1/30/2024 - bevetroppo Likes this wine:

In the old days of cellartracker it wasn't that uncommon to stumble on a wine that had thus far eluded the database, especially if you often drink off the beaten path. But as the site has matured, such an event increasingly became a rarity, and I don't think I've entered a new wine in a few years.

Imagine then my surprise with today's specimen, which is apparently so obscure that even the importer doesn't list the grapes, and I only found them on a hopefully reliable retail site in France. It's actually a blend of 80% piedirosso and 20% aglianico, if you can believe them.

The color is a pretty pale cherry with purple highlights. largely transparent. The nose is initially delicate and I find if I sniff at the rim vs. deep draughts there are delightful lifted blue fruits with floral underpinnings, followed by plum and cherry as I nose around a bit. It's at best medium-bodied, with a lovely initial entry full of red fruits, flowers and crushed stone, finishing with an acidic tang, cracked black pepper and telltale bitterness, not that I'm any expert on piedirosso. The tannins are persistent but relatively mild, although there's plenty of acid keeping things juicy. A lively 12.5% makes it rewarding right out of the cellar.

Very cool wine, and fun to be here first. Good for 3-5 years, just be conscious of the bitter finish if that's not your thing.

12/24/2023 - bevetroppo Likes this wine:

Day later from memory. Brought this to a BYOB restaurant featuring venison and pheasant. Was hoping the bottle age would match the gamy qualities and was not disappointed.

Restaurant light wasn't optimal but the color was a transparent red with beautiful layers lightening towards the rim. Full maturity seemed likely. Nose full of ripe "pinot" fruit, sour cherry, sous bois for weeks. Gently expressive on the palate, again that distinctive fruit that was scratching my memory for comparisons, and soft but not at all flat or flabby impression on the long finish.

It took me awhile but then I had it. This wine was a throwback to my earliest exposure to Burgundy 40+ years ago. At that time there were maybe four critics in the world whose books you could read to help understand wine: Schoonmaker, Lichine, Broadbent, and Coates. In my struggles to put labels on what I tasted, I followed Broadbent like he was a holy prophet and he described this mature pinot flavor as "beetroot." I never actually understood what this meant, only learned to recognize it when it appeared.

Whether it's a stylistic shift in the wines over time or I'm not drinking enough fine aged Burgundy (likely), I haven't experienced this unmistakable fruit signature in a long time.

The farming and handling by this very authentic domain, committed to biodynamics and self-described "neo-classical" winemaking, resulted in a beautiful wine that for me was like a reunion with an old friend.

12/9/2023 - bevetroppo Likes this wine:

Coming immediately after a hideously corked 2016 Barolo I would have liked this wine just for being sound. Fortunately, it's not only sound but wonderful to boot.

Pale nebbiolo color with clear lightening at the rim. Presumably ready to drink. The nose is confirmatory, boldly offering tightly coiled cranberry and rose aromas, with rumors of tar and berry-studded leather (even I'm not sure what that means), maybe a touch of heat. Suffice it to say it's appealing.

Surprisingly elegant on the palate given its 15% ABV, which other than the aforementioned heat on the nose isn't really a factor. Cranberry fruit and leather dominate for now, with grippy tannins quickly asserting themselves on the fresh, acid-inflected and very long finish. Leaves the tongue a-tingling.

This is mid-journey for now at 8 years old and has the components to age effortlessly for another 10 years, when some of its more spiky elements can be expected to soften. The winemaker lovingly dedicates the wine to her father in an all Italian label tribute. It's easy to see she means it. While you can enjoy it right now, a few hours in the decanter wouldn't be a mistake.

12/9/2023 - bevetroppo wrote:

I had great expectations for this bottle. It was purchased as an "individual direct import" from a wine guide in Piedmont during the height of COVID when I had to cancel a bucket list wine trip. Her business dried up completely as you can imagine, so I bought a case of fun stuff from her just to show my support. The cool part is it doesn't have a word of English on it since we bypassed the importer.

Anyway, I opened it a few minutes ago thinking it might be young but damn, sometimes you just want good nebbiolo. The front part of the nose is stunning-but halfway through it goes all Jekyll and Hyde and becomes severely, grossly corked. It's so bad as to be a textbook. Run over to my house right now if you aren't sure what TCA contamination smells and tastes like.

