Game Over!

It's enough! One year of contiuing missons to explore strange new wine worlds, to seek out new wines and new old wine traditions have been enough! My succsses was limited and not really illuminating! The Winefleet Command is sick of my sloppy and incompetent reports and so am I. Okay, enough of this embarissing, but justified auto-critisism!

Despite everything, there have been some nice discoveries, of course just personal ones, like those Oregon Pinots or some of those equally interesting Australian Pinots like the Bastard Hill or the often varying Lusitanian Autos' or a fantastic Sake or even those Crisp Whities from the West of Spain.

 

For a better overview I have taken the liberty to summerize the noteworthy wines: 

Unfortunately the celestial (********) growths were too metaphysically busy and did not reveal themselves to my worthless palatal! The semi-celestial (*******) were downright limited. The fantastic (******) wines were a few. The very decent (*****) wines danced on my palatal on numerous occasions and the decent (****) ones showed plenty! The rest has the right to be forgotten!

Thanks to everyone for reading some of the mostly pretty dumb post of this little project. Bye!

By the way, you guys out there on the internet shouldn't be too happy about the termination of this what-so-ever-it-was. From December 2012 another, probably more conventional and maybe even a bit boring wine blog project, with a little bit more established material and maybe some occasional relapses into old adventurous habits will try to come to life! Right here! 

It's just like Frank, Sarah, Toni, Vic, The Sisko and all the others sung:
  
"The best is yet to come ..." ;-)

On the Oregon Trail Part 5: The Eyrie Vineyards Dundee Hills Estate Pinot Noir 2007, Dundee Hills

My latest trip to Oregon took me to the oldest winery in the Valley. The Eyrie Estate in Dundee Hills was founded in 1966 by David and Diana Lett. Since then those two, and for a few years their son, gained the reputation of one of best Pinot Noir and Chardonnay producers in Willamette Valley. The grapes for today’s Estate Pinot Noir came from younger vineyards like: Stonehedge, Sisters and Rolling Green Farm. These were planted in the 1980s. Anyway, since the 1960s all grapes were grown without the use of insecticides, herbicides or systemic fungicides. A close "interaction" with nature has always been of grave importance for the winemakers. Right from the start! One more ... anyway, barrel aging took 11 months in mostly neutral oak casks and the wine wasn’t fined nor filtered.

Into the Blue: Txakoli Ulacia Izaro 2011, Getariako Txakolina

Today I got a very crisp and fruitful Basque whitey for a change. Its origin is the young and approx. 147 hectares small Getariako Txakolina D.O. a bit east of San Sebastian. The Izaro is a 100%   Hondarribi Zuri based wine. An autochthonous Basque varietal which is well know for being the white brother of Hondarribi Beltza. Another auto' varietal which is considered to be highly related to Cabernet Franc. Who was there first? Dunno! Zuri however seems to be a pedigree Basque varietal (apparently close relations to the wild varietal Makatza).

Bessarabian Pinot: Purcari Pinot Noir de Pucari 2008, Moldova

My first Pinot Noir from Moldova was an unusual experience! It was produced by Pucari Estate. One of Moldova’s most future-oriented, modern and at the same time long-standing wineries. Their history goes back to the first half of the 19^th century. The large reservoir of old vintage bottles and enormously large cellar facilities are only a few features of Pucari. Comparable to the even larger wine producers in the Chisinău region, e.g. Cricova Winery (with maybe the largest wine collection in the world). The material for today’s Pinot Noir was cultivated in a “micro-region” next to the River Dniester in the South-East of the country. The actual cultivation took place on black carbonate and heavy loam soils. As always far too much blather! Now the important stuff:

Red Nostalgia? Katarzyna Estate Halla Merlot 2009, Горнотракийска низина

Cyrillic isn’t my strong suite. That is probably why I can’t offer you guys a lot of information about the winery or the wine. The producer seems to be very big (so far I’ve counted 18 different labels), highly modern, probably very interested in the overseas markets, but hasn't got an English website.

Back again in Gaúcha Land: Fausto de Pizzato Tannat 2007, Serra Gaúcha

Back again in South America. A region of the wine world I tend to neglect a bit. I definitely should drink more from there. This time I had a Tannat from the very south of Brazil. Maybe one of the most interessting wine countries in the coming decades. Today's Tannat was produced by the Pizzato family winery. A well established family in the local wine growing business. However, till 1998 they never produced and commercialized larger amounts of wine in their own name. Plinio Pizzato made one step forward and started the production of Merlot and Tannat based wines. Today, Pizzato is a medium large family winery with a fair reputation for classic style light wines without over extraction and high volumes of alcohol.

On the Oregon Trail Part 4: Hunting some Burgs with Evesham Wood Le Puits Sec Pinot Noir 2007, Eola-Amity Hills

Last week it was time for an inevitable situation! A kind of situation I personally don't like: Contest situations. Of course in the end a pretty dumb undertaking! Especially in terms of wine. Whatever, a bit of suspense never hurts! What kind of contest? A contest situation featuring my new Pinot Noir-Adoration Oregon Pinot versus a wild assortment of Burgundians from Nuits-Saint-Georges, Morey-Saint-Denis, Savigny-Les-Beaune etc. and the 4th Teutonic Tinto!

Teutonic Tinto Part 3: Weingut Holger Koch Pinot Noir 2007, Baden

It has been a while since I had my last Teutonic Tinto. This time I will give one of my favorite Teutonic Pinot Noir producers a chance. I have chosen the mid-range Pinot Noir from 2007 which was made from French clones and cultivated in the Herrenstück vineyard in Kaiserstuhl subregion of Baden.

Juicy Moments: L.A. Cetto Petite Sirah 2010, Baja California

I guess today’s tasting note will be the most concise one so far. My extraordinary Petite Sirah was made by L.A. Cetto. A winery founded in the early 1970s by an Italian immigrant and to date probably the largest wine producer in Valle de Guadalupe on Baja California, Mexico. Enough briefing for today! That will do!

Auto' x International Turkish Delight? Kavaklidere Narince-Chardonnay 2010, Central Anatolia and plenty of other whites

This time it had to be a wild assortment of white'sters from Turkey, France and Germany. Some really nice surprises and maybe one slight disappointment.