Montalbera 2008 Ruché Castagnole Monferrato “La Tradizione” (Piedmont) – Actually restrained for a ruché, though threatening to burst from its containment cell at any moment. I’m not sure I’ve ever successfully described the aromas of a ruché, and I doubt I’ll start now. There’s a whole bouquet of flowers, various fruit syrups (though the wine’s not the least bit sweet), berries, citrus – both juice and rind – and some other stuff that I couldn’t even begin to describe. Yet here it’s veiled, a bit, letting the rough-cut structure take over more of the leading actor’s lines. I can’t quite decide if I like it or not. I think I do, but I keep expecting more, so maybe I don’t. (11/10)
Browse Month
January 2011
Bosquetball
Boiron “Bosquet des Papes” 1999 Châteauneuf-du-Pape (Rhône) – I expected this to be considerably more advanced than it is, but frankly it’s showing in such a way that if this were from my stash (it’s from the wine list at Hearth in Manhattan), I’d hold the rest for another five years at minimum before I even considered opening another bottle. Dark earth, rosemary, morel, a bit of blackberryish meatfruit, pepper, and then there’s that black licorice/green olive element. Still highly structured. Very, very puzzling. (11/10)
Averous, then make gravy
Cazes “Château Haut-Bages Averous” 2004 Pauillac (Bordeaux) – Deep, dark fruit…really more black cherries and blackberries than anything in the currant family…with layers of satiny texture. There is, blessedly, a feuilleté of tobacco and cedar floating around in there somewhere. I can say this is recognizably Bordeaux and really very good, but the current state thereof has to be considered for context; I’m not sure this is what fans of the ultra-traditional are looking for. I think, though, that it’s got as good a chance as many modern wines to approach that state at some point in the future. Or maybe I’m wrong about that. Either way, it’s an impressive, muscular, but not overtly steroidal wine at the moment, and even if that’s all it ever achieves, it’s not so bad. I can say this with more equanimity because I have no idea what this costs, and would probably prefer to not find out. (11/10)
Terrisses navidad
Cazottes “Domaine des Terrisses” 2007 Gaillac (Southwest France) – On one of the various wine fora a few weeks ago, someone asked if pyrazines were considered a flaw in Bordeaux. That the question was even asked made me a bit sad for a moment. A wine with the cabernets in it, and pyrazines are now considered a flaw? Must we eradicate beautiful greenness from every single wine on the planet, not stopping until everything tastes like low-acid zinfandel? Well, the question says a lot about Bordeaux in 2010, but for those who might experience a similar shudder, there are wines like this: not only green-edged, but expressing a fair amount of puréed Kermit at the core, as well. But not, in what is unfortunately a decreasingly popular sense, underripe. Just…you know, green, and all the better for it. The tannins are a little scrappy and edgy, the acid prominent, there’s peppercorn and dark, rough, undereducated fruit, and the finish feels like it might want to start a little barroom brawl rather than drift slowly into the night. What precedes is a long-form, convoluted way of saying that I like this a lot. (11/10)
Bouland Bouland, Bouland Bouland (give it a try, Yale)
Bouland 2009 Chiroubles (Beaujolais) – Really, really, really good. In fact, you math geeks put a bar over that “really.” It does, however, bear marks of its birth year; the fruit tastes perfectly in-form, all rolling cherries with a hefty contribution of violet-tinged fruit, but it’s big. No, “big” isn’t quite the right word. Lush? Expansive? Microbursting? Fractal? Oh, I don’t know. It’s a serious mouthful of simultaneously serious and unserious wine, though, with the texture of rough suede and powerful vibrancy. I’ll take a foudre of this, please. (11/10)
Shameless Husseys
Buitenverwachting 2010 Sauvignon Blanc “Husseys Vlei” (Constantia) – Wow, is this good. The most interesting sauvignon blanc I’ve had this year that wasn’t made by Vatan. Crisp, intense, poised and nervous, with a brittle streak of steely minerality and vast textural impact…that texture being one riddled with nails, shards, spikes, and edges. (11/10)
I asked the horse, but he wouldn’t
Badenhorst 2007 White (Coastal Region) – Yuck. Dense, fat, lifeless, and pasty. Tastes like someone charred a vat of really poor-quality butter. (11/10)
What happened to Compuserve?
Leclerc “Domaine Chahut et Prodiges” 2008 “Coup de canon” Vin de Table (Loire) – Firmly in the rapidly genericizing “natural wine” taste realm of light, dancing fruit on the thin, crisp side of berrydom, a little earth, a lot of vivid acidity, and mild but (for now) thoroughly unobtrusive suggestions of uncleanliness. A lot of fun, in other words. (11/10)
Nobody’s fault but mine
Kogl 2008 Sämling “Mea Culpa” (Podravje) – The least aromatic scheurebe I’ve ever tasted, which is far from suggesting that it’s not still dallying with the lurid. It’s just that it’s more an element of the whole than an overwhelming impression. Actually, this is pretty terrific (asterisk the previous with “for Pordravjean scheurebe” if “terrific” does not apply to this grape in your oenoverse), with some firmness, balance, and even a bit of quartzy minerality. (11/10)
Not a hot rock
Josmeyer 2005 Riesling “Les Pierrets” (Alsace) – Bright. I don’t mean this in the usual sense, in which a preference towards acid and shinier fruit is suggested, but that there’s something that reminds me of actual luminescence in this wine. Everything one wants from an Alsatian riesling, dialed back a little bit for earlier approachability. Very nice. (11/10)