Andre

Andre, Thanks for the TN. I have a few bottles and will have to try one soon. Phil ← Take your time and make that a later rather than soon. The wine is playing one on one with some massive tannins and looks like you will have to gamble on a dif. vintage this season.

Greek cheese and wine, To begin with I would avoid the brine cheeses such as Feta, Telemes, Sfela and Bastos. If you are going for any of those – pick a medium dry Rose’ such as Calligas’s Allotino Rose’ or a med. Dry Emery. On the Semi-Hard cheese you will come across Kasseri and Graviera. The two will need dif wines. For the Kasseri – usually sharp and acidic, you may need a dry Rose’ or white from Santorini [ skip the commercial and go for the drier more terroir expressive that will match the cheese better ] For the Graviera - a more aromatic with sometimes a sweetish texture I would pick an oak aged Hatzimichalis or an aged Kouros wine [ kourtakis ] The Classic hard cheese may be very different. Kefalotiri – a new age dry red wine from Crete with sharper acidity [boutari] Kefalograviera – depending on the age of this one – a full bodied red such as the ktima There are some oil cheese that I usuall avoid with wine – they cote the tongue resulting in bitterness when the subject engae,. A short answer for a long and complicated question.

Chateauneuf-du-Pape Vieux Telegraphe La Crau 1998 Very dark intense red and dark cherry color. The nose reveals a concentrated forest fruit juice aroma mixed with some fresh raspberries and some dried prunes ending with mildly toasted oak Soft and full-bodied with massive tannins some of which are still green indicating youth. An impressive acidity backed up by the tannins will age this wine gracefully for no les than 10 years. The tannin dominated texture develops some soft prunes and black cherry fruit indicating this wines' promising future. Drink 2008-2015. Tasted February 11th 2005.

Shifting to some heayweighhts lately Jim? Thanks for sharig.

Thank you, I enjoyed these wines with friends and although there was food on the table, personally, I don't even sip water between the wines. I may enjoy the food with the wines if there is anything left afterwards. I also try to taste these wines over a period of half an hour to see if there are any changes. I try to foccus on the movie rather than the picture keeping in mind that whoever created the wines, spent a long period of hard work before I had the privelage to tatse it.

An afternnon is always a good opportunity to enjoy reserved wines..... Brunello di Montalcino Il Paradiso di Manfredi 1996 Deep red dark impressive color. A well-balanced nose of soft ripe fruits, dusty older oak, spice and green herbs. A minute later and dark chocolate, nutmeg join sun-dried Soltanina raisins & prunes. Soft on the entrance ….soft on the exit. Ooops, aside from some spicy and chewy tannins, this wine forms a huge gap of emptiness from whatever expectations the impressive nose had elevated. The only positive thing about it – simple enough to compliment food. Tasted Feb 3rd 2005. Barolo Colonello, Poderri Aldo Conterno 1997. [selected vines of low yield within Bussia Soprana] Red toward dark red very deep color. Quite alcoholic on a first sniff with dominant aldehydes. A very mild Barlo nose develops after a while with some concentrated dried fruits mixing with some mild spice. The mouth is a disappointment. Medium bodied with nothing even resembling complexity or intensity with a rather short finish. This is an easy drinking Barolo for beginners. Tasted Feb 3rd 2005. Hermitage Jean-Louis Chave 1983 Light red with a good depth and brick colored rim. A beautiful older Hermitage nose with Cacao and dried fruits perfectly balanced in a manner reserved for royalty. Full bodied, soft and multi-dimensional texture lead by cherry and prunes. Very ripe soft flavours with just the right amount of acidity to back them up. What an experience – Chapeau! Drink now-2006. Tasted Feb 3rd 2005. Chateau Angelus Saint Emiliion Grand Cru Classe’ 1991 A very deep Bordeaux color with beautiful lighter red rim. A rather mild nose with dominant spice and some oak. A massive tannin attack indicates the youth of this wine, yet any hope for anything else other than shades of over-ripe fruits comes tumbling down. Some more tannins with a little bitterness indicated the winemakers effort to extract what was not there. Tannin lovers may have a go at this one though the experiment may prove dull. Drink 2005-2008. Tasted Feb 3rd 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon Sonoma County, Ernest & Julio Gallo 1978 A taster may sometimes loose his patience when it comes to wines like these but the elder must be respected. Brick red towards hints of brown with little depth. Molasses mixes with oxidized aromas with a sweet toasted oak smoothly blending with sweet prune juice. The wine proves of a sherry texture where the acidity is converting to acetic and a hot alcoholic finish dominates whatever should have been there. Now that we paid respect for this one the summery will be of two words: Too late. Tasted Feb 3rd 2005. Patience is the deserts greates wisdom.

Arrigato Neh Hiroyuki -San.

