Browse Tag

sparkling

Sorbée course

Vouette & Sorbée Champagne Extra Brut “fidèle” (Champagne) — Disgorged 9 October 2013. One of my absolute favorite Champagnes of all time, this is so vinous and delicately red-fruited, yet retains the essential dancing vivacity of Champagne rather than stomping into dark-fruited meunier-land. Brilliant, flawless, and the absolute best partner for Vacherin Mont d’Or you could ever possibly imagine. (7/16)

Persevere

Thomas Perseval Champagne “Tradition” (Champagne) — Disgorged March 2015. Planar. Rinds, piths, crystals. (7/16)

Couche ball

Couche Champagne Dosage Zéro (Champagne) — 80% pinot noir, 20% chardonnay, disgorged 5 February 2015. Bones, empty rooms, and silence. In other words, showing one of the common failures of no-dosage Champagnes. I’m not feeling this. Will time help? Is there anything here that age might improve, or will it just grow more skeletal? (5/16)

Mignonette

[mignon]Christophe Mignon Champagne Brut Rosé (Champagne) — Disgorged 26 February 2013, dosage somewhere under 8 g/l. Gentle fluffs of drifting fruit-lint. There’s a bit of nerve here, but you have to search to find it. The first bottle I opened, right after receiving a half-case, was better, and so based on this performance I’m going to let the balance rest for a while. (5/16)

Rachais, chantais

[boulard]Francis Boulard Champagne Brut Nature “Les Rachais” (Champagne) — 100% chardonnay, 2005 harvest, disgorged 11 April 2011. Peanuts, mild oxidation, broadness, length, depth. I wouldn’t hold it, but it’s fascinatingly iconoclastic right now. (4/16)

[rosso & pet-nat]

Go froth & conquer

The “moment” arrived about ten years ago. Perhaps earlier? Memory’s forever bent by the convex lens of so very many wine glasses. Nor do I remember where, or who…though I have some guesses. I do remember what, though. It was Lini, and as expected it came in red…but it also came in pink, and white. The rosso was disruptive and I wasn’t yet prepared to understand it, the rosato was pleasant enough, but it was the bianco that grappled with my attention.

“Lambrusco comes in white?”

In theory, I’d known this. I’d read the texts, eyes flickering over the allowed expressions in the hilarious anarchy of Italy’s DOCs. Mostly, aside from a very small handful of internationally famous appellations with vaguely restrictive codes (regulations that would be impossible for any self-respecting Italian winemaker to ignore), the “laws” seemed to be the same everywhere. Make it white, pink, red, sparkling, dry, sweet, fortified, aromatized, or really whatever you feel like doing…

But still. “Lambrusco comes in white?”

I drank a lot of that white, over the next few years. As a by-the-glass pour it metastasized all over Boston, where I lived and wrote back then. Why not? It was delicious, and — perhaps more importantly, on the commercial side — it was inexpensive. I occasionally dabbled in the rosato. But the rosso…the rosso…

There lay the actual struggle, even though I didn’t realize it at the time. Keep Reading

Kruggerand

Krug Champagne Brut “Grande Cuvée” (Champagne) – Rich and heady, but really not all that complex or interesting. It’s like gilding and jewel-encrusting a turnip, frankly; yes, it’s all shiny and sparkly, but what’s the real point? It’s still a turnip, and doesn’t want to be gilt. The wine’s elegant, and maybe the point is that one should feel elegant while one drinks it, but that’s really much more about the drinker than it is the wine itself. (4/11)

Long-playing

Laurent-Perrier Champagne Brut Cuvée Rosé (Champagne) – Pink, and tastes of it. Sharp, fruity, clean, soon dead. Next. (11/12)

Sekt & zweigeltness

Steininger 2008 Zweigelt Sekt (Austria) – Zweigelt is a grape that, while it maintains a Teutonic reserve and stiff upper, usually seems to be barely restraining a little explosion of laughter. Only the ravages of heavy wood and international blending grapes can really repress the undercurrent of fun. On the other hand, it’s possible to release too many inhibitions, and that’s what I feel is going on here. Tutti-frutti berries, an almost candied sweet-tartness, and an overdose of affected fun. While the medium-dark froth is a fun party guest, you’ll soon find yourself looking elsewhere for interesting conversation. (8/12)