Browse Tag

red

Karly sign, mon

Karly 2003 Zinfandel “Buck’s Ten Point” (Amador Country) – 14.5%. Tight, dried-berry Amador wildness; call it blackened zin without the Cajun spicing. Fruit tends towards blackberry and other less common, tiny and slightly bitter berries, with a slight whiskey burn that somehow doesn’t offend. It lacks ambition, but it’s tasty enough. (8/07)

There once was a wine from Nantucket

[bottle]Limerick Lane 2002 Zinfandel Collins (Russian River Valley) – 14.6%. On the bigger, hotter side of zin, but by no means unduly hot in context. Wild boysenberry and raspberry dominate, with soda notes in the mix, and a peppery, zingy finish that shows strapping acidity. A good wine, but it needs strong-willed food to tame its more aggressive notions. (7/07)

Nalle for one

Nalle 2003 Zinfandel (Dry Creek Valley) – 13.8%. Elegant and supple (two words rarely used to describe a zin), with gently rolling berries and a grapey interior, plus some soft, earthy layers underneath. Very pretty. (8/07)

An Auxey to grind

[label]Drouhin 1986 Auxey-Duresses (Burgundy) – Feeble at uncorking, but after the aeration that older Burgundy almost always seems to need, it turns out there’s a beautiful old wine within. This has held wonderfully, with a delicate, spiced leaf aroma intermixed with old red fruit and gentle, mushroomy earth. The structure is fully resolved, though adhesion to the wine’s acidity is just starting to fray and pull a bit; the right food could counterbalance this. (7/07)

Maréchal law

[candle & wine]Maréchal 1995 Pommard Les Vignots (Burgundy) – Starting to fray, with dominant acidity and a sharp razor of tannin slicing deep into a crisp core of red cherry, raspberry and cranberry fruit. Some interesting floral/earthy aromatics skid across the top, but this wine has become mostly about structure. (7/07)

Chorey dinner

[label]Drouhin 2005 Chorey-les-Beaune (Burgundy) – Dark, slightly singed fruit plagued by a surplus of tannin. I don’t think it’s ultimately out of balance, but it’s going to take a long time to present itself as an acceptable dinner companion. And, though this comes as no surprise to anyone given the vintage hype, it’s a massively poor value. Update: the wine is only overpriced in certain markets. Elsewhere, it’s around $20, and thus fairly reasonable given the overheated market for 2005 Burgundies. (9/07)

Grosjean, petitjean

[vines]Grosjean 2005 Pinot Noir (Vallée d’Aoste) – A difficult wine, giving nothing in a spirit of generosity (and certainly not fun). Soil and granite, some dusty red fruit in the background. Indifferent. I’m inclined to like wines that are all about dirt, and maybe this just needs some age, but it’s a bit too cranky for my tastes at this stage. (9/07)

More than a Hamilton

[bottle]Hamilton Russell 2005 Pinot Noir (Walker Bay) – Very, very large-scaled. It’s not that the fruit is overripe or the alcohol is prominent, and certainly this is recognizable as pinot, it’s just that the wine is massive. Also, there’s a thick, intrusive layer of oak doing its best to bury the fruit at the moment. There’s plenty of structure, and given the brilliance of their chardonnay I’m inclined to give it the benefit of the doubt, but it will unquestionably need plenty of age to make any sense of itself. (7/07)

Hallau, how are you?

Regli 2005 Hallauer Sonnenspross Spätlese (Hallau) – Mildly appealing, with lightly-structured but flat black cherries and a fine dusting of particulate white pepper. Tarragon and thyme are more suggested than present, and the wine’s a little on the wan side. Still, it’s appealing enough to be drinkable, especially with the right food…something similarly restrained and gently-treated. (7/07)

Regli 2002 Hallauer Blauburgunder “Barrique” (Hallau) – A chunky dullard of a wine, with tortured fruit buried under a pile of grape- and oak-tannin rubble. There’s a decent enough core of fruit somewhere under all that detritus, but there’s no ferreting it out now. Will it age? Sure, but I doubt it will get any better. (8/07)