Alpha Domus "The Navigator" 2008

Alpha Domus "The Navigator" 2008 - NZ, Hawkes Bay

19,60€; 13,5% abv; Merlot 44 %, Malbec 24 %, Cab Sauv 19 %, Cab Franc 13 %. As is so often the case with Cabs and Bx blends, I have trouble sensing the wine. The smell is of coconut/vanilla and char. Apart from these oak aromas, there is a shrill, piercing bright soprano note. That shrill, unbalanced soprano brightness continues on the palate which is otherwise soft and abundantly fruity and chocolatey from the oak. It is fundamentally unbalanced: lingonberry sharpness mixed with a sweet, luscious, almost jammy ripeness does not appeal to me.

Vin-Vin. Win-Win.

Yesterday I visited Vin-Vin, the new Helsinki wine bar, for the first time. It was fun. There was a good selection of bio, natural and organic wines, mostly from Viinitie's lists - which means that you can't really go wrong with whatever you choose.

I had a glass of Antica Enotria's Falanghina 2011 which was a delight: citric and mineral, nervous and lively despite ripe fruit; nothing about this seems like it is from a hot region. Lovely stuff.

Then I had a glass of Éric Texier's Côtes-du-Rhône 2010 which was its lovely usual self: elegant rather than a blockbuster, lovely fresh and pure fruit, sweetish but less so than most Southern Rhônes. Refreshing and lovely. I love how Texier always manages to make such obviously terroiry wines but in a much more elegant style than most others.

There were many other favorite producers of mine - including two from Pépière! - available by glass so I think this will become a fairly regular place for me to drop by.

Dinosaur meat and rosé wine

I had a few friends over for a dinner of risotto with mushrooms and theropod dinosaur. We opened some recent arrivals of rosé wines with it - theropod meat and mushrooms famously being ingredients one can eat with red, white, orange or rosé wines.

First a fizz:

NV Weingut Willi Bründlmayer Brut Rosé - Austria, Langenlois, Kamptal
29€. Well, this is a nice bubbly! Quite deep pink. Lots of tart berry aromas and citrus, smells deliciously mineral; some autolysis but not strongly bready. Nicely tart and bracing, pure and refreshing. Fun and very good and had the bite to cut through a rather greasy meal.


And then a trio of still rosés:

2011 Domaine du Valdaray Bandol Rosé
15,17€; 13,5% abv. Promisingly pale color. The scent is however quite fruit dominated and lacks the bright aromas that would promise freshness on the palate. And, indeed, the palate is rather clunky and too heavy on the fruit, low in acidity. The alcohol sticks out a bit, too. If you like your Bandol rosé as soft strawberry juice, this is the Bandol for you. It leaves me cold.

2011 Les Vignerons de Tavel Tavel Différent
13% abv; Very dark for a rosé: I think the red Beaujolais and Burgundy I like to drink is paler! But the wine isn't bad at all. It is a sweet smell of ripe strawberries, but the crucial point is that it isn't at all cloying. It is actually a very refreshing scent despite the associations with sweetness. Sweet attack, but dries up nicely on the mid-palate, some sweetness reappears on the finish; but once again, and crucially, this never becomes cloying. It's really not bad at all. A shame it costs 9€ for a half-bottle, otherwise I would probably buy a few more over the summer.

2008 Château Musar Rosé
The youngest Musar "rosé" I have had. Honestly, I don't think this should be called a rosé. It may be pink in color, but it is almost entirely made of the two autochthonous white grapes, Merwah and Obaideh. It has 3-5% Cinsault mixed in to provide color. So this, really, is a white Musar with coloring added. White (and rosé) Musar comes from very high vineyards in the Bekaa, and therefore even in ripe vintages they don't tend to go above 12% abv. Aromatically it does show as a typical, painfully young white Musar: sea shells, peachy fruit; good grip, tannic (white, red and rosé Musar all seem to have plenty of tannins, though they are covered by plentiful ripe fruit), racy acidity. Quite lovely. But painfully young. This is one of the few rosés where I think age is necessary. The 1995 Musar Rosé is beautiful now and shows no signs of being over the hill. The 2008 just seems raw though it does show all the qualities that makes this a truly special rosé. I like it now; but on the basis of the 1995 rosé, I think this might be something truly special in a decade or so.

Freisalicious

Yesterday I traveled to Turku to attend a Freisalicious tasting. It was well worth the trip, though I did miss my train back and had to wait an hour for the next one.




