nanson.ch non french red wine notes

Tasting Notes - The Rest !

Spain & Portugal . . . . . . . USA
New Zealand . . . . . . . South America . . . . . . . Any Others?
2001 Bodegas Roda, Cirsion Rioja March 2003
Apparently 2001 in Rioja is like 2000 in Bordeaux - i.e. the locals are getting carried away with themselves. Anyway, this wine has seen 8 months in new French oak and is the culmination of very low yields. The colour is a deep ruby-purple. I found the nose quite subdued, but the palate anything but - very fine, concentrated tannins, gorgeous red and black fruit and very, very long. There's a little oak marking the palate, but it's also a very young wine. Excellent.
1999 Descendientes de J Palacios, Bierzo February 2003
Saturated, almost black colour with crimson at the rim. Deep nose of focused redcurrant and cherry, kirsch at the top-end too. Lovely furry tannin and good acidity. The fruit is ripe and reasonalbly concentrated. Seems to have the stuffing to last quite well - I'd be really interested to try this again in a couple of years.
1999 Peter Sisseck, Flor de Pingus Ribero del Duero February 2003
Bearing in mind that this bottle had already been open for 24 hours this is a remarkable wine. Very deep garnet. Deep truffly, black fruit nose with no sign of oxidation. The palate is fat with tons of velvetty tannin and beautiful fruit - reminds me of a top Pomerol - from Tempranillo too. Excellent.
1995 Cune Imperial, Rioja Reserva September 2002
Medium ruby colour. Nose is pure red fruits, no mushrooms and no vanilla. Palate is medium density, but nothing medium about the experience. Beautiful acidity, fruit delivery, mild tannin and a really fine finish. Excellent.
1994 Chivite, Colección 125 Navarra Gran Reserva September 2002
Medium/full ruby colour. Nose still has high toast oak, high tones of raspberry & redcurrants. Fat palate, very rich, fruity and full with enough acidity to balance. Medium tannin, but more than medium length to the finish. Pretty fine.
1997 Bodegas Roda, Roda I Rioja Reserva August 2002
Colour is deep ruby, just shaded towards cherry. Nose is very ‘al funghi’ but there are ashes and plummy fruit in the background too. This wine is all about the finish; you have a medium intensity palate with good acidity and medium, furry tannins, but as the wine slips down, it’s like the palate and flavours spread wider and wider. You finally get some vanilla, but this is almost a minute later. A real peacocks tail. A wine that today is not easy to love without food, but for the future, potentially outstanding – provided the mushrooms on the nose tone down a little!
2000 P+S, Chryseia Douro June 2002
This wine is mainly Touriga Nacional from a venture by Bruno Prats and Peter Symington (P+S). I think this is also the 'maiden' vintage – for export at least. Dark, though not quite saturated ruby/purple. Nose is incredibly powerful. Crushed raspberries and black cherries fight it out at the start, with passing time you get some very meaty notes with perhaps some leather too. The palate is bold and tannic with excellent acidity, coupled with really dense fruit. This is frankly excellent; New World aromatics without the (often) overly sweet palate of many New World wines, and no over-done oak. Pricey at ~£22 but worth it.
1998 Bodegas Roda, Roda II Rioja Reserva June 2002
Garnet colour just slightly lighter at the rim. The nose has some creamy 'cooked' plum notes and a much more subtle trace of vanilla than most young Rioja. The palate has excellently covered acidity and high quality tannins. Again predominantly 'cooked' fruit on the palate with the vanilla note coming through on the finish too. Very good. Not to me recognisably Rioja, but good to drink now or to save a couple of years.
1994 Byron, Santa Barbara Reserve Pinot Noir December 2002
Deep ruby core just a little browner at the rim. Nose starts with overwhelming 'old wood' notes. Given an hour or two you are left with a very nice savoury & meaty nose. There's quite good acidity to go with concentrated, though very cooked fruit and still traces of wood. Actually a very good wine, but leave in the decanter for an hour or so first.
1996 Kent Rasmussen, Carneros Pinot Noir June 2002
(Tasted vs Dujac 1988 Charmes-Chambertin) Colour betrays some age, deep ruby core fading to brick red at the edge. Nose is amazingly similar to the Dujac above, except instead of pipe tobacco, the additional dimension is like a caramel coffee. Still some tannin and very good acid balance. The fruity palate retains primary black cherry, though could do with being more 'fat'. Nice length too. Two years since first tasting, this still rates as the best P.N. I've tasted from the US of A, definitely in the same ball-park as the Charmes above, but given a similar level of development, seemingly lacks the Charmes' longevity.
