Patrice Rion, Gevrey-Chambertin Vielles Vignes 2003

This powerful Côte de Nuits drank like a Brunello! 2003 was definitely a hot vintage, and it's ready now. Medium to full body, brownish red with medium transparency, velvety smooth texture. Caramel, strawberry jam and subtle spicy notes (eucalyptus?) in the bouquet. Taste wise this wine was an explosion of fruit: mainly plum/prune, fig and cherry compote, with a nice finish of cocoa and coffee (which I attribute to perfectly aged tannin).

This is a Burgundy for a hedonist: less terroir, more pure joy. I had it with home made cheese Spätzle, chicken cutlet and Swiss chard... no complaints:)

$40 at Warehouse Wine&Spirits, NYC.

Galtarossa Colombara Valpolicella Ripasso Classico Superiore 2003

This wine turned out to be a great find in a cool restaurant in Newburgh, New York. On the nose it had hints of vanilla and honey without being too overpowering. On the taste it was very well balanced with an oak medium finish and a herbaceous and dried fruit aftertaste. This wine is a Ripasso which is an Italian red wine from Valpolicella made by fermenting young wine with the unpressed but drained skins and lees left over from making Amarone. These wines are typically lighter (and cheaper) than Amarone and more flexible when it comes to combining with food. All together this was a very pleasant wine to drink with an autumn type meal. While this wine retails at 24 USD we paid 42 USD in a restaurant which is a decent deal keeping in mind that restaurants in the US typically triple the retail cost of bottles.

Louis Latour, Côte de Beaune-Village 2002

2002 wasn't a stellar year for red Beaune (91 points) but this gentle pinot noir is a good candidate for a daily dinner wine. Still purplish red, transparent with no signs of aging, medium body with healthy viscosity. I imagine there was a decent dose of tannin in this wine once, pretty much gone by now.

Soft, mellow and nebulous all around: this is a typical, solid but no thrills Côte de Beaune. Sweet red fruit in the nose, very slow to open. In the mouth: an attack of blackberry, cherry and mature apple mid-palette and a barely detectable pungent-spicy finish. I actually tasted durian fruit in the finish...

Rosemary turkey scallopini, quinoa and green beans seemed like a pretty good pairing.

2006 Artezin Zinfandel Mendocino County

A European perspective on a stateside wine (guess you guys might know this one already, probably at a nicer, much more accessible price ...)

"Very nice refined wine, a bit of smokiness and plum but not too intense or compotey with the fruit, with a light, refreshing texture, just enough of a trace of Zinfandel sweetness to round it out and a subtle, not overblown tangy twist of oak/tannins in the tail. Not having drunk much Zinfandel in the past, thought this might be a touch young but seems this wine is good to drink now."

Tasting note from Zink23 on Cellartracker. More notes on zink23.tumblr.com or #wine @zink23 on twitter

Drank 10/10/2009 2006 Artezin Zinfandel Mendocino County - #wine http://cellartracker.com/w?521076

Mazer Valtellina Superiore DOCG 2005

Valtellina Superiore is a less known nebbiolo variety wine from the very north of Lombardy.
Grown on the foothills of the Alps nebbiolo grapes (there called Chiavennasca) produce lean, medium body reds, which don't have much to do with Barolos or Barbarescos.

I drunk this "Mazer" by Nino Negri last April in Milan. It was a curious wine, which made me very intrigued by Alpine red wines. Garnet color, definitely structure over fruit, smelled of vanilla, violets and sweet spice... Dry, but with a persistent presence of mellow fruit, sweet cherry compote... This was a very elegant, confident wine with a lot of personality, not your typical Tuscan crowd pleaser... (45 Euro in a resturant, 16 in store retail).

With the wine we had a typical Valtellina pasta Pizoccherri, which is whole buckwheat tagliatelle served with potatoes and Swiss chard (you can see the last bite of it in the picture above:), and a very delicious serving of fresh buffalo mozzarella.

