Talk-A-Vino

Delaying, delaying, delaying. I have so many experiences and moments to share – and literally, the whole of September had been a dread. This September will have the least number of posts since I started to regularly write this blog. Oh well. It’s been a busy month, at work and outside, so hopefully October will be more fruitful in terms of wine (and life) writing.

Let me just sum up some of my recent experiences. One of the very first things I want to mention is a substantial advance in the “grape count” – adding 11 new grapes (reaching a total of 351) – well, yes, some of them clones. The Clonal Project Riesling from Cattail Creek winery in Canada brings in 4 different Riesling clones. It was also possible to taste those clones individually, but at about $100 for the set, it was an expensive proposition. However, this Clonal Riesling, a blend of four clones was outright delicious, with a great harmony of fruit, earthiness and acidity – it was a great wine. Here is the list of all the new grapes:

Riesling Clone 239, Riesling Clone 49, Riesling Clone 21 Young Vines, Riesling Clone 21 Old Vines – 2009 Riesling Clonal Blend, VQA Four Mile Creek, Canada

Zibibbo – Donnafugata Ben Rye, Passito di Pantelleria DOC

Pignolo – 2007 Bastianich Callabrone Rosso, Friuli DOC

Schioppettino – 2007 Bastianich Callabrone Rosso, Friuli DOC

Vranac – Rubin Vranac, Serbia

Mavrotragano – 2006 Atlantis Red, Santorini, Greece

Carignan Blanc – 2009 Pico’VDP de l’Herault Blanc

Trepat Blanc – 2007 Blanc de Montsalvat, Priorat DOC

Have to honestly tell you that all these wines were very good, each having it’s own personality and very pleasant to drink. I’m also very glad to add Pignolo and Schioppettino grapes, as those two are part of the main table in the Wine Century club application – may be one day it will be complete!

During September I was lucky enough to attend two trade wine tastings. One word to describe the experience is – “overwhelming”. I can’t do a fair representation of all the great wines we tried – Paul Hobbs, Shafer Hillside, Honig, Evening Land, Bussia Barolo, Archery Summit, Blankiet Estate, Palmaz, …  – the list can go on and on (just to give you an idea, there were about 1400 wines in the first tasting, and about 700 wines in the second – of course nobody tried all those wines, but you understand the size). Here are some of the highlights, in pictures:

Paul Hobbs wines:

Evening Land Pinot Noirs from Oregon – amazing:

Shafer Hillside:

2001 Masi Mazzano Amarone  – this is what Amarone should taste like – absolutely amazing, my personal favorite in tasting:

To complete the updates, I started new series of blog posts at The Art Of Life Magazine – the series dedicated to spirits, and first two posts in the series are talking about Brandy and Scotch.

That’s all for now, folks. Have to go – talk to you later. Cheers!