GINI Wine Tasting

AC: This night we had 4 cab blend: 2006 Stratus Red, 2003 Hess collection Cabernet Mt. Veeder Napa, 2003 Chateau Phelan Segur Saint Estephe, 2004 1707 Selection de Barricas Almansa Spain. The Hess Collection has easily become my favourite as I find good balance and finish in the wine. Its mouth-feel in the palate and [...]

VW: A dark pinot. Dense and sweet, lots of plummy fruits. Aromatically quite complex and floral. On the palate, this is showing the 14+% alcohol. Direct and pleasurable attack but fell off quickly in the mid-palate, relatively short finish for vineyard of this calibre. Good that the sweetish fruits are quite admirable without candied character. [...]

AC: I have tried a Duckhorn Merlot before and I don’t remmeber the vintage year, but this time I tried it it seems to be surprisingly better. Fruit doesn’t start to come out until after sitting for about half an hour. Earth-like aroma and taste even a bit like that as well. [...]

After a week back from my trip to Vegas, I still remember to blog about this Merlot that I tried at the Wine Cellar located in the RIO hotel. The 2003 Twomey stands out among the three in the Merlot flight that I’ve tried (the other two are Duckhorn 2005 and Casa Lapostolle. [...]

VW: Showing both cedar and vanilla on the nose, plus dark fruits especially currants. On open, the palate is tight and tannic, high flavour intensity with berries, currants and plums. Long finish of dark berries and vanilla. After time in glass, the wine open up quickly. Some soya milk added to the nose, more plums. [...]

VW: Better than last time we tried in Gini tasting. Lots of sweet fruits, very Californian. Just a bit too sweet to my taste as it was lacking the needed acid. Good now. 89 (Nov 16, 2007)

GINI 13 (July 14, 2007) wine# 2 – AC: Definitely a new world wine from start to finish. It’s upfront fruit totally speaks the new world language especially after tasting this after wine#1 (The Australian Leeuwin Estate Art Series Cab Sauv). 89
VW: Matured. Mainly black fruits and some coffee. Nice but no suprise. 89 (July 14, [...]

GINI 13 (July 14, 2007) wine# 3 – AC: With a cedary taste, this well balanced wine is my favourite new world wine out of the 3 in today’s GINI tasting. Not too concentrated, this wine can give you a good taste of a well-developed new world wine. 91
VW: Lots of sediment. Some off stink [...]

GINI 13 (July 14, 2007) wine# 4 – AC: Nose of a non-sanitized basement washroom… NOT very pleasant. Herbal in the mid-palate and have a medium finish. Quite tannic. – 89
VW: Darkest of the 4 and also tasted the youngest. Still with good amount of tannins to last couple more years. Not giving as much [...]

AC: Lots of dark fruits in the nose. Typical California upfront fruit but not overly sweet. Medium body but love the long finish. The amazing thing is, this wine gets better after 2-3 hours after opened. The cedary taste comes right at you at this time with hint of chocolate. [...]

Strawberry and wet earth nose. Medium body of nice cherry mixed with beet. Finished with some bell peppers. The best thing about it was that the excess sweetness in many of the new world pinots does not present here. The nose was not as deep, nor as floral as the first time I tasted this half a [...]

Lots of sediment. Look still dark and young. There was certain solvent like plastic smell on decanting which luckily dissipated quickly. Black fruits and new oak…smell rather nice and complex.. but i can also smell the alcohol. The alcohol definitely show on the palate together with good amount of sweet currant but not jammy. Full [...]