Cosimo Maria Masini "Fedardo" 2003

Cosimo Maria Masini Vin Santo "Fedardo" 2003 - 29,50€ / 0,375 l.; 16% abv; 95 g/l RS; 6,3 g/l acidity
Finland has never seen a great amount of Vin Santos and practically all of them have been very simple sweeties, truly three dimensional at best. This Fedardo seems more like an M-theory variant: if the unification of the string theories of modern physics, M-theory, is correct, our universe has eleven dimensions, ten of space and one of time.

A lovely oxidative aroma coupled with some volatility makes it seem like a tame version of a mid-sweet Madeira (Boal or Verdelho). Sweet but wonderfully crisp, much more so that I ever dared imagine a hot year could produce. Unbudged for about a week open. The complexity of this wine makes the mathematics of string theory seem simple.

Taxonomy fun!

Still nothing vinous to report on so instead here's some taxonomy fun: Null Hypothesis has a list of funny and silly names of species. How about Ochisme (Oh kiss me - geddit?) or Eubetia bigaulae (You betcha, by golly! - geddit?).

On the dole

Chanteauvieux Dôle du Valais AOC 2009 - Switzerland, Valais
17€; 13% abv; 75% Pinot Noir, 25% Gamay; no oak. It smells light and floral with a slight earthiness. Light, insubstantial, with a strange salty feel to it, some tartness despite very low acidity and no real tannins to speak of. I love Gamay and its blends with PN and I hate oak aromas, so I had high hopes that this would be to my taste. This would be a perfectly acceptable product if 10€ were taken off the price, but at 17€ I really would require a bit more grip and personality and substance.

Töövi Washington Cab

Crushpad Cabernet Sauvignon Töövi Kiona 2007 - Washington, Columbia Valley, Red Mountain
14,39% abv; TA 6,7g/l. And I'm surprised by the numbers. It is about a year since I tried this last, but it has calmed down much since. There is nothing minty or over the top about this wine, rather it has aromas of beans on toast and cassis - pretty classic Bordeaux-styled wine! It is full bodied and fruity in comparison to most Bordeaux, but is delightfully savoury and well-structured. Good stuff, and has really gone in a better direction since I last tasted it. But ideally it will still see a few more years.

New Töövis

Crushpad Chardonnay Töövi Alder Springs 2009 - California, North Coast, Mendocino
14% abv. No oak, only stainless steel. At first, there is an aroma of pears and passion fruit, but more savoury aromas come to the fore with air: green apple and plum. Full body, fruity but not over the top in any way. Wonderful acidity on the finish. Nice stuff and has improved since March '09 when I tried this last, but I still see this improving with a bit more age.

Crushpad Pinot Noir Töövi Hein Vineyard 2008 - California, North Coast, Anderson Valley
On the first day open it still seems very primary and rather oaky. On the second day, everything has calmed down into a much more pleasant drink. It smells sweet and is full of cherry aromas. Full bodied, sunny fruit, rich and lush but with perfectly good acidity even though now it seems rather fruit-forward. Asko said it is drinking well now; I think it could use a bit more age - try again next summer? Nice wine!

Crushpad Syrah Töövi White Hawk 2007 - California, Central Coast, Santa Barbara County
The oak, since my last taste approximately a year ago, has calmed down. Now, upon opening, it smelled wonderfully of pepper and game meat - a very pure Syrah, indeed. With air, some oak aromas did emerge, but they did go to the background after a while. Full bodied, fruit forward on the attack but the savoury aspects overtake the fruit on the finish, so it finishes very fresh. Very nice, but I think it could do with a year or so more age.

A very nice, aged Oregon Pinot Noir

Ponzi Pinot Noir Reserve 1995 - 25th Anniversary release; Willamette Valley, Oregon

It is rare to see US wines here, even more so to see any with any age on them, and even more so to find ones that I would like. So it is no surprise that this wasn't available here.

Lovely, earthy, savoury Pinosity with a juicy tomato sweetness to it. Rich, slightly sweet still and with vestiges of oak perhaps slightly noticeable, but mostly this is about aged Pinosity and savouriness and tarness mixed in with the ripeness. Refreshing finish. Very nice.

How nice to drink unavailable wines.

Pattes-Loup (Thomas Pico) Chablis 2009

Domaine Pattes-Loup (Thomas Pico) Chablis "Vent d'Ange" 2009 - 24,50€; 12,5% abv; 6,5 g/l acidity
Quite simply, a wonderful wine. Very citric and mineral, smelling of oyster shells and lemon curd. Delineated, focused, wonderfully acidic and shows little signs of a hot year. This satisfies even my cravings for plenty of acidity - I wonder what a cooler year will be like? - but it is wonderfully balanced with lovely purity of fruit. I don't think it is too presumptuous to say that this is an outstanding wine despite its relatively low appellation of "plain" Chablis.

