Theme: Winter White Wines & Rabbie Burns Supper
We will do our usual blind tasting method, but after unveiling, we want to hear the story behind the wine you brought to the tasting.
Bring: TWITs should bring a bottle of white wine:
- it should be a white wine which you like to drink in the winter
- come prepared to tell us why it's a winter white wine
- within the specified price range (Up to $20/bottle for Singles, between $20 - $40/bottle for Couples)
Welcome Wine: 1996 Michel Schlumberger Chardonnay - was a gift from a friend, estimate price around $45/bottle from the winery. 100% Chardonnay,
1) 2013 L'Acino Chora Bianco, IGP, Calabria - $18.99 @ Le Caveau Fine Wines
12.5 % Alcohol
TWITs Tasting Notes: effervescent, perfumey, pear and grapefruit on the palate, sweeter, viscous, a nice wine, latex, a little petrol, sulfur on the nose, soft tart not harsh tart,
Le Caveau Notes: "Mostly Mantonico a little Guarnaccia Bianca, Pecorello & Greco grown organically.
This white displays layered notes of dried apricots and tropical fruits with undertones of toasted almonds, bulgar wheat, and honey. This white is rich, flavorful, and mouth-filling with vibrant acidity, incredible depth, and a long finish.
About the Wine & Winemaker: Founded in 2006 by Antonello Canonico, Dino Briglio and Emilio Di Ciann (all natives of the mountain town of San Marco Argentano), L'Acino is a communal effort to showcase the oft-forgotten terroir of Calabria. When the project began, the three friends were working full-time in unrelated fields: Antonello was a film director, Dino a historian and Emilio a lawyer. Though they had no prior viticultural or winemaking experience, their love of wine was enough to start the estate, and the trio's taste for "natural" wine meant focusing their attention on organic viticulture and minimal intervention winemaking.
As far as the grapes planted, the vineyard features the indigenous grapes Mantonico (white) and Magliocco (red), as well as a small percentage of other indigenous varieties.The vines here are young, planted by the L'Acino team 7 years ago from cuttings of older vines (sélection massage) on their own rootstock. The vineyard is being plowed every year following harvest and legumes, grains and other plants have been planted between the rows of vines to promote mineral richness and depth to the soils.
Never heard of Mantonico and Magliocco?...neither had we! Mantonico was once thought to be a color mutation of the common Calabrian red grape, Gaglioppo. Magliocco Canino is found in many of the oldest vineyards in the region, but was supplanted by the more productive Gaglioppo. The wines are fermented with native yeasts in stainless steel vats and aged on the lees. They are bottled unfiltered and lightly sulfured and released in the Spring following harvest. "
2) 2011 Vielles Vignes Pouilly-Fume, Loire - $22 @ Sherlocks Wine Merchant
13% alcohol
crisp, green notes, herbacious, wasn't impressed with the nose, perm solution, grassy-gassy, nose is what we don't like about white wine, astringent, cleaning solution, shy volatiles, acidic, bitter, guessing sauvignon blanc, chalkiness
3) 2013 Peter Jakob Kuhn Trocken Riesling - $18 @ Le Caveau Fine Wines
12% alcohol
white florals, geyser water, petrol, passion fruit palate, papaya or guava, lily-of-the-valley sprayed with gasoline, pinot grigio? sweet, jolly ranchers, a touch of acidity, ripe fruit, sweet-tart, pectin, granny smith, "granny smith's knickers", sour pears, a firm pair (ha ha), magnolias, long and thin, a late honeysuckle
4) 2010 Scholium Project Midan Al-Tahrir, California - $24 @ Le Caveau
15.71% alcohol, blend of Chardonnay Gewürztraminer Sauvignon Blanc Verdelho
cough medicine, cherry, jasmine, saturated sweetness, honey, golden yellow color, natural wine - unfiltered, sweet/bitter, menthol - throat hit, short-chained volatiles, too acidic, would go well with an almond brown butter cake.
5) 2007 Trimbach Reserve Pinot Gris, Alsace - $38 @ Hintons Savvy Cellar
13.5% alcohol
chicken tenders, honey, toffee, butterscotch, olives, mushrooms, golden yummy, mint, herbal, fungi, funky cheese, guessing a Grecian white (slaps you in the face),
6) 2011 Domaine de la Tournelle, Jura, Terre de Gryphees - $34 @ Le Caveau
13% alcohol, 100% Chardonnay
all spice, OMG Goldschlager, red hots, candy cinnamon, tart, capsaicin, "gravel or something in my mouth", marine fossils, salty sea breeze
7) 2011 Red Mare Chardonnay, Dutton Ranch, Russian River Valley - $40 @ Total Wine
13.5% alcohol
doo doo locked in a cupboard, awful, dog poo on your shoe, straight up turd, oak bomb, California Cheek-Twitcher, newly poured asphalt, steaming turd, nasty, skanky weed, cannabis, smells like an old friend, guessing Lodi, CA?
8) 2011 Gobelsberger Riesling, Kamptal, Terry Theise Estate Collection - $18 from a friend
12.5% alcohol
petrol, gasoline, asphalt, hot highway, tickling my tongue, this is a NICE Riesling, expensive tasting, honey on the end, light, drinkable, quaffable,
9) 2013 Tenuta Sant Antonio Scaia, IGT - $10 @ Whole World Beverage
12.5% alcohol, Garganega 60%, Chardonnay, 40%
glass cork, licorice, grapefruit, cat piss, dirty dishrag, pear, unexpected gorgeous acidity, hydrangeas first bloom, stupidly good! FAVE WINE OF THE NIGHT!
10)1982 Chateau Suduiraut Sauternes, 1er Cru Classe mute 1855 - $130 @ Sherlocks Wine Merchant
13.5% alcohol
thick nose of sherry, nose of SueEllen (someone's ex), pear, honey, caramel, rich, sweet, warm apricots, sharp honey, vanilla, pineapple, warm Christmas, minerality, Bordeaux, sweetness, fungus, YUM!
Special thank you to Lauren for sharing this rare treat with us!
Cranachan - Scottish Dessert made of Whipped Cream, Honey, Whisky, with Toasted Oats and Raspberries
Vegetarian Haggis, Neeps & Tatties
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