Browse Month

May 2009

Radikon job

[grapes]Radikon 2002 Venezia Giulia Ribolla Gialla (Friuli-Venezia Giulia) – While it’s never entirely clear what sort of wine one is going to get when one removes the tiny, Virginia Slims-sized cork from a bottle of Radikon, anticipation of the unexpected more than makes up for the lack of predictability. That said, any expectations one might have for this bottle are pretty much detonated at first sniff. And no, I do not mean that negatively. This wine is as explosive as the beverage can get…not in the goopy, thermonuclear fruit device fashion so popular among certain subsets, but in its mushrooming billows of complexity and evolving structure. Deep bronze in color and in sheathing, then wrestling free of its jacketing with lava flows of slow-baked stone fruit (leaning towards the tropical…let’s say papaya, more for the fun of naming an actual fruit than from any commitment to organoleptic accuracy), then pulsing in gravitic undulations of aromatic expansion and structural contraction. To a certain extent, most wines made in this fashion are “red wines,” but this is redder than most, and the deep, autumnal aromas that dance around the perimeter lavishly Burgundian. Honestly, this is breathtaking, a sure-fire cure for vinous ennui, and sufficient reason all by itself to make wine a part of one’s life. (4/09)

The Rust is yet to cum

Monastero Suore Cistercensi S.O. Trappiste 2007 “Coenobium Rusticum” (Lazio) – Placed on the “orange wine” spectrum, this is the fresh, lively fruit bomb with the heart of a proto-star. The metals on the surface are polished and nearly 100% reflective, the fruit within is intense and leans on crispness and an almost pineapple-like vivacity, and the wine’s acidity is far more prominent – though I can’t necessarily say it’s quantifiably greater – than is typical for wines of this ilk. Along ilk-ish lines, then, this wine laughs while others ponder, sings while others hum, and dances while others prepare for bed. It’s a wine with a sense of humor – now look at the name of the owner of the vines, and figure that one out – and while it’s more complex and contemplative than the vast majority of the world’s wines, within its cohort and context it is the joyful, playful fountain of youth. It gives you hugs, though it whispers philosophy in your ear while it does so. How can one not love this wine? (4/09)

Nail

[label]Storrs 1999 Zinfandel Rusty Ridge (Santa Clara County) – Singing. Full-throated but domesticated berries – a mélange – with layers of toast and old pepper, antique wooden furniture, and the lovely blended aromas of sprightly green trees sprouting amidst the charred husks of a burned-out old-growth forest. While the fruit’s not fully developed and “mature,” the wine is, and despite the lack of a hurry to uncork it, I can’t imagine it being much better than it is right now. It’s not wood-free, but it’s really quite lovely. (4/09)

Mad Larose

Cordier “Château Gruaud Larose” 1988 Saint-Julien (Bordeaux) – A touch surly at uncorking, its fist clenched around an angry little core of hard fruit. Over the course of about an hour (undecanted), it unfolds to somewhere a bit shy of full expression, uncovering layers of tobacco, fresh oak ash, fired rosemary, the darkest cassis powder, and other assorted blackish aromas, along with the expected low-toned funk. At the peak of its evolution, it’s really quite attractive, though I would by no means call it an entirely complete or balanced wine (the tannin’s too prominent, the fruit’s a little charred, and the complexities are more at odds than harmonic). And then, the fist re-clenches and the wine turns to charcoal. While I find this a most enjoyable wine when caught at the right moment, I would be very wary of its future; it most certainly has a long one, but it will likely be filled with unresolved bitterness. (4/09)

Clean Jean

[vineyard]Miquel “Domaine de Barroubio” 2004 Muscat de St-Jean-de-Minervois (Languedoc) – There are zillions of sweet muscats that taste more or less the same, and the intersection of those descriptions (freshly-crushed flowers, exotic perfumes, fresh oranges, highly approachable sweetness) is less interesting than the rest. Here, it’s a transparent, quartzy minerality and a good deal of lightly-herbed sea salt; both are decidedly background material to the usual muscattishness, but they’re there, and they make all the difference. As for this particular bottling, it’s starting to bronze a bit – both color and flavor – which tames its exuberance but replaces it with a certain maturity of character. Very nice. (4/09)

That’s a lato sweet wine

[bottle]Maculan 2003 Breganze Torcolato (Veneto) – 375 ml. Very, very sweet peach and ambered pear, a little metal, a lot of baking spice, and the finishing impression of ultra-filtered maple syrup (that is, clearer than grade A light amber). Perhaps not as crisp as one would want, but still very appealing. (4/09)

Maculan 2003 Breganze Torcolato (Veneto) – 375 ml. See above, re: organoleptics. The wine’s a bit fat, or perhaps blowsy, which I suppose is a vintage artifact, and thus it lacks the nerve that, for me, has always set it slightly apart from and above the typical flaws of Sauternes-style wines (most specifically, Sauternes itself). This is not a wine to age…not that Maculan Torcolato benefits all that much from more than a few years’ aging in even the best vintages. (4/09)

Maculan 2003 Breganze Torcolato (Veneto) – 375 ml. Better than the previous two. The aromas are identical, but the structure is ever so slightly firmer, which really helps the wine’s form. Still, it will never be a great Torcolato. It will have to settle for being very good. (4/09)

Onwest

Easton 2006 Zinfandel (Amador County) – Forward fruit with some stick and tack, its berries redder and a little more syruped than might be expected (the wine isn’t heavy, though it is big), its structure mostly hand-waved, its finish a diminuendo of simplicity. It’s zin. It’s very, very, very cleanly-made. It’s good, but read between the lines. Or, read the lines themselves. Either’s good. (4/09)

Violinville

[winemaker]Easton 2002 Zinfandel (Fiddletown) – Deeply infused with the aromas of the pine forest, both the cold, airy soil and the resinous overgrowth. The fruit, dark as always, has contracted a bit, losing none of its intensity but a measurable quantity of its breadth and roundness. And there’s pepper, too…black, almost Tellicherry-esque pepper. This is a wine with something to say, and the story it’s telling is about where it’s from. (4/09)

Easton 2002 Zinfandel (Fiddletown) – More subdued than the previous bottle, with a leathery and very nearly buttery pressure on its fruit that never quite relents. It’s good, but it doesn’t speak as clearly as its predecessor. I set it aside for a day, just to see if there’s low-level TCA, but if anything it expands on day two, yet still without delivering the full expression of its fruit. (4/09)

Chtxktxhch

Txomin Etxaniz 2007 Getariako Txakolina “Getaria” (Northwest Spain) – Somewhere between perlant and pétillant, and yanking the promise of electric greenness so far to the left that the wine turns to a blinding shade of white…slashing, shocking, but never alighting. I dig it. There’s more than can be done with this grape, and I’d call this txakolina 1.5 (that is, not quite the 2.0 of Ameztoi), but even this much is awfully appealing with the right chill and the right food (saline, with a shell or carapace, and not otherwise doused with flavorants). (4/09)

Wes

[bottle]Roederer Estate Brut (Anderson Valley) – This is the most reliably attractive Champagne-style sparkling wine from the U.S., until one is willing to spend a good deal more, and has been for so long it’s almost boring to repeat the recommendation. But why not? Good work should be rewarded. No, it’s not an exciting wine, but it delivers the classic blended-Champagne tastes amped up to about 15, as one would except from California (even from a cool-ish appellation), yet never heavy or ponderous. No, it won’t make you turn away from Champagne if price is no object. And if it is? The appeal starts to mount. (4/09)