Baumard 2002 Quarts de Chaume (Loire) – Powerfully sweet, like liquid chenin candy, but with extra quartzage. Developing? Only in the notional sense; while this is far from as sweet as QdC can get, experience suggests that the wines are essentially immortal, or at least so on any human scale. It’s very, very good. Do I care that it may have been made with cryoextraction? (To be fair, I don’t know if this vintage was or not.) Yes, and indeed my enjoyment is proportionally tempered. (5/12)
Browse Tag
france
Exit
Ollivier 2004 Muscadet Sèvre & Maine Sur Lie “Cuvée Eden” “Cuvée Vieilles Vignes” (Loire) – Drinking really nicely at the moment, its shells liquefied and its minerals having joined the party, which is now humming at a slightly higher volume than before. Everything is knit and in place. There are those who would hold this longer, and they’re not wrong, but I quite like the balance of strength and complexity right now. (5/12)
The knife
Macle 2007 Côtes du Jura (Jura) – 85% chardonnay, 15% savagnin. Brittle white clay flaking away in the relentless heat of a direct Mediterranean sun, century after century, exposing an acidic and uncured core. Liquid equipoise. Brilliant. (5/12)
Bird nookie
Pelletier 2008 Saint Chinian “l’Oiselet” (Languedoc) – Light and shade, pressing with an intensity belied by the transparent quality of the fruit. It’s still dark…berries pressed into a a sheet of uniform texture, light soil…but sun shines through it. (5/12)
Aspirin
Léon Beyer 2008 Sylvaner “Tradition” (Alsace) – The classic Beyer starkness is a little less bleak here, which one can probably attribute to the vintage, but on the other hand sylvaner is a grape that does well with inner space…as long as there’s intensity in parallel. This has just enough of the latter, in a classic grassy/green tomato mode. There are some grayed-out suggestions of minerality, as well. While I don’t, as a rule, find drinking young Beyer to be a rewarding experience, this is surprisingly approachable, and almost – almost – friendly. (5/12)
Cheezbourger
Blanck 2002 Gewurztraminer Altenbourg (Alsace) – As bronzed as bottle as I’ve yet had (I continue to work through a two-case stash purchased on deep, deep discount), even tipping a bit towards one of the forms older gewurztraminer can take in which there’s a slightly oxidative honey aroma that’s dominant. Lingering lychee has gotten equally sticky, and the finish is short. Were the other bottles not so variable, I’d be concerned at the performance of this one, but supplementary evidence suggests this is a bit of an outlier, and better-performing corks are sustaining the wine’s progression in a more predictable way. (5/12)
New & old
Brun “Terres Dorées” 2011 Beaujolais Nouveau “l’Ancien Vieilles Vignes” (Beaujolais) – Idiosyncrasy can only do so much. There are some absolutes. So yes, this is Brun and the structure and force he brings to Beaujolais…but it’s still a Nouveau, with that clingy unwillingness to grow from grape to wine. The result is a little goofy, but it’s an appealing goofiness, and in smallish quantities I quite enjoy it. (5/12)
Breton butter
Cousin 2009 Vin de Table “Anjou Pur Breton” (Loire) – Capital-N Natural, here expressed in an untamed carnival ride of spike, froth, brett, and electricity. May once have had illicit relations with a lambic, given the strong family resemblance. The tannins are oddly sandpapery. It’s not exactly easy to love, but I quite like it…it’s worth noting, however, than one drinking companion – no stranger to the category’s eccentricities – pronounces it “the worst wine I’ve ever tasted.” I can’t say that I’m surprised by the extremity of reaction, because there’s zero compromise in this wine. (4/12)
Iché & scratchy
Iché “Château d’Oupia” 2000 Minervois (Languedoc) – Whether it was impatience, curiosity, or anxiety that got the better of me, I opened my last bottle of this and received iron-rich blood and leather with a muscular structure still fully present. Minervois is always pretty burly, so I hesitate to say that the wine isn’t mature just based on its mass (and the “fruit,” as such, has indeed developed quite a bit), but there’s a persistent nag that this could’ve gone longer. Well, I’ll never know. (4/12)
Second Cazin, twice removed
Cazin 1999 Cheverny “Le Petit Chambord” (Loire) – Starts out full but with a decided totter in its step. Aeration restores full vibrancy, and though there’s light oxidation it’s the fully-integrated, essential kind rather than the decaying, covering kind. Wax, old upholstery, bronzed golden plum, and – perhaps the most surprising yet wonderful elements of all – fiery acidity. (3/12)