The heat of 2003 was certainly a great year for Bordeaux’s lesser Chateaux and this very nice wine is one of the better values of the vintage. With a structure and aromatic profile that could be nothing but a Bordeaux, this nice wine is sure to please the true Bordeaux lover. Drink over the next 2 to 3 years to take full advantage of the lovely fruit.
A creamy and delicious sparkling wine with just a touch of sweetness. A charming delight to drink.
Winner of the heavy bottle award of 2004. Out of this massive bottle comes a pretty good wine - often a surprise when such pretentious bottles are used. Richly colored with a woody, ripe character that, with a little air time, starts to reveal some real complexity. Going for under $25 a bottle, those who love Napa Cabernet, but can’t stand the price should grab up some bottles of Tikal Amorio, as you are sure to like the style.
A very nice Chianti with a bracing structure balanced by the ripe fruit flavors you’d expect from a sauna of a vintage like 2003. No great complexity, but good solid sangiovese character and true-to-type style. Certainly a much better straight Chianti Classico than some more famous names put in the bottle.
Brickish red with not a hint of purple, quite translucent. Lean and mean throughout and all-in-all a very good grignolino. A bit more serious and less light-hearted than most grignolino - but I won’t hold that against it.
Tom clearly points out the evil in this organization by identifying the key personnel of the W.S.W.A. staff as former lobbyists of the National Rifle Association, Big Tobacco and Big Drugs. It’s hard to imagine a sleazier or more adept team and we should be afraid of them.
As many of you know, my real job is to produce and sell wine. Our wines are represented by distributors in nineteen states and not one of them belongs or has any interest in the W.S.W.A. - no wine distributor that really cares about the wines they sell is seriously involved with this organization primarily financed by vodka.
As a small wine producer, it would never occur to me to not work primarily with our distributor network. This has nothing to do with the mandated three tier system. I would work through our distributors anyway, as they do outstanding work on our behalf. They present our wines, educate consumers and trade on our philosophy and maintain an inventory of our wines to support their market. I would never consider not working with any distributor who does such fine work - with or without the three tier system.
So why is the W.S.W.A so paranoid? It’s because most of their members are incompetent when it comes to selling fine wine and only truly care about spirits - where the big bucks really are.
They should be afraid, because without three tier laws they would have no reason to exist for any fine wine producer.
Here’s an irresistible explosively fruity Dolcetto with more than enough acidity to balance out its modern styling. Deep purple with mouthwatering fruit flavors and an electric tinge of acidity. A perfect pasta and pizza wine. My mouth waters just writing about this wine.
Well I guess Barbera doesn’t get much better than this. Rich and zesty at the same moment, the ripe dark fruit flavors roll in velvety layers on the nose and palate. However, this richness is balanced by a bright acidity that ties everything together in a lively and complex package. As good as this wine is now, I see no reason to age it.
Drink up and enjoy.
A classic Bordeaux throughout that will age for many years and develop great elegance and complexity. Lean, yet very layered and compelling on the nose. The firm, structured fruit is just barely starting to expose its depth. Sure to be a very fine bottle in another 5 or more years.
Nice clean medium bodied tempranillo - no more, no less. Nothing more than a good every day wine. A good wine if it’s under 10 bucks.
A good solid effort here, but not very exciting. Nice forward fruit that actually expands out into real nebbiolo flavor and character. Good to drink over the next year or two with meats, roasts and even pizza.
After the awful La Spinetta I just tasted, this wine is a delight. Certainly modern and explosively fruity, it still has plenty of Barbera acid zest and freshness of fruit. Spicy clean and mouthwatering. Very nice and a wine I would happily drink again.
Big and chunky throughout, while still being quite good to drink. Not a meaningful experience here, but a nice big red wine. Good for charred steaks and other power meats. Good value for the money and more interesting than most Australian wines from this varietal as although it is big it still has some edges.
One of the pleasures of living in Oregon are the fresh bakery goods in the morning. Big juicy Marionberry muffins, scones and anything else you can think of baked into butter, flour, eggs and sugar. They are all delicious and it’s exciting that an Italian wine producer has figured out a way to get the luscious, juicy, dense black fruit flavors of Marionberries all the way from Oregon bakeries into their wines in the Piemonte region of Italy.
Much to my surprise, when I took my first sip of 2003 Cá di Pian, Barbara d’Asti by La Spinetta the proof was there. La Spinetta has obviously not only transplanted Marionberries to Piemonte, but has discovered how to make a wine out of them. Strangely enough this wine, which certainly should be called DOC Marmellata di Marionberry, is somehow called Barbera d’ Asti. This must surely be a mistake, because anyone who has ever tasted a fine Barbera d’Asti will realize that this wine could not be made from the Barbera grape – at least not naturally.
The only thing this could be is some sort of bizarre fruit wine (Marionberries?) as it is grotesquely purple and juicy-fruity to the point of being revolting with food. I tried meat, pizza, panini and pasta with this bottle and it is very clear the only thing this glop of a wine can go with is itself.
The rhinoceros on the label of this wine is very appropriate as the rhinoceros is as graceful and refined as this “wine”. La Spinetta is a label that should be avoided by anyone who cares about the harmony of wine and food.
(artwork by Peter Puszta)
I’m proud of the wines that I have saved for decades and nothing gives me more pleasure than preparing a wonderful meal and opening some of these old bottles with friends that love both as much as I do. Last night I had invited a some wine loving friends to enjoy a few of my oldest wines.
