Solid champagne, with citrus-inflected elements. Plenty of acidity, there will be no confusion that this is a blanc de blancs with its brightness. A touch tart at the end of the day, but a pleasant champagne nonetheless.
Have been all over the place with this wine, but I think that it's mostly shut down now. Fresh and bright, but just not overall showing very much. Some green apple, lime, and malic tones now, but not giving anything else up. Hope that the structure loosens up with age.
Served double blind (but known as riesling). Smoky and slightly stinky on the nose (bad reduction). Better on the palate, with a touch of sweet fruit, but also a bit thin and green. Definitely not in the Alsace-Germany-Austria camp, and thought this was something from the new world.
Served double blind (but known to be chardonnay). Really nice reduction on the nose, but that's the only thing interesting here. The rest of this is the vinous embodiment of boring. Watery and dilute, unfocussed and vapid. I've liked the chardonnays in the past, but this one is really pointless.
Served double blind. Clearly pinot noir from a super cold area, picked to preserve all the juicy strawberry juiciness, at the cost of any real complexity. Pleasant to drink chilled on a patio on a summer night, but that's pretty much it. Way too thin and lean. I ended up guessing New Zealand.
Wild and feral, in some sort of restrained way. This has a lot of animal tones, black fruit, black pepper, and a touch of brine. The palate is surprisingly open, with a nice juiciness and youthfulness, but also no signs that this was in danger of shutting down. In fact, to me, this was drinking a little too easily, to the point that I'm wary of aging these too much. I like the delicacy on the palate -- you're not really trading off the concentration or complexity for it here either.
Served double blind. Clearly syrah, black fruited, with a bit of an oaky polish that made me go straight to Hermitage. Ripe black fruit and peppercorns, but lacking the saline and olive tones that I really love in syrah.
A great showing for this wine, with all of those olive notes that I love. There's a hint of white pepper and the ripe fruit is just perfect with the Gonon style. Definitely reminds me of the brilliant 2015 edition. It's obviously young, and I think time will coax more out of this wine, but it's already showing plenty of signs of greatness.
I like the palate of this far more than the nose, which shows a bit of an unpleasant natty and mousy quality. The palate is much more clean, but seems to veer a little too far towards high acid, to the detriment of having a bigger body, so despite the pleasant sweet fruit elements here, there's quite a bit of acidity that feels unbalanced.
I'm not sure if this was messed up or if it's expected (you can never tell with natural wine). Smells natty, with a touch of mousiness, and the palate is fairly alright until you get to the finish, where there are some seriously unpleasant dead yeast flavours. Dirty, and frankly, kind of gross. I was told this was a lot better right when it was opened, and digging into this 1.5 hours later was apparently already too late...
#18-02, 8.5% abv. Super leaky bottle, so judgment withheld, but there were definitely the correct elements of 2001 here, with the racy acidity and sweet ripe fruit, but on the palate, this comes to an abrupt end, like someone decided to dismember the finish from this wine.
Served double blind, in a black glass, to obscure the colour. The high-toned, waxy, and really unpleasant herbal tones led me straight to roussanne/marsanne. So herbal this feels more like a cocktail than wine. Low acid and bitter.
NV Veuve Fourny & Fils Champagne Premier Cru Blanc de Blancs Brut 88 Points
France, Champagne, Champagne Premier Cru
Solid champagne, with citrus-inflected elements. Plenty of acidity, there will be no confusion that this is a blanc de blancs with its brightness. A touch tart at the end of the day, but a pleasant champagne nonetheless.
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2012 Pierre Péters Champagne Grand Cru l'Esprit 88 Points
France, Champagne, Champagne Grand Cru
Have been all over the place with this wine, but I think that it's mostly shut down now. Fresh and bright, but just not overall showing very much. Some green apple, lime, and malic tones now, but not giving anything else up. Hope that the structure loosens up with age.
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2016 Norman Hardie Riesling 85 Points
Canada, Ontario, Ontario VQA
Served double blind (but known as riesling). Smoky and slightly stinky on the nose (bad reduction). Better on the palate, with a touch of sweet fruit, but also a bit thin and green. Definitely not in the Alsace-Germany-Austria camp, and thought this was something from the new world.
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2015 Norman Hardie Chardonnay Unfiltered 80 Points
Canada, Ontario, Niagara Peninsula, Niagara Peninsula VQA
Served double blind (but known to be chardonnay). Really nice reduction on the nose, but that's the only thing interesting here. The rest of this is the vinous embodiment of boring. Watery and dilute, unfocussed and vapid. I've liked the chardonnays in the past, but this one is really pointless.
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2016 Norman Hardie Pinot Noir Unfiltered 85 Points
Canada, Ontario, Niagara Peninsula, Niagara Peninsula VQA
Served double blind. Clearly pinot noir from a super cold area, picked to preserve all the juicy strawberry juiciness, at the cost of any real complexity. Pleasant to drink chilled on a patio on a summer night, but that's pretty much it. Way too thin and lean. I ended up guessing New Zealand.
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2012 Marcel Juge Cornas 95 Points
France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Cornas
Wild and feral, in some sort of restrained way. This has a lot of animal tones, black fruit, black pepper, and a touch of brine. The palate is surprisingly open, with a nice juiciness and youthfulness, but also no signs that this was in danger of shutting down. In fact, to me, this was drinking a little too easily, to the point that I'm wary of aging these too much. I like the delicacy on the palate -- you're not really trading off the concentration or complexity for it here either.
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2014 Rhys Syrah Horseshoe Vineyard 90 Points
USA, California, Santa Cruz Mountains
Served double blind. Clearly syrah, black fruited, with a bit of an oaky polish that made me go straight to Hermitage. Ripe black fruit and peppercorns, but lacking the saline and olive tones that I really love in syrah.
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2009 Pierre Gonon St. Joseph 95 Points
France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, St. Joseph
A great showing for this wine, with all of those olive notes that I love. There's a hint of white pepper and the ripe fruit is just perfect with the Gonon style. Definitely reminds me of the brilliant 2015 edition. It's obviously young, and I think time will coax more out of this wine, but it's already showing plenty of signs of greatness.
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2014 Jean-Michel Stephan Côte-Rôtie Côteaux de Tupin 88 Points
France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Côte-Rôtie
I like the palate of this far more than the nose, which shows a bit of an unpleasant natty and mousy quality. The palate is much more clean, but seems to veer a little too far towards high acid, to the detriment of having a bigger body, so despite the pleasant sweet fruit elements here, there's quite a bit of acidity that feels unbalanced.
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2014 La Grande Colline Vin de France 70 Points
France, Vin de France
I'm not sure if this was messed up or if it's expected (you can never tell with natural wine). Smells natty, with a touch of mousiness, and the palate is fairly alright until you get to the finish, where there are some seriously unpleasant dead yeast flavours. Dirty, and frankly, kind of gross. I was told this was a lot better right when it was opened, and digging into this 1.5 hours later was apparently already too late...
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2001 Weingut Max Ferd. Richter Brauneberger Juffer Riesling Auslese
Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer
#18-02, 8.5% abv. Super leaky bottle, so judgment withheld, but there were definitely the correct elements of 2001 here, with the racy acidity and sweet ripe fruit, but on the palate, this comes to an abrupt end, like someone decided to dismember the finish from this wine.
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2016 E. Guigal St. Joseph Lieu-Dit St. Joseph Blanc 80 Points
France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, St. Joseph
Served double blind, in a black glass, to obscure the colour. The high-toned, waxy, and really unpleasant herbal tones led me straight to roussanne/marsanne. So herbal this feels more like a cocktail than wine. Low acid and bitter.
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