Archangel is a label that was introduced to me last year, and earlier this year I got a look at the 2009 Pinot at the Central Otago Pinot Celebration. In good company it was a top 10 wine out of about 60 tasted - mainly for being at the elegant end of the Central Otago style, which left unchecked can produce the occasional made-for-wine-show overripe black fruited monster.
The vines for this wine are planted at Luggate, which isn’t too far from Wanaka. Not really a recognised subregion, but based on this wine, an area to keep an eye on.
This is pleasantly pink on the rim of its ruby coloured core. Initially a bit stinky, this is full of lifted red fruit and pinot stalk aromas with its fleshy, meaty pinot fruit. An elegant palate, strawberries and cream, redskins & raspberry with that pinot like chook poo waft to the back of your nostrils. Mocha like tannins on the finish, fine and moderate. This seems to have some dissolved CO2 and needs time to settle (or perhaps some more breathing).
An enjoyable, varietal medium weight drink from a label to watch.
Cheers
Andrew
I don’t drink enough Sangiovese. Anything with a tomato base to it seems to beckon the Italian varieties. Well duh, I guess, Italians have known this for centuries.
Anyhoo, enough history and back into the moment, there are lamb shanks in the pot simmering away, and only the smallest excuse will take me to the top shelf of the cellar (figuratively speaking). I don’t know for sure if Ceparello is a DOCG wine or in the IGT class, but lets call it a supertuscan for now.
The colour is surprisingly advanced, even for a 10 year old. Leather, soy sauce, plum, cherry tell you this is well and truly secondary by now. It needs all of the 3 hours of decanting it got. At the end of the blt of silk that it its palate is a wall of hallmark Sangiovese tannin. Plentiful and hallmark with their sawn pine nuance, the Ceparello shows them in an unusually fine rendering. Cedary cherries and tar meander for an age until dusty cedar takes over on the back palate. Truly the food wine it should be, a joy to drink.
Its been a while between drinks. Well not really, but a while between focusing on wines enough to write a decent, sensible note. Here are three kabinett styles I’ve tried recently.
2009 Donnhoff Oberhauser Liestenberg Kabinett: The Liestenberg vineyard is near the village of Oberhausen where the Donnhoff cellar door sits. Its not a place you’ll find by accident – the Nahe valley is a sleepy little place, and you have to go through a fair bit of it to get to Oberhausen. Two wines usually come from this site, the Tonschiefer dry Riesling and this one, which I look forward to every year. It’s a label that is usually full of joy. The 2009 is straw in colour, and somehow doesn’t glow like these wines can in their youth. This takes some time to open and blow of the bit of sulphur it has to reveal its and slate over kaffir lime leaf on the nose. Palate has a nutty element to it before the fruit arrives, and on the whole this is a lot more reserved than recent version of this wine. This is somehow muted by an udergrowthy flavour which checks the usual lifted, almost spritzy limey expression. A new thing in the 2009 is weight – there’s a blackberry undertone here that I’ve not seen in this wine in earlier vintages, although I’ve only tried these back to 2005. The cork was soaked here, perhaps this has been touched with heat. Not the greatest showing here, but I suspect time will tell. 2008 Rienhold Haart Piesporter Goldtropfchen Kabinett: As Mosel goes, Rienhold Haart makes assertive muscular wines that demand some time in bottle to show their best. WE got to look at wines back to 2002 at the cellar door last year, as well as a lovely 1991 Auslese. They don’t change style as the develop, but they do pick up more complexity and they resolve a bit. 2008 is billed as a “classical” year, so perhaps we’l see a bit of restraint here? Well, sort of. This has a lightness of touch and is indeed a relatively delicate expression of the Haart style. The hallmark sugar cane juice accompanies minerally slatey lemons, passionfruit, and sulphur announces its presence here too. A lovely refreshing drop, albeit with its puppy fat showing beside the Donnhoff. Built to take age, but like every young Haart I’ve tasted they do drink nicely early.
2010 Auburn Wines Alexandra: It’s not proper to write up wines in which I have a personal interest, but suffice to say this is in a very happy place right now.
There was also a sneaky 93 Zilliken Saarburger Rausch Auslese – written up on Vinoculation before I think.
cheers