Browse Tag

red

Freemon

[guignier]Michel Guignier 2013 Morgon (Beaujolais) — Dark berries, ultraviolet light, dark stones. There’s a litheness to this wine that’s a little atypical for Morgon, yet it’s balanced and persistent. Drink or hold. (5/16)

Puppet show

[guignier]Michel Guignier 2014 Beaujolais (Beaujolais) — Gravel & berries. Light, not particularly lively, but it makes up for a lack of verve with a little more depth. Very appealing and very quickly gone. (5/16)

Calon feral

[calon-ségur]Calon-Ségur 1993 Saint-Estèphe (Bordeaux) — Leather-textured, with fine-grit graphite soaked into the tanned flesh. Fully mature, leaning a bit hard and wizened, but as it airs it lengthens and gains dried-herb complexities. Finally, though, it finishes in a summer-breeze dusting of black pepper powder. (5/16)

Nebbish

[produttori]Produttori del Barbaresco 2012 Barbaresco (Piedmont) — Particularly…perhaps even unusually…approachable. Mostly crushed and dusted flower petals, with some soft earth. By general standards it seems beautifully in balance, which of course makes me wonder if it’s in nebbiolo-balance. In any case, it’s one that will be hard to not drink, because it’s so appealing right now. And finding nebbiolo that requires patience isn’t exactly difficult. (5/16)

Every tincture tells a story

Storybook Mountain 2011 Zinfandel Napa Estate (Mayacamas Range) — Not as hard-as-nails as I remember this being when young; has there been a regime change? It’s still structured, stony, fine-particulate zin, its darkest berries tight and glowering, but it’s entirely approachable with the right cut of flesh over enough fire. I feel like this property rarely gets the respect it deserves. (5/16)

A longer period, please

Dashe 2012 “The Comet” (Alexander Valley) — The thing I’ve always loved about Dashe’s wines is how they marry a considerable bit of Californian power with structure. I’d rarely call them elegant, but then that’s not really why I buy them. That said, this is a big thud of fairly anonymous fruit, and while it’s certainly not bad, it’s the least interesting wine I think I’ve ever tasted from this much-admired winery. Oh well. (5/16)

Early Rush tours

[lemasson]Lemasson “Les Vins Contés” Vin de France “R15” (Loire) — Grapey glou-glou, the taut gamay berries almost dominated by the minority pineau d’aunis (to which I am overly sensitive, and not in a good way, so never mind me). Not so much fun as attention-demanding. (5/16)

Photo sharing

[raffault]Olga Raffault 1979 Chinon Les Picasses (Loire) — Genius wine in the full-throated prime of its life, and in fact so far from being on the downslope that it’s hilarious. Dark, leathery, peppery, and yet heavily-fruited. Kaleidoscopic soul. (5/16)

Easter noir

Dupasquier 2011 Pinot (Savoie) — I suppose my first error here was thinking the region and expecting this to be one of those rock-driven, ungenerous mountain pinots. It’s not. There’s minerality, for sure, but it’s aromatically warm and enveloping, showing even more pinot noir than Savoie at the moment. I expect this will age, but I have doubts regarding my ability to stop drinking it while it does. (5/16)