On a business trip and realizing that I've slacked noting wines. A lot of these are revisiting but it's nice to double check consistency:

apart from attending a 60+ wine tasting, confirming that Courbis Cornas Sabarotte was the best wine there, followed up by beringers knights valley, Storm st rita hills Pinot Noir, and Guizzardi Barolo, I had birthday, serving a "wine dinner":

Marchesi di barolo barberesco 2011 with tartare (italian style with a lot of stuff mixed into the raw meat).
***
leathery with brighter red berries

M. di B Barolo 2010 with tagliatele truffle sauce
****
leathery with darker berries

Venison with Guigal Crozes hermitage 2011
****
still consider the best (only good) Guigal and best value north rhone I know of.
Earthy, smoky vague fruit, spicy, very good value wine!


Le Combal Cahors 2007 ***
I rarely get Cahors. But I was at a distant wine store and looked for something new that might fit my style: dark subdued fruits, leather, tobacco, earth, tannic, with some age.
And I was suggested the Cahors, which was on sale.
Im glad it was on sale.
While I can see that it might fit my taste, it also has this medicine flavour. like that brown antibiotics you tell children is chocolate milk. Maybe this is why I dont buy Cahors.



And the other day I managed to pop up the Cenit

Cenit (maybe 2010) ****

I was really hoping for a 5 star wine here. I got it for 40E, which seems to be the right price internationally, but here the claimed normal price is 80E.
Id be angry if I had paid that much for this.
40E is about right for what you get. And Santiago's preanalysis is so true it is unbelievable.

Upon initial opening it was like licking an ashtay.

over time (2-3h) the ash regressed into cigar, blackberry underlying. and finally a heavy Valrhona Guarana chocolate overpowered it all, with a tannin profile just like dark chocolate, reminding me of Ironstone Reserve Zinfandal.

Overall reminding me of styles like napa cabs, ripe Bordeaux's like Magrez Tivoli and La Tour Carnet, or ripe Tuscanies - all of which having lower price tags than the claimed "normal" price 80E , less chocolate, and more developement in the mouth, more earthy and grainier tannins.

For spanish wine at around 40E Id rather stick to Rioja like Cune Imperial and Tondonia. For heavy wine like Cenit Id rather stick to the above mentioned Napa/Tuscany/Bordeaux.

My wife was like "Mmmm so good wine. I love american wine. what ? its spanish? I really thought it was american!"

No change the next day.

I bought it together with Louis Martini Napa Cab (25E) and even if they were the same price, Id consider the Martini cab a better buy. Has more transitional development in the mouth.