Well, that's the risk you take when you bypass the importer and the rest of the three-tier distribution system-no place to return it and nothing to be done but empty it in the sink. Sigh.

2/1/2020 - bevetroppo wrote:

I have no vocabulary for this wine-drinking experience. I might have had a shot at the country from the front label, but it would only have been a guess and it wouldn't have been Italy on the first try. I am not sure, but I think Skerk is the producer and Ograde the name of the wine. Thanks to the back label, I see it's a field blend of equal parts vitovska (?!), malvasia, sauvignon and pinot grigio.

And the electric orange color? Like nothing I've ever seen before. I suspect the wine is largely natural but that color looks like it escaped from a lava lamp or like slightly dilute orange Kool Aid.

Since I have no familiarity with vitovska, it's hard to attribute any varietal accuracy to the nose, which definitely smells like something. It would take more patience and interest than I possess to unpack it: candied orange like those jelly things your grandmother used to buy, lots of pith, buzzy pinot grigio notes, I'm sure a better, more motivated taster would find more.

It tastes like a pithy, bitter orange pinot grigio to me, more like a Negroni in color and profile than a typical wine. So despite the fact that I pride myself on being both open-minded and informed about wine in general, I can't say I get this. Or better said, I'm pretty sure I won't get it again. Glad to know that orange wine exists, and equally glad someone else will be drinking it.

8/24/2023 - bevetroppo Likes this wine:

Pretty garnet color. Nose is immediately heady, fully ripened cherry and plum with hints of leather and light florals underneath. It's hard to resist before you even taste it.

If anything, it's richer and fruitier on the palate than I would have guessed from the nose alone. Mouthfilling red fruits dominate, more Vino Nobile than Chianti, or maybe Maremma with a touch of warmth. It has a soft, furry texture resolving in a balanced finish with well integrated tannins. Might have liked to find a little more Sangiovese bite but no complaints.

I wasn't at all familiar with Predappio so looked it up just now. It's SE of Bologna, about 45 minutes SW of Ravenna. I know Europe is baking this summer but the listed temperature was 97 F right now. Hard to make subtle wines in these conditions, Perhaps a similar effect touched the 2020's?

11/23/2021 - bevetroppo wrote:

Gave this a very fair shake over three days and it never came around. It had intense tar and floral notes that overpowered everything else, including the dark fruit lurking underneath. Syrupy and heavy on the palate, the opposite of elegant. Based on other reviews here I'm going to assume there was something wrong, maybe q rare form of "scalping TCA" as my friend John would call it. Odd and disappointing.

11/17/2012 - bevetroppo wrote:

Day later from memory. I didn't even realize it until they brought me the bottle that this wasn't Cinque Stelle, but I guess the regular cuvée of this property's sfursat. Had never seen a bottle of it before. It was $89 on the wine list and I almost sent it back but experience with Negri's wines made me say let's go for it. Besides, it was just me and I was rewarding myself after a truly grueling day. There's something, I don't know, that just makes me feel special about eating dinner in a good restaurant alone at the bar with a bottle of wine as my date. Maybe it's the idea that we're going to have an intimate conversation over a two hour period and really get to know each other while they bring us food we've chosen to bring us closer together? Ok, it's official-I'm losing my mind...

Air-dried for 120 days before fermentation. Palish garnet color though hard to tell in the dim light. Immediately alluring and sexy nose with notes of deep red fruits, sweet raisins, light smoke and leather. Almost delicate on entry, gaining depth and intensity in the mid-palate but always with elegance and not power, then delivering a glistening reward of tantalizing sweetness before resolving in a dry, balanced finish. Delicious from beginning till end. It was like a long voluptuous kiss. I can't imagine I would like the 5 star more. Drank with a burrata and speck appetizer, and a perfectly prepared veal chop with a side of homemade mushroom ravioli and haricots verts. The earth moved.

11/20/2022 - bevetroppo Likes this wine:

There are several broad styles of barbera in my somewhat limited view. There's quaffable fruit-driven pizza wine, and I like that just fine if it's not otherwise spoofy. These can also taste completely nondescript, sharp, saggy or worse in the wrong hands, which sadly is most of what shows up on these shores. At the other extreme is the "I'm going to pump you up" self-important, "serious" barbera, heavily oaked and generally Parkerized to death. Can't drink those at all, and the genre should just go away. In the middle is a small group of producers who truly make barbera wines worth drinking and thinking about, like this one. It's a dark ruby color, beguiling notes of dark red berries, plum, and sour cherry on the nose, stitched together with a savory lash that seemed like sandalwood at first but started to integrate into a more holistic spicy quality with air. Beautiful, complex juicy red and black fruits on the palate, high-toned acids, and an earthy overcoat resolving in a gently tannic but full finish.