1996 Robert Mondavi, Carneros Pinot Noir March 2002
Medium ruby colour, fading at the rim. Nose is very oaky, the high toast version. It's got sweet dark cherry fruit too and some stewed tea. The palate is again very oaky and a little astringent in the finish. The fruit and thickness is quite good, and better than the 1995 version which was very acidic with no fruit to balance, but completely unbalanced oak. No second glass for me, I think the oak might outlast fruit. (My wife liked this one)
1996 Ramsey (Kent Rasmussen), Reserve Napa Valley Syrah Februaty 2002
Still a saturated garnet with hints of purple. The nose is really something, beautifully focused bramble jelly with ground coffee peeping through. The blackberry fruit comes through on the palate too with good acidity, medium tannin and an earthy finish. I like this wine a lot. It misses a bit of fat in the mid palate compared to some of the Australians, but we don’t want everything the same do we ? (BB&R)
1996 Calera, Jensen Vineyard Mount Harlan Pinot Noir January 2002
Apparently 25 year old vines, 30% new French oak, 26HL/Ha and indigenous yeasts. Medium ruby colour. Some oak on the nose, but mainly prune and cooking black fruit. Palate has good acidity and tannin both of which are nicely covered. Dried fruit such as raisins comes through with quite a lot of oak on the palate and finish. The oak actually makes this wine not a lot of fun with food, though good on its own. Still a seriously good pinot noir and certainly worthy of another continent, unfortunately it costs more than many a Grand Cru so it is difficult to rave about !
1996 Domaine Carneros Estate, The Famous Gate Carneros Pinot Noir January 2002
Ruby colour tending to brick. Lot of bottle stink on this one, but fine 25 minutes later. This is less cooked than the 'Jensen' but still stewing red & black cherry on the nose. Acidity is higher but well enough covered and shows good tannin. The palate is again strongly marked by oak, though less so on the finish which is creamy medium length Victoria plum. Again this is better without food. I liked this a lot, but I loved the 1995.
1974 Robert Mondavi, Napa Pinot Noir January 2001
Another recorked job. Deep brick, very sweet nose. Still bundles of fruit. Slight metallic taste - gone next day when it tasted even better - amazing.
1994 Chateau St.Michelle Reserve Columbia Valley Merlot January 2001
One of those really heavy bottles that 'imply' quality. An almost opaque ruby colour, still with a hint of purple and no lighter at the rim. 'Corky' note on the nose which disappeared with time - probably some sulphur. Smooth, thick and cool in the mouth with very mild tannins but spoilt by a slightly acidic finish. After a night under vacuvin - less attack on the finish and a more pronounced 'red' fruit nose. My classification of this wine improved from 'do not buy' (given the high price) to 'okay, but bad value'.
1990 Hans Fahden, Cabernet Sauvignon Mountain Cuvée (Sonoma) December 2000
A bit of a surprise this one. The 1996 and 1990 were together on the shelf so I subsequently had to check the label a couple of times to make sure I had the ‘older model’. The colour was a deep ruby red with no fading at the rim. The nose was classic warm blackcurrant and blackberry developing to show hints of leather and faint white pepper, still smells relatively young. This is a beautifully balanced wine, the soft tannin coats the inside of your mouth, but unless you were in analysis mode, you’d never notice. The tannin is backed by good acidity but the fruit is all there. Despite the hint of white pepper on the nose the wine showed no ‘greenness’ only ‘come hither-ness’. I could have believed it was a 1996 (though that one is probably still a purple monster) as it still has many years ahead of it. Excellent.
N.V. Thackrey, Pliedes December 2000
What a wine, the cepage is a list as long as your arm and I couldn’t find a vintage on the label. Actually it said Pliedes IX, so 1999? Anyway, a deep cherry red. The nose was textbook, complex Chateau-Neuf du Pape in style. I detected red fruits, leather, tar, even honey I think. Only the palate might make you question the CNduP comparison due to the sweetness, the softness of the tannin and the low acidity - a new world palate, without the usual new world excess of concentration. Very good.
1999 Nef Family, Cabernet Sauvignon Paso Robles Viña Robles November 2000
Only noticed after the first glass that this wine contained 25% Cabernet Franc. Deep, deep colour, still purple. Pronounced nose of fruit - blackcurrant and plum. Felt good in the mouth, tons of fruit - but not in a confected sense, with reasonable acidity and ripe tannins, no unbalanced oak. Given the competition, rather good for £9 and current drinking.
