Blind Tasting Friday No. 2 (26/10/12)

 

Once more Peter ventured down to the cellar to oblige me - he loves choosing something difficult for me to guess, and I normally miss the mark - just to oblige him.....of course.

This wine chosen is red - with  ruby core and a ruby rim which was wide and had Garnet glints to it, the core was not that deep either as you can see below. On swirling it - there are slow pale legs - so this wine has some body / viscosity and probably good alcohol content.

I popped my nose in the glass and immediately said - Italian or Spanish, I then wrote down, red fruits, cherry, cranberry, red currant...., also some serious wood maturation aroma, cedar, smoke, spice, and there is a stalkiness and maybe even wood shavings to reinforce that woodiness! And those aromas are quite jumpy - you notice them! Quite pale - see the pics.

On tasting it - again the red fruits dominated by spice, wood shavings and a herb edge. The acidity is quite high, as is the alcohol, the body is enrobing and silky in texture, the tannins quite soft, chalky and savoury.

Having had a few sips and swirls in the mouth, I had done all the sucking in air.....making the wine mix across all surfaces....and then left the flavour to develop once swallowed......The length was long, pithy, red fruits especially sour cherries and the spice enveloping all there, overall the flavours that dominate are the woody aromas, they are responsible for the bitter pithy tastes, and the spice on nose and palate.

So, what did I surmise.....

Cool climate, the fruit is sour and linear, quite thin, not lush like a ripe New World wine, the acidity is also highThe sour cherry aromas and flavours would send me to the Loire ( though this wine had more body than a Loire wine and also more woody flavours and aromas than I would have expected from here), or Italy - the cherry flavours are reminiscant of some Chiantis, or Valpolicella wines, though again the later tends to be lusher. Bordeaux wines tend to have more colour - the cherry red medium(-) colour makes me think that it is a medium quality Chianti, but the the wine is silkier than I had expected, and fatter, so maybe I might opt for a lower quality right bank Bordeaux....Bordeaux Rouge..... Generic Bordeaux Red. Year - 2006 , maybe 2007, a bit of garnet, but no real tertiary notes....A maker who used wood heavily - and the fruit was from a cool wet year ( so neither 2006/7....)

I will be told tomorrow morning what it was, Peter has gone out for the evening, so I will report tomorrow!

Nightie - night!