This presses all my barbera buttons and is as serious as you can get without going an inch beyond drinkability or food-friendliness even at 14%. Pizza, yes! Roast chicken? Sure! I tried both over two nights and it never missed a beat.

3/6/2023 - bevetroppo Likes this wine:

What do good Burgundy producers have in common with the US Postal Service? All that stuff about neither snow nor rain nor heat etc. Everything I've read about the 2021 vintage makes it sound like all hell broke loose and growers were lucky to emerge with their lives let alone their livelihoods intact. Yet here we are, there is wine to be had, and judging from this bottle, some of it is damn good and even broadly affordable.

Now speaking of the weather, biodynamic (since 1979) pioneer J.C. Rateau is a terrific under-the-radar producer whose careful, nature-based farming probably puts him in as good a position as anyone to deal with the vagaries of the seasons.

This particular wine is a gleaming, attractive garnet cherry color. The nose is terrific even at this early stage, bursting with red berry fruit, black raspberry and cherry. with intimations of forest floor and ferrous minerality. Lively and brisk on the palate, showing lovely fruit and pronounced acid followed by an engagingly dry smoothly tannic finish. Clocks in at a refreshing 13%. Assuming "Les Beaux et Bons" is a lieu dit, it really lives up to its name.

No reason to think it won't improve to one degree or another but boy it sure tastes good now. Outstanding for a Beaune village to say nothing of the annus horribilis.

12/16/2022 - bevetroppo Likes this wine:

This is the kind of discovery that makes you hesitate to post a tasting note because you'd prefer no one else knew about it. The last time this happened to me it was Heitz-Lochardet, when almost overnight the price for his whites more than doubled after I bought two cases of Chassagne-Montrachet 1er cru for a pittance in an auction. That's almost impossible today in the hyper-inflated world of Burgundy, or is it?

I hesitated to open it so early, but since this was my first bottle of Buffet I was eager to see what was going on. This has a lovely deep garnet color. The nose is absolutely beautiful and not at all reticent: deep alluring notes of ripe red berries and cherry, in an seductive style that feels totally Volnay and could quickly get me canceled if I go any further. The presentation is appropriately primary at this stage but it's oh so enticing. Harmonious, juicy and flat out delicious to drink, and while there's not much evidence of complexity except for a little spice on the finish (at least at this point) OMG it's hard to put the glass down. If I had to use one word to describe it I would say purity. Labeled 13.5% ABV which seems a challenge in today's "climate", and I'd guess this had to have been picked at the perfect moment.

Net, I'll be buying all the Buffet I can until I can't afford it any more. It could probably bury any pinot under $45 I've had in recent memory.

1/14/2023 - bevetroppo Likes this wine:

You can imagine my anticipation when independently this wine was strongly recommended by a favorite retailer and then the main Italian wine critic of Decanter. She named it one of her favorite wines of 2022.

According to the label, Contrada Volpare sits on the eastern slopes of the volcano at 700m and is either the entire or part of the only region entitled to Etna Bianco Superiore. Since Bianco Superiore was a first for me, I had to check the local regs. After multiple false starts I really couldn't find anything illuminating, even from a site called etnawineschool.com, so enough of that.

The wine is a pretty pale gold. The nose is seductive and refined, combining high-toned yellow orchard fruit, scents of honey and light florals, a touch of nuttiness and an oily minerality. Remarkably composed on the palate, with substantial weight for a wine labeled 12.5%.The fruit seems to linger in the forefront of the mouth and teasingly retreats to a well-textured dry and lingering finish. It's in a goldilocks zone, neither too heavy or too light.

Easily the classiest Etna white I've ever had and a ringing endorsement for the potential of carricante. Both my sources were right. Consumed over two nights with zero deterioration.

