Coquelet 2010 Chiroubles (Beaujolais) – Sharply malic, as this wine can sometimes be, with crisp raspberries just short of what even I’d call ripe, cranberry, and (of course) apple. All nervousness and tension. I’m glad Beaujolais like this exists, but I’m also glad it’s not all like this. For the record, even this specific bottle isn’t always like this. It can gussy itself up all floral and pretty at times, though the sharpness never goes away. (3/12)
Browse Tag
france
Tire Pé? It’s me, Margaret.
Barrault “Château Tire Pé” 2010 Bordeaux “DieM” (Bordeaux) – Mostly merlot, with the cabernets each playing a 10% role. As many wine folk long lost in geekery tend to do, I spend a lot of time in stores spinning bottles to find the importer strip for stylistic clues to wines I don’t know. Pre-culling, so to speak. So I was surprised when, having noted the identity of a well-known natural-focused importer, I re-spun the bottle to find that I was holding a Bordeaux. You don’t see that combination every day.
Anyway, the wine. Yes, it’s Bordeaux. There’s classicism (tobacco-tinged fruit, fuzzy/leathery-textured tannin, a hint of graphite, dark fruit that’s more skin than juice), for sure, though its of the type more typically expressed – at least in theory – by the lower end of the spectrum rather than the showy classed growths, the sort of wine that purchasers of generic Bordeaux all over France think they’re drinking with their daily meal. But aren’t, because those wines aren’t this good. While it’s not organoleptically flexible enough to be a constant companion at the global American table, perhaps, with the right food I could very happily own and then consume a lot of this wine. In fact, I think I will. (3/12)
Treau & fru
Filliatreau 2005 Saumur (Loire) – The last of a mistakenly-held batch (synthetic corks), and more or less exemplary of the mistake: the fruit has developed in a leathery, meaty, blueberry-infused fashion that would, given proper structural support, actually be quite pleasant. But the acid is razory and the tannin desiccated, and each sip – there aren’t many before the rest goes down the drain – is like a pleasant vinous interlude followed by a vigorous tongue sanding. Well, it’s gone. (3/12)
Bill Roussel
Roussel & Barrouillet “Clos Roche Blanche” 2007 Touraine “Cuvée Gamay” (Loire) – Clinging, barely, to the tatters of a life shortened by a closure insufficient to the task. There are some lovely red soil aromatics, but everything around and beneath them has fallen into ruin. (3/12)
Gyotaku bell
Domaine Mittnacht 2010 “Cuvée Gyotaku” (Alsace) – A blend of pinot blanc, muscat, pinot gris, and gewurztraminer. Usually, such blends are completely dominated by those last three listed grapes, and in reverse order. They’ve managed to avoid that here, whether through sensibly early harvesting or some other technique, and the wine is rather better for it. I’m still unconvinced that blends in Alsace are, in general, more than pleasant quaffing wines except from rare and exceptional terroirs (and often not even then). So this is a pleasant quaffing wine, but its pleasantries are more lavish than most, its whitewashed stone-fruitedness buffed and stony. The name is an apparent reference to an art form in which paper is pressed against an ink-covered fish (perhaps making cuttlefish the Jackson Pollocks of the form), but the clear implication that this is meant to pair with things that swim is a peculiarly Alsatian one; it would take a rich, oily fish indeed to make a deft pairing with this wine. (3/12)
Gazelles
Cairn d’Eole “Causse Marines” 2010 Gaillac “Peyrouzelles” (Southwest France) – A little bit bretty at uncorking, though this is eventually surpassed by other elements, and a touch spritzy/prickly throughout. Otherwise, it’s all vivacious berries and freshly-crushed petals, with the zing of bright acidity and a hint of pleasant volatility (yes, I – Mr. Oversensitive-to-VA – just wrote that). I can’t imagine this could be held, but why wait? (3/12)
For the trees
Vincent Dauvissat 2007 Chablis La Forest 1er Cru (Chablis) – From a bottle that’s obviously been open a little too long, and so: faded rocks, mostly. There’s a lot of tactility and intensity, but the details of both are muted. I’d need a fresher bottle to say anything more useful about this wine. (3/11)
Fine, period
Caravinsérail 2007 Côtes du Ventoux “in fine.” (Rhône) – 80% clairette, 20% bourboulenc. Usually, “honeysuckle” in a note means the sweet nectar squeezed from the little bulbs at the rear of the flower. Here, I’d use it to mean everything but that part. There’s freshness to spare, and though the finish is on the short side it’s certainly a pretty little thing. Like drinking a bright, light spring sun. (3/12)
Mers eat oats
Parcé Frères “La Rectorie” 2005 Collioure “Coté Mer” (Roussillon) – Takes a good long while to unwind from the clenched, stony fist it first presents. Charcoal-encrusted warmth with layers of tannin (still dense, perhaps just a touch overcooked) dominate even after many hours of air. What fruit there is seems ultra-concentrated but exceedingly difficult to reach. A black-hearted wine that, normally, I’d say is going through a closed period. But I’ve reason to suspect the provenance of this particular bottle, and so I’m wary of drawing too many conclusions. (2/12)
Moor or less
de Moor 2007 Bourgogne Chitry (Burgundy) – There’s aroma and flavor here, like strolling through a field of…something-or-other, but what marks this wine at the moment is texture: not rich, exactly, but well-lived and confident, rolling rather than tumbling. I’ve thought, considering previous encounters, that the wine was approaching a rest position, but based on this bottle I’m no longer sure. (2/12)