Septimo Dia- Malbec 2006 Bodega Septima Mendoza-Argentina

Septimo Dia- Malbec 2006 Bodega Septima Mendoza-Argentina

Price U$ 16

Making its debut in 2009, this new wine comes courtesy of Paola Borgo who arrived at Septima wines in 2008.
Septimo Dia has malbec grapes picked from three different estates in the Mendoza region which provide variety in this complex malbec wine, the winemaker aged this wine 10 months both in french and american oak barrels.
Its very balanced with lots of fruit flavors and hints of vainilla, currants and spices.
It can be hard to find as only 20,000 bottles were made but strongly suggest trying to hunt down a bottle.

Castell del Remei- Gotim Bru 2005 Catalonia Spain

Castell del Remei- Gotim Bru 2005 Catalonia Spain

Tempranillo, Merlot, Granache & Cabernet Sauvignon blend

Price U$ 15

http://www.wine.com/V6/Castell-del-Remei-Gotim-Bru-2005/wine/92262/detail.aspx?s=GoogleBase&cid=GoogleBase

This spanish blend which has a total of 4 different varietals is a great value for the price.

With about 70% Tempranillo one can still taste the other 3 blends which gives this full ruby red wine a rich taste. Its spicey and I tasted hints of coffee and cherry in the mix.

Catalan wines are hard to find outside of Europe but this is a good place to start.

Humberto Canale- Pinot Noir 2006 Patagonia-Argentina

Humberto Canale- Pinot Noir 2006 Patagonia-Argentina

Price U$ 25

Perhaps the best pinot noir out of Argentina this medium size ruby colour pinot noir is the closest one can find in this side of the world that comes close to the Oregon and California counterparts.

Patagonia has become one of the great new regions in Argentina as its climate and land is prime for wine making.

There are hints of raspberry, cherry and rhubarb as well as vainilla.

Its light on the palate and keeps the alcohol content considerably low so as to enjoy this good wine.

Week in Burgundy, July 2007

In July 2007 a group of four entry-level wine enthusiasts (including my girlfriend Sakurako, Gosia, Sam and myself) undertook a little trip to Burgundy, France. We assembled in Zurich, where I happened to be for a conference, and drove a rental car all the way to Cote d'Or.

I just recently stumbled upon some photos from that trip and decided that it would be nice to post some on Dailyglass. After all this was the trip which turned me into a somewhat serious wine drinker, and made pinot noir my favorite grape variety. So in a way this blog wouldn't have happen without our week in Burgundy...


At the time spending more than $30 on a bottle of wine seemed outrageous, so this prevented us from drinking grand crus and older vintages... Nevertheless, we managed to hunt down several exceptional bottles and participate in 3-4 tastings every day.


To save money we camped out most nights, which made the whole thing affordable.The bulk of our limited resources went toward various culinary indulgences, which mostly consisted of beef, snails, roosters and foie gras. And cheese, of course ... including the local, super-smelly, half-liquid Époisses. Vegetal matter is not much appreciated in Burgundy region:)




One of the highlights was a half-day tasting class at Sensation Vin in Beaune. We decided to go with reds only, and tasted 10 wines which were samples of various local terroirs. That was a pretty well organized Burgundy crash course, including slides and handy vintage charts.


If I was to mention one bottle that particularly stuck in my memory, it would be the modest, 7 Euro Bourgogne Passetoutgrains 2004 from organic producers Pierre d'Heilly et Martine Huberdeau (picture below on the right). Passetoutgrains is a regional appellation, basically a cuvée of Gamay and Pinot Noir, where Pinot has to be at least 33%. We got the bottle at a remote abbey Pierre Qui Vire, along with some locally produced moldy goat cheeses. I still remember the deeply satisfying peppery black currant taste with grapefruit finish... this wine was so full of energy and life!

For anyone who is into wine: this doesn't have to be an expensive adventure! We loved it and , no doubt, will be back.