Browse Month

January 2007

TN: Better red than dead

[label]Lustau Tintilla de Rota (Andalucía) – I think I’ve had this wine more often as a party trick (“hee-hee, it’s ‘red Sherry’”) (even though it’s really not) than as an actual beverage, so it’s nice to contemplate it a little more seriously. Candied red fruit – think Christmas cakes of various sorts – with a touch of tannin and a lot of tooth-abrading sweetness. It’s good in very tiny sips, but I wouldn’t want to drink much of it. Perhaps it’s better as a party trick after all. (1/07)

TN: Hey, Marcarini!

[still life]Marcarini 2005 Moscato d’Asti (Piedmont) – Yet another perfume truck crashed through the window of a florist, though in this case both are carrying a higher-quality cargo than is the norm. There’s a little bit of translucent fruit flesh underneath, but despite the aromatics and/or the fruit I’ve come to experience these wines as frothy, delightful expressions of fermented light. (1/07)

TN: Mercurey rising

de Villaine 2004 Mercurey Le Montots (Burgundy) – Variable, difficult vintage, blah, blah, blah. Here’s yet another reminder – there can never be too many – to ignore vintage charts and pay attention to the producer. This is gorgeous, succulent, elegant, beautiful Burgundy. It takes a few moments to rev the engines, but when it does they purr like pampered kittens on a fuel of soft red fruit, black trumpet mushroom and gentle, autumnal breezes graced with the faintest hint of black licorice. (1/07)

TN: Chicken Coturri

[label]Coturri 2004 Grenache Testa (Mendocino County) – Ah, the dreaded Coturri. Thankfully, there’s nothing at all wrong with this wine, except perhaps that it is ripe grenache, and tastes like fermented bubblegum. I’m no grenache-hater, but this is a one-note wine. Acid, yes, and balance as well. But still one loud, braying note of gum-popping cheerleader. I’ll pass, thanks. (1/07)

TN: Going down lagrein

Mumelter “Griesbauerhof” 2004 Lagrein (Alto Adige) – It’s light, it’s heavy, it’s light, it’s heavy. This wine pulses with a dark energy, a blood-stained metal bar reaching back for another blow to the head, then a friendly, fresh-faced basket of fruit and red, summery flowers. It’s a disturbing juxtaposition, frankly, but the wine somehow works. There’s a bit of brett, but just a complexing accent rather than a palate-wearying slathering. I’d let it age. (1/07)

TN: We are the Champigny my friends

[label]Vatan “Chateau du Hureau” 2004 Saumur-Champigny (Loire) – Sharply delineated, with crisp, blackish-purple juice studded with thyme zinging and slashing on the palate, then perhaps turning somewhat shyly remorseful as the finish gathers and rounds itself into a more coherent, cohesive whole. But it’s still a bit sharp. (1/07)

TN: Sicilian gold

COS 2004 Cerasuolo di Vittoria (Sicily) – Heady, dark fruit aromas richly redolent of Mediterranean herbs and slightly exotic North African spices roasting over an open fire. It’s a big, luscious wine that never crosses the line into ponderousness or stewed characteristics, and part of that is the smoky undertone of dark, almost charred minerality. Really, really good. (1/07)

[bottle]de Bartoli Marsala Superiore “Oro 5 Anni” Vigna La Miccia (Sicily) – Stunning. The creamiest, most delicate saltwater taffy in a lithe, utterly seductive liquid form. It kisses and caresses, then lingers to a point of almost painful beauty. Majestic. Pure. Flawless. (1/07)

TN: Oh when the grapes go Marches in

[label]Coroncino 2004 Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi “Gaiospino” (Marches) – This wine has presence and style, but it also has a quite noticeable dollop of wood, and there’s just not enough other stuff to stand up to it. A little acid rears its head here, a tart melon there, a squirt of lemon spatters off the surface, but mostly this is a lightly- but over-oaked wine that just doesn’t bring much authentic pleasure. (1/07)

TN: Roussanne, you don’t have to turn on the red light

[label]Texier 2005 Côtes-du-Rhône Brézème Roussanne (Rhône) – Spiced canned pear – freshly canned, not some ancient supermarket relic – and hazelnut oil with cracked clay desiccating in the sun. It appears fat, and yet somehow the weight seems more a matter of bulky clothing than blowsy opulence; there’s a honed quality that survives despite a much lower acidity than the majority of the whites I drink. Perhaps it’s higher than normal for roussanne due to the Brézème terroir? Well, whatever the case, it’s a delicious wine. (1/07)

TN: Premier league

[logo]Roederer Champagne “Brut Premier” (Champagne) – Heavy on the brioche, setting a sort of dark brown mood. Traces of lusty red and orange fruit linger in the background, slightly timid in the presence of such dominant pastry. A good, if particular, Champagne. (1/07)