Westport Rivers 2003 “Westport” Brut (Southeastern New England) – Significantly riper-tasting than usual, which is both good and bad. It’s good because this particular bottling is designed to be the fresh, friendly one, and that much crisp, apple-dominated fruit is welcome. Bad because it masks the sophistication the wine can sometimes show. Good because this isn’t, due to the mesoclimate, a wine that performs at a predictable level of quality every year. And bad because…well, I don’t have anything else. It’s a good wine, but as ever a little too much of the appeal comes from its surprising source. All that said, I do enjoy it, and an happy to serve it to others. (4/09)

Westport Rivers 2000 Brut Blanc de Noirs (Southeastern New England) – Very stark, with dry raspberry pits and leafy strawberry hulls lending timid, trebly voice to a thin, tinny old recording on acetate. (10/08)