I have been in a Burgundy Pinot zone lately, and I've been loving it. But it's always fun to mix it up a little so I started researching what wine I would like to try a new world Pinot. I've heard good things about what New Zealand does with the Pinot grape, so that was the region I focused on. The result of search was the 2009 Seresin Leah Pinot Noir.

On paper this looks like an incredible qpr. Jamie Goode from the wineanorak.com gave it 94 points, Wine Spectator gave it 93, Stephen Tanzer 91 and Lisa Perotti-Brown from the Wine Advocate gave it 89 points. These scores combined with the wine being a Pinot Noir and a price tag below $30 is something you rarely see.

Micheal Seresin moved to Italy in the 1960's. There he developed an interest for food and wine. In the 1990's he started to look for opportunities to start a winery in Italy, but became aware of the wine making development in his home country New Zealand, and decided to move to Marlborough and start a winery. The first vintage for Seresin was in 2000.

Today, Seresin produces 19 different wines. The Seresin website says this about the vineyard where the Leah Pinot Noir is made: "The fruit comes from our clay rich hillside Raupo Creek vineyard, the alluvial shingles of our Tatou vineyard and the Home vineyard, which is made up of a variety of Waimakariri type soils of alluvial origin. Eight different parcels were hand-picked between April 2 and April 19."

 Tasting note on the 2009 Seresin Leah Pinot Noir

This is a fruit forward wine with ripe raspberry jam, sour cherries, plum and spices. The finnish has fruit jam and spices mixed with sour cherries, but lack a bit length. The fruit is ripe and sweet, but the wine is kept in balance with some very nice sour cherries. Too me, the sourness of this wine is the best part. 88 points

This is a nice new world Pinot Noir. It has the Pinot fruit that I love. It doesn't have the Burgundy elegance or complexity, but that is fine. The fruit is a bit on too much on the ripe side for me, it gets a hair sweet for my palate. But the sour cherries really save and make this wine. For the price, this is a really nice Tuesday wine.

This is a rarity that I've been able to get 3 bootles of. Chasse Spleen is a well knowned Bordeaux producer, but that is for their red wines. But they do produce a very small amount of white as well. To put things in perspective, of the 113 ha vineyards that Chasse Splees controll, only 2 ha is used for its white wines.

Tasting note on the 2010 Chasse Spleen Blanc

Good nose with goog intensity. Green apples, minerality and some oak notes. The palate is so crisp and clean and bone dry. Lovely citrus flavours dominated by lemon. There is also some tropical fruits here. But if the citrus is one of the major flavours here, the other one is the minerality. It's not only on the finnish, it's from start to end, but changing its profile along the way from start to finnish.
There is some oak, but the oak in this wine works in the way that oak should do on wine. It adds some weight and complexity without making the wine too fat or too oaky. The acidity plays a major part in balancing the wine out in a lovely way. Beautiful acidity.
I pick up a very interesting flavour profile on the end as well. Where I come from, we have a Candy called Lakrisal, which is a candy with tastes of licquorice and ammonium chloride. The tail of the finnish tastes very much like this candy.
91 points

I did a tasting note on the 2007 Renato Ratti Barolo Marcenasco not that long ago which I liked very much. The great thing about that wine was how accessible and elegant it was even at its young age. That is not always the case for Barolos, but is one of the things that I like about the 2007 vintage in Piedmont. Given my experience with the 07 I was superexcited to try the 08 version.

Tasting note on the 2008 Renato Ratti Barolo Marcenasco

Promising nose with floral notes, liquorice, dry plum and some oak On the palate, after little air, it shows a darker side than the 2007 version. There is leather, tar, rosepedals, dry plum. The tannins are big and dry and not too well integrated. Good length

I had to give the rest of the wine a couple of hours in decanter and the mouthfel got better. Roses, dried fruit and minerality. Finishes with roses and chocolate. It opens up a bit, shows more fruit and elegance. The tannins are still big, but havee gotten a bit smoother. If you have some of these wines in the cellar I would wait until 2017 before I open the next one. 90 points after some air

Given time to develop, I do think this wine can come up to the level of the 2007. I do not agree with Antonio Galloni who says this about the 2008 "The 2008 Barolo Marcenasco is a pretty, up-front Barolo that is best enjoyed for its exuberant, open personality." "With time in the glass the wine shows signs of increasing finesse, but I would still suggest drinking it sooner rather than later. Anticipated maturity: 2014-2018". I have to say I agree more with The International Wine Cellar which writes "Distinctly younger today than the 2007 version and tighter on the back end, with somewhat tougher tannins. This will need patience."

