Good afternoon good people
There was not much of great note happening in Bordeaux last week so, I decided to open few samples that have accumulated in our shop whilst I was travelling over the last few weeks. Most of them were new vintages of our restaurant distribution wines, so not really something worth making a special offer on. However, there was 1 little gem worth making a special mention of: a new release of Preludio de Sei Solo from Javier Zaccagnini. Those of you who read these missives of mine would be familiar with Javier’s name – he is the Managing Director and, together with Mariano Garcia ( technical director), the creator of Aalto.
This is a separate project which he runs with his oenologist son Michael. The production is based on 4 small vineyards from the village of La Hora, arguably the greatest and most powerful of Ribera del Duero villages where most of juice for Aalto PS comes from (Pingus is 100% from La Hora). In this project (as opposed to Aalto where over 200 parcels from 9 villages are used), Javier wanted to express the “heart and soul” of La Hora. No new oak is used in fermentation or maturation of the wine, focusing on the natural purity and elegance of the fruit creating very fine, elegant expression of Temporanillo. Two wines are made: Sei Solo and Preludio de Sei Solo. Production is tiny (just over 1000 cases of 6 bott) and, although I have not been quick off the mark in 2013 to secure enough stock for Sei Solo for an offer, I have managed to get 240 bottles of Preludio (the second wine).
On to the wine itself:
Preludio de Sei Solo 2013, Ribera del Duero – £100.00 per 6 bottles under bond.
This is deep, bright-shiny purple, bursting with energy and very attractive in the glass. Nose is quite open for such a young wine, initially showing graphite and black cherries (a Pauillac kind of nose) later developing more cigar box and dark chocolate in the background. Very stylish. Plate is intense but elegant and focused at the same time. Very clean and fresh with fine structure and great finish dominated by small black berries – very sophisticated. One of those wines that makes you think “about the World, the Universe and everything”. We had the bottle opened in the shop for 2 days and it kept adding layers of texture and flavour all the way. The wine has not been rated by any mayor critics yet but, there was a lot of comments such as yummy, beautiful, lovely, from those who popped in to the shop and tasted it on Friday and Saturday. Javier is a great aficionado of Classical music and the name Preludio is a little homage to J S Bach. To me it feels more modern, more like Ravel with bursts of Gershwin here and there. No Eurovision songs here!
In any case, a great little drop of vino and should be an integral part of every decent cellar. An elegant polished Ribera del Duero. Don’t let the price fool you; this is a serious wine.
Wishing you all great week ahead.
All the best
Zoran
Zoran Ristanovic
Managing Director
City Wine Collection Ltd
2 Bridge Street
Richmond Upon Thames
TW9 1TQ