JDR

WINE OF THE WEEK #120

Sat, 25 May 2013 16:43:07 +0200

Incredible,

another month is coming to an end, and I have learned 2 very important lessons about white wine from Italy.

1. Wines from sicily, try them!
2. Whites from the north are stubborn and difficult, but pair them with the right dish and you might unlock a feast of flavors.

I hope our last wine, the cuvée Fontanavigna form winery Terre del Principe will learn me something new as well.

The unknown white grape this time is Pallagrello Bianco.

Before you continue reading, you have to say Pallagrello again 3 times with your Don Corleone voice. Do it.

Pallagrello Bianco is a grape that is only grown in the region of Campania, and its main characteristics are:
- very small berries
- very easy on gaining sugar during ripening
- low on acidity

It is funny how almost all grapes that I’ve tried this month, seam to lack acidity, yet truly deliver!

Let’s see if this one does the same

Appearance
What a dark dark wine. The color is deep, golden, almost caramel like. The juice is vibrant, clean (thus filtered) and very alive. My first impression, and I might be wrong, reminds me of an oaky new world chardonnay. It looks heavy, but let’s see…

Nose
A full nose is meeting my expectations.
There are hints of banana, thin pineapple, chalk and also something cold and milky which is weird.

However, next to the fruit components and this awkward cold sensation, I also get a lot of sunshine. There is hay, grilled cheese, dried apricots and even sesame seeds.

Mouth
Hmmm… the wine is falling away a bit.
A nice and soft attack is followed by a good amount of acidity. White pepper, peaches and again apricots are what I am having. This wine has a very round mouthfeel, and what they said was true : the acidity is overall a minor player in the tasting experience.

This feeling reminds me a lot of a Marsanne, a Roussanne or even better : Viognier.

Finish
The end of this wine is fantastic. It tastes exactly like creme brulee with an apricot pudding!

So, all in all, I think this is a wine that will please a lot of new world Chardonnay drinkers and old world Viognier drinkers. The “sad” news is that these are not my kind of wines, and for a price of €16, this wine is a lot of money for me.

Interesting, yes.
Will please a lot of wine drinkers, definitely!
My cup of tea, not really.
Getting a gold medal, no.
Getting a silver medal, … maybe.
Getting a bronze medal, … it’s not that bad.

P.s.: If you try this wine yourself, put it in a decanter. This wine tastes a lot better on the 4th day, than on the first day.

How is White Wine Made

Sat, 18 May 2013 12:09:54 +0200

How is White Wine Made:

Since I’m blogging about white wines this month, why not help you understand the wine making process better with a nice infographic!

Cheers, JDR

How is white wine made? See how white wine is produced with an easy-to-understand infographic. Learn the 4 basic steps on how to make white wine starting with crushing the grapes.

WINE OF THE WEEK #119

Fri, 17 May 2013 19:26:35 +0200

I admit,
I should have planned my trip in Italy better as you can see on the map below. First stop was Piemonte, second stop Sicily, and now I am heading up north again, to Friuli. Sigh…

Friuli is a region in the north east of Italy, very close to Slovenia, and both regions share grape varieties and even vineyards together. There are Italian winemakers who grow grapes in Slovenia and vice versa.

The wine I have for you today is a wine from the Ribolla grape, also known as Ribolla Gialla or Rebula in Slovenia. The wine maker is Polje and Collio on the label is one of the best sub-appelations in the region of Friuli.

Since the grape is rather unkown, I am not going to write some vague comments or information that I’ve found here and there.
Let’s just dive in, and see what the grape tastes like, and moreover, what summer activity would fit a glass of Ribolla.

Appearance
For a young wine like this, I think the straw color has an amazing depth.
Thick legs shows that the wine has a nice viscosity as well. I expect some power and expression!

Nose
I feel like we are going on the Arneis tour again. Very subtle and complex aroma’s arise from my glass, with no fruit component up front.
I smell wet clay, fried parsil, nuts, fennel, anis and white chocolate. There might be some apricots or white peaches, but I’m just not sure.
All things considered, this wine is a lot more open than the Arneis, but still very dense and difficult to approach.

