Browse Tag

gamay

Witters don’t use drugs

Edmunds St. John 2007 Gamay Noir Rosé Witters (El Dorado County) – Vivid, light red fruit with a persistent, perhaps insistent drone; it’s that midpalate monotone that slightly reduces the appeal of this wine for me, though it would be fine in any context other than that of its predecessor. Which is, actually, praising with faint damn, because that’s some august context. (6/08)

Rosé, row-say, rosez!

[label]JM Burgaud 2007 Beaujolais-Villages Rosé “Rosez!” (Beaujolais) – Indifferent, watery pink fruit with a flat granite wall about ¾ of the way through. Boring. (5/08)

Diochon, how are you?

Diochon 1997 Moulin-à-Vent (Beaujolais) – Surprisingly ready, despite a remaining spike of dense tannin. The fruit is quite developed, with the black cherry fruit devolving to old, baked, nicely mature flavors of berry soda, spice, and revealed black soil, and the structure has parted more than enough to show this. The tannin suggests that it could age longer, but I just don’t think the fruit will survive many more years of aging; it’s not ideal, but I’d drink it soonish. (5/08)

TWitters

Edmunds St. John 2007 “Bone-Jolly” Gamay Noir Rosé Witters (El Dorado County) – A clear step down from the previous vintage. It’s still very tasty, with medium-light red fruit, some spice, and a fine foundation of gray-grained pebbles, but it’s a lower-volume wine in which the more delicate treble and bass have become difficult to hear. (5/08)

Gamay one more

Edmunds St. John 2006 “Bone-Jolly” Gamay Noir Witters (El Dorado County) – Darker but more sullen than the previous vintage (on the rare occasion I tasted it intact), with a refreshing underbelly of crushed-cherry acidity and old potpourri on the finish. There seems to be some dark soil to it as well, but it’s hard to get at right now. Beyond benefiting from time, I think this needs time. (5/08)

Edmunds St. John 2006 “Bone-Jolly” Gamay Noir Witters (El Dorado County) – A second bottle, this one put through several days of uncorked chilling, warming, re-chilling, etc. The soil has receded, with some compensating expansion of the fruit and a rounder, fleshier mouthfeel. For me, the changing form of this wine is further evidence that time is required for this wine to show its best. (5/08)

French puns

JP Brun “Terres Dorées” Mousseux “FRV100” (Beaujolais) – In the cause of experimentation, this is served at room temperature rather than slightly chilled to pair better with a blackberry pie. It’s a successful experiment; the sweeter and bigger (that is to say, body-forming alcoholic) aspects of the wine are slightly emphasized, slightly damaging its on-its-own balance but enhancing its ability to go with this not particularly sweet dessert. Chilled, it achieves more of the fluffy puppy equilibrium that I’m used to, and it’s a “better” wine with the proper bit of shiver, but it tastes slightly tannic with the pie. (5/08)

Angelina Jolly

Edmunds St. John 2007 “Bone-Jolly” Gamay Noir Rosé Witters (El Dorado County) – Wide-open…perhaps a bit stretched…showing pale strawberry and a long, flat horizon of grey stone. It’s tasty and accessible, but it’s not quite up to the standards of the lovely ’06. (5/08)

Witters in Florida, summers in Beaujolais

Edmunds St. John 2004 “Bone-Jolly” Gamay Noir Witters (El Dorado County) – Corked. Or at least, so it appears; there’s no aroma, and since the previous five bottles have been corked, it seems like it’s inevitable that this wine be similarly afflicted, albeit in a lesser fashion. But – and granted, this is unusual – I happen have the winemaker at my house the next evening. He tastes and finds it not corked, and in fact performing correctly, but perhaps a slight bit cooked. It’s still, to me, suffering from near-complete aromatic dampening, and I don’t know how to define that outside of mild TCA, but I have to defer to the winemaker here. In any case, it’s not right, and I find no enjoyment in it. (5/08)

Thulon to wait

[chateau]JM Burgaud “Château de Thulon” 2006 Beaujolais-Villages (Beaujolais) – More biting than previous vintages, with a sharp zing to the zippy, underripe cherry, raspberry, and cranberry fruit that carries just a hint of floral complexity. It’s unmistakably Beaujolais, but it needs food to tame it; no cocktail wine, this. (5/08)

Witters don’t use drugs

Edmunds St. John 2006 “Bone-Jolly” Gamay Noir Rosé Witters (El Dorado County) – Bright and ripe; strawberries tarted up with just a bit of cranberry. Pure fun, but there’s a foundational hum of some sort of vaguely-expressed minerality as well; it’s hard to get to because the wine’s tasted in the context of dozens of others. It could probably benefit from some isolation. (4/08)