I brought the wines up from the cellar days in advance to rest and spent the entire day cooking. That evening my guests arrived and we started on a upbeat note with some Champagne and smoked salmon, but then the disaster happened and I committed a horrible faux paux that I will never live down.
After clearing the plates and glasses of the the first course, I presented what I thought would be the highlight of the evening, a bottle each of 1970 Chateau Haut Brion and 1970 Chateau Montrose. I looked up expecting to see the excited eyes of my guests, but instead met cold stares.
“Well, now we now what you think of us,” said one.
“John, we’re leaving right now,” said another.
“Apparently we’re not good enough for the California wines,” snapped another as he walked out the door. Looking back he added, “What are you trying to do, unload all that old French crap on us? Don’t you think we know the results of The Judgment of Paris 2 – the sequel!”
As the last one slammed the door behind them I could hear them talking outside.
“The nerve, those wines couldn’t even finish in the top five!”
I finished the evening dining alone drowning my sorrows in Haut Brion and Montrose contemplating the damage being done to the world of wines by three ring circuses such as this sequel.
How did the wine world come to this? A bunch of judges with rows of glasses in front of them decide which wine is the “best”. It’s ridiculous because the only thing they are deciding is which wines taste best when contrasted with the wines lined up in front of them - an unlikely dinner table scenario. By ranking them they imply that there is a linear ranking of best to worst in wine. Something that is a lie. You should mistrust any such ranking as they are not formulated in an environment that has anything to do with what they were made for or how they will be enjoyed.
So if you think this Judgment 2 – The Sequel has any meaning, please get rid of all the old Bordeaux in your cellar. I will be happy to come over and pick them up.
Below you will find the ranking for this tasting as published at Vinography. I publish it here to get more Google hits, which is the only practical use for these rankings.
CALIFORNIA JUDGES
#1 - 1971 Ridge Monte Bello (67 points)
#2 - 1973 Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars (63 points)
#3 - 1970 Heitz Martha’s Vineyard (62 points)
#4 - 1971 Mayacamas (60 points)
#5 - 1972 Clos du Val (53 points)
#6 - 1970 Chateau Mouton-Rothschild (46 points)
#7 - 1970 Chateau Montrose (39 points)
#8 - 1970 Chateau Haut-Brion (36 points)
#9 - 1969 Freemark Abbey (35 points)
#10 - 1971 Chateau Leoville-Las-Cases (34 points)
UK JUDGES
#1 - 1971 Ridge Monte Bello (70 points)
#2 - 1970 Chateau Mouton-Rothschild (59 points)
#3- 1973 Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars (56 points)
#4 - (TIE) 1970 Chateau Montrose and 1972 Clos du Val (53 points)
#5 -
#6 - 1971 Mayacamas (52 points)
#7 - 1970 Heitz Martha’s Vineyard (50 points)
#8 - 1970 Chateau Haut-Brion (46 points)
#9 - 1971 Chateau Leoville-Las-Cases (32 points)
#10 - 1969 Freemark Abbey (24 points)
Combining the scoring from the two judging panels gives us:
#1 - 1971 Ridge Monte Bello (137 points)
#2 - 1973 Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars (119 points)
#3- (TIE) 1970 Heitz Martha’s Vineyard and 1971 Mayacamas (112 points)
#4 -
#5 - 1972 Clos du Val (106 points)
#6 - 1970 Chateau Mouton-Rothschild (105 points)
#7 - 1970 Chateau Montrose (92 points)
#8 - 1970 Chateau Haut-Brion (82 points)
#9 - 1971 Chateau Leoville-Las-Cases (66 points)
#10 - 1969 Freemark Abbey (59 points)
Vinography: A Wine Blog: The Re-Judgment Of Paris Results In California Landslide.
The 2004 Albert Boxler Riesling ( imported by Robert Chadderdon) is a really pretty wine that will develop and grow for many years, although I probably won’t have the discipline to save my bottles as it is just too damn good to drink now.
It is almost a shock these days to taste such a balanced wine from Alsace. Buy this wine and enjoy for it may be a dying breed. It won’t break your pocketbook to taste this classic as it goes for under $20 a bottle. Funny, it seems these days the more expensive an Alsatian wine is, the more undrinkable it becomes.
Yikes! What a bad label, but what a good wine. This is a label that would frighten anyone who ever worked on a bottling line. How do they ever get it on the bottle?
More importantly this wine embodies everything that makes Muscadet one of my favorite white wines. Full of acidity, bright fruit that is layered with a yeasty, mineral complexity. A perfect food wine. Bring on the oysters!!
It’s easy to forget why you used to like chardonnay, but this wine will remind you quickly and best of all costs under $20. Clean and fresh mineral, chalk and tart apple aromas lead into a fine firm chardonnay with a long toasty finish. Consumed over three days it hardly missed a step even on the last day. Very nice wine that will make you love chardonnay again.
Under ten bucks and what a charmer. No great complexity here, but a great drink. Perfect for burgers and and any meat off the Weber. Serve with a light chill and you will be seduced.
It bites hard. Punching the palate with searing acidity. I loved it.
Is there a wine more complimentary to homey, rustic foods than top-quality grignolino? I don’t think so because rich, full flavored dishes need a good dose of acidity to keep the palate alive and few wines deliver like grignolino. The 2004 Grignolino del Monferrato Casalese, Bricco del Bosco, Az. Ag. Acconero imported by Montecastelli fills that bill just perfectly.
Warning: if you like California merlot or Australian shiraz with cute animal labels selling for under ten bucks a bottle, avoid this wine at all costs.
I fell in love with this wine from the first sip that set my saliva glands into hyper-drive.