Mouth
One thing is for sure, this wine has lots of acidity. My face just went funny for 3 seconds.
There is no question that this wine is super well made. The high acidity is very well balanced with a more smooth mouthfeel, and the wine just comes across very elegant. What I don’t get are the flavors. The wine tastes like a flash of white light, after which you are in a dark place with no color.
However, when the wine heats up, the darkness goes away and more of the smoothness comes across, and creamy nutty flower notes appear. But still, too little flavor.

Finish
On the finish, as on the nose, there is more expression coming through. A very nice sweet lychee flavor, whipped cream with lemon, hay, caramel, and the list will continue I guess…

What is extraordinary about this experience is that this wine whispers. It is so overly complex and intense that you can’t hear it out loud, but when you take little sips and give it your full attention, it whispers nice little words into your ear. It is so interesting to discover, almost with a blindfold on, the terroir and the history behind this wine. That is the only way to communicate with this bottle, and that is why I would drink it on the beach under the moonlight at 3am when it is still 24°C outside on a hot night.
The combination of intensity and smoothness is really great, but the wine is too stubborn.

This could be one of those love/hate grapes for me, so I am going to go silver on this wine, but with a little wink.

WINE OF THE WEEK #118

Thu, 09 May 2013 13:55:11 +0200

Hi everyone,

time for the next stop in Italy : Sicily
And we make our stop at the winery of the new cult wine maker out there amongst natural wine lovers : Arianna Occhipinti.

We are tasting her SP68 Siciliy Bianco wine from 2012

This wine is a blend of 50% Moscato di Alessandria and 50% Albanello, it has had 15 days of skin contact which is highly unusual for a white wine, and above that, the wine is unfiltered. So next to the normal flavors, we should also have a bit of dryness from the skins (tannins) and some extra funk because of left-over sediment.

About the grapes then.
Moscato di Alessandria is described in the wine literature as a sort of dumb member of the Muscat family. Where the muscat grape is associated with sweetness and highly interesting and flirty aromatics, the Moscato di Alessandria is more of bulk grape providing only sweetness and sometimes it even serves as an eating grape. But, it also is one of the oldest species of the Moscato family and its natural habitat is the Mediterranean Sea. So it is at home in Sicily.

Albanello on the other hand is a grape that is almost extinct. It served to make dessert wines in Italy, but because it is super hard to cultivate, and because it ripens so late, wine makers switched to other grapes. The only place where you can still find Albanello is in Sicily.

This is about all the info that I could find, so we are going into the unknown with 2 original grapes form Sicily, but both with a lot of issues and a “bad” reputation.

Let’s see what Arianna Occhipinti and her magic hands have done with the wine:

Appearance
A 2012 that looks like resin! It has a deep golden color, almost with a brown filter over it, and although it looks rather shiny, you can see that the wine is unfiltered.

Nose
Haha! The nose puts an instant smile on my face, as the aromatics are alive and kicking : white grapes, quince, melon, flowers, lemon.
You really don’t have to make an effort at all. The nose is so pure, so fun and elegant it should be a perfume.
And if you swirl, there is a dark horse in play. A bitter, dusty, cold minerality cuts through the nose and energizes the wine like a cold and rainy day during a hot summer.

Mouth
On the mouth, it is the minerality that plays the most important role. The wine is fresh, crunchy, very juicy and drinkable and a true pleasure to drink. You would almost forget it contains alcohol. Flavor wise, there is not so much going on, but the wine is just instant pleasure.

Finish
On the finish however, the wine is absolutely amazing.
The tannins really come through and the wine just tastes like a top quality jasmine tea with hints of lemon, green tea, orange peel and yeast.

This is absolutely a stunner.
Wine can be very boring, or just a beverage, but sometimes, it is just the best sensory experience you can ever have. This wine contains earth energy, sunshine, laughter, drama, balance and intelligence. Go out there, and get it!

Arianna, I admire you.

WINE OF THE WEEK #117

Fri, 03 May 2013 18:49:43 +0200

Hi dear friends,

I have opened the first white Italian wine for you, and I decided to start with the wine from the region that is most familiar to me : Piemonte. We start with the Roero Arneis 2011 from Nizza Silvano.

