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tasting notes

Muscat on a hot tin roof

Boxler 2012 Muscat (Alsace) — Surprisingly reticent for a muscat, taking what used to be a fairly common alternative Alsatian expression of “extremely floral riesling” more seriously than most. (10/16

No-tell Potel

Potel 2001 Monthélie “Vieilles Vignes” (Burgundy) — Clinging bravely and attractively, if not exactly beautifully. All grace notes, but the melody’s growing faint. (10/16)

Golden flea

La Pousse d’Or 2005 Pommard 1er Cru Les Jarollières (Burgundy) — A polished wall of fruit, but the insistence that this is unapproachable is misguided; it’s nothing magnificent at the moment, for sure, but it’s eminently drinkable. I had fears regarding storage for this bottle, hence the infanticide. (10/16)

Fewer Coynes in the fountain

[coyne]Thomas Coyne 1999 Syrah Detjens Farms (Livermore Valley) — Pepper, herbs, liquid smoke, a lot of humid airspace. Whatever maturation was going to happen has, I think, happened, and now it’s a process of thinning. Drink up. (10/16)

Auxward states

Blanck 2012 Auxerrois “Viellies Vignes” (Alsace) — Very nervy for auxerrois, which so much more often provides the flesh for pinot blanc’s verve in bottles only labeled the latter. But there is flesh, and weight, and yet it’s the cut that’s so exciting here. Should it age? Auxerrois’ not known as a long ager, but why not? (10/16)

Dr. Galea

[galea]i Clivi 2002 Colli Orientali del Friuli Galea Bianco (Friuli-Venezia Giulia) — Memory engraved in amber and then preserved in wax. Like drinking patina, bee-etched, cool stone slopes reflected the last bronze of a sunset above a field of sleeping vines. (8/16)

i Clivi 1999 Colli Orientali del Friuli Galea Bianco (Friuli-Venezia Giulia) — At first, this was so aromatically mute I worried it was corked. But it wasn’t. It blossomed and burled all night, and by the time I took it home it was singing a full-throated song of lanolin and bone echoing off the spine of a distant mountain. (11/16)

Let’s stay together

[fontenil & ahlgren]Ahlgren 1997 Cabernet Sauvignon Bates’ Ranch (Santa Cruz Mountains) — For the first twelve hours, this is soupy and off-putting. Left open (but not decanted) at room temperature, I take a little sip the next morning (pre-coffee) and it’s extraordinarily good. Big, yes, and there’s a looming scowl of booze that’s barely restrained by the softened fruit, but everything else is showy and delicious. Raisins, plums, slightly overripe berries, fully resolved structure. Explosive. And since the side-by-side was intriguing: right now, this is a better wine than the Thunder Mountain from the same vintage and site. I don’t think either is going to improve, but neither is in danger of cliff-diving either. (9/17)

Zero font

[fontenil & ahlgren]Château Fontenil 1994 Fronsac (Bordeaux) — I expected tired, tannic, and woody. It’s certainly not in the prime of its life, and there’s some woodsmoke (more with a half-dozen hours’ air), but otherwise this — even with Rolland’s name scribbled all over the label — tastes reasonably traditional, leaning heavily on tar and decayed leaves. Drink up, though. (9/16)

Prince’s ex

[kumeu river chardonnay]Kumeu River 2000 Chardonnay Maté’s Vineyard (Kumeu) — This was, I think, the last cork-finished vintage at Kumeu River, and it was somewhat amusing to not be able to just twist it open. It’s aged well, with the minerality it showed in its youth now fully fleshed, its brighter fruit turning to bronzed representations thereof, and yet all the lively structure still intact. Some complexity. Very, very well balanced. It could go a good deal longer, I’d think, and more complexity will undoubtedly result, but for my palate I’d think now to five years from now would be ideal. New Zealand can make world-competitive chardonnay, and Kumeu River is a proof of concept. (8/16)

Thor’s hammer

[thunder mountain cabernet sauvignon]Thunder Mountain 1997 Cabernet Sauvignon Bates Ranch (Santa Cruz Mountains) — 14.5%. This wine was too big for me back in the day, and in some ways it still is, but when I recall the arguments I sometimes had with the winemaker, it turns out we were both right: it did age nicely, and it’s out of balance. The booziness is even more apparent now that everything else has receded, and there’s a vinyl character to the tannin/fruit interchange, but the leafy complexity and texture one expects from properly aged cabernet sauvignon are also here, albeit buttressed by a fair dollop of dark jam. For my tastes, I wouldn’t hold it any longer, for I don’t think those structural imbalances are going to improve while pursuing greater delicacy. (8/16)