Peillot 1999 Roussette du Bugey Montagnieu Altesse (Ain) – 95% dead. What’s left isn’t worth drinking, either.

These wines are delicately perfumed and utterly delicious when young. But they’re not meant to age much, and this was a cellar orphan that deserved a better fate. Oh well. Alcohol: 12%. Closure: cork. Importer: Louis/Dressner/LDM.

P&N Reverdy 2004 Sancerre “Cuvée Les Coûtes” (Loire) – Strikingly intense slate shavings over razor-sharp grapefruit. Long, balanced and throbbing with power. Terrific Sancerre.

A single-vineyard Sancerre from a good vintage and a good producer is usually going to represent some sort of paradigm for sauvignon blanc, and this wine is no exception. Fans of the boisterous Marlborough style will point to the zingier fruit of the New Zealand versions, but this wine is no less intense, it just expresses its intensity in a different mode. It’s also worth noting that the Marlborough sauvignons universally considered to be the best are those with stronger minerality at their core. Alcohol: 13%. Closure: cork. Importer: Weygandt-Metzler.

Collard “Château Mourgues du Gres” 2004 Costières de Nimes “Les Galets Rouges” (Languedoc) – Rustic, with sun-baked garrigue and light red fruit notes, plus an unquestionably touch of the barn. Medium-light bodied (for a Languedoc wine), and clearly for drinking soonish, but quite fun and versatile with food.

Mostly syrah, with some grenache, mourvèdre, and carignan, and a fairly pure expression of a disappearing wine style: the un-spoofulated Languedoc red.Alcohol: 14%. Closure: cork. Importer: Weygandt-Metzler. Web: http://www.mourguesdugres.fr/.

Castillon & Fils “Château l’Ermitage” 2004 Costières de Nimes “Via Compostelle” (Languedoc) – Slick and modern, and also very tight at first, but eventually showing intense, leathery syrah characteristics (hints of blackberry and tar, strong but fuzzy tannin, a bit of post-afternoon sweat) and a long finish. It’s a highly updated expression of this appellation, but a fine one with enough individual characteristics to stand out, and the balance and potential to age and develop for a half-dozen years.

100% syrah, and definitely spoofulated (cold soaked, micro-oxygenated), though not at all in an unpleasant way. The techniques take the rusticity out of the wine and replace it with a bit of anonymity, but at the same time ageability and overall complexity increase. Alcohol: 13%. Closure: cork. Importer: Ideal. Web: http://www.chateau-ermitage.com/.

Trimbach 2001 Pinot Gris Ribeauvillé “Réserve” (Alsace) – Pear crystals and melted aluminum with a strong dusting of Alsatian spice and nerve. Very slightly off-dry. This is probably ready to drink, though it won’t fall apart over the next few years either.

Trimbach’s label nomenclature and classification scheme are fairly simple, yet opaque to the uninitiated. Here’s how it breaks down: yellow-labeled bottlings are from a combination of estate and négociant fruit. Wines labeled “réserve” come from estate fruit, usually from vineyards around Ribeauvillé. Gold and black labels indicate estate fruit from grand cru vineyards (Trimbach has philosophical and marketing objections to the Alsatian grand cru system, and thus doesn’t use them, even when they could). And finally, white labels indicate their top bottlings: most late-harvest wines (though late-harvest versions of the gold-label wines will remain gold-labeled and carry differentiating shoulder strips), special one-off bottlings, and the inimitable Clos Ste-Hune. Alcohol: 13%. Closure: cork. Importer: Diageo. Web: http://www.maison-trimbach.fr/.

Mont Marçal 2000 Cava Brut “Reserva” (Cataluña) – Leaden, papery and slightly resinous. Utterly boring.

I know cava. Cava has, in the past, been a friend of mine. Mont Marçal, you are no cava. Alcohol: 11.5%. Closure: cork. Importer: Classical. Web: http://www.mont-marcal.com/.

Nora 2004 Albariño Rías Baixas (Northwest) – Simple, juicy quaffing wine, full of light tropical/stone fruit and a sticky texture somewhat assuaged by slightly unintegrated acidity. Fun.

Albariño is a grape capable of complexity and even, if the right steps are taken, a certain tropical beach sort of profundity (though this is rare). But it can also be pure, fruity fun, and that’s the direction in which this wine is headed. A colorful umbrella wouldn’t be out of place. Alcohol: 13%. Closure: cork. Importer: Ordoñez/MRR Traders.

Bonny Doon “Ca’ del Solo” 2003 “Big House White” (California) – Mixed citrus with slight spiky, lime-spritzer acidity and a mildly confected finish. Good party wine, but don’t peer behind the curtain. Tasted from two bottles, with consistent notes.

These fun, inexpensive wines – which come in red and rosé versions – are leading the charge of the screwcaps into higher-end but still everyday American wine drinking. With the exception of the red, which can exhibit real quality from time to time, that’s often their principal quality. Then again, that’s nothing at which to sniff. Alcohol: 12.5%. Closure: screwcap. Web: http://www.bonnydoonvineyard.com/.

