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tasting notes

The more, the terrier

[cowan cellars]Cowan Cellars 2015 “Jack’s Rosé” (North Coast) — Poised between tension and fragility, yet in the end it’s much friendlier than either. Refreshment through a gauzy historical filter. Fun, too. Let’s not leave that out. (Disclaimer: the winemaker is a friend.) (4/16)

Horse at 11

[coudert]Coudert 2005 Fleurie Clos de la Roilette (Beaujolais) — Autumn into winter, with the structure slightly exposed. I wouldn’t think this would hold much longer, but I’ve been wrong before. Nonetheless, I’m drinking mine. (4/16)

A Winkeler & a nod

[spreitzer]Spreitzer 2007 Winekeler Jesuitengarten Riesling Spätlese (Rheingau) — Very, very ripe apple, pushed to the verge of tropicality. A metal band dins in the background. There’s enough acid, more than enough sugar, and it feels like it’s going to tip over at any second. But it doesn’t. Wait? Sure, why not? But it’s fun now, too. (4/16)

Diemed worthy

[diemersfontein]Diemersfontein “Reserve Collection” 2014 Pinotage (Wellington) — Not too much vinyl; more of an internationally-styled dark red, though the occasional peppery pinotage pong does come through. It’s a nice enough wine, though it needs flesh that’s been atop fire. (4/16)

Urbain decay

Zind Humbrecht 1997 Pinot Gris Rangen de Thann Clos Saint Urbain (Alsace) — Like an oloroso made by ferrets to which has been added stale bathwater and molten lead. Beyond undrinkable. (4/16)

Émmy award

[cfe]Trimbach 1998 Riesling “Cuvée Frédéric Émile” (Alsace) — Fully mature. The dust of a once-mighty civilization, reduced to corroded steel and acid rain. Like drinking a raw nerve. Absolutely delicious, and everything I ever hoped when I chose to age this by the case. (4/16)

Duplexing

Duplessis 2012 Chablis Fourchaume 1er Cru (Chablis) — Mineral salts, but whence the oxidative nature? It’s broadening at the moment, and thus pleasant, but I wonder if this isn’t suffering under a failed cork, because the note seems to surprise everyone who’s had or sold the wine. (4/16)

Intimidation

[cfe]Trimbach 1995 Riesling “Cuvée Frédérique Émile” (Alsace) — From magnum…and let me say, for the record, that the John Holmes-ian stature of a Trimbach magnum is a sight to behold. Wielding this giant phallic symbol deftly enough to connect wine with glass is a multi-handed operation, yet the wine is far less forbidding than its pour. In fact it’s a fairly straightforward CFE, its iron and steel fully exposed but with the filigreed detail eroded. It’s lost none of its nerve nor its high-polarity lines of force, yet the overall energy feels diminished and buffeted. Perhaps catching it a bit younger would have been better? (Disclosure: this bottle was a gift from Jean Trimbach, from a 1998 visit to the winery.) (4/16)

Lytton foundation

[lytton springs]Ridge 1995 Lytton Springs (Dry Creek Valley) — While this site doesn’t produce the most graceful or complex of Ridge’s zin-heavy blends, it certainly remains the most stubborn among them. It’s the wine that makes one think, “I would have guessed it’s younger than that,” time and time again. Moreover, it often absorbs the perfumed oak that lays like dense humidity over wines like Geyserville, leaving the strong-willed fruit to do the enduring. So while there’s certainly been development towards the leathery oldberry character that is so often Lytton’s signature, the wine seems nowhere near senescence…and I would, indeed, have guessed it ten years younger than it really is. (4/16)

Turn it up

[amplify]Amplify 2013 Carignane Rosé Camp 4 (Santa Ynez Valley) — Funky and reluctant at first, but it grows into its awkwardness. While it’s a (very light) rosé of a red grape, if you told me it was an orange vermentino I’d not have blinked; there’s a sort of heavy-air salinity to it that makes it feel coastal, even if it’s anything but. A nice wine that deserves more exploration than I gave it. (4/16)