GRANDS CRUS CLASSES SAINT EMILION

A few weeks ago there was a tasting in Brussels by the Association of Grands Crus Classés de Saint Emilion, or else said  the wines from the so called "the lesser Gods" of Saint Emilion.

So a small report of this tasting.

It's no evidence to taste this wines together in one place aside. You can always visit them of course but not at the same time.

As wine-lover and critic I know personally a number of these wines for a long time because one can not drink all days Cheval Blanc or Pavie, as if I do (never or in tastings), there is more than drinking these wines. I have as much great  pleasure drinking these payable wines.

It has to be said, there was great consistency in the quality of the wines present and they all had the millesimes 2016 and 2015 to taste, so one could reflect on the quality tasted a year earlier (2015)

For me I stand by my opinion that most of them lacking a bit of body in the 2015, they are more of charming wines where the 2016 has beautiful fruit and more content in them, certainly those who put in the 2016 some Cabernet Sauvignon.

My personal favourites ware Chateau Chauvin, by Sylvie Cazes; Chateau Clos de Sarpe; Clos de L'Oratoire; Chateau Fleur Cardinale; Chateau Fonplégade, what a difference between the old style of Armand Moeix and now the family Adams (already for a number of years); Chateau Grand Corbin D'Espagne, Chateau Grand Pontet; Chateau La Marzelle by the Belgian family Sioen; Chateau Saint Georges Côtes Pavie which I know from the '80. by the family Masson.

Timé

VINITALY 2018

From the 15th till Wednesday the 19th of April it was time again to the yearly festival of Vinitaly where winery's from all over Italy and also some guest winery's of other countries present their new released wines.

The start is always a bit hectic because many of the visitors are late with their accreditation to enter the professional fair as also the international press.

Being Belgian we, me and my partner, are always prepared and could enter via press accreditation.

Of course it is impossible to visit everyone but as I already said we came prepared and made a list of the winerys we wanted to visit, old friends for many years and some new ones some people suggested worth visiting.

I don’t want to mensioning every winery we visited but give you an idea of the presented worth visiting wines.

Some of them with stunning differences from the same region.

To open our tasting palate we started in the region of Lombardia with the sparkling wines Franciacorta,with  a new recent winery who started in 1956 but sold the grapes to other Franciacorta wineries, in 2007 Francesca started to produce their own wine and in 2010 the first own Franciacorta was born and introduced to the market. Today it is still a “small” winery with a production of around 50.000 bottles a year. More to find on their site Bonfadini.

BONFADINI Franciacorta:

Mrs Bonfadini on the right & my partner

What a start, what a surprise, perfect to begin with.

• Bonfadini Veritas Nature DOCG; made with 90 % Chardonnay and 10 % Pinot Nero; Color light yellow, in the nose slightly mineral and bread, very fine beautiful sparkling perlage, full body, very good balance and length, and savory. A winner.

• Bonfadini Carpe Diem Saten DOCG; 100 % Chardonnay; Light straw yellow colour, nose fruity and very complex, full body attack, persistent and good balance, long aftertaste. An other winner.

• Bonfadini Opera Rosé DOCG; 60 % Chardonnay, 40 % Pinot Nero; Beautiful pale pink colour, nose of red fruit like cherries, also in the mouth with nice balance and persistence.
• Bonfadini Nobilum Brut DOCG; 90 % Chardonnay, 10 % Pinot Nero;  Light yellow straw with green touches, Vanilla in the nose, fine perlage and length, everything one can ask for in a Franciacorta Brut.

La Valle Franciacorta :

After this exiting start we did visited later another estate called La Valle, nice wines but made with a whole other concept, mostly made “millesimato”  and different sensation in the mouth. We are sure to visit them one day and do the tasting over.

Even later that day we did visit the famous Franciacorta stand of Bellavista. Always good Franciacorta wines but nowadays pure business.

I want comment the wines we tasted but just say a few words about the stand, the reception, the people present and the organisation,  in fact only two words: GRANDE CASINO.

It was time to start tasting a number of wines from Tuscany.