1953 Giacomo Borgogno & Figli Freisa Riserva - Italy, Piedmont, Piemonte DOC (5/21/2012)
"Propri Vigneti Canubbi" - so are Canubbi and Cannubi the same vineyard? Pale, orange color. The nose seemed quite far gone: lots of malty aromas, but also some lovely aged fruit though that pretty quickly became too oxidized. The palate was better: lovely intensity, not much fruit of course, but lovely aged character and for about a half hour after opening it was vibrant. I'm sure many will people have these lying around still so drink up quickly!

1971 Gaja Langhe Freisa - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Langhe DOC (5/21/2012)
A very fruity and sweet aroma of tinned peaches. It did have aged character to it, but the bright peachiness was the most memorable thing about it. Sweetish fruit, fairly low acid, still some tannic bite. Some around the table thought it lacked a bit of focus and precision and I do agree with that, but I still thought it was a very enjoyable wine.

1973 Giacomo Conterno Vino Freisa - Italy, Piedmont, Piemonte DOC (5/21/2012)
Of the old Freisas, I thought this was the best. Dark and dusty fruit, a bit of the peachiness that I found in the Gaja, but not in such absurd and dominating amounts. Rather this was a very savory wine. Still quite tannic, dense but lively and very moreish. A down-to-earth, charming, slightly brutish relative of Barolo.

1997 G.D. Vajra Langhe Freisa Kyè - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Langhe DOC (5/21/2012)
A really enjoyable Freisa with dark, savory fruit; good grip, but fairly low acidity. Long and savory. Could use a bit more age.

2008 G.D. Vajra Langhe Freisa Kyè - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Langhe DOC (5/21/2012)
By far the worst wine of the tasting - Vajra has apparently since 2006 changed the style of the Kyè and it is now a modern wine. It could be from anywhere: Chilean Cabernet, Ozzie Shiraz, whatever. And it tastes incredibly alcoholic as well: the 1997 was only 12,5% but this 2008 is 14,5% and it cannot handle such an amount. Bad wine.



2003 Giuseppe E Figlio Mascarello Langhe Freisa Toetto - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Langhe DOC (5/21/2012)
A hot year and it shows: dark, almost raisiny fruit; yet the palate is quite a bit better as it has real grip and the fruit doesn't seemed dried up. Nice enough.

2004 Giuseppe E Figlio Mascarello Langhe Freisa Toetto - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Langhe DOC (5/21/2012)
Obviously flawed but we couldn't come up with a proper diagnosis: possibly some contamination from one of the unenjoyable strains of brett, possibly mildly corked, possibly both or something else completely. But it was off-putting with its strong cats' piss and band aid aromas; no fruit, no finish. NR (flawed)

2003 Cavallotto Langhe Freisa Bricco Boschis - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Langhe DOC (5/21/2012)
A nice wine and doesn't suffer too much from the hot year. It still has some lovely dark, savory fruit and good grip (but lowish acid). Seems fairly light - especially for 14% abv. Nice!

2003 Franco Conterno Langhe Freisa Vigne Bussia - Pugnane - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Langhe DOC (5/21/2012)
A hugely enjoyable wine and no need to qualify that by saying it's good for a 2003; it is just plain good! Bright, delineated fruit, savory. Bright and light, tannic and moreish. Deliciously light at only 12,5%. Very moreish.

2009 Giuseppe Rinaldi Freisa Langhe - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Langhe DOC (5/21/2012)
A darker style but not over-ripe, very savory, very crunchy fruit, very good grip, delineated despite fairly low acidity. Very good.

2007 Cantina Terre del Barolo Le Terre Langhe Freisa - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Langhe DOC (5/21/2012)
Not too keen on this. It had a bit too much of something sharp and off putting on the aroma, a bit like cat's piss. Light but tannic. Outclassed by the other Freisas.




After the tasting a few random bottles were opened (we Finns are a thirsty people):

2001 Recaredo Cava Reserva Particular - Spain, Cava (5/21/2012)
Corked. Which is a shame - it would have been fun to taste one of these "super" Cavas - this one apparently costs c.60€! NR (flawed)

2011 Domaine d'Emile et Rose Vin de Pays des Côteaux du Libron Aramon - France, Languedoc Roussillon, Languedoc, Vin de Pays des Côteaux du Libron (5/21/2012)
100% Aramon. A difficult wine to try now: very sweet, lacking acidity, but still quite fresh, reductive. Might be interesting to try with more exposure to air. It certainly seemed to transcend the workhorse, bulk quality reputation of the Aramon variety.

