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Market Monitor
By: Stephen Tanzer
2009 Red Burgundy
By: Stephen Tanzer
Burgundy's widely praised 2009 vintage has produced a great number of fleshy, seamless, scented wines that are likely to deliver far more pleasure in their youth than the tougher, more backward 2005s. I had more fun tasting these seductive wines from barrel than I've had in Burgundy in many years. But there are also jammy, overripe examples without much site specificity and others that lack the concentration to be great. Coverage of the cooler, more classically styled 2008s will follow in Issue 155.
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Germany 2009: Everybody's Darling
By: Joel B. Payne
An ideal growing season and nearly perfect autumn permitted a leisurely harvest and yielded a crop of wines that, like the 2007s, can virtually be purchased blind, reports our correspondent Joel Payne. The wines are pure, opulent, deep and well-balanced, though generally without a lot of botrytis. This excellent spatlese vintage is generally at its best for riesling from relatively cool areas where acidity levels are sound and alcohols moderate.
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2009 and 2008 Northern Rhone Wines
By: Josh Raynolds
The highly successful growing season of 2009 yielded rich, fruit-driven wines that are likely to offer considerable early appeal. In part one of his in-depth annual coverage of the Rhone Valley, Josh Raynolds distinguishes between those that are very good and those that are outstanding, and also highlights the most successful northern Rhone wines from the difficult 2008 vintage. His detailed coverage of the southern Rhône will follow in the next issue.
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Focus on Argentina
By: Stephen Tanzer
My tastings of new releases from Argentina turned up a higher percentage of well-made wines than ever before, thanks in part to an extended run of very good to excellent vintages. My annual coverage features a generous selection of stunning values in the under-$20 range, as well as a growing number of world-class higher-priced items. In addition to malbec, cabernet sauvignon and torrontes stood out in my tastings this year.
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