Aalto - Architecture and Ribena del Duero

Bodegas Aalto "Aalto" 2007

Unpatriotic as it will inevitably seem, I am not a fan of Alvar Aalto. Aalto dabbled in functionalism - and I say dabbled, because at least with the Finlandia Hall, there is little to be seen of functionalism. Apparently fame had gone to Aalto's head when he was designing the hall. One of the main reasons for building it was to have a place for the two symphony orchestras functioning in Helsinki to give their performances. Aalto declined to use an expert in acoustics and the result is one of the worst concert halls in Europe. He also demanded that Carrara marble was used for the outer surface of the building, but marble is spectacularly unsuited to the Helsinki climate since they curve so that they become concave and have to be replaced frequently.

But these are not the worst anti-functionalist elements related to the building. Apparently the AA Foundation is worse than Aalto himself. The orchestra rehearsal area has bulletin boards originally intended for the musicians. The Foundation, however, forbids today's musicians to post notices on these boards because the boards were designed by Aalto and so they must be preserved in their original state. Surely all of this is exactly the opposite of what the architectural idea of functionalism intended?

With this in mind, I can't help feel that the wine is very aptly named. So often these modern styled wines are marketed as being somehow functional for the consumer: supposedly they are approachable and easy to drink and don't require decades of bottle age. Yet when I criticize them for being oaky and too dense, ripe and concentrated, someone will always say that they just need decades for these elements to integrate.

But to me they are, like Aalto's architecture, unfunctionalist: they do exactly the opposite of what is marketed. The aromas aren't easy to approach: they are quite repellent because of their smoky, toffee, coconut oak aromas coupled with inky bitterness. The palates are so thick I cannot imagine pairing them with even hearty dishes; and since, apart from German Riesling and a few other exceptions, I need food with my wine, this again decreases the wines' functionality. The wines don't entice me with freshness but rather make enjoyment impossible because of their sheer weight.

Veneto Questions

2009 Tedeschi Valpolicella Superiore Capitel San Rocco Ripasso
14,76€; 14,5% abv. A rather nice aroma: sweet and dark but with a tomato/rust -like savory tang. Rich but acidic and refreshing. Not bad at all for a style of wine that I am not usually fond of.

Since I have said that so often with Tedeschi, I guess I must research their wines more. The others I have had from Veneto have been sweet, simple, chocolate-tasting soft-drinks. But though I usually dislike such full bodied, rich, alcoholic wines, I find myself quite enjoying the Tedeschi Ripasso and Amarone. So what is special about Tedeschi that they can make such big wines taste refreshing? Are there other producers who can do this?

There are a couple other Tedeschi wines available here that I haven't tried. Are any of these ones I might enjoy? And what should I expect of these unfamiliar styles?

- Amarone Monte Olmi 2006
- Valpolicella Classico Superiore 2009
- Bianco di Custoza 2010

(Hoping that this time when I ask a question on a blog, I'll actually get some answers! :D )

More Treloar

2008 Domaine Treloar Le Ciel Vide
Nice aromas, red fruited and sweet. Savoury and actually still quite tannic palate. Nice!

2009 Domaine Treloar Côtes du Roussillon Les Bons Voisins
Exactly the same wine as Three Peaks but for the French market. Much like a young Musar: sweet, vibrant fruit, but not cloying, sunny and a slight but wonderful animal character but not downright stinky. Rich, sweet and well structured. Very nice.

2010 Domaine Treloar Côtes du Roussillon One Block Grenache
14% abv. Sweet, strawberry aromas but pure, unoaked and a nice mix of savory and sweet. After such a refreshing Grenache aroma the well structured, moreish, palate-cleansing and refreshing palate is no surprise. Even though a supposedly "lesser" wine in their range (no Treloar IMO is truly humble), I still feel that this ideally would have a year or two more age. Nice!

Treloar MO2 2009

2009 Domaine Treloar MO2
c.15% abv. Treloar's website says this: "It came about initially becuase the press broke down during the making of the Muscat de Rivesaltes and we had to leave the must exposed to air overnight until it was repaired the next morning.

When the juice was pressed it was quite dark in colour. I decided to experiment by making a Sherry (or more correctly and Amontillado) style wine."