Now is this fun or what? White Viognier on a raging sea I have no fear for the winemaker’s with me In the Cote Rotie may we mingled be. ************* Cold wet dark and lonesome Empty tanks nitrogen To be or not to be ************** The heat of the sun rays Sweat pain, dying dreams Does this all eventually pays? ***************** Friends and a bottle of wine Daily agonies Sips, smiles and all seems fine ***************** Sites forums and then a Mary Wines, habits, poetry. Wrinting in E-Gullet is no longer scary

Looks like the wine is very well balanced with typical main ingredients: So2, Tartaric and Citric acids with a Malo-Lactic buttery finish. Carefully designed...

Fine company and wine. The fact that I stopped working Friday nights yanked me of my working kingdom to become a sitting nobody overlooking the Haifa Bay and wasting time. I simply hate crowded place, so going out was not an option. A friend’s invitation for dinner was cordially accepted by my wife and I. The evening starts with some antipasti served with Silvaner Spatlese Trocken, Wurzburger Stein 1999. This delicate yet complex Franken wine, lacked the necessary acidity for further development and although a gold medal winner, I found it less complex than expected with a good balance but with a too smooth drinking feel. Fresh herbs and minerals dominated the scene. Cabernet Sauvignon Dunn Vineyards, Napa Valley 1984 was served with a perfectly made Ossobuco served with tiny green peas and Jacket potatoes . The wine was wronged by being open for 5 hours before we got to taste it, although not oxidized the wine was situated at the bottom of no return. Fading ripe fruits were joined by simple mildly toasted oak and oxidized aromas. [ Now I can almost hear Brad: why on earth would you open a ....] The Chambertin that came to the rescue had to wait until Dunn’s last drop was consumed. After all he was may favorite Renaissance poet… Chambertin Grand Cru Domaine Trapet pere & fils 1995. Massive fruits without finess indicated the youth of this long distant runner. Young Burgundy wines can be deceiving. The gang tof seven enjoyed this concentrated black cherry and gooseberry aroma skillfully crafted with good acidity and a slightly dominating oak finish. The wine kept on growing but five more years would have resulted in a much better wine. Vega Sicilia “Unico” Ribera del Duero 1990. Bottle number 48131 expressed layers of concentrated ripe fruits, herbs, mild spice, earth and tobacco yet lacked the harmony of the Chambertin appearing nearly as a new world wine when the two were compared. Unlike the Chambertin, the Unico lost some of the layers after 20 minutes in the glass. Chewy tannins mingled with some dried fruits in the mouth showing the winemakers potential of winemaking yet I am not sure about his blending skills. I recommend drinking this one between 1997 – 2000. A dried fruit cocktail with dense mildly scented cream threw some more compliments the cook’s way. Aged cognac topped the evening. The world is a wonderful place to be.

Thanks for the TN's I have tasted this wine several times, yet never enjoyed. This could very well be due to the import conditions and storage facilities to my country. The wine remained locked in its own tannins forever.

Enjoying.... 1/ Any idea about the percentage of TCA in oak barrels ? 2/ Are there other kinds of bacteria oak is sesnsitive too? 3/ How easily can the oak breathe other aromas. 4/ There are winemaker who would rather not clean a barrel before second use. Any ideas about that ?

I am being rude here, sorry about that.... Any opinion about the use of Portuguese oak in New World winemaking techniques ?

Thanks again Mel and while your on your working break: Elaborating the Assemblage question - When blending dif. barrels in terms of : a. dif. degree of toastiness. b. dif ages of barrels. c. dif. kinds of barrels e.g. Hungaruan blended with Russian oak d. dif. producers. e. dif. sizes. Are there any do's and don'ts ? and what might be your recommendatios?

Facinating Mel, thanks. Are there any recommendations of specific oak or oak condition to specific grape veriety or style ? When it comes to assemblage - are ther any recommended marriages?

Chateau Leoville Barton, Saint Julien, 1990 Dark red deep color towards lighter amber rims An impressive ripe Bordeaux nose beautifully blended with some dusty oak notes. Soft on the entry but captures the mouth seconds later to reveal chewy tannins blended with chocolate and dried prunes flavor. The finish is fairly balanced yet somehow shorter than expected. The nose opens-up after 20 minutes to portray some more ripe fruit flavors with some mild spice. Harsher greener tannins kept appearing and disappearing shortly after swallowing in the mouth. The wine failed to gain any further development. Lacks complexity to make this wine interesting enough to look for. Drink 2005-2008. Tasted Jan. 14th 2005.

Greetings Mel, I was wondering wether you have performed, or know of, experiments considering the health aspects of oak in general and taosting oak in particular, on oak aged / flavoured wine consumers. Thanks

Thanks for the tasting note. I don't know about dropping no ball but with the NY times article: "Modern Love for Ancient Vines in Southern Italy" dated January 12, 2005 By ERIC ASIMOV Finally realizing the are other wines other from what the terribly narrow minded "New World" can provide or accept, we should allow ourselves an awakening from this very dangerous sleep. Wishing all the Greeks and Christian Orthodox a Happy New-Year.

