Browse Month

February 2009

2, 4, 6, hate…

A dispiriting update to this post on the rate of corked wines here at oenoLogic: through the first two months of the year, adjusting for screwcapped and other synthetically-sealed wines, I’m finding nearly 6.5% of my bottles TCA-enhanced. Sadly, many of them have been on the older side, and mostly irreplaceable. That number is akin to the “bad old days” of the last decade or so, and while we’ll see what the greater statistical accuracy of larger numbers brings, I think we can all agree that it’s aggravating. Perhaps last year was an anomaly, not a trend?

Existential Hengst

[turckheim]Zind-Humbrecht 1997 Gewurztraminer Hengst (Alsace) – Rich and very intense, with lychees – perhaps with a touch of tinned quality to them – making the classic aged-gewurz shift to bacon. There’s also roasted cashew, papaya, and guava…exotic notes for an already exotic grape, and no doubt a result of the way this grape and terroir have been pushed to, and perhaps a little beyond, their limits. This is also seen in the wine’s powerful sweetness, and “powerful” here is meant more as a description of the intensity of the sugar than the quantity of it, because there’s a quite acceptable balance – especially for a ’97 – marred only by a shading of surplus alcohol, and this allows a throbbing, powdery minerality (stones and coal) to show through. This is a highly tactile wine, its texture a little over-shared and slutty, but I like it nonetheless. As for maturity, I see no reason it won’t hold for a good while, but I’d think about drinking it soon for maximum impact. And I mean that last word wholeheartedly. (2/09)

Mr. T

Ken Forrester 2005 “T” Noble Late Harvest (Stellenbosch) – From 375 ml, 100% chenin blanc, 115.7 g/l residual sugar, 14.5% alcohol. Holy Mother of God, is this sweet. Pure syrup of botrytized chenin, represented as mixed tropical fruits, dried apricots, and blended sugars and honeys of every sort. Aromatically, hints of a pan-Mediterranean fruitiness and herbality add complexity, and the acidity’s not bad at all, though of course it trembles in, and cannot emerge from, the shadow of this much sugar. Very, very, very long, and not just as a result of stick-and-cling. Intense and frankly fantastic, but in a highly particular style that will definitely not appeal to everyone. I’d love to revisit this in a few decades. Also: not even close to cheap. (2/09)

Montelena Olin

[vineyard]Montelena 1987 Cabernet Sauvignon (Napa Valley) – 14.01% alcohol. Those were the days, eh? Though I can’t help see the precision of the number as a sort of jibe. Anyway…the wine’s highly structured, but everything else is quite advanced (especially the color), and I think drinking is in order over the next few years. Tobacco, gravel, and cassis liqueur are present, but the dominant impression is a dusty austerity. Restrained, but not I think by middle age, but by its basic nature. A good, not great, Montelena. (2/09)

Massachusetts milkshake

Occhipinti 2006 Il Frappato (Sicily) – Red and black raspberries, a touch of volatile acidity, and a nudge of brett. Very pointed and angular. A fun, sprightly wine with zing and zip (though watch those prickly biochemical issues), and one that slashes and hacks through food in a most enjoyable way. This is a very different wine than the one I tasted a year ago, and I don’t know whether to blame evolution or deviation. Or both. In this incarnation, however, an important caveat: it’s not really worth its tariff, which is significant. (2/09)

Bar-beer-cue

[label]Harpoon “100 Barrel Series” Rauchfetzen Ale (Massachusetts) – Light on the smoke, and fairly insufficient otherwise. It’s an easy quaff, but it doesn’t mean anything. On the positive side, it’s more drinkable as a standalone than most brews in this style. (2/09)

Blanche Dubois

Josephine Dubois 2004 Chablis Montmains 1er Cru “Terre Minerale” (Chablis) – Seashells bracket an otherwise flatlined nose. The palate is sweet’n’sour, with a weird finish of stale cracker and old clam juice. I’m inclined to give up on the wine, but as it warms beyond the usual Chablis temperature range and airs it improves a bit (not that surprising for a Chablis, I suppose), becoming slightly more appealing, cohesive, and recognizably Chablisienne. (Is that the word?) It never really rises above mediocrity, but it’s not bad either, and as with most Chablis time is likely to clarify matters. (2/09)

Star Tours

[label]Reynaud “Château des Tours” 1998 Vacqueyras “Réserve” (Rhône) – Open several days, with a few glasses absent by the time I get to it. Darkly concentrated blackberry and even darker smoke liqueur, with a counterpoint of walnut soda. Open-ended, by which I mean the initial impression of fruit does a reverse dovetail and leaves an ever-increasing gap as the wine progresses towards the finish. A fruit microbomb, not sophisticated in the least, but not truly explosive either. Freshly-opened bottles have been impenetrable, and given the state of this wine I see absolutely no reason to open any more at this stage. (2/09)