Germain-Saincrit “Château Peyredoulle” 2001 Premières Côtes de Blaye Maine Criquau “Vieilles Vignes” (Bordeaux) – A soft, rather delicately-constituted distaff cousin to a Bordeaux…which is, of course, pretty much what this wine is meant to be. Slight, graphite-like tannin and cedar chest with classic pencil, dried cassis, and tobacco aromas…but everything through gauze and haze, as if seen only dimly…though the finish is long and lovely enough. It might be worth aging this a bit, to see what happens, but no matter what the raw materials will always be thinly-scattered.

The Premières Côtes de Blaye are on the right bank of the Gironde, which suggests that they’re mostly merlot, with cabernet sauvignon in a supporting role. That’s true here. Value, rather than quality contending with the famous names elsewhere in Bordeaux, is the operative word here. Alcohol: 13%. Closure: cork. Importer: Ideal. Web: http://www.vgas.com/peyredoulle/peyredoulle.htm.

Aucœur 2002 Régnié “Cuvée de Vernus” (Beaujolais) – Bright red fruit and gravelly minerality. Tart and short, with little life ahead of it, but in a good place right now…with the right food (meaning: something rich and fat that this little wine can slice through).

I’ve written about this wine before, and there’s not much more to say. Alcohol: 12.5%. Closure: cork. Importer: Violette.

Goracci “Tenuta Roccaccia” 2004 Bianco di Pitigliano “Superiore” (Tuscany) – Light, flighty, slightly bitter and ultimately tilting away from pleasurable towards insipid. The dandelions and lemon are nice, but one would like a little more. Or at least I would I can’t always speak for “one.”

Trebbiano toscano and chardonnay, not showing either to any great effect. Alcohol: 13.5%. Closure: molded synthetic. Importer: Montecastelli. Web: http://www.tenutaroccaccia.it/.

Cantillon “Organic” Gueuze (Belgium) – As always with Cantillon, sharply and sourly acidic, showing intense cherries and plenty of brett. There’s more here, though: complex dustings of pepper, mixed mineralities, perhaps even a bit of paprika. This is about as authentic as lambic gets, though it will most certainly not be for everyone.

Cantillon is the most obsessive and traditionalist of all Belgian breweries, and their products are both masterful and controversial as a result. I’m a fan, but even I don’t love everything they do. Still, one can’t say they understand Belgian beer without trying these marvelous creations. Closure: cork. Organic. Importer: Shelton Brothers. Web: http://www.cantillon.be/.

Guigal 2001 Crozes-Hermitage (Rhône) – Well-sweated leather and bright raspberry acid without the raspberry (except as a lingering memory of its presence) with a slightly fruity-vegetal tannin that’s not at all unpleasant…though it probably could be a little less green. The density increases with air. A nice, basic, almost introductory Crozes-Hermitage for early-term drinking.

Guigal’s quality has undergone a bit of an upsurge in recent years, with both better cellar and vineyard work and a more strict reliance on traditional typicities. That makes this wine (100% syrah from an overly-expansive vignoble) a bit of a find, since Crozes-Hermitage is pretty much the most dismal of the well-known Northern Rhône appellations; of what’s commonly available, only Graillot does reliably excellent work. This isn’t anywhere near the quality of Graillot’s wine, but it’s quite good in its own fashion, and shows its terroir to solid effect. Alcohol: 12.5%. Closure: cork. Importer: Ex Cellars. Web: http://www.guigal.com/.

The “offline” – a gathering of online wine buddies for the purpose of the overconsumption of wines that would probably have been better left to their own devices – has a distinctly regional component that goes beyond the character of its participants. It has, instead, to do with the nature of the venue. Privileged areas where BYO is encouraged – California, New Jersey, even otherwise wine-hostile Pennsylvania – have virtual free reign of the available cuisines and price ranges. But those who live where BYO is discouraged, or even illegal, must make do with either surreptitious “I know the owner” sneaking or the short list of dives and near-dives – usually Italian or Asian – that allow such bacchanals.

The benefit to the restaurants that allow, or even encourage, offlines are less than clear. Yes, such groups tend to tip very well. On the other hand, rowdy groups of drunks take up tables for hours, make a fearful mess, and often scare away potential drop-in customers. And the much-vaunted (by wine geeks) “word-of-mouth advertising” can’t amount to much; is there really a great clamor for BYO-friendly restaurants outside the oenophile community?

Thus, the venues that persist in their embrace of those who offline are often cherished by their habituates, sometimes all out of proportion to their objective quality. So it is with King Fung Garden, a dive to end all dives on one edge of Boston’s tiny Chinatown (the original venue, a former gas station and occasionally – if unkindly – known as “The Red Café” to certainly Old School MIT types, is a virtual paragon of wonderful dive-itude, with its shoebox size, red vinyl booths, and frequent lack of midwinter heating).

It’s not that the food is bad at King Fung. On the contrary: for dirt-cheap Chinese, it’s not bad at all, especially in the context of Boston (where Chinese food does not reach the levels of, say, San Francisco, or New York). A few Peking-style ducks, a few appetizers and sides (hold the spice, please) and most winos are perfectly satisfied. The focus, after all, is on the wine and the crowd itself. Dissenters exist, and even fans can get tired of the same food, over and over again. But for $17/head (the actual total of a recent bill; we left $30 each), how much quality and variety can one really expect?