Andre: Enjoyed your answer, thanks. Thanks for your compliments and good wishes. For whatever it's worth, the wine showed much better at dinner than it did when first opened. I had a bit of a dilemma in that I needed to transport mature wine (that had thrown some sediment) to the restaurant. Transporting in bottle before decanting wasn't feasible for two reasons. First, I was concerned about clouding the wine on the way to the restaurant. Second, this was a small restaurant that isn't set up for proper wine service with mature wines that require decanting off sediment. Additionally, I wanted to make sure all of the bottles were good before I headed to the restaurant, as I didn't want to lug around unnecessary backup bottles. As I said, the double decanting actually helped the wine show a lot better. Had the wine come out on the edge of cracking up, I would have pulled a different wine to serve with dinner. My taste for mature wines may be a little different from others, but I've found that even mature burgs can stand up to (and benefit from) a little more air than one might expect. Also, by double decanting, I just mean decanting then pouring back into original (cleaned and dried) bottle, then sealing up. By the way, I looked at your profile and loved your statement under "Interests: Wines expressing their soil". That's the reason I love old school burg, old school B&B, single vineyard alsace, Loire CB's, MSR/Rhiengaus. Suspect we have similar taste...even if we differ on decanting old burgs. Take care, Jim ←

A wonderful report Jim and many happy returns. " I double decanted the wine at about 6:00 pm." This is a sure way to lock the wine up Jim, namely aged Bourgogne. I failed to get anything out of decanting such wines. Several years ago, I nearly killed a sommelier in Paris who dacanted a Bourgogne from the 60's without my permission. A wonderful show !

It may have been the Beaujolais or our Muslim friends may call it "Ramadan Kareem" or Ramadan the generous, but I had two weeks of constant pressure 16 hours a day that came to an end Friday evening. Falling asleep for a single hour may prove a mistake when you lack so many hours of sleep. I woke-up Friday night feeling as if hit by a train. My earlier promises to my wife of dining-out had to be fulfilled. I called a pastoral restaurant in Tivon, a nearby village to my city, Haifa, and the young voice on the other side of the line was kind enough to find us a table for two and authorized the wine I intended to bring. Nine Thirty gave me enough time for choosing some wine and a quick shower. A beautiful winding road between green-black trees lead to the secluded restaurant. The wooden house in the woods seemed a classic if it was not for the artificial grass at the entry. The 18 year old voice lead us to a table near the fire-place. My wife was thoughtful enough to choose a table at the end of the universe. A fan of Willie Smith and Tommy what’s his face addressed us: “ Can I open the wine for you” “We will choose the dishes and then choose the wine, thank you” Mr. Black smiled and and glanced at my back pack as he left us to choose. We decided on Lamb Soniyi and Raviloli of blue cheese and dried tomatoes. I opened my bag and took out a Bourgogne Domaine de Montille 2000. The wine proved a superb match to the excellent lamb dish and the fairly made ravioli. A glass of the Bourgone inspired the staff to come-up with two excellent dishes. A fillet of lamb in a thin crusted dough and slices of Mussar [meager] fish on a bed of vegetables that proved heavenly. Joseph Phelps Insignia 1996 joined the party and an inspiration proceeded to the kitchen for the creation of the desserts. The wine had a deceiving first impression. Full bodied with an excellent balance and at its peak, yet unlike the Bourgogne, proved one dimensional and fairly boring. Dessert came in the shape of a white chocolate pyramid and a seasonal fruit salad with tapioca. A very enjoyable experience.

Many wines come to mind and it is a big world out there: Chateau Bonnet, Entre-Deux-Mere, Andre Lourton 2002. Gentil, Hugel, Alsace 2002. Chenin Blanc Villiera RSA 2003. Sauvignon Blanc Swartland RSA 2003. Riesling Annie's Lane Australia 2003. Foz da Moura, Vinho Regional Ribatejano Bianco, Quinta de Gouxaria, Portugal, 2002. Albor Bianco, Castilla, Bodegas Artesanas Spain 2002. Isareali Sauvignon Blanc from 2003. Lebanese Rose and white wines from the Bekaa ....

Hi Carema, I enjoy your style but a word of criticism if I may. A. What is the 95 points for ? B. Why state the price prior to the tasting notes or even worse at the heading?

I enjoyed the very well orgenized Chateau Margaux website. Chateau Kefraya of Lebanon has a heart worming site I enjoyed as well. Luna di Luna has a very practical sale oriented site that may be of help to the retailers.

Hi Carema, Glad to see you back with no less talent than before. I tried to find a bottle of the Beaujolais mentioned but without success, Celebrated with Drouhin [village ], Debeouf and Bichot. Some local Israeli delluted versions [imagine that!], namely the Gamay Nouveau joined in as well. Two more events and we are back to the real thing.