Brivio, Riflessi d'Epoca, Ticino

Needs several hours to decant. Pronounced and complex nose that is ridiculously gorgeous: black fruit: plum, black cherry, prune —- sweet spice: cloves, nutmeg, mixed spice, liquorice — charred wood, slightly smokey from the oak —- maturity: leaf mould, leather. On the palate, still alive and kicking with fresh plum, warm spice, olive (?), quite juicy. Med tannin, softly integrated with the acidity, long, soft acid peak on the chalky hot finish.

Nice, showing some cherries, friendly and quite balanced.

Full body. No outside influence this is a big smooth merlot. Hints of green growth and grapes. Purple sand. It's one dimensional likely you can find better.

This was my first Swiss wine and I was pleasantly surprised. It's still young and tight, but as it breathed it revealed some wonderful aromas of tobacco, herbs, spicy fruit and subtle barnyard. A nice wine that will get better with a few more years on it. The wine looks purple colored. The legs are medium. There is no sediment in the bottle. The body is medium/full.

Subito generoso di piccoli frutti rossi e tanti fiori, viola, petali di rosa, appena sotto un'interessante speziatura tra pepe e chiodi di garofano in fondo roccia bruciata, carbone. Bocca di media struttura fresca e di discreta persistenza. Un vino aggraziato, femminile, profumato e generoso.

“Mixed Bag of Merlots from around the World”-Tasting, Wine 2 (non-blind), in February 2014. The wine was medium ruby in colour and offered blurry red and dark fruit aromas, black olive, cigarette smoke, tobacco and sulphur as well as spicy notes, roasted notes and vegetal notes on the nose. On the palate the medium-bodied wine showed red berries, spicy notes, meaty and gamy notes, leather, tobacco and a hint of chocolate, paired with medium-level acidity, medium-level slightly coarse tannin and …

Die Farbe des Riflessi d'Epoca erschien mir ziemlich blutig, hatte leichte Trübungen und wirkte verständlicherweise visuell noch sehr jung. Die Naseneindrücke waren zunächst bestimmt von klarer und kühl wirkender Kirschfrucht, saftigen Brombeeren, feinem Tabak, einer herb-toastigen Holzigkeit (die nicht so übertrieben erschien) und gewissen Spuren von Oma's Bratensoße. Unter Beibehaltung der kirschigen, brombeerigen und tabakigen Eigenschaften entwickelten sich nach ca. zwei Stunden Düfte in Richtung von nicht zu reifen Heidelbeeren, etwas Cola und Karamell. Verschlossen oder zugenagelt wirkte die Nase …

Eher schwieriger Jahrgang. Aber auch schwierige Jahrgänge haben ihren Reiz. Schade dass nur hauptsächlich wir Schweizer diese wunderbaren Merlots aus unserer Sonnenstube geniessen dürfen bzw. können.

Vin soyeux et concentrer mais gâché par un fort arôme de bois

Fabulous--big and meaty--not thin in the way that some Merlots strike me. Gamey. Pepper. Enough tannin, but feels like a drink now. Hope to get my hands on more