So, when King Fung announced that they were opening a branch (cleverly named “King Fung Garden II”) in Brookline, eager offliners were all atwitter. (Or perhaps it was just MSG withdrawal.) One group of diehards was determined to be the first to break in the new digs, to blaze a new chow foon trail, to explore new horizons in lo mein.

That group: Joe “Rollbar” Perry, Charles “Hold Still & Cough” Weiss, Tim “Sure, Go Ahead, Blame Me” Tanigawa, Paul “Remains There Anyone On the Planet Who Has Not Heard My Lillie Von Schtupp Joke?” Winalski, David “Will Drive Anywhere For Riesling” Bueker, out-of-town guest Jake “Multi-faceted Geek” Parrott, Jake’s guest Martin (who wears a “what the hell am I doing here with these freaks?” expression for much of the evening), and me, your not-so-humble narrator.

The evening starts entertainingly enough, as we file into a bright white, hospital-like room notable for its near-absence of tables and chairs. In one corner, original King Fung stalwart Doris has set up a few tables of the folding variety (she adds a third when the wine payload of the first two renders them unstable and unusable), but otherwise we are just as much a sideshow for a steady procession of takeout customers as a hardy collection of wine dorks. One member of Boston’s finest even gives our table a long, amused look. We wonder if – shades of a well-known Tom Troiano Port-fest in days long-passed – he’ll be waiting for us when we emerge.

Along with Doris, our waitstaff for the evening appears to be the youngest member of the King Fung family. And I do mean youngest. Joe muses that the last time we saw him, he was in his mother’s arms and (he gestures) “about this big.”

“But Joe,” I retort, “at the time, so were you.”

Our young server takes our orders, then – despite being only five feet from the kitchen and despite the fact that there’s no one else in the restaurant at the moment – bellows a long rant in Cantonese, which eventually peters out to “never mind” in English. He then, rather sullenly, takes the order back to the kitchen himself. It’s adorable.

The wines start oddly and slowly, though we do break our usual King Fung tradition by having at least one white left to taste when the food starts to arrive. Must be the unfamiliar surroundings.

Baumard 1992 Savennières (Loire) – Drying and oxidized, with hints of stewed asparagus. Mostly dead.

“This isn’t dead,” complains Jake.

“I said ‘mostly dead.’”

Jake retastes. “OK, you’re right. Mostly dead.”

Gunderloch 2004 “Dry” Riesling 03 05 (Rheinhessen) – Under screwcap. Acidic and very tight, showing some slate and no little sulfur. I feel that this should be more interesting than it is.

Guido Cocci Grifoni “Podere Colle Vecchio” 2000 Marches Bianco (Marches) – Acidic butter. Something went wrong with this particular bottle, according to the person who brought it.

JJ Prüm 1999 Graacher Himmelreich Riesling Kabinett 15 00 (Mosel-Saar-Ruwer) – Overwhelmingly, undrinkably sulfurous. Holding my nose, I find a bit of minerality just beginning to emerge on the palate, but otherwise, this is like drinking a factory full of matchsticks.

Henschke 1995 Semillon “Louis” (Edna Valley) – That’s the Edna Valley in Australia, by the way. Fig jam, pear skin, and nice (if sweaty) minerality with a zingy top note. Very nice, and ultimately my favorite white wine of the evening…which is surprising, not just because it’s Australian, but because it’s Australian and I brought it. Well, there’s a first time for everything.

Nikolaihof 1997 Vom Stein Riesling Smaragd (Wachau) – Still difficult, showing chalky minerality, but otherwise tighter than a drum. Hmmm.

David muses that we’re an all-male group this evening. Joe responds, “well, Amy was supposed to come, but when she saw that we were all guys, she wimped out.”

This amuses both David (“she could have worn the bikini”) and me (“she could have been the center of attention…you know, like Theresa”).

“I told her that, but she said, ‘look, I know you guys, and there’s no way I’d be the center of attention. It’d be the wine, then obscure facts about the wine, then stories about people who aren’t even there, and only then would it be me.’”

We pause, agree that she’s probably right, and move on to a verbal subdivision of South Africa’s Stellenbosch region.

Talana Hill 2003 Chardonnay Paradyskloof (Stellenbosch) – Jake proves his outsider status by bringing a chardonnay. When he mentions having brought a cabernet as well, we’re about ready to boot him unceremoniously streetward, until he clarifies that he means cabernet franc. Oh, well, OK. All is forgiven. And for a chardonnay, by the way, this one isn’t bad at all: ripe red berries and Calimyrna fig. Pretty.

Edmunds St. John 2001 Los Robles Viejos (white) Rozet Vineyard (Paso Robles) – Thick, spicy peach and honeysuckle with minerality underneath. It’s in a pretty stage right now. However, I take the remnants home, and on the second day (despite sitting in the fridge) it has undergone a secondary fermentation in the bottle. So if you’ve got it, be wary…or at least, be quick about the drinking.Update: the winemaker informs me that this wine was sterile-filtered, which should have rendered a secondary fermentation an impossibility. I’m at a loss to explain this.