I love this wine. Orange colour. My initial sentiment is not so much of Amontillado as aged white Musar. This smells oxidative yet very grapey and floral. It has Musar's oily, mouth-coating palate coupled with a refreshing ripe citrus character - the difference being that Musar tastes dry whereas this seems off-dry (but perfectly balanced). Lovely. I hope I can get more.

Edit: Jonathan Hesford of Treloar just informed me that this is actually a dry wine with "<2g/L of sugar. I know it appears sweet but that is the effect of alcohol, the smell and the long maderisation in barrel."

Treloar Muscat de Rivesaltes 2009

Domaine Treloar Muscat de Rivesaltes 2009
15% abv; 105 g/l RS. What a nice wine this is! I was a bit apprehensive in ordering this because I have only tried one M de R before that I truly enjoyed (Domaine de Blanes 2008); all others I have had have simply tasted simple and sweet to the point of being cloying.

But since I've enjoyed everything else from Treloar, I trusted the producer enough to have bought one of these as well. It is obviously sweet, but what sets this apart from all but one of those others I've had is that it isn't cloying at all. It has wonderfully clear and bright Muscat aromas. It is actually a refreshing drink despite all that sugar and had a nice, slight touch of bitterness on the finish - it worked well as an aperitive, perhaps a bit too well since we already finished the 50cl bottle and I'm not even done cooking!

Can someone explain how this manages to be so refreshing? I don't sense much acidity in this and the sugar is high. So why does it work in this wine and in the Blanes?

Rabl rousing

Rabl Grüner Veltliner 2010
6,98€ / 0,375; 12% abv. Really a rather nice wine, especially because it is available in such a convenient format as a half-bottle. A varietally true aroma, a bit like ripe peas and citrus. Crisp and delightfully high in acidity, balanced and ripe fruit. Perhaps it is a bit straightforward and simple, but who cares since it is moreish and very enjoyable.

PJA Côte-Rôtie "Les Jumelles" 2006

Paul Jaboulet Aîné Côte-Rôtie "Les Jumelles" 2006
c.48€; 13,5% abv. At first the aromas were pretty nice: game and olive. But it becomes rather more anonymous with air and the 15-20% new oak begins to show as a blueberry aroma. It seems a bit dilute despite sweet fruit; a bit soft structure. I wouldn't feel comfortable ageing this for long, though a couple more years I am sure will only do this good. But almost 50€ for this is absurd. Disappointing for the appellation and even more disappointing because of the price.

Töövi Chardonnay 2010

Crushpad Chardonnay Töövi Cloudbreak Vineyard 2010
So different and so much better than my earlier bottle that I can only infer that the last bottle must have been somehow flawed in an un-obvious way. On first sniff, this has clear Chardonnay aromas untainted by oak. But it is very ripe, even sweet smelling. There is a touch of reduction, but nothing like there was with the earlier bottle. Rich, crisp, sweet, ripe fruit, light on its feet, moreish - a nice bunch of paradoxes on the palate. Good stuff! Not Chablis, but not all unoaked Chardonnay should be.

Travaglini Gattinara 2006

Travaglini Gattinara 2006
19,88€; 13,5% abv. I haven't always enjoyed Travaglini, often finding a touch of Barrique aromas although only a small portion (in this wine 10%) is aged in small, French barrels. But in this wine everything comes together nicely. An aroma true to the grape but rather dark toned and woodsy (not woody) and with a tomato/rust -like savoury fruitiness - this is all tar and no roses. Rugged, rustic, nicely tannic, quite sweet fruit for the grape. But instead of the ethereal purity of the best Nebbiolos, this has a slight furriness to the palate; it is a muscular wine rather than an ethereally graceful one, but I like it anyways.

Pattes Loup (Thomas Pico) Chablis Vent d'Ange 2010

Domaine Pattes Loup (Thomas Pico) Chablis "Vent d'Ange" 2010
12,5% abv. Wonderful elegance and purity with lovely ripe citrus and mineral aromas. Not so much a steely or rocky style but a fruit driven one - but certainly not a sweet/ripe/sugary style. Crunchy, citric, palate-cleansing, bracing and pure. Awesome and far more characterful than most I have experienced from the region. Alongside J-P Brun's white Beaujolais this is the wine that has made me interested in non-fizzy Chardonnay.

But Thomas Pico has a reputation for not only being an exciting young producer but of being extreme in his anti-science wine making, aging the wines partly in cement eggs for some biodynamic reason or other.