Poliziano; a winery we know for many years

• Rosso di Montepulciano 2016; good starter, nothing else to say
• Vino Nobile di Montepulciano 2015; Good fruity nose, very light, misses content and length.
• Asinone 2015; very well made vino nobile with great taste and length. One of my favorites.

San Felice:

• We tasted a lot of wines, Chianti Classico and Brunello and were nicely surprised with the quality of most of them.
• However we had problems with the quality of the Il Grigio, Chianti Classico Riserva 2014 and the Brunello di Montalcino Campogiovanni 2013 which both of them came over as made the old fashion way, already with a lot of evolution, misses fruit and fresh content and ware not pleasing in the mouth and aftertaste.
• Bell’Aja 2016, Bolgheri; 40 % Cabernet Sauvignon and 60 % Merlot; good made wine from young vines; but who is looking for French made wine in Italy.
• Pugnitello 2013, from the grape pugnitello, made here for a number of years, at first blended but now in monocépage, hard to find other wineries with this kind of grapes. Beautiful great wine, nothing more to say.

Icario:

A winery I know for a number of years because i followed the agronomist and winemaker Stefano Rende, who was working at Poliziano at that time and moved to this winery in property of the family Cecchetti, and is now in the hands of the German family Rothenberger. In the meantime Stefano has left this estate and has now his own agronomist business.

The wines we tasted:

• Nysa 2016, white wine; amber colored pinot grigio, to long on lie, to perfumed, not very nice to see and taste (sweet)
• Rosso Icario 2014; 80 % sangiovese and 20 % Teroldego !!! Good fruity wine with good balance and length.
• Rosso di Montepulciano 2016; Because of the 20 % Merlot good drinkable fruity wine
• Vino Nobile di Montepulciano 2015, not yet commercialised, (campione) ; Very promising great wine with good potential, a wine to wait for.
• Vino Nobile di Montepulciano 2013; to bad with the evolution of this wine, old fashion way. I appreciate also they did not produce Nobile in 2014.
• Nobile 2011; classic Nobile, good aftertaste
• Vino Nobile  di Montepulciano Riserva Vitaroccia 2012; classic but a bit to much evolution already.
• Vitaroccia 2010; one word : great

Col D’Orcia :

Again a winery we know for many years with mostly good and great wines.

• Again however we were not very happy with the Brunello 2013, a bit of the old fashion way made, we could compare it with the 1998 but then again the 1998 has had many years and was still better than the 2013.
• The Poggio al Vento 2010 had everything what someone want, great wine with years to go.
• A wine with a difference was the Brunello di Montalcino 1968. We were very lucky we could taste this “old” wine, what an experience, still going on and nice in the mouth with a long aftertaste, a happy ending of the tasting.

Querciabella :

We visited this winery in November and you can find my comment in an earlier article, but now we could taste the finished wines.

• It was a confirmation of the quality of the wines we tasted from the barrel and would like to congratulation them with their wines
• Beside this we tasted also the Camartina 2012, great wine; the Palafreno 2013, 100 % Merlot, great wine again and maybe I could be persuaded to buy this wine instead of a Pomerol, surely as after this we tasted the Palafreno 2006, a little more stricter,  but what a wine, with still years to go. And this coming from someone who doesn't like French style wines from Italy.

Tenuta Fontodi :

Nothing special to mention, good and great wines as ever.

Solaria, from Patrizia Cencioni, Brunello di Montalcino :

• A very fine and pleasant Rosso di Montalcino 2016, a promising year, lots of fruit and nice to drink, good length.
• Here a very well made Brunello 2013 with good content fruit and length
• Brunello Riserva 2012 ; classic Brunello with lots of content and length, beautiful made wine.
• Solaria IGT 2015; 70 % Sangiovese and 30 Cabernet Sauvignon, the wine is not yet bottled but is a good example of a great wine to come, perhaps a little bit to commercial with the C.S. but we liked it anyway.

Mocali :

Another winery we know for a great number of years, maybe a little bit mis understood by the international press but with good and also very great wines we like very much.