2007 Franz Strohmeier Blauer Wildbacher - Austria, Styria, Weststeiermark (5/21/2012)
I thought this was amazingly good. A very dark, savory aroma of wild berries and wood (though not as in oak, as this sees only neutral). Crunchy, wildly tannic, grippy and palate-cleansing. Ferocious. I love it.

Ridgeview Cavendish 2009

Ridgeview Merret Cavendish 2009
30,60€; 12,5% abv; 44% Chardonnay, 27% Pinot Noir & 29% Pinot Meunier; 8 g/l sugar. I am always amused by what I read about UK sparklers. It always seems to be a variant of this quote: "It's the price of basic Champagne and of similar quality. So why buy it? I'll buy basic Champagne instead." And then, if one is of a pointy disposition, one will give a score in the low to mid-80s. I prefer to say that neither Champagne nor UK sparklers provide great value for money, but I find it silly to discriminate against the UK stuff if one admits to it being of similar quality. Now, for what's it worth, I really enjoyed this bottle and actually found it superior to many of the basic Champagnes available over here. It has a rather elegant, strongly bread-like aroma, with some really attractive steely, floral character I always associate with Chardonnay. Crisp and citric, high in acidity, focused and delineated. Not much fat around these bones, but I like this style of sparkler. I enjoyed this very much.

RIP Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau

RIP Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.

I'm not a singer but I love listening to Lieder. Everyone always praises DFD's Schubert - ironically I always tend to prefer him other music, preferring a more artless approach to Schubert (but, please, do not read this as me disliking his Schubert!). But when it came to such composers as Hugo Wolf of Schumann, he was unparalleled. And he also did so much for little known Lied composers like Othmar Schoek (very much worth a listen IMO) and Liszt (of course well known for other music, but his Lieder are rarely heard). He was truly one of the greats. I am very sad to hear this news.

Ylen känni-ilta?

I didn't dare watch the Finnish Broadcasting Company's discussion on drunkenness tonight (also, I couldn't because I don't own a TV). Did I miss anything? Or was it all just the typical: alcohol is evil no matter how it is enjoyed; Finns don't know how to drink sensibly and therefore all alcohol should be banned; 1% of regular drinkers drink themselves to death so therefore 99% of must suffer because the only way to cut down on the drinking of that 1% is to take everyone's rights away? Was it anything else but a propaganda discussion designed to allow Alko to continue to do the atrocious job it is now doing? Was there an expert on addiction even present in the studio? If so, what did (s)he say? Anyone care to give a brief summary of what happened?

Good buy or good bye?

2008 G.D. Vajra Langhe Freisa Kyè - Langhe DOC
13,5% abv; 41,20€. I liked the 2004 recently - it was pretty much a Barolo lookalike. This 2008 is kind of weird. I thought this wine saw only used wood but this actually smells pretty strongly of barrels. Dark fruit and a bit lactic, too. The palate is better but I do sense quite a bit of oak here, too: nice fresh fruit, good tannins. I think I'll bury my other bottle for a few years in the hopes that the oak aromas disappear. Right now, not my thing, but if this turns into anything like the 2004 this will have been a good buy. Or has this turned into such a modern styled wine that it's time to say good bye to it?

Just a couple links to interesting reports on fakes!

David Molyneux-Berry gave a great speech five years ago on wine fakes.

And Benjamin Wallace has a report on the recent Kurniawan fakes: Château Sucker.

Vollereaux Brut: Drinking Stars

Vollereaux Champagne Brut NV
20,30€; I love it how Alko describes this as 33% Chardonnay, 33% Pinot Noir and 33% Pinot Meunier instead of describing it having a third of each of these grapes. I should probably send Alko a message asking what 1% of the wine is made of. Pretty nice for a cheap Champagne. Appley and ripe fruit, I don't see much lees character. Clean and crisp - more so that most I've tried with 10 g/l sugar. The palate shows more lees textures than I found in the aroma. Nice enough for the price though not hugely memorable.

I was "drinking stars" while watching stars. A good documentary to watch if you're feeling full of yourself - astronomy will always make you feel small and insignificant! :D

Musar 2002

Château Musar Rouge 2002
It has been a couple years since my last 2002. It seems to have shut down a bit - not so much that it would be criminal to open one now, but enough that I don't feel it quite showed all that it had to show a couple years ago even with extended decanting. But even so, it is a lovely wine in a quite rich style even by Musar's standards. Not as volatile as e.g. the 2003 seems to be, so tame for a Musar. But all the same, it does have lovely bite to the fleshy fruit. Though a bit shut down, I still think this is one the great Musars of recent years. Ideally, let it rest for at least five years more.

