Feature: 2011 Tasting of the Year
Updated: 2012-01-31 16:16:31
: 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 Alex , Ralph , Frank Bob Mark Jan David William 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
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 Warre's Vintage Port 1977 Warre's Vintage Port 1977 Vintage Port might make only an infrequent appearance on the pages of Winedoctor , nevertheless never a year passes without one or two bottles being broached . And it's that time of year again I can't let the darkest days of winter pass without a glass of Port to see me through . And so , after a sorry afternoon of collecting together fractured shards of clay tile , torn from the roof of my garage during a recent storm , and broken asunder on the ground below I thought my house had escaped any damage during the storms of early January , but was mistaken although I have to confess a week had passed before I realised my stupid mistake it was time to wade into this increasingly elderly bottle , the 1977 from Warre's
: 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 Alex , Ralph , Frank Bob Mark Jan David William 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
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.
: 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
: , Home Vintages and Regions Bordeaux Bordeaux 2007 St Emilion Pomerol Bordeaux 2007 : St Emilion Pomerol Bordeaux 2007 Vintage Review En primeur Pessac-Léognan The Médoc Communes St Emilion Pomerol Sauternes Barsac At Two Years Introduction Pessac-Léognan The Médoc Communes St Emilion Pomerol Sauternes Barsac At Four Years Pessac-Léognan St Estèphe Pauillac St Julien Margaux St Emilion Pomerol Sauternes Barsac Moving on from the left bank communes we now come to the two principal right bank appellations of St Emilion and Pomerol . In a number of vintages classic examples being 2008 2001 and 1998 in my opinion , although there are other vintages where this is true the right bank communes can outshine those on the left . In other years , of which the leading example is surely 1996 the left
The story of 2007 in Bordeaux is one of sorry disappointment enhanced by overly exuberant pricing. At least, that is the case for the red wines. When it comes to the sweet white wines of Bordeaux, however, this is a very exciting vintage (this can also be said of the dry white wines by the way, although these were not put under the microscope during this tasting). In the case of Sauternes and Barsac, this has been apparent from the outset.
I started this tasting of the 2007 Bordeaux with low expectations, and by the time I had tasted the first eight wines from Pessac-Léognan, all fresh, crisp and rather light, my outlook had certainly not changed. I wasn't expecting much relief as I moved onto the wines of the Médoc communes.
Home Producer Profiles Bordeaux Profiles Château Bastor-Lamontagne Château Bastor-Lamontagne There are few Barsac and Sauternes estates lying outside the two tiers three if you include Yquem's exalted position at the summit of the 1855 classification which receive much attention , if indeed any . Indeed , there are quite a number of the second growth châteaux that are rarely sighted . One of the few unclassified estates that does crop up rather frequently , however , is Château Bastor-Lamontagne an estate with which I have been familiar ever since my first taste of the fresh , blood-orange tones of the 1986 vintage . Since then I have on occasion noticed this fresh , flavoursome , citrus fruit trait in a number of other vintages , not least the 2003 and 2004. Often a lighter and less
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!
The 2007 vintage in Bordeaux was one that favoured the white wines over the red. Of course, there are few white wines produced in the region, at the classed growth level at least, and it is only to Graves and of course its sweeter counterparts Sauternes and Barsac that we can turn to find these wines. Unfortunately the annual Institute of Masters of Wine Bordeaux tasting has always focused on the red wines, not the white, and so the very successful dry white wines of Pessac-Léognan - wines that you could argue were the most successful dry wines of the vintage - were not on show today. Happily, there is a sweetener though.
Home Producer Profiles Bordeaux Profiles Château Phélan-Ségur Château Phélan-Ségur St Estèphe is a curious commune although devoid of first growth estates it is certainly blessed by two exemplary deuxième crus Montrose and Cos d'Estournel and a long-term favourite for many , the troisième cru Calon-Ségur the communes Palmer equivalent , perhaps . Beyond that the classed growth estates are rather thin on the ground there is just Lafon-Rochet which has never quite acquired the fame of its Tesseron-owned sibling Pontet-Canet and the still under-performing Cos Labory Happily , though , beyond these lower rungs of the 1855 classification there are a number of estates those that we would once have blithely referred to as cru bourgeois before that classification imploded which offer not only
Moving south from St Estèphe and Pauillac we come to St Julien, where quality was not significantly different to these aforementioned communes. The story of 2007 continues here with no surprises. This is not quite true of the commune of Margaux though, although sadly I have to report that the quality here does not swing back towards something more desirable than that which we have found so far. Instead the opposite is true, as in this commune we find one of the most disappointing Bordeaux experiences available on the market today.
