de Conciliis 2008 Cilento Fiano “Donnaluna” (Campania) – Boring and alcohol-dominated. While there’s some simplistic ashen, waxy throb underneath the booze, it would take an awful lot of wine to surmount this much heat. (5/10)
Browse Month
July 2010
Ascheri film
Ascheri 2005 “do ut des il Gusto della Solicarietà” Verduno Pelaverga (Piedmont) – Fruit with a bite, partially due to acidity but also thanks to an angular pink-purple sharpness all its own. Plum, raspberry, and razor blade. Very interesting. (5/10)
A rosso is a rosso
Vajra 2006 Langhe Rosso (Piedmont) – Very pretty. Crushed, partially dried old roses, dark and a little dusty, but still pure. Soft earth. Gorgeous texture. And all for an absurdly low price. Hard to beat, really. (5/10)
Par
Bisson 2007 Golfo del Tigullio “Ciliegiolo” (Liguria) – More interesting than good, with an unfocused burst of random florality and fabric softener luridness. Makes an impression, but I’m not sure what that impression is. I keep wanting to like this, but it never quite lives up to its price…which is high for a rosé. (5/10)
CPE
Trimbach 2006 Pinot Blanc (Alsace) – Fuzzy and maturing, which is a good thing here; the primary apricot zing has coppered and rounded. Matters fall off on the finish, though. It’s still a light, small wine, but it’s more interesting than it was. Drink up. (5/10)
Christine l’Heureux
Brunel 1995 Châteauneuf-du-Pape Les Cailloux “Cuvée Centenaire” (Rhône) – Meat liqueur heavy on the salt. Youngish in a way, still showing blackberry amidst its more mature, meat-jerky stew components, but it’s fairly solid and unexpressive. And is that a remnant of vanilla? I wish I liked this more. (5/10)
My belle
Michel “Domaine de la Charbonnière” 2000 Châteauneuf-du-Pape “Cuvée Vieilles Vignes” (Rhône) – Corked. (5/10)
Starship ballad
Michel Perraud 1999 Cornas “Sarah” (Rhône) – Grippy but light-styled, showing rough (and surprisingly red) fruit, earth, nuts, olives, and ground peppercorns. But really, that grocery list makes the wine sound more interesting than it actually is. Mostly, it’s simple and short…a wine with training wheels and a flimsy frame. (5/10)
Angrier than a Rosacker of cats
Mallo 2002 Riesling Rosacker (Alsace) – Salted rocks, banana leaves, and aggressive minerality pushed to the side by over-softening, wimpy residual sugar. The salinity is strident, and there are darker, smokier elements within, but why must such nice raw materials be rendered so spineless? This is at worst a very good, and at best an unparalleled, terroir. Mallo’s house style is soft and sweet, to be sure, but it serves this wine – which could have been great, but instead is merely good – very, very poorly. (5/10)
Mohua the lawn
Mohua 2008 Pinot Noir (Central Otago) – Starts off with the bitter beet, dusty blackberry, and blood orange rind so common to New Zealand pinots (is this a clonal issue? it sure seems ubiquitous), but then goes absolutely nowhere. Half of a good wine. Where’s the second act? (5/10)