Browse Month

May 2010

Nau free

Scholium Project 2008 “Naucratis” Lost Slough (California) – 16.3% California verdejo, and isn’t there just bound to be a massive potential market for such a thing? Very spicy. Perfumed roses, lots of skin to the structure, huge, and very hot. This is served blind, and I get nowhere even vaguely close. (3/10)

Aubry Hepburn

L. Aubry 2003 Champagne Brut “Le Nombre d’Or” (9/09 disgorgement) (Champagne) – Fascinating. Exotic pear. Very floral and boisterous. Fun and yet odd. Considering what this is made from – fromenteau, petit meslier, and arbanne – there’s little surprise I’m having trouble getting a handle on it, or contextualizing it within my expectations for Champagne. (3/10)

Séguret squirrel

Domaine de Mourchon 2005 Côtes-du-Rhône-Villages Séguret (Rhône) – Open for 24 hours by the time I taste it. Big, dusty, and dark, showing strawberry bubblegum and hard tannin. Very purple in nearly every aspect. A little angry. But good. (3/10)

Rolly polly

Rolly Gassmann 1998 Gewurztraminer Stegreben de Rorschwihr “Vendanges Tardives” (Alsace) – Not all that sweet, actually. Leaves, dark skins, and structural acidity dominate. Perhaps a bit of weediness? A pleasant kind, if so. Juicy and rather beautiful, though I think it needs drinking. (3/10)

Donjonson

Lucien “Le Vieux Donjon” 1990 Châteauneuf-du-Pape (Rhône) – Smells like a Burgundy, tastes like a Rhône…but something more northerly, perhaps Côte-Rôtie, in its elegance and restraint. And it’s still very primary tannic and tight, albeit from a glacial cellar; more typical cellaring environments might lead to different results. It’s full of suggestions, gestures, and hints, with a peacock tail of aromas just waiting to burst forth. Classy and portending beauty. (3/10)

Descombes your hair

Descombes 2006 Brouilly (Beaujolais) – Fiercely acidic. Raspberry, cranberry, and underbrush…but this is like trying to drink from a spiked metal helmet. Liquefied iron arrives somewhere within the finish. A little brett, too? Impossible to ignore, screeches for food, and while I like it, I think it will need to be addressed as Mistress Descombes in the future. (3/10)

Gofeet

Goyard “Domaine de Roally” 1999 Mâcon-Villages “Tradition” (Mâcon) – Vivid and beeswaxy, commencing in a linear fashion, growing rounder and fleshier around the waist, and then tapering again into the finish. Dry honey, chalk, crystals. After an hour or so, there’s a hint of butter. A really, really good wine, and my best bottle of this yet. (3/10)

Free Radikon

Radikon 2003 Ribolla Gialla (Venezia Giulia) – Creamy, with that odd tension between stone fruit and ripe red berries that so often marks this grape when made in this fashion. There’s skin tannin, but it’s milder than normal (possibly a consequence of the vintage, though if so it runs counter to the excess/underripe-tannin problem that plagues so many 2003s), and while the wine feels heavy on the palate, it lightens considerably by the time the finish rolls around. A good, not great, Radikon ribolla, but considering the elevated starting position there’s no real shame in that. (3/10)