(English) Wines of the Week: Biondi-Santi & Bell Hill

(English)

Biondi-Santi 1983 Brunello di Montalcino Riserva 98
Bell Hill 2016 Pinot Noir New Zealand   93
by Ian D’Agata

对不起这篇文章没有中文版,其他语言版本请见English。 For the sake of viewer convenience, the content is shown below in the alternative language. You may click the link to switch the active language.

Biondi-Santi 1983 Brunello di Montalcino Riserva       98

Deep red with barely a thin garnet rim: you can tell this bottle (recorked in 2000) was well-cellared. The nose is very deep and multilayered with aromas of ripe but fresh red cherry, sweet spices, aromatic herbs and sandalwood on the nose; this nose is remarkably like that of some old Soldera bottlings I know well, but even more elegant than those wines. Big and full-bodied but also round and mellow on entry, then more austere and steely in the middle, but with the creaminess of the noble tannins that never leaves the scene providing support to the floral, licorice, and balsamic red and dark berry and plum flavours. Remarkably juicy and fruity at 40 years of age, this marvelously intense, concentrated and well-balanced wine is drinking beautifully and is a super-successful Riserva. It exemplifies extremely well why Biondi-Santi Riserva Brunellos fetch the high prices they do: with a wine as good and memorable this one, you won’t regret a single penny. Drinking window: 2023-2040.

Bell Hill 2016 Pinot Noir New Zealand                     93

Bell Hill makes some of New Zealand’s most distinguished Pinot Noir wines that pack both power and refinement. Luminous dark ruby in colour, with purple tinges. Complex and fruity on the nose with outstanding violet lift adding complexity to the deep red fruit aromas. In the mouth it is at once savoury and fruity, with polished flavours of sweet spices, red and dark cherry, and of sandalwood complicated by earth tones and hints of dried herbs. Closes very silky long and high in acid, but harmonious. The 2016 is a beautiful wine of utmost purity, but is also a fairly genteel version of the Bell Hill Pinot Noir(late season harvest-time rains may have had something to do with this), a barrel selection from the entire vineyard (the Shelf, Quarry, Slope (a small portion of it), Roadblock, and Shelf West. The grapes of some of these blocks were vinified with 10-40% whole bunches (Shelf, Shelf West and one Quarry vat). The wine matured in 100% new French oak. Theestate is so-named for its bell-like shape on its southern side; it was first surveyed in 1917 by Charles Trounce who established a lime quarry there that operated until the late 1930s. The vineyard itself was established by Marcel Giesen and Sherwyn Veldhuizen. Drinking window: 2023-2033.

 

Ian D'Agata

伊安·达加塔在葡萄酒领域耕耘超过30年,在葡萄酒品评、葡萄酒科研写作和葡萄酒教育等方面,都取得了杰出的成果,在葡萄酒行业和葡萄酒爱好者中,享有世界性声望。作为享誉国际的葡萄酒作家,他最近的两本著作《意大利原生葡萄品种》《意大利原生葡萄品种风土》被公认为意大利葡萄酒领域的权威著作;前者荣获2015年Louis Roederer国际葡萄酒作家大奖赛“年度最佳书籍奖”,他是唯一获此殊荣的意大利葡萄酒作家,并入选《洛杉矶时报》、《金融时报》、《纽约时报》评选的“年度葡萄酒书籍”榜单;后者被《纽约时报》和美国的Food & Wine杂志提名为年度最佳葡萄酒书籍。

Ian D’Agata has been writing and educating about wines for over thirty years. Internationally recognized as an distinguished expert, critic and writer on many wine regions, his two most recent, award winning books Native Wine Grapes of Italy and Italy's Native Wine Grape Terroirs (both published by University of California Press) are widely viewed as the "state of the art" textbooks on the subject. The former book won the Louis Roederer International Wine Awards Book of the Year in 2015 and was ranked as the top wine books of the year for the Los Angeles Times, the Financial Times and the New York Times, while the latter was named among the best wine books of the year by Food & Wine Magazine and the NY Times.[:]

作者的全部文章
留言评论

此站点使用Akismet来减少垃圾评论。了解我们如何处理您的评论数据

Ian D'Agata