• A very nice Rosso di Montalcino 2016, like the other one we like this one also
• Again a very well made Brunello 2013, good fruit, content and length
• Brunello Vigna delle Raunate 2013; In every way a great wine, I put this wine next to the so called super great Brunello wines.

Campo alla Sughera, Bolgheri :

Nothing special to say, were very busy with themselfs, reasonable French style wines.

Vernaccia :

Passing by we tasted some Vernaccia wines. Good as always is Panizzi but we tasted a special one from Simone Santini; Vigna al Sassi Riserva 2014; good special wine.

Fattoria Le Fonti :

Another “small” winery we know for many years with as usual good wines. Very well made Chianti Classico in 2015 as well as the Riserva 2014, a very good wine in a very difficult wine year.

Next to this we tasted a new small winery they have in Sicily. The wine is called A Picca 2014, an Etna Rosso; an interesting wine to follow.

San Giusto A Rentennano :

Very well made Chianti Classico 2016 as well as the Riserva 2015

A very well made Percarlo 2014 as well as the 100 % Merlot La Ricolma 2015; great French style Merlot wine with a lot of potential. One to follow.

Isole e Olena :

And then there was Paolo di Marchi, old friend of mine with usual good and great wines.

The Chianti Classico 2015 is well made with a lot of fruit and good content

Cepparello 2015 is good as usual with a little bit of reserve, good content and a lot of tannins which will take him a long way.

The Syrah 2014 is very good, especially for someone who doesn't like Syrah, one of my favorites.

The Cabernet Sauvignon is well made but thank you, not for me.

It was time to change to another hall, Piemonte

Marchesi di Barolo

Friends for many years and usually good and great wines.

We started with the Barbera D’Alba Peiragal 2015 which is a good made wine, not very complex but just good.

Then came the Baroli, normally good wines to great but sadly enough not this time. We tasted the Barolo, Barolo Cannubi 2013 and were a lot disappointed in them, after this the Sarmassa 2013 which was the best among them with enough fruit and content but not as good as usual, acceptable, not great. We have to wait for the next year.

The Barolo Riserva 2010 was an example for all Baroli, great wine.

Virna Borgogno

We met these lady's a few years ago and were very surprised with their wines. We even helped them on our market.

The wines:

• Solo Uno, Arneis 2017; best arneis we tasted
• Dolcetto 2016; pleasant and nice ripe fruit, very good.
• Barbera d’Alba 2015; well made but a bit short
• Barbera d’Alba San Giovanni 2015; very much more content and fruit, good length and good aftertaste.
• Nebbiolo  Langhe Il 2015; young fruit a bit to much acidity, who knows in the summer on a nice terras.
• Barolo 2013 ; again that little bit of to much evolution but better than the other ones. Good drinkable wine.
• Barolo di Barolo 2013; a great deal of more content, good length and aftertaste, I would like to call this a great wine.
• Barolo di Barolo 2014; a little less content but very promising.
• Barolo Cannubi Boschis 2014; Very fruity but a little bit amaro
• Barolo Sarmassa 2014; Beautiful made wine with good content and length
• Barolo Riserva 2010; in everything a great wine.

Marchesi Alfieri

Another winery we know for many years because  we followed the winemaker Mario Olivera who worked for Col D’Orcia at that time, but is original from Piemonte, to this winery close to the city of Asti.

He makes a beautiful young nebbiolo wine called Costa Quaglia 2015; young fruit with enough content and length to enjoy with a meal

The two Barbera D’Asti called La Tota 2016 and Alfiera 2015 are both very well made with good content and length, but the Alfiera is greater in everything, a beautiful and great Barbera.

Braida

Unexpected because we did not put this winery on our list but just by passing by the stand we entered the stand of Braida. The nice lady invited us in.

We started with a nice very young wine:

• Montebruna Barbera D’Asti 2016 with a lot of young fruit but good enough to accompany a nice meal
• The Bricco della Bigotta 2016 has a lot of ripe fruit, full attack in the mouth, very nice acidity and a long aftertaste, good wine
• The Bricco Dell’Uccellone 2016; Full bodied attack of ripe fruit, good length and acidity, long aftertaste. great wine.
• Ai Suma 2015; great wine to end with.

