european wines
2004 Campo Viejo Crianza tempranillo from Rioja.
Light in color with an interesting nose of rusty nails and red plums. The prune fruits come through a little bit on the palate along with a nice acidity and light red fruits. Nothing serious here but a decent quaff for the price. 82 points.
Seriously, this wine was like drinking your vegetables, which I love very much. This is the 2005 Vigna Traverso Refosco from the Colli Orientali del Friuli appellation of Italy. This DOC is in the province of Udine in the north east corner of Italy. Basically on the back of the boot rim. Red wines only account for about 35% of the wine production in this DOC and the main grape is typically merlot. But this one, obviously, is produced from the refosco grape. This is a deep violet colored grape with slight bitterness and powerful tannins. It is also know as the terlan or terlano grape and eastern France it goes by the name mondeuse.
I just fell in love with this wine. It was the first time I’ve had this grape or any wine from this region, for that matter. It has the characteristic deep purple color. The nose was earthy and bright with hints of red cherries, twizzlers and a bit of forest floor. It really pleased me on the palate. Talk about old world! It was nicely balanced with fruit and vegetables. Think hints of raw green peppers blended with a can of V8 and some red cherry juice shaken on top. Very intriguing and delicious. It certainly had solid tannins but they weren’t overpowering in any way. It was really well balanced. I would say it will last at least another 6-8 years.
What goes better with pizza than a nice chianti classico? Friday night was pizza night at our house and I opened up a 2001 Fattoria Le Fonti chianti classico. If you don’t know about chiantia, it is the largest region in Tuscany. This is made largely from the sangiovese grape. This bottle was pretty darn good. It had a nice color just edging on brick red. On the nose were aromas of berries and red fruits. Interestingly there was a subtle hint of furniture polish, kind of like lemon pledge. Strange, I know, but it wasn’t a bad thing. The palate was very interesting. It was earthy with a medium body. There was a pronounced acidity that cut through the red fruits and I liked that very much. It had a solid tannin structure but they were nice and soft. There were nice hints of mocha and rusty nails dancing around my mouth. This was definitely a classic chianti classico in all respects.
Popped open a bottle of the 2005 Christian Moueix Saint Émilion tonight. This one is made from 85% merlot and 15% cabernet franc. I liked it very much even if it was a little bit light. It had a nice medium purple red color that you could easily see through, so it was obvious this would not be a heavy wine. On the nose I was presented with subtle ripe cherries and aromas of sweet tart candy. Very interesting to say the least. On the palate, however, there was nothing fruit or sweet about it. It was oh so vegetative. I enjoy that. It had a medium body, solid acidity and smooth tannins. Red fruits came across so very subtly however it was the roasted beets, cooked carrots and tomato sauce that dominated the flavors. It was a little bit chalky and a tiny bit disjointed on the finish but overall it was a nice Bordeaux red. I bought it for $14 on sale which was an ok price. I don’t think I’d pay the $30 or so full price for it.
I am a huge fan of the Albariño grape grown mostly in the Rais Baixas region of Spain. This is a grape that expresses very interesting tropical fruit qualities that I just adore. When I saw this Oriel 2004 Albariño in my local shop for $11 I had to pick it up.
The wine had a delightful golden color and the nose did not disappoint. It had aromas of pear, pineapple, mango, papaya and all the things I usually associate with this grape. Aromatically it was quite interesting. It fell flat on the palate, however, in a big way. Oh, it had a nice acidity and flavors of pineapples and honey for days. There were hints of apricot and lemon (as in lemon pledge furniture polish). It was very light and overall not as interesting as I expected. I would give this one an 85 if I were to score it.