Wine List

Rating

90

Release Price

NA

Drink Date

2014 - 2017

Reviewed by

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Issue Date

28th Aug 2014

Source

214, The Wine Advocate

Soft and voluptuous with plenty of red and black currant fruit notes intermixed with licorice, spice box and underbrush, this well-made, medium to full-bodied 2003 has good precision and freshness. Enjoy this beautiful Moulis over the next 2-3 years.

Domaine Denis Mortet
2011
Fixin Vieilles Vignes
Villages Red 750 ml
Score: 88
Tasted: Jan 15, 2014
Drink: 2017+
Issue: 53
Note: from 40 year old vines in the tiny .74 ha vineyard of Champs Pennebaut, which is near the Couchey border for the inveterate map readers among you
Producer note: Arnaud Mortet observed that the 2012 vintage "suffered through a troubled and extended flowering that was responsible for much of the naturally low yields. The bunches were loose and with tiny berries that allowed the fruit to be super clean at the harvest. I decided to start picking on the 23rd of September and brought in ripe fruit that needed only small amounts of chaptalization and in some cases, none at all. As I have been slowly doing each vintage now, I once again lightened the extraction. I shortened the cool maceration period from 7 days to 5 and did a 21 day total cuvaison. In the same vein I used a bit less new wood as well and it now averages about one-third though that of course varies wine by wine. I completely destemmed in 2012 though I have been thinking about doing some more experimenting with using some whole clusters so we will see going forward. As to the style of the 2012s I think it's the kind of vintage that everyone will like. The wines are ripe but fresh and with a mid-palate succulence that makes them a pleasure to drink." As I commented last year the Mortet 2011s are excellent and now that they are in bottle they confirm the quality that I saw last year. Mortet noted that his 2011s, revisited below, were bottled between January and April, 2013. (Martine's Wines, www.martineswines.com, Novato, CA; multiple UK sources, including Bibendum Wine Ltd., www.bibendum-wine.co.uk, Berry Brothers & Rudd, www.bbr.com, Goedhuis & Co., www.goedhuis.com, Justerini & Brooks, www.justerinis.com, Harrods Limited, www.harrods.com, Laytons, www.laytons.co.uk, and The Wine Society, www.thewinesociety.com, Tanners Wine, www.tanners-wines.co.uk).
Tasting note: An adroit application of wood sets off fresh and ripe if somber aromas of dark berries, violets and plum. The very round, suave and supple flavors display both good energy and fine volume before terminating in a balanced and persistent finish that exhibits a bit of youthful Fixin austerity and rusticity.
 

Rating

92

Release Price

$74

Drink Date

2012 - 2018

Reviewed by

Antonio Galloni

Issue Date

28th Feb 2011

Source

193, The Wine Advocate

The 2008 Vintage Tunina is terrific. The wine’s trademark expansive bouquet and generous fruit are beautifully balanced by a vein of minerality that is the hallmark of this cool year. All of the elements come together beautifully in the glass as the 2008 Vintage Tunina shows off layers of succulent peaches, pears, apricots, flowers and mint, along with hints of sweetness from the late-harvested fruit that is such a big component of the wine’s signature style. Vintage Tunina is Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Ribolla Gialla, Malvasia Istriana and Picolit. Anticipated maturity: 2012-2018. These new releases from Silvio Jermann include a number of fabulous bottles. In particular, I was impressed with the top 2008s, a vintage where the cool minerality of the year prevails over the house’s typically lush style, an approach I tend to find less interesting. Jermann has a new red on the horizon, the Pignolo Vigna Truss, from recently purchased hillside vineyards in Dolegna, the home of his massive, new cellar. Previously, Jermann’s Pignolo had mostly come from the flats of Villanova, a far less prestigious village in Isonzo, rather than the Collio. I tasted all of the 2009 entry-level whites from screwcaps. Readers should be aware that Jermann is owned by my wife’s uncle. I have always viewed education as an important component of wine criticism. An article on Friuli without these wines would have been incomplete and ultimately the consumer would have been poorer for their exclusion. For those reasons I have chosen to include the wines in this report. Neither my wife nor I have any financial or other interest, direct or indirect, in this property.

