Posts Tagged ‘Under 13 percent’
MWG April 18th tasting (3/9): Vermentinu times two
Corse Calvi 2011, Clos Culombu ($23.10, 11902114)
The estate is in the process of converting to organic agriculture. 100% Vermentinu (aka Vermentino). Destemmed, crushed and cold-soaked on the skins for several hours, then pressed. Stirred after fermentation. Matured on the fine lees for five months. Lightly fined before bottling. 12.5% ABV. Part of the April 18th Cellier New Arrivals release.
Fragrant: peaches in syrup, quartz, white flowers. Dense and waxy in the mouth, peachy and soft-seeming at first, then turning lemony and harder. Long, mineral-tinged finish with a trenchant, almost fiery streak. Enjoyable but coming across as unpolished, even coarse next to the Faustine. (Buy again? Maybe.)
Ajaccio 2011, Faustine, Domaine Comte Abbatucci ($31.50, 11927792)
The Faustine cuvées are named after the winemaker’s daughter. This white is 100% biodynamically farmed Vermentinu from low-yielding, 40-year-old vines. Manually harvested. Following a brief cold soak, slow-fermented at 18ºC. Reportedly not allowed to undergo malolactic fermentation. Sees only stainless steel. 13% ABV.
Complex nose: “charcoal” in the words of one taster, minerals, lemon, wax, hints of clover blossom, orange peel and maquis. Rich but not heavy, mouth-filling yet elegant. Fine layers of fruit are wrapped around a solid mineral core aglow with acidity. Finishes on a saline note. Savoury, balanced and nuanced, a beautiful wine. What’s more, it’s $5 or $6 less expensive than the private import 2010 was. (Buy again? Absolutely.)
Food pairings? Corsican cheeses (Yannick is the best source in Montreal) and, of course, seafood in simple Mediterranean preparations, like the recipe for striped bass flambéed with thyme and Pernod that you’ll find after the jump.
MWG April 18th tasting (2/9): Vernacchia pure and simple
Vernacchia di San Gimignano 2011, Solo, Mattia Barzaghi ($25.53, Agence PF, 6 bottles/case)
100% organically farmed Vernacchia. Manually harvested. Gently pressed then fermented in stainless steel tanks with indigenous yeasts at 16-18ºC. Matured on the lees for five months with frequent stirring. 12.5% ABV. This is Barzaghi’s entry-level Vernacchia. Following a divorce, he has “reset” his branding (whence the reZet on the labels, the Z a vestige of the former line), renamed the cuvées and changed the label illustration to a photograph of him playing chess in the snow with his dog.
Subdued nose: wax, straw and a suggestion of flowers and nuts. Minerally and bright with an appealing leesy quality. High acidity but no shrillness due to the compensating extract. Long finish with a hint of salinity and a telltale bitter note. Clean and fresh: not the old-style Vernacchia some of us are on a quest for but lovely in its own right and light years better than the insipid-by-comparison Rocca delle Macìe. (Buy again? Yes.)
MWG April 18th tasting (1/9): Two Galician whites
Valdeorras 2011, Gaba do Xil, Godello, Telmo Rodriguez ($17.25, 11896113)
100% Godello. A blend of estate-grown and purchased grapes grown on steep-sloped, terraced vineyards. Manually harvested. Fermented with selected yeasts in stainless steel tanks. Matured on the lees. 13.5% ABV. Part of the April 18th Cellier New Arrivals release.
Lemon, minerals and a whiff of dried herbs. The soft, even fleshy attack with hints of pear segues into a citric mid-palate with a strong acidic backbone and a savory streak that persists through the long, quartzy finish. Dry, clean and fresh. Would make a good apéritif or a pairing for shellfish grilled or a la plancha. (Buy again? Sure.)
Ribeiro 2011, Viña Mein ($21.20, 11903686)
About 70% Treixadura with other local varieties (Godello, Loureiro, Albariño, Torrontés*, Lado, etc.) making up the balance. Fermented in stainless steel and aged on the lees. 12.5% ABV.
White fruit, grapefruit and quartz. Richer and denser, to the point that it seems less crisp than the Gaba do Xil, though I suspect the acidity levels are actually about the same. The flavours echo the nose with some lemon thrown in. Gains an attractive sour and bitter edge on the finish. Simply prepared fish and shellfish seem indicated here. (Buy again? Sure.)
