JDR

WINE OF THE WEEK #071

Oh yes,

I’m back with another Nebbiolo wine and my box isn’t empty yet.

Today we are tasting from the NINO NEGRI winery, their cuvee LE TENSE (d.o.c.g. Valtellina Superiore Sassella) - 2007

As I told you in my previous post (wine #068) , the Valtellina region is located in Lombardy in Italy and the conditions are a bit like Douro, but the the frozen version of that Portugese region. The vineyards consist of slate and are located on slopes in a valley with an east-west orientation. It is optimal for the vines, but not for the winemakers. A lot of money is spent on equipement to work on the vineyards, all grapes are manually harvested and there are even winemakers who tried to work with helicopters to make the work on the vineyards less hard. Can you imagine?

This wine is aged in oak. After a short maceration of 4 days and a 2 months in stainless steel tanks, 80% of the wine is transferred in new and used oak barrels, and strangely enough, the other 20% is transferred in big Slovanian oak vats. I have no idea why they do it, but I am sure it will add some complexity and I am really curious about what I will find!!

I’m ready, are you?

Appearance
The colour gets me all excited. This wine looks dense but is transparent at the same time. The same brown / brick shades as we found on the previous wines are combined with a nice viscosity. Yes!

Nose
First of all, I smell fresh red prunes all over my glass. The ones that are so juicy that when you bite, your hand and arms get all wet, and you feel little drops crawling up your sleeves.

It is clear this wine passed a part of his life in barrels. I’m not saying it has the typical oaky notes, but there is stuff and complexity going on you wouldn’t find in an unoaked wine.
Amazingly well integrated are notes of leather, coffee, musk, mushrooms (loving this one), rozes and a slight hint of caramel.

What I especially like is that all the notes are in harmony and very fresh and natural. You feel a great expression of nature, and nothing was forced or added in the lab.

Taste
Oh wow, this is so delicious.
I did not get an attack of acidity right away, but when I started to add oxygen in my mouth, it felt like I was sucking the juice out first, and flavour would follow next. And that is how it should be.

I cannot tell you one bad thing about this mouthfeel. Acidity is always there, the tannins are megasoft, no alcohol that spikes in the back of my mouth. It is one hell of a ride to taste this and I wouldn’t doubt one sec to score this 100%. 

Finish
Caramel coffee, herbal syrup, leather. The finish is as amazing as the nose and the mouth. 

This wine really has it all. Muscles, elegance, finesse, balance and complexity. Just a classic, authentic, well trained gentleman.

What a blast!