Browse Tag

chardonnay

Perrusset, Perrussat, mama-coo-sa

Perrusset 2002 Mâcon-Villages (Mâcon) – Rich with complexity. Mushrooms and beige earth, old mirabelle plums, and a bright, dust-infused texture. It crescendos quickly, then fades almost as quickly, which is less a knock than a realistic response to the potential of the terroir. This is probably not fully mature, but it’s drinking beautifully right now. (1/09)

Quintaine coup

Guillemot-Michel 2001 Mâcon-Villages “Quintaine” (Mâcon) – Seems fully mature, with concentration at the core and aromatic frippery around the perimeter. White truffle, faded but good, white peach, (dry) honeysuckle, and a dust-in-heavy water texture. Lengthy finish. Really quite enticing, though it tastes a lot more like Guillemot-Michel than it does chardonnay. As for whether or not it tastes like a Mâcon, that category is almost too debased for comparison. (1/09)

Repent, Sinner!

[label]Prieler 2007 Chardonnay Sinner (Burgenland) – Melon, ripe and clean, with the aromatics of a big-fruited wine, but the acid balance and purity of a leaner expression of the grape. There are hints of banana (native rather than industrial), but rather than falling over into tropicality, the mineral lacings of this wine eventually tie it up in a fine bow. Alas, that chardonnay doesn’t usually taste like this. (12/08)

The first Noël

[label]Jean Milan 2002 Champagne Oger “Grand Cru” Brut Blanc de Blanc “Sélection Terres de Noël” (Champagne) – Beautiful. Soft golden complexity, with a hint of curry dusting exotic flowers and heirloom apples. Very pure and gentle. Extremely long, eventually getting around to showing apples in every possible form, from flower to juice. Gorgeous. (12/08)

C’est Cuis

[label]Pierre Gimonnet Champagne Cuis “1er Cru” Brut Blanc de Blancs (Champagne) – Striking nose of rainforest rocks and humidity. Huge lemon brioche (sprinkled with grapefruit shavings) on the palate. There’s excellent balance between bitterness and acidity. Massively long and frankly gorgeous, with skins dominating right now, and a very trebly midpalate that I expect to mellow with a little age. (12/08)

Oger Simpson

[label]Jean Milan Champagne Oger “Grand Cru” Brut Blanc de Blancs “Spécial” (Champagne) – Delicate, with fine-grained crystals. Crisp but fullish acidity, ripe lime, and lots of molten metal…which hardens on the finish, driven through like a ramrod. Long and in need of time, despite the presence of lovely hints of maturity dancing around the aromas. (12/08)

The needs of the Mesnil outweigh the needs of the few, or the one

[label]Pierre Peters Champagne à Le Mesnil-sur-Oger “Grand Cru” Brut Blanc de Blancs “Cuvée Réserve” (Champagne) – Heady toast and pastry, ripe lemon, and Granny Smith apple. Very powerful with a fine baring of its minerality on the finish. The nose is just a little weird…an odd mix of youthful and advanced characteristics that don’t quite gel. Perhaps in time. (12/08)

Truro false

Truro 2007 Chardonnay – Appellation unknown. Rather wretched, with wiry, bone-and-skin oak residue bittering up a big, fruitless void. Ugh. (12/08)

Scott

Hamilton Russell 2007 Chardonnay (Hemel-en-Aarde Valley) – Serious chardonnay, with ambition expressed in deeply soil-driven aromatics, good structure, a fine-grained patina of wood, and brooding fruit met in equal measure by aromatic porcini. I’m very eager to see this one develop. (10/08)