Good wine at weekend

A couple of very good wines tasted at the weekend over in Belgium.

Quercidaria 2002
Mantellassi
Maremma, Tuscany.

This is made from 100% Alicante grape, which is very unusual as normally blended. We brought this bottle back from Italy and bought while visiting the winery. It really stood out then but you never know how well wine travels and often wine which tastes very good in situ can be disappointing when opened back home. This was definitely not the case here. Dark black cherry with a crisp brightness. The nose opened up with a powerful cedar, plum and cherry. It held its tannic structure very well which gave way to a chewy earthy taste full of spice and black pepper. Excellent. 8.5/10.

Lucien Albrecht
Grand Cru Pfingstberg Riesling 2002
Alsace

We picked this up in a wine sale in Carrefour. We had it with poached sea bream and it worked very well. Big fresh nose full of pear. It has a thick viscous body as befits a good grand cru. Acidity was there to make it a food wine. Citric and pear really holds its own. Very good 8/10.

Good wine and Arsenal beating Man U. A good weekend.