose was crisp (but those small plastic cups were really awful for tasting) and the palate was dry and crisp with an acid prickle, with the wine turning fruity with acid on swallowing, leading to a fruity finish.