Now, this theme is not so focused on the winemaker, but more on the often unknown grape variety. Off course, while tasting, I will be able to see if the wine maker has gone for a more classical style or if he or she has done something funky with the grape.

Arneis is unknown grape variety because way back in time it was only planted in Piemonte as a secondary grape to add some balance and elegance to the big boys we all know : Barolo & Barbaresco. Because wine making evolved, Arneis became less and less necessary to make balanced red wines in Piemonte, and it got almost extinct. Luckily for us, a high demand for white wine in the eighties helped Arneis to survive and now it has it’s own DOC in 2 regions : Roero (Piemonte) and Langhe (right next to Piemonte).

Arneis suffers from low acidity and low yields. The good part is that the low yields give a lot of concentration to the wines, and thus the low acidity is less of a problem if you drink the wines young and unoaked. When you age your wine in oak barrels, you really need acidity and lots of structure to counterbalance the power of the oak. So a bad idea with Arneis.

Arneis tends not to be very fruity or overly expressive, but rather subtle and shy but it can develop rather complex aroma’s if we can believe the experts. Let’s just taste this wine and see what it can bring to the table and even better, let’s discover at which summer activity I am going to take a bottle with me.

Appearance
The color is very attractive, alive and vibrant. I would say it looks like apple juice from a green or golden apple. Pale yellow, with a hint of green.

Nose
I guess this must be one of the most difficult noses I have ever had. The nose is exactly the opposite of complex, and the only thing I can think of as a description is “white wine” : which will not impress you I guess… :)

I think I am not far off when I say this smells like apple juice with peaches.
The more I swirl, and the more the temperature of the wine rises, the more subtle notes I am starting to discover : clay, fresh hay, basil and honey.

So after all, it is an interesting blend between vibrant fruits, and more earthy - sticky notes. But, you have to sniff like a mad man to get some aromas out of your glass.

Mouth
What they say is true, the acidity of Arneis is low. With a closed and concentrated, difficult nose like this, I expected an acidity punch in the face … but the wine gods are more gentle this time.

In the mouth, I have got a bit of the same issues if I’m honest.
The wine does not open up like I want it to, and when I keep on searching for flavors, it gets too hot in my mouth and shows some balance issues with an unpleasant alcohol feeling in the throat.

Finish
Surprisingly, the very long finish with nuts, peaches, honey and a nice minerality show that this wine has got concentration, body and potential.

To be honest, I don’t like this wine at all. It is one of those experiences where you and the wine can’t find any common ground for a good wine party. But, on the other hand, I think this can be a fantastic wine with sea food, goat cheese or even some light charcuterie, and that’s what I would pair the wine with : a light cheese & meat plate.
But, the wine itself just does not do the trick for me.

Since every wine review is a personal opinion, I am going for a bronze medal, but don’t let that scare you to try a Roero Arneis one day.

Theme of the month - UNKNOWN FROM ITALY, white - May 2013

Wed, 01 May 2013 14:12:00 +0200

Hey ho friends,

the first of may is a sunny day, and I am extremely wanting the summer to start. I can already imagine me and my wife chatting over a light lunch, laying in the park on a sunny sunday afternoon with a book or enjoying some grilled fish on the barbecue with family or friends.

I strongly believe that you can pair a wine with every activity, no matter what you do, how early or how late, and with the summer activities so close by, I want to dive into a country that is still one big mystery to me : ITALY.
I am going to uncover some of the unknown italian white grapes, and hopefully we will find the right summer activity to pair them with.

So, these are my tickets to summer pleasure:

From left to right, we have:

POLJE, DOC Collio, Friuli, Italy - Ribolla 2011 (€14,80)
TERRE DEL PRINCIPE, IGT Terre del Volturno, Campania, Italy - Pallagrello Bianco 2010 (€16,50)
NIZZA SILVANO, DOCG Roero Arneis, Piemonte, Italy - Arneis 2011 (€11,45)
OCCHIPINTI, SP68 Sicilia Bianco 2012, IGT Sicilia, Italy - Moscato D’Alessandria & Albanello (€16,65)

As you see, I had to push my budget a little bit, but that shouldn’t spoil the fun, right?

