Wine Berserkers - international wine social media, online community, and forums

Otto Forsberg

My lowest scored wins on CT is a 2011 Cakebread Cellars Syrah Suscol Spings, at 75 Points. December 14, 2013 - A friend brought this over for dinner. It was awful - nose and taste was smoky with a bite on the back end (this was not tainted - had just delivered through friend's wine club). At $50, i...

Otto Forsberg

* Insignia blending where they give you most of the components that go into Insignia (3-4 base cab, some PV, some malbec) and you try to blend it to make the Insignia. Of course with the time constraint and skill, your blend is usually horrific. How does it differ from the real Insignia? [snort.gif]

Otto Forsberg

. Fair enough, Otto. I see what you're saying. It's just an overly broad term you'd prefer not to use. Understand that. Tom Use it on its own. I certainly use it often, but describing how the phenolics manifest themselves. I guess you'd wonder why this Albarino doesn't taste like a Georgian amber w...

Otto Forsberg

Even perhaps tongue-in-cheel, taking credit from the use of "phenolic" sounds pretty ridiculous since it has been in my lexicon for years and I've seen it used all over the wine and beer world. However, since I first learned it from Belgian ales - that certainly have nothing to do with skin-contact ...

Otto Forsberg

Chateauneuf-du-pape. Not 'Pop' I'm not sure how you are pronouncing pape, but pop isn't a bad English approximation. It's true that the vowel sound should be more like ah, as when the doctor says say ah, but it should definitely not be like the "a" in Maverick's old pappy. I was thinking exactly th...

Otto Forsberg

I guess this is a wine uncovered recently somewhere, because there's so much of it circulating in the market now. I've had it twice and still have a bottle of it in my cellar. Paid something like $20 per bottle, good value at that price. However, seeing how the wine is already going downhill, I'm ha...

Otto Forsberg

Thanks, Otto, for eloquently explaining why I reject the term "phenolic" (I'm the person in Tom's tasting group that Tom is referring to). I do, however, understand what Tom means when he says phenolic. It's just that, since it bears no resemblance to actual phenols, which it couldn't because there...

Otto Forsberg

Well, Otto...when I describe a wine as “botrytis”, does that mean anything? I think a high level of botrytis, which often/usually transcends varietal character, has a very distinctive character that’s easy to recognize. I lump “phenolic” and “botrytis” in the same category. Obviously, “botrytis” do...

Otto Forsberg

I think "phenolic" is as pointless as "fruity" or "mineral". It doesn't tell much, unlike terms like resinous, smoky, spicy (cloves, peppery), chemical phenolic character or perhaps phenolic bitterness. Many wines can show lots of different phenolic qualities and describing a skin-contact wine simpl...

Otto Forsberg

Otto, It was my third visit over three years. Each year her wines have improved as she gains more experience. I think she is winemaker to follow as she continues to evolve. Good to know. Her Baroli didn't show that much evolution style-wise between 2007 and 2010, but I guess that was just too early...

Otto Forsberg

Otto, I was at the winery in May, so I am confident of my information. I saw the botti, and we discussed her having to use them new. Tom Yes, I never doubted your information, just wondered if the information importers have is outdated. Anyways, it's good to know, since the wines have always shown ...

Otto Forsberg

Regarding bringing in new grape varieties, it looks like some of those are aimed for lower tiered wines. Yes, it's worth noting that the grapes are being approved for Bordeaux and Bordeaux Supérieur, somewhat struggling categories, not Cru Bourgeois, let alone classified growth Bdx. It would be har...

Otto Forsberg

Otto, She is traditional in her Nebbiolo winemaking. Claudio Fennochio is an important mentor, she uses botti and extended (if I remember, up to 60 days) maceration. She has recently purchased new botti, which by necessity, she used for her Barolo. I think that is the source of any oakiness. Tom Ok...

Otto Forsberg

I've tasted Barolo La Tartufaias 2007, 2009 and 2010. Wasn't thrilled about the 2009, but the 2007 and 2010 were quite good. All in all the style is not really my cup of tea, since the wines are a bit too polished and oaky for my taste, but nevertheless pretty good for that burgundian-modernist sty...

Otto Forsberg

I've tasted Barolo La Tartufaias 2007, 2009 and 2010. Wasn't thrilled about the 2009, but the 2007 and 2010 were quite good. All in all the style is not really my cup of tea, since the wines are a bit too polished and oaky for my taste, but nevertheless pretty good for that burgundian-modernist styl...

Otto Forsberg

Several of the chardonnays I picked up on a recent trip to Oregon have a fair amount of matchstick reduction, which I enjoy, but some of my friends do not. It can dominate the nose by suppressing all the fruit. Should I just plan on giving the wines lots of air before serving? Normally double-decan...

