Dr Loosen Riesling Spätlese Graacher Himmelreich 2007

Dr Loosen Riesling Spätlese Graacher Himmelreich 2007 is a bottle that I bought together with the  Dr F. Weins-Prüm Graacher Domprobst Riesling Spätlese 2006. It will be interesting to see how these two different wines have developed.

In the taste I get apricot, citrus and some peach. It has kept up well for being so old but I am lacking some acidity to balance this wine and get it up to the excellent Dr F Weins-Prüm wine. For this wine I would say drink now, it won't get better and the chance is that it will get worse.

Fontanafredda and their Alta Langa sparkling wines

Fontnafredda is  big producer of wine in Piemonte and they make very good Barolo wines for example. But this time I have tried of their two sparkling Alta Langa wines. Alta Langa is a DOGC for Piemontese sparkling wine. It is made with Chardonnay and/or Pinot Noir grapes. It can be white or rose and has to be aged on the leese for at least 30 months. Also an Alta Langa sparkling is always a vintage wine.
The first sparkling wine from Fontanafredda is Hundred Sixty which is of 2007 vintage and the ABV is 12%. This wine was released to celebrate 160 years of Fontanafredda. It is made of 100% Pinot noir and it was on the leese for seven years. In the taste I get citrus, pear and grapefruit. Very nice older smoother Alta Langa.

The Fontanafredda Alta Langa limited edition is of the vintage 2014 and the ABV 12%. It is made of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. This is a high acidity sparkling with apple and citrus and with a nice long aftertaste.

Alta Langa is one sparkling wine region to explore in the future.

Mastroberardino, older white wine from 2007

Old white wine is very rare. I have only drank old white wine from France.  Mastroberardino is a producer from Italy that produces older white wine. They have old wine from the grapes Fiano and Greco di Tufo. I managed to buy a bottle of their Greco di Tufo wine from 2007. It is made of 100% Greco di Tufo grapes and it is from the Greco di Tufo DOGC in Campania. All grapes are from the estates of Tufo and Petruro Irpino at heights of 450meters. The wine was refined for nine months in steel tanks before being bottled for at least four years before being sold. 

The colour is straw yellow. I can smell fruit and dried fruits. The taste is quite intense with a taste of fruits and dried fruits. Sometimes it almost feels like a dry passito wine. Very interesting and I have never tasted anything like this before. I don't think this wine is for everyone as it may be to intense. Now if I can find their Fiano wine also.

 

From Jesi to Alsace

Verdicchio is an Italian grape variety which is grown primarily in the Marche region of Italy. One of the two DOP is the Verdicchio dei Castelli Jesi. In this region the producer Pievalta produces their Verdicchio wine. The farms are situated on either side of the Esino river valley and the production if organic and for those who are vegans this wine is completely vegan.
The Pievalta Verdicchio dei Castelli Jesi is made of 100% Verdicchio grapes and the ABV is 13%. The colour is light hay. The taste is citrus and has a good freshness. A very good wine.

Going to Alsace where many good white wines is produced. Producer Michel Fonne is a new experience to me. The wine Pinot Gris Roemerberg is from 2007. Quite an old age for a white wine. Michel Fonne is situated in  Bennwihr. Michel Fonne uses the sweetness scale on this wine and it shows a 4. So the wine is semi sweet. A 1 means a completely dry wine. This wine is fruity almost some apricot and surprisingly fresh for the age. If I drank this wine blind I would say that the age of the wine would be a 2013 vintage. An excellent wine and I will try more this producer in the future.

Passito from Lipari

The last year I have not drank so much sweet wine but now I had the chance to try a passito wine from the island of Lipari north of Sicily. Passito wine is a sweet wine made from dried grapes.The wine is Colosi from 2007. It is made of Malvasia grapes and the colour is deep amber.. The taste is very strong and so wonderful. Almost like a passito di Pantelleria. Excellent wine.

The wine La Frosca from producer Gini in Soave is from 2013. The colour is yellow and the smell is good. It is made of the grape Garganega. The taste is good and has a good aftertaste. Very nice.

