Beaujolais 2007

Beaujolais 2007

And now for something completely different. A Beaujolais 2007 taste off, Morgon Vs Fleurie with my good friend and wine blogger, the Wine Sleuth.


A great way to finish off this November's final blog entry as we turn our attentions away from the Italian wine for just a moment and focus on Beaujolais. A few days ago I was sent a couple of Beaujolais wines from the very famous British wine company Berry Bros and Rudd and decided to do a blog entry for Beaujolais which has never really been covered here.

So, a quick round up on Beaujolais for those who are not familiar with the region.

Beaujolais is the southern most wine region of Burgundy. Within Beaujolais exists 10 cru denominations, Beaujolais-Villages, regular Beaujolais and Beaujolais Superieur. It's generally agreed that the best examples of Beaujolais come from the 10 cru areas and each of these cru provide their own distinctive take on Gamay (the grape that makes Beaujolais).

Stylistically Beaujolais wines can generally be defined as fresh 'n' fruity light red wines and in most cases with an over-riding cherry fruit profile. Each of the 10 cru wines however impart their own distinctive characteristics on the wine and, as you can see in the VT for example, Morgon, while just down the road from Fleurie is easily distinguishable even by the likes of myself and the wine sleuth!

If you're hankering to get into Beaujolais you will find it a hard task indeed if you don't memorise the 10 cru regions of the appellation. Many of the cru Beaujolais wines are not marked "Beaujolais" at all, simply "Morgon" or "Fleurie". Below is a guide to help you.... and to remind me and that American chick.

A quick guide to the 10 Beaujolais Crus

Chiroubles - Producing one of the lightest and most elegant Beaujolais wines and the best of the bunch to be drunk young.

St Amour - Northernmost Cru whose wines benefit from a few years age. Dull when young the wines grow into supple, spicy wines with a few years on the clock.

Brouilly - The largest of Beaujolais' areas, the wines are fruity and best drunk young unlike...

Cote de Brouilly - A more concentrated Beaujolais, grapey and rich, that also benefits from some time.

Fleurie - The most famous Cru on the street Fleurie has a huge following. The wines are typically flowered in aroma, cherry in flavour, feminine in style and easy drinking.

Morgon - The second largest cru and perhaps the most complex and distinctive Beaujolais. Can fool you with gooseberry flavours you're not expecting from a Beaujolais. The terroir here is decomposing slate quite unlike the other crus and this impacts on the wine. Not to be drunk young, lacks fruitiness of other Beaujolais wines in its youth.

Juliénas - Distinctive cru with solid structure and distinctive fruits including peach, blackcurrants and raspberries. Depending on the producer Juliénas can be drunk young or take a few years to develop to it's full potential.

Moulin à Vent - The most robust, tannic and full bodied of all the Beaujolais cru. Moulin a Vent wines are usually the most expensive and with age become Pinot-esque and in their youth are still superb examples of Beaujolais.

Chénas - Next door to Moulin a Vent, the wines need at least three years to develop and when they do this is one of the most complex and strongly perfumed Beaujolais wines.

Régnié - Light, supple and a great example of young Beaujolais. The latest of all the Beaujolais crus (incorporated in 1988) the wines of Regnie can be a little diverse in style.

Domaine Louis Claude Desvignes Morgon La Voûte St.Vincent 2007 - BUY - £10.95
Ruby red in colour, the wine starts off a little dumb on the nose with basic spice and cherries. After an hour or so the wine opens up big time and all kinds of aromas come to the fore including blackberries and wet stones. On the palate the wine is a little bitter but with a great texture, sound acidity, fine tannins, good structure and balance. Good example. 88 Points

Domaine Métrat Fleurie Vieilles Vignes La Roilette 2007 - PASS - £12.65
Identical ruby red in colour, on the nose the wine is simply raspberries and hints of cherry. The palate follows this identical and simple profile, the balance is good and the acidity is fine and this is a typical example of Fleurie with more fruit on the palate but still too watery and one dimensional for my personal taste. As a Fleurie Beaujolais it's very good but this style of wine is not to my personal taste. 85 Points

Where can I buy this Wine?
Both available at Berry Bros and Rudd

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Simply, Beaujolais, love it or loathe it?

Jean Leon Wine

Jean Leon Wine

The Torres owned Jean Leon wine range are a peculiar brand to spark an interest in wines for an Italian wine blogger yet so it was, four years ago, that I visited my very first vineyard as part of a "team building" trip for the travel company I worked for. Readers of this blog will know that I have spent two of the last three years in Italy, working in the wine and travel trade but before this I spent a year in Barcelona solely in Travel having not yet stirred any interest in my heart for wine.

