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

2011 Domaine Huet Vouvray Le Mont Sec

Domaine Huet is the star of Vouvray, and for me even the star of white Loire. The domaine was established in 1928 by Voctor Huet and his son Gaston. Today they have a total of 35 hectares of vineyards within the Vouvray appellation. The three major vinyeards account for 23 hectares, the vineyards being Le Haut Lieu, Le Clos de Bourg and Le Mont.

The Le Mont vineyard was acqured by Gaston Huet in 1957 and consists today of 6 hectares of vines. The vineyard is stony with green clay and much slicium. This tends to give an elegant wine with floral notes.

Tasting note on the 2011 Domaine Huet Vouvray Le Mont Sec

It's not often I comment the colour, but this wine has such a beautiful golden, but not too dark yellow colour. The nose is very aromatic with lemon, frass, dusty minerality and floral notes.
Very good mouthfeel. A perfect balance between weight and freshness. I get apples, citrus, minerality and peaches. The finnish is very long and starts off with a heavy amount of minerality, then the finnish creams out into creamy fruit and honey balanced out with a beautiful acidity. It feels a bit sweet but while being dry. On the tail i pick up some baked apples and cinamon. 94 points

This is by far the best white wine I have posted a tasting note for on this blog. It has such a good weight, complexity and balance. It's drinking so nicely right now, but can probably last for another 20 to 30 years. Given the price, this is a great QPR and a must have for anyone who likes wine.

2007 Banfi Brunello di Montalcino

Brunello di Montalcino is a DOCG appellation within the Italian wine region of Tuscany. The vineyards of the appellation surrounds the town of Montalcino. Geographically, Montalcino lies about 120 km south of Tuscany. In the early days it was believed that the grapes produced within the appelation was a individual grape variety called Brunello, but in 1879 it was determined that the grapes were in fact Sangiovese. To be able to call the wine a Brunello di Montalcino today, the wine must consist of 100% Sangiovese grapes and all grapes must be grown in the Brunello di Montalcino appellation.

Castello Banfi is one of the big producers of Brunello di Montalcino wines. They have a wide distribution, so there is a good chance you'll see a Banfi at your local wine shop. They produce a total of 15 different wines. The Brunello di Montalcino is their basic Brunello. THey have 170 hectares of vineyards devoted to the wine.

Tasting note on the 2007 Banfi Brunello di Montalcino

The nose shows lot's of florality, cherries and some licquorice.  Blackcurrants, cherries, earthiness, chocolate on the palate. A medium plus palate where the fruit is quite ripe. Blueberry, some stemmy tannins and dry finnish. Decent length. With little air, the wine opens up and the florality takes over. The wine is so floral. Big floral notes. The fruit gets more dried out as well. It is young, ripe and big. Lacks some balance and freshness. 89 points

Saved 1/3 of the wine in the decanter and let it stay in room temprature for 3 days. The wine has now calmed down, but it's not gone. Red and dark berries on the nose. More light to medium bodied. Some cherries, cigar and dried plum on the finnish. Quite long. A more wine for my palate at this stage, but still 89 points if I was to score it at this stage and in an objective manner.

This wine has scored big with some of the wine critics. Sucking gave it 94, Wine Enthusiast 92 and TWA gave it 91 points. It's not that suprising. I think these critics tend to like the bigger, riper style more than I do.

2011 Desvignes Chablis 1er Cru Montée de Tonnerre

I read a thread on the Wine Berserkers forum with the topic being "Which vineyard do you like so much that you will buy irrespective of producer?". Someone their suggested the Montée de Tonnerre, a premier cru vineyard in Chablis.

It is an interesting suggestion. The Montée de Tonnerre is a vineyard with the potential of producing grand cru quality wines. The vineyard lies southeast of all the grand cru vineyards in Chablis and shares much of the same soil.

I thought it would be interesting to take it to the test. So I went to my local wine shop and bought the cheapest Montée de Tonnerre I could find. The result, a Montée de Tonnerre produced by Desvignes Aine & Fils. I have little knowledge about the producer, and it's hard to find much on the world wide web. So this wine must just speak for itself.

Tasting note on the 2011 Desvignes Chablis 1er Cru Montée de Tonnerre

The wine was opened and then put in the fridge for about an hour. The first glass showed a a mouthwatering and pleasent mouthfeel with apple, pear and citrus. The finnish had nice minerality (chalky) and acidity. Good length. After a while, when the wine got a bit warmer, the wine showed more of it's true colours. The crispness goes away and the oak shows. The wine looses some of it's pleasure factor, and becomes a decent wine with a bit too much oak showing. 86 points 

This was an interesting experiment. It is so easy to get fooled by a cold white wine. The temprature masks over all the flaws and just increases the pleasure. This isn't a great wine, but it works very well if served cold.

Going back to the reason why I bought the wine, are all wines from Montée de Tonnerre worth buying? My answer, after trying this, would be no. The wine from Desvignes is on the low side of 1er cru's from Chablis in terms of price, but you do not have to pay much more for better 1er cru wines.

