Hmmmmm......some tasting notes

Not much going on on the blog these days so here are some tasting notes.

1996 Fontanabianca Barbaresco Sori Burdin - From my early wine career when I liked spoofilated Nebbiolo. I had this wine three or four times upon release and went ga ga over it. Drank this with Tony Soprano and gang for the season opener and it was good not great. It had great Nebbiolo character with tar, rose petals, minerality and a wet earth character on the nose. Palate was big and rich and there was a candied element that became more pronounced as the night went along but the acidity was there and the essence of Nebbiolo and Barbaresco did come through. If this wine did not have that candied element (souped up you could say) this would have been great Barbaresco but tonight it was merely good.

2004 Keller Riesling Halbtrocken - Keller is a great estate. I have tasted numerous bottles of this wine in 2002 and 2004 plus the Van Der Fels bottling which is a trocken one level up from this one. Never had the G-Max, Hubacher GG or any sweet stuff but am dying to. These wines are very very diffiult to source in the States. In Germany this is considered the top winery. The wine is delicate yet has beautiful assertive minerality and great bracing acidity. It is somewhat lacey with nice pineapple and tangerine fruit. As it aerated it picked up a nice tang and had wonderful palate presence. As far as estate QBA's go this wine was sensational. I need to try try the higher end stuff.