tward

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• Rote Kappelle says:

  1/13/2024 8:10:00 PM - Thanks for your comments on two of my recentish tasting notes. On Lenin etc., I think the key is to be confident enough in one's own mental integrity to welcome other views, honest enough to know one can always benefit from different views and smart enough to know that there is no monopoly on wisdom. I enjoy the Gospels of Luke, Mark and John but am not persuaded that monotheists are good at intellectual diversity unless it is forced on them. Perhaps that is a function of the human condition? On wine, I enjoy yoghurt/sour cream aspects but the issue tends to be that they rarely occur in wines that are not under-ripe and won't get nasty as they get older (a little like me). Sometimes you will get a wine that somehow has found the motherlode and can combine actual ripeness with some yoghurt/sour cream but they are a little like the unicorn. I enjoyed the Fugazi at that time but no way would I cellar it. Worth trying the wine though. Also worth trying because they do some unusual things, but they do it well and not just to be unusual. I am cautious about most Oz wines outside Western Australia from 2022 and 2023 (and it looks like 2024) vintages as they have been unusually cool, damp vintages and I have detected a lot of sour characters. 2021 is a magic year that combines some sour vivacity with genuine ripeness. Nice to exchange views. Good drinking!

• Rote Kappelle says:

  8/26/2022 6:06:00 PM - Thanks for your kind comment on my review of the Fuligni RdM 2019. I don't think you will be disappointed. Open one soon to try and then work out how you want to deal with the rest. I really like this for drinking over the next few years though I think it won't be any worse for cellaring 5-10 years (but will it necessarily be better?). Noting your profile comments on score inflation, I share many of your sentiments but I think it is important to use the criteria adopted by the website; in itself this seems to be based on the show system for Bronze, Silver, Gold and Trophy. That doesn't make it 'right' or not open for questioning, but I think there needs to be common criteria or else one ends up with a total mismash and we don't like that here in the People's Democratic Republic of Lynehamsas; it is all about order and method. Good drinking!

• PaulusLoZebra says:

  1/23/2021 7:23:00 AM - @tward, thanks for sharing your experience with drinking windows. It's scary how auto defaults such as the one at CT can skew a data base. We enthusiasts need to pay attention to such things and need multiple sources as well as our own personal experience when we decide when to uncork. To shift topics slightly, aeration is a subject, like drinking windows, which is fraught with uncertainty and inconsistency. For many wines, and Chianti in particular, I find that people who do not aerate sufficiently or age sufficiently tend to give lower scores. Re JR, I have the same experience as you, their drinking windows for Italian wines tend to be much shorter than the ones that we can find at Vinous or others. I have never seen anything so dramatic as our example of the '14 Fèlsina CC, and so I might still write to Walter to ask if this was perhaps an error. I thought about this recently when looking at a specific '16 Barolo (I can't remember which one); What I recall - I hope that my memory is not embellishing here - is that for the same wine Walter's drinking window estimate ended at '35, Antonio Galloni's at '45, and Kerin O'Keefe's at '55 !! To be fair to JR and her people on Italian wines, they, like most British wine writers, are highly focused on Bordeaux and Burgundy, which is beloved of their readers. But re Italy they do some great things. As I recall, JR herself wrote as far back as '13 that Bordeaux's Cabernet Sauvignon wines had become Napa-like and Parkerized, and that the best, traditional Cab wines are found in Italy. And Walter's Chianti classification from last year was accurate and very useful, based on my own experience. Also, his recent article on 2017 Piedmont, and how quality vineyard management and winemaking has evolved to deal with climate change, was the best thing I've read on wine in many years.

• Power Forward says:

  9/1/2020 4:59:00 PM - Thanks. Did want to get it corrected.

• grapenomad says:

  4/21/2019 7:10:00 PM - Hey tward, glad you liked my tasting note of Felsina's Fontalloro 2015 and that we both agree on its potential. It's always good to follow a wine through the years and start enjoying it the moment the green character mellows out. I think that you're in for a fruit bomb in the next 2-3 years and that it will start become more & more elegant up to its 25th birthday.

• tward says:

  10/12/2018 3:20:00 PM - Thanks, srh. I was just about to place an order with K&L when I saw your note. I added a bottle of that Bonny Doon Grenache to my cart! I agree with your Pinot Noir statement (though I think there are plenty of North Americans who very much want their Pinot Noir rich and deep and powerful rather than wanting their Grenache like a floral, crunchy, mineral-backed Pinot Noir!)

• srh says:

  10/12/2018 3:03:00 PM - THANK you for your message of 10/10/2018! :) ONE of these days I DO need to "clean up" & add keys for my abbreviations & lingo. Also, I'm learning I **very** much tend to like cool climate Grenache, which tends to have VERY little in common with "typical" Grenache. Judging from your note on the '16 Purity Grenache, I'm thinking you'd QUITE enjoy https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=2975565&searchId=DE21F631 As owner/winemaker Randall Grahm puts it in HIS TNs, "Best served with a slight chill, especially as the weather warms up. (This is the 'Pinot Noir' that North Americans are seeking; they just don’t realize it yet.)" IMHO it is far better than the majority of Rosés, less expensive than MOST, & arguably even MORE versatile with foo.

• tward says:

  1/29/2018 7:07:00 AM - Thanks. I have purchased some wine from Hi Time before when a nearby friend was doing sales calls down there and picking up wine. They often show up with good prices for wines I'm looking for and seem to have a nice selection. Thanks for the reminder on them and the info on their buyers.

• Richard123 says:

  1/29/2018 6:20:00 AM - Hi... Hi Times in Costa Mesa gets most of our wine dollars... https://www.hitimewine.net/ Worth a visit if you can, but have a good shipping rate for California. Their buyers have very good palates.

• kcsteve says:

  4/28/2017 3:36:00 PM - Hi tward, Your profile looks like mine did about 5 years ago. I have ventured off into some compelling, though expensive wines, over the years and have found that enjoyment is based on the palate, not the price or name. I'm a fan of Italian wines and So Rhone as well. Your current path is the right path. Excellent wines can be bought for $25 or less. You might want to step up to a Brunello or Barolo to experience the difference a small price increase might give to you.

• tcosgriff says:

  3/3/2017 3:13:00 PM - I have no idea where I got the Sangiovese. I make it a point to check the varietal makeup of wines before making any specific statements, but I must have had too much of the Oreno. I drank this wine in a friend's cabin in the Louisiana woods. I took a picture of the label with my iPhone, something I often do so that I don't have to remember the wine from memory, but I still got it wrong. I will need to amend the note. I have often said that the emperor has no clothes when commenting on wines that do not live up to their reputations. So here I am, without any clothes!