. Friday January 27th 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 hberbero ryerson.ca List of Professor B`s . books Professor Berberoglu accepts wines , liquors , liqueurs , and beers for
: 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 An alcoholic is someone you dont like who drinks as much as you . do Dylan Thomas January 25, 2012 TasteLive : Wine Chocolate Fantasy By Amy Corron Power 1 Comment Tweet Share W e start the TasteLive New Year with a celebration of wine and chocolate . We will be joining the folks at TasteLive and some of our fellow wine bloggers on Thursday , January 26 at 8:00 p.m . Central 6:00 p.m . Pacific and 9:00 p.m . Eastern to pair three varying levels of chocolate with Rodney Strong .
Texas Posts Largest Percentage Increase in Wineries in 2011 According to Lettie Teague citing research from WinesVinesData in her “On Wine” column in the Wall Street Journal… “California, unsurprisingly, lead the pack for new wineries started in 2011: 196 new wineries opened with a Golden State address, making its new total 3,519. California led the pack [...]
Old World Charm, New World Adventure – The Wines of Alamosa Wine Cellars The other day, after tasting a set of three wines from Alamosa Wine Cellars, I was reading in my Sotherby’s Wine Encyclopedia… “While Spain can claim a 3,000 year history of wine, the diversity of its wine areas and styles did not [...]
February TXwine Twitter Tuesday (on Wednesday) Tasting Viognier – February 8, 2012! Denise Fraser (@DeniseFraser) and I (@VintageTexas) hope you can join us for the next TXWine Twitter Tuesday chat – but this time it will be on Wednesday, February 8th at 8 p.m. CT. We have changed to Wednesday for February so that we [...]
. Thursday January 19th 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 hberbero ryerson.ca List of Professor B`s . books Professor Berberoglu accepts wines , liquors , liqueurs , and beers for
What’s the Texas wine scene like? By Ray Isle (Executive Wine Editor – Food and Wine Magazine) “Well, we’re doing the Austin Food & Wine Festival, so we’ll be revisiting Hill Country wineries. I’ve written about them before and there’s some really interesting winemaking going on. I think Texas is the same way California was [...]
News Flash: The Austin FOOD & WINE Festival, April 27-29, 2012 C3 Presents and FOOD & WINE Magazine Announce This Inaugural Festival to Feature Celebrity Chefs, Texas All-Stars, Live Performances and Much More in the Live Music Capital of the World Charlie Jones, founding partner of Austin, Texas-based C3 Presents (whose musical festival production credentials [...]
Just When I Was About to Write-off Texas Chardonnay Just about every year I vow to delete the word Chardonnay from the Texas wine lexicon, I find a reason not to. It usually comes after tasting another abomination of a wine made from flabby over ripe fruit with low acidity, high alcohol and the application [...]
This article is a resource for you to find interesting sites.
I have performed website appraisal on 500 sites and I have ranked only the top 250. Herebelow is an analysis of the results.
The big guns
More people look for food or wine information on the Web in the Autumn that in other seasons. This primarily benefits [...]
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 What I like to drink most is wine that belongs to others . Diogenes January 15, 2012 2009 Napa Cellars Merlot By Joe Power Leave a comment Tweet Share I don’t give a damn bout my bad reputation You’re living in the past It’s a new generation And I only feel good When I got no pain And that’s how I’m gonna stay And I don’t give a damn Bout my bad reputation” Joan Jett , Bad Reputation Merlot has a bad reputation . It is often described as feminine , 8221 as if that is an insult .
What do the New Acres of Texas Grapes Hold in Store for Wine Consumers? In my previous blog post (Texas Wines Heading South? What Texans Can Learn From The Texas Grape Production and Variety Survey), I showed that Texas wine were heading south: heading for the southern reaches of Europe for grape varieties that love [...]
Texas Wines Heading South? What Texans Can Learn From The Texas Grape Production and Variety Survey To some wine consumers, I am sure that this data will fit their category of “Too Much Information” or “Why Should I Care”. The information that I am talking about is in the above table and comes from a [...]
Top Ten VintageTexas Blogs of 2011 (and Two More) I just did the tally of the most popular (most accessed) blogs on VintageTexas for the year of 2011 and they are listed below. For the third year in a row (for some unknown reason), my blog on Texas Black Spanish has led all others. Texas [...]