Heger 2003 Pinot Noir “sonett” 20 05 (Baden) – Also under screwcap, which causes Jake to double-decant the wine (“I don’t trust the Germans not to screw up the sulfur with a screwcap”). Strawberry, raspberry and gamay-like sprightliness with a little granite underneath. Like many German pinots, this would be a perfectly lovely wine were it half its actual price.

Jake chooses this opportunity to wax aphorismic: “I’ve been to the mountain, and I’ve seen all the people who didn’t make it to the mountain.” A few moments of confusion later, we all agree that neither Buddha nor Sun-Tzu are in immediate danger of displacement, and proceed to the next wine.

C&P Breton 1989 Bourgueil Grandmont (Loire) – Late-released, with the schmancy modern packaging. Gorgeous aromatics of earth and dried cherries, with a silky texture. Still youthful. Marvelous, despite the cult-Bourgueil pricing.

Ravenswood 1997 Zinfandel Teldeschi (Dry Creek Valley) – Glue. There’s heavy VA, but mostly this smells and tastes like glue. Sheesh.

Redondèl di Paolo Zanini 2003 Teroldego Rotaliano (Trentino) – Huge purple grape fruit with ripe mint juice. Completely lurid.

The wine is starting to flow fast and furious, and the conversation is getting more sub-referential by the moment. Here’s an example (identities excised to protect the guilty):

“I went to the funeral of one of the Seven Mules.”

(puzzlement)

“The ones that protected the Four Horsemen.”

“Of Notre Dame, or of the Apocalypse?”

(laughter)

“So who’s the Harlot?”

(several people at once) “Heidi Peterson Barrett!”

Amy’s reasons for absence have never been so clear.

Bouchard P&F 1995 Le Corton (Burgundy) – Dark black earth-encrusted truffle and blackberry with hazelnut and spiky acidity. Long and ostensibly still developing, but a little strange overall. Almost good, perhaps a victim of the bad Bouchard era, or perhaps just in an awkward stage.

Hudelot-Noellat 1994 Romanée St-Vivant (Burgundy) – Rough, rustic cherries with a strange, indefinable imbalance. Fun, but very much a country cousin of an RSV…not in a bad way, necessarily, but also not entirely what one might expect.

Boiron “Bosquet des Papes” 1995 Châteauneuf-du-Pâpe “Cuvée Chantemerle” (Rhône) – Smoky meat liqueur expanding to something a little fruitier on the finish. Still, the wine is a bit difficult at the moment, and might just need some time – or better company – to arrange itself.

At this point, someone pipes up with the following: “I had a nightmare where Pierre-Antoine Rovani was there in his stupid tan cap going ‘eygh eygh eygh eygh.’” This outburst presents a problem for the narrator, because its author wants no part of it, yet no one else is willing to take credit for it either. We resort to a game of chance, and Tim (to his dismay) draws the short chow foon noodle. So send your angry letters Tim-ward.

Marcarini 1998 Barolo La Serra (Piedmont) – Stunning from the first moment, showing the classic tar and roses alongside tart blackberry leaves and beautifully-textured graphite-like tannin. Still not entirely integrated, but promising much.

Bodegas Riojanas “Monte Real” 1994 Rioja “Gran Reserva” (Center-North) – Gorgeous, sweet-textured red fruit (cherries and plum juice) and gritty tannin. Pretty…no, make that exquisite. Finally, after zillions of attempts, Joe produces a Rioja that I like. I feel like marking the date on the calendar.

Charles brings forth a dessert wine that has David scrunching up his nose, apparently doing a Mark Squires imitation. “It smells like a melon that’s been pissed on by a cat.” What’s this marvel of varietal expression, one might ask? Mark would probably be the first to guess.

Köster-Wolf 2002 Scheurebe Alzeyer Römerberg Eiswein (Rheinhessen) – This wine is obviously the product of some sort of accident between several trucks, trains and carts all carrying a variety of tropical fruit, leaving a sticky residue of lime leaves and banana skin. It’s fun, but admits to no further exploration.

And with that, King Fung Garden II is duly christened. Joe packs up a few gallons of unwanted duck soup and enough chow foon to stuff a horse, Charles departs (once more foiled in his monthly attempt to demonstrate the use of his elbow glove), and Doris is left to glumly survey the mess that surrounds our table.

But for lacquered duck, we’ll be back. Oh yes. We’ll be back.

Dinner with friends. As always, the best quotes of the night have been stripped of their context and presented for the edification confusion of all.

von Schubert’schen Schlosskellerei “Maximin Grünhäuser” 2001 Riesling Sekt Brut 35 04 (Mosel-Saar-Ruwer) – Sharp iron and aluminum filings with loads of desert-like tartaric acid and dry white pepper. Extremely dry.

St. Innocent 1999 Brut (Willamette Valley) – Soft, frothy and simple sorta-fruit flavors. Not their best wine.

“The first one or two times you see the cops beat someone up, it’s kinda cool.”

Hiedler 1997 Langenloiser Schenkenbichl Weissburgunder “Maximum” (Kamptal) – Creamy apricot seed with a drying, leafy and somewhat shortish finish. Nice, but only just.

