2012 base, disgorged September 2016. Absolutely lovely and accessible rose -- this is ripping right from the get-go. The nose here is light and pretty, and there's just the right amount of sweet fruit on the palate. Not too complex or heavy, this has a simpler and cheerful disposition. Crisp minerality that is in good balance with the moderate acidity here.

Disgorged July 2016. It's a little surprising that this is actually my first time trying an Egly-Ouriet. But in any case, I found a wine that seems to me to be on the cusp of becoming a more oxidative style. This is a thick and fleshy champagne, full of heft and body, and there's a sappy, bruised apple character here that reminds me of the best of those oxidative wines. This is on the richer side of the champagne spectrum, and there's also a slight breadiness to this wine as well.

This is a super thick and heavy wine (and I don't mean only the glass bottle). The nose shows a moderate amount of reduction, as well as a big helping of ripe fruit. The palate is about as big as my tolerance for white Burgundy lies -- any more and we're into some uncomfortable territory for me. This got more powerful with air, and some Coche popcorn notes started to emerge on the palate as well. There's a bit of sweetness and possibly botrytis here, that to me make this less than it really could be.

The nose on this was classic Raveneau, with a light bit of salinity, as well as some tart citrus. The palate was initially tight, and needed more air to flesh out, whereupon the minerality became much more apparent. I've been a little down on the wines of Raveneau lately -- while they're clearly good, they are a little rounder and fleshier than the Chablis archetype I keep in my head. There always tends to be a touch of sweetness or caramel that distracts me more than it ought to. In any case, this didn't show too much of that character; there was a good squeeze of lemon with the fuller texture here.

Like the living room at grandma's, this has that really floral soapy nose that I can't really tolerate when we're talking skin-fermented wines. But if you an look past that, there's actually some stuff of interest here (though it's more interesting than good). There's some nice red berries here, as well as a fairly prominent bit of acidity. The only issue is getting past that intense sweet and almost sickly floral smell.

Served blind. Clearly some sort of light and mildly carbonic red. The nose shows a very defined igneous smell, and there's a bit of red fruit as well. The palate is good; fairly light and sweet, with tannins that aren't heavy at all. I thought that this was fairly good at first, but I think air doesn't do this wine too much good, as it started tasting weirder and weirder with elements I really couldn't identify, and some of the "natural wine" flavours started to emerge. I guessed some igneous Italian like Sicily or Etna.

I think I've written before that I've never really understood Marcarini's wines, but this bottle today was a bit of an exception. To be sure, it's not the most interesting or powerful Barolo, but the profile here was pretty much a good example of the hallmarks I'd expect in a bottle of Barolo -- a bit of red fruit, some earth and tar, and some light florals. I found the earthiness/barnyard(?) detracting a bit from my preferred style of nebbiolo, and would have preferred a slightly cleaner take, but aside from that, this is still probably the most convincing bottle of Marcarini I've had.

#8-93, 7% abv. This is basically the reason why we age riesling. The nose has the classic petrol note, but this shows a very amazing freshness as well -- it's a successful juxtaposition of dried fruit and fresh acids. The palate isn't too sweet, though there is a slight hint of it. The minerality doesn't come screaming either, but it is dignified and restrained, and you do have to look for it a little bit under that Wehlen sponti on the palate. This is yet another bottle of Prum which reaffirms two important German riesling facts: there is no such thing as a bad bottle of Joh. Jos. Prüm, and that Kabinett, while so low in the hierarchy, is as worthy a wine as any.

Served blind. 10% abv. I really didn't know what to make of this wine. Quite frankly, it didn't really taste like riesling to me. It had the right sweetness and aged notes, but the acidity here was really lacking and confusing. The fruit profile was yellow and had a waxy characteristic. On the other hand, despite the relatively higher levels of alcohol in this wine, this never ended up too heavy, so I left this with a big question mark. But as to whether or not this was good? Not really.

Served blind. The nose on this screamed reductive white Burgundy. There was no doubt about that. The problem was the palate, which didn't have the necessary acid profile to be white Burgundy. In fact, there was a bit of a floral tone to this, which led me to start thinking about different grapes. The waxiness on the palate also didn't help, and it was quite difficult for me to reconcile all the elements together. I ended up, as I always do when I can't figure anything else out, guessing dry Loire chenin in the vein of Guiberteau.