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tasting notes

TN: Two more Trimbachs

Trimbach 2000 Gewurztraminer (Alsace) – Stone fruit jerky, tending towards slight bitterness and showing less acidity than one might prefer. It’s in a good place right now, riding a line between primary fruit and mature gewurztraminery characteristics, and the lack of acid means it probably won’t continue to develop in salutary ways. So drink up. (12/06)

Trimbach 1998 Riesling (Alsace) – Molten iron filings with a wet, slate-like character chunked up by something a little more organic-earthy…edging towards, but not actually reaching, the mushroom family. Fully mature, balanced, and really, really nice. (12/06)

TN: Five Trimbachs (not all of them white)

Trimbach 2002 Pinot Gris “Réserve” (Alsace) – Better and brighter than the last few vintages, with a light-filled crystalline aspect sparkling amidst ripe pear. There’s also a significant drying tone to the finish. Restrained and pure. (11/06)

Trimbach 2003 Riesling “Cuvée Frédéric Émile” (Alsace) – This announces itself rather sharply, but fails to deliver on its volume, except with a rather formless weight. Aromatically, the wine is far superior to, say, the contextually blowsy 1997 in that it delivers a fairly classic CFE profile of molten iron and shattered malic ice with salted apple, but structurally the wine is very reminiscent of a big Austrian riesling opened and consumed without aging or aeration: weight, but not enough presence. The hope that this, like the 1997, will provide good near-term drinking while waiting for better vintages to develop is, I’m afraid, misguided. (11/06)

Trimbach 2000 Gewurztraminer “Cuvée des Seigneurs de Ribeaupierre” (Alsace) – Classic and true to type, with significant salty minerality underneath vivid but balanced lychee dust, caramelized cashew and bright peach/pear aromas. There’s pretty good acidity, as well. Not a genre-defining gewurztraminer, but eminently typical for this house, and showing all the proper elements for a good decade’s aging. (11/06)

Trimbach 1997 Pinot Noir “Réserve Personnelle” (Alsace) – An adventurous choice. This is certainly the best pinot noir I’ve tasted from Trimbach. If that sounds like qualified praise, it is; the wine has good weight, a lot of worthy varietal characteristics (earthy cherry and autumn leaves, mostly, though there’s some wet morel as well), and has held up and developed well enough. However, there is – and there’s no mistaking it – the dreaded “hot dog” aroma that so often afflicts Alsace pinot noir. I’m not sure what the problem is – soil, clones, winemaking – but it seems that whenever a pinot noir rises above the biting rosé-like horde, it stands a better-than-average chance of turning to fermented frankfurter. It’s strange. (11/06)

Trimbach 2000 Gewurztraminer “Vendanges Tardives” (Alsace) – Trimbach’s late-harvest gewurztraminers are as solidly excellent as their rieslings, though they rarely reach the exalted heights of those wines. This is no exception: striking ripe stone fruit and lychee are paired with bright, freshening acidity and a solid, sun-drenched mineral core. The sweetness is significant, yet the wine’s structure is such that any trace of “stickiness” is thoroughly absent. Drink it now, drink it in ten years, drink it in twenty…it’ll be beautiful at any age. (11/06)

Why no new posts?

Well, see…my computer’s in the hospital. Needs a transplant, transfusion, pacemaker. Lots of ugliness, and big medical bills are in the offing. I’ll try to get some wine stuff up here this week, but no promises. The ironic thing: this computer nonsense is driving me to excess drink. Which means that lots of wine notes are in the offing, once the computer’s back home and done with bed rest.

TN: New tricks

Dog Point 2004 Sauvignon Blanc (Marlborough) – Cooked white and green asparagus, pink grapefruit, passionfruit, limestone and dry leaves on the finish. It presents itself as Yet Another™ Marlborough savvy, yet carries depth and some mineralistic complexity for those interesting in looking past the obvious fun. (11/06)

TN: Rosé number six

Château Villerambert Julien 2005 Minervois Rosé (Languedoc) – Summer berries, rich and ripe and red. Succulent and utterly delicious. The best bottle yet. (11/06)

TN: Southern rosé

Château Villerambert Julien 2005 Minervois Rosé (Languedoc) – Freshly crushed strawberries with crisp, raspberry-juice acidity and some mineralistic depth. The heart of the summer in liquid form. (11/06)

TN: A new Carr

[Carr]Carr 2002 Cabernet Sauvignon (Napa Valley) – Good, straightforward Napa cab…dark cherry, cassis and blackberry fruit with nicely layered wood (expressed as vanilla, chocolate and toast), very little acidity, and a little bit of dust coming from the subwoofer. A fairly good value, too. It’s not something I’d want to drink very often, because it’s more than a little obvious, but as an occasional diversion it’s perfectly decent. (11/06)

TN: Jesi rides through the night

[Villa Bucci]Villa Bucci 2000 Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi Classico “Riserva” (Marches) – Corked. (11/06)

Villa Bucci 2000 Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi Classico “Riserva” (Marches) – Not corked, perhaps, but still not quite intact. Maybe mildly corked. There’s enough pleasantness here to render it drinkable – old hay, soft minerality, delicate yellow-tinged fruit – but it lacks the complexity and verve that usually marks this wine. (11/06)

TN: Fall dance

[BdO]Ramonteu “Domaine Cauhapé” 2004 Jurançon “Ballet d’Octobre” (Southwest France) – Sweetly pretty, with a blushing, shy caste to its lovely white stone fruit and sap flavors brightened by sunny acidity. There’s something else, too…an herbal, almost anise-like note that chimes at the edge of perception, then rings more loudly as the finish drifts along. (11/06)

TN: Porcini’s other name

Sepp Moser 2004 Grüner Veltliner (Kremstal) – The basic bottling, full of zesty white pepper, white asparagus and celery salt. Fun – albeit a very Teutonic sort of fun – and highly agreeable with food. (11/06)