Vajra

Another one of my usual favourites

The Riesling Rennano 2017 was in everything a very nice good wine as usual.

Then came the Baroli 2014. We were a little bit disappointed with the quality of the wines. We did not find great wines although good wines to drink but not to hold.

The Luigi Baudana wines were a little bit better in quality but not enough to become great wines.

Just by chance on the way out we passed the stand of

Tenuta Sant’ Antonio

A few years ago I went to this estate with a number of Belgian (French  and Flemish speaking) and also Dutch journalist and discovered a number of wines we did not know the quality of.

One by one great wines in their own perspective but very good wines.

This time on our own we just tasted a few of them which confirmed our view over the quality of their wines. One to follow.

As mentioned in my earlier note we visited a number of wineries of Basilicata and Campania, but we have the idea they need to work a little bit harder to enter the Belgian market. Of course some of the wines were good but not good enough. We will follow this up later.

So, we had a very nice, calm and enjoyable Vinitaly 2018

We see you all again next year April, or who knows, some of them sooner.

Timé & Sonja

BORSA VINI ITALIANI 2018

On the 8th of March it was time to meet some producers of the South of Italy with courtesy of ICE (Italian Trade Agency) in Brussels.

Present ware producers of Puglia, Campania, Basilicata Calabria and Sicily.

Because I visited Puglia several times over the years, and I think they have still a lot of work to do to be commercialised in Belgium, because wines with over 15,5 % of alcohol are not easy to drink, I did  refuse not taste them.

However I was very surprised to discover several wines from Campania and Campania with great wines, in white and red.  Also I tasted some good wines from Calabria which I visited earlier a few years ago.
I liked very much the wines from the Greco , Greco di Tufo , Aglianico and some other less known grape varieties.

For now I want mention the winery's I liked very much because I want to learn more about this regions and see and experience how they work.

So I will have to visit them in person some day later in the year.

Many thanks to the organisation and till later.

Timé

UNION DES GRANDS CRUS DE BORDEAUX

On the 6th of February it was time again for the Bordeaux producers to present their wines of the millesime 2015.

In an earlier post you can see my impressions of this years production although the wines ware still in barriques or tanks. I had the impression that the wines ware very good but ware lacking some content.

Now the wines are ready for commercialisation for the public I'm happy to see my impressions came trough.

Overall of the producers present the wines are very good but only a few I can say are great, to bad some ware not capable to make wines that are good enough for this kind of year,

I can understand it is not easy in a difficult year to produce great wines but one can't say this year was difficult. A mistake by the owner or enologist?

Also it is amazing to see the big difference of quality from some neighbours producers. Some are very good but some are really great.

My final thoughts are that we have mostly beautiful and early drinkable wines and I would like to compare them to the style and difference of the years 2009 and 2010. 2015 very smooth and next year (2016) really great.

Timé

QUERCIABELLA

Recently, in November, my wife and I went for a little rest and relaxation in Tuscany, one of my favourite places in Italy, with a great number of friends wine-growers.

As I already said, this time it was not only for visiting the wineries but as usual I could not resist to go and say hello to some friends in the Chianti Classico region, like the family Manetti of Tenuta Fontodi and of course Paolo Di Marchi from Isole e Olena.

This time I will not describe the wines of these wineries (great as ever), because everyone knows them already.

An other winery I know for a number of years is the winery of Querciabella in Greve in Chianti, never visited before (why???) ,  and is imported by one of my favourite wine-importers in Belgium with wines from over the world, themselves also wine-producers in the Bordeaux region in France (Rabotvins),

Querciabella is situated in the beautiful surroundings of Greve in Chianti, on top of the hill of the unique landscape of Tuscany, with 83 Ha vineyards for Chianti Classico and surrounding the estate in Panzano and also in Gaiole, Radda and in Maremma (32 Ha).

It takes a great effort to arrive on top of the hill because off the “non” existing road, quit steep with numerous potholes and bad road, one better go’s by a 4 X 4.

