Wine tasting on July 31, 2009

Finally all of our club members are back from vacation. Present were Piroca and Jimmy fresh back from vacation, Winepath and Uncle-N. Uncle-E did not respond to our page and was deemed MIA. We blind tasted three quite different wines.

1. La Serena Brunello di Montalcino, 2004. Score=2+

Nose has nice black cherry and blackberry but also definitive funk is noticeable. Palate has nice upfront black fruits albeit a bit muted. Nice mid palate leading to good firm tannin and reasonably long finish. Bordeaux, Bordeaux-blend (from California or other new worlds), Italian (Brunello or Super toscan) were mentioned.
This is part of the continuous effort by Uncle-N to make our palate more sophisticated and fifth Brunello he brought to the tasting in recent months. But, we have to be honest, this is not one of our favorite kind of wines. We could have given solid 3 if not for the funky nose.

Wine Spectator 94 Points

Blackberries, roses and blueberries on the nose follow through to a full body, with silky tannins and a sweet fruit aftertaste. Lots of sweet raspberries and strawberries on the finish. A delicious red already. Best from 2010 through 2016. 1,665 cases made. –JS

2. Bodegas Carmelo Rodero Crianza Ribera del Duero, 2005. Score=3

Nose is definitely funky with black fruits. Palate is rather new world with layers of fruits especially berries, plum and hint of pepper. Nice firm tannin and long finish. Nice wine with funky nose. Compared to the Brunello, it is much more fruits forward. Syrah, Cab belnd from Australia was mentioned. Cab blend from South America and Australia was mentioned but nobody followed Uncle-E's teaching that if you can not quite place the wine to any particular style or country, think Spain.
This is a recommendation by Winepath's buddy at WWW (Wide World of Wines) and it is from Ribera del Duero, mostly made of tempranillo.

91 points from Stephen Tanzer's International Wine Cellar:

"Ruby-red color. Intensely floral nose displays spicy redcurrant and wild strawberry scents. Deeper cherry and cassis flavors are complicated by smoked meat and gently firmed by silky tannins. Quite suave, with alluring finishing sweetness and very good, clinging length." (Sept/Oct '08)

As Jose Pastor, the importer of this wine, explained it he was looking for a "modern producer that still had roots in the old-world style of Ribera del Duero," and by gosh I think he found it. As one of the long time growers for the legendary Vega Sicilia, Carmelo Rodero realized that if Vega could charge the farm for the wine they made using his grapes, why shouldn't he try his hand at making the wine and charge a whole lot less. I think you'll be pleased with the results. The Crianza is 90% Tinto Fino (Tempranillo) and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon aged for 15 months in both French and American oak. This oak influence shows more in the aromatics than in the mouth with notes of caramel and toasted vanilla bean. Counter that with cigar smoke, dried tobacco, blackberry and cedar and this shows both fruity yet rustic flavors with some nice tip-o'-the-tongue acidity. (Bryan Brick, K&L)

3. Shafer One Point Five Cabernet Sauvignon, 2005. Score=4

This one was easy. Color is dark garnet. Nose is very fragrant with fruits and floral note without any funk. It looks and smells like Cali Cab. Palate is front loaded with fruits, smooth and nice mouth feel without any hard edges leading to big but well-integrated smooth tannin along with usual vanilla, caramel and dark chocolate. No doubt this is a good Cal Cab in the new world style. Winepath went futher and carefully examined the bottle shape, height and weight of the covered bottle and concluded this was Shafer, "one point five" or possibly (wishfully) "hill side select" and he was right. Uncle-N sent this wine to some wine drinking friends in Japan. Although everybody acknowledged receiving the bottle and promised to taste it, he did not get any feed back as to if they liked it or not. Knowing how polite these people are, we assume they did not like this wine but were too polite to let Uncle-N know. Next time, we will send Barolo.

RP gave 90.

"The 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon One Point Five (99% Cabernet and 1% Petit Verdot) is a meatier, more structured wine, but slightly deeper than the 2004, with broad black currant fruit flavors intermixed with some spice box, crushed rock, and spring flowers. It is characteristic of Stags Leap in its elegance and finesse. The wine has good acidity and freshness, but is long and seamless. Drink it over the next 12-15 years." - The Wine Advocate