1973 Robert Mondavi, Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon November 2000
Three bottles of this were nestling unheralded among the 1995, 1996 and 1997 California Cabs. A label on the back of the bottle saying 'Robert Mondavi recorked in March/April 1988'. Not a very promising start, as the cork seemed to slide too easily from the bottle and was wine saturated to the full length. When the cork dried, it was covered in sparlky tartrate crystals. The wine was decanted revealing an appealing mature deep brick colour. A sweet nose of baked apple and blackberry pie with pencil shavings at the end. Still mouthwateringly fresh, but nicely balanced with the 12% alcohol. An impressive amount of very soft tannin with blackcurrant coming through late on the finish - still has a hint of vanilla. I have to say, this certainly exceeded my expectations! But why did it give me a headache next day? I drank no more than normal!
1995 Robert Mondavi, Carneros Pinot Noir August 2000
Brick red and quite mature looking in the glass. Nose quite non-descript and weak. Some acidity and not too much tannin - unfortunately I couldn’t find anything else in the glass (no fruits). This was a big disappointment, as two of my favourite tipples from 1999 were pinot’s from this region (1995 Domaine Carneros and 1996 Kent Rassmussen Carneros)
1995 St. Supéry, Meritage Napa Valley Red Wine August 2000
Deep red, still with a hint of purple. The nose full of sweet red and black berries. On the palate, soft smooth and "unctuous", sweet in that ‘New World Style’ and very dense, though not at all tiring. There is a touch of oak, but not overpowering. Although I seam to be describing and ‘adult’ Ribena, we enjoyed this a lot. This Meritage blend was Cab.Sauv, Merlot, Cab.Franc. It would be interesting to know the percentages (not given) as the nose was very reminiscent of the Yorkville (100%) Cabernet Franc.
1997 Fetzer, Bonterra Sangiovese August 2000
A medium, shiny red colour in the glass. The nose is of slightly subdued but reminds me of the smell of fruit pies my mum used to cook, as they cooled in the kitchen! On the palate, the wine is medium bodied, not too much acidity or tannin (I think that’s called balance!) but the most amazing long aftertaste of red cherries with cream! I don’t know how long this one will keep, but it’s great fun right now.
2000 Fromm Winery, La Strada Martinborough Pinot Noir Fromm Vineyard August 2002
Quite deep cherry, and still purple at the rim. The nose is not so obviously oaky as the Clayvin vineyard wine. There are bright red fruits, raspberry in particular. The palate is quite fat with good acidity and medium tannins, sweet but very oaky, and doesn’t have the overt juicy-ness of the Clayvin wine. The finish is pretty good and has some licorice on the ending. Whilst it’s certainly a very good wine, it doesn’t strike me as being so individual as the Clayvin, though from a very similar mold. Time will tell.
2000 Fromm Winery, La Strada Marlborough Pinot Noir Clayvin Vineyard June 2002
There's a hint of La Tâche in the label design and this NZ pinot costs around £20, so I guess I'm supposed to take it seriously. Quite deep cherry, still with a purple rim. The nose betrays high toast oak, but this is well enough matched by the underpinning of a very pure pinot nose of earthy and creamy red fruit. The palate is fat with good acidity and medium tannins - very sweet (14%) and succulent, tons of "small red fruits". The oak is prominent on the palate and also on the earthy finish. I have to say though, that I'm quite impressed by this. Whilst the oak is quite noticeable just now, unlike many premium 'New World' attempts, it is not simply a Burgundy wannabe because it has a style of its own and actually has more than enough fruit to balance the barrel treatment. I guess the true test will be how dominant the oak is in another couple of years, but it's a rewarding drink now. Not cheap but absolutely worth a punt!
1999 Unison Selection, Hawkes Bay January 2002
Dark garnet with purple rim. Nose is sweet and though reticent in the fruit department, it is 'cigar boxy' and even white peppery. Very mouth coating tannins with nice acidity, nice mouthfeel and vanilla just coming through on the finish. Apparently this blend is Merlot dominated, I would say in the style of Pomerol rather than St.Emilion, which means it is right up my street. Beautifully made and a lovely drink today though bags of structure will save it should you lose a couple in the cellar !
1997 Martinborough, Reserve Pinot Noir July 2001
Not crystal clear, but nothing out of order on the nose. Lots of oak, but not the high toasted variety. Plenty of plummy damson fruit on the nose and the palate. Lower acidity than the 'non-reserve' version from this year. Good but unremarkable, I prefer the non-reserve from 1997.
1998 Veramonte, Primus September 2002
A blend of Carmenère and Cabernet Sauvignon. Almost opaque with purple to highlight the ruby colour. Nose is deep black & blueberry with subtle pipe tobacco. The lush and very full palate has mouth watering acidty and hefty tanins, balance comes through really ripe fruit. This is a big wine and currently quite unsubtle. But that doesn't mean it's not fun! Very good.