*The native Galician grape, which “produces wines of little body and good acidity, with considerable personality and an intense bouquet [and] can be found throughout Galicia and in Córdoba” (winesofspain.com). Argentina’s Torrontés is a different grape altogether, now thought essentially to be a cross between the Muscat of Alexandria and Mission varieties.
And now for something completely different
So I drop by my neighbourhood SAQ outlet yesterday to pick up a few bottles for this evening’s tasting. After helping me find them, the senior wine advisor says, “Oh! I’ve got something special for you to taste,” and disappears into the staff room.
Now, the last time I heard that line, he came back with a glass of 2009 Sassicaia. The time before, a glass of delicious vin jaune from a bottle that had been open several months. So you might say I’m expecting a treat.
He reappears and places a glass in my hand. Pale red, more like a Burgundy than, say, a Bordeaux. I swirl the glass, take a sniff and stop dead in my tracks. What the…?!
Tasters often find chocolate in the smell of a wine. Cherry, too. Throw in some vanillin (extracted from oak barrels or chips) and you may get chocolate-covered cherries or, in particularly egregious cases, Cherry Blossom. Usually it’s a component but here it’s Cherry Blossom all the way down. It’s like being on the Cherry Blossom production line. Like dying and going to Cherry Blossom heaven (or hell, as the case may be). This isn’t your metaphorical chocolate. Blindfolded, you’d guess someone was holding a bowl grated chocolate and cherry jam under your nose.
I shudder to think what the wine will taste like. I take a sip and… it isn’t disgusting. Medium-bodied, supple, fluid, sweet but not saccharine. There’s a focused fruity core, very little structure and enough acidity to avoid flabbiness. There’s chocolate too, but it’s an added layer, like oak can be on some wines. Totally disconcerting. It’s like drinking ludlab. Is it some sort of strange Banyuls?
Recipe for a cheerful marriage
And a mixed marriage at that.
One of the best uses for leftover roast is in a tian, a simple Provençal preparation in which the chopped meat is combined with vegetables, aromatics and white wine and baked in a earthenware dish of the same name (recipe after the jump). I recently made one with the trimmings from our vernal equinox leg of lamb. As a believer in regional parings, I’d normally reach for a lighter-styled Provençal red. Having none on hand, I popped the cork on this: an outlander, yes, but it made a fine match.
IGT Sicilia 2010, Gaio Gaio, Calabretta ($21.90, oenopole, NLA)
100% organically farmed Nerello Mascalese grown on the north slope of Mount Etna. Fermented with indigenous yeasts. Matured in stainless steel and Slavonian oak barrels (neutral, I’d guess). The wine is named after the winemaker’s father, Gaio, which also means cheerful, merry, chipper. 11.5% (!) ABV.
Pale red. Nose of red berries, obsidian dust, dried orange and a umami note (dried porcini mushrooms?). Light and flowing in the mouth, with a caressing texture, singing acidity and soft tannins. The fruit plays sweet over a ground base of dark minerals and finishes on a savoury note. Fresh and pure, a wine that almost drinks itself, a joy. The closest analogue would be one of the lighter Beaujolais crus – a Fleuri, say – except the flavours are more southern, solar, volcanic.
oenopole’s first-ever shipment of Calabretta wines arrived in March and sold out within days. Going by the quality of this bottle, it’s easy to understand why. Those who didn’t get any or enough can try it in local restaurants, hope for a second shipment and keep an eye peeled for the next vintage. Wines like this are why people turn to the private import channel.
We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming…
…to bring you the following public service announcement.
Snow crab season officially opened in the Gaspé last week and the crustacean is now on sale at Montreal fishmongers, usually as cooked sections but sometimes whole and live. Though I got my sections yesterday at Nouveau Falero on Parc, the freshest, tastiest and least water-logged are usually found at the Délices de la Mer stall at Jean Talon Market. The sweet, delicate flesh is best savoured as is, unspoiled by so much as a drop of lemon juice or a dip in melted butter. For the quickest, easiest access to the meat, set aside the lobster crackers and pick up a pair of sturdy kitchen shears. The perfect accompaniment? Glass after glass of a less than bone-dry white. For example…
Vinho Verde 2011, Loureiro, Quinta de Gomariz ($15.30, 11895233)
100% Loureiro from 11-year-old vines. Manually harvested. Fermented five to seven days with native yeasts. Not allowed to undergo malolactic fermentation. Matured off the lees for two months. Sees only stainless steel. Filtered before bottling. 11.5% ABV.
