April/08 wines... 1/2

Here it is despite today is bank holiday...

- Wiltinger Riesling Trocken 2006. Reichsgraff von Kesselstatt. Mosel-Saar-Ruwer (aprox 11 EUR)
A wine where the vividness of the acidity and the ";little"; percentage of alcohol makes you drink a glass after another. Citrics, grapefruit, unrippen peach, pancetta and a very odd smell that I try to explain. Many years ago, when I was in the school, we used laboratory burners that have to be fired on so carefully, ’cos the wick used to jump to the ceiling. Well, I find the smell of that alcohol used into the burners without the anoying alcohol smell. It’s in the threshold of the QPR. Nice pairing for a cod and courgette omelette.

- Gorrondona 2006. Doniene Gorrondona. DO Bizkaiko Txakolina. (aprox 9 EUR)
Due to my experience with the preceding bottle of this wine, with a touch of dirtiness, I decided to decant it. An hour after a begin to drink... well, in fact the dinner was ready and was not in the mood of having a cold dinner ;)
Good point with the decanting. The dirtiness was almost off under a big wave of fresh strawberries. It confirms the preceding bottle. It’s a nice wine, but for the price I need a step further. I’ll try to taste next vintages of this wine to get a proper opinion.

- Blanco Nieva Sauvignon Blanc 2007. Viñedos del Nieva. DO Rueda (4.99 EUR)
It’s like being early in the morning into the subway. Stinks! Sweat! Decrease under the smell of maracuyá fortunately and despite it don’t disappear it turns into grass hints and a slight touch of fennel bulb. Fresh acidity and with a touch of bitterness. It’s been nicely paired with an odd salad made with prawns, kiwi, marinated salmon, cherry tomatoes and assorted lettuces; and with a roasted gilthead bream on strips of red bell pepper. Great QPR.

- Viña Albina Reserva 2001. Bodegas Riojanas. DOC Rioja. (aprox 7 EUR)
One of the wines that use to be in my to-do list. I found a good off in a wine-shop so I decided that it’d be a good chance to drink it without having a big damage in my wallet. I didn’t like the first impression. Too much raw wood, toasted hints and an acidity that you
don’t know neither where comes from nor where is it going. After a glass and a half I decided to forget the bottle in the fridge for a couple of days. After these two days the wine was better. The components are in a better balance, wood, cherries and tobacco. Nonetheless I find the wine is in a ’Do not disturb’ moment. At this very moment the QPR isn’t good, but I hope this wine improves with time, so we’ll see...

- Morgon Domaine de La Chanaise 2005. Domaines Dominique Piron. Morgon Appellation Contrôlée (7.25 EUR)
Redcurrants, raspberries, cherries... all the fresh and vivid red fruit you want, embedded in that kind of firmness I use to identify as minerality. This is Beaujolais and not that kind of stuff labeled as Noveau! It’s been nicely paired with a dish of ’carbonnades flamandes’, just a meat stew made with beer. Great QPR.

- Dr. Bürklin-Wolf Riesling Trocken 2006. Pfalz. (11.6 EUR)
It looks like sunflower oil. Peach, apricot, white flowers like jasmine. Turns to sweetness without reaching, but it’s an oily and thicker sip than the one I remember. Nice wine with a sea-bass Veracruzana style. Ok for about 11.6 EUR.

- Ostatu Maceración Carbónica. Bodegas Ostatu. DOC Rioja (4,21 EUR)
Nice wine, fruit, green touch in backnose, correct. Just it. I feel as if I were drinking this wine five months after. I find no trace of MC, and let me admit that I don’t like bubbles in still wines, but I find this wine a right young wine, but no hint of MC. Ok for the QPR.

1/2