So by happy coincidence a trip to the Jean Leon vineyards was organised by our industrious office manager who loved the wines of the Penedes region (and also the cheap Cava awash in Barcelona) and we all set forth in our mini van quite unprepared for the scale of the vineyards or the size of the personality of Señor Jean Leon.

The wine game, in itself, is a pretty glitzy and glamourous business and all of us bloggers light up any room we enter but Jean Leon takes wine glamour to a whole new level. Born in northern Spain, in the port of Santander in 1928, Jean Leon's story is like the pheonix from the flames (quite literally as his family home burned to the ground in 1941) as his childhood set backs toughened the young Ceferino Carrion (you can't really be called Jean Leon and live a life so cool, that's not fair) and led him to try his luck in Paris, New York and Hollywood.

With no immigration papers in New York he took manual work but soon found himself in trouble with authorities and crossed the USA to Hollywood *jazz hands*. To become a legal immigrant Leon enrolled in the US Army during the Koreon War. After the war Leon found work in the Villa Capri restaurant in Hollywood, owned by Joe DiMaggio and Frank Sinatra. Making friends with the screen legends who frequented Ol' Blue Eyes establishment came easy to Leon and, due to his friendship with James Dean, he eventually opened the La Scala restaurant in Beverley Hills *jazz hands*. This restaurant was immediately popular with the Hollywood film stars and sports stars alike.

Jean Leon threw his passions wholeheartedly into his restaurant and chose the wine list himself but could never find, as he would say "that perfect wine" or "el vino perfecto" depending on his audience I suppose. So, Jean Leon began the quest to find a perfect piece of land upon which to start his own winery. Leon travelled to France and Italy and eventually landed in Catalonia, Spain and in the Penedes wine region just outside of Barcelona and bought his 150 hectare estate in the hills.

It's uncanny how similar our lives are really. Back to me.

We arrived at the Jean Leon estate and were quite unprepared for this incredible story and after our group asked the usual cringe-worthy questions (which seemed quite reasonable at the time) "Can you get white wine from red grapes", "You only get 1 litre of juice from all those grapes, hurumpf, I wouldn't bother, why do you bother?" we went on to try his wines and were taught how to taste and giggled along at how ridiculous the whole swirling, sniffing and slurping was.

We all came away with wine though and for me at least, I remember being remarkably impressed at the effort that goes into producing vino, and the different levels on which it can be appreciated and all these different grapes! Amazing!

Since this mini adventure I've retried a few of the Jean Leon wines and both the Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay can be good value but not always terroir expressif*. Though I do find many of his wines to be way over-oaked for my personal tastes these wines have a big following all over the world.

Jean Leon Cabernet Sauvignon Riserva 2002 - PASS - €20

The wine sits a deep ruby red verging on purple and is initially very good and happily expressive on the nose, too much wood hides the fruit though there are some good blackberry notes and touches of graphite too. The palate is dense and woody, tannic and a bit bitter perhaps needs a lot more time, not sure where they are going with this or what it is trying to be. Not badly made just not a great taste to it. 81 Points

Jean Leon Terrasola Syrah 2005 - BUY -€10

A mid ruby red the nose is punchy and fragrant with lots of interesting notes, still a little too much wood here. The bouquet is blueberries, caramel and redcurrants however it is on the palate that this wine pleases with great fruit following through to a good length on the end. Rarely do you get this kind of balance and solid fruit on a €10 bottle of wine. 87 Points

Where can I buy this Wine?

The Jean Leon range of Pago and Terrasola wines are quite readily available. Cabrini Wines in the US, KWM in the UK and FinestWine in Europe.

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First vineyard you ever visited? Most stupid wine question you ever asked? Or anything about Jean Leon wines or wines from Penedes.

* Terroir expressif is my phrase. I just invented it today. No, you may not use it.

Mastroberardino Taurasi Riserva Radici 1997

Mastroberardino Taurasi Riserva Radici 1997

The Mastroberardino Taurasi Riserva Radici 1997 is one of the best examples of an Italian red that gets frequently overlooked based on it's DOCG. Taurasi, along with Sagrantino di Montefalco is one of those excellent, age worthy power house reds that simply gets lost in the melee of great Italian varieties. Were Taurasi in any other country it would surely be one of the jewels in its crown but in a country where Barolo and Brunello di Montalcino are so internationally lauded Taurasi, sadly, falls by the wayside. Not so for the indigenousness population.

