catching up with wine.

It's hard to move your wine.  You get it all good and settled and then you move and the system is different so you have to reconfigure the system. I see all the spreadsheets and maps, smart phones and apps, and good intentions.  I also see many people holding those things wandering and lost anyway. 

The Cave has a new denizen who is meticulously cataloging his product in grand attempt to crack the code of the perfect system.  Perfection takes time so he and I have been here together for various chunks of time, though almost daily, for almost a month now.  It's wreaked havoc on the balance of The Cave's  delicate ecosystem and the equally delicate nature of its monastic, hermetic-by-nature troglodyte. 

So let's catch up on a few things, namely wines I drank. 

2003 Cantina Terlan Lagrein Alto Adige - Südtirol Porphyr Riserva
Thick ruby ink. Leather behind fruit, bring a knife and fork.  I don't know if I like this or not, but it was different and unusual and I really liked it. (no, that's not a mistype.)

2011 Tablas Creek Rose  Second wine I've had from this very intriguing winery.  It was good.  I'd do it again.

 

The first two were very generous donations to the cause.  So were these.  After drinking them I sent Max a sympathy card for trusting to my palate what I am certain were very good wines.  The 2009 Vallana:  I liked it and then I didn't like it and then I liked it and then I didn't like it and then on the third day it was fantastic and floral and delicate and there was only a glass left.

The next weekend I opened the  2004 Gattinara.  Smooth mouthfeel, big pucker. On day three when I'd already decided it was unnecessary to try again the second to last sip was pure velvet and licorice. The last sip cured any last second wantonness.

This past weekend I opened this 2009 Viticcio Chianti Classico.  This is from the big Zachy's purchase earlier this year.  Or later last year.  Whatev. It was also difficult to pin down.  Are Italian wines simply frisky?  This one was good enough, it had all the right stuff: grapes, acidity and tannins. It was fine. On day one you'd drink it and it would just ... end.  Good beginning, good middle, but an empty, watery end.  Is this good?  Beats me. 

 2011 Château Monestier La Tour Bergerac Rouge.  Also via Zachy's, bright and balanced and otherwise unremarkable.

This stuff, also a donation to the cause,  fricking just great.  Elegant and beautiful.  One of the nicest wines I've had the fortune to experience.

I'm beginning to realize I'm an ass.  Actually I'm a troglodyte extraordinaire, like an idiot savant but with different letters and minus the savant part.  With what I've spent on many bottles of mediocre wine I maybe should have spent on very few bottles of very good wine.

If you want to read some much better writing on much better wines, try the new guy's website, Winenoodle