“I did notice that your head was a different shape when you walked through the door.”

Popp 2004 Rödelseer Küchenmeister Silvaner Kabinett Trocken 042 05 (Franken) – Green leaves, light tomato skin and a white pepper-dusted paper finish. Medium-crisp, with drying acidity tending towards the grapefruit part of the citrus spectrum. Enjoyable.

“Who moved my cheese?”
“You didn’t actually just say that, did you?”

Genovesi “Domaine du Bagnol” 2004 Cassis “Marquis de Fesques” (Provence) – Salted leaves and banana rind with bitter melon and a tight cord of minerality. A touch dense, but then that’s not unusual for Cassis.

Jamek 2002 Ried Klaus Riesling Spätlese Smaragd (Wachau) – Intense, ripe, sweet apple (complete with blossoms and leaves attached), spiced powdered sugar, and a finish that builds towards the huge. There’s no hurry here.

“All this time I thought it was ‘Rock Me I’m a Dumbass.’”

Rolly Gassmann 1999 Sylvaner Weingarten de Rorschwihr (Alsace) – Spiced white plum and sweet green apple with honeydew and ripe heirloom tomato around a steel core. Decidedly off-dry, but one of the best sylvaners I’ve ever tasted.

“Did you ever try putting a ham in from of them?”

Selbach-Oster 2004 Zeltinger Himmelreich Riesling Kabinett Halbtrocken 006 05 (Mosel-Saar-Ruwer) – I somehow got interrupted in my notetaking here. I wrote: vivid and nervy, with dry iron flakes and light hints of fruit, but neglected to draw any conclusions. I seem to remember thinking it was OK.

“You are not Morg, you are not Imorg.”

Christoffel 1995 Ürziger Würzgarten Riesling Auslese *** 12 96 (Mosel-Saar-Ruwer) – Intense creamed apple leaf and strawberry bark with fat blood oranges and vivid acidity. Really gorgeous right now, but probably not yet showing everything it has to offer.

Giacomo Conterno 1994 Barolo Cascina Francia (Piedmont) – Corked.

Juge 1999 Cornas “Cuvée C” (Rhône) – Slightly fruity (blackberry and black cherry), with makrut lime juice and heady sloshings of meat liqueur.

“It’s a cheese traditionally served with phlegm.”

Domaine de la Terre Rouge 1995 Syrah (Amador County) – Menthol and strident black fruit. Simple, and a bit treble-toned. Somewhat of a doofus wine, but enjoyable in its idiom.

Rieussec “Carmes de Rieussec”2002 Sauternes (Bordeaux) – Spiced plum, grown sugar and baked apple in a silky-syrupy nectar of decadence. Spiced, caramelized oak adds to the complexity.

Texier 2000 Mâcon Bussières (Mâcon) – Simple dried pineapple with hints of melon and grapefruit rind and a touch of fading, mushroomy earthiness. This is a friendly wine just leaving its middle age, and while it has lasted in fine balance, it did not reward aging by developing further complexity.

A lot of people adore the aromas and flavors of young chardonnay. I’m not one of them. It’s either too simplistic and boring au natural, or it’s tarted up with butter from its malolactic fermentation and slathered with layers toasty/spicy barrel makeup. The virgin or the whore, to borrow a characterization, with neither a complete and interesting individual. There are exceptions, but they’re occasional at best. What usually makes chardonnay interesting is its ability to bring forth its complexities and its terroir through careful aging, as so many wines from up and down the length of Burgundy (including Chablis and the Mâcon) have shown…though New World winemakers can, from the right sites, achieve this as well. Here, we have a wine that lasted…it endured six years of aging without showing either the face under the makeup or wrinkled skin over old bones…but did not age, in the sense that it did not develop and reveal hidden strengths and characters within. It’s important to understand this difference, but it’s also important to recognize that this does not devalue a wine; there is most definitely a place for wines that are upfront about their intentions from the moment they’re released. This – though it wasn’t clear to me at release – was one of them. Alcohol: 12%. Closure: cork. Importer: Louis/Dressner/LDM. Web: http://www.eric-texier.com.

Bottex Vin du Bugey-Cerdon “La Cueille” (Ain) – Strawberry Kool-Aid for adults, frothier and more sudsy than usual, with a fine particulate texture churning away into the ether. Fun, fun stuff, though not quite as fun as it usually is. Too much froth, not enough pretty pink fruit?

In these Louis/Dressner-dominated parts, this is the “other” Bugey-Cerdon (after Renardat-Fache), and usually the less fruity, more soil-driven of the two. This bottle seems a little different. It’s gamay, mostly, with some poulsard as a rule. And it’s about as pure a summer quaffing wine as one can possibly find. Alcohol: 8%. Closure: cork. Importer: Lynch.

Trimbach 2000 Gewurztraminer (Alsace) – Lychee, wet and sticky cashew, canned peach syrup, and crystalline quartz-textured spice with a mineral edge and a faintly animalistic haze (more sweat than stink). Off-dry, but quite food-friendly.