Fresh and appealing nose of white grapefruit, lime, white sand, faint flowers and powdered honeycomb. Soft-textured and ever so slightly sprtizy. A flash of ripe grape and citrus on the attack quickly turns dry and gains some bitter pith that crescendos through the mouth. Crunchy minerals and tangy acid outlast the fruit on the long, rainwatery finish. The sour, bitter, quartzy aftertaste forces you back for another sip to get that momentary flash of sweet fruit, starting the cycle anew. Long but not broad or deep. A fresh, pure, thirst-slaking delight.
While this would make an excellent aperitif or summer sipper, it proved very good with the snow crab, whose sweet flesh surprisingly brought out the wine’s sweetness and increased its weight. That said, Gomariz’s more powerful Alvarinho would probably make an even better match. And, of course, as Hugh Johnson says, “crab and Riesling are part of the Creator’s plan.”
MWG March 21st tasting (4/6): Bubbly, dry and red
IGT Emilia 2011, Lambrusco, Monte delle Vigne ($16.50, 11873190)
100% Lambrusco Maestri from 20-year-old vines. Manually harvested and sorted. Fermented at less than 25ºC. Macerated on the skins a total of 25 days. Carbonated using the Charmat method. 11.5% ABV.
Black cherry, plum blossom and bitter almond nose (kind of Valpolicella-like, actually) along with raw red meat, slate and a dash of vinyl. Dry. Soft effervescence. The sweet-ripe fruit dries on the mid-palate, where it’s joined by sketchy tannins. Acidity runs throughout. A faint astringency and bitterness colour the finish. Opinions were divided over this but I liked it and look forward to trying it with salume; the producer specifically recommends pig’s trotters stuffed with minced pork and spices (be still, my beating heart). (Buy again? Sure.)
MWG March 21st tasting (2/6): Contrasting Chards
Chardonnay 2011, Metallico Unoaked, Monterey, Morgan Winery ($27.10, 11896471)
A blend of Chardonnay from cool-climate vineyards in the Arroyo Seco, Santa Lucia Highlands and Monterey AVAs. Whole-cluster pressed. Cold-tank fermented. No malolactic fermentation. Matured five months in stainless steel tanks. Screwcapped (though SAQ.com says cork). 14.1% ABV.
White lemon, minerals, faint stone fruit. Citric, chalky and green apply in the mouth. Crisp acidity and a certain presence but not much follow-through. Plus somehow it simply doesn’t cohere. (Buy again? Meh, especially when you can get a great unoaky Chard for $9 less.)
Bourgogne 2010, Chardonnay Vieilles Vignes, Nicolas Potel ($21.15, 11890926)
A négociant wine made 100% Chardonnay from 50- to 65-year-old vines in 12 parcels in the villages of Meursault and Puligny Montrachet. Manually harvested. Pressed, cold-settled for 24 hours. The resulting juice is transferred to oak barrels (30% new, 40% second vintage, 20% third vintage) and stainless steel tanks (10%) for alcoholic and malolactic fermentation. Matured ten months on the lees. 12% ABV.
Nose of slightly overripe tropical fruit and maple sugar evolving into lemon and pine needles. The combination of the rich, almost fat texture, residual sugar and mild flavours prompted the descriptor “rice syrup” from one taster. Smooth acidity and decent length but ultimately flat, unrefreshing, verging on cloying. Blind, I mistook it for the Californian… (Buy again? Only for research purposes.)
A disappointing flight. As an admirer of Nicolas Potel, I had high hopes for the Burgundy, especially as it has garnered positive reviews from local bloggers and from critics as reliable as Jancis Robinson. Maybe ours was an off bottle. Or maybe it needed to breathe more (I would have been interested in tasting both wines the day after but didn’t manage to snag the tail ends).
MWG March 21st tasting (1/6): Two aromatic whites
To mark the passing of Cellier as we know it, the tasting included only bottles from the Spring 2013 issue of the magazine, nearly all of them from the March 21st release. The still reds were double-carafed an hour or two before we got around to them. Time constraints meant the whites were poured within minutes of opening, which may explain some of the oddness we encountered.
Grüner Veltliner 2011, Wagram, Weinberghof Karl Fritsch ($16.75, 11885203)
The 20-hectare, biodynamic estate is located in the Wagram region, about 60 km west of Vienna. This 100% Grüner Veltliner is fermented and matured in stainless steel tanks. Screwcapped. 12.0% ABV.
