Villadoria Bricco Magno Langhe Rosso 2007

Wine Noob disciples! I hope you all enjoyed that lovely 70 degree weather last week, if you're like me you probably tried a whole lot of white wines to cool down in the afternoon. I'll be honest, although I really like white wine, I really stink at drinking it. I'd say 90% of the wine I've ever drank in my life has been red, so I'm a lot more comfortable with it. Because of that, I've decided to keep with the reds for now, just until I get a better feel for what white wine has to offer us. This week's wine is the Villadoria Bricco Magno Langhe Rosso 2007. Long named wine... must be good.

Let me just start off by saying that I really like this wine. For $13.99 this wine gives you a boat load of Barolo and Barbaresco characteristics that would otherwise cost you at the very least $30, and often soar up into the $200 range. This is because the wine comes from an area within a few miles of Barolo and Barbaresco's vineyards, and is produced with the same exact grape: Nebbiolo.

Now, I could give you a history lesson dating back to the 1960s on the nebbiolo grape, but we'll save that for when we have a glass of the stuff together in the future.

Alrighty then. So once again, the Bricco Magno is a wine reminiscent of Barolos and Barbarescos. That said, it's similar to them, by no means is it the real deal. In the glass, the wine has a nice deep red, but I can see my fingers through the glass. It doesn't have the full body of the Barolo, nor the entirety of the elegance and finesse of Barbaresco. You may think that's a bad thing, but it doesn't have to be. Just from the color you can tell that the wine isn't going to weigh you down like Barolo, or overshadow the meal you're having like Barbaresco often can. At the same time you're going to get the solid acidity and structure that the nebbiolo grape surely delivers, and that my friends, is totally bananas.

The nose was by far my favorite part of the wine. It was so charming and so pleasant, I definitely didn't expect this going into it. Being that the wine is pretty young for a Piedmont red, the fruit was still there, and it was still swinging. Strawberries, red currant, and ripe plums are the fruits that come out and smack you in the face. Me, being a sucker for Piedmont, dug a little deeper and found some other things going on though. Brace yourselves fellas, this 2007 Bricco Magno showed signs of: mushrooms, tar, tobacco, and anise.

"Are you freaking kidding me Marco? What the hell are you smoking?!" Don't worry fellas, I'm in class right now so technically I'm not allowed to be smoking anything in here. But if I had it my way, I'd be puffing down a nice Marlboro red right now. Anyways, yeah, I'm dead serious about that. When I first noticed mushrooms and tar, I was ecstatic. I had always heard people talk about tar in wine before, but I had never really caught onto it before. Family, friends, high-tech pedophiles, believe you me that when you hone in on your palate and nose, you'll get those notes and you'll have a great time doing it, too.

Now that we've hit the five paragraph mark, I think it's a good time to start talking about how the wine tastes. So, I've mentioned already that the wine is young and that therefore the fruit comes out swinging. This wine is absolutely a fruit bomb (term "fruit bomb" coined by Gary Vaynerchuk, an awesome wine dude.) You get those red, ripe fruits literally wrecking down your mouth with catapults and trebuchets. But you guys know me, I'm a fool for texture and body- and this wine lacked a little bit in that department. Not enough tannic backbone and not enough going on in the mid palate. What I will say is that this wine has a lovely floral finish, and that it goes down so smooth with almost no bite whatsoever. I didn't try this wine with food, but I would imagine that the Piedmont region and the nebbiolo grape do a great job of producing wines with a good amount of acidity to pair with game meats, red pasta sauces, and who knows, maybe even forest salads (... are forest salads a real thing?)

Let's finish this post off with the wine's reception at the store. From what I've heard, people generally didn't like it. I got pretty depressed when I heard that, I really thought that I had found a quality value in a Piedmont region red that people would appreciate. So, where did I go wrong? Hell, I don't know. I'm slowly learning what people are looking for in wine, and I guess that maybe this wine isn't for everybody. A casual wine drinker should be able to enjoy this wine, but there's no guarantee of that. The Italy wine expert, on the other hand, would probably go crazy for this wine. What better Piedmont red at $13.99 can you drink while you wait for your 1997 Barolo to age to the height of its maturity? To be honest, there's probably a lot of better wines to be drinking right now than the Bricco Magno, but it doesn't hurt to diversify. Just ask those Lehman guys.

Chateau D'Arvigny Haut-Medoc 2008

Hey everybody, it's been a while, hasn't it? Usually I try to have about two posts a week, but it just so happens that in the past seven days I've had about six different wines and I've had some difficulty trying to decide which ones to write about. Also, on top of that, I've been trying these wines several times throughout the week so I can get a better feel for them.

But enough with this teenage foreplay, let's dive right in! (Recycling past jokes, good start, Marco)

This time around I'll be writing about a pretty nice Bordeaux red. France's Bordeaux region has consistently produced world-class wines since, well, the middle ages. The particular wine that I'll be talking about comes from the Haut-Medoc region of Bordeaux, an area that allows only certain percentages of cabernet sauvignon, merlot, petit verdot, cabernet franc, and a little bit of malbec to be blended into their wines. The wine I'll be discussing shortly is from 2008, a vintage in Bordeaux where you taste the chateau, or the specific appellation/vineyard (which is pretty cool, comparing 2009 where you taste the vintage*.)

"LET'S GET ON WITH IT, YOU CLOWN!", you all scream!

... I'm not a clown!

The Chateau D'Arvigny Haut-Medoc 2008. In my opinion, this wine is pretty overrated, but pretty underrated as well. I guess you can call it average, or above average maybe. It depends on your taste. It's hard to find a wine from the Haut-Medoc region that isn't good, but that doesn't mean that they're all going to always be spectacular. What I mean by both over and under rated, is that some people will assume that because its a 2008 Haut-Medoc, it will be a spectacular wine; but at the same time, because it wasn't a 1st or 2nd or 3rd Growth rated wine, that it won't be any good. That's tomfoolery. Trust your palate, and you'll find what you like, don't buy into wine-world generalizations!

It's a pretty red. A dark red really, with a black purity to it. The legs on the wine are pretty nice, which is a sign that it's well structured and balanced, a prelude to what you'll experience when you taste it (... that's what she said.) I'd like to think that its solid structure will let it age pretty well, I'd say this wine could be put away for a few years and it'll mature pretty gracefully.

The blend (which specifically, I'm not sure of, since Haut-Medoc AOC's allow a lot of grape variety) gives the wine some nice aromatics. The wine is floral up front, with some fruit coming in towards the end of the sniff. Red currant, raspberries, and black cherries come through pretty nicely. It's not too earthy, and the oak takes a back seat to the flowery and fruity front court. There is a vanilla note if you really look for it, though.

As nice as the scents are though, they do no justice to the mouthfeel and flavor of the wine. It's supple and light on the tannins. Supple is the key word. The wine becomes chewy to an extent, and I'm not going to lie, it's a really nice feeling on the palate. Once again, in fruit you get some subtle red currant, black cherries, and raspberries in front of the pleasant red floral notes (or should I say red floral symphony?) The oak is there, but it's mild. That might be the only real downside to the blend.

Overall, the Chateau D'Arvigny Haut-Medoc is a pretty simple and nice wine. Is there something left to be desired, hell yeah there is. It's freaking Bordeaux. The appellation's chalky terroir should be coming through a lot more. The limestone in the soil should be growing on you throughout the mid-palate. BUT. The wine costs about 16 Zelda rupees (1 Zelda Rupee = $1 USD.) For a pretty modest price you're getting a very good wine in terms of value. There's some Bordeaux characteristics in this wine that other Haut-Medocs fetch over $30 for. That structure is something to be coveted, it's hard to find. So is that supple and chewy texture. The merlot in the wine really shines, and Bordeaux merlots can soar into the $1000 range.

What can I say, I'm a sucker for good values. I'd give the wine an 86 on the 100 point scale. That's pretty good, then again my scale relies heavily on dollar power. Big time wine drinkers would probably scoff at this bad-boy, but post by post, we're changing that. We can appreciate this wine. Hell, its delicious. I've got about two glasses left in my bottle at home, and I'm excited to finish it off if it stays fresh for another couple of days.

Anyways, thanks for the patronage, and you'll be hearing from the Wine Noob once again by the end of the week. Enjoy the sunny weather, fellas! (expect some white wine reviews coming soon!)


*Mad Props to Wine Spectator for the comparison between '08 and '09 Bordeaux

Jermann Pinot Neros

HELLO EVERYBODY! Welcome to my blog, how's it going? I'm doing great, in case you're wondering. Why am I doing great, you ask? Because I had some absolutely outrageous wines this week. Wines that I've been looking for my entire life. Wines that I'll look back on one day, wishing I had just another day with them. Wines that will make all future wines live in the shadows of their spectacularity. Wines that will make me question why I ever even spoke to other wines in the past. Wines that will make me write unnecessarily long introductions to my blog posts.

If you can't tell, I'm excited to write about these wines. They're both pinot noirs (pinot nero, since they're Italian, really.) They are from the creative and artistic Jermann winemakers in the Venezia Giulia area of Italy. Jermann has historically created some spectacular wines, and the two that I've had this week lived up to their old standards. They were beautiful, engaging, and they both put a huge smile on my face. They were good.

We'll start with the Jermann Red Angel on the Moonlight 2008. Read that name again. Beautiful. Good start.

In color the wine showed a dark red, slightly see-through, hint of a ruby shine. That shine, in my opinion, comes from the beautiful texture and body of the pinot noir grape. The color justified the wine's label, making me think of a serene, chilly night in Venice (near where the wine was made.) I can imagine the gondole in Venice riding in channels of the wine throughout the city. Quite a pretty scene.

The nose on the wine was excellent. The oak barrels used by Jermann are not French. Jermann ferments its wine in slovenian oak barrels, which gives their wine some very particular and unique characteristics. The Red Angel for instance, has an unmistakable potpourri dimension. The oak then comes out swinging, drenched in the floral and blackberry/plum mask of scent.

In flavor, the Red Angel I feel is second to very few. Its body was elegant, not too light and not too heavy. Silky and smooth, reminiscent of dried and live roses at the same time. The oak comes in on the mid-palate, completely transforming the flavor, leaving you with a subtle, yet powerful fruity finish. (By the way, did I mention the wine is only $17?)

I realize that I've written quite a lot for just one wine this episode, but I'm going to go ahead and power through on to the next one as well. I'd feel horrible not giving this next wine the same attention and care as I did the last, it certainly deserves it.

The next bottle of wine I had this week was the Jermann Blau & Blau 2008. Another pinot nero, this time comprised of two genetic pinot noir cousins, 90% Blaufrankisch and 10% Blauburgunder. This combination made a spectacular wine. A wine that quite frankly, I think is right up there with the first wine I've reviewed in my entire blog, 2011's #1 rated wine itself, the Kosta Browne Pinot Noir 2009.


I'm not sure about this 100%, but I believe that the winemaker dedicated this wine to his daughter, who picked the name and picture to appear on the label of the wine.

The color was a dark and beautifully pure violet red. Nothing would pass through its depth of color, unless I put the glass under the right light, where I could see right though it. It had a beautiful roundness about it, something that you'd have to see to know what I'm trying to express. 

Its nose was more interesting, somehow, than the Red Angel's. More juicy, a clove vector piecing my nose, and forest scents underneath. If you ever want to just smell something (yes, just smell something) this is the thing to smell. There's so much going on, I was able to break it down, dissect the individual scents and isolate the others. It's that slovenian oak!

The flavor was elegant, slightly dry, and oh so smooth. The blackberries and red currant flavors burst through, really giving my taste buds a smack. There was a slight flower note of flavor, but mostly I could taste the fruit and I was overwhelmed by its full texture. The wine, although just a sip at the moment, felt as if it filled my entire mouth. A freshness overcame me, and the lush flavors of fruit paired with the forest oak qualities created something truly remarkable. This is a wine I won't soon forget. 

Wow! That was quite a bit of blogging. I apologize for the pretentious writing this time around, as you should know by now, that's not my style. It's just that these wines brought out something else in me this week. At any rate, I think I know what wine I'll be bringing to my daughter's wedding in 30 years. Have a nice week, fellas, and thanks for reading!