Tasted And Rated, Al seba Street, Dubai (2026)

05/02/2023

Erich & Walter Polz is an Austrian wine producer located in the region of Southern Styria. They are known for producing high-quality, terroir-driven wines that reflect the unique characteristics of their vineyards. The winery was founded in 1966 by Erich Polz and has since been passed down to his sons Walter and Erich, who continue to run the winery today.
The vineyards are located on the Hochgrassnitzberg, a steep and rocky hill that provides ideal growing conditions for the grapes. The soils are rich in minerals, and the high altitude provides plenty of sun and a cool climate, which helps to preserve the freshness and acidity of the grapes.

This 100% Sauvignon Blanc hochgrassnitzberg has a bright, straw-yellow color and offers aromas of green apple, lime, and gooseberry. On the palate, it is crisp and lively, with flavors of green apple, citrus, and a hint of minerality. The acidity is well-balanced, leading to a long and refreshing finish.

05/02/2023

Graetz was born in Florence in 1966 and grew up surrounded by the art, culture, and wine of Tuscany. From an early age, he developed a deep love for the land and a fascination with the process of making wine. He started making wine on his own in the late 1980s, using grapes from a small vineyard near his home.

Over the years, Graetz gained a reputation as one of the most talented winemakers in Tuscany, producing wines that are both traditional and cutting-edge. He uses only the best grapes and employs meticulous winemaking techniques to create wines that are full of character and have a sense of place.

Colore 2020 is a rich and powerful red wine made from the Sangiovese grape. It has a deep ruby color and offers aromas of ripe red fruits, spices, and hints of leather. On the palate, it has a full-bodied and juicy texture, with flavors of black cherry, blackberry, and vanilla. The tannins are firm and well-structured, leading to a long and elegant finish.

Testamatta 2020 is a more unconventional wine, made from a blend of traditional Tuscan grapes and international varieties. The result is a unique and captivating wine that is both elegant and bold. It has a bright ruby color and offers an intense bouquet of red and dark fruits, licorice, and black pepper. On the palate, it has a juicy and fresh texture, with flavors of black cherry, plum, and a hint of minerality. The tannins are soft and well-balanced, leading to a long and smooth finish.

Both Colore and Testamatta are handcrafted by Bibi Graetz and are a true expression of his passion for winemaking.

# supertuscan

04/02/2023

Masseto vineyard is located in the heart of Tuscany, in the Maremma coastal area of Italy. The vineyard was established in the late 1980s by Tenuta dell'Ornellaia estate, one of the most prestigious wineries in Tuscany. The vineyard is dedicated to growing 100% Merlot grapes, a variety that is not commonly found in Tuscany, but is perfectly suited to the terroir of the Maremma. The Masseto vineyard is characterized by its unique combination of soils, exposure, and microclimate, which produces grapes of exceptional quality.

Since its first vintage in 1986, Masseto has become one of the most sought-after wines in the world. Its success can be attributed to the meticulous attention to detail and passion for quality that the winemakers at Ornellaia bring to each vintage. The wine is fermented in temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks and then aged in a combination of new and used French oak barrels for 12-18 months. The result is a wine of remarkable depth, elegance, and balance.

On the nose, the Masseto 2012 boasts intense aromas of dark fruit, such as blackberry and black cherry, as well as hints of spice and vanilla. On the palate, it is full-bodied and rich, with a velvety texture and a long, balanced finish. The tannins are well-structured and provide a firm structure to the wine.

# supertuscan

16/01/2023

Classically anti-classical, Grüner Veltliner, from one vineyard situated west of lake Neusiedl, and planted on limestone, from Martin Nittnaus.
The grapes are destemmed, pressed, spontaneous fermentation and aging on the lees in one 1,500 liter used oval oak barrel, unfined, unfiltered.

Tasting notes: simply electrifying

Martin is the son of legendary Anita und Hans Nittnaus, a true pioneers, and still today, a mastermind behind many important developments in Burgenland-Austria.

The Nittnaus family has a long history in the Neusiedlersee region of Austria, with almost a hundred years of winemaking under their belt.

