MARKET UPDATES AND OPINIONS from the Wine Exchange
BRIEFS 7-14-2020
We did a bigger piece on this talented Priorat winemaker’s family winery, Clos Mogador, and their brilliant 2017 version from this historic estate in a separate article. But Rene Barbier III is involved in other projects, including one in Montsant with the also well respected Sara Perez. Their work at Venus la Universal is definitely trending steeply upward and this Montsant Venus de La Figuera 2016 is one showy bottle of Grenache. It got a very enthusiastic review from Wine Advocate’s Luis Gutierrez and a 94 point score. Rene has serious chops and this effort, with the help of a substantial price break from the importer (from $79.98 down to $44.98), is definitely something to be experienced for its screaming, boisterous fruit. There’s not a huge quantity here so hurry.
You will be hearing a lot about the 2019 vintage in Germany. It will certainly be called one of the best vintages of the new millennium and expect comparisons to vintages like 2001 and 2015. We just tasted our first arrival from the vintage, the Dr. Hermann Riesling Kabinett Urziger Wurzgarten 2019, and it pretty much lit us up. There have been a number of good vintages since 2000, but precious few that have the evident fruit, clear terroir notes, and structural ‘zing’ that this one showed. This is a must-try not only on its own merit but as a vanguard for what’s coming. As a warning, the import/wholesale end of the German wine purveyors has greatly downsized since the last ‘great’ vintage. So overall selection and the acquisition of some labels may be much more difficult this time around.
Some five vintages ago we did a piece on an intriguing California wine. In it we posed the question, ‘What if you make California’s best Tannat?’ In a Cabernet world, it doesn’t mean a lot. Well, we hadn’t seen anything from Yannick Rousseau since that 2012 varietal Tannat we spoke of back then until just last week. Yannick is no stranger to this varietal having grown up in Madiran where he worked with the icons of the region in Montus and Bouscasse. Clearly the man has it down. The Y. Rousseau Tannat 2017 comes from a sustainably farmed single vineyard in Clarksburg (the 2012 was from Sonoma) and is a blend of 90% Tannat and 10% Syrah that saw 18 months in 35% new 500 liter barrels (a little more than double the size of a typical barrique). This bottling has all the good parts of Tannat and none of the bad! There’s the telltale blue/black color, a broad feel of black fruits on the palate with flecks of pepper and wild herbs and a touch of earth. True to form, there is plenty of structure but the tannins here are ripe and tame. The price has crept up a bit over the years (list is $45), but we were able to get it down to a more manageable $29.98. Wines like this could make Tannat ‘mainstream’.
We tasted the 2016 lineup from Scavino pre-COVID (February?) and found it to be possibly the best show we have ever had with their wines going back at least a couple of decades. They exhibited all of the telltale trappings of the 2016 vintage…tender, engaging fruit core, pleasing varietal purity, beautiful lift to the midpalate, and uncanny freshness and seamlessness. It was no surprise when Antonio Galloni rolled out huge scores on the group, with one exception. His mark for the Scavino Barolo 2016 was the dreaded ’89’. We have to wonder what happened even though we are fully aware that, on any given day, something might not show as well. We immediately cracked another bottle just to see if maybe we missed something. Don’t think so. Our descriptors for this bottling fall perfectly in line with our comments on the lineup as a whole. This Barolo normale was anything but. Almost ethereal harmony from front to back, beautiful, supple, engaging, classic Nebbiolo fruit, refined tannins, it was one lovely bottle of Barolo and, at $36.98, a pretty sensational deal for a producer of this caliber from an epic vintage. We can’t know the particulars of the Galloni tasting, but we vehemently disagree with the ‘number’. This is a beauty.
Yes, one more blip on rosé. A couple of very late arrivals that were huge favorites last year are back even better than. The Nebbiolo basedNervi-Conterno Il Rosato Piedmont 2019 (Vinous 92) from the Gattinara region, now owned by the estimable Barolo virtuoso Roberto Conterno, is a beautiful expression of the region in pink form. Bright, fresh, lifted, with lovely, mineral-laced strawberry fruit, it is an absolute delight and food-friendly in a way few are. Also better late than never for one of our longer running hit in the pink section, the Chateau Saint Pierre Cotes de Provence Tradition 2019. A delicate blend of 60% Cinsault and 40% Grenache, pale salmon in the tall curved bottle, it’s crisp, fruit-driven and imminently likeable. Berries upfront with a little bit of citrus in the finish, and subtle flecks of herbs, at a modest $14.98, it is definitely a wine for the people.
