Browse Tag

red

Amavi 2005 Syrah (Walla Walla Valley) – Strongly fruity, showing blueberry, black cherry and blackberry with a dense overlay of spice and chocolate. There’s a hint of thyme on the finish. Good weight and decent (but only just) structure make this a reasonably solid wine. (9/07)

Wilching on sunshine

Regli Wilchinger Pinot Noir (Hallau) – From 500 ml. Almost gamay-like – though not very good gamay – with a prickly, small red fruit aroma and a simplistic finish. It’s better for near-term drinking than the other pinots from this house have been, but that’s faint praise at best. (10/07)

Chinook bar

[bottles]Chinook 2005 Cabernet Franc (Yakima Valley) – Blackberry with a little bit of charcoal-derived char, lightly-buttered toast, and ripe, smooth yet fairly grippy tannin. The wine’s not far off the usual New World norm, but the switch from cabernet sauvignon/merlot to cabernet franc gives it a little more character than usual, and lightens the wine a bit (though the wine’s certainly not “light” by any normal conception of the word). This might be promising, though right now it’s decent but uninspiring. I’d need more experience with the wine to say more. (9/07)

Thirty pieces

[label]Silver Decoy 2005 Cabernet Franc (New Jersey) – Simultaneously underripe and overworked, which is not an unusual pair of flaws in wines from…let’s call them “non-prestige” areas. There’s unpleasant greenness and there’s a soupy texture, and the two together are not pleasant. The wine’s not horrid by any means, but I’ll stick to Jersey tomatoes, thanks. (9/07)

Vajra marketing

Vajra 2000 Langhe Freisa “Kyè” (Piedmont) – Upon ordering, the sommelier suggests that the wine is closed (thus initiating the elaborate decanting ritual described above), and he’s right…this gets markedly better as the evening progresses. Grapey and purple, but quite firm, showing berries and black dirt with a gritty, almost angry complexity. The acidity is fine-grained and precise, though a bit sharp until the wine begins to unfold. Ultimately very pretty and versatile (in its response to different accompaniments), with plenty of development yet to come.

Blech

Santa Domingo “Casa Mayor” 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon (Colchagua Valley) – Stewed herbs and residual sugar. This isn’t just horrible, this is an actual crime against nature and all that is good and decent in this universe. Among the worst wines I have ever tasted.

Custom Fitou

[logo]Colomer “Domaine de Rolland” 2005 Fitou (Languedoc) – Basic Southwestern French flavors of rough black fruit with definite nods to Bordeaux-like structure. But this tastes stripped and wan. It’s OK as a simple house wine – especially from vrac – but probably not worth exporting. (10/07)

Santenay Duncan

[label]Drouhin 2005 Santenay (Burgundy) – The first early-summer beets (both red and gold) given a cherried brightening, with a (not) surprising (for the vintage) layer of crunchy tannin, decent acidity, and a shorter finish than one would want, though there are certain high-toned merits to the latter. This is a lot of fun to smell (the aromas leap from the surface), somewhat less fun to drink, and fairly easy to forget. Nice enough, I guess. (9/07)

Ruchottes the sherrif

[bottle]Rousseau 1998 Ruchottes Chambertin Clos des Ruchottes (Burgundy) – Somewhat rough handling at first, but the inner quality soon emerges. And emerges. And emerges. The aroma is musky and somewhat brooding, and the palate comes in satiny chunks rather than silky smoothness, but it’s all good. Just a little coarsely-hewn. (10/07)

Jacques be nimble

St. Jacques 2004 Pinot Noir (Nelson) – As with the pinot gris, a later harvest was hoped for, but the onslaught of precipitation prevented that. Light plum and earth, blueberry, thyme and other herbs, with a light impact supported by only a little tannin. Fresh, fruity and fun, this is a wine of friendly immediacy, but little future. (3/05)

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