Just a casual dinner in Almaty, Kazakhstan. The restaurant had an excellent (and somewhat affordable) wine list. Obviously, “when in Rome”, had to start with a local wine.
The details might not be 100% correct, it’s kinda hard to find information about the region and wineries.
Altyn Arba Chardonnay Reserve 2014, Assa Valley, Kazakhstan.
Assa Valley region is at an elevation of 3300ft at the foothills of Alatau mountains. The summers are hot, and winters get very cold (-40C/F). These wines were originally planted in the Soviet era in the mid 70’s.
The wine is clear, slightly developed and golden. Nose is complex with ripe fruit, peach, honeydew melon, tiny hint of buttery cream and nice backbone of supporting minerality.
Palate is dry, ripe but maintains a nice freshness with medium acidity. More peach, slight oxidized notes like bruised apple, but the enjoyable kind if that makes any sense. Somewhat new world style in that it is definitely fruit forward, but well balanced with the acidity. Finishes long with some pleasant oaky and ginger-like spiciness.
First Kazakh wine for me, I liked it!
After this, we went for something a bit more traditional.
Torres Mas La Plana 2007, Penedes, Spain
To me, drinking Mas La Plana is like visiting an old friend. This is the wine that got me interested in wines in the first place.
The wine is opaque purple with just a slight hint of bricking on the rim. Nose is developed with very dark fruit, plums, fig preserve and earthy notes. Complex array of secondary notes of mushrooms, black truffles, nice funk and mulch.
The wine is full bodied, rich, mouth filling and almost lush, but the developed flavors are in great balance with the dark ripe fruits. Tannins have softened and integrated but are still very much there. Finish is very long with dried herbs, coffee and slightly tart cherries.
This feels like it is drinking at its peak right now.
Yum.
After dinner, just needed one more bottle.
Tenuta San Luce 2016, Italy.
Too drunk to take notes at this point, but did Italy make any bad wine in 2016? So it was very good.