See you soon with a ray of sunshine in my glass.
JDR

My end conclusion after a weekend in Beaujolais for the...

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 09:41:33 +0200

My end conclusion after a weekend in Beaujolais for the “Fête des Crus du Beaujolais”

WINE (&FOOD) OF THE WEEK #116

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 21:46:33 +0200

Hi Tumblrz,

after wine #115 and a fantastic main course with peking duck, it is time to end a wonderful month of blogging and my report on a great diner with … you guessed it right … the dessert!

I have a slight impression that my friend and food blogger, Pieter Declercq from hotcuisinedepierre.wordpress.com is addicted to making desserts. Time and time again, he deconstructs something interesting, plays with crazy textures and is not afraid to experiment when it comes to desserts. And that’s how a dessert should be in my opinion, an exclamation mark to end the evening with pleasure and a smile on your face.

However, matching a dessert with a dessert wine is not such an easy task. Let me explain why.

A dessert wine is a wine a high amount of residual sugar from the grapes, in other words naturally sweetened. Often the grapes for sweet wines are harvested very late and show a phenomenon called noble rot or botrytis (a fungus that pierces the skin). The bottom line is that the juice from late harvested grapes contains a very high amount of sugar relative to the amount of juice. Some of the sugar in the juice ferments into alcohol, but not all of the sugar. The remaining sugar after fermentation gives the wine it’s natural sweetness.

This is different to fortified wines, where sugar is added before fermentation, or pure alcohol is added after fermentation to enhance both the sweetness and the alcohol percentage.

95% of the natural sweet wines I know are made from white grapes such as Riesling, Gewürztraminer, Pinot Gris, Chenin Blanc, …
Flavor wise, these wines tend to show a combination of tropical fruits, ripe apple, nuts and honey. The wines really succeed when they are made with enough acidity, to keep the experience fresh and tasty so you don’t end up with sticky teeth. The upside of this acidity, is that these wines also age tremendously. I’ve had bottles of sweet wine in my hands of more than 100 years old!

So, back to the diner. I gave some suggestions to Pieter for the dessert, some do’s and don’ts and he ended up making this amazing plate:

We have a crusty loop, some fresh mango, biscuits, a mango spongecake, a sushi of white chocolate and mango, lemon sorbet, cremeux of white chocolate and vanilla and some extra crunchies.

All in all, the perfect flavors to go with a sweet white wine. I had selected a wine from Slovenia for the occasion: Sveti Martin, Klarnica 2009

This small bottle, from the unknown local grape “Klarnica” was absolutely great. Our tastings notes went from rhubarb and rum, over quince to pineapple. What was clearly a pleasure was the acidity in the wine. If you have enough acidity, the sweet wine enhances the flavors of your dish and adds its own flavors. This kind of wine, combined with a flavorful dessert like ours, is absolutely food heaven. One to remember!

Don’t let the dessert scare you to try a sweet wine once. You could simplify it a lot, and if you prefer savory desserts, than pair a sweet wine with some funky cheeses. The sweetness of the wine will soften the cheese flavors like honey or figs do on a cheese plate. ;)

See you next time!
JDR

WINE (&FOOD) OF THE WEEK #115

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 11:16:48 +0200

Ready for some more food-talk?

The main course of our fantastic evening amongst food and wine lovers and bloggers was absolutely a masterpiece.

Pieter from Culinarty.be had prepared a complex dish with Peking duck or “Canard laqué” as the main ingrediënt. What makes the duck so complex is the top layer of spices, honey, pepper and salt.

Next to the duck were incredibly delicious polenta cakes (with Italian herbs and parmeggiano added to the polenta), a fantastic puree of beetroot, green asparagus and turnip rolls.

