share your experience...your opinion is welcome!

Wednesday, November 02, 2005

Chateau du Paradis - Saint Emilion Grand Cru

Chateau du Paradis
France

Bordeaux Saint Emilion



SAINT EMILION GRAND CRU

Located in the commune of Saint Emilion,with a surface area spanning 9,50ha.

Designation: AOC Saint Emilion Grand Cru
Age of the vines: 35 years
Vine variety: Merlot 75%, Cabernet franc 20%, Cabernet-Sauvignon 5%
Nature of the soil: old soil with a subsoil including an iron oxide locally referred to as "crasse de fer"
Climatic conditions: moderate climate
Harvesting period: September, October
Winemaking: traditional vinification in vats, under temperature controlled conditions
Aging: 18 months including 14 in casks
General designation: Bordeaux region
More precise designation: commune de Saint Emilion
Appearance: beautiful deep red
Bouquet: a nose of mature Merlot, with a spicy note as a result of its wooden breeding
Texture: defined structure, full-bodied and supple
To be drunk with: red and whit meats, game, soft and mild cheeses
Tasting temperature: 18°
Ages extremely well
Best vintages: 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001

Chateau Gazin

Chateau Gazin
France

Bordeaux Pomerol

Château Gazin wines are a very typical product of the gravelly-clay soil of the Pomerol high terraces.
From an early age their lavish richness offers a wide aromatic range of black and red fruits (cherries, morello cherries, red currants, raspberries, blackberries, black currants) which harmonizes with their intense purple or garnet color.
They also frequently offer hints of mint, plum, chocolate, coffee or liquorice, and a bouquet of almond, toast, tobacco and vanilla. Maturity gives them a nose of spices, truffles, undergrowth and gamey scents : fur, leather, etc.
Their taste is characterized by their silky tannins, their balance and concentration, enhanced by a delicate oaky note.

Feminine and delightful due to the dominance of the Merlot, Château Gazin wines, after aging for a few years, make an excellent accompaniment to white and red meats and game, as well as to almond, caramel, vanilla and red fruits desserts, but it is also well to wait fifteen or twenty years or more for them.

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

Saddleback Pinot Noir - Peregrines Wines

Saddleback Pinot Noir
Peregrine Wines
New Zealand


Winemaking Philosophy, what this really means.

Minimal intervention is our goal - whilst we are too young to have a long tradition of winemaking we are traditionalists and believe that a hands off approach works best for all our wines. Central Otago grapes have unique flavours like no other region, from vine to wine we believe each winemaking stage impacts on these flavours. The less you do the more you retain, all the better for our enjoyment! As such we don't process our wines to the endth degree, we are not a factory! So in enjoying our wines keep this in mind, if you see a small deposit in our red wines or some "wine diamonds" in our whites, fret not, these are harmless and natural parts of any wine.

2004 Saddleback Pinot Noir
A classic Pinot Noir predominantly from Central Otago with an influence of premium Marlborough fruit. Similar in style to the hugely popular 2003 vintage.
It was made traditionally and aged in French oak for 10 months. This wine exudes aromas of violets, red berry fruit, and leathery spice, all with a vibrantly fruity mouth feel and a long warm finish.
Drinking well now, this wine will cellar nicely for up to 5 years.


Monday, October 31, 2005

Chateau de Vinzelles

Pouilly-Vinzelles
France
Burgundy


The Golden Character of the Wine!
The vineyards surrounding both stronghold and Château produce exclusively Chardonnay grapes which flourish in the chalky ochre-coloured soils on the sunny slopes.
At the Château you can sample Pouilly-Vinzelles, an "appellation d'origine contrôlée". You will discover its rich bouquet (including "apricot, mirabelle plum, and pink grapefruit") with strong but yet complementary undertones derived from the particular character of the soil.

The wine may be drunk immediately after purchase (which will be at least 18 months after the grapes have been harvested) or it may be left to mature a few years in order to reveal its hidden flavours.

Pouilly-Vinzelles is best served between the temperatures of 11 and 13° C. It complements shellfish, poultry, and white meat. It is also delicious with foie gras, goat's cheese and other delicate dishes.

