Spring wines: Soalheiro, Sancerre and Marsannay

With a little delay, I here rush to type a new wine post here on GrapeJuices from last Friday night, which brought new fine wine experiences under the theme of ”Spring”. All wines were served to a great dinner inspired by a series of Portuguese seafood dishes. Summing up, we tried a whole new standard for Vinho verde, a fine Sancerre, and ended the official tasting with a Pinot noir from a Northern commune of Bourgogne. These were the notes:

Soalheiro 2007 Primeiras Vinhas

The nose presents lots of lime, elderflowers and fennel. The taste bears peachy notes with something spicy going and a great dry finish with notes of liquerice. 13% vol alcohol – on the higher end for a green wine.

This green wine is quite unique. With a little googling you will soon learn, that this 100% Alvarinho wine is made up from plants with more than 30 years of age, fermented (4 months) at low temperature with natural yeasts. A certain famous wine maker’s last touch is letting 15% of the wine ferment on used oak casks. See more here. Aquired via Niepoorts projects 16€. 90P

Domanie de la Villaudiere 2007

Bouquet of citrus and pineapple and hazel. The taste is dry and somewhat ”narrow” or strigent, but possibly the wine is meant this way - kind of streamlined. The alcohol volume is 12.5% which is fine/adequate. Price unknown. 88P

Domaine Sylvain Pataille, Marsannay 2005

Dark cherries, stone fruit, pomme granate, and iron. Notes of prunes and plums and iron dominated the taste at first. The taste of the wine changed somewhat character over the course of tasting, with the acidity being more and more present. Theis vine 150kr. 87P

Blind tasting at Eggerts

Friday night hosted another reunion on the concept "bring your own bottle". Following bottles were tasted and evaluated; Pazo Señorans 2008, Moss Wood Pinot Noir 2004, Chateau Marquis D’alesme 1982 and Cornas Tardieu Laurent 2006. As prologue and epilogue a keller Riesling and a bottle of Chateau de Malle 2002 Sauternes was enjoyed.

Pazo Señorans 2008

Galician wine on the noble green wine grape, Albariño. Clear colored with olive glaze on the egdes. Clean bouquet of exotic fruits and flowers. The wine is not all light, but has some density. The asfter taste is dry and lasting. Kjær & Sommerfeldt, 179dkk, 90+P

Moss Wood Pinot Noir 2004

Red transperant color. Huge bouquet of raspberries, pibe tobacco, cut grass, earthy tones, marcipan and vanilla. Acid level is very balanced and the wine appears quite light(the huge bouquet considered). Privately aquired (260dk-400dkk), 90P

Chateau Marquis D’alesme 1982

A wine guessed in 2 seconds, old bordeaux from Medoc from the famous vintage 1982. Orange egdes and uncleared wine. Almost like blood in glass. Huge bouquet of heavy leather, salt, gorgonzola, earthy. A heavy tannin bite dominate the finish with taste of stone fruits/pencil. A quite masculin wine. Vinoble, 238dkk, 90+P

Cornas Tardieu Laurent 2006

Deep red color, with purple egdes. The bouquet is focused and very dominated by white grinded pepper and strawberries. Finish with hints of vanilla. Not the most assesible wine, but very interesting. The wine express the schist-terroir with a clean minerality. Theis-vine, 299dkk, 91P

Finally the evening was Chateau de Malle 2002. Delightful wine with notes of toasted bread with butter and raisins.

Seafood and vinho verde

posted by drud

There is a rare match between Portuguese seafood and their Vinho verde (green wine). Vinho verde is produced in Minho, Portugal's most northern wine region, where a number of less-known white grapes thrive. Of these, the most known include loureiro, trajadura, arinto and alvarinho (albariño in spain). Green wines are fresh, often with low alcohol (10-12%) and are excellent companions to seafood.

It took, therefore, only a brief look at the wine menu to pair up a delightful seafood lunch at the coastline of Lisbon (Caparica).

Alvarinho Deu la Deu 2008 is from the subregion Monção and entirely produced on alvarinho.

Color transparent with an olive-green tone and natural-occurring bubbles. Nose of green apples and hints of lime. The taste is simple and dry with fresh acidity which makes up a long apple finish. 87P