Gabrielle Simmers of andCo visits Finland

Gabrielle Simmers, who makes a fascinating Sauvignon Blanc in Hawkes Bay, NZ, was in Finland on Tuesday, so their Finnish importer, Funky Wines Imports, took a small group to Restaurant Brasa. Brasa is a fascinating restaurant in Porvoo, some 50km east of Helsinki, that sources almost all ingredients from farms near the restaurant. They try, and IMO succeed, in recreating traditional Finnish food in innovative ways.

But before we got to the foods we had to drink lots of a méthode ancestrale fizz from J-P Brun, the ever-lovable FRV 100 Rosé NV. It was its usual lovely self: wonderful forest berry aromas of pure Gamay; slightly sweet (60 g/l RS), low alcohol (7,5% abv), crunchy acidity and refreshing finish. Lovely stuff. It was a hot day so we got through many bottles.


Then for dinner:

This was one of our starters, a Finnish forest: mushrooms, some edible lichen, elderflower jelly and a carrot blob that was wonderfully sweet. But there was plenty of bitterness from the other elements so its sweetness was just perfect.


Another starter: wild asparagus, salmon cooked just slightly at 35 Centigrade with sprouts on top and cultivated asparagus from Brasa's backyard.


And to clear our palates before the main, cucumber sherbet with dill and some vinegary paste on top.


And with this variety of flavors we enjoyed Gabrielle Simmers's only wine, &Co Sauvignon Blanc 2009 from Hawkes Bay, NZ. She does grow a small amount of Pinot Gris as well, but so far she has only released SB. The 2009 is her first release and it is a very impressive wine. It does belong to the "natural" spectrum but is far from the freaky end of it. It is a very pure aroma, mineral, with a lovely lemon sherbet aroma (perhaps because there was a tiny amount of botrytis in '09?). Quite full bodied (it was a hot year and the alcohol is almost 14%; 2010 will be about 12,5%), but wonderfully crisp and citric. It isn't tropically fruity despite the ripeness; but neither is it the stereotype of cat's piss either. I suspect that it is just pure SB without any gimmickry. And I liked it very much - not something I say often about this grape.






Our main was the only food that came from further away than the restaurant's backyard! It was lamb fillet and stomach from the Åland -islands between Sweden and Finland. I haven't had lamb's stomach before but I loved this dish. It had such a lovely crisp outer layer and was so full of flavor that the wonderfully juicy and tender fillet tasted a bit bland after it.

And we drank enormous quantities of a thirst-quenching red, M. Lapierre Raisins Gaulois 2010. A wonderfully bright and refreshing wine after the relatively heavy 2009. Very pure Gamay aromas with lovely acidity but so much fun fruit that it isn't at all tough on those who prefer less acidity than I do!

For dessert, Funky Wines opened a Barsac, Ch. Rousset Peyraguey Cuvée l'Alétheia 2007 (label). It is a "natural" sweet wine and I find it amusing that since sulfites aren't very well accepted in this movement, the producer had to get sulfites from an Indonesian volcano - as if that somehow makes it more "natural".

But no matter, the wine was wonderful: enormously sweet but lively and tangy and with a delectable aroma of copper kettles.

And yes, enormous quantities of "natural" wine does cause headaches.

Tasmanian Devil 'n Austria

Jurtschitsch/Sonnhof Rosé vom Zweigelt 2010 - Langenlois, Kamptal
12% abv; 11,89€; Stelvin closure. Deep salmon pink. Really lovely, slightly earthy and brightly berried aromas. Pleasant weight, lovely tanginess and fruitiness combined make this very moreish. Nice!

Weingut Willi Bründlmayer Riesling Langenloiser Steinmassel 2008 - Langenlois, Kamptal
12% abv; 17,80€; Stelvin closure. I have seen this with both cork and Stelvin. This time I tried the Stelvin and on the first day it seemed too reductive and sulphurous to be enjoyable. But tonight it is very enjoyable. Very pure Riesling aromas, mineral and quite forceful - tonight there is little elegance, rather it is very in-your-face. Dry but fruity, pure and clean and with a nice, thirst-quenching quinine bitterness on the finish. Nice!

Pipers Brook Vineyard Pinot Noir Estate 2008 - Devil-may-care
13,5% abv; at this young stage there is absolutely no sense of the grape: the toffee and cedary, spicy new oak obliterate everything else from the fruit except for a vague sense of dark fruit concentrate. Very full bodied, artificially concentrated and more like liqueur than wine in its density. The high acidity and the bitterness of the oak clash in a most unpleasant way. The cranberry finish is bracing but just like in Ocean Spray, there is an annoying sweetness that blurs the tartness. There is, aside from the high acidity, nothing in this wine that would indicate that it is a cool-climate Pinot. At least in this early stage of its evolution, I found this wine quite repulsive.