2010 Villacreses Pruno (Ribera del Duero)

I've already said some nice things about this wine. Opening another bottle on Monday, pumping air out with vacuvin, and refrigerating, then opening again this evening, Thursday, I once again tip my hat to a really excellent red wine quality/price ratio here. The fact that it's quite drinkable 3 days later is good sign. The color is really deep purple, the body is full. There is substantial tannin and acid and no doubt the wine would've been better 1 day later instead of 3. But these components also suggest quite a long aging potential for the wine. On palate the taste is a bit cherry vanilla, a bit plum; the nose is reminiscent of pine forest and spring flowers and that alone makes it enjoyable to me. If I were able to drink wine every day, this would definitely be a candidate for my house red. However I must note that altho I was able to snag the wine for about $11 a bottle, the cheapest US price is $17 (plus tax) in NJ. Still for a wine that garnered 94 points from the Wine Advocate it's a good price.

Chateau de la Nerthe, Chateauneuf du Pape, 2006

This one was drunk with Betsy and Steve Galloway, dear friends from York, England, on the first night (Oct 5, 2012) they were visiting in Paris. A local eatery, La Vache Acrobate (acrobatic cow) listed this and knowing the name of La Nerthe though not the wine itself, I took a flyer and it was a very good choice. Absolutely first rate nose with the rich grenache, I'd say, slightly predominant over syrah. Finish not terribly long, but the tannin is already nicely resolving and the fruit full of the strawberry grenache of which I'm so fond. The slight sense of lavender and spice, the good balance of acid with fruit, evolving with other red and black fruits as it aired, made this a real pleasure to drink with an excellent meal of tuna tartare and then lamb chop. Wine went great with both.  I'm guessing this wine will do well for another 5-10 years and would give it 92+ points.

Parker 92 points: The 2006 Chateauneuf du Pape (a blend of 53% Grenache, 27% Syrah, 15% Mourvedre and the rest various other red varietals) shows a much more spicy, earthy, peppery nose. It is medium to full-bodied, with wonderfully broad, savory flavors and a heady finish. These two wines demonstrate the total contrast in styles between the vintages. The 2006 is spicier, slightly herbal, but full, and 2007 is super-deep, multi-layered, but with more black fruits and less spice, at least at this stage of their development.

Brunello di Montalcino 2004 Il Poggione

I brought this along with me to dine at the delightful Gustibus, a restaurant that opened 2 months ago and happens to be located right across the street from the apartment at 46 Rue St. Sebastien, Paris 75011. Very happy to have found this place 100 meters from the apartment! Again eating with Betsy and Steve Galloway.

Very fine aroma, now ready to drink but five years more, I'd guess of drinkability. Predominance of cherry, licorice then some blackberry on the nose, with vanilla oak and a slight hint of spice, perhaps mint. Nice moderately long finish. Actually one of the better Brunello's I've had in recent years. Lovely color and texture too. 94 points from me. Note Parker says this will drink well for 20+ years from now; I bow to him. This is some very fine Brunello indeed.

95 points from Parker: The 2004 Brunello di Montalcino is awesome. This finessed, regal Brunello flows onto the palate with seamless layers of perfumed fruit framed by silky, finessed tannins. The wine remains extremely primary at this stage, and its full range of aromas and flavors have yet to emerge, but the sheer pedigree of this Brunello is unmistakable. The elegant, refined finish lasts an eternity, and subtle notes of menthol, spices, licorice and leather add final notes of complexity. The estate’s 2004 Brunello is a wine to buy and bury in the deepest corner of the cellar. Brunello is never inexpensive, but this is the real deal, and in relative terms, it is one of the world’s great values in fine, cellar worthy wine. Incredibly, there are 18,000+ cases of the 2004 Brunello, so it should be fairly easy to source in various markets. The Brunello is made from four vineyards ranging from 250 to 400 meters in altitude, all in Sant’Angelo in Colle. The wines from the various vineyards were aged separately in French oak casks prior to being assembled and bottled. Anticipated maturity: 2014-2034. 

I was completely blown away by the wines I tasted from Il Poggione this year. Readers who want to experience first-class Sangiovese from Montalcino won’t want to miss these exceptional wines. Winemaker Fabrizio Bindocci and his team have done an exceptional job for which they deserve all the praise in the world.

