Today thou shalt have an easy drinking time : Pikes The Dogwalk Cabernet Merlot 2006, Clare Valley SA

This time I've got a very accessible and smoothed Cabernet Merlot form Clare Valley in South Australia for you people out there on the internet. "The Dogwalk” from Pikes, a family winery right on Polish Hill River, appeared to be what many people demand from an Australian Bordelais Blend Wine: Smoothness, accessibility, unelaborateness, fruitiness (and maybe sweetness), palatability, alc and plenty of concentration.

Let me anticipate a bit. You may find every mentioned aspect in this wine, but in a more sophisticated and well proportionated way. It wasn’t an example for an industrially processed and faceless wine like those low cost (or not) products from very well known hyper-large-wineries which you can find all over South Australia.

La Slovénie .......huit points: Kupljen Modri Burgundec 2007 Selection, Jeruzalem-Svetinje

My first Pinot from Slovenia! Grown on the fair slopes of the Jeruzalem Hill in Stajerska and aged for 16 months in 600 l barrels, this Pinot impressed me with its simplicity and buoyancy.

Farmers Best: Bacalhoa JPPrivate Selection 2007, Palmela

Rustic wine at it’s best? Maybe! Let’s have a look. The JPPrivate Selection from Bacalhoa, a bit large wine syndicate, was cultivated on the sandy soils of Peninsula de Setúbal a bit south of Lisbon. It is a 100% Castelão (aka Periquita) which was aged in oak barrels for 12 months. Castelão is a very notorious varietal for this underrated wine region of Portugal. Normally it produces rather tannic, slightly fruitful, a bit thin and one-dimensional wines. In this case, too?

Auto Assassination Interlude (AAI) Part 1: Kuei Hua Chen Chiew

First of all: I like China! I have been to the country several times and I always enjoyed it very much. Today’s beverage however is something very “special”. I think I never had anything comparable before in my life. At least I can’t remember it. I suppose it will remain this way. Of course today is, and will be, the only exception. This Kuei Hua Chen Chiew is a cinnamon flavoured rice wine produced of sticky rice, water, cinnamon, fresh sweet osmanthus, plum juice and sugar.

The second Big Fish from Bekaa Valley: Chateau Kefraya 2000, Bekaa Valley

Chateau Kefraya was established in 1946 by Michel de Bustros a wealthy banker and wine lover. But it took until 1979, right in the middle of the civil war, that the winery started to produce respectable and interesting wines. Nowadays it is probably the most famous regional counterpart to the most renowned Lebanese wines from Chateau Musar. The grapes for today’s red blend were cultivated in the famous Bekaa Valley at an elevation of 900 to 1100 metres above sea level. It is a composition of the very classical French varietals, maybe not in that combination, Cabernet Sauvignon, Carignan, Syrah, Mourvedre and Grenache.

In my glass I saw a very dark and almost thick black-red soup. Not the strongest sunbeam can penetrate the transparent goblet. The fragrances I fetched were very earthy, rather warm, slightly chocolaty and full of dried fruits like plums and cherries. Then, I already sensed a bit too much alcohol. The taste was very strong, full bodied and dense. I got flavours of stressed and sweet’ish plums as well as a few cherries. Further more a bit of dark berry marmalade, a potpourri of dried fruits, medium vanilla, hints of smoke, some earthiness and a decent proportion of regional spices. Unfortunately the high alcohol couldn’t disguise itself anymore. Although only 14% are indicated on the bottle! 

Overall this wine appeared to have a very warm character. For me it was a bit too sweet, streamlined and “modern” in its own way. I think you cannot compare it with the grand cuvee of Chateau Musar. From my point of view Chateau Musar was and is a totally different story. By far not that influenced by modern trends and standards like this Chateau Kefraya blend. Nevertheless a pretty enjoyable wine with plenty of power and strength! The typicity appeared to be pretty much Middle-Eastern as well. About the drinkability: Don’t worry, there is still enough power in the bottle. But I can't see any reason to hold it either. One last advice: Beware! A lot of depot will be in the bottle!

Auto' Red from Auto country: Weingut A. Hofmann Tauberschwarz Röttinger Feuerstein R 2007, Franken

But it did not went down the gullet AUTO'matically … ! 

