Charles Ellner brut 1999

After the birthday tasting of champagne it was new year and yet another good reason to try out one more champagne. I decided to stay in the nineties with a champagne from 1999 by Charles Ellner. Now this champagne is good and my first impression was. Wow, this is so much bread taste in this one it is huge. Certainly not for all people, but very good dry champagne.

When celebrating my 40th birthday I thought a champagne tasting wold be in order, especially some good vintage champagnes. And it would be interesting to see how the different champagnes would work together with the food also. But Champagne works very well with everything, right?

The first champagne of the day was a Delamotte Blanc de Blancs from 2002. The smell were delightful. Very good. The taste were of fruits, dry and very elegant. An excellent champagne for aperitifs. Went very well together with the Breasola with Parmesan and olive oil.

For the maincourse of pie made from Västerbotten cheese the first champagne was Wilmart & Cie from 1999, a Grand Cellar d'Or. The smell very strong and delightful yet again. The taste were strong, dry, fruits and a yeast/bread taste which was very good. yet again an excellent wine. Worked very well together with the pie.

The third wine of the evening were a Moet & Chandon from 2000. The smell delightful. The taste of this champagne were very complex. Dry, bread, citrus and a hint of minerals. Very good.

For the dessert which consisted of an Italian Panatone the drink of the day were yet again a champagne. This time a Jaquart, 2002 Millesime. Smelled a bit less tha the three other tasted champagnes. Now this felt like an aperitif champagne. Dry, citrus taste. Very good yet again. Worked very well with the panatone.

A wonderful evening spent discovering the excellent taste of vintage champagnes.

De Venoge champagne, Blanc de Noirs

Almost Christmas and what better way to relax and enjoy a good meal than to open a bottle of champagne. The food of today was hamburger made of boar and cow meat. Maybe not the normal food for champagne, but interesting to see how it would fit together.

The champagne of today was a bottle of De Venoge, Blanc de Noirs. The Champagne House de Venoge has been producing champagne for over 160 years. And a Blanc de Noirs is a champagne made with only with the grapes Pinot meunier and Pinot noir.

The champgne had a very nice taste. Some fruits, a bit apple like and then a very long aftertaste that lingered in the mouth. It was a taste of summer berries, very nice.

The interesting thing was that the champagne worked very well together with the hamburgers. When checking the label after the meal it said that this champagne was served with game or duck liver dishes.

God jul!

Tasting of Italian wines in Itay

When in Rome where are many choices of restaurants to choose between. Many expensive touristic places that are to be avoided so this time in Rome it was decided to try out a Jewish restaurant in the old Jewish ghetto in Rome for some kosher food and maybe kosher wine.

La taverna del Ghetto kosher had two places left on a busy Saturday night in Rome. The food was good with a nice showing of artichokes and koscher meatballs. Since it is a Jewish reasaurants all the wines served was kosher. The wine choosen was a kosher wine from the Frascati, a dry white wine from 2011. However it was not that good and was lacking some cohesion and the aftertaste was not that good.

On the new trainstation in Rome I had an hour to spare before the train left for Bologna so I spent that hour in a nearby bar eating good Italian sandwich while trying out another wine. This time it was a cheap Pinot Bianco Table wine from Veneto. I wonder if this wine was failed s it had the taste of a passito wine but with no sweetness and no subtlety. A complete disappointment.

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.

Domaene Gobelsburg 2011 Riesling

This time I leave Italy but I don't travel that far. Just across the border to Austria, namely the district Niederösterreich which is situated furthest north in Austria. Gobelsburg has been making wine since 1171 when the Cistertian monks founded their monastery. Schloss Gobelsburg has 35 hectares of wineyards and these wineyards were taken care of by the monks until 1995. And the monks had always used organic fertilisers and abstained from pesticides. In 1996 Michael & Eva Moosbrugger took over the management of the property. The Domaene Gobelsburg from 2011 is made from Riesling grapes.
The smell is pleasent and the taste is of citrus and has a lot of acidity. Leaves a long lingering aftertaste. Very good wine.

Veltiner, Stiftskellerei Neustift Abbazia Di Novacella

Alte Adige or South Tyrol has many several good white wines as I have discovered over the last year. This time it is Stiftskellerei Nesustift Abbazia Di Novacella white wine Veltiner from 2010 that is to be tasted. I had tasted one of their red wines earlier. I get a flowery taste in the nose and that bodes well. The taste is of elderberry, some honey and lemon. Good acid and a very nice aftertaste that lingers. Very good aromatic wine.

As usual with these wine yards in South Tyrol, Stiftskellerei Neustift Abbazia Di Novacella is situated in a beautiful place.
One day I will go there for a week and visit these beautiful wineyards and monasteries.