Today, behind the shadow of their legacy, sons Martin converted part of the family winery to his own project. The Martin Nitthaus label is the result of this experiment, an exciting and focused roster of wines with natural winemaking as its core philosophy. With biodynamic farming in the fields and the lightest hand in the cellar—low fining, filtering, and sulfuring—drinkers get a taste of the unadorned terroir of this unique region, one that is known as much for reds as it is for whites.

15/01/2023

Natural wine is a small but rapidly growing sector within the wine industry.
Expertise in the field has been advanced by wine experts and professionals, while publications to aid in further understanding the topic lag behind.

Natural wine is made from grapes produced under organic or biodynamic management without using additives in the cellar. Natural wine represents a movement of winegrowers that see agriculture as an ethical act against wine industrialization and as a way to make food systems more sustainable. The movement has gained fast-growing global fame and connects rural producers with urban consumers.

The Natural Wine Movement highlights the need to develop more rigorous methodologies to better understand the market segment of natural wine, its consumers, and their composition and behaviour.
Moreover, it calls for a deeper theoretical engagement with the notion of natural wine, which positions it among other sustainable and ecological certifications, including organic, biodynamic or sulphite-free. This would allow researchers to advance from the current state of knowledge, which continues to limit our ‘practical’ capacity for advice to policy makers but not to winemakers and marketers.

14/01/2023

Love GV Fu***ng Terro(i)r 2015
It’s an 100% Grüner Veltliner from the Austrian wine region of Kremstal.

Owner and wine maker Alexander Zöller started his career just after graduation with the idea to produce wine which should convey its origin and natural precondi.

As the name suggest for this wine (Fu***ng Terro(i)r), it’s all the expression that the environment gives you and not all the manipulation you can use.

This wines express intense stone fruit character with hints of flowers. The palate is dry, with chalky mineralilty at the end.

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06/09/2022

A Spritz is a Venetian wine based cocktail, commonly served as an apertitif in North East Italy and enjoyed by milione of people around . It consists of prosecco, bitters and soda water.
Today recipes consist of 9cl of Prosecco, 6cl of Aperol, a splash of soda water and a slice of orange.

However not many people know (except bartenders) that this cocktail created in Venice in 1920 had instead of Aperol a bitter liquor called Select.

Select is an Italian aperitif, created in 1920 in Venice by the distillery "Fratelli Pilla & C." and currently produced by Gruppo Montenegro.

The Select recipe blends together a secret recipe of 30 aromatic herbs and botanicals including juniper berries, for their balsamic and floral characteristics, and individually processed rhubarb roots, which provide intensely bitter notes for balance. The juniper berries undergo a special maceration and distillation process in a copper alembic still, giving Select Aperitivo its fresh and resinous notes.

If you ever in Venice ask the bartender for a Spritz Veneziano and they will definitely use Select instead of Aperol.

Aperol was also created in 1919 and originally produced by the Barbieri company, based in Padova, but is now produced by the Campari Group. Aperol however did not become successful until after the Second World War. Although it tastes and smells much like Campari, Aperol has an alcohol content of 11%—less than half that of Campari. Aperol and Campari have the same sugar content and Aperol is less bitter in taste.

However Spritz itself is a form of cocktail as opposed to a singular drink, the term originates from the German Spritzen. The origin of the Spritz dates back to the 19th-century when the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s owned the region. When Austro-Hungarian soldiers first tasted Italian wines, they found them too strong for their taste and subsequently spritzed their glasses with water to dilute the flavour.

There is much story behind each cocktail and next time you sip and spritz remember to like this post 😜

04/09/2022

The Paraschos family started making wine in the late 1990s when father Evangelos was first inspired by the wines of Stanko Radikon and Josko Gravner. The born Greek from Thessaloniki first came to the region in the late 1980s where he later met his future wife and partner in Gorizia. The family’s vineyards in the small village of San Floriano and Oslavje are some of the highest plots on the Italian side of the region.

