Valle de Uco, Tunuyán, Mendoza, Argentina
With a scent of plum and smoke, this wine is a velvety purple. The taste is similarly of plum, with the smoke coming to the foreground. It's very smooth. The finish is almost a little bitter.
We spent a weekend in the Finger Lakes wine region, where ice wines seem to be the current rage. The area has particularly good Rieslings and early frosts - I think those two combine to make good conditions for ice wines.
It's a pity the only ice wine we tried was from the Hamptons, at Duck Walk Vineyards, but it was still quite nice.
It had an extremely rich, green apple nose. I also detected a little pear. The main flavors are apricot and honey, though there's a little apple in the finish. Is was quite sweet - a great dessert wine.
Quite dry, very carbonated. The primary fruit flavor is grape, but I also taste some sour citrus. This champagne is nothing spectacular, but it's nice enough. After sitting a few minutes, it's a little malty. But still primarily sour.
After our trip to Dr. Frank's, we went down the street to the Heron Hill Winery. I tried three of their premium Rieslings.
All were excellent, but I wasn't taking notes, and I only remember a word or two to describe each.
Dry Riesling 2003. Lots of citrus, particularly in the finish. Primarily lime.
Johannesberg Riesling. Primarily lemon, more in the full flavor than just the finish.
Late Harvest Riesling 2002. Honey and orange, but mostly honey. It has an almost syrupy consistency when compared with the other two. Did I mention honey?
Our trip to the Finger Lakes wine region was very successful - there are definitely some excellent wines being produced in the area. I'm going to head over to Marty's shortly to see what New York wineries they stock.
Elisabeth and I spent the weekend in Rochester, NY with some friends and visited a couple wineries. The first was Dr. Konstantin Frank's Vinifera Wine Cellars. Their tasting is highly recommended - you get six choices between two similar wines, so if you pair up with a friend you can try twelve in total.
Here are a few short notes. The links are to the closest matching year on their Wine Facts page:
Dr. Frank's 2002 Chardonnay. Very oaky and dry.
Salmon Run 2002 Chardonnay. Sweeter than the Dr. Frank Chardonnay, not overly oaky. Apples and pears.
Salmon Run 2003 Riesling. Fruity aroma and flavor. Sour notes at the back of the throat, but it's not unpleasant.
Dr. Frank's 2003 Johannesberg Riesling "Semi-dry". Rich, sweet. Nice dessert wine.
Salmon Run Coho Red. Thin and fruity - this is a great table wine. It was highly recommended by our helpful tasting guide as a cooking wine.
Dr. Frank's 2001 Pinot Noir. Light flavor, floral but not overly sweet. Well-layered.
Salmon Run 2002 Meritage. Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot. It's aged in French oak barrels, and tastes peppery. Nice.
Dr. Frank's 2002 Cabernet Franc. Nice, tastes of apple.
Dr. Frank's 2001 Merlot. Very fruity, dry.
Dr. Frank's 2003 Riesling "Dry". Great! Tart, tastes like grapefruit. We left with two bottles of this one.
Dr. Frank's 2002 Pinot Gris. Light in flavor. That's all my notes say. What a waste of ink.
Dr. Frank's 2002 Cabernet Sauvignon. Very tannic. Dry dry dry! Lots of plum, tobacco.
The Dr. Frank branded wines are from grapes grown on-site. Salmon Run is their newer, more inexpensive brand blending grapes from other vineyards.
All their wines were nice, and I can recommend them. The notes were primarily to help me differentiate between them, and I'm sorry I don't have more detail.
Probably best in a year or so, but this Cabernet Sauvignon from Puente Alto, Chile has a wonderful personality -- blackberry and currant are most discernible -- and a nice balance. I drank it without food, but if one were to enjoy an edible delight with it, I suspect it would pair wonderfully with various well seasoned ethnic dishes and anything but the gamiest of meats.
Disclaimer: I have heard that Wine Spectator gave this wine an impressive 94 rating, and unfortunately for the review I knew this a priori. It would be hard not to enjoy this bad boy, though.
Black cherry, currant, spice. Nice wine, on special from Marty's. It would pair well with rich tomato flavours or mellow cheese.
This was a nice white wine for dessert. It was fruity, with a high acidity - very refreshing. It was slightly carbonated.
We paired it with peach ice cream, and the combination was wonderful.
This was a very nice Red Rhone wine. Light, but still very flavorful. It's a great red wine to pair with chicken.
This is a simple table wine, a good basic example of a chianti. It is equal parts Sangiovese, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot.
It was nice, but nothing special. It paled beside the other two wines of the evening, the Château Montroche Costières de Nîmes 2002 and the St. Urbans-hof Piesporter Goldtrüpfchen 2002.
I'm tasting the Coastal Merlot 2000 from Beaulieu Vineyard, a Napa Valley staple.
The wine has a juicy, spicy nose. It's dry and medium-bodied, with a little spice. Black cherry and currant. This is a pleasant wine, and would be good with full-flavoured food.
The Rowland Atlas Peak Pinot Noir 1997 has a light-bodied, delicate flavor. Very smooth. Cherries and green apples, with an almost floral fragrance. The finish is slightly sweet.