Trying to work on my tasting notes so thank you for indulging me and reading these basic, probably incorrect ones. Apologies for some of the flowery writing as well, tried to have a bit of fun with it.
Notes from fuzzy memory of last night, all criticism considered constructive.
Ar.Pe.Pe Valtellina Superiore Riserva Grumello Buon Consiglio 2013 - tasted double blind, pnp this was quite tight so we gave it a splash decant for 20 minutes and opened up nicely, had that thin skinned look of “ok is this Pinot or Nebbiolo?” Very pretty translucent ruby, a hint of age starting to show, nice floral notes, cherry, a bit of a sweeter fruit note but not from overripeness, I called it red twizzler, some licorice root as well, touch of leather, earthiness, on the palate had nice med + acidity, fine grain tannin is there but not high enough to grab the wheel and drive me right to Piedmont “uh oh”, med + finish. Didn’t seem like barolo or Barbaresco, but just had enough “italian rusticness” to call a 2014, well made prettier styled langhe Nebbiolo. I was pretty happy with the call since I’ve never had a valtellina superiore before.
Cayuse Cailloux Syrah 2012- notes combined from my personal tasting knowing what it was and my somm friend tasting it double blind, very expressive and complex after a 2 hour decant, blueberry, blackberry, my friend called papaya, it does have an exotic note, is this from the viognier? dark chocolate, olive, touch of pepper, classic Cayuse funk but well integrated at this point, the smell of packing up camp after you just put the fire out. On the palate full bodied, well balanced with that rocks higher ph but still enough acid somehow (I still dont fully know how this works), long finish. My friend calls 2014 Walla walla Syrah, high quality producer.
Gaja Darmagi 1999 - Non blind, I was a little dubious of the quality of this particular bottle since I bought it just last week standing upright on the shelf of a not particularly cool wine shop with a clear out tag on it. But with the promise of being able to return if found unsound I took the gamble. Pulled the cork with the ah so, came out completely in tact, soaked 3/4 of the way through, good start! At least this shows it was stored properly at one point I guess? Right away its everything i could have wanted, I’ve only had a few cabernets of this age range, but it really reminded me of a more elegant napa cab like Corison, black cherry, cassis, cigar, cedar, leather, baking spice, resolved tannins and lovely acidity to lift everything up, long finish. My friend liked it so much hes on his way to pick up the other bottle.
Cheers!