(See previous commentary on this wine.) Alcohol: 13%. Closure: cork. Importer: Diageo. Web: http://www.maison-trimbach.fr/.

Lageder “Tòr Löwengang” 2004 Pinot Bianco Haberlehof (Alto Adige) – Striking red apple skin and dark iron minerality, firm and Teutonic with splashes of crisp and intense ripe fruit. Very, very good.

The world of pinot blanc is a generally dim one, with most of the best examples from other regions – specifically, Alsace – much improved by 50/50 blending with auxerrois to lend weight, spice and impact. Here, however, the pinot blanc is a pristine vessel for the expression of the Alto Adige’s often shocking minerality. Alcohol: 13%. Closure: cork. Importer: dalla Terra. Web: http://www.lageder.com/.

Donaldson Family “Main Divide” 2002 Sauvignon Blanc (Marlborough/Canterbury) – The bright green sauvignon flavors are starting to relax a bit, showing more of the aged soda and dried green fruit flavors of this lightly-blended (10% sémillon) wine. It’s sharp and distinct, but melts on the finish with pleasantly vegetal notes.

The Donaldson’s “other” winery is Pegasus Bay, and that’s where all the critical action is. But there’s an important place for well-priced everyday wines as well, and Main Divide satisfies that need from a combination of purchased grapes and younger, not-ready-for-prime-time estate grapes. The little bit of sémillon adds a bit of welcome complexity. Alcohol: 13%. Closure: cork. Importer: Meadowbank/Empson. Web: http://www.maindivide.com/.

Ridge 1997 Lytton Springs (Dry Creek Valley) – Vanilla- and anise-scented sweet American oak essentially covering a thinning layer of blackberry and boysenberry fruit juice. This would appear to suggest further aging, but as the mild tannins in this wine are starting to bite a bit, I think Draper’s advice to drink now-ish is probably wise.

80% zinfandel, 15% petite sirah, 2% carignane, 2% mataro, 1% grenache. Paul Draper’s back label notes here rather strongly allude to a difficult year, and anytime he recommends drinking a Lytton Springs in its first five years of life, you know he’s not pleased with the results. What I wish is that he (and his working winemaker) had been a little less aggressive with the oak, because I’m not sure the wine handled it all that well. The Lytton Springs vineyard produces some of Ridge’s most structured, long-aging wines in good vintages, so this remains a bit of an anomaly. Alcohol: 14.9%. Closure: cork. Web: http://www.ridgewine.com/.

Storrs 1997 Zinfandel Lion Oaks (Santa Clara County) – Intensely concentrated “zinberry” fruit, heavy on the dried wild blackberry, wild blueberry and olallieberry (tending towards, but not reaching, the jam stage), with the receding memory of structure at the circumference. There’s still some acid, though, and this ends up being crisp and delicious, though in a narrow-focused way. I think it’s probably time to drink this, though it seems in no danger of fading quickly away.

When this wine is good, it’s very good…but it’s not good every year. The joys of a marginal climate, I guess, which would be a more European than Californian model for vineyard siting. This one has aged very nicely, but then it was always a good Lion Oaks; in recent years, the winery’s Rusty Ridge zinfandel has shown more consistency and more reliable “oomph,” which is (after all) what most consumers want from their zinfandel. Personally, I like both. Alcohol: 14.2%. Closure: cork. Web: http://www.storrswine.com/.

El Grifo 2002 Malvasía Dulce (Lanzarote) – From 500 ml. Sun-infused sweet golden melon with spiced peach pulp and baked lemon-apple brightness, soaked with concentrated but not overbearing sweetness. Just beautiful.

The moonscape viticulture on this remote Canary Island is almost impossible to believe. Not only is the soil weirdly black, but the low-slung vines are planted in individual pits to protect them from the searing and blasting winds. Why anyone would choose to make wine in such an environment is beyond me, but given the results we can be glad they do. Alcohol: 11.5%. Closure: cork. Importer: Ordoñez/MRR Traders. Web: http://www.elgrifo.com/.

Bisol Prosecco di Valdobbiadene Crede Brut (Veneto) – Quite dry and unfriendly, showing mineral bitterness and strident tones of rindy citrus. I’m not sure if the wine is angry at me or I at it, but either way it’s not a worthwhile exchange of ideas. Or maybe it’s just too dry.

Single-site Prosecco is an admirable thing, and this one is from clay with marine subsoil, and definitely shows more mineral-driven characteristics than many of its simpler brethren. It’s a shame, then, that I don’t like it more. Alcohol: 11.5%. Closure: cork. Importer: Vias. Web: http://www.bisol.it.

Donaldson Family “Main Divide” 2002 Sauvignon Blanc (Marlborough/Canterbury) – Lemon-lime giving way to ripe asparagus (not a bad thing) and leafy, late summer-sweaty aromas with a tonic undertone. Finishes a touch heavy, but very nice otherwise.

