Browse Month

August 2009

Don’t kill the whale

[label]Ace WineCo. “Leviathan” 2007 Red (California) – Chewy, moderately candied berries, pushed beyond their useful life and then given a chocolate bar for endurance. Textbook, middle-of-the-road, cookie-cutter California red goop, found at all prices and levels of rarity in a point-distributing magazine near you. So is this a pan? No, not really. It’s perfectly fine, and achieves its goals. And look: the warning’s right there on the label. “Leviathan.” You can’t say you weren’t warned. Let’s hope the reserve wine isn’t called “Cthulu.” (7/09)

Trappiste family singers

Monastero Suore Cistercensi S.O. Trappiste 2006 “Coenobium” (Lazio) – There sure is a lot of bottle variation with this wine. I expect a little more consistency from nuns…though I suppose the highly naturalistic Bea influence must deserve the credit and.or blame. This is one of the not-great bottlings, expressed – as usual – not by some flaw, but by an insistent argument for indifference. Some of the skin-contact signs are there in the structure, but the miasmatic minerality is more mushy than complex, and the wine just sort of sits there, lifeless. (7/09)

Voûte early, Voûte often

Chanrion “Domaine de la Voûte des Crozes” 2002 Côte-de-Brouilly (Beaujolais) – Not an appellation I usually think to age, but a bottle showed up in a local closeout bin, and so why not? Sharp cherry, with a zip almost akin to that of soda…but there’s nothing artificial here, just pure fruit. A bit of graphite sheeting hangs around to see what’s happening, but this has largely been stripped down to its core identity. (7/09)

Soup

Campbell’s Tokay (Rutherglen) – From 375 ml. Sticky-sweet butterscotch and reduced, slightly charred clove honey. Brown sugar drizzled with grade B maple syrup. Did I mention the sugar? (7/09)

Greenie

[label]Verdi 2007 Oltrepò Pavese Vigna Costa Riesling Renano (Lombardy) – Less riesling character than in any previous bottle, and while I love the grape I’m not sure the diminishment is to the wine’s detriment. Sea salt and melon, limestone, slightly decayed flowers, and a textural wetness…it gets more intriguing with each sip. Yet I’m also not entirely convinced by the wine, which seems to churn and curl away from clear statements and wholeness. Needs time, maybe. (7/09)

Little canals

Bera 2006 Cannelli “Arcese” (Piedmont) – Open for four days by the time I get to it, but still hanging onto sweet-smelling, perfumed garden fruit and a deliberate lightness. Pretty, even in its diminished state. (7/09)

Cornalin-to

[vineyard]Grosjean 2004 Cornalin Vigne Rovettaz (Vallée d’Aoste) – Aromatically difficult, and it seems like it should be more generous, so I may just have caught this at a bad time. There’s a tension between a sweet-fruited, earthy-floral core and a rougher, shouldery structure that reminds me a bit of the similar tension in Piedmontese dolcetto, but there’s decidedly more minerality here, and the structure isn’t quite as strident. Seems very promising, but now isn’t its time. (7/09)

How green is my Vallières?

[label]JM Burgaud 2007 Régnié Vallières (Beaujolais) – Tart strawberry, vivid and crisp. There’s some salty ferric stuff, as well, but mostly this is about incisive – or perhaps incising – fruit. (7/09)

Go to the Mât

Dr. Parcé “Domaine du Mas Blanc” 2006 Banyuls “Le Mât Blanc Fruité” (Roussillon) – Despite the name, this is red. Raspberry-sauced chocolate, full and (as promised) fruity, with only the minor interference of oxidation. However, the concentration on fruit brings out some of the grenache-y bubblegum aromas, which (for me) detract from the unique qualities of Banyuls. It’s Banyuls with training wheels, and good in that idiom, but I think I prefer something a little more authentic. (7/09)