Year 1999

Of a light yellow, this year 1999 shows discreet aromas of wild flowers and of lemon. Typified well, the palace is supple and well-balanced with one finale roasted almond.

Sunday, October 30, 2005

Howard Park Riesling

Howard Park Riesling 2005
Australia
Riesling

Composition:

100% Riesling
Region:
100% Great Southern



Technical Notes:
The Winter of 2004 proved to be one of the driest in recent years, resulting in very low soil moisture as the vines started to emerge from dormancy in Spring. This in turn meant a slight reduction in yields for some vineyards as flowering and fruit set was sometimes stressed for water. However conditions through Late Spring and Summer were ideal for the vines as it was cool and dry.
In the second week of February there was a heavy rain event which caused few problems to most varieties as the bunches were still immature with hard berries. Riesling though experienced considerable splitting as the young berries swelled with the sudden influx of water. Most Riesling vineyards through the Great Southern were affected and it was necessary to remove by hand many damaged bunches to protect the remaining fruit, with those bunches that were not too badly affected the split berries dried in the following warm weather and eventually shriveled and fell off. As harvest in mid March approached there were a few smaller rain events and this caused in some vineyards Botrytis cineria infection. Fruit with this infection was rejected to maintain the highest quality possible in the final wine.
The fruit upon arrival at the winery was immediately processed to ensure the highest quality juice. Only free run juice which is a tighter and more finely structured juice as it has no phenolic character was used for this wine. All batches were kept separate and were cool fermented in stainless steel tanks to maintain the delicate fruit flavours. Extensive blending trials of the free run batches were carried out to produce a wine that is very elegant but still powerful.

Tasting Notes:
The wine is pale straw in colour with green tinges. The nose shows fresh limes and citrus zest. The palate is ascetic and unadorned showing wonderfully clean citrus and lime flavours. The wine finishes with a magnificent thrust of refreshing acid down the centre of the palate.
Cellaring:
This wine has been made with an eye to cellaring and so it will greatly reward the patient enthusiast. Secondary characters will start to develop after two years and will continue to add complexity to this wine for at least ten years.

Juniper Estate Cabernet Sauvignon

Juniper Estate
Australia
Cabernet Sauvignon


Varietal:

100% Cabernet Sauvignon
Region:
Wilyabrup, Margaret River, Western Australia
Vintage:
2002

The colour is a deep, dense red while the nose has lovely cherry, red and blackcurrant fruit mingled with vanillin and cedary oak. The rich palate shows berry fruit, chocolate and savoury oak with firm fine tannin completing the structure that promises a long future. It is best to decant this wine in its youth for maximum enjoyment.

Winemaker's Notes
The mild weather during the 2002 vintage allowed slow ripening in the Cabernet Sauvignon grapes, which shows in the resulting berry fruit characters in thewine. The concentration of fruit and ripe tannins that you expect from Wilyabrup grapes are there in balance with quality oak, culminating in a wine ready to be enjoyed now along with a cellaring potential of at least 10 years. This is our fourth release of the Juniper EstateCabernet Sauvignon.

Viticulture & Vinification
The cabernet sauvignon grapes were sourced from un-irrigated vines planted in 1973 from the Juniper Estate vineyard, one of the oldest in the Margaret River region. The cabernet sauvignon vines are all trained on the Scott Henry trellis system, designed to maximise tannin and flavour ripeness. The maturity of the vines and the training system are reflected in the rich, intense fruit flavours. The grapes were hand picked in several batches from the 30th March through to the 17th of April.

Once the grapes were de-stemmed and pumped into open fermenters the separate batches were treated differently. The first batch was pressed off at dryness after 10 days on skins producing a soft fruity wine, the second batch was pressed off at 2 Baume with the fermentation finishing in barrel which helps produce a silky mid palate, while the final batch had 28 days skin contact creating the backbone of the blend and insures longevity. The batches were blended and aged in French oak barriques for 20 months with 50% new oak. Bottled February 2004.