2001 Lopez de Heredia Rioja Vina Tondonia Reserva

Lopez de Heredia is one of the legendary producers from Rioja in Spain. They are known for their traditional Rioja wine making style. The winery has a total of 170 hectares of vineyards in Rioja, divided into 4 different vineyars; Tondonia, Cubillo, Bosconia and Gravonia. The largest and also the most famous is the Tondonia vineyard, The vineyard is 70 hectares.

The 2001 Vina Tondonia is from a legendary vintage in Rioja. After 2000, this is by far the best vintage. In my opinion the next best is the 2004. The 2001 wine consists of a blend of 75% Tempranillo, 15% Garnacho, 10% Graciano and Mazuelo.The alcohol level on this wine is 13%.

Tasting note on the 2001 Lopez de Heredia Rioja Vina Tondonia Reserva

The nose offers strawberries, vanilla and spices. The palate follows up the nose. Strawberries, vanilla, spices. The finnish offers some additional sour cherries. The palate is meaty and juicy. 89 points

This is a good wine, but I was underwhelmed. It disappointed me a bit. It was very pleasent, but bored me a bit, thus the short tasting note. It's hard to explain, but the best way is probably that there wasn't any wow factor there.

2009 Joh. Jos. Prüm Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Kabinett

Joh. Jos. Prüm is one of the stars of the Mosel region in Germany. The estate was split up in 1920 when the S.A. Prüm winery was established. Today the winery holds 14 acres of vineyards in Mosel. The vineyards in their portfoloi are; Wehlener Sonnenuhr, Graacher Himmelreich, Bernkasteler Lay, Bernkasteler Badstube and Zeltinger Sonnenuhr. Depending on the vintage, the winery produces between 10,000 and 13,000 cases of wine each year. All wines are 100% Riesling based.

I find German Rieslings facinating. The kabinett wines from J.J. Prüm are ment to be on the lower end of the quality range, but this is a wine from probably the best vineyard in all of Mosel. It is also a wine from one of the best producers in Mosel. You can get all this, from a good vintage, for only $25. I find it amazing.

Tasting note on the 2009 Joh. Jos. Prüm Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Kabinett

A very fruity palate on this wine. Their is just peaches for days on the palate, mixed in with some white flowers. (I do not know that well what white flowers taste like but it has a floral taste and it feels more white than red, if that makes any sense) There is also some petrol notes on the palate, but not over the top. The wine is very  focused and has good transitions all the way through.

It does not have the 2010 type of acidity, but that is fine. It has acidity enough to balance things out and it is nicely integrated. I should also comment that the wine is a bit spritzy, and that works quite well for this wine. 91 points

This is a perfect "summer on the porch" kind of wine. If you, as me, prefer the petrol notes to be subtle I would recommend drinking it within the first 2-3 hours after opening the bottle. After that the petrol notes took over too much for my palate.

2008 Produttori del Barebaresco Barbaresco

It's not long ago i posten a tasting note on the 2007 Produttori del Barebaresco Mucagota Riserva. That was one of the single vineyard riservas from the coop. This time i decided to taste the standard Barbaresco from 2008, which I have read good thins about. PdB did also produce Riserva's in 2008, but the standard Barbaresco usually offers some good value even in these vintages.

Tasting note on the 2008 Produttori del Barebaresco Barbaresco

I'll divide this tasting note into 3 stages:
1. After 2 hours of decanting
2. After 4 hours of decanting
3. Half of the bottle left in the fridge over night with the cork

Stage 1:
Floral, plum, dried fruit. The fruit and florality is a bit massive. The notes continue on to the finnish, but now with an underlying tar component that I only get on the finnish. Dry, pretty big tannins. The wine is approachable, but should benefit from more air.

Stage 2:
Initial attack of red fruit, then overtaken by florality before a nice potion of sour cherries. The fruit is a bit more balanced and leaner than in stage 1. Again the finnish is floral with the underlying tar component.

Stage 3:
Even more leaner fruit and more sour cherries. It's facinating to see how the sour cherry notes need air to show. Still dry tannins, but rounder than on the first day. There is also a nutty component on the finnish now. 90 points

2005 Chateau Musar

I've posted a TN on a Musar earlier, but then it was the 2004 Chateau Musar Hochar Père et Fils. Now it was time to try the big brother, the Chateau Musar.

Tasting note on the 2005 Chateau Musar

Straight out of the bottle the nose shows strawberry, cigar and plum on the nose. The palate is dominated by cigar and leather, with some undelying flavours of fruit.

