Wine-Searcher score: 88/100

“RICH & COMPLEX. Ripe, dark fruit aromas with a spicy undertone precede layered flavors of raspberry, black cherry & cassis, with a healthy dose of licorice & spicy black pepper. Smooth & supple tannins make for a lengthy, elegant finish.” – Vinopedia

70% Grenache, 20% Syrah, 10% Mourvedre

Wine Advocate 93 points:

“Allegrini’s 2003 Amarone Classico (80% Corvina, 15% Rondinella, 5% Oseleta) reveals a super-opulent, engaging texture packed with sweet cocoa, dark fruit, cassis, blackberries, roasted coffee beans and licorice. It finishes with notable length and surprising finish for the vintage. According to Allegrini the rain that fell in July was critical in maintaining some balance in the wine. This medium to full-bodied wine is an outstanding example of a more restrained, clean style of Amarone. Anticipated maturity: 2007-2013.”

Robert M. Parker

“As it turned out, the Collioure, a 2006 Cuvée Serral from Domaine Madeloc, Mr. Gaillard’s Roussillon project, was our hands-down favorite, with its juicy, spicy fruit augmented by flavors of herbs and licorice. It was one of the few in the tasting with any degree of complexity, and it was a reasonable $26″

Tasting Report

Domaine Madeloc Collioure, $26, ***
Cuvée Serral 2006
Juicy, spicy fruit flavors tempered by aromas of tobacco and licorice.

“Perfection to the smallest detail, it is a good way to describe the domaine Martin Schaetzel.

Martin Schaetzel is a fairly small domaine of 12 hectares, located in central Ammerschwihr and run by Jean Schaetzel, a professor at the oenological college in Rouffach. Despite its modest size, Schaetzel has more than 30 wines on its list, including as many as 15 Riesling. Only from Grand Cru Kaefferkopf they offer three different cuvées representing distinctly different geologies in the notoriously heterogeneous Kaefferkopf”

 http://www.alsacewine.net/p/schaetzel.shtml

“Pezzalunga has been the name given to the hill located in front of Castellazzo, the Vercesi family’s estate and former monastery, for generations. The perfectly positioned south east facing vineyards are planted using the guyot system, with 3600 vine stocks per hectare. The soil is clayey/marly, not worked and covered by grass, with conditions that create a well balanced environment for the vines.

This wine is obtained from the most characteristic wines on the estate; Barbera 35%, Bonarda (Croatina) 35%, Uva Rara 15%, Pinot Nero 10%, Cabernet Sauvignon 5%. Pezzalunga is bottled in the spring and stays in the cellar for some months before being released. This ensures the wine reaches a particularly fine level of quality. It is a full-bodied, flavorful wine, maintaining a delightful freshness. This wine is produced to be drunk young, but it can be aged for some years successfully, as time will exalt its better qualities.”

Neil Rosenthal Wine Merchant.

http://www.madrose.com/castellazzoprint.html

One of our featured paired wine.

93 points Robert Parker:
“The 2001 Chateauneuf du Pape La Crau is gorgeous, structured, impressive. Full-bodied and backward, with great depth, purity, and heady aromatics, this 20,000-case blend of 60% Grenache, 15% Mourvedre, 10% Syrah, and 15% miscellaneous amounts of the other permitted varietals will easily rival the 1998.
A deep ruby/purple-tinged color is accompanied by a sweet perfume of salty sea breezes, seaweed, melted licorice, kirsch liqueur, creme de cassis, and iodine … a classic Vieux-Telegraphe aromatic display.
Powerful as well as firmly structured, this is a wine to lay away for 4-5 years. It should prove to be uncommonly long-lived, lasting a minimum of two decades. It gets my nod as the greatest Vieux-Telegraphe since the 1998.” (02/04)