I like science. I think the sciences are tremendously exciting and far more awe-inspiring than any myths humans have created. But I can't help wondering why so many of the wines I most love are marketed with such anti-science bullshit as concrete eggs and biodynamics. Surely there has to be a better reason than such anti-science ideologies for why I love them? Correlation, after all, does not necessarily imply causation.

A perfect Bachgundy from Naudin-Ferrand

One of the wine books I'm currently reading (I get them all mixed up, but this must be either Terry Theise or Kermit Lynch) says that the best sort of wine is that which is so beautiful that there is no need to dissect it; it provokes such an emotional response that one is in tears - as if an agricultural product were actually a work of art. I am Naudin in agreement with tonight's wine.

It might be the circumstances (three weeks of heavy translation work is finished, after a few false finishes; so no more 14-18 h work days for a while I hope), but Domaine Henri Naudin-Ferrand Côte de Nuits-Village 2006 is just such a wine where I can't concentrate on describing its nuances. It registers as a whole instead of a wine where I can detail its fruit, acid, tannin etc. in a logical way.

So this will have to do: tear-inducingly beautiful Pinosity. Bach's BWV 882 as played by Rosalyn Tureck. Upbeat and inspiring, yet elegant, somehow very touching and dramatic and majestic though these are all inner currents rather than what shows on the surface. Yes, Bach, is the best tasting note I can offer on this wine even though it will probably mean nothing for anyone else.

Dhroning on and on about the First Man in Mosel

A.J. Adam Dhroner Hofberger Riesling Kabinett 2010
8% abv; 65 g/l RS. A lovely Kabinett, and for once it is a Kab that isn't a Spätlese (though there is certainly no lack of weight in this one either!). On day one, the aromas are a bit stinky, sulfuric or reductive or something like that. But the palate is lovely: light and intense and sweet and racy. Despite the aromas not being open, it was a struggle not to finish the whole bottle in one day! The second day did see improvement: lovely, savoury, stone fruit aromas superseded the slightly stinky ones. No change on the palate that I could see. Lovely, slight touch of quinine bitterness on the finish. Outstanding.

Stags' Leap Chardonnay 2009

Stags' Leap Winery Chardonnay 2009
29,50€; 14,1% abv. Rich, creamy, oaky and tropical aromas; fleshy and sweet with a pineapple acidity running through it keeping the richness in check. The high alcohol is only noticeable as a slight heat on the finish. Not my style, though balanced in a perverse way, with everything over the top. The sort of stuff that I expect teen girls would like if they don't fancy a sweet cider.

Francly puzzling Amirault

Yannick Amirault Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil "La Mine" 2009
13% abv. A substantial wine with plenty of flesh and even outright sweetness to its lovely tobacco aromas. The taste is a pendulum that swings between a lovely, fresh, invigorating, pleasantly tannic wine and a sweet, fruit-driven one flirting dangerously with over-ripeness. Hopefully the pendulum will eventually get stuck in the former as the latter is Francly not what I like. Whatever, it needs plenty of time even though this has the reputation (with La Coudraye) of being among the lighter of Amirault's wines. I will postpone firm decisions on this wine for a couple years; but good enough that I'm willing to put a couple in the cellar to see how they turn out.

Grange-Neuve 2009, Pomme-roll

Château Grange-Neuve 2009 - Pomerol
Sweet and dark aromas, fleshy, rather oaky and roasted, smells rather like a freshly baked apple pastry. Rich, sweet, dark fruit, quite soft - very primary, but due to the soft structure I would not age this for decades. It has quite a neutral reaction from me. But 30€ for a decent little wine is outrageous.

Burgaud Pie

Jean-Marc Burgaud Morgon Côte du Py 2010
13% abv. C. half a year has passed since my last taste of this. Then I said that this will need time (as Burgaud always does), and I was right. But this has opened and softened enough that I am still glad I wasn't able to stop myself from opening one. This is a young, primary wine with still rather tight tannins for a Beaujolais; but it is just so incredibly beautiful! It already has a strong Pinot Noir -like cherry aroma - very primary. Lovely ripeness and lovely freshness combined; and then comes a palate-cleansing hit of tannin. It is still hard despite all the fruit. And the fruit sensations are still primary and show no signs of age. But this is still a wine of breathtaking purity. Not to be opened now unless you like plenty of structure; I am confident this will turn into a beauty