Tag Archives: Stephen Tanzer

Altaïr Sideral Rapel Valley Chile 2003

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Altaïr Sideral Rapel Valley Chile 2003
$16.99 — 88 ST | 91 WA

Source: AltairWines.com
Source: AltairWines.com

 

The Altaïr Sideral Rapel Valley Chile 2003 is a gorgeous blend comprised of 84% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Merlot and 6% Shiraz.  This wine is big all around.  The color is an intense and opaque dark red.  On the nose there are aromas of charcoal, spice and cigar tobacco.  On the palate the wine has a lush and full feeling with nice tannins and a hint of oak.  The finish is long and complex.  Overall this is a well-integrated wine that is drinking very well right now — and one that I suspect would be quite amazing if you could manage to keep it around long enough to find out.

However, that could be difficult!  Indeed, after picking up a case of this wine at the local Pennsylvania Wine and Spirits store about a month ago, we’ve already gone through the first half a case!  And we have not been disappointed.  At $16.99 this wine is on the high end of what I like to spend for everyday drinking, but given the increasing difficulty of finding wines with a Robert Parker / Wine Advocate rating of 91 points under $20 I decided it was worth the splurge.  By comparison the best price I could find on Wine Access was $23.99 at Gary’s in Madison, NJ, a well-known discount wine merchant. 

Bodegas El Nido Clio 2003

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Bodegas El Nido Clio 2003
$78.99 — 92 ST | 96 WA | 90 WS

Bodegas El Nido Clio 2003

Bodegas El Nido Clio 2003

The bad news is that the wine cellar is in desperate need of a multi-case infusion of wine. The good news is that lurking in the nooks and crannies are some forgotten gems.  Specifically, last night in my quest for something interesting, I rediscovered a stash of Bodegas El Nido Clio Jumilla Spain 2003.  As best I can recall, it has been at least 2 years since I last had a bottle of this fabulous wine.

As some of you may know, the Clio is the lower priced sibling of the Nido. Although the Nido has a release price of more than $130 a bottle, at its release the Clio usually runs between $35 and $40, and is typically rated only one or two points lower. In other words you get nearly all the bang for way less buck. And this is a wine that perenially wins high marks from Robert Parker and others.  For example, Robert Parker / Wine Advocate ratings for the 2002, 2004 and 2005 vintages have been 93, 97 and 95 points respectively.

No exception to this trend, the 2003 was rated a whopping 96 points. According to my records I paid about $35 a bottle several years ago (that was before life on a Ph.D. budget). Today, I found it in stock at Wine.com for $79 a bottle, and elsewhere for $99 to $119 a bottle.  It appears that “wine” may be the single best asset class I own in terms of five-year return on investment :)

Anyway, the wine is 70% Monastrell (61 year old vines) and 30% Cabernet Sauvignon (26 year old vines) and a huge 15.5% alcohol.  According to Robert Parker, the Clio spent 26 months in a combination of French and American oak.  The Clio 2003 has a deep, thick and intense purple color.  Aromas are of creme de cassis and licorice, along with some toasty/leathery notes. On the palate the wine was lush and opulent, very complex, and still full of fruit. This wine is a real mouthful. And the finish was easily over 30 seconds. The wine is drinking very, very well right now, and shows no signs of running out of life.

I plan on having another bottle tonight in celebration of Valentine’s Day.  Cheers!

d’Arenberg Footbolt Shiraz 2005

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d’Arenberg The Footbolt Shiraz McLaren Vale Australia 2005
$14.99 – 89 WA | 89 ST 

d'Arenberg Footbolt Shiraz 2005
d’Arenberg Footbolt Shiraz

According to the Pennsylvania Wine and Spirits website, the Atherton Street location is a Premium Collection Store with more than 2,000 selections. Far from premium, this week the store looked like a cross between a warehouse and a warzone, with literally dozens of specials occupying every bit of free space. In some places they had aisles blocked in order to accommodate everything. 

And yet, despite the abundance of choices, finding any wines worth buying proved to be a real challenge.   Most of what they were peddling was either worthless swill or just simply too expensive for everyday enjoyment. Having 2,000 selections is of no benefit if the wines are not not worth drinking in the first place. 

After what felt like an hour in the store, I finally found one worth bringing home in quantity: d’Arenberg The Footbolt Shiraz McLaren Vale Australia 2005. The Footbolt is a consistently good offering (so too are many of the other bottlings from d’Arenberg). The 2005 vintage is no exception. And at $14.99, the Pennsylvania Wines and Spirits price is actually very, very competitve, on par with the best I can find on the internet. I picked up a case and a half, nearly cleaning them out. 

The Footbolt scores 89 points from both Robert Parker / Wine Advocate, and from Stephen Tanzer / International Wine Cellar.  After drinking the first bottle I can see why.  This wine has a beautiful nose, a lot on the palate and a decently long finish.  The Footbolt is clearly ready to drink now, but I suspect that it will taste like a $30 bottle of Shiraz if you give it about 12 to 18 months of cellaring. 

As for me, one case went onto the “everyday” shelf of our Eurocave, and the other half a case went onto one of the “save for later” shelves.  If the latter 6 bottles manage to last 12 or 18 months, I’ll let you know how it is holding up.  Also, if I get a chance, I plan to stop back and clean out any remaining bottles.

BTW — The producer is spelled d’Arenberg with an E, not d’Arenburg with an U.