2008 Schug Carneros Pinot Noir

Picked up this bottle from my local wine store yesterday. I love picking up random American wine. It's like rolling the dice. It could either be a great wine or it could be a fake, overoaked fruit bomb. Reading the back label before opening the wine was very promising. It says " The Schug familly is dedicated to producing wine in the European style".

Don't get me wrong, I am all for terroir. I do not want California wines to taste like Bordeaux. But to me, over oaked and over extracted wines is not the terroir from California.

Tasting note on the 2008 Schug Carneros Pinot Noir

The nose shows oak, ripe fruit and a note that to me can best be described as a soapy character. One thing is to say about this wine, and that is that the palate sure follows up on the nose. It's to me very oaky, soapy and with ripe fruit. The finnish is quite long, but has some green cherries and burnt rubber. This is Soap Wood City USA. 81 points

After tasting a wine I don't like I am always excited to look on cellartracker to see what other think of it. This wine has a 87.4 average score, one has even scored this wine 93. There is one who has scored it 75 though, I think my palate is more in line with her/him. So, this is just one of those wines you either hate or love. I didn't like it at all. Not the worst wine ever, but there is so much wine out there that tastes better.

2008 Domaine Cyrot Buthiau Volnay

This is a wine I can't remember buying. I have never heard of the producer before, and buying a village Volnay from an unknown producer is risky. But it is also a lot of fun.

The domaine has 35.6 hectares of vineyards in Burgundy. They produce 11 different wines:Cremant de Bourgogne, Meursault, Bourgogne Pinot Noir, Volnay, Pommard, Pommard le 19Vingt, Santenay 1er Cru Clos Rousseau, Maranges 1er Cru les Clos Roussots, Pommard 1er cru les Charmots, Pommard 1er cru la Chaniere and Pommard 1er cru les Arvelets.

 Tasting note on the 2008 Domaine Cyrot Buthiau Volnay

The nose gives signs that the wine is open for business. Not extremely complex nose, but there are som red fruit notes. Also a int of swimming pool.

After little air: The mid palate is thin. There are som floral notes along with some watered out raspberry / strawberry flavours. The finnish offers some plum, dry tannins and sour cherries. The sturcture is decent, except from the hollow mid palate, but it's a bit thin and lacking complexity.

With more air it gains a bit weight, but the mid palate continues to be thin and having some hollow points. The finnish has stemmy tannins and sourness, but also some leather and earthiness. 87 points

I like lean fruit and balance, but there is a difference between lean and thin. This is a decent wine and very drinkable / serviceable. It wouldn't bother me to drink this wine a bit chilled on a summer evening. Actually, I could see that working well. That said, you can find better wine than this outside Burgundy for a lower price.

2010 Schloss Johannisberg Riesling Silberlack Erstes Gewächs

Schloss Johannisberg is one of the most famous producers of Riesling in Germany. I haven't been interested in wine for so long so I wasn't into wine at the time where Schloss Johannisberg ruled the Riesling world. In recent years, the winery has been passed both in terms of quality and attention by several other Riesling producers.

The Erstes Gewächs is a designation only used in Rheingau for top level dry Riesling. It is the same as the Grosses Gewächs that other regions in Germany usen, and is the equivalent of first growth.

Tasting note on the 2010 Schloss Johannisberg Riesling Silberlack Erstes Gewächs

The nose shows orange peel, citrus, tropical fruit and rubber. On the initial attack and the mid palate I feel a touch of residual sugar, even though this is a dry wine. I get som pineapple and some green apples. The finnish is dry with a nice acidity, minerality and some greeness, but there are some hollow points in the finnish. 89 points

For a Erstes Gewächs, this is a bit disappointing. It's a good wine, but not that much better than a standard trocken from many producers in Germany. It lacks some concentration.

2007 Burlotto Barolo Movigliero

Comm. G. B. Burlotto has 30 acres of vineyards in Piedmont, 24 acreas in Verduno and the remaining 6 acres in Barolo and Roddi. The vines vary from 45 years old in the Monvigliero vineyard to the youngest being planted in 2003. Half of the 30 acres are planted with Nebbiolo while the rest Cannubi. Barbera, Dolcetto, Pelverga piccolo, Sauvignon blanc and Freisa. In total, Burlotto produces 60 000 bottles of wine per year.

The Barolo Monvigliero from Burlotto is one of their star bottlings. They produce 5 to 6 000 bottles of this wine each year. It is a single vineyard Barolo from the Monvigliero vineyard in Verduno. Burlotto has a 2 acre plot in this vineyard.

Tasting note on the 2007 Burlotto Barolo Movigliero:

A very pleasent and elegant nose with strawberies, floral notes and cherries. Ripe fruit.

The palate shows strawberry jam, rose pedals, cherries. A floral finnish with some cherries, soil, leather and licquorice. Firm tannins. The finnish has good length with the sour cherries kingering on the palate for a long time.

This is a typical 2007. It drinks so well right now and didn't need much decanting either. The fruit is ripe, but not over ripe. There is balance and elegance all the way in this wine.
93 points