Querciabella is founded in 1974 and reigned by Sebastiano Castiglioni, born in Milan in 1966 and introduced very young to wine by his father Giuseppe.

With his passion to make great wine and a strong commitment to the environment, he reformed the company in 1988 to organic viticulture and later in 2000 to the bio-dynamic mode of wine-making. Querciabella is one of the biggest companies in the region working this way.

For a long time I did not believe in this type of wine-making and tasted only a few wines worth mentioning at that time. One really had to search for a good made wine this way. If its worth to spending much more to buy this sort of wine one has to make his own decision.

However the wines of Querciabella are worth tasting and drinking because I think they have one of the best and most succulent Chianti’s in this region.

We ware welcomed by one of the wine-makers, Mr Manfred Ing, with experience in winemaking in several countries.

We visited of course the different wine cellars, from the collecting the grapes to the maturation cellars, nice modern steel tanks with temp. control, some even in wood, wooden maturation (botte grande) of different size and off course the barriques cellar with barrels from different barrique-makers.

The cellars are quite separated from each other which means they have to transfer the wine quite a bit.

Already they began the malolactic fermentation for some of the wines.

Then it was time to taste some wines, not before on special demand, to taste some Sangiovese out of barrique from the year 2015, not yet commercialised.

We tasted 3 Sangiovese 2015 out of barrel from Taransaud, so still not ready for bottling from 3 different vineyards; Greve; Radda and Gaiole. It is quite stunning to experience the difference in the wines, fermented in the same way.

The one from Greve was very succulent, nice in balance with hidden elegant tanines, a bit “easy” but with enough body and content.

The one from Radda had more strict tanines and a bit drying but good body

The one from Gaiole had a little less content but more colour with good soft tanines and good length.

To bad we did not have enough time to make an assembly to make “the perfect Chianti”, an other time perhaps.

It was time to go to the tasting room to taste (again) the wines now on the market:

• Mongrana 2014 : Toscana IGT ; Maremma ; vineyards Albarese and Grosseto; 50 % Sangiovese, 25 % Cabernet Sauvignon and 25 % Merlot:

Very nice easy to drink international taste wine with enough content to accompany easy dishes

• Chianti Classico 2014 : 100 % Sangiovese from the communes of Greve, Panzano, Gaiole and Radda:

Beautiful colour, very nice ripe fruit and good fresh balance, good length, already enjoyable and will last a number of years to go;  to go with easy dishes

• Chianti Classico Riserva 2013 : 100 % Sangiovese from Greve (Ruffoli), Gaiole and Radda:

Even in a, for me, hot year, this wine is a success in taste and balance. Nice deep colour, very succulent and enjoyable already, full body, nice tanines and acidity, alcohol not to high; This is for me an ideal wine for very good dishes and even without dishes, can go for a great number of years.

• Turpino 2011 ; Toscana IGT ;  Greve in Chianti; Ruffoli; Albarese; Grosseto ; Maremma ; from Cabernet Franc, Syrah and Merlot

Very good and aromatic fruit with great taste and impressive balance. Even if I don’t search for this sort of “international” wines in Italy I fully enjoyed this full bodied and elegant wine.

• Camartina 2011 ; Toscana IGT; 70 % Cabernet Sauvignon ; 30 % Sangiovese From Greve in Chianti.

As a fully committed Cabernet Sauvignon fanatic it is stunning to see what one can do in Tuscany with ripe Cabernet and refining with Sangiovese. Great outstanding “French – Italian” wine with great length and balance. Now already enjoyable but with many years to go.

• Batar 2014 ; Tosca IGT ; Ruffoli, Greve in Chianti ; 50 % Chardonnay ; 50 % Pinot Blanc.

Superb Chardonnay with of course notes of the “sweeter” fruit and mineral from the Pinot, good balance, length and aftertaste, perhaps a little bit to much wood.

• We did not taste the Palafreno; why : ?? We forget  ???

A nice end to a beautiful visit and tasting of one of the better or superb wine houses.