I haven’t really been in the mood to do any detailed tasting notes lately, but I thought I would share what I’ve had to drink in the last week or so.
First, I’ve had a few bottles of the 2006 Kartaeuserhof Riesling. This stuff is amazing. I wish I had a ton more. It’s a really nice and dry Austrian Riesling. I love it. Fantastic acidity. It really hits my palate exactly where it should. I have nothing negative to say about it, except that I only have one bottle left. If there is any way you can get this wine, get it. Just fantastic stuff.
Next, another Riesling, this one from the Alsace. It’s a 2004 from Jean Sipp, labeled “Riesling Vieilles Vignes”. I have mixed feelings on this one. It’s not nearly as good as the Kartaeuserhof, but it’s decent. Nice acidity, but a little more sugar than I like. It also has a kind of vomitty back end which I don’t like too much, but it’s good with pizza. Not worth the $18, in my opinion.
On to one of the more interesting, off-the-wall wines I’ve had. It’s a Txakoli, which is a wine from the Basque region of Spain. It’s obscure enough that even wikipedia doesn’t have much to say about it. The one I got, 2007 Txakoli Gurrutxaga is a rosé. Low alcohol (10.5%), very low sugar, really tart. The grapes must be very low in sugar to get that combination. On the second day I got some good strawberry flavor out of it. I enjoyed it quite a bit, but it’s a little steep at $20. A good palate-builder, but not something I would seek out to drink all the time.
Finally, a little red wine. It’s been pretty cool for July in Oregon and I broke out a bottle of red to drink at the beginning of the week. This one is a wine recommended by Gary, and I bought a couple bottles of it a few months back, but hadn’t cracked one open before. It’s the 2005 Clos du Prieur, from the Coteaux Du Languedoc. Gary raved about it. I thought it was good. Nice and tannic and full of fruit and complexity, but it didn’t change my life. Maybe in the winter I’ll open up another bottle. My palate is so in tune with high-acidity whites right now that maybe I’m just not in the right mood for it. Perhaps for someone with a more sophisticated palate it would be a must-buy, but for me it was merely good. I’ll update again in the winter when I try it again.
That’s all for now. Maybe next time I’ll get inspired to do a more in-depth tasting, rather than just enjoying some yummy wine. Or maybe not…
[Sorry for the wacky formatting on this one. I'm no graphic designer and I'm not sure how I should lay it out, so I let WordPress do it for me, with odd results. And, thanks to imageshack for hosting the images.]