Returning to Sicily for the wine Planeta Carricante which is made of the grape carricante. This wine comes from  the wineyard Sciara Nuovo on the north side of the Volcano Etna. It is on 870 meters of height and produces according to Planeta ageworthy white wines. The wine is from 2011 and he smell is good. The taste is almost like an excellent riesling. It has a fresh mineral style with tastes of apples. An excellent wine.

Two wines from Alto Adige and sweetness from Romagna

I love wines from Alto Adige (South Tyrol) and I try to taste as many different wines as I can. This time there were one red and one white wine. From the producer J. Hofstätter I have tried their Pinot Grigio earlier so a red wine from them is a new experience. The wine is a Steinraffler which is made by the grape Lagrein and is from 2009. The smell is nice and the taste is of red currants and red cherries. Very good and is went very well with beef. Yet another excellent wine from this producer and the Lagrein grape I have to taste more.

A new acquaintance is the producer Elena Walch. It is a Pinot Grigio from 2012, it is a good drinking wine with notes of pear and apples with somce acidity.

For my homemade cantucci I had a passito wine from Romagna, namely Albana di Romagna from 2007 which is bottle 56 out of 900. It is by producer Poderi delle Rocche in Romagna between Bologna and Imola. The color of the passito wine is golden yellow almost amber. It goes very well with my homemade cantucci. The taste is not intense as the passito wines from Pantelleria for example. A good wine.

Birthday celebrations with Rotari and two strong Italian reds

For birthday it is good to have good food and wine and this time the food consisted of three different parmesans, a four year old, a three year old and a Modena bianco 30+ months and two different Pecorino, one stored in a grotta. Extras were parma ham and three different salamis.

The wines served for this food delight were all Italians. The first wine served were a sparkling wine from Trentino made by producer Mezzacorona and it is an old Rotari from 1996 which were sboccatura in 2013. The taste is very good. Strong citrus notes with some apples followed by bread notes. Excellent wine and it is fun to taste an older Italian sparkling wine. I have to admit that this wine were all drank before the food as it was such an easy drinking.

The first wine together with the food were something new for me. A Brunello di Montalcino by producer Castiglion del Bosco from 2008. Very strong wine that goes very well together with the food. Tastes of cherries, dark berries with a hint of tobacco. Very interesting.

The next wine is an amarone, Castelforte Amarone della Valpolicella from 2007. Now this wine is very complex and also has very strong flavous and it also goes very well with the food. Wonderful wine. Both of these red wines need food or they will be to strong.

A visit to San Gimignano

San Gimignano is a beautiful town with many medieval towers situated in the Tuscan country side. During daytime it is full of tourists but when evening comes the tourist leave the town and with darkness falling the town becomes majestic. The small medieval alleys and the tower in the night sky. It is like a setting for a horror movie.

This town also has their own DOGC called Vernaccia di San Gimignano and that meant for dinner it was time to try a Vernaccia di San Gimignano riserva from 2007. The wine had a very good taste of fruits and some flowers and the aftertaste was almonds which lingered for a long time. I bought one bottle for later tasting in Sweden.

When trying this wine at the Ristorante Beppone I had some wonderful food. Go there if you are in the area. In the photo the dish is polenta with rabbit.

Rotari Rose 2007

Time again to try yet another Rotari sparkling wine and this time it is their Rose from 2007. Rotari is a producer from Trento region in northern Italy and this rose sparkling wine is made from Pinot noir and Chardonnay grapes. I have a weakness for sparkling rose wines. For those who want to know more about Rotari can go to , this page is in Swedish.
The wine has a weak salmon colour. The smell is nice very nice. Smells a bit like red berries. The taste is dry and reminds me of wild strawberries and grapefruit. Nice and as strangely enough it tasted better the day after opening the bottle.

