Browse Month

January 2010

Jeff Bézios

Bézios “Domaine la Croix des Marchands” 2007 Gaillac (Southwest France) – A goofy bottle, a goofy wine. Crisp doesn’t really hit the mark here…sharp is closer…with biting fruit full of black skins, seeds, and stems. Pretty insipid, to be honest. (10/09)

Driving into the past

[misty larrau gorge]Contradiction. Confusion. Clarity. I’m in search of all three, and expect to find them where I’m headed. Yet another disputed region in which conflict catalyzes creativity, and where traditions elsewhere preserved in amber and writ are not yet done being made. Where one’s geographical location depends on who one asks, where language is who one is rather than what one speaks, and where home is what one is called rather than where one lives. Where the streets have neither no nor one name, but two. And where the beef on one’s plate might actually be watermelon.

…continued here.

My heart’s on fire, el Vajra

[vineyard]Vajra 2008 Moscato d’Asti (Piedmont) – No mistaking what this is. But in addition to the usual flower shop/perfume truck accident, there’s weight, and texture beyond the fizz, and even some smoothly polished minerality. It’s not heavy (nor is it my brother), but it’s more interesting than most within the genre. (1/10)

Come to an Alte

[logo]Nigl 1996 Grüner Veltliner “Alte Reben” (Kremstal) – I don’t know if this is fully developed, but it’s drinking awfully well at the moment. Celery dust. The wine’s ripe but precise, with rocks and sweat more dominant than any sensation of fruit. Finishes long, with pepper in both powdered and seeded form. Swirls and evades as much as it envelops. Really quite delicious. (1/10)

Catin the hat

Clos du Mont-Olivet 2007 Côtes-du-Rhône “Serre de Catin” (Rhône) – Approachable despite fairly hefty tannin, with all the Côtes-du-Rhône signatures in place and otherwise in balance. Finishes long and solid. It’s good as a cocktail wine, and lightens just enough with (strongly-flavored) food to support dining. I guess this is the sort of thing the vintage-hypers are referring to when they extol the top-to-bottom quality of 2007 Rhônes, but as ever the actual performances will be more complicated than that. This could age for a while, I suspect, but it’s probably a better reflection of its intentions if consumed in its exuberant youth. (1/10)

Hemo Kritt

[domaine]Gresser 2007 Pinot Blanc Kritt (France) – Fine-grained. Kritt wines tend to sort of suggest rather than define minerality, and while this is easy to discern in riesling from the site, it’s less immediately apparent in other grapes. Here, it’s a blended element, along with chilly, fresh-from-the-refrigerator apricot and nectarine, some grapefruit, and a surprisingly firm texture. This has been a house on the rise for a while, and the quality at this level is quite high for the price. (1/10)

100 meter

Dashe 2002 Zinfandel (Dry Creek Valley) – 14.5%. About 50% there, which means that while the coconut and tannin are still hanging about, the suppler, spicier fruit of aged zin is starting to emerge. What this means in terms of drinkability, unfortunately, is that the pose is that of a somewhat gangly teenager. Wait a bit longer. (1/10)

Worm d’or

[vineyard]Vollenweider 2008 Wolfer Goldgrube Riesling Spätlese “Goldkapsel” 05 09 (Mosel) – Very ripe. Very, very ripe. Very, very, very…oh, hell, you know where I’m going with this. But it is…ripe, I mean…though there’s a flood of acidity to match it, and it actually manages a fierce, fisticuffs-in-lava sort of balance. Apples? Sure, why not? Mineral-grayed coarse sea salt as well. Fascinating. And very young. Very, very young. Very, very, very… (1/10)

Bar Graff

Graff Family Vineyards 2007 Pinot Blanc (Chalone) – 14.3%. Recognizably pinot blanc, in its apricot (plus apricot skin) and dulled bronze way, but this is a little drenched and weighty for the grape, and despite entirely decent acidity, the relatively minor layer of oak offsets any brightness or lightness the wine could use to combat that weight. I don’t want to overstate the criticism, however, because it’s a perfectly decent wine. (1/10)

Beblen brook

[vineyard]Deiss 1997 Pinot Gris Beblenheim (Alsace) – For a 1997, this has a surprising amount of balancing acidity, though it’s still not enough to support the metallic pear soup weight of the wine. Still, crystalline minerality is also in play, as are mineral salts and a cured woodfruit finish, and this is not at all bad in a year from which I like very little of Deiss’ work. (1/10)