So, now it's time for a new update on recent wines I have bought. These lists does not include daily drinkers that I buy for immediate consumption. Last time I did the list I had bught several Bordeaux's and some Burgundy. Since then I've been drinking alot of Burgundy from the 2009 and 2010 vintage, and I'm loving it. My wine purchases recently is a reflection of this.

•  2010 Domaine Robert Chevillon Nuits St. Georges 1er Cru les Vaucrains (4 btls)
• 2009 Domaine Michel Lafarge Volnay 1er Cru Clos des Chênes (4 btls)
• 2008 J.F. Mugnier Nuits St. Georges Clos des Fourches (5 btls)
• 2010 Domaine Taupenot Merme Gevrey Chambertin (3 btls)
• 2009 Chasse Spleen Blanc (3 btls)

I still feel the need to fill my celler with more Burgundy from 2009 and 2010. They are so good and will give me pleasure in many years to come. I'm also excited to try the Chasse Spleen Blanc. Have limited experience with white Bordeaux. I hope I can post a tasting note on that wine soon.

I have previously posted a tasting note on the 2009 Charles Audoin Marsannay Clos du Roy.Now it was time for the same producer, but new vintage and new appellation, the Gevrey Chambertin.

The domaine is most knowned for its Marsannay wines. Of the total of 9 red wines that Audoin makes, 6 of them are Marsannay, 2 are Fixin and just one is Gevrey Chambertin.

Tasting note on the 2010 Charles Audoin Gevrey Chambertin

The wine has a typical Pinot colour and the same goes for the nose, where I find floral notes, raspberries and minerality. A very pleasent nose.
While the nose is red fruit, the palate is more on the darker side. I get plum, soil but also some red cherries. The finnish has a very clean cut acidity, smal red cherries, pepper and a flinty minerality.

With more air the initial mouthfeel changes. I get nice strawberry and raspberry jam. Not the artificial kind, but the home made style. The finnish stays the same, but adds perhaps an even more gripping acidity. 90 points

 

The Domaine Jacques-Frédéric Mugnier has a very long history in Burgundy, but at the same time it is relatively young. In 1950 the domaine decided to contract out the vineyeards in Chambolle to Faiveley (to 1977) and later selling the vines in bulk to Bruno Clair (to 1984). In 1985 Frédéric Mugnier took over and started focusing on producing its own wines from the Chambolle vineyards.

In 2004 the domaine also took back its Nuits St Georges Clos de la Maréchale vineyard, which had been on lease to Faiveley since 1950. This is actually the vineyard from where the Clos des Fourches is produced. The name is actually the old name for the Clos de la Maréchale vineyard. In certain vintages Domaine Mugnier produces the Fourches from the young vines.

The wine is labeled as a village wine, but since the grapes comes from the premier cru vineyard of Clos de la Maréchale this is actually a premier cru wine.

Tasting note on the 2008 Mugnier Nuits-Saint-Georges Clos des Fourches

The nose is not giving much away. The wine shows some dark. but subtle fruit on the palate. There is also some nice, chalky minerality. The finnish has some red cherries, plum and dirt. Not rated 

The wine has good structure and a nice mouthfell, but it just lack fruit. There is very little fruit at all. From the texture of the wine I really hope that this wine is in a phase of shut down. If you have some bottles in your cellar, my recommendation is that you let them be there for some years and hope it opens up again.

I tasted a Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon not that long ago and I posted the tasting note on this blog. Due to the fact that I really liked the cab, I kindof had some hope for their Chardonnay as well. In general, I have not had a lot of California Chardonnays that I have really liked. They do tend to be a bit heavy on the palate for me in general, and don't get me started on the masochistic use  of new oak.

In 2010, Ridge did not make a Monte Bello Chardonnay as well. This means that all the good juice went into their redular Chardonnay. According to their website, the wine has seen 10% new, 11% one year old, 15% two year old, 64% three and four year old oak. 88% air dried american oak, 12% french oak.

 Tasting note for the 2010 Ridge Estate Chardonnay

 The nose is somewhat toned down and I don't get much. This might be more due to the fact that I gave it little air before tasting the wine than this wine really being aromatically challenged. On the palate I get apples, spicy flavours, citrus and vanilla. The wine has almost an oily texture on the palate. Heavy. The finnish has almost a red Burgundy component to it. There are som red cherry flavours here. Then the finnish turns into minerals and apples. Nice length and good acidity. The oak is there, but it's nicely integrated. 89 points

This Chardonnay is a bit too far on the heavy side for my palate. I like them a bit crispen and leaner. That said, I can really see some people loving it. It has some cool fruit flavours and nice acidity.