At first, I was a bit overwhelmed by all the flavors and I had no clue wine wise. A little deconstruction of the dish helped me out:

obviously, we cannot go around the duck. A lovely peace of meat : tender, juicy and fine. I could pair a lot of delicate wines with low tannins with the duck, like a nice pinot noir, a Beaujolais cru, or maybe even an earthy Barbera. But, the spicy honey cover makes it a lot more difficult. A stronger body, maybe some residual sugar, and especially a herbal wine are needed. An older wine from the Douro region immediately came to mind, because of the typical sweet ginger bread flavors that I like so much.
the baked polenta with parmeggiano adds structure and body to the dish, making it again more difficult for a fragile wine to pair with the dish. Pinot noir isn’t an option anymore
last but not least, we have a lot of earthy flavors : beetroot, turnip and asparagus. So I tend to look for stinky wines, earthy, and probably old world.

I stumbled in my wine collection on 2 wines that would match the dish in my opinion:

The first wine is cuvée Les Perruches 2009 from Pascal Lambert, a biodynamic wine maker in Chinon, Loire, France.

This 100% cabernet franc wine is very old world, with some menthol, herbs and licorice, combined with an undeniable elegance and acidity. The fresh cherry and “green” notes of cabernet franc are a very fun match with the pepper and sweet notes of the duck. This wine made our table very silent, and I would score this wine certainly a gold medal!

The second choice is Duorum 2010 from the Douro Valley, a red blend of Touriga Franca, Touriga Nacional and Tinta Roriz.

This wine also showed a combination of red fruit, licorice and some nice minerality. The wine was juicy, herbal and very enjoyable, but the style bothered me a bit. As a result of a new and modern wine making project in Portugal, the wine tasted very much like a new world wine. The dish however, asked for something more old and rustic.
So, love the wine, but I am going for a silver medal.

Again, this one was a very difficult and tough choice,

and I would like to know from you what wine you would pair with peking duck, permesan polenta cakes and beetroot/turnips/asparagus.

Thx for leaving a comment,
JDR

Thanks to Marc & Rudi from...

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 15:52:32 +0200

Thanks to Marc & Rudi from http://vriendenvanderiesling.wordpress.com/ and their passion, or should I say obsession for Riesling, I was able to taste these outstanding wines!

Favorite of the evening : Toni Jost 1998 spätlese trocken

Cheers, and put a bottle of riesling pleasure in your basket next time you go out for a picnic!

JDR

WINE (&FOOD) OF THE WEEK #114

Sat, 13 Apr 2013 19:57:16 +0200

Hi Tumblrz,

time to talk more about food pairing, because the second course of our bloggers & friends diner was the biggest challenge of them all.

Pieter, aka culinarty.be, had prepared an easy dish on first sight.

Baked scallops, green asparagus and a white vanilla sauce.

But a closer look at the different ingredients learned me that it wasn’t all that simple.

Scallops are one of my favorite delicacies, soft and juicy, typically very high on acidity with a flinty salty taste. The best pairing for me is a white wine with high minerality (chalk and fossils!) and acidity: think of Sancerre or a Blanc-de-Blancs Champagne.

Next we have the green asparagus that is not all that complex. A wine that would go well with this dish is a grüner veltliner from Austria.

And now we come to the difficult part : vanilla sauce. Vanilla is a very dominant flavor and is almost impossible to pair a wine with. To me, it is also a heavy and one-dimensional flavor. I can’t imagine right away a wine that pairs well with only vanilla.

So, I wanted a wine that:

was enough of a razorblade to slice up the scallops, but didn’t intervene too much with the sharpness of the scallops themselves
was somehow similar to a grüner veltliner
had the body to counter Mr. Vanilla and it’s muscles
had the energy and aromatics to add an extra dimension to the vanilla sauce

I ended up with this wine from Weingut Von Winning : “Win Win” trocken, 2011

When I think of acidity, I immediately see rieslings everywhere. This might have blurred my sight a little bit, but in the end, there are so many different rieslings that you can always find an interesting one.

The solution for me was to start looking for a riesling from the Pfalz region. The microclimate of this region in the south of Germany insures average temperatures similar to Tuscany! Therefor, the grapes are a lot less under stress and produce rounder wines with less acidity and a bit more body, fat, aromas and punch.

