I prefer wines with such descriptors included(as basic as they may be). I love the Aussie wines but would like to expand my scope .
Anyone know of wines that I could try that have such descriptors and also do not have too much oak, mint, or over spicey.
Good luck and thanks.
Larry Southern Ontario
Try a nice Amarone!
Hi Larry
Mint, spice, oak: sounds like Barossa Cab/ Shiraz. Hmmm.......I'm surprised you like Aussie wines, given what you've asked for.
Anyway, I think Chilean Merlots and Carmeneres might fit the bill perfectly. I won't go on (because it's bedtime here) except to say that they're cheap so I suggest you try a couple. Especially Carmenere which IMO is a truly great grape that's neglected and as such presents fabbo value. BTW (in Chile) the cheaper the wine, the less oak it's exposed to, *generally*.
Have fun and please let us know how it goes :-). Regards Sammy
"jeffc" skrev i en meddelelse news:jLXOc.162958$ snipped-for-privacy@twister.southeast.rr.com...
I agree, sounds like a precise desription of an Amarone!
*S*Hi Larry;
First, I need to start this post with an apology. I'm sorry! For what you ask? For thinking that you need to get a life and expand your horizons a little after posting your list of attributes for preferred wines. It occurred to me in a flash that I had done exactly the same thing. albeit in the context of single malt whiskeys, at Gordon & MacPhails in Elgin, Scotland a few weeks ago. The extremely knowledgeable staff, with the assistance of generous tasting drams, helped me find just the right bottles of elixir not available in Canada. My selections.... Glenlossie 1974, Strathisla 30 yr old, Mortlach
15 yr old. A generous and forgiving customs agent even let me off without paying extra duty!!
I'm not sure if you can get all of your descriptors in the same wine--probably, considering the incredible range of production worldwide, but it will take a lot of cork-pulling and research.....'hate it when that happens!
Raisin, of course, as others have noted leads almost immediately to Amarone or it's slightly less costly cousin, rippaso Valpolicellos. I also find raisin in a lot of quality Chianti Classico bottlings--which might lead to focus on sangiovese.
Chocolate, to me, means merlot and they also can offer plum and "fruity".
Fruity, implies big berry flavors and that's a wide range of tastes but usually leads to raspberry, blackberry, blueberry for me. I've had a Morgon that simply exploded with sweet strawberry. Loads of big berry flavor in my experience come from full-throttle zinfandels like Ridge, Renwood, Ravenswood bottlings. But, you won't get chocolate there usually. (Last night had a 2001 Renwood "Grandpere" Zinfandel, which was deep, almost brooding, with loads of toast and fruit on the nose and palate, but still showing such heavy tannin that I almost couldn't talk after tasting I was so tightly puckered.--Gonna be a great wine for the long term.)
Plum (and dark cherry) is something I find in big Russian River and Burgundy pinot noir.
Yep, you've got a lot of work to do to find what your looking for. Aren't you lucky?
Ed Rasimus Fighter Pilot (USAF-Ret) "When Thunder Rolled" "Phantom Flights, Bangkok Nights" Both from Smithsonian Books
***
Thanks Ed. So it sounds like your saying that all the tastes and aromas I mentioned are around but not likely to be found under one cork.
I've tried the Amarone, the rippaso type wines and the Ravenswood Zins. Love them all. Guess it's because they all have a dominant feature I like.. That leaves the pinot noirs.
I appreciate the new way of looking at my so called "problem" . Not a problem at all ;-}
All the best,
Larry Southern Ontario
Can you tell me more about what to look for here - what is "rippaso"? And how similar are they to Amarone? Amarone is too expensive for me....
Just one opinion: I enjoy Burgundian pinot noirs, but I suppose their subtlety is lost on me, and I'm not willing to pay for it. I actually prefer American pinot noirs like California Carneros - a little more body, if you will, if not "terroire".
Ripasso (literally "repassed") is wine from the same region as Amarone created by taking already fermented red wine (from Valpolicella DOC) and adding to it the (unpressed) skins left over from making Amarone from other grapes. The end result is sort of a "baby Amarone," with more body and flavor than typical Valpolicella (yet less than true Amarone) at a price substantially lower than what most Amarones sell for. I have enjoyed Ripassos from Zenato and Tommasi (not our own Mike, alas!).
Mark Lipton
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