Sour Swiss Stout

Brasserie BFM Cuvée Alex Le Rouge
This is expensive: 10€ for a 0,33 l bottle. It is also a very strong beer at 10% abv. And it is a strange beer in being a sour imperial stout - all other sour beers I have had have been light colored. I am sure other sour porters or stouts are made. And if they are half as good as this one, I really want to try them.

It is slightly roasted as expected from an imperial stout, yet a sour fruitiness verging on the citric and floral is the most prominent aroma. For a beer that is 10% abv this is dangerously drinkable. No doubt the sourness coupled with quite heavy hops (68 EBU) makes this so light on its feet. Bracing. And pretty awesome, so I'm almost tempted to say that even at 10€ it is worth the price except I don't want to give Alko any ideas.

Cherrysuolo di Vittoria

Planeta Cerasuolo di Vittoria 2009 - Sicily
18€; 13% abv; 60% Nero d'Avola, 40% Frappato. A pretty nice Cerasuolo though it isn't on the level of COS or A. Occhipinti. I haven't had many Cerasuolos but I think I like them: the Frappato really seems to bring about a brightness and red toned freshness to the heavy, thick Nero fruit. And it also seems to bring a healthy dose of acidity that Nero almost always seems to need in my experience. Refreshing and crisp but ripe and sweet, never heavy. Nice! Yet I still have a feeling that this would suffer in comparison to COS or A. Occhipinti.

Rusty

Rust en Vrede Cabernet Sauvignon 2009 - Stellenbosch, SA
24€; 14,5% abv. A bit ho hum. But I seem to be saying that about most Cabernet Sauvignon these days, no matter where it comes from (though Francly I can't have enough of the other Cab!). A bit oaky - not too much so, though in a young wine it of course shows. Loam, dark fruit, blackcurrant and its leaf aromas - so I guess this counts as what I used to call a nice Cab Sauv until I grew bored with them. Quite thick palate, a bit over-sized IMO for the grape and thus veers towards a sweeter, jammier than I found ideal. A bit hot on the finish. Not really my type of wine.

Lergenmüller Spätburgunder Angiolino

Every now and then when I taste a German Spätburgunder, especially of the likes of Becker-Landgraf, I feel that German Pinot will be next big thing in the wine world. And then I taste stuff like this and I feel happy, because it will mean that by association Becker-Landgraf will remain cheap enough for the near future that I can drink plenty of it.

2009 Weingut Lergenmüller Spätburgunder "Angiolino" - Germany, Pfalz
15% abv; 70% new Barrique and that pretty much says all that needs to be said about this wine. Massive, sweet, tarry, oaky. It has the density of a neutron star (i.e. "approximately equivalent to the mass of the entire human population compressed to the size of a sugar cube," as the always trustworthy Wikipedia describes it), it is sweet and un-refreshing despite much acidity. We Finns are supposedly able to drink even the most nasty concoctions in order to get drunk, but I'm really having trouble getting a single glass of this into my system. A wine that makes the most outrageous Cali producers seem elegant.

Georg Cantor

Eric Texier St. Joseph VV "La Croix" 2008
12% abv. This is not a big wine. Lovely savoury Syrahsity, lovely purity, lovely refreshing structure, lovely fruit, lovely lightness, lovely raciness, lovely everything. I only got to buy two of this vintage, now both gone. I intended to hold onto this one longer but drinking this now, though it is too young, makes me happy that I did open it: this is perhaps the most perfect wine I have ever had. I am certain that many will dislike the wine for having a slight leafy, green touch (delicious IMO, but inevitably some will find it under-ripe) and high acidity and lots of savouriness. But never have I had such an obvious Robinson Crusoe wine. If I could only drink one wine for a long time, I think I'd choose this. It is like Bach's Goldberg, or Sheppard's Media Vita - I find repetition even more fascinating than the already fascinating initial encounter. It is also a wine that shows the idiocy of any point scale with extraordinary clarity: just as there are infinities of different sizes, if this is perfection, then there are 100 point wines where one 100p is greater than another. This was better on my second encounter than on my already perfect first encounter. I'm not Cantor, so I can't explain infinities well. But who cares, this is awesome.