Wine Fictions

 The other day I decided to organize a wine tasting with some colleagues from work  and when asked about which wine each person should bring, I have decided to leave it absolutely free and be surprised with the choices of my colleagues.  This was planned with the main goal of clarifying how you can settle a tasting order without any previous knowledge of the wines you would have in front of you. When we all sat at the table I could not be more impressed with how well everything seemed to have been planned: two crémants (a white and a rosé), three whites (of which two were Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough), three reds (of which two were Reservas from different years from la Rioja) and a desert wine.  I am not sure whether I would have managed to get such a perfect setting if I had planned it throroughly. Even though the level of the wines chosen has been satisfyingly good, there was one that particularly called my attention: the NED Sauvignon Blanc has seduced from th...

 One of my plans for the coming Fall holidays was to visit the wine region of Ahr in North-Rhine Westfalia and get a bit more insight into one of the most exciting wine regions in Germany.  Unfortunately, due to the tremendous floods that have desolated the whole region in August this plan was delayed. One of the main reasons for my interest to visit it was my relatively recent contact with wines from the region while being in Bonn, where I've tried, among others, some of the wines produced by Dagernova. I would like to highlight this Spätburgunder which, as it often happens with German wines, it is a single grape wine. The first thing that has called my attention in this wine was its freshness in the palate allied to a rather sweet and predominant taste of berries. Unlike most Spätburgunder it did not get the typical darker notes maybe because of the lack of contact with wood which could have given this wine a complete different dimension and complexity.  But do not get ...

One of the main Portuguese enologues which has been seen his work recognized in a rather mediatic way in the last years has also been enlarging his wine projects in a quite impressive way, having started different projects all around Portugal and even in Germany having received generalized acclaim by the specialized press. I have to confess that when reading about them I always grow curious to taste most of his work. And so it was with this Dócil, produced by Dirk Niepoort. Having started in Douro, this project takes us to the Vinho Verde region to a single grape wine with one of the most representative grapes of the region, Loureiro.  My first impression when I've opened the bottle was of a decent well done wine, but nothing that could match my personal expectation. After such a publicity I came across a rather flat wine which seemed to deny me the appealing citrus that I often find in this particular grape. Maybe that's the reason for its name: Dócil (Docile). Being so, the f...

For many Germans French wine is still seen as a holy reference when it concerns wine. Being so, the market is absolutely flooded with all sort of wines which not always correspond to what you would expect and more than once was I deeply disappointed with the quality presented.  Having recently ordered wine from Belvini , I came across this wine which has been produced specially for them, which is a phenomenon that I first got to know in Germany. Having been selected as Belvini wine of the year and with some more distinctions, I thought about giving it a shot. Even though the label presents quite an interesting and rather seducing design, it lacks some vital as the year it was produced.  A reference to the grapes used was also missing, rather having an extensive text about the idea of creating such a wine. The first impression I had once opened was of a wine extremely soft and rather easy to drink, which was a suspicion confirmed with the first sip. Fruity red berries involved ...