The wine was great. Pineapple, mandarin, warm flowers on the nose, lots of acidity in the mouth, and as expected a very round, full bodied and soft finish.

But… the wine still couldn’t handle the vanilla sauce. The vanilla really hijacks your palate and once you are lost, there is no turning back.

Lessons learned this time!

Next time, I hope to give you a better solution.

In the meantime, please leave a comment below and tell me what wine you would have chosen to pair with this dish.

Thank you, JDR!

p.s.: I would give the wine a silver medal. A good riesling, but a safe choice.

WINE (&FOOD) OF THE WEEK #113

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 13:12:08 +0200

Hi Tumblrz,

as I’ve explained in my previous post about this month,
I had the heavy task to pair the wines with a 4-course meal that 2 of my friends and food bloggers prepared.

The first course was couscous with green herbs (basil, dille, …) with a fresh smoked salmon tartar. Next to the centerpiece were blobs of horseradish mayonaise and a splash of basil and garlic vinaigrette.

You can find the recipe of Hotcuisinedepierre on his blog.

So, what did this dish tell me.

On the one hand, a starter with fresh fish, especially a fat fish like salmon, asks for acidity and something sharp that cuts open your palate and slices the fresh ingredients. Something like a good Chablis or a Mosel riesling for example.

But on the other hand, the couscous and vinaigrette were more complex flavors, and so I also wanted to have a wine that wrapped itself around these flavors to avoid a conflict. A tiny tiny bit of sweetness can do miracles.

Combining freshness with roundness is almost impossible, but in my opinion, a rosé wine does the trick. Ask your local wine shop for a mineral and pale rosé and pair it with fresh salmon and lime, plus a green salad, and I assure you that you’ll get a smile on your face!

The rosé that I picked was the cuvée Essentielle from Domaine des Masques: a great winery that I featured on one of my previous posts (#110) in the IGP of Bouches-du-Rhône.

The rosé tasted like a pink sauvignon blanc : grassy, sharp and zesty to energize your palate and elevate the dish. And the roundness and a light punch of tropical fruits worked perfectly with the flavors. Even I was surprised how well the wine and the food played together.

I have to say, If you ever want the perfect summer rosé to go with your picnics or salads in the park, this is THE! wine to get. Trust me ;)

Theme of the month - WINE & FOOD - April 2013

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 18:29:18 +0200

When looking for new themes, I was wondering what was lacking on my list. Really lacking… and quickly I came to the conclusion that wine’s best friend is food. And I hadn’t so far said anything about food on my blog. Shame on me!

So about a month ago, I got together with 2 food blogging friends, 2 young guys who both go by the name of Pieter.

Pieter Declercq, aka hotcuisinedepierre.wordpress.com, is the most active and entrepreneurial food blogger I know. He’s building a name for himself at an incredible speed and he does that by cooking, and cooking only. (follow @hcdpierre)

The other Pieter, Pieter Van den Berghe, aka culinarty.be, has worked as a chef before and got frustrated by the quality of both the food and the work conditions of the food scene in general in Belgium. Working as an IT consultant, he pursues his passion for food from now on on his blog, and with no boss or pressure involved, he just cooks his heart out for friends pushing himself to the limit. (follow @pievdb)

I was lucky to play the sommelier for the 4-course meal that they put together. As usual, with a wine & friends evening, the diner was more than food and wine alone. Getting together and sharing thoughts, ideas, our passion for taste and a whole lot of other stuff is absolutely the best part of being a wino or a foodie.

My friend, guest for the evening and Champagne afficionado Filip Salmon (@filipsalmon) took the bubbels for the night : blanc de Chardonnay Millésime 2007 from Jean Michel. Full of minerality and with tons of acidity, this bubble with apple and citrus aromas was the perfect start of a fantastic night between 2 chefs, a sommelier and 3 guests.

So the next couple of weeks, I will explain my wine pairings and why I failed or succeeded in combining a dish with a glass of wine.

See you soon for wine & food pairing n°1.

Cheers, JDR

How red wine is made - an info graphic

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 21:17:43 +0200

How red wine is made - an info graphic:

Working together with Wine Folly is fun!

