Browse Tag

synthetic cork

Pshaw

[vineyard]Pichat 2005 Vin de Pays des Collines Rhodaniennes Syrah (Rhône) – Cardboardy and difficult. Not corked, but not good either. (6/09)

Chtxktxhch

Txomin Etxaniz 2007 Getariako Txakolina “Getaria” (Northwest Spain) – Somewhere between perlant and pétillant, and yanking the promise of electric greenness so far to the left that the wine turns to a blinding shade of white…slashing, shocking, but never alighting. I dig it. There’s more than can be done with this grape, and I’d call this txakolina 1.5 (that is, not quite the 2.0 of Ameztoi), but even this much is awfully appealing with the right chill and the right food (saline, with a shell or carapace, and not otherwise doused with flavorants). (4/09)

Sport Utility Drink

[vineyard]Lafage 2006 Vin de Pays des Côtes Catalanes “côté SUD” (Roussillon) – Boisterous fruitiness (large, wet berries), a touch of smoke, and the faintest whiff of something earthier, with a little cedary structure from minority partner cabernet sauvignon. Pure fun. (4/09)

A Peyrouses is a Peyrouses

[label]Voge 2006 Côtes-du-Rhône “Les Peyrouses” (Rhône) – Cornas without all that soft, easygoing gentility. Well, OK, actually not. It’s feral and twisted, bent and almost broken, but manages to cling to black’n’blue’purple, heavily-bruised fruit around the perimeter, just hanging on as the bottom falls out of the center. Structurally angry. Sadomasochistic wine; there’s pleasure to be had, and you’ll remember it later, but there may be some consequences. (4/09)

Tools

[label]Craftsman 2006 Királyleányka (Neszmély) – The label promises a chenin blanc/viognier-related experience, and that isn’t too far off, as there’s a chalky, sun-drenched greenness thickened with a healthy dollop of oil here. Floral suggestions follow. There’s good flavor and appeal, but the wine’s rather abrupt. (4/09)

Ermita crab

[vineyard]Casa de la Ermita 2006 Jumilla Blanco Dulce (Levant) – 500 ml. Sweet, perfumed, and muscatty, leaning towards its riper orange blossom expression. (I should say that I don’t know that the wine’s actually made from muscat. It tastes like it is, though.) As the wine aerates, it grows more tropical, but never really develops into anything I’d call lush…or, for that matter, complex. There’s a steady-state density akin to light fortification, as well, though I’m fairly certain that the wine is not fortified; it’s appealing rather than heated, and adds some welcome texture to a pretty but otherwise simple wine. (4/09)

Ricky

Texier 2001 Côtes-du-Rhône-Villages St-Gervais (Rhône) – Dead, with minor oxidation. Synthetic cork strikes again. (3/09)

Basque salad

Amesguren “Ameztoi” 2007 Getariako Txakolina (Northwest Spain) – Very spritzy and electric, but strangely vacant. It’s like a freezing wind barreling down a skyscraper wind tunnel, bringing nothing but a cold hollow to one’s bones. With a lot of air, there’s some hints of chalk and paper, but this never really develops into anything except a persistent live current. By a huge margin, the most disappointing bottle of this wine I’ve ever tasted. Hopefully just bottle variation. (3/09)