Domaine de la Terre Rouge 2008 Syrah “Les Côtes de l’Ouest” (California) – 14.5%. Beefy (not in taste but in texture) syrah that straddles the stylistic Old/New World divide by standing to the side. Not rounded so much as rhomboid, thick with forested dark fruit but not nearly as thick in the body as such flavors might suggest. I don’t mean to suggest it’s not fairly clearly Californian – it is – only that this grape can be pushed an awful lot harder (and is, even sometimes at the same winery), whereas this wears its heft with restraint. (7/12)
Browse Tag
red
Almondo Wilder
Almondo 2008 “Fosso della Rosa” (Piedmont) – 5% alcohol. A sweet, sparkling wine made from brachetto, but unlike the (enjoyably) sweet familial cousins named brachetto d’Acqui and so forth, this has an exciting bitterness to it, almost as if it’s being groomed to be a chinato. It’s positively electric with food, great without, and I very much adore it. (7/12)
Patelin the bike
Tablas Creek 2010 “Patelin de Tablas” Red (Paso Robles) – 14.1%. Juicy & approachable. Dark fruit, some soil, some herbality, a dusting of black pepper, but mostly this is about seamless wholeness. That said, while the structure of this wine is usually a “just enough” support, this bottle is a bit spiky. Not sure what’s going on, but I’m sure this won’t be my last bottle, so we’ll see. (7/12)
Dona, Dona, Dona
Ferreira “Dona Antonia” Porto “Reserve” (Douro) – Sweet, spicy, a little heated…I don’t mean heat damage, necessarily (the evidence is unclear) but there’s the sensation of drinking this in front of a warm fire, except that it’s July and that’s kinda not what I want. A bit of smoke, too. (7/12)
Navigazin
Sextant 2008 Zinfandel (Central Coast) – 14.8%. Like drinking jam. I don’t mean it’s “jammy” in the wine geek sense of the word, which requires greater density than this wine carries, I mean it’s like someone liquefied jam (straining the seeds) and then bottled it as zinfandel. (7/12)
Don’t ask zwei
Bründlmayer 2010 Zweigelt (Weinland) – Not a 750 ml, but instead a one-liter bottle, which is the perfect size for such an incredibly easy-drinking wine. Gentle blackberry, soft structure, hints of nerve without getting on any…the wine drains itself from the glass, until the bottle’s gone. And by the way, we need more liters of zweigelt. (7/12)
Fées Wray
Bizeul “Les Sorcières du Clos des Fées” 2008 Côtes du Roussillon (Roussillon) – A rich, pleasant wine with an almost foamy structure – I don’t think it’s fizzy, but it’s also not out of the question that there would be a touch – and layers of appealing red fruit. The whole thing is then frosted with the fetid stink and stench of brettanomyces, which is my usual experience of this wine. Alas. (7/12)
For he’s a jolly good Chicchivello
La Querciola 2007 Langhe “Chicchivello” (Piedmont) – Dolcetto, barbera, & nebbiolo. I usually find such blends a confused jumble, and as a rule have little use for the vast majority of such Langhe rossos that employ this trio, but this isn’t bad. It takes the fine-grained adhesion of nebbiolo, chunks it up with bold dolcetto, and then gives it a little airspace with barbera. It’s a dark-fruited wine, leaning heavily on its tannin (which is, I fear, an unavoidable consequence of this particular blend), but it’s an amenable partner with food. There’s even some minerality. Maybe time will bring more? I wouldn’t place a large bet on it, but I’d probably wager a bottle or two. (7/12)
Myrina Sirtis
Buceci 2010 Nero d’Avola “Myrina” (Sicily) – Chewy and just a bit wild, as if the grapes couldn’t quite be wrestled into politesse. Fiercely dark, of course, with a fair bit of prominent (rather than lush) structure for a sun-drenched southern red, though of course there’s more tannin than acidity. Rocks and dark, dark soils…or perhaps charred old-growth forests…as well. I don’t expect much from this wine, and as a result it somewhat exceeds my expectations. (7/12)
Waterless bed
Dashe 2006 Zinfandel (Dry Creek Valley) – Muscular, but its structure is just beginning to turn graphite-like, which makes the wine feel a bit lighter than it actually is. And it’s not light. Dark boysenberry and olallieberry, little shocks of black dirt and peppercorn, and a pleasant leafiness somewhere in the foundation; this is very confident zinfandel. (7/12)