Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Kracher Berenauslese 2006

We had this wine on December 1st, just a few days before the very early and sad end of Elois Kracher's life. We have always enjoyed his wonderful wines. It's a loss to the wine world and a great loss to Austria's wine scene. We all hope that his son will step us to his father's giant shoes.

Kracher Berenauslese 2006
Light straw color, Passion fruit, lime and honey. This medium bodied wine is amazingly round and harmonic for this young age. Excellent finish. 91

Thursday, December 6, 2007

Recanati Winery Tasting

Recanati winery was founded in 2000 and since then has consistently released some of the best QPRs and the most interesting wines made in Isreal. This tasting had a clear sign: Lewis Pasco (the winemaker) is making a clear shift in the upper series towards more complex and Mediterranean wines. Emphasizing the uniqueness of local wines and complementing the local food is a direction that will create brand for Israeli wines. So, instead of trying to produce yet another California-like wine, Lewis makes local, interesting and unique wines. I got the opportunity to taste a couple of 06 & 07 samples - this was extermly interesting. To the wines:

Sauvignon Blanc 2006
Pineapple, grass, tropical fruit all very nicely integrated with the right amount of acidity. Very good wine. 88
Sauvignon Blanc 2007
This is a baby, but so good that you hope it will not loose anything along the process. Guava, passion fruit, grassy aromas. Bites you a bit at the finish, but overall a wonderful wine. 90-92

Chardonnay 2007
Light straw color, Apple, pear, Medium bodied with a nice finish. 87-88
Chardonnay Reserve 2007
Round and already harmonious wine, just enough oak too show the fruit: pears, apples. Has an excellent potential. 88-90
Chardonnay Reserve 2006
Very elegant wine, with apple, butter, lingers in your mouth. Has a good structure and an excellent finish. 90

Shiraz 2005
Earth, blackberries, cassis, led pencil. Light to Medium bodied with integrated tannins. Providing a very harmonic drinking experience. A wine that goes very well with food. This is a very good QPR. 89

A small vertical of Special Reserves:
Special Reserve 04
Very round and fruity wine which is really ready to drink now. Medium bodied, red fruit and an impressive long finish. 92 (Drink while listening to Diana Krall)
Special Reserve 05
Blueberries, green herbs, elegant but powerful. Very Cabernet Sauvignon in nature. Looong finish and an excellent potential. 92-94 (Drink while listening to Chick Corea)
Special Reserve 06
Almost opaque black color, full bodied with ample amount of tannins. Red fruits, green pepper and blackberries. Has a potential to be the best RSR to date. 93-95 (This goes well with Miles Davis!)
Special Reserve 07
This wine is so young that it needs a more experienced taster... Very tanninc, pencil led, red & black fruit and a green component. Excellent potential, but not scoreable right now.

Petit Syrah - Zin 2005
Olives, herbs, blackberries and earthy notes. Very balanced and with a good finish. 90
Petit Syrah - Zin 2006
Very similar to the 05, but has a more extrovert nature - the young thug in the neighborhood. 90
Petit Syrah - Zin 2007
Red fruits, very perfumy and with some earthy notes. This has the potential to be much better than his older "brothers" 90-92

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Bordeaux 2004 Tasting

Sampling nine Bordeaux 2004 red wines and one Sauternes 2003 does not provide a complete picture of 2004 vintage quality. Trying to generalize from what I've tasted, there are some excellent wines from this vintage, the wines are very closed and (probably due to low ripeness) will need time in the cellar to come around. The wines were all tasted blind.

Domaine de Chevalier, Pessac Leognan
Deep color, earth, blueberries and green pepper. Very tannic wine with slight bitterness on the finish. Medium to light bodied, not very well integrated, this is not an extremely good wine. 87

Lascombes, Margaux
Ripe fruit - blackberries and red cherries, cinnamon and muscat and slight must that went away with some air time. Very well structured and tannic. Interesting finish which revealed extra layers. This will get better with time. 90

Lafleur Gazin, Pomerol
Mute on the nose, which some strange (almost rotten) fruit and a bit chocolate. Full bodied but nothing more than a simple wine. 83

Latour A Pomerol
Medium red/brownish color, raspberries, smoke and pretty harmonic wine. However it feels a bit diluted and there is a musty finish. At the end, its another simple wine. 85

Troplong Mondot, St. Emillion
Very deep color, cherries, blackberries, green herbs. Has a feeling of unripe fruit, some smoky element. Very tannic with a long good finish. Well structured. Good aging potential. 89

Leoville Poyferre, St. Julien
Deep color, almost non penetratable. Blueberries, chocolate, blackberries and a bit muscat and green herbs. Very well structured and harmonic. This wine sings! 93

Calon Segur, St. Estephe
Very closed, a bit rotten fruit (probably an off/corked bottle).After some time in the glass it gets better with raspberries and green herbs. Disappointment after revealing the wine. 87

Lynch Bages, Pauillac
Deep dark red color. Blackberries, kirsch liqueur, coffee and chocolate. Harmonic, very elegant and well structured. Medium to full bodied, but a slight disappointing finish. 90

Pichon-Longueville Baron, Pauillac
Very dark red color, Black fruit, green herbs, already some leather and a very complex and elegant wine. very good finish. 92

Rieussec 2003
Honey, melon, oranges and some honeysuckle. harmonic and wonderful overall feeling in the moth. Very Enjoyable now, but will definitely hold for many years. 95

In Haim's blog you will find reviews of some of the wines tasted here plus additional wines.