Monday, April 25, 2011

Serving temperature

We tasted, (actually, we drank), with Calvert Woodley : Valandraud 2010, served at the temperature of the store L’Essentiel, in other words close to 20/21° Celcius (68/70° F). The wine was incredibly fine and soft, with no harshness often noticeable with young wines tasted en primeur at 17/18°(63/65°). You can read on the site of Loisel (in French) everything about the ideal temperature.
The more a wine has structure, the more the ideal tasting temperature will reach 19-20° Celcius (68/84° F), which is the case for this young and structured wine with a level of tannins close to 90.
I am always afraid of serving wines too warm (which is one of the major mistakes done in restaurants in France) for often serving a wine too cold.

Regarding temperature, the 2011 season starts well, hot. As of today, the vines are probably more than two weeks ahead. They are thriving in the Mediterranean climate, and in my usual worried way, I think about the risks of frost which would be catastrophic.

For dinner, we enjoyed a wine made by Mariano Garcia (ex Vega Sicilia): Aalot PS 2006, Ribera del Duero, balanced and powerful. This is the result when Trempanillo is picked ripe. 96 points given by Jay Miller from the Wine Advocate and 93 from Neal Martin.

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