2001 Banfi Brunello di Montalcino

Had this wine at Florhof Hotel, Zurich, with fellow SNSF panelists, in the hotel's wine cellar. It is quite good and is mature, which is a treat since a mature Brunello tends to be hard to find in restaurants. The nose is an amalgam of cherry, black plum and blueberry, with vanilla, cedar and perhaps a touch of lavender and spice. On the palate it's medium body with a moderate finish. A nice color red ruby with much of the purple resolved (along with the tannins) and substantial translucency. There isn't the depth and reverberation of lasting waves of flavor that one might like in a great wine, but still this is a very pleasurable Brunello and for a Zurich restaurant, quite reasonable (98 SF). It went nicely with the succulent veal chop that was the main course. I'll give it 91 points and surmise it'll drink well for 2-3 more years. Banfi is one of the biggest producers in Montalcino, a place I visited, quite near to the great and beautiful Sesti vineyard.

Here's what Parker (actually, Galoni) said in 2006: A dark ruby, the estate’s 2001 Brunello di Montalcino offers notes of super-ripe dark fruit, flowers, spices, chocolate, sweet oak and underbrush with a round, supple personality, excellent concentration as well as length, and fine tannins. It will benefit from a few years of cellaring and drink well to at least age 15. Anticipated maturity: 2008-2016. 89 points.

Malleolus Emilio Moro ribera del duero 2008

Wonderfully smokey and lots of fruit sweetness with half hour of air. I think there is again as with Pruno, lovely vanilla blackberry on nose and palate. Then some tutti fruiti and banana. There's a delicacy here that's missing from most Rioja IMHO. Also some hazelnut perhaps, and a woodsy pine.

Again with Tom, deb and gabriel wine and cheese at 21 Elssholzstrasse.

This is more refined than the Pruno, but it's also 2 years older so that's one explanation. But also no doubt the vines are older too. This is such pure delight.

2010 Villacreses Pruno Ribera del duero

With Tom, Deborah and Gabriel visiting in Berlin. Wonderful aroma on this even though it just arrived a few days ago from Bodega Privada in Madrid. 94 points from Parker newsletter and it cost 8.5 euros! Blackberry vanilla pronounced on nose. NIce ripe fruit. Needs a bit of time and air.

Crasto '09 and Vale d. Maria '08

I had the great pleasure of eating two fine meals with superb Duoro wines in Porto with good friend and political communication colleague Rui Novais. Once again I want to record for my many followers the under-recognized greatness of the best Portuguese table wines. I have to write from memory earlier this week but my impression of the first, Quinta do Crasto Reserva 2009, was very much like my old favorite, the Chrysaea 2004. An extraordinary combination of complexity, layers and layers of fruit nuances balanced by soft tannins and acidity that married beautifully with the food. This was at Rui Paula’s restaurant; he is the very chef whose food I loved in the restaurant out in the Douro wine region when I stayed at Quinta do Vallado in 2008. Paula himself came to the table as he had back then, giving friendly advice on wine and food. I later looked up the ’09 Crasto in Wine Advocate and found it was rated 93 points. As I was leaving town I found it selling for a relative bargain 30 Euros at the Duty Free; if only I could have lugged a case back to Berlin! I will search for it in Germany and the US. Not quite as good yet but likely to become its equal or better is the wonderful Douro that went with our meal at the restaurant of the spectacular Hotel Teatro. Fantastic food and the wine was, I think, Quinto do Vale de Maria, I believe the ’08 Tinto. (Didn’t really look carefully at the bottle because the food and wine in glass were so great.) This wine was round but perhaps a little firmer and less open now than the Crasto, with a pronounced spearmint undertone to the blue/black berry fruit that reminded me quite a bit of a great California cabernet. I think in a blind tasting of cabs it could fit right in. Another wine I will search for and procure. If I’m right about the specific bottle it also received 93 points from the Advocate, where Squires says indeed that it won’t come into its own till ’14 or ’15. As much as I love Priorats, these Douro table wines are generally less expensive and equally though distinctly exotic for equivalent quality. I hope to visit both wineries and others in Douro later this year, around harvest time so I can get in some more time as a human crusher (see picture from '08).