Browse Month

August 2012

The Felton teen rabbit

Felton Road 2001 Pinot Noir (Central Otago) – This was a somewhat mistaken ager, in that I thought I was hanging on to one of the Block bottlings. Time has done nothing but weakened it, and while the fruit’s matured a bit, mostly the wine’s just softer and more muted. A bit plummy, some of the old blood orange rind that I used to think marked the region (I now believe it to be a clonal issue, since I’ve tasted it from the Waipara and Martinborough as well), some muscular earthiness, all at about volume 5 rather than the former 8 ½. Drink up, if you’ve got any. (7/12)

Maule-dy lay

Maule 2010 “I Masieri” (Veneto) – Garganega (not 100%, I believe, but mostly…though I don’t have recent data at hand). Salted lemons, bold and weirdly compelling. More precisely, compelling and weird, and compelling in part because of that very weirdness. There’s a bit of a stale note that emerges later, whether from exposure to air (Maule tends to be very low-sulfur even amongst the low-sulfur crowd). Drink quickly, is what I’d say, though there’s every chance that other bottles will be different. (7/12)

Call of Dutheil

Couly-Dutheil 2008 Chinon “La Baronnie Madeleine” (Loire) – A lovely, light-bodied Chinon, with pale earth, mixed dark green herbs, and tangy red fruit. The thing is, while it’s all nice enough, it feels as if I’m drinking it through a gauzy mask…as if the wine’s full expression is being held back somehow. I don’t mind something in the middle range between bistro Chinon and the “real” thing, but I don’t think Couly-Dutheil’s history suggests that it should be inhabiting that range, and yet it fairly often does. Or maybe I’m being overly demanding. (7/12)

Kanye

Domaine de la Terre Rouge 2008 Syrah “Les Côtes de l’Ouest” (California) – 14.5%. Beefy (not in taste but in texture) syrah that straddles the stylistic Old/New World divide by standing to the side. Not rounded so much as rhomboid, thick with forested dark fruit but not nearly as thick in the body as such flavors might suggest. I don’t mean to suggest it’s not fairly clearly Californian – it is – only that this grape can be pushed an awful lot harder (and is, even sometimes at the same winery), whereas this wears its heft with restraint. (7/12)

Seville sparkler

Barboursville Brut (Virginia) – White grapefruit and green watermelon rind, bouncing between sweet and dry. Pretty decent, though it gets a little plasticky near the end. (7/12)

Almondo Wilder

Almondo 2008 “Fosso della Rosa” (Piedmont) – 5% alcohol. A sweet, sparkling wine made from brachetto, but unlike the (enjoyably) sweet familial cousins named brachetto d’Acqui and so forth, this has an exciting bitterness to it, almost as if it’s being groomed to be a chinato. It’s positively electric with food, great without, and I very much adore it. (7/12)

Patelin the bike

Tablas Creek 2010 “Patelin de Tablas” Red (Paso Robles) – 14.1%. Juicy & approachable. Dark fruit, some soil, some herbality, a dusting of black pepper, but mostly this is about seamless wholeness. That said, while the structure of this wine is usually a “just enough” support, this bottle is a bit spiky. Not sure what’s going on, but I’m sure this won’t be my last bottle, so we’ll see. (7/12)

Dona, Dona, Dona

Ferreira “Dona Antonia” Porto “Reserve” (Douro) – Sweet, spicy, a little heated…I don’t mean heat damage, necessarily (the evidence is unclear) but there’s the sensation of drinking this in front of a warm fire, except that it’s July and that’s kinda not what I want. A bit of smoke, too. (7/12)

Navigazin

Sextant 2008 Zinfandel (Central Coast) – 14.8%. Like drinking jam. I don’t mean it’s “jammy” in the wine geek sense of the word, which requires greater density than this wine carries, I mean it’s like someone liquefied jam (straining the seeds) and then bottled it as zinfandel. (7/12)

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