Marlborough and Canterbury don’t look that far apart on a world map, but in New Zealand distances there’s just one (sensible) road between the two, and it’s neither a wide nor a straight one. The Marlborough component of this wine must thus make its way down one of New Zealand’s endlessly perilous-but-beautiful roadways to the winery’s main facility just north of Christchurch, and one wonders what this sort of transport – common in New Zealand, actually – does to the grapes. There’s no obvious damage here, and I suspect that if the Donaldsons could make a worthwhile Canterbury-only sauvignon they would, but this is the sort of thing that leads wineries down the road of expansion. Not, to my knowledge, in the cards for the Donaldsons, but one never knows. Satellite winemaking facilities are springing up all over Marlborough. Alcohol: 13%. Closure: cork. Importer: Meadowbank/Empson. Web: http://www.maindivide.com/.

Thomas-Labaille 2004 Sancerre Chavignol Les Monts Damnés (Loire) – The first young Thomas-Labaille I’ve liked in what seems like forever. There’s intense white-toned minerality here, with green apple acidity and illuminated green grape and almost-ripe red cherry flavors, but the dominant characteristic here is the bleached stone quality. Fantastic and perfectly balanced, though definitely one of the more strong-willed Sancerres out there.

Green and rather insipid characteristics are what so many people dislike about sauvignon blanc, and most Sancerre is no exception. Part of the enthusiastic embrace of New Zealand’s wild and zingy style was a reaction to just this phenomenon. But while Sancerre can be molded into a Marlborough-style mold (as several modernistic winemakers have proved), its best examples have always been something quite different: transparent windows on the soil. Here’s an example of the latter, coming from what most acknowledge as Sancerre’s best vineyard. Alcohol: 12.5%. Closure: cork. Importer: Louis/Dressner/LDM.

Patricia Green 2002 Pinot Noir “Estate” (Yamhill County) – Initial whiffs of brett eventually fade a bit; those with an extreme aversion to brettanomyces will never embrace this, while those who enjoy a very mild amount of funk in their bass will probably enjoy the results. Anyway, there’s also vivid but elegant frothed strawberry and red cherry fruit, with hints of cranberry darting in and out of the mix, and a long, pleasant finish that leads to the barest suggestions of earthiness. A surprising effort from a New World producer in its mimicking of an Older World style, and while it’s not at the top rank of Oregon pinots, it’s certainly worth a second look.

Ms. Green calls this wine big; I’d quibble with her assessment in the context of Oregon pinot, though maybe she’s using the context of her own products. It’s certainly fruit-forward (which you’d expect from Oregon pinot), but there’s a certain restrained simplicity to the package that doesn’t admit to the excesses of the concentration-at-any-cost crowd that infests the New World of pinot these days (nor does it get buried in a tide of new wood, another egregious sin). Despite the minor flaws here and there, I rather like this wine. It has a certain sweet innocence to it, despite the slick packaging. Alcohol: 13.5%. Closure: cork. Web: http://www.patriciagreencellars.com/.

Bonny Doon “Ca’ del Solo” 2003 “Big House Red” (California) – Silly and insubstantial when first opened (for, it must be admitted, pouring into a stew), but a day by itself works wonders on the body and integration of this wine. After some alone time, it shows ripe mixed red fruit with some chunky purple grape skins and a fresh, balanced structure. The wine is good, but it’s an excellent bargain.

Mass-produced wines of this sort aren’t always as consistent as one might expect. Grape sources change, and as the costs of the raw materials goes up but the desire to maintain a price point remains, sacrifices must be made. This represents a bit of a return to form, at least based on my tastings (and this wine is a bargain staple among several of my relatives, so I get to taste it on a regular basis), with some of the recent hollow acidity being replaced by something of more weight and substance. Plus, the whole conceit behind the name and labeling is just hilarious. Alcohol: 135%. Closure: screwcap. Web: http://www.bonnydoonvineyard.com/.

Trimbach 2000 Gewurztraminer (Alsace) – Succulent ripe peach juice with bits of rose jam and lychee syrup. Off-dry, but with enough acidity, bitter melon rind and minerality to sustain the sugar. Maturing nicely, though I’m not sure I’d wait much longer to drink this.

Trimbach prefers to keep things on the dry side, but the rampant sugar levels of even marginally ripe gewurztraminer grapes make that a difficult task. In a toasty vintage like 2000, “difficult” becomes “impossible,” and the choice is between making a wine with residual sugar and gewurztraminer-flavored vodka. Still, this wine obtains much of its body from fairly high alcohol (don’t believe the label) and its impact from the usual fat, love-’em-or-hate-’em gewurztraminer aromatics, so in reality the wine achieves neither a refutation of sugar or an avoidance of overt alcoholic mass. And yet, it’s still tasty. Alcohol: 13% (but almost assuredly much higher than that). Closure: cork. Importer: Diageo. Web: http://www.maison-trimbach.fr/.

C&P Breton 2002 Bourgeuil “Nuits d’Ivresse” (Loire) – Well, if one’s nights are indeed going to be filled with intoxication, this would be a good way to go about achieving such a state. Rough, herb-filled and wet black earth with indelicate traceries of animal leavings, showing a wetly acidic chewed blackberry and dirt palate with a fine-grained powder texture and a long, supple finish. A really spectacular wine with a particularly particulate manner, and while I don’t know if it’s supposed to age or not, I know that it’s balanced enough to hint at the possibility of doing so. If, that is, one can keeps one’s lips off the bottle.