Otto Forsberg

really good discussion - and I hope I am not straying off topic - rather adding to - I think of this "natural wine' within the context of the Bio-Dynamic Vignerons we met in Burgundy who explained to me how they work - with the cycles of nature and natural law. And how when I heard about that proce...

Otto Forsberg

I went to Croatia a few months ago and we spent a day wine tasting in the Peljesac peninsula. Very impressed with a lot of the wines although I tended to favor the crisp whites made of Posip and some rose wines from Plavic Mali. Could have been the sunshine and warm weather (and the food we were ea...

Otto Forsberg

I think that Plavac Mali is a superior grape to Zin. It can get very ripe and yet retain remarkable levels of acidity even when the alcohol level is pushing 16%. Zinfandels this ripe tend to get too jammy and blowzy, while Plavac Mali never seems to be lacking in structure. I guess it must be due to...

Otto Forsberg

Thanks for all the thoughts so far, please keep them coming. Otto - I remember the bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto being a little over 2 hours? Of course it depends. We had a JR pass for two weeks allowing for free travel with all JR train lines using Shinkansen (the high-velocity train) and it to...

Otto Forsberg

Just push it in. If you keep some past corks lying around, better chance with one of those after they’ve dried out than the one you just pulled. This doesn't make sense. The cork's diameter is at its smallest right after it is pulled out from the bottle, after which it starts to expand. It is also ...

Otto Forsberg

+1 to hiking around Kamakura. Beautiful sceneries. It's also worthwhile to visit the Yamanashi wine region. There's basically one reasonable hotel there (Budo-no-Oka) to my knowledge, otherwise it's just vineyards and countryside. The train from Tokyo to Yamanashi takes something like 2 hours and th...

Otto Forsberg

... the moorishness of the wine... There are words that, no matter how many times I see them, I still have no idea what they really mean and this is one of them, in addition to gourmand (as used in wines, esp Burgundy), and linear . Really have no idea what the hell they mean. But, to answer the qu...

Otto Forsberg

Alan Eden wrote: ↑
July 2nd, 2019, 8:42 pm
Im typing this drinking a 2010 Ridge Estate cab and it has lots of good qualities but the single thing that is pushing my buttons the most is the moorishness of the wine, it is just so damn addictive

Sounds like a wine that could've taken over Spain a millennium ago!

Otto Forsberg

what are "higher alcohols"? What does it mean to say that "higher octane wines seem to produce a higher % of higher alcohols"? Obviously higher octane wines have a higher percentage of alcohol, are you saying something beyond that? thanks Basic chemistry. Methanol and ethanol are simple alcohols, c...

Otto Forsberg

Why do you think it's '08 not '09? Because the fermentation takes time, then the wines are settled, clarified, filtered, blended, left to marry and then bottled. This is nornally done at the earliest the beginning of the year following the vintage for the simplest / most inexpensive wines, but norm...

Otto Forsberg

I understand the definition. Something I’ve always wondered: If the percentages of different grape varieties that end up in the finished wine is the same, how would a field blend and co-fermenting affect the finished product compared to blending after fermenting each variety separately? Is there a ...

Otto Forsberg

Would I try it? Absolutely! Would I spit it? Absolutely! Alcohol “carries” flavor. So the notion that “all other things like mouthfeel and aroma being equal” is a non-starter. They cannot be equal. Impossible. To a large degree mouthfeel is create by the alcohol. There is simply no way a non-alcoho...

Otto Forsberg

I guess another way to put this is: Is there a difference between a blend and a field blend? There is. If the blend is done in the field, it's a field blend. If the varieties are vinified separately and later on blended at the winemaker's discretion, it's a normal blend. You can have the different ...

Otto Forsberg

Sorry, forgot to add "Single Vineyard" before Gemischter Satz. The regular bottling is good, but nothing on par with the better ones. However, even them are not expensive, priced around 15-25€ a bottle. Sadly, that would make them about $50 to $75 in most USA markets [after the bottles passed throu...

Otto Forsberg

The absorption rate of alcohol depends on the alcohol content, so more alcohol is absorbed in a certain duration of time from a wine at 15% compared to a wine at 12,5%. This absorption rate increases up to 20-25%-ish ABV, after which the absorption rate stays pretty much the same. In that aspect it ...

Otto Forsberg

Paul Miller wrote: ↑
June 26th, 2019, 10:34 am

anthonyshideler wrote: ↑
June 26th, 2019, 10:15 am
Luis Seabra and Dirk Niepoort. What these guys are doing with old vine field blends in Portugal is nothing short of spectacular.
I was wondering when someone would mention Portuguese blends

So very true. Secret Spot makes some ridiculously great wines as well. António Madeira too.

