Feature: 2011 Tasting of the Year
Updated: 2011-12-31 12:05:01
: Home Wine Features 2011 Wine in Context Awards part 3 2011 Wine in Context Awards 2011 Wine in Context Awards Part 1 : The Roederers Part 2 : Visit of the Year Part 3 : Tasting of the Year Part 4 : Wines That Mattered Your Turn Richard , Rich Kris Looking back to my Visit of the Year post for a moment , you could argue that the five vintages of Raymond-Lafon I mentioned in my runners-up list were always going to taste delicious at the château mere yards from the vines where the fruit was grown , especially when seated opposite was the man who made the wine . Likewise , nbsp vertical tastings of Brane-Cantenac or Phélan-Ségur the wines lined up at the château , or tours and tastings of other estates such as Talbot or Lafon-Rochet are always likely to yield good experiences . The people
No review of a Bordeaux vintage would be complete without a look at the glorious wines of Sauternes and Barsac. These wines remain under-valued and under-priced, offering tremendous quality in some cases. How some châteaux remain solvent, with the combination of the incredibly low yields associated with the production of Sauternes and a less-than-robust market, is something of a mystery.
: , Home Vintages and Regions Bordeaux Bordeaux 2009 Pessac-Léognan Bordeaux 2009 : Pessac-Léognan Bordeaux 2009 First Report Vintage Review En primeur Top ten wines Pessac-Léognan The Médoc , Part 1 The Médoc , Part 2 St Emilion Pomerol Sauternes Barsac At Two Years Introduction Pessac-Léognan St Estèphe Pauillac St Julien Margaux St Emilion Pomerol Sauternes Barsac Each year , when the UGC circus roles into town , they bring approximately 120 wines with them . I must confess , this is something of an estimate , as I've never bothered to count . It no doubt varies a little year from year , as the UGC membership may change more of that under my Pauillac report or for whatever reason a château may simply not be able to send a representative one year , but I will settle on 120 wines as a
The purpose of any tasting such as this is, to my mind, pleasure. It is a chance to open a lot of bottles and even if the tasting is devoid of any truly great wines, the process of exploration and examination in itself should at least provide some relief. These tastings do - for me at least - also tend to engender a little personal reflection, a look back to where I was ten, fifteen or twenty years ago, what I was doing and - sometimes - what I was drinking. In some ways I haven't changed much - I see that in 2001 I wrote up tastings of 1981 Bordeaux, featuring Latour and Lafite, as well as a 1986 Bordeaux tasting which was capped by a very fine bottle of Lafaurie-Peyraguey.
Home Wine of the Week Laurent-Perrier Brut 2002 Laurent-Perrier Brut 2002 There hasn't been a widely raved-about vintage in Champagne for quite a while now although there have been good years 2002 especially so , and for me 2004 also springs to mind there hasn't really been a buzz' like that which surrounded the 1996 vintage when the wines were released . Certainly 1996 was the last vintage which prompted me to active seek out a range of bottles to add to the cellar , primarily to provide future drinking pleasure of course , but also as I thought it would be interesting to see how these different wines , from the likes of Roederer Pol Roger Pierre Gimonnet and others , aged . Quite a few have made it into the line-up for my 15-years-on tasting which is coming up very soon , and I'm looking
Marc Ollivier, patron of Domaine de la Pépière, one of Muscadet's leading domaines, has not been one to shy away from experimentation. His Granite de Clisson cuvée, renamed simply Clisson in the 2009 vintage in anticipation of the creation of the Clisson cru communal, has long been a model for troisième niveau Muscadet (if none of that means anything to you, part two of my guide to Muscadet will explain).
: Home Wine Features 2011 Wine in Context Awards part 4 2011 Wine in Context Awards 2011 Wine in Context Awards Part 1 : The Roederers Part 2 : Visit of the Year Part 3 : Tasting of the Year Part 4 : Wines That Mattered Your Turn Richard , Rich Kris Last year I finished off my review of 2010 with a look down the wines I had tasted at home , picking out month-by-month those that had really impressed . Although there were some great bottles , from the likes of Clos Rougeard Krug François Cotat Climens Champalou López de Heredia and so on , ultimately I wasn't really satisfied with what I wrote . The reason was that the list was beginning to look a little like the Best Wines of the Year lists you find regurgitated on every other website and web forum you care to look at . On reflection it
It's time for my 2011 Label Quiz. Last year I published this quite late - it was almost New Year's Eve - but this year I'm a little more organised. That's unusual - how did I manage that?! No matter, as hopefully it gives you all time to get your label-identifying thinking caps on. Try your hand at label-spotting with my 2011 Winedoctor Label Quiz.