Two Italian red rubies

When I was in Bologna the capital of food and visited a very good winestore I asked for wines that would go well with prosciutto and cheese. The salesman dissappeared into the backroom and soon came out with two different red wines. One he said was very strong and the other one was more elegant. The elegant was a Blauburgunder from Südtirol or in Italian, an Pinot Nero from Alto Adige. The man from the winestore suggested that I should start with that one first and the move on to the stronger wine. And the strong wine with a lot of taste was made with Carmenere and Melot from the Veneto region.
The Pinot Nero from 2008 is made by Stiftskellerei Neustift situated in Südtirol. Kloster Neustift. The Augustinian Canons Regular monastery Abbazia di Novacella is the producer of the wine. This monastery was founded in 1157 and someday I will visit it in real life as it looks beautiful there. The wine was elegant as the man from the wineshop said. Not as powerful as red wines can be. Very easy to drink and the taste was of red currants. Lovely even for a white wine lover as I am. Wonder if I can find their wines here in Sweden?
The next wine is a Carmenere Pui from 2007 by Inama from Veneto. Inama is a family that has been producing wines for more than forty years near Soave.Imama wineyard. Unfortunately I did not have the time to visit this wineyard when I was in Soave this year. The Carmenere Pui consists of 70% Carmenere grapes and 30% Merlot grapes and these grapes comes from Colli Berci, a line of gently volcanic hills. The look of the wine is deep red almost ruby. Smell of black cherry and the taste is very powerful and strong. Exactly as the wine salesman had said. No sour after taste as is very usual with these wines. Very good. Unfortunately this one is not availeble in Sweden either.I need to find some contacts in Italy that can ship me these wines.
Very good wines and for a Swede excellent prices. I think they were ten euros each.

The view from Soave.

Domaine Zind-Humbrecht

Some while ago I tested two wines from Alsace from the producer Domaine Zind-Humbrecht. This producer is situated in the village Turckheim in Alsace very close to the German border. The two wines tasted was one very dry Riesling from 2007, the second one was a Vendange Tardive from 2002 made on Pinot Gris grapes. The rieling dry wine is probably the best dry rielsing wine I have ecer tasted. From what I remeber the taste was excellent. Vendange Tardive means late harvest in french and are made from late harvested grapes bot not any grapes afflicted with botrytis. The result is a wine full of great richness. And this Verdange Tradive from 2002 is excellent. Such good taste that I can almost drink it as a normal wine. Unfortunately I could not find any more bottles of this wine aftre I tasted as it had sold out.

Rotari Riserva 2007

I haven't tried so much Italian sparkling wine but I have drunk good still wine from Trento so the sparkling wine Rotari from 2007 seem like a good choice to start. The Rotari Riserva is made from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grapes. And it is fermented in the bottle for at least 36 months on the lees. My bottle had the degorgement done in 2011. The colour is very nice and the taste was a bit to harsh with green apples. It is dry with no hint of sweetness. The next day I tasted it again and now the taste was mych better. Maybe I was to tired the day before to truly appreciate it or it had become better after been aired for a day.

Terredavino Barolo 2007

When in Liguria very close to Piemonte what should I try then? Yes a Barolo is a good choiCE. And it is a Terredavino from 2007. Before drinking it we had it decanted on hour before. Very nice smell and the taste of it is very fine. Yet again no sour notes that I dislike with normal red wines. I like this wine. Since it was easter we also had easter eggs, to much of it as can be seen in the pic. As a dessert wine I had a sweet dessert wine from Sicily made by malvasia grapes. Unfortunately my picturs of the label is so blurry I cannot see what name it was or type.

Marco Rabino, Pey 2007

Genova is a nice twon full of small alleys and very nice places to eat. The place for this evening was a meat restuarant in an alley in Genova. Their specialty was raw meat. The wine of the evening was a wine from the neighbouring region Piedmont. A Barbera d'Asti made from Barbera grapes by the producer Marco Rabino called Pey from 2007. I like this red wine as it was not this sour taste as I get in so many red wines. Good smell and taste. The strong alcohol of 15% was not felt when drinking this so all in all very good. And the food? Delicious. Genova makes the best pesto.