Me: mom, can we have some Dauvissat? Mom: We have Dauvissat at home.
All jokes aside... from a bottle opened the day before. Super fresh and vibrant, absolutely true to the vintage and appellation. A nice sweetness coupled with the expected acidity and minerality here. No slouch of a wine.
France, Burgundy, Bourgogne Hautes-Côtes de Beaune
The great thing about PYCM is that they all basically taste the same. My note here should be pretty much identical to that of the 2018 St. Aubin Marguerite. Reductive, oaky, fat, and somehow still pretty tasty. Girthy chardonnay especially for the appellation on the bottle.
One of the difficulties I tend to have with assyrtiko is that I always wish it were 1% lower in alcohol. The wines have such amazing minerality and acidity, and it's always the alcohol that pokes through. This bottle is an exception. The nose shows plenty of ripe yellow fruit, but there is also a lovely herbal green element that cuts through it. Ditto on the palate, with an intense minerality, and just a slight waxiness. The aforementioned alcohol is held in check here, rendering this a fantastic example of the grape to my palate.
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Morey St. Denis 1er Cru
A somewhat strange nose with a very intense fruit character but there are also some herbaceously mulchy notes already starting to emerge. The palate shows the vintage character very well, with a generous amount of fruit though it is also quite tannic. All in all, a good wine, but I wish some of the producer style showed through the vintage -- where is the elegant, perfumed red fruit?
Somewhat of an odd showing of this; I had quite liked this wine before but today, the nose on this felt really dirty and funky -- surprisingly so for such a young Volnay. Everything else was pretty much the same as I remember it being; just that this felt way more dirty. Maaaaybe we caught this just at an awkward moment?
USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Eola - Amity Hills
The nose here has a bit of that whole reduction/oak thing going on, and you can almost smell the acid in the wine. Mostly white-fruited in complexion with a palate which feels dominated by the acid, this feels a little too lean for my taste. This is made in a style somewhat like Ceritas, and while these are undeniably well-made chardonnays, I just haven't come around to them.
#23-03, 8% abv. From a bottle opened more than a week ago. I was pretty shocked at that -- this was fresh and vibrant, with a lovely green herb tone and some real chewy mineral heft.
I made a terrible mistake in my last note on this wine, as I forgot to indicate that this requires ample, ample air to show its best. Indeed, it was initially a little muted at first, and seemed to blossom as the day wore on (and the bottle got emptier). The nose is generous and waxy, with tons of browned fruit (in a good way) and despite the 21 years in American oak, the oak elements emerge only as an accent to the rest of the wine. Thickly textured and rich, somehow this also manages to stay crisp and fresh as well. Interestingly there is a slight nutty element that emerges with the air even as the fruit continues to become more prominent. A true feat of winemaking. In case there is any doubt about this wine -- just think of it as a red.
2014 Jean Dauvissat Pere & Fils Chablis Heritage 90 Points
France, Burgundy, Chablis
Me: mom, can we have some Dauvissat?
Mom: We have Dauvissat at home.
All jokes aside... from a bottle opened the day before. Super fresh and vibrant, absolutely true to the vintage and appellation. A nice sweetness coupled with the expected acidity and minerality here. No slouch of a wine.
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2018 Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey Bourgogne Hautes-Côtes de Beaune Au Bout du Monde 90 Points
France, Burgundy, Bourgogne Hautes-Côtes de Beaune
The great thing about PYCM is that they all basically taste the same. My note here should be pretty much identical to that of the 2018 St. Aubin Marguerite. Reductive, oaky, fat, and somehow still pretty tasty. Girthy chardonnay especially for the appellation on the bottle.
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2016 Hatzidakis Winery Assyrtiko Skitali 93 Points
Greece, Aegean, Cyclades, Santorini
One of the difficulties I tend to have with assyrtiko is that I always wish it were 1% lower in alcohol. The wines have such amazing minerality and acidity, and it's always the alcohol that pokes through. This bottle is an exception. The nose shows plenty of ripe yellow fruit, but there is also a lovely herbal green element that cuts through it. Ditto on the palate, with an intense minerality, and just a slight waxiness. The aforementioned alcohol is held in check here, rendering this a fantastic example of the grape to my palate.
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2009 Henri Jouan Morey St. Denis 1er Cru Clos Sorbé 90 Points
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Morey St. Denis 1er Cru
A somewhat strange nose with a very intense fruit character but there are also some herbaceously mulchy notes already starting to emerge. The palate shows the vintage character very well, with a generous amount of fruit though it is also quite tannic. All in all, a good wine, but I wish some of the producer style showed through the vintage -- where is the elegant, perfumed red fruit?
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2017 Domaine Y. Clerget Volnay 1er Cru Santenots 88 Points
France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Volnay 1er Cru
Somewhat of an odd showing of this; I had quite liked this wine before but today, the nose on this felt really dirty and funky -- surprisingly so for such a young Volnay. Everything else was pretty much the same as I remember it being; just that this felt way more dirty. Maaaaybe we caught this just at an awkward moment?
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2018 Walter Scott Chardonnay Seven Springs Vineyard 90 Points
USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Eola - Amity Hills
The nose here has a bit of that whole reduction/oak thing going on, and you can almost smell the acid in the wine. Mostly white-fruited in complexion with a palate which feels dominated by the acid, this feels a little too lean for my taste. This is made in a style somewhat like Ceritas, and while these are undeniably well-made chardonnays, I just haven't come around to them.
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2002 Alfred Merkelbach Erdener Treppchen Riesling Spätlese
Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer
#23-03, 8% abv. From a bottle opened more than a week ago. I was pretty shocked at that -- this was fresh and vibrant, with a lovely green herb tone and some real chewy mineral heft.
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1986 Marqués de Murrieta Rioja Castillo Ygay Gran Reserva Especial Blanco 98 Points
Spain, La Rioja, Rioja
I made a terrible mistake in my last note on this wine, as I forgot to indicate that this requires ample, ample air to show its best. Indeed, it was initially a little muted at first, and seemed to blossom as the day wore on (and the bottle got emptier). The nose is generous and waxy, with tons of browned fruit (in a good way) and despite the 21 years in American oak, the oak elements emerge only as an accent to the rest of the wine. Thickly textured and rich, somehow this also manages to stay crisp and fresh as well. Interestingly there is a slight nutty element that emerges with the air even as the fruit continues to become more prominent. A true feat of winemaking. In case there is any doubt about this wine -- just think of it as a red.
Read 2 Comments / Post a Comment / 2 people found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Report Issue