Another epic wine evening with friends!

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 07:46:42 +0200

Another epic wine evening with friends!

WINE OF THE WEEK #112

Sun, 31 Mar 2013 19:59:00 +0200

Hi everyone, my easter wine is here!

We are going today to “the” place where Syrah really can show it’s full potential and where absolutely magical and legendary Syrah wines are made : the northern Rhône. I am sure that appelations like Côte-Rôtie , Saint-Joseph, Cornas, Hermitage and Crozes-Hermitage sound familiar to you. I’ve got a wine from Saint-Joseph in store : cuvée Les Pierres Sèches 2010 (the dry stones) from Yves Cuilleron

The Northern Rhône is located south of Burgundy and is basically a prolongation of Burgundy. But with the big difference that the area is hotter in the summer and the mid-seasons are a lot harsher due to the mistral. The mistral is a cold wind that blows from the alps to the Mediterranean sea during spring and autumn, and can really shake things up when you don’t expect it. Apparently, Syrah is the only red grape that happens to survive these more extreme conditions, and they are the reason why nowhere else on earth you are able to make a copy of a Northern Rhône wine.

A guy who became master in working in these conditions, is Yves Cuilleron. He took over the domaine from his father in 1987 and has since that day improved year after year the quality of the wine making, and the expression of his wines. His success made it possible for the family to own vineyards in almost every appellation in the region, and each and every single wine he produces tends to be a winner.

I am very curious about this one!
Let’s go!

Appearance
Think dark red cherry juice. Actually, this is what I would drink if I’d figure in a gothic music video.

Nose
The nose is not really what I was expecting. Northern Rhône Syrah really tends to smell like incense : ashes and herbs. This nose has more fruity and veggie notes : plum, beetroot, raspberry and even something orange like parsnip or butternut squash. I do get the ashes a little but, but they come in a more friendly and softer version : black pepper, dried oregano and mint.

The nose is complex, but a bit too sunny or happy for my expectations. Smelling a Northern Rhône nose is a often a closed moment of reflection. This nose is very open, but maybe I should not be judging about what I expect.

Stay open minded , Jelle!

Mouth
Ah, what I was looking for in the nose is exactly what I get in my mouth. Freshness, acidity, delicate tannins, a closed but very well trained character, a wine that is intriguing and difficult to grasp. Earthy notes, together with hot stones and the beautiful perfume of beetroot are very present. And the wine really tastes like an old world wine. Crunchy, crisp, sophisticated, mineral, earthy and delicious.

I am liking this wine very much!

Finish
Instead of evolving to secondary and tertiary flavors, this finish goes back to the source : pure fruit juice. Earthy, acid, fresh and very tight. It trains the muscles in your cheek and it makes you thirsty.

What more could you expect. This wine is an adventure that gives you more energy every time you take a sip.
Beautiful how simplicity and complexity work together.

Well done Yves Cuilleron!

From yours truly :) marviny: How is Red Wine Made? | Wine...

Sat, 30 Mar 2013 18:36:42 +0100

From yours truly :)

marviny:

How is Red Wine Made? | Wine Folly

Energized! #gehring #spatburgunder #pinotnoir #wine #2009...

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 22:51:39 +0100

Energized! #gehring #spatburgunder #pinotnoir #wine #2009 #elegance #wow

WINE OF THE WEEK #111

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 20:53:00 +0100

Any Aussies in the house?

Because I’m about to taste a wine from the temple of Shiraz : Barossa valley. The shop where I bought my wines was particularly proud about this one : Rolf Binder, 2010 Hales Shiraz.

So what is it about this marriage between the Barossa Valley and Shiraz?

The Barossa valley is the oldest wine making region in Australia, but believe it or not, it used to be well known for white wines and sweet wines. A lot of Riesling and Semillon was planted, next to Shiraz, Grenache and Mourvèdre. Later on, Cabernet Sauvignon became such a popular and important grape that no-one cared about the white wines or the Shiraz wines from the Barossa valley, until the ’80s. The vineyards of the valley became old, very old, but they still produced lots of grapes and wine makers started bringing “old vine Shiraz” to the market to compete with Cabernet Sauvignon. And that’s how Shiraz and Barossa Valley became such a famous couple.