The vineyards sit on a variety of soils, commonly known as Ponka (Opok) which consists of a layer of sandy clay and a bedrock of marl (argile). As with most wines of the region, their whites all feature a degree of skin maceration, a decision that more than anything suits the climatic conditions and the prevailing varieties and emphasizes the fantastic geologic conditions of the region.

Over the past few years, Alexis, son of Evangelos is now at the helm of the family’s winery, continuing the legacy and carrying forward a certain spirit that translates in the purity and precision of their wines. In a way they seem complete, without losing their tension and natural energy, thanks to a deep commitment to organic farming and respectful treatment of the grapes. Time is another key element of their philosophy — many of the wines are aged for at least 3 years before being released.

The Sauvignon by Paraschos is a white wine from Collio, produced without too long macerations on the skins, that ages for 2 years in Slavonian oak barrels. Without filtrations and added sulfites, this wine show the freshness and mineral expression of Sauvignon, alongside stone fruit flavours and hints of spices.

My kind of rose wine ❤️❤️

04/09/2022

The Ott family has been growing and producing wine in the region of Wagram in Lower Austria since 1889. Bernhard Ott is of the fourth generation and has managed the winery since 1993 when he took the helm from his father.

In 2006 he took a trip to the legendary biodynamic property Domaine La Romanée Conti in Vosne, with his best friend, Hans Reisetbauer. There, after a marathon tasting in the cellars with Aubert de Villaine, Bernhard committed to move to biodynamic viticulture. In 2007, with Johannes Hirsch, Fred Loimer, and a group of like-minded producers, Respekt was formed.

Respekt-BIODYN is today an association which consist of internationally renowned wineries from Austria, Germany, Italy and Hungary who have committed themself to produce high quality wines using biodynamic methods.

Qvevre 2013 is made from a selection of Grüner Veltliner from one of Bernhard Ott’s top sites called Rosenberg (löss soils.) The grapes are destemmed, gravity pressed, and transferred into 500 to 2000 liter clay qvevre from Georgia. Fermentation is spontaneous and slow (lasting several months) as the juice, seeds, and skins comingle. After the full fermentation ends, the qvevre is sealed with a mixture of mud and clay. It is then left to age for upwards of 8 months.

The 2013 shows complex aromas of white flowers, honey, melon, ripe stone fruit, wet stone and hint of white pepper.
The palate is medium bodied, with creamy texture, chalky notes and fresh acidity at the end.

05/06/2022

As the white asparagus season gets to the finish line we decided to pair with something extraordinary which could pair well with its umami flavours, so we compliment with a grape variety which has in his DNA aromas of asparagus itself, however needed to have plenty of acidity to cut trough the creaminess of the Hollandaise sauce and have enough personality for the roasted potato and the Canadian milk feed veal: the option off purse would have been a or as I call myself a :
Talking about Sauvignon Blanc , Styria is the place to look for it and Maria & Sepp Muster are an icon in the Austrian Region. Sepp took over the helm of his over 100 years old family estate and decided with his wife Maria to focus their attention on their terroir and produce wines which reflect organic and biodynamic wine making.
His wife Maria is no strange to natural wine making as she is the sister of Andreas and Ewald Tscheppe (of the Werlitsch winery), two equally lauded South Styrian natural wine legends.
Inspired by encounters with biodynamic agriculture and several years spent in India and Australia, the couple knew this was the only way they wanted to farm when taking the helm of the estate. They believe vitality in the soil leads to vitality in the plant, and ultimately, in every bottle of wine, and tasting their bottle tonight I can say that I found lots of brightness in my mouth, zinging acidity, pure expression of the grape from a moderate climate, full of white asparagus and grass, but also aromas which are not usually associated with Sauvignon such as clementine, mandarin, unripe stone fruit, acacia flowers and Fanta nuances.
The palate is medium bodied wity yellow fruit, passion fruit and a small bite of tannins. The finish is happy, yes quite notes of fermentation and yeast.
Chapeau Graf Sauvignon Blanc, you made me a very happy drinker and as would say: I poured a very large glass wine because I thought it necessary.

Tasted And Rated

05/02/2023

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16/01/2023

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