10/24/2021 - bevetroppo Likes this wine:

Day later from memory so no detailed note. For once I won't bury the lede and will start with the wine. Burnished gold color, effusive nose requiring no coaxing whatsoever to reveal ripe yellow orchard fruits, a touch of wood, lemon curd and stony minerality. Interestingly and much to my liking, not a touch of reduction, ie. no matchstick, gunflint, or other distracting winemaking signature of the kind.

Glorious across the palate, perhaps lacking just a touch of depth on the mid-palate but seamless, juicy and deliciously rich drinking.

Now for the sub "plot." The bottle was discovered by me on a high-end steakhouse wine list for the somewhat absurd price of $99. I assumed it had to be a mistake, but still, what are one's obligations under the circumstances? It was printed there in black and white and available for anyone else to select. By the way, this was probably the most expensive restaurant within a 20-mile radius in NJ so you had to assume they knew what they doing. In any event, I ordered the bottle immediately from a waiter and had it ceremoniously opened and poured by a jubilant sommelier who needlessly told me it was a Grand Cru. The wine was great as described above, and my dining companions who were not accustomed to such exalted pedigree wines went bonkers (I told them before ordering that it was probably mispriced and no one said "stop, you have to say something..."). The food by the way was terrific, too.

When I ordered a second bottle, the sommelier returned and made the somewhat strange pronouncement, "so you want to order another $400 bottle?" Did he think we had made a mistake or that we couldn't afford it? Well, naturally we protested and to his credit, he went back to his station, grabbed a wine list and we could see his entire posture sink as he realized the error was his. He came back and said, ok, you can have the first one for $99 but not a second. Seemed fair to me, but I said we'll order something else instead. He was kind of a prick to me the rest of the evening, and I had to smile when I saw the $300 "discount" on my check.

Net net, am I guilty of anything but being an informed consumer? Should I have done anything differently, like said before ordering, "Are you sure $99 is right?" By keeping quiet, did I betray the brotherhood of the bottle? At the end of the day, my feeling is that any place that advertises a $165 salt-aged steak can fend for itself. As my brother aptly put it, caveat venditor.

9/24/2022 - bevetroppo Likes this wine:

Every once in awhile, the stars align and seemingly every wine critic on the planet agrees that a given region is truly blessed in a given year. I'm not talking about a James Suckling proclamation or even when a few of them say it's a vintage of the Century, which happens every few years in Bordeaux. I'm talking about universal barbaric yawps over the roofs of the world. The last time I saw anything like it was '05 red Burgundy until we got to '16 Bordeaux. Critics I admire and critics I laugh at were all on the same page.

So I did a bunch more research (sorry, I don't find myself in a place physically or financially where I can taste a bunch of them early on in one place), and then started buying a wide variety of them at the lowest prices I could find. Tonight's Haut Bages Liberal is the first I've opened, so you can imagine my curiosity if not outright eagerness. I'll tell you right upfront, based on a sample of one relatively modest bottle, the hype does not appear to be misplaced.

The color is a deep red almost opaque at the center but lightening to a flashing crimson near the rim. The nose comes close to bursting out of the glass with an assortment or blue and red fruits, cedar, mild mint, vanilla and who knows what else. Beautifully textured on the palate where cassis and plum fruit mingles with added flavors of tobacco, spice and espresso. Tannins are very refined and leave a long astringent but not rough impression, speaking to the wine's youth and Pauillac grip. It's labeled 13.5% alcohol which seems semi-unbelievable in an era ruled by climate change.

You can drink this right now I can say confidently after a pop and pour, but decanting for an hour or two might help in the short term if you prefer it a little softer and rounder.

If this is an indication of the vintage, it suggests two things: (1) they got this one right and (2) how good are the more exalted wines going to be?

As much as I like this wine, I have to leave it with a funny importer fumble. I'm a sucker for QR codes on wine bottles, and was surprised to see one here. Unfortunately, it links to Chateau Ferriere in Margaux. Oh well, you can't win 'em all

9/2/2022 - bevetroppo Likes this wine:

This comes a good six days after drinking the wine so take it with a grain of salt. I've been semi-haunted by it and it wouldn't leave me alone until I wrote something. Color was on the pale side. Effusive nose of what I think Michael Broadbent used to refer to as "beetroot" pinot fruit. Pure and sweet fruit mingled with developing sous bois on the palate. A cool impression in the mouth, with evident acidity that gave it almost a sweet/sour interplay of flavors.