It's a well known fact that Italians are prone to extreme bouts of campanilismo (translation: a deep affection for your own bell tower), that is, they champion, drink and eat local produce believing that it's the best just because it's local. This isn't just an Italian thing, we all do this, just like your mum's Sunday Roasts are the best or Bolton Wanderers are the best. For the people of Lazio, lacking a great red anywhere around Rome I found that the most popular serious red among my friends and featuring proudly on most of the good restaurant wine lists, is Taurasi (yes even compared with Barolo) and three million people are rarely wrong excluding Jedward fans.

However, this is not simply home bias, Taurasi is, at its best, the finest example of the Aglianico grape. Aglianico has a marvellous time in the rich volcanic soil of Irpinia in Campania and in Taurasi, at high altitude, Aglianico can produce one of the world's best kept red wine secrets capable of mind blowing ageing and going through impressive and radical changes through that ageing curve.

Standard Taurasi is aged for three years, but the Riserva must be released after four. The wines are allowed to contain a small % of another grape (usually Barbera). The Mastroberardino Taurasi Riserva Radici is 100% Aglianico and considered to be one of the best example of Taurasi year on year together with Feudi di San Gregorio (reviewed last year) and Salvatore Molettieri.

Food Match: Venison, Game and roasted red meat dishes.

Best Wines from this Producer: Consistently excellent wines year on year.

Taurasi Riserva Radici

Naturalis Historia

Avellanio Aglianico

Avalon (both white and red)

Fiano di Avellino Radici

Greco di Tufo Nova Serra

Mastroberardino Taurasi Riserva Radici 1997 - BUY - €28

Ruby red with an orange hue this wine sits thick in the glass. The bouquet is beautifully floral (violet) and at the same time a little rough and leathery, gardeners gloves maybe! There is lots of good fruit on the nose as the wine continues to open up including cherry, dark berries and hints of licorice. On the palate the wine is hitting a peak, losing some baby fat and becoming more approachable with great balance but still drying especially on the finish which is long, puckering and peppery. Still going to have to leave this number alone, come back in five more years. 91 Points

Where can I buy this Wine?

Europeans - Divine Golosita Toscane - €28 - (2003 Vintage)

Americans - PJ Wine - $74 (2000 vintage)

Brits - AG Wines - £29 (1997 vintage)

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Simply have you every tried a Taurasi or Aglianico wine and what did you think?

Bravo Wine Spectator Top 100

Wine Spectator Top 100

I'm a week late on the Wine Spectator Top 100 wines, they went ahead and released the results before telling me and I'm mighty peeved. Luckily, they have redeemed themselves by placing 4 Italian wines in the Top 10 and 2 of those I've reviewed this year!

Wine90! Finger on da pulse! See the full Wine Spectator Top 100 Wine List Here

It is brilliant to see Brancaia in the top 10 - I self ordained their Il Blu my Top QPR Italian wine of the year, and also, another home boy winner, my favourite Chianti Classico, Barone Ricasoli at number 5 and is the top ranking Italian wine of the year. Nicely done WineSpectator.

Every year it is argued on what criteria Wine Spectator are evaluating these wines but it would appear it is certainly price/quality ratio and availability in the States. Although these wine awards do have their critics they are far and away a better guide to the best wines of the world than the Decanter awards which I find utterly baffling and completely misleading.

Italian Wines that made the list:

#5 - Baron Ricasoli - Chianti Classico Castello di Brolio 2006 - $54
#7 - Renato Ratti - Barolo Marcenasco 2005 - $44
#8 - Fontodi - Colli della Toscana Centrale Flaccianello 2006 - $110
#10 - Brancaia - Toscana Tre 2007 - $20
#11 - Poggio Il Castellare - Brunello di Montalcino 2004 - $50
#13 - Fattoria di Felsina - Toscana Fontalloro 2006 - $52
#15 - Marchesi de' Frescobaldi - Brunello di Montalcino Castelgiocondo 2004 - $65
#16 - Uccelliera - Brunello di Montalcino 2004 - $65
#27 - La Massa - Toscana Giorgio Primo 2007 - $65
#30 - Setti Ponti - Toscana Crognolo 2007 - $35
#35 - Viticcio - Chianti Classico Riserva 2006 - $32
#37 - Petrolo - Toscana Torrione 2007 - $40
#46 - I Greppi - Bolgheri Greppicante 2007 - $28
#61 - Monte Antico - Sangiovese-Merlot-Cabernet Sauvignon Toscana 2006 - $12
#70 - St Michael Eppan - Pinot Grigio Alto Adige 2008 - $15
#79 - Livio Felluga - Pinot Grigio Collio 2008 - $24
#80 - Argiano - Toscana Non Confunditur 2007 - $25
#81 - Paolo Scavino - Barolo Carorbic 2005 - $90

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Which is your wine of the year?

Castel de Paolis Muffa Nobile 2005

Castel de Paolis Muffa Nobile 2005

Castel de Paolis Muffa Nobile is one of my personal favourite Italian wines as it typifies the changes in Italian wine (especially white) and perhaps best exemplifies the phenomenal increase in quality coming from areas of Italy that have long been thought of as areas of mass production and little else. Castel de Paolis is a Lazio producer coming straight out of Castelli Romani, the home of Frascati.

Frequent readers of this blog will know that I had a fantastic time living in Rome for two years in 2006 and 2007 where Frascati and Est! Est!! Est!!! enjoy a big following among the younger drinkers. Frascati is made in the wine producing area just outside Rome, "Castelli Romani" and is regarded, among both Romans and Ex-pats as something of a poor mans wine region with the focus being on quantity only. The Romans of 2000 years ago held exactly this view, that Frascati and all wines from this area were strictly for the proles.

It's amazing really, that a country so prolific in wine production can still be undergoing mass regeneration. The area of Castelli Romani has been in wine production for 2000 years and yet it is only lately that, as with many other parts of Italy, it is now being considered as a region that can grow premium wine. Only in the last 40 years was the potential of large parts of Tuscany realised with the planting of Bordeaux grapes (along with Sangiovese) to create the Super-Tuscan. It's remarkable to think that so much of Italy's vine growing potential is still yet untapped. These are exciting times indeed for Italian wine.

Castel de Paolis Muffa Nobile is nowhere close to the Frascati wines you know and love, made from 80% Semillion and 20% Sauvignon Blanc with grapes completely affected by Botrytis, here, in the back yard of the great emperors, you have a sweet wine that can compete with many from Barsac or Sauternes and of course, half the price.

Castel de Paolis themselves are considered the leading light in top end Frascati and have led the charge in bringing the wines of Lazio to the international arena. All the wines here are also organically cultivated.

Is that not exciting? Are you not entertained?

Castel de Paolis Muffa Nobile 2005 - BUY - €19

Pale amber in the glass the nose is exquisite with pronounced notes of both honey, apricot and pine nuts. Soft texture but mightily intense on the palate, the wine has a non-cloying sweetness that is difficult to achieve, great acidity and freshness. A total winner of a sweet Italian wine from a great vintage. Brava - 92 Points

Stilton and Sauternes move over for Maytag and Muffa.

Where can I buy this wine?

Very few outlets but you can get the wine sent over from Trimani for €19.

Leave a Comment?

I am ridiculed for drinking sweet wines all times of day, all times of year, what's your opinion? Dessert wines for puds only or work them into rotation like any other wine?

Vacqueyras 2006

Vacqueyras 2006

Vacqueyras, one of the Southern Rhone's baby Chateauneuf du Pape wines is starting to compete with Gigondas as the second wine of the area. Now starting to move away from it's rough and rustic image, Vacqueyras is taken more and more seriously by producer and critic alike. Not quite yet on par with Gigondas, the difference in price between the two is stark with top end Vacqueyras wines (like the two reviewed below) available for around £15, you can pay double this figure for a similar high quality Gigondas.

2006 is an interesting vintage for the Southern Rhone, and suffers (or benefits from, depending on whether you sell, grow or drink the wine) from being in between two top class vintages. If you're in the wine industry or a big wine geek you will know about the hype surrounding the Chateauneuf du Pape '07's. No bad thing for CnDP, Gigondas and Vacqueyras wines from 2006 as they now offer exceptional value (something like the '04 Bordeaux principle but really only among the wines from the best producers).

Vacqueyras is usually a wine fairly easy to distinguish with most producers in the area, even those that have moved into heavy bio-dynamie, eager to keep the wine true to its historical roots. Vacqueyras wines have always been dusty, tannic and rugged but as that style falls further out of fashion and with two very prestigious and fashionable neighbours in Cheateauneuf du Pape and Gigondas, Vacqueyras has had to pave a new road for itself and the two producers reviewed here today, Montirius and Perrin & Fils are both attempting to do just that but in rather different ways. Although both biodynamic producers, the two wines have been styled to appeal to two very different types of Vacqueyras drinker.

This isn't the first time I've tried the Montirius Vacqueyras 2006 Garrigues this year. The wine appeared in a Berry Bros and Rudd sponsored Twitter Taste Live event and went down a real storm, the wine was fruity, full of cherries and Walls vanilla but here I was three months later and this delightfully complex and expressive Vacqueyras had turned green in a matter of three months. Perhaps a case of bottle evolution, some kind of bottle fault or, if you believe in such things, perhaps it was a "veggie day"*

I gave the Montirius Vacqueyras Garrigues 2006, 91 Points on its last outing in August. Now in late November it appears to have completely changed and my score for it at this drinking window descends also. Remember as you read this review that this wine may just be entering a non drinking phase, the Montirius is a prestigious and fine Vacqueyras wine, in fact consistently one of the best of it's type produced annually.

Montirius Vacqueyras 2006 Garrigues - BUY (but don't drink today!) - £13.50
Deep ruby red in the glass. 70% Grenache and 30% Syrah the fruit today was hard to tease from the nose however the wine does stay true to the region with dusty earthy notes and a hint of blackberry and over-ripe raspberry. Mid bodied, the wine is green, tannic and austere on the palate with a mid length finish. A good structure but the under ripe taste is baffling. 84 Points

Perrin & Fils Vacqueyras Les Christins 2006 - BUY - £12.65
Ruby red in colour. The wine quickly offers a heady bouquet with knockout Blackberry jelly, vanilla and an interesting sweet note on the nose. On the palate the wine is smooth with fine ingrained tannins and is a very pleasant and well rounded Rhone wine though, if blind, would not have picked this wine as a Vacqueyras. 89 Points

There is a theory that slowly, year on year, wines are becoming more and more alike not simply because the technology of modern wine making is available to everyone and techniques/information is more easily shared but because wine producers are playing for points (critic's) and trying to appeal to an "international" palate (whatever that is). This presents a danger for an AOC like Vacqueyras if you are a purist and want your wines to reflect the nuances of the soil/climate and taste the way they have done for generations. However, if you are a producer in an area as prestigious as the Rhone but as unknown (to the general public) as Vacqueyras, you may be persuaded commercially to produce an every-Rhone wine and appeal to a mass market.

If you know you like Rhone wines and you're not fussy about every bottle being a clean and obvious example of its exact AOC then the Perrin & Fils will suit you better, easy to drink, obvious Rhone though not obvious Vacqueyras with a nice price tag too.
If you want an a true example of Vacqueyras or something to hold onto for a while and see the true potential of Vacqueyras then go for the Montirius.

Where can I buy these wines?
Both these wines are available at Berry Bros and Rudd.

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Do you have any examples of bad bottles or dumb periods? I don't know, aside from cork taint, a more disappointing end for a bottle of wine. I was so excited about the Montirius too *sigh*

*There are those that believe the waxing and waining of the moon effects water in the bottle as it effects the tides of the sea and that wines go through periods of fruit/veggie etc depending on the day you open it in a lunar cycle. That's lunar cycle, not loony cycle.

Matt Skinner The Juice 2010

Matt Skinner The Juice 2010

Matt Skinner The Juice 2010 is no ordinary wine book. Matt Skinner has created a new kind of wine handbook that has been sadly missing from the UK shelves and one every avid wine fan (who shops at the supermarket!) should not be without.

How many times have you gone along to the local supermarket or one of the chains (Majestic, Threshers, WineRack etc) and come away with with a right troll of a bottle? "Hit N Miss" aint even close to covering it, right?

Well then, praise be for this book. Matt Skinner The Juice 2010 is this years edition (the 5th) whereby lovable* Aussie wine pro Matt Skinner puts together a detailed list of 100 hot wines, easily sourced in the UK that will save you real pounds in your pocket and put an end to that sinking disappointing feeling you get when you blow a crisp £20 at Sainsburys just to coat your sink with precious red tears.

I've been back in the UK only one year and I can say that I have tried about half of these wines and agree on the most part with most of these picks. You will have heard of most of these producers and probably tried some of these wines too so it's nice to see a degree of familiarity with the producers even if he doesn't always promote the "usual suspects" in terms of varietal. They're all here, Jacobs Creek, Peter Lehmann, Dr Loosen, Cloudy Bay, Wither Hills, Casillero del Diablo but even a few shop's own brands make the list and as these wines are typically under the £10 mark this book has given me plenty of wines to look out for in the run up to Christmas.

Split into 20 categories, Matt has given tips on all kinds of wines, from the top end £20+ wines, through organic wines, food pairing wines, half bottles and lesser known grapes. Matt also supports the home team with a review on Chapel Down's Brut Sparkler but you can't help but wonder about the sheer number of Aussie wines in this book.

As the "Italian Wine Blog" it's great to see Matt's wine of the year is, of course, a little Italian number, the Castellare di Castellina Chianti Classico 2007 but aside from this a third of all his recommendations are Australian. It's true to say that some of our lazy UK supermarkets do, at first glance seem to stock 50% Aussie Syrah but this books Aussie slant is a touch too extreme for my tastes.

If you are a frequent wine nut like myself and buying 100+ different bottles a year then I doubt this book is going to teach you anything new. I would recommend this book to people who are just getting into wine or those who buy most of their wines at the supermarkets. My own wine buying habits are firmly online but I can see this book appealing to those new to wine or would make a great Christmas present for a relative who is a casual wine fan.

Matt Skinner The Juice 2010 - £7.99 - Octopus Books - BUY IT HERE

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If I were writing a Hot 100 wine book I'm sure I could fill 33% of my pages with Italian wines and not simply because I am biased! With which country does your wine bias lie?

Anyone who has read this book, please leave a comment.

* I don't really know if Matt is lovable, it's only hearsay and conjecture.

Note: It has recently come to light that many of the wine entries in this book were not first tried by Matt before inserted and this has caused something of an uproar in the wine world and led to me personally receiving many complaints about even reviewing this book at all. I'd like to point out that I do not approve of recommending any wines simply because they have been good in previous vintages. It's clear that wines can change in quality vintage to vintage and their own bottle evolution can leave them going through long dumb phases. I neither condone these methods nor personally endorse this book but do believe the book has some value in what it does and that is give a "supermarket shoppers" guide to reliable wines.

Sottimano Barbaresco Pajore 2004

Sottimano Barbaresco Pajore 2004

Sottimano Barbaresco Pajore 2004 is one of the wave of fantastic 2004 Barbaresco wines. Sottimano Barbaresco is rightly lauded in Barberesco circles but still remains under the radar here in the UK mostly because of a very poor distribution. However, in Italy and in the USA Sottimano enjoys a growing reputation with the 2006 range taking that next step up and three of their Barbaresco's holding their heads up with the very best producers and scooping huge scores with Antonio Galloni at the Wine Advocate.

Sottimano produce an array of Barbaresco wines and some of the others, Curra and Fausoni namely, do enjoy some distribution here but it's the Pajore I got to taste last night and I thought would be of most interest to Wine90 readers looking for fine wines at bargain prices.

A small producer on the borders of Nieve and Barbaresco, Sottimano is one of the fastest improving producer in the Piedmont and as such you can still purchase their top cuvee Barbarescos for sub £40 prices and even sub £30 here and there. Father and son team, Andrea and Rino Sottimano create hedonistic, long lived Barbaresco wines that will surprise you with their quality even among the entry level bottles. Perfectionists, Andrea and Rino produce four very distinct Barbaresco wines that will appeal to old school and new school Nebbiolo fans.

The Pajore is a the most elegant and traditional of the four and pleases traditionalists among the Gambero Rosso judges as in excellent vintages the Pajore can scoop the odd Tre Bicchiere award now and then. Those preferring a less aggressive, floral Barbaresco will prefer the Fausoni and it's these two wines that really divide Sottimano fans. If you like big, extracted Nebbiolo then the Curra would be the choice of the typical American palate (how dare I say such a thing!) and lastly the Cotta is a more spicy affair and a great foodies wine.

Sottimano Barbaresco Pajore 2004 - BUY - €39
A dark ruby red verging on purple, no hint of age here. The Pajore explodes on the nose after a good few hours in the decanter the wine was bursting with currant, chocolate, dark cherries, cloves and a real floral note on the end. The Pajore palate is luscious, still exceptionally concentrated and powerful, red fruits dance on your tastebuds for close to a minute on the finish. Far too young but at €39 you don't feel like you shot Bambi, a 6 pack contender; the evolution here will be fascinating. 94 Points

Where can I buy this Wine?

Europeans - Vinpiu - €39

Americans - The Wine Connection - $49

Brits - Vinpiu - £36

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Having some great Twitter wine tips coming my way over the last few days. What wine have you been enjoying these past 7 days?