Friday, November 30, 2012

Liveblog! - Bertani Villa Novare Ripasso & Boots


It's been literally yonks since I live-blogged a wine and Herself is out with her girly chums so I'm all set do some blogging and babysitting. The wine in question is from O'Briens, and it's a Bertani Villa Novare Ripasso 2009 - €12-99 reduced from €17-99.

19:00 - The wine has been open and in a decanter for about 30 mins as I take my first sip. Lots of structure, some bitter cherries and a decent slug of acidity. Overall its OK so far. I am hoping some fruit develops over the next couple of hours.

So having finished my "interval" drink - a bottle of Young's Special London Ale, a bottle conditioned treat weighing in at a not inconsiderable 6.4% abv. I'm also half way through the blu-ray of Chronicle, and its pretty frickin' good so far.

So it's 21:00, and we get back to the vino. It has definitely evolved; it's a bit more harmonious. There's now a little bit of fruit peeping out from under the edge of the duvet, and the wine is working together nicely as a whole

So its coming up on 23:00, time for a last (official) taste, I'm going to save some for Herself for when she gets home. And what do we find...Well, it seems we have hit the apotheosis of this particular expression. We now have some nice tannins, a little bitter cherry, some other brighter fruit and a long finish. I'm not sure I'd pay 18 notes for it but as priced its very tasty, provided you have the time to wait for it to evolve or you could hyperdecant it, I suppose.

Thursday, November 22, 2012

This land is our land - Nostre Pais and other stories

All wines on special from O'Briens...

Michel Gassier Nostre Pais Costieres De Nimes 2010 (Pictured) - €12-99 (reduced from €17-99) Link
Love, love, love this. Complex and rich but not too heavy. Buy it at this price. 

Volpetto Chianti Riserva 2009 - €9-99 (reduced from €16-99) Link
Herself drank most of this, I only caught the end of it and it was pretty decent, some nice bitter cherries and plummy fruit.

Jaspi Negre Monsant 2009 - €11-99 (reduced from €14-99) Link
I had forgotten how much I like this. Complex and voluptuous. Again, great value at this price.

On a housekeeping note, I have to apologise for a lack of posts of late. I have recently rejoined the land of the waged, and have been exceptionally busy in my new role. I haven't had a lot of time/energy for blogging, but hopefully this will get better as time goes by.