Otto Forsberg

If you're sensitive to it, it's not rare in low-sulfur wines; it's very common. I find I can pick them out in restaurants quite quickly, even when I know nothing about the winemaking. But roughly a third of the population has no sensitivity to mousiness at all. You're correct about it being detecte...

Otto Forsberg

2. It seems that a lot of skin-contact whites are also low sulfur. What you say about the uniformity of this flavor across grape types and skin contact times made me wonder if it's the so-called "mousiness" that I often find in no- and low-sulfur wines. For me, that often dominates the fruit qualit...

Otto Forsberg

There are a couple things here. First, red wine does have phenols, but they are different: anthocyanin, for example. Even tannin is a polyphenol. But when we talk about a “phenolic quality” in wine, we’re generally referring to the phenols found in white wine. In other words, it isn’t that red wine...

Otto Forsberg

Going back to the question of differentiating winemaking between the regions, it should also be pointed out that some big-name wines from RdD, while predominantly tempranillo, have cabernet sauvignon blended in. True, but I think RdD wines are more often 100% Tempranillo than Rioja wines. After all...

Otto Forsberg

Wieninger's Gemischter Satz wines are in a league of their own. Nußberg 2013 was spectacular. In Vienna, those start at about $10 a bottle: https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/wieninger+gemischter+satz They sure do sound interesting: http://www.wieninger.at/en/wines/wiener-gemischter-satz/index.php ...

Otto Forsberg

Wieninger's Gemischter Satz wines are in a league of their own. Nußberg 2013 was spectacular.

Otto Forsberg

On the contrary, I've had several older La Rioja Alta wines that retain their distinctive vanilla note of American oak, no matter the age. Everything from 1980's Gran Reserva 890's to 1970's Ardanzas. French oak tends to integrate with enough age, but I doubt the LRA wines will ever lose the vanill...

Otto Forsberg

On the contrary, I've had several older La Rioja Alta wines that retain their distinctive vanilla note of American oak, no matter the age. Everything from 1980's Gran Reserva 890's to 1970's Ardanzas. French oak tends to integrate with enough age, but I doubt the LRA wines will ever lose the vanilla...

Otto Forsberg

Otto, thanks for that summary. Can you recommend Rioja made with french oak barrels? I like some LdH, and feel like I would like more Tempranillo based wines if their was less oak, especially American oak. If you don't like oak, RLdH is the best alternative. They replace less than 10% of their old ...

Otto Forsberg

Maybe they don´t "sound" better ... but they taste better! If you have to serve 16 glasses for a high-class tasting you will think differently ... not amusing to have cloudy wine to taste ... Maybe I wasn't clear: if you stand the bottles up ahead of time you won't end up with cloudy wine On one ha...

Otto Forsberg

Otto, thanks for that summary. Can you recommend Rioja made with french oak barrels? I like some LdH, and feel like I would like more Tempranillo based wines if their was less oak, especially American oak. If you don't like oak, RLdH is the best alternative. They replace less than 10% of their old ...

Otto Forsberg

Very briefly the main differences: Rioja wines more acid-driven, less tannic, more from the spectrum of red fruits and dark berries. Stylistically more complex and savory due to the longer barrel-aging regimes. Ribera del Duero noticeably riper, lower in acidity, more tannic and extracted wines. Hea...

Otto Forsberg

Oh and I had that 2006 Tondonia Reserva a few weeks ago and while it did show that subtly metallic tone, it was nevertheless a beautiful Rioja. Not the best vintage of Tondonia Reserva, but a lovely effort all the same.

Otto Forsberg

This wine surprised me by how much I like it. In theory, I should be a big fan of old world Rioja. The problem, however, is that I am not a fan, generally speaking, of American oak. And lots of Riojas showcase that American oak range of notes that I just do not like. On this wine, it works, but gra...

Otto Forsberg

Now if you compare to beer the zero alcohol version is widely available and unlike wine is actually very similar to the alcoholic version I almost burst out laughing at this point I still do drink 0% beer every now and then, but it really doesn't taste like the real stuff. It's much better than 0% ...

Otto Forsberg

Are we talking about the "alcohol-free" wines on the market today, or wines that would taste and feel exactly the same, only without any of the the actual effects of alcohol? So I could have a, say, 1964 Produttori del Barbaresco without any alcohol, but it would taste exactly the same as the thing ...

Otto Forsberg

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/22150/352676/ I have to admit, this is the first time I've heard of a cross/fusion between beer and wine. The brewers, Stillwater Artisanal Ales, claim it is like a "beer/orange wine fusion" more closely defined as a "dry-hopped sour ale with muscat grapes....

Otto Forsberg

Jay Miller wrote: ↑
June 13th, 2019, 9:15 am
Ah, good point. The Tondonia was red. My bad.

Thank you!

Search found 663 matches