Sylvaner - not for the average consumer

Zellberg an Alsacian sylvaner with glass
sealing cap.

Three very different wines were tested last weekend, an amongst those were an Alsace Sylvaner, which is rather rare on the danish shelfs. Perhaps also for a reason, I will come back to that point.  We also tried a funky grape mix from Argentina which is worth seeking out as an alternative for a right bank Bordeaux. Finally we made tasted the 2007 Reserva vintage of the old Cartuxa monastry from Portugal.


Zellberg l'Hermitage 2008, Domaine Julien Meyer 
The wine is clear with an olive glance. The bouquet presents itself with two distictive notes, pear cider and oxidated sherry. Also a note of wet wood and a less charming egde of petrol or medicine cabinet.  The taste is very fruity with notes of pear peel.

This is clearly a wine for those who seek something different. Even the sealing is made with glass, something we have not seen in prestigious wines such as this. In conclusion, this wine may well be classified as an art'y wine and we are way off the main roads of winemaking. The bottle is found among the selected wines from the famous restaurants NOMA and RELÆ in Copenhagen. We acquired one bottle as a gift (DK price is 135kr). We found the wine hard to classify and although it has character, it did not score well amongst us. Points averaged at 78P.

Clos de los Siete 2008 

The wines of the evening

Notes of leather, black strawberries, moist cellar, vanilla. The taste is very smooth (almost designed) with notes of liquirice with a nice dry acidic finish.

It is clearly a wine for an international market, and the product does not appear unique upon first tasting. However, the wine is assembled with great mix bordeaux grapes and syrah placed on top of a main body consisting of Malbec. The label reads 56% malbec, 21% merlot, 10% Cabernet S. 11% Syrah and 2% petit verdot. The wine is made by Michel Rolland who has a long career in bordeaux wines, and he seem  to have had a clear finger print on right banked taste of this wine. The wine was bought for 160kr and we scored it 89P.

Cartuxa Reserva 2007
Power full nose of pine wood, tobacco leaves, coffe on a base of barnyard. The taste is smooth, restrained and notes of licorice.
It clearly plays with its muscles in the glass but upon drinking it is beautifully restrained. We are not dealing with a ribena bomb, but a wine of high authentic class. Available in Denmark via the Portuguese wine cellar for 237kr. 91P