Dagueneau's Jurancon

This is a bottle of Jurancon from Didier Dagueneau, les Jardins de Babylone. Didier Dagueneau was Pouilly-Fume's "enfant terrible" (as Hugh Johnson put it), whose iconoclastic yet perfectionist attitude caused friction with his fellow vignerons in the Loire whilst at the same time redeeming the reputation of Pouilly-Fume by improving quality. Dagueneau wanted to make top dessert wines, but was not able to create a top dessert wine with AC status at his base in Pouilly. He eventually found the ideal vineyard for his ventures in Pau at the Pyrenees foothills. Created out of Petit Manseng, this wine was vinified to reflect the minerality of the terroir and seeks to achieve balance of the acidity, texture and depth of the fruit at each vintage rather than emphasizing the degree of achievable sweetness.

Teroldego Rotaliano

This is Teroldego Rotaliano, a red wine from Trentino-Alto Adige in Northern Italy, made from Teroldego grapes. Teroldego is an indigenous grape of Campo Rotaliano in the north-eastern part of Trentino-Alto Aldige. Its history dates back to the late 15th century and may have been named after the tirelle trellising system used for its cultivation. Ripening in late September and early October, the grapes make generous full-flavoured and moderately tannic reds, although it is also made into fruity roses with low tannins. Deep purple ruby, with a slightly acid nose with some fruity notes, the above wine is fruity and acid on the palate, with an acid backbone for support.

Pignolo

This is a bottle of varietal Pignolo from Vina Anselmi. Pignolo is an indigenous red grape grown in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region of Italy. With its name meaning fussy because of its tendency to produce low and uneven yields, Pignolo has become a prominent variety in the Colli Orientali del Friuli DOC. It produces rich deep coloured wines with plum and blackberry flavours which take well to oak. Well made examples show good balance between acidity and tannins. This 2009 Pignolo was a deep rose with a sweet dried plum nose. The palate continues with plummy notes with good sweet sour balance, with a good sweet acid backbone in support.

Leeuwin Estate Art Series Riesling

I tasted this wine at a party a few weeks ago. I had earlier blogged about the art labels for their world class Chardonnay, but I had not had the opportunity to taste these Rieslings yet. I must confess the Australian style of crisp dry Rieslings are not my cup of tea, the fruity German ones are more to my liking. Even for the dry styles, German, Alsatian and Austrian ones better suit my preference. The Art Series represents the top wines from Leeuwin Estate, so this is their top Riesling. Pale lemon with a crisp (but not too acid) fruity nose, the above wine was dry and mildly fruity on the palate with a nice acid backbone for support.

Chateau Lamothe-Guignard

Chateau Lamothe Guignard and its sister chateau Lamothe were both classified as Second Growths in the 1855 claaification of Sauternes and Barsac wines. The original Chateau Lamothe was an 8th century fortress on a crop of high land (lamothe means a hilly outcrop), which was basically replaced by the current building shared between Lamothe and Lamothe-Guignard in the 16th century. After the property changed hands a number of times, it was bought by the Baptistes in 1820. It was in their under their ownership that the estate was divided and teh portion that was to become the above estate was bought by Joseph Bergey and renamed Lamothe-Bergey. This was sold in 1981 to the Guignard family, hence the modern name. This wine was a nice golden tea colour with a sweet botrytised nose brimming with dried apricot notes. The palate exhibited the same characteristics, well supported by a sweet acid dried apricot backbone, though the finish is rather short for a classified property.

MR Mountain Wine

This is a bottle of MR Mountain Wine from Telmo Rodrigues. One of three wines from Malaga by that estate, MR is made from bought grapes from growers practising traditional viticulture. The wine (like the others in the range) is made from 100% Moscatel, which are hand picked and then partially dried in the sun before pressing and fermentation in stainless steel tanks. Although Malaga is traditionally thought of as a fortified wine, both the two brand I have found here in Hong Kong (Telmo Rodrigues and Jorge Ordonez) concentrate on the older style of Malaga wines, which had not been fortified.

Domaine Touchais

This is a bottle of Domaine Touchais from Vignobles Touchais. Vignobles Touchais is also the estate responsible for the legendary Moulin Touchais wines. As this wines is also a sweet Coteaux de Layon, the question of the relationship between the Moulin Touchais and Domaine Touchais labels presents itself very naturally. Someone posed this question on the Cellartracker Forum and found the answer from the estate itself. Apparently Moulin Touchais is the normal way the sweet wines of Vignobles Touchais are labelled. For a short period, Joseph Touchais experimented with the idea of using the Domaine Touchais label, but that was quickly discontinued. I have bought a few bottles of 1971 and 1975 for more than a reasonable price recently and the above picture was taken from those wines.