Browse Tag

screwcap

Wine on the wing

[vineyard]Donaldson Family “Pegasus Bay” 2007 Riesling (Waipara Valley) – Bright apple-lime fruit, lightly sweet, with mirror-reflective silver-foil minerality and the perfect amount of acidity. Surprisingly long for a wine that attempts to give of itself so early, yet experience suggests that this portends complexities to come. A very fine example of everything it is: the grape, the place, and the producer. (4/09)

Donaldson Family “Pegasus Bay” 2007 Riesling (Waipara Valley) – Exactly…exactly…the same as the previous bottle. This is why we like screwcaps. (4/09)

Kumeu are you?

[grapes]Kumeu River 2005 Chardonnay (Kumeu) – Sulfurous and a little clumsy. Very, very sulfurous, in fact. Difficult to assess. 24 hours later, things haven’t changed much. (4/09)

Kumeu River 2005 Chardonnay (Kumeu) – Take two. Sulfurous, but less difficult than the previous bottle. Still, it doesn’t add up to much. This exact wine was very enticing six months ago, so it has obviously entered some form of hibernation. Optimists (and those who’ve had well-aged Kumeu River chardonnays; I have, and they’ve been wonderful) will assume it’s a normal closed period. Pessimists will eye the screwcap with reductive suspicion. I don’t know which is the correct assessment, but I do know the wine’s in no mood for a party at the moment. (4/09)

Heretics of Doon

Bonny Doon “Ca’ del Solo” 2008 Muscat (Monterey County) – Friendly and approachable, more in the fashion of an Alsatian or northeastern Italian muscat than something sweeter, with balanced perfume and a pretty finish. (4/09)

Chapterhouse Doon

Bonny Doon “Ca’ del Solo” 2008 Albariño (Monterey County) – Very light, yet a little sticky as well. Yellow-skinned fruit and light floral notes, not so much almond, and a crisp-creamy finish. More or less boring. (4/09)

Two grins

Peregrine 2003 Riesling (Central Otago) – Performing even better than at the winery. Dried apricot, deep black minerality, tarragon, and light residual sugar. Medium-bodied with preliminary bursts of complexity, terrific balance, and a long, drying finish. Very, very promising. (3/05)

Siduri Cruise

Siduri 2006 Pinot Noir (Willamette Valley) – The immediate aromatic impression is of walking into a furniture factory: freshly-cut wood (not, I need to clarify, a comment on the wine’s élevage), paint, and varnish, all powerfully intense. Then comes light fruit that’s been charred to dark anger, perhaps with some beet and blood orange rind, which make me think that this could be a good ringer in a tasting of the Central Otago’s brawniest styles. There’s bright acidity throughout, the alcohol (14.1%) is felt but does not intrude, balance is mostly achieved, and the wine’s by no means actively unpleasant to drink (though it’s a little assaultive to smell), but…well, I feel like I’m drinking a tightly-clenched fist. This is a wine that wants to take a swing at someone. (4/09)

Crazy stone

Wild Rock 2007 Pinot Noir “Cupids Arrow” (Central Otago) – Dense, chewy, meaty, and somewhat blackened; in the pinot-as-syrah sweepstakes, this deserves at least an honorable mention. There’s acidity and a plummy brightness that combine to make the wine other than ponderous, but in the end its defiant scowliness and meaty density are hard to ignore. (4/09)

Mara perfect thing

Te Mara 2008 Pinot Gris (Central Otago) – Sticky pear, spice, and minerality. Good intensity. Vivid. Neon-electric. I’d call this a CGI pinot gris, and in a good way, but it’s not for everyone. (3/09)

Sounds!

Villa Maria “Private Bin” 2008 Chardonnay (Marlborough) – Ripe orange and fig with a hint of butter. Big, clean, and nice. This is what cheap chardonnay should taste like. (3/09)