I’m about to find out if they are any good together, are you in?

Appearance
This is dark juice my friends, really dark juice. When I poured it in my glass, it even reminded me of coffee. The legs have a nice color, as well as the sides of my glass after a rinse. I guess there’s enough material present to write something interesting!

Nose
Wow, what a pretty nose. The oak gives this wine a very vibrant vanilla and menthol note. Both are on the greener side which shows that the wine maker was not going for the “commercial” oak experience but rather for something more natural and earthy. iLike!

Believe it or not, but I also get coffee beans, with licorice, chocolate and blackberries.

I absolutely adore this combination of ripe fruit, with a certain development, and the crunchy, spicy flavors of stems and nature. Good job Mr. Binder.

Mouth
The great vibrance and balance on the nose is nowhere to be found in the mouth. You almost have to bite and chew on the wine to loosen some energy and activate some tannins. After which it feels like there isn’t so much rock ‘n roll after all.
Don’t get me wrong, there is some acidity and the flavors on the nose come through, but something is “off”.

Finish
The finish on the other hand performs a lot better. I taste the black fruits again, with the creamy flavor of a roasted macadamia nut and the sweetness of licorice. The finish is great.

So … what happened there?
I could compare this wine with a meat substitute, like a vegetarian burger. It looks like a burger, you cut through it like a burger, it has the aromas of a burger and it tastes like a burger. The only problem is, you know you didn’t eat a burger but something else.

I absolutely love the flavor profile of this wine, and actually it is a pretty nice bottle. But for a price of €15, I want my wine to deliver and to grab me when it matters the most : when the wine is in my mouth. And that didn’t happen… so Mr. Binder, you are going on the silver pile. Good, but not performing like you should.

WINE OF THE WEEK #110

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 11:49:10 +0100

Hi everybody,

let’s have syrah number 2 as winter has rebooted here in Belgium.

Today we are tasting the youngest wine of the bunch :
Cuvée Essentielle, 2011 Syrah from Domaine des Masques, IGP Bouches-du-Rhône.

Domaine des Masques is a collaboration (as you can almost see on the bottom of the label) between the belgian couple Carl & Sophie Mestdagh and one of the top wine makers of the Northern Rhone, Yves Cuilleron.

Typical about the IGP (Indication Géographique Protégée) Bouches-du-Rhône is the terroir. The area is packed with plateaus made out of chalk at different heights. The vineyards of Domaine des Masques (as you can see on the picture below) has a height of 550m above sea level. A rather high plateau, which means lots of wind and cool nights, so I expect the wine to have a nice freshness and some structure.

I think the ingredients stack up : A nice terroir, a guy who knows how to grow Syrah, and a passionate family behind it.

Let’s taste!

Appearance
I have never seen such a dark but girly wine. The edges on the surface are so alive, dark pink and jumpy! Really cool how much energy a wine can have and how feminine it can look.

Nose
On the nose, the energy continues. This syrah is vibrant, smells like raspberry, violets, black pepper and fresh beetroot. The nose is pointy, yet very wide, rich and even mineral. In a blind tasting, I would say it’s a Morgon or a Fleurie from a very good winemaker: pure, fresh, herbal and fruity.

Mouth
The mouthfeel however makes it very clear that we are not dealing with a lighter grape like gamay, but indeed with a lot more power and structure. The attack is grippy and the juice is meaty, ready to chew on. But once you start chewing, the show is already almost over. But on the mouth, the wine stays fresh and tasty.

Finish
What you got on the nose is what you get on the finish. Fruity, juicy flavors of raspberry, violets and black pepper.

This wine is very poppy, easy to understand and one dimensional. Usually, I like my wines to have more than one dimension, and the wine should add complexity while going through the different stages of tasting.
But I just don’t care when drinking this wine. It is super fun, delicious, easy drinking and very very enjoyable. Who cares for complexity, this is pleasure, and at €7,90 an amazing!! drink.

Thank you Mr. Mestdagh and Mr. Cuilleron!!