Maçanita, Douro, Folgasão, 2020
António Maçanita is the winemaker at the Azores Wine Company. With his sister Joana, he also runs an operation in Duoro. This wine, made from the very rare white Folgasão grape, snuffs so many Portuguese whites, which I love dearly in the first place. It's matured for 6 months in stainless steel tanks. It feels perfectly located in the center of the arc between reduction and oxidation. It's fairly complex, clear and tasty, and smells and tastes as though someone reduced citrus fruits, pollen and puddle water into a liquid emerald. I've never drunk a white wine that controlled the emission of aromas and flavors with such effortless poise. A minor miracle at less than 150 NIS. (Feb. 6, 2023)
Azores Wine Company, Pico, Arinto dos Açores Sur Lies, 2019
And since I mentioned the Azores Wine Company... The vineyards of Pico are unique in that there is only a narrow band of foothills between the island's volcano and the ocean. The vines are planted in rocks and protected from the winds by walls of rock, known as "currais". Arinto is an indigenous grape (that shares the same name, but not the same genes, with a grape back in a mainland Portugal). I enjoyed the regular version. This goes through lees contact and battonâge and has more body and depth. It tastes like grapefruit with a touch of sugar. (Feb. 11, 2023)
Giacomo Fencchio, Barolo, 2018
I don't want to generalize about 2018. I read the reports, but have not tasted enough wines. This may lack the depth and sculpted structure of a great year or the selection of the a great cru's finest vines, but it doesn't lack for charm or the transparency and nuances that make you feel as though you were peering into the Piedmont hills themselves. The Barolo normales I've tasted from Fenocchio have always had a lot of baby fat at this stage. Not so here. The lean forwardness of the 2018 is actually an advantage, as it highlights the lovely fruit and tannins that are dusty and silky at the same time. As expected, the aromatics are lovely and complex: cherries, earth, tar, anise. The fruit profiled grows darker in time. For short term drinking (ten year plus minus), this is probably my favorite of all the vintages I've had. (Feb. 5, 2023)
Claude Riffault, Sancerre, Les Denisottes, 2020
I really wanted to like this more. I thought the 2018 was ripe and generous, yet fleshy and saline. This was ripe and as generous as a misbehaving puppy, but no nuances, nothing non-fruity to provide balance. (Feb. 7, 2023)
Domaine Wachau, Wachau, Ried Axpoint, Grüner Veltliner, Emerald Smaragd, 2021
From a south-southwest facing vineyard located in a wind-protected basin, this is the highest demarcation in Wachau. I always think of melons when I drink a Gruner Veltliner, but here, at least, this has less to do with flavors and aromas and more with the texture and fleshy density of the palate. It will take a few years to coax more expression of the palate. Even the nose, which is more forward and already well spoken in mineral-speak, is still demure. (Feb. 10, 2023)
Steinmetz, Mosel, Kestener Paulinoshofberg, Riesling GK, 2016
Again, a complex nose, freely emoting minerals, slate, petrol. The palate is dry, with a touch of sweetness. Because Stefan Stenimetz is not a member of the VDP and does not need to adhere to their regulations, this was not produced as a Grosses Gewaches, even though the vineyard itself is a grand cru. There is a touch of sweetness ensuing this is not an exercise of pulling the palate through a grindstone. Enough years in the bottle to broach early adolescence did the rest. (Feb. 10, 2023)
Comments