cognitivebottletherapy

2017 Domaine A. Berthet Rayne Cairanne Vieilles Vignes

60% Grenache, 20% Syrah, 20% Carignan. All done in concrete it seems and all the better to avoid any dirty or specious oak flavours which find no favour around here. Dark and self contained at first but musky violets and very ripe raspberry smells eventually emerge. Rich and full mouthful of wild but clean berries. Solid tannin but with some melting chocolate softness to help it along. The fruit’s just lovely and evenly ripe, perhaps it’s the level of care and hard work organic farming demands? Reckon this will be extra delicious in another year or two. Chapeau to the patient bloke who runs the wine stall at the 10th’s Marché St. Martin. Impeccable selections so far.

14.50% alcohol. Cork. 11.50 euros.

93 points.

2017 Domaine Olivier Morin Constance Bourgogne Chitry

Chablis is looking more expensive by the day even in France due to two really low crops, more demand and, well, it is Burgundy. The village of Chitry isn’t far away but doesn’t yet have the momentum and thank goodness with producers like this. Still one for the workers. From the cheese and wine oracle of Julhès in Paris’ tenth, this pure clean Chardonnay has a whiff of shells and sea but is really more like a good, cool grown new world version. Concentration and ripeness of honeyed citrus and stone fruit carry well to a firm but even acid cut. Not quite the mellow lactic mouth caress that makes Chablis difficult to stop drinking but the fruit quality makes up for it. Bargain.

13% alcohol. Cork. 12 euros.

92 points.

2016 San Giusto a Rentennano Chianti Classico

A favourite for many years, it’s always been so well made from what tastes like beautifully tended fruit. This is no exception albeit at the very ripe, tannic end of the San Giusto scale. Very clean dark cherry fruit buried in deep dark Valrhona chocolate tannins and firm acidity. Dusty herb gardens. Muscular but poised. Sort of like one of those uncompromising but sure of touch Italian defenders, Georgio Chiellini or Leonardo Bonucci in a bottle. Delicioso with food but a well defended scoreless draw without.

14.50% alcohol. Cork. 20 euros.

93 points

2017 Monoprix Supermarket Alsace Riesling put in the bottle by Ruhlman of Dambach la Ville

It’s an euro more than the supermarket’s basic Alsatian, so organic it is and never mind the expense. For once a lucky strike. Clean, fresh and some real fruit with a nicely tense balance of good ripe acidity and maybe a touch of residual. Seems dryish though. Mid mouth the citrusy apples and Alsace spice swell but just waver a bit towards the end. The acid pulls it back into shape and keeps things tidy. Satisfying Riesling for next to nowt. Eee, that were luxury.

12.50% alcohol. Cork and doesn’t la belle France love them. 9 euros!

90 points.

2017 Terre del Barolo Le Terre Langhe Nebbiolo

From a cooperative that’s said to produce 40% of Barolo’s output, this is bright, sparklingly clean and extremely hard to stop drinking. After some more vaunted DOCGs that have been spoilt by dirty wood and bitter sulphides, it’s good to be reminded that the Langhe’s fruit quality is simply as good as any. Fresh red cherry, rose oil, and tarry road stones finish with a crispy smack that begs eggy spaghetti. No great depth but for the price tag it’s brilliant. Why can’t Australian supermercati import this?

14% alcohol. Didn’t see the stopper. 15 euros on a Torino osteria list!

90 points.

2016 G D Vajra Langhe Nebbiolo

That odd looking blob in the photo is a black truffle from Alba’s frenzied, annual fungal excess. This year the small white versions were even more expensive than a bottle of Barolo. Moderation being a virtue, a small tartufo nero, a basic risotto and a regional Nebb were a paragon of restraint. This Vajra Nebbiolo is better than many a Barolo and the fungus was fresh and very smelly, heaven on a budget indeed. 2016 looks like a blessing and the Vajras are really on form. Forward, crunchy, perfumed fruit and immediately delicious, things only got better and deeper over three days. Beautifully judged extraction brought the fruit centre stage but the tannins are just so perfectly ripe and deep that the thought of a longer stewed 2016 Barolo is just toe curling. Great cherry flavour, florals, Piemonte stones, perfectly sanitary acidity and those tannins.

14.00% alcohol. Diam I think, pay attention at the back. 19.90 euros.

93 punti but extra for sheer stylee.

2016 Ar Pe Pe Rosso di Valtellina

Ah, Pe Pe. A post through Rosso tinted glasses. Mountain fresh red fruits of the cherry persuasion, mouthwatering ripe acidity and the finest tannin like licking a lump of granite if you were silly enough to do so. Alpine strawberries and herbs on fine porcelain bones. Delicate but haunting. So pure and goes a notch up in deliciousness with a bowl of Valtellina pizzoccheri. Buckwheat pasta with more butter and cheese than you may care to know. Not going to argue with the local opinion that this fine Nebbiolo helps the fat go down.

A visit to this fiercely intelligent and proud producer was a rare joy. Such poise and light handed precision in vineyard detail was a treat all the way up to the top of the crus. Infernally tasty. Sondrio’s a beautiful Alpine town even in a freezing autumn deluge. Badly smitten.

13.50% alcohol I think, tastes less. Cork. 20 euros on the list.

91 points but preferred to many mega point pan galactic gargle blasters.

A second bottle at home in Melbourne was equally delicious. Better the third day, clean, exquisitely perfumed mountain Nebbiolo. Geologists forgive me but it’s seriously rocky. If it were possible to lick an Alp, then perhaps it would be thus?

92 punti but what a wine of place.

2016 Vietti Barbera d’Alba Tre Vigne

Impeccable Vietti again. Sweetly ripe enough for immediate appeal but still plenty of geological Piemontese..er…rocks, minerals. Poised acidity and a perfect tweak of very tasteful oak flavour and tannin. Fruit flavours are dark cherry and sort of red plum. Really would normally go for Dolcetto but Vietti put such care into Barbera it’s hard to say no when a Conad supermercato has just one bottle left.

14.00% alcohol. Diam. 12.50 euros believe it or not.

92 points.

2017 De Fermo Concrete Montepulciano d’Abruzzo

The full Monty of low fi wine production and a very successful one. All the bramble fruit, briar and deep extract of Abruzzo’s own great value but fresh, juicy and pure fruited too. Little bit of that low sulphur yeasty breath but clean gorgeous fruit charges forth and finishes with a dark summer pudding burst of fresh acidity and grainy, firm Monty tannin. None of the variety’s volcanic reductiveness either. Really good grapes and hands off in such a good way.

13.50% alcohol. Cork. 15 euros.

94 points.

NV Fattoria Moretto Canova Lambrusco Grasperossa di Castelvetro

Lambrusco is about to become as fashionable as skin contact, no sulphur, bottled on a full moon straight from the amphora drinks, really. Well, this is organic, low intervention, single vineyard and only 6000 bottles this year. Tart, sweetly austere dark cherries, yeast and something dark and earthy. Seems a bit wound up in its own spritz and didn’t budge much over two days. Of the two most important Lambrusci varieties it’s accepted that Grasperossa is the dark, tannic assertive one and this sure bears that out. A couple of aperitivi Sorbaras have really looked a completely different grape. Pale, strawberries and like a rosé fizz. This was scrumptious with local piggy bits and cheese. Great cut with full but not sour acid and tannin. So unhip it’s a super bargain. Lucky Modenese, food from heaven and this.

12% alcohol. Cork. 8.90 euros!

91 points.