Coquelet 2009 Beaujolais (Beaujolais) – The razory, sharp sort of “house style” at Coquelet is here mitigated by the corpulence of the vintage, creating something neither razory nor corpulent, but in fact much more recognizable amongst its peers…albeit from different vintages, because in this one said peers do somewhat frequently veer into rotunditry. So: bursting mixed berries, a bit darker than the norm, a dusting of soil that’s almost-but-not-quite peppery, and a fulsome finish still nicely crisped by acidity. I could drink a lot of this. In fact, I have. But I think this was the last bottle. (8/12)
Browse Tag
france
For the ankle, too
Fournier 2009 Vin de Pays du Val de Loire Sauvignon Blanc (Loire) – Bold without being fat, its strong diagonal lines of quartz-lined lemon bring sauvignon’s (usual) trademark aggression to the glass without the showy frippery of XXX-treme chile pepperiness. Gluggable. (8/12)
Jougla the handle
Domaine des Jougla 2011 Saint-Chinian Rosé “Initiale” (Languedoc) – Restrained and a bit tremble-y, yet with a sticky pedal tone of strawberry that doesn’t really mesh with the rest. While this lacks the usual southern French rosé balance issues, it’s just kinda…there. Pretty but ultimately insubstantial. Others with trustworthy palates have seen more from this house, so I await a second try for confirmation. (8/12)
Fifty Cent (x2)
Druet 1997 Bourgueil “Les Cent Boisselées” (Loire) – There is a spectacular classed-growth 1975 Bordeaux on the table, yet this wine makes an aggressive bid to steal the show. It’s a ’97, yes, and thus a showy vintage that’s mostly in full flight or slight decline by now, but wow does this make a spectacular attempt at brilliance. Mixed pepper dusts with a lavish velour texture, plus an intense, humid, almost sweaty aspect; I feel transported to some remote Zulu hut during the intensity of a war council. Yes, ridiculous analogies are the bane of tasting notes, but a wine this good deserves only the most abstruse flights of fancy. In the end, it’s like drinking dryness, but the most exciting dryness you’ve ever experienced. Wow. Just: wow. Purchased at the property. (7/12)
Just in Cases
Léoville Las Cases 1975 Saint-Julien (Bordeaux) – Cedar leaves (I know, I know) and silk. Beautiful, elegant, and long. Magisterial. Bordeaux’s actual soul, rather than the all-too-common Las Vegas version, on display. This is a very short note for a truly beautiful wine, but I don’t think an avalanche of verbiage is needed. (7/12)
Here today, Gonnet tomorrow
Gonnet “Domaine Font de Michelle” 1995 Châteauneuf-du-Pape “Cuvée Etienne Gonnet” (Rhône) – Softened in its age, no doubt thanks to the still-sweet, almost malty oak notes, though there’s a lovely, herbal Châteauneuf-du-Pape somewhere inside the makeup, yearning to be free. Alas, though, if Tiki drinks could age, this might be what they’d taste like.
I don’t want to over-condemn. This is a good wine. A very good wine, in fact. I just don’t like the wallpaper. (7/12)
Savary & sweet
Savary 2008 Chablis (Chablis) – Pristine. Shells and stones, rocks and bones, with a white-noise intensity that muscles through the calcified debris. Quite striking. This is my kind of chardonnay…though admittedly there’s not much competition for my affections, outside the bubbly realms. (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)
Zooty
Trimbach 2001 Gewurztraminer “Cuvée des Seigneurs de Ribeaupierre” (Alsace) – Crystalline and restrained. While it’s this latter quality that always marks this wine’s youth, it’s the former that emerges with age, which is not the case for the great majority of even Alsace’s best gewürztraminers, even the ones that age beautifully. As this one has…and it’s worth noting that it’s nowhere near done, either. Bright, light-infused peach and pear, still crisp (another sorely lacking quality of gewurztraminer from Alsace, and especially in these climate-changing times), and just an absolute joy to drink. No, it doesn’t have the lurid decadence of, say, a Weinbach at peak form. The Trimbach style, as damaged as it has been by the inevitabilities of ever-hotter vineyards, still reigns over this wine. While I’d hesitate to say it’s analytically dry, it performs as nearly so, and unlike richer gewurztraminer can still mingle, politely, with dishes that aren’t obvious gewürztraminer partners. (7/12)
By his trade
Boxler 2008 Edelzwicker “Réserve” (Alsace) – Boxler gets this blend so, so right each and every time, letting all the grapes play their part without dominating (as is the case with virtually every other edelzwicker, even the good ones), which just goes to demonstrate the point that sometimes, it really is about the winemaking. Gentle fruit, light-washed and hovering somewhere between stone, whitened, and sepia, recedes as gently as noontide. A lovely wine. (7/12)