Browse Tag

france

Columbier day

Domaine du Columbier 1999 Hermitage (Rhône) – Hard as nails at uncorking, and this tight clench takes hours to loosen. Thickened by ultra-fine tannin to neutron star-density, even for Hermitage this is hyper-reticent and parodically masculine. After the aforehinted hours of aeration there’s some dry black fruit residue to contemplate, and a little more textural generosity. It’s hard to say if this is on the decline or not yet done with its journey, but with more confidence I can fit this into a longstanding personal narrative in which, for me, even the best Hermitage (and this is not) is more a wine of cold intellectual fascination than pleasure. I’m getting mightily tired of its opposite as well (the glou-glou genre), so maybe this is just another manifestation of my curmudgeonry. It won’t be the last… (6/12)

Orthotwice as Orthogneiss

Bossard “Domaine de l’Ecu” 2005 Muscadet Sèvre et Maine “Expression d’Orthogneiss” (Loire) – Sometimes Muscadet is worth holding, sometimes it isn’t. This was the latter. Now, it’s weak and trembling minerality, eroded and barely noticeable, with almost nothing surrounding it. Oh well. (6/12)

Paula Cole

Chaussard “Nana, Vins et Cie” “You Are So Bubbly” (Loire) – The 2008 bottling, I think, but I don’t know for sure. Frothy and thick, a very particulate wine with a fair number of stylistic familial relationships with both the orange and the natural, yet with a quirky and variably appealing individuality of its own. Cooked strawberries, albino plums, earth, perhaps even a little fruit soda. Challenging, and not everyone will like it. But I do. (6/12)

There is no Copa clause

Clavel 1999 Coteaux du Languedoc Terroir de la Mejanelle “Copa Santa” (Languedoc) – Smells corked, so I put it aside. The second day, I think it’s still very mildly corked, but there’s a sweet – if quite tired – expressiveness to it that almost overcomes the taint. Which makes me think that an intact bottle could actually be pretty nice, though I definitely wouldn’t hold it any longer. (6/12)

Weg the dog

Zind-Humbrecht 1998 Riesling Herrenweg de Turckheim (Alsace) – Past it, which…even though this is from the ripeness-fetishizing house of ZH…is a bit of a surprise from what was a good year for riesling. There’s plenty of size, still, but it’s dried out and curling like old paper. (6/12)

Brown-out

Brun “Terres Dorées” 2004 Beaujolais Blanc (Beaujolais) – Dead. Frankly, well past dead and into decomposition. Blame the closure. (6/12)

Pass the wine around

Charavin “Domaine des Coteaux des Travers” 2000 Rasteau Vin Doux Naturel (Rhône) – Rasteau the way it used to be. I exaggerate, a bit, but somewhere between the wine history books and the modern market this style has almost completely disappeared, at least on American shores. A pity, because it’s fun, with a more heat-drenched take on an otherwise roughly similar notion than Banyuls…lighter, in a sense, which allows the deep core of sweet-fruited bacon to infuse the Port-like exterior. Very nice. (6/12)

Romet & Julet

Cros de Romet 2000 Côtes-du-Rhône-Villages Cairanne (Rhône) – On a weekend in which several vastly more prestigious Rhônes and Rhône-a-likes were opened and found damaged, destroyed, or otherwise wanting, this unassumer – yes, I just invented that word – barreled over the finish line with a rush of mixed metaphors. Rain-slicked dried beef, almost supple in its engagement with the palate, a gently persuading dried herb/dried soil nuance, and then a long, gentle finish. But as a whole, stronger than that. Really quite lovely. (6/12)

Alex Lifeson

Comte de Saint Victor “Château de Pibarnon” 2001 Bandol (Provence) – Very difficult, for a fairly long time. Sweaty, thready, reticent. Not even up to a good bout of surly. After about an hour, the wine within starts to peek at its surroundings, with the classic sweetening of mourvèdre as it expands – from smoked meat to smoked berry – taking the fore. If there’s a flaw, it’s that there seems to be a little polish or burnishing that’s damping the complexity, but the wine’s in such a trouble adolescence that it’s really not possible to do more than grumble subaudibly at the notion. Hold this, if you own any. (6/12)