1999 Clos Apalta January 2002
A blend of Carmenère, Merlot, Cab. Sauvignon & Malbec. Massively, deeply coloured, fades to purple at the edge. Nose starts muted, then tons of cassis, violets, almonds, just perceptible vanilla, and a hint of volatility burning the nostrils. This wine has very sweet fruit, just as well, it's doing battle with very hefty, mouth coating, furry tannins and a strong lick of acidity. This wine is less 'together' than say '97 Sena but certainly more interesting today than (the too understated for its own good) Almaviva or Don Maximano founders reserve, potentially this wine is the grand-daddy of them all. Very, very good if you can find a bottle.
1997 Infinitus, Malbec-Syrah February 2001
Only bought this one because it had a nice label with a Canada Goose on it. Cherry red, slightly acidic red and black cherry nose with a just a hint of oak. Some sweet red fruits with slighly mouthwatering acidity and mild tannin. Given a purchase price equivalent to £5.50, excellent.
2000 Gaia Estate Greece, December 2002
First time I’ve seen a synthetic cork on this wine, nearly didn’t drink the wine because the narrow wormed corkscrew just pulled right through the centre of the ‘closure’ leaving it in the bottle’s neck. Eventually found another model that worked. Medium-full ruby colour. Nose has subtle wood and red fruit notes. The palate does not offer the smoothness of the 1997 or 1999 vintage but the fruit quality and the acidity are still very good, just the tannins are a little more rustic. Still a good wine.
1995 Château Musar Lebanon, December 2002
Reasonably deep ruby colour, just a hint browner at the rim. Nose is redolent of roast chestnuts against an alcoholic background. Sweet palate with excellent acidity - really mouth watering. The fruit is reminiscent of sloe gin, again nuts come through on the palate, more hazelnut this time. Good length. I think I like this one more than the 1990, but it's still a bit nutty!
1990 Château Musar Lebanon, December 2002
Medium ruby bricking towards the rim. Nose is a really interesting mix of stewed prunes, stewed tea, tobacco, leather and some orange notes. Palate is sweet yet savoury like sweet and sour sauce, with strong acidity and piercing fruit. Still strong tannins, these and the finish are a little bitter but improve with aeration. Very persistent finish. An incredibly interesting wine, which I still can't decide whether I like or not!
2001 Bellevue Estate, Tumara Pinotage Stellenbosch South Africa, October 2002
Apparently from 50 year old vines. Medium cherry colour. Nose has sweet plum fruit and a trace of coffee. In the mouth it's warm and sweet with good acidity and a quite long chocolatey finish. For €11 definitely recommended.
1996 Rust en Vrede, Estate Wine South Africa, March 2002
Deep garnet colour, only fading little at the rim. Nose is an impressive mixture of black fruits, mint, tobacco and hints of sweet oak. Good acidity and still a little tannin. There’s some nice fruit here, but it just gives the impression that there was a more not too long ago. Enjoyed this but I’m sure it won’t improve.
1999 Gaia Estate Greece, February 2002
Deep cherry in colour. High toned nose without too much to hold interest. The palate is a revelation though; red fruits which go on forever in the finish. Adequate acidity and tannin never really intrude into a ‘smooth as smooth’ experience. The finish is an above average affair with just a hint of creaminess at the end of the ‘redness’. I missed out on the 1998, first trying the 1997 which was a similarly smooth affair. At the time I though it very good, but perhaps a couple of pounds overpriced vs Aussie competition. 2 years later it’s the same price, but most Aussies have increased by £2 ! Thoroughly recommended.
1999 Rustenburg, Stellenbosch Peter Barlow South Africa, February 2002
Saturated deep colour with purple edge. The nose has black fruit, but is overwhelmed by a strong vanilla component. The palate has good acidity, medium tannin, mainly black fruit but again the vanilla is dominant. I’m sure this is a better wine than the ‘John X Merriman’ which was my ‘sub-£10’ wine of last year, however, to my taste, currently the cheaper Merriman is more enjoyable. If the vanilla fades, this will be a very fine wine indeed.
1999 Rustenburg, Stellenbosch John X Merriman South Africa, January 2002
Deep garnet with purple edges. The nose jumps from the glass with intense red cherries, raspberry and redcurrant – unusual considering the blend is merlot dominated together with the other two cabs. The palate shares that same intense fruit, good acidity and medium, though mouth coating tannins. Wow – what a find, I like this even more than the Unison. It should keep, but why bother when it is so rewarding today. At ~£12 fabulous QPR too.