It was not recognizable as Pommard to me, too light and gentle, but it had a certain ineffable appeal, fresh and with a mountain stream quality. Presumably the magic of the '05 vintage at work here too.

I had to search my notes to find the only other Pacalet wine I've had, which turned out to be an '05 Gevrey 1er Cru I tasted 7 years ago. Interestingly, I was equally confused back then by the distinctive style, but at that time I didn't enjoy it. For my taste, there's a "signature" in these wines. It may or may not be from the winemaker's influence or from "nature" itself, but it seems to come at the cost of terroir, even when the wine conveys a restrained, cool appeal as this did.

11/11/2011 - bevetroppo wrote:

It's been a little more than 2 weeks since my last note and in truth, I could have entered at least 20 wines consumed over the period. But somehow I didn't get a single one down, including most memorably a stellar '90 L'Angelus and a very satisfying '02 Jadot Vosne-Romanee Suchots. In the interim, I called an excellent '01 Aldo Conterno a Chambolle Musigny in a blind tasting and then the same night absolutely nailed a Clape Cornas. I think I was subconsciously waiting for the right wine to enter my 900th tasting note on cellartracker, and guess what, this is it.

On my first afternoon in Paris in 1982 I had a bottle of St.-Nicolas de Bourgueil. We were sitting outside at a cafe on a warm June afternoon. It was the "bistro wine a la mode" back then. Fresh, light, peppery cab franc served with a little chill. You could drink it with almost anything or nothing. I find a bottle or two of St.-Nicolas in the US every year-seldom more. They're almost always rewarding.

This one has an engaging light purple color and a nose that is much softer and less herbaceous than most cab franc. With a little research I found it's vinified and aged entirely in stainless steel, which accounts for the appealing red fruit nose, light body and supple flavors of red fruits, spice, and cracked black pepper. Serve it slightly chilled and you will unconsciously start singing the Marseillaise out of sheer admiration.

One thing you won't sing about is how hard it is to figure out who made the wine. The label is comme on dit, en peu impenetrable. In tiny letters on the back it says "bottled by Chais St-Laurent", which turns out to be the second label of a producer called Foucher-Lebrun, which of course appears nowhere on the front or back. "Arpents" means "acres," unless it's Loire dialect for something else, though there's nary a mention of Loire, Cab Franc, etc. Probably a good thing it's hard to find, because the French sure make it damn hard to sell. 13% alcohol. Worth the effort.

6/9/2022 - bevetroppo wrote:

Don't drink much vinho verde. This seems to be part of a Niepoort project that has various Docil line extensions. It's labeled Loureiro which appears to be the grape variety. That's about all I know going in.

Color a light straw with green highlights. No noticeable signs of fizz. Nose is stony and saline, maybe a little white orchard fruit and some floral overtones. Very pleasant on the palate with saline minerality, under-ripe pear in the middle, and somewhat riper yellow fruit toward the brisk, green-tasting finish. It's not exactly bitter, but not far off either.

Strikes me as a bracing aperitif at 11.5% ABV, probably best with simple uncomplicated food. It actually didn't do all that well with plain sautéed swordfish, which surprised me, as I would have guessed them to be highly compatible. Probably better when they're both fresh and on their native soil.

6/8/2022 - bevetroppo Likes this wine:

Day later from memory. Second bottle (first was a red Bourgogne) from this relatively new (to these shores) Santenay producer. Never had or even seen a white Santenay before, so the hunt for affordable Burgundy continues to push the boundaries.

Surprisingly taut, white orchard fruit and lemony citrus, with definite struck match notes and minerality common to the reductive winemaking school that's so in vogue. Plenty of flashy oak too. It wasn't off-putting, but it was evident enough to send me off to look up their approach on the importer's website.

The Villages-level vineyard abuts Chassagne Morgeots, a promising sign. Organic farming on stony soils, hand harvesting, aged 10 months, half in tank and half in 350 liter oak barrels, 30% of which are new.

Right now I felt the oak was a little loud, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if it gets integrated with more time, which would lead to an improved score. I like this producer and will keep an eye out for them.

3/29/2022 - bevetroppo Likes this wine:

When Chianti Classico is this good it lifts my spirits. Zero % spoofalation here, Dark garnet color fully opaque. Hauntingly good if young on the nose, unmistakable sour cherry fruit with kirsch on the edges lashