Red wine freshness and red wine warmth from the Portugeuse Douro Valley
2009 Excomungado
Quinta de Vale de Pios
€ 6,90
Yes, that name does mean excommunicated in Portuguese and is clear proof that not only German Jungwinzer like Christian Stahl of Winzerhof Stahl in Auernhofen/Franken who called his dry 2009 Scheurebe „[rauschgift]“ (an ugly German word for dope, literally intoxication poison), can come up with unusual and startling wines names. However, the important thing about both these wines is the combination of a seriously delicious and stylistically innovative taste with a daring name. In this case it refers to how the wine has been excommunicated from oak. I’m convinced that a majority of red wines matured in oak, regardless of country/region of origin, would taste better if they had less aroma and flavour from oak barrels. Sometimes, when I bump into one negative example after another (which happens quite often), it seems as if all reds are drastically over-oaked. This makes it wonderfully refreshing to encounter a red that deliberately sidesteps the oak mine field by relying entirely on maturation in stainless steel tanks. In my book stainless steel tanks are a great technology with an undeserved bad image due to so many thin wines being made in them, and because the current obsession with amphora and so-called vins naturels. This is a joyful wine bursting with all kinds of red berry and herbal aromas, tasting lighter, more delightful and envigorating than I imagined a red wine with 13,5% could taste. However, it is also light years removed from thin Beaujolais-Ersatz. To me it says DRINK ME!
€6,90 from
Rosário & Prange
Hermeskeiler Platz 2
50935 Köln
Tel.: 0221 / 96 43 49 88
Email: rosario-prange@web.de
TWO WEEKS SHOOTING THE SECOND SERIES OF WEINWUNDER DEUTSCHLAND force me to take a pause. In Mid-October Episode 5 of The [yellow tail] Saga will follow!
2 Responses to Wine of the Month October 2011