There’s another reason not to age this wine, as well: it’s one of those trendy “unsulfured” wines that seem to be barreling out of the Old World in record numbers.. This is an especially big thing in France, wherein wines are not dosed (or are just barely dosed) with protective sulfur at multiple stages during the winemaking process. That sulfur works well as a wine preservative is unquestioned. That it gives a few people bad headaches and worse is also unquestioned, though this is (by the best evidence) a very, very tiny number of people (despite the “sulfite” warnings on U.S. wine labels, which mostly serve to needlessly bewilder people who have aversions to anthocyanins or histamines, or have simply consumed too much wine in a single sitting). But the European fetish for unsulfured wines is a dangerous one for foreign – and even domestic – consumers, because it requires absolutely flawless transport and storage conditions from grape to glass in order to avoid unwanted secondary fermentation and other types of spoilage. Such conditions are pursued by many worthy concerns within the wine distribution chain, but just one broken link – for example, one truck with its interior AC off on an 80-degree afternoon – can ruin everything. I’m very much in support of unsulfured wines in theory (and this one is a beauty), but in practice I think that perhaps such experiments might be better reserved for the wines’ local markets, where storage/transport conditions are a daily and verifiable fact of life. Alcohol: 12%. Organic. Closure: cork. Importer: Louis/Dressner/LDM.

Villa Bucci 2001 Verdicchio dei Castelli dei Jesi Classico “Riserva” (Marches) – Intense seaside stones and salt-kissed greenery with a vivid citrus-melon core, under a softening and lightly spicy gauze (from the oak). An extremely elegant, sophisticated wine, though it is a bit less food-friendly than normal verdicchio as a result.

Verdicchio is unquestionably the leading grape of the Marches region of Italy, though wines from montepulciano and vernaccia garner the only DOCGs in the area, and it probably deserves a better reputation than it has. This is, no doubt, due to the general international indifference towards Italian white wines. It’s a shame, and wrong-headed, for with careful selection there’s an awful lot to like about the broad range of Italian biancos. Here, Villa Bucci is taking a slightly different path, sexing up their native variety to appeal to more jaded international tastes. Unlike most such efforts, which bury the underlying wine in a dreary haze of oak, this one is a rousing success. It’s not cheap, however, which will limit its success somewhat. Alcohol: 13%. Closure: cork. Web: http://www.villabucci.com/.

Schleret 2003 Pinot Gris Herrenweg (Alsace) – Lightly spiced pear through a thick filter. Disappointing.

Schleret is known for working in a lighter, more elegant style than many of its Alsatian brethren, but of late lightness and elegance have turned to something even less substantial. Pinot gris is rarely the most exciting of Alsace’s “noble” quartet (riesling, pinot gris, gewurztraminer, muscat), but it’s certainly more exciting than this. Things need to improve at this house. Alcohol: 13.5%. Closure: cork. Importer: Rosenthal.

Ferngrove 2003 Shiraz (Frankland River) – Big, chewy and a little overripe and overdone, with powerful blackberry jam and boysenberry syrup flavors turning to vinyl and char on the finish. Too much.

Western Australia (which is where the Frankland River appellation is) has a reputation for wines with less “oomph” than the more famous products of Barossa, Hunter and McLaren. This is, depending on one’s tastes, a good or bad thing (for me, it’s good), but it has always been possible to overachieve in such a way that the products become less distinguishable. Here’s an example of that in action; a W.A. wine that thuds and thunders on the palate like a wine from Australia’s southeastern corner. Alcohol: 14.5%. Closure: cork. Importer: American Wine Distributors. Web: http://www.ferngrove.com.au/.

Laurent Barth 2004 Sylvaner (Alsace) – Decidedly off-dry, like a purée of ripe green zebra tomatoes bathed in a light celery root syrup. Full-bodied for sylvaner, definitely less severe than usual for this grape, and fun to drink.

Tomato. For better or worse, it is the primary organoleptic indicator for Alsatian sylvaner, though I haven’t noted that the character makes the grape particularly amenable to tomatoes as a food pairing. And no matter where it’s grown, it’s tough to do much more than crisp, clean and vegetal with it; sylvaner is, like carignan, one of those grapes that appears to need just the right combination of soil, vine age and winemaking to overachieve its way beyond mediocrity. Alcohol: 12.5%. Closure: cork. Importer: Vineyard Research.

Internaz “Barone Cornacchia” 2003 Montepulciano d’Abruzzo (Abruzzi) – Blocks of light black and dark red fruit hewn from an earthy quarry, with refreshing acidity and light notes of game and pepper. Good, simple, Old World fun.

Montepulciano is frequently confused for sangiovese, no thanks to Tuscany’s Vino Nobile di Montepulciano (made, at least in part, from the latter), both on the vine and in the glass. But it has its own character – sometimes a bit like sangiovese’s less cultured country cousin, other times like its more manly older brother – when not over-spoofulated. This wine is a fine bargain for everyday drinking, in case you’re looking for such things. And who isn’t? Alcohol: 13%. Closure: cork. Importer: Ideal. Web: http://www.baronecornacchia.it/.