Lime zest, chalk, quartz and the faintest hint of white pepper. Denser than expected on the palate. Ripe. Dry but not arid. Tingly acidity. The minerally substrate lasts through the long, citric finish. A bit simple but good clean fun. (Buy again? Yep.)
Colli Bolognesi Classico 2011, Pignoletto, Fattorie Vallona ($20.55, 11876041)
The Pignoletto grape variety is indigenous to Emilia-Romagna and common in the hills around Bologna. It may be related to Grechetto. Technical information on this wine is virtually non-existent. One or two websites claim earlier vintages contained 10% Riesling. In any case, my guess is that this is made entirely in neutral containers, possibly stainless steel. 13.5% ABV.
Candied lemon, rocks, faint dried herbs. Slightly spritzy, slightly off-dry, slightly weighty. White fruit, minerals, a hint of almond skin and a whack of acidity. The long finish is spoiled by an acrid note. (Buy again? Only to give it another chance.)
Brett happens 
MWG March 8th tasting (1/5): Four Campanian whites
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While this was technically a Cellier tasting, only two bottles from the March 7th release made it into the wine-up: Mastroberardino’s Falanghina and Umani Ronchi’s Verdicchio.
All four wines in the first flight were made similarly: fermented (for a couple of weeks) and matured (for a few months) in temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks. If the estate favours organic farming, uses native yeasts and avoids manipulation, fining, filtering and sulphur dioxide in the winery, they certainly don’t trumpet it.
Greco di Tufo 2011, Mastroberardino ($22.10, 00411751)
100% Greco di Tufo from c. 15-year-old vines. 12.5% ABV.
Muted nose of lemon-lime and chalk. Smooth and rainwatery on the palate, with stealth acidity and a bitter undercurrent. Wax and pear flavours linger though the tingly finish. (Buy again? Maybe.)
Lacryma Christi del Vesuvio 2011, Mastroberardino ($19.20, 00972877)
100% Coda di Volpe from c. 20-year-old wines. 12.5% ABV.
Straw, pear, hot stones and something floral. Slightly denser than the Greco, drier, more savoury. High in acidity and lean on fruit. Lemon-pithy, minerally finish. (Buy again? Maybe.)
IGT Irpinia 2011, Morabianca, Falanghina, Mastroberardino ($19.75, 11873026)
100% Falanghina from c. six-year-old vines. 13.5% ABV.
Fragrant nose: mostly lemon blossom with some faint candied pineapple and a whiff of what one taster pegged as “freezer ice.” Probably the driest of the four. Underripe stone fruit sprinkled with lemon juice and set on sea shells. Bitter, puckery finish. (Buy again? Maybe.)
Fiano di Avellino 2011, Mastroberardino ($22.10, 00972851)
100% Fiano di Avellino from c. 15-year-old vines. 12.5% ABV.
Lime leaf, green pear, sweet pumpkin, bath salts, hazelnut skins. Somewhat less acidic and bitter than the others but also more saline. Pear and a little honey. Sustained finish. Balanced and refreshing. (Buy again? Definite maybe.)
As a concept, this flight had enormous appeal: four mono-varietals from four different Campanian grape varieties from the same vintage and made in the same way (cleanly in stainless steel, with no interfering oak) by the same producer. In practice, the flight was a study in shadings more than colours. On the plus side, all the wines were technically flawless and quite drinkable. And yet a little more personality wouldn’t have been out of place. It’s not as if they have to be low on character: Feudi di San Gregorio’s Fianos, for example, have character in spades and Mastroberadino’s high-end bottlings may well too. But we don’t have access to those, do we? As it is, these impeccably made but somewhat nondescript whites will work as an aperitif or an accompaniment to simply prepared seafood.
Speaking of Feudi di San Gregorio, has the SAQ dropped their products from its catalogue? If so, it’s a shame. The monopoly’s current Campania selection is small and dominated by one producer (Mastroberardino) and by affordable but relatively insipid bottlings, especially on the white side. With more than 100 indigenous grape varieties and a couple of thousand producers, the region is a potential source of a wealth of authentic wines. Yet we’re limited to a handful of mostly innocuous reds and whites from an even smaller handful of producers. Why?
Written by carswell
March 15, 2013 at 11:04
Posted in Commentary, Tasting notes
Tagged with Campania, Cellier, Mo' Wine Group, Under 13 percent