This house makes rather restrained yet rich, flavorful vintage port and a very good tawny called Nimrod. Their vintage ports seem slow to develop, and while they never quite have the voluptuous richness of a Dow, Graham, or Fonseca, they have a unique mineral-scented character that gives them their own complexity and style. The 1977 is quite powerful, very deep and intense, particularly for Warre

Rating

87

Release Price

$26

Drink Date

2012 - 2024

Reviewed by

David Schildknecht

Issue Date

26th Apr 2012

Source

200, The Wine Advocate

Site-typical vanilla-tinged apple with bright inflections of fresh lemon dominate the nose and delicate juicy palate of Loosen’s 2010 Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Kabinett. This understated Kabinett lacks the mineral savor or finishing refreshment of its Lay counterpart, but is adeptly balanced, admirably persistent, and should perform well for at least a dozen years. Cellarmaster Bernhard Schug offers an unadorned impression of the travails of 2010, in which he extensively double-salt de-acidified his musts. “This was especially necessary for the dry wines,” he points out, adding “I’m frankly surprised that those turned out as well as they did. The most stressful aspect of the harvest is that we waited for gradual diminution of acids and additional ripeness in flavor until we couldn’t wait any longer, and then it was a real rush to pick. It was an agitated, tension-filled autumn, and that is the way the wines turned out, too. We could have de-acidified another gram or so and ended up with an acid profile like that of 2009, but this would have been a mistake and have sacrificed the individuality of the vintage.” While Erni Loosen remains a staunch defender of residually sweet, delicate Mosel Kabinett as a category, his 2010s unfortunately underscore the challenges to achieving consistent success with this genre in an era when even in this, the rainiest growing season in nearly a quarter century, must weights galloped. It was with joy and relief that I began tasting the series of residually sweet Spatlesen from this collection, because what went before – with three exceptions – was frankly disappointing. Loosen has elected to henceforth accentuate the difference between Spatlese and Auslese by incorporating in the latter category, as Schug puts it, “more botrytis than we would have had in an Auslese three years ago.” (For the 2010s, that meant around one-third of the fruit.) The corollary of this – which has the desired result of simplifying the portfolio – is that with the exception of Pralat there is not, and will likely also not be in future, any gold capsule Auslese. Interestingly – though this can certainly be a matter of caprice and luck – only one of the wines in this year’s collection displayed any “Mosel stink” from fermentative residues or reductive reaction with the dose of sulfur applied at bottling, even though this phenomenon can often be a short-term annoyance with the odd Loosen bottling and was encountered quite often in other Mosel collections of the 2010 vintage. (If I could explain the phenomenon in question more adequately chemically, I would be only too glad to publish that explanation; but extended correspondence with scientific specialists has thus-far proved far from decisive.)

Rating (93 - 95)

Release Price NA

Drink Date 2020 - 2030

Reviewed by Joe Czerwinski

Issue Date 19th Dec 2019

Source December 2019 Week 3, The Wine Advocate

Although the fruit sourcing has changed from the old days, the 2018 Crozes Hermitage Domaine de Thalabert remains a solid offering in the Jaboulet lineup. Violets accent blackberries and plums on the nose, while the palate is full-bodied, lush and velvety, underscored by doses of salinity and licorice on the lengthy finish.

With properties now in Bordeaux (Château La Lagune), Burgundy (the former Château Corton André) and Switzerland (she purchased a vineyard in the Valais in 2016), proprietor Caroline Frey is increasingly drawn in different directions, so I was fortunate to be able to sit down with her for a few hours at Michelin-starred Maison Chabran in nearby Pont de l'Isère. She brought representative barrel samples of the 2018s, plus the bottled 2017s, which we tasted through before dining. This year, Frey was excited to show me the 2017 Côtes du Rhône Parallele 45, which is now made using only organic grapes. At up to two million bottles (red, white and rosé) per year, that's no small achievement. But as always, we spent the most time on the wines produced from the firm's own vineyards, which are all farmed biodynamically. Frey explained that they cannot be certified, as the winery also processes grapes and wines from the négociant operations. The grapes are all destemmed, although she said they will experiment with whole clusters. "When we did it in 2013, for me it was not OK," she said. She has begun doing more pigeage (punching down) in the winery, versus just remontage (pumping over). "We have good results on the texture—fleshier." The glory of Jaboulet is the legendary Hermitage La Chapelle, which is finally reflecting all of the hard work put into the vineyards by the Frey family and the Jaboulet team. "We still have many things to do," said Frey. "But I think in the past 13 years we've come a long way."

Jeb Dunnuck 92-94

The 2019 Crozes-Hermitage Domaine De Thalabert showed well, with a floral, pepper, and sappy herb style as well as plenty of darker cherry and currant fruit. With medium to full body, a vibrant, elegant texture, present tannins, and good acidity, this is a classic, balanced Thalabert to hide for 2-4 years and enjoy over the following decade or more.

Drinking Window: 2022 - 2034

Review Date: 19th November 2020

The 2012 Cepparello is just as compelling as it has always been. Sweet, ample and generous from the outset, the 2012 shows all of its pedigree, even at this early stage. Radiant fruit and exquisite aromatics make a strong opening statement as the wine fleshes out in the glass. Ample, creamy and super-expressive, the 2012 is shaping up to be a superb Cepparello. The only thing the 2012 needs is time. An up and down year with hot temperatures in July and early August, followed by rain in September forced DeMarchi to be especially selective and bottle only the best lots. Production is down to 30,000 bottles from 36,000 in 2013 and 32,400 in 2011.