It was more like a steep hill to climb. But first:

Hi there everybody! Today’s wine might be more unusual to my trusty Russian, French and American readers out there. Not to mention all the others readers from more than 35 different countries. For my German and especially my Franconian readers it might get a bit boring today. Sorry! Next time I will write about something from the Middle-East.
The A. Hofmann winery is one of the few wineries in Franken region who dedicated themselves to the rare Tauberschwarz varietal. Tauberschwarz is a autochtonous, spicy and dark grape varietal from Tauber river in the South-West of Franconia. This Röttinger Feuerstein R was aged for 14 months in Röttinger oak (local production) and is probably one of the best and most complex, as well as varying, examples on the market. This very bottle is the Reserve from the vineyard.

Let’s start! In my glass I detected very dark red and clear reflexes. But not quite black like the name of the wine might implicate (Tauberschwarz = Tauber - name of a river - black). It appeared to be rather juvenile. No brown’ish tendencies on the rim at all. As always, the fragrance was getting more interesting. I smelled a fair amount of blueberries, hazelnuts, milk chocolate, forest berries, slight gentle oak, imaginary flint stone and after a while scents of cherry and juniper joined the club.
Well, that sound rather nice, doesn’t it? Right now, after I have already finished the bottle, I would concur!
However, my first tasting impression wasn’t positive at all. In the first 3 to 4 hours the flavours in my mouth were bitter, smoky, far too lean and some hyper acidic blueberry x cherry + whatsoever earthy-mineral flavours. It appeared to me as a very unbalanced and harsh wine without a convincing body. Somehow it reminded me of young, light bodied and too classical Chianti with far too much acid!?
Well, that sounds crap, doesn’t it? At this very stage I’d agree again. But not so fast, please! After the already mentioned 3 to 4 hours the face of the Tauberschwarz changed completely. The acid tamed, but did not vanish completely – the freshness preserved, the harsh bitterness sodded off, the quite strong mineral character remained and all over sudden some extraordinary creaminess evolved. The tannin structure was strong, but civilized. The accessibility of the wine improved with every minute. Maybe too a bit too exaggerated, but this stage made me so happy, please forgive me for my cheesy and overwhelmed soupçon of madness. The actual body appeared to gain some muscles, too. Very strange shift indeed! The fruitful flavours shifted more to the cherry / bramble side without eradicating my first impression of blueberries and some other forest berries. The traces of juniper from my nose detection centre hopped into my mouth as well. A miraculous metamorphosis to a very enjoyable and unique tasting wine! So, my advice for this wine: Open the bottle, take a good sip and leave it alone for the next 4 or more hours. On the second day it got even-chocolaty better ;-) Steep hills need time to summit …

Oh dear! Another facebook page nobody is interested in...

Kaiserstuhl Pinot from Wairarapa soil: Johner Estate Pinot Noir 2009, Wairarapa

Today I got another wine from Johner Estate for you. One made from my most preferred varietal: Pinot Noir. As, I have already mentioned in my recent Wairarapa Riesling post, Karl-Heinz Johner is a well known winegrower from Kaiserstuhl/Baden region in the very south-west corner of Germany. After long working years on home soil and abroad (e.g. England!) he and his family decided to open up a second wine pillar on Aotearoa’s North Island not too far away from the capital Wellington. Two weeks ago I had the Wairarapa Riesling which I enjoyed in its own peculiar, or maybe better, unusual way. Today I would like to present you its red counterpart:

The Wairarapa Pinot Noir 2009. It is the wineries entry level Pinot for a more or less reasonable price. Its colour was very ruby red, a bit faint and appeared to look a bit watery on the rim. In my nose I fetched fragrances of strawberries, raspberries, maybe with a mild imprinting of marmalade, chicken soup (?) and slight bits of watery cucumber salad. The taste grasped for my palate. It was very fresh, intense and invigorating. A description I might never use for his Pinots from Baden in Germany. Its body was pretty light without being thin or boring. The acid was well integrated. The alcohol might have been a little bit too much for my taste. The fruitiness was semi sweet. Which was okay for me. The complexity of the flavours were contenting. On the one hand I got plenty of light red fruit flavours combined with impressions of rosehip* (*in older vintages of the Gladstone Pinot Noir something I did not really enjoy all too much because it was simply too rosehippie) on the other hand earthy aromas like autumn forest ground and mushrooms. Best of all there was no “oak situation” here! The way I see it this oak problem was and is one of the main problems of his German Pinots (over-oaked and over-extracted fellows). They appear much more New World’ish than some of his NZ Pinots. Although I have to admit a certain “Johner-Baden-Pinot-Paradigm-Shift (JBPPS)” to a more “natural style” (what a stupid expression, can't find a better one right now) took place in recent years. The Wairarapa Pinot did not have such problems. It was swift, accessible, enjoyable, not too monorail’ish and it went down the gullet like nothing.