Browse Month

May 2008

Middletown dreams

[sylvanerAlbert Seltz 2006 Sylvaner de Mittelbergheim (Alsace) – Varietally true. Wet-acid tomatoes and grass with an arctic minerality, yet all fairly subdued and low-volume. Good for sylvaner, but it lacks that extra edge of complexity that some can give it. (5/08)

Blanc in blanc

[vineyard]Albert Seltz 2006 Pinot Blanc “Réserve” (Alsace) – Nicely balanced between light stone fruit and heavier spice, perhaps with a leavening touch of residual sugar. Very drinkable. (5/08)

Seltzer

[vineyard]Albert Seltz 2005 Riesling (Alsace) – Riesling on the rocky side; big chunks of white-hued stone with no apparent generosity or softening on the immediate horizon. This is an older style of riesling that few make these days – Beyer more than Trimbach – and without age it’s hard to say in which direction it will go. But it certainly will need age. (5/08)

Sito Corleone

Gaja 2004 Langhe “Sito Moresco” (Piedmont) – Less delicious than a year ago, still tasting of very expensive wood ground into the finest particulate texture, but with the smooth, balancing fruit starting to erode. It continues to caress the tongue, but there’s some fine-grained sandpaper newly entered into the caress. The near future of this wine is wood, wood, and more wood, so the remaining hope is that it comes out the other end with some interesting fruit to match the arboreal sensations. (5/08)

Burn the heretics!

Iché 2005 Vin de Pays de l’Hérault “Les Hérétiques” (Languedoc) – Solid, dark fruit residue with a hint of meat and wild thyme. It’s tempting to call this wine pro-forma, but that’s only due to familiarity; this remains, even given the terrible dollar/euro exchange, a very good value that plays well with wines twice its price. But…alas, the recent passing of its maker leaves this (along with the rest of the Oupia line) in doubt. (5/08)

Tijou for two

Tijou “Château Soucherie” 2005 Anjou (Loire) – Chalk-dusted wax and a memory of honeycomb, round and supple with a long, lingering finish. Very pleasant. (5/08)

A fine fennel of fish

[vineyards]Soard “Domaine de Fenouillet” 2005 Beaumes-de-Venise “Terres Blanches” (Rhône) – Beaumes-de-Venise is the most ungenerous, unfruity, unyielding appellation in the Southern Rhône; it’s not the tannin (as in Gigondas) or the roasting (as in Rasteau), it’s the quartz-driven, completely mineralistic dominance of the fruit that renders the wines completely impenetrable to fruit-hounds. Here, it’s the essence of the wine, with a little dried-and-hard drapery of the blackest fruit, but without the proper balancing structure; as a result, it’s a little like putting rocks in one’s mouth, rather than drinking a beverage. Time might help, and this is certainly not a wine for youthful quaffing, but I just don’t know if this has a promising future. (5/08)

Closel the Vaults

Jessey “Domaine du Closel-Château des Vaults” 2004 Savennières “La Jalousie” (Loire) – Generous, chalky, and surprisingly fruit-forward for a chenin (though “fruit” here is very loosely-defined; this would be some sort of exotic melon after a chalkboard accident), with a pleasant approachability but the structure for short-term development. I wouldn’t push it too long, though it’s important to note that I’m not a fan of oxidized Savennières; those who like that expression should hold it with impunity. (5/08)

Up & up

[bottle]Alvear Montilla-Moriles Oloroso “Asuncion” (Andalucía) – Very intense, full of old spice and dried-out dates, both hollowed out by the antiquing of ultra-aged wood (I’m not talking about the winemaking here, but the organoleptics). Peppery complexities and a fuller, almost fruit-related character add to the finish. Very interesting. (5/08)

Rendezvous

[bottle]Alvear 2003 Montilla-Moriles Fino “En Rama” (Andalucía) – This is a richer, bigger style of fino; not heavy, but intense, with a little more salt and slightly rancid nut oil (maybe a personal thing) than usual. Enjoyable. (5/08)