After 2 hours of decanting this wine starts to really show. The palate has changes from being dominated by the cigar and leather to being dominated by fruit and floral notes. The cigar, leather and earth is now the underlying notes, which is the way i prefer it. To me, this comes cross as a Nebbiolo at times. Dried fruit, rose pedals, cigar and leather. 91 points

This is a wine with good complexity. It needs some time in a decanter to really shine, but given that, it is approachable now. Given the price point that this wine can be found at, I would say it's a really good QPR.

2010 Joseph Drouhin Gevrey Chambertin

It's been way too long since I posted the last tasting note on here. I'm so sorry for that. My wine consuption goes up and down, meaning that I don't always taste a lot of wine each week. In addition to that, work and other stuff can also get in the way. All those factors combined, do cause me to not updating this blog as often as I want to.

I thought I'd start my "comeback" right where I left off, with a 2010 Joseph Drouhin. Last time we went for the 2010 Joseph Drouhin Santenay, this time I took it a step ut to the Gevrey Chambertin village. I've read somwhere that this has some 1er cru juice in it, so my expectations where kindof on the high side.

Tasting note on the 2010 Joseph Drouhin Gevrey Chambertin

The first couple zips: More ripe fruit than expected. Sweet strawberry, floral notes and minerality.The mid palate is a bit on the flabby side. Ends with some good soureness, plum and minerality. Quite long.

After some air the soureness takes over. The fruit gets leaner and the baby fat has blown away, but the soureness of the finnish is way over the top and unbalaned for me.

With even more air the body fleshes out. It gets more meaty. The finnish is still a bit overthetop sour and some stilky tannins.

After a day in the fridge the wine has developed further. It's is now very jammy, both red and dark fruit. The soureness is better integrated. It's very smooth. Perhaps a tad on the jammy side for me, but very deliciuos. Lacks some charachter though. 89 pionts

2010 Joseph Drouhin Santenay

I keep digging into the Burgundy wines from 2009 and 2010. This time, I found a cheap bottle of 2010 Pinot at my local store from Joseph Drouhin. Joseph Drouhin is one of the largest producers of red wine in Burgundy. The estate has a total of 73 hectares of vineyards. The breakdown is as follows:

• Chablis: 38 hectares
• Côte de Nuits and Côte de Beaune: 32 hectares
• Côte Chalonnaise: 3 hactares

For some of their village and regional wines, Drouhin buys grapes from other producers.

Tasting note on the 2010 Joseph Drouhin Santenay

Some ripe plum and cardboard on the nose. The first attack brings some sour raspberries and cherries. Ripe fruit, some minerality and iron feel. Plum and cherries on the finnish. There is also some unbalanced sourness and greeness on the back end.  
It is not a bad wine, it's just not very exciting. The mid palate is hollow, the fruit is a bit too ripe for me and their isn't much complexity to talk about. The wine though is very servicable, has some of the Pinot characteristics and has a nice acidity. A decent weekday wine.
86 points

2007 Produttori del Barbaresco Muncagota Riserva

Produttori del Barbaresco is one of the few great cooperatives in the wine world. It has 56 members and a total of 250 acres of Nebbiolo planted vineyards in Barbaresco. The coop produces only wines from the Nebbiolo grape, and the average total number of bottles produced each year is 420,000. In good vintages the wines are divided into the standard Barbaresco (40%), single vineyard Barbaresco riservas (40%) and the Nebbiolo Langhe (20%). In off vintages they only produce the standard Barbaresco and the Nebbiolo Langhe.The nine single vineyards produced in good vintages are: Asili, Rabaja, Pora, Montestefano, Ovello, Pajé, Montefico, Muncagota (Moccagata) and Rio Sordo.

Tasting note on the 2007 Produttori del Barbaresco Muncagota Riserva

The colour is light red. The nose is really singing. Huge amount of cherries, but there is also some floral notes, dirt and licquorice. Very promising nose.

On the palate; strawberries, rocks soily and plum. I use the soily description from time to time, but this is real dirt. Not in a bad way though. Very interesting. Feels like I took a handfull of soil and put it in my mouth, and I love it.  The finnish is dry, starting off with sour cherries, then a leather component is added before it get's more mineral. At the end it gets dark. The wine has a very good acidity

This wine is very good, but I get the feeling it's holding a bit back. This should have potential to get better. It might be that it's getting into a dumb phase. 92 points