There are eleven classed growth châteaux in the St Julien commune, and the majority - including some top-flight estates, such as Léoville-Barton and Léoville-Poyferré - participate in UGC events. Only two, Ducru-Beaucaillou and Léoville-Las-Cases demur, but even without these two the commitment from the other classed growth proprietors, together with Gloria, allows for a fairly thorough examination of the commune in any given year. This was certainly the case with the 2009 vintage.
: Home Vintages and Regions 10, 15 20 Years On Ten Years On : 2001 part 2 Ten Years On : The 2001 Vintage Ten Years On : 2001 Notes from a 2001 tasting at 10 : years Part : 1 France Italy Part : 2 Germany Spain Other relevant : tastings 2001 Bordeaux 2001 Northern Rhone 2001 Southern Rhône Continuing on from my account of the wines from France and Italy in part one we now come to Germany and Italy . Both were blessed in 2001 this was an excellent vintage for the Mosel and other German wine regions as it was in Spain , specifically in Rioja . I am aware there is a lot more to Spain than Rioja , of course , but other than occasional forays into the wines of Navarra and Murcia and the odd glass of Vega Sicilia and Tio Pepe En Rama here or there , it is not a wine country I have any great
It's difficult not to get excited about St Estèphe. Whether it is the austere majesty of Château Montrose, the more turbo-charged rocket fuel of Cos d'Estournel or the spicy density of Calon-Ségur that gets your juices flowing, there is no doubt that each of these chateaux have, at one time or another, yielded wines which support very clearly their position close to the top of the of the Bordeaux hierarchy. Having said that, you might now be disappointed to learn that neither Montrose, Cos d'Estournel nor Calon-Ségur participate in UGC activities, and so they are not represented within my notes published below.
With a huge wad of new tasting notes on 2009 Bordeaux piled up on my desk (metaphorically speaking - the reality is they're in a spreadsheet on my hard drive), dozens of Bordeaux updates to be made, vertical tastings of Brane-Cantenac, Phélan-Ségur and other chateaux waiting to be written up following my visit to the region, and - by the time I've finished at this week's tasting at The Institute of Masters of Wine - a whole bunch of new 2007 Bordeaux notes ready to go, it's only natural that I should get stuck in with....err, Muscadet.
As far as my early Bordeaux education went, my palate spent many years getting accustomed to the wines of the left bank before, other than the occasional taste of a few high flying properties such as Vieux Chateau Certan, I really began to get to grips with the right bank. Chatting about this with a French-American citizen who works in the wine industry in Bordeaux recently, he said to me, with a twinkle in his eye: "I think the left bank is for the British, whereas the right bank is for Americans. And Belgians".
One of the most exciting discoveries I have made during 2011 is without a doubt the wines of Hungary, largely experienced through the wines of Winedoctor sponsor Cozzi & Boffa. My early experiences with Hungarian wine were probably not unique. Having grown up in a family with no interest in wine, I do recall the occasional bottle of the unusually named Bull's Blood appearing from time to time, no doubt to give us all a break from the Blue Nun and the Black Tower, those atrocious sugar-sweet German brands which graced many a British dining table during the 1970s and 1980s.
Congratulations to all those who had a go at my 2011 label quiz, everybody who had a go got something right, so well done! Below are the answers, in full picture format, so if you haven't had a go at the quiz yet don't look down!
Despite my addiction to the wines of the Loire, and my long-term affair with Bordeaux, the wines of Germany have long held some appeal for me. There is something captivating about the patchwork of vineyards, brimming over with centuries of history, matched in this respect only by Burgundy, those precipitously slatey slopes looking down onto the Rhine and the Mosel and, of course, the filigree finesse of the wines, which at their apogee are some of the most exciting and vibrant to be found on the planet. And so I was very happy to recently return to Germany, even if only vicariously, with a look at a trio of samples provided by Prinz von Hessen, a long-established estate on the Rhine.
This week a return to Alsace, with another one in my very infrequent and informal programme of Alsace Grand Cru tastings, At my current rate of tasting, I should have worked my way through all fifty grand cru vineyards - tasting at least one wine from each - by the end of 2028. As I said, it's infrequent and informal! For previous instalments, see Brand (admittedly featuring a wine from Clos Jebsal - close enough for the moment) and Osterberg (here featuring a wine that doesn't declare the grand cru in question on the label, but again, this is close enough for me).
Texas Wine Included in Saveur’s Editor-in-Chief List of Top Trends for 2012 By James Oseland (Saveur Editor-in-Chief on MSNCB.com) “As 2011 draws to a close, the culinary trends we’re seeing on the horizon for 2012 are about comfort, familiarity, and hometown pride. Here’s a look at what was hot in 2011—and what will be in [...]
, . Friday December 30th Log in Register Contact About Search and find good red . wine Visit Winesworld.net the wine . database Home Wine Food Travel Recipes Reviews Book Reviews Prod . we don’t like Restaurants Wine Reviews Ebooks Archives Contributors Hrayr Berberoglu Morten Pedersen Hotel Professionals We are looking for advertisers . Advertise with us and get a good . deal mail winesworld.com Professor Hrayr Berberoglu Professor B offers seminars Greater Toronto Area to companies and interested parties at their residence on any category of wine , chocolates , chocolates and wine , olive oils , vinegars and dressings , at a reasonable cost . Please , contact him at hirayrberberoglu_3 sympatico.ca List of Professor B`s . books Professor Berberoglu accepts wines , liquors , liqueurs , and
2011 Top Ten Texas Wines from VintageTexas - The Honorable Mentions As with any top ten wine list, there are many wines that are worthy of inclusion, but for one reason of another are left out. In my case, I focused my top ten list to include my fave wines from 2011 that I felt also made [...]
Top Ten Texas Wines of 2011 from VintageTexas: Installment #2 – Next Five Wines I’ve already given you my standard disclaimer and warning in Installment #1 for my top ten wines of 2011. Basically, these are my favorite wines from the lone star state that I tasted in 2011 (and all were Texas Appellation – [...]
Top Ten Texas Wines of 2011 from VintageTexas: Installment #1 – Five Wines As with most top ten lists, they need to be prefaced by a disclaimer: “In the eyes of the beholder”. I have not tasted every Texas wine, but I have tasted quite a few. Therefore, this list is based on wines that [...]
The Wine Society of Texas Reaches $30,000 Mark in Texas Wine Scholarships The Wine Society of Texas (WST), a 501c3 non-profit educational organization, announced that this year it is awarding grants totaling $5,000 in support of ten individuals from around the State. This is the tenth consecutive year that the WST has provided grant assistance [...]
Write Off the Vine – Texas Wine News: Holiday Season Edition Celebrate the Holidays with a Free Glass of Texas Wine at Antlers By John Griffin (SavorSA) As the days dwindle down to Christmas, it’s time to take a few moments off to enjoy a good dinner and a relaxing glass of wine. The folks [...]
. Thursday December 22nd Log in Register Contact About Search and find good red . wine Visit Winesworld.net the wine . database Home Wine Food Travel Recipes Reviews Book Reviews Prod . we don’t like Restaurants Wine Reviews Ebooks Archives Contributors Hrayr Berberoglu Morten Pedersen Hotel Professionals We are looking for advertisers . Advertise with us and get a good . deal mail winesworld.com Professor Hrayr Berberoglu Professor B offers seminars Greater Toronto Area to companies and interested parties at their residence on any category of wine , chocolates , chocolates and wine , olive oils , vinegars and dressings , at a reasonable cost . Please , contact him at hirayrberberoglu_3 sympatico.ca List of Professor B`s . books Professor Berberoglu accepts wines , liquors , liqueurs , and
Ring in the New Year with TXwine Twitter Tuesday and Jessica Dupuy of Texas Monthly, January 3, 2012! Denise Fraser (@DeniseFraser) and I (@VintageTexas) hope you can join us for the next TXWine Twitter Tuesday at 7 p.m. (central time) Tuesday, January 3rd. We will have Jessica Dupuy of Texas Monthly (@jdewps), with us to [...]
Fairhaven Vineyards TVM 2009 Lomanto: Texas Bred, Texas Savored It was truly one of the most incredible wine tastings…in Denison, Texas, at Vinita, the familial home of Thomas Volnay (T.V.) Munson. We had a host of wines, but not a name among them was recognizable from any of my previous wine tastings. The names included [...]
Write Off the Vine – Texas Wine News: December 16, 2011 Grape acres expand in spite of drought By Logan Hawkes (Southwest Farm Press) While the Texas grape harvest suffered a significant drop this fall as a result of extreme summer heat and drought, more orchard-acres were used to produce the smaller yield. And in [...]
I Guess this is What Happens When the State Legislature and Governor Actually Care I received a copy of a news release this morning, forwarded by Jeff Siegel (The Wine Curmudgeon) and Co-Founder of DrinkLocalWine.com along with the following very curmudgeonly comment… “I guess this is what happens when the state legislature and the governor [...]
Another Wine Blog Because Another Wine , Food , Beer and Travel Blog would have been way too ing long Skip to content Home Best of AWB Reviews Food Cooking Recipes Contact Us Contact AWB Contact Amy Contact Joe Media PR Inquiries Links About About This Site About Amy About Joe RSS Feed Twitter StumbleUpon FaceBook The First Duty of wine is to be Red the second is to be a Burgundy Harry Waugh December 19, 2011 Join us for a Sneak Peak of The Wineyard at Santa Rosa Vintners’ Square By Amy Corron Power Leave a comment Tweet Share W hen I met Creative Furnace’s Cailyn McCauley and Joel Quigley for dinner at Healdsburg’s popular Spoon Bar during Sonoma Harvest Weekend , they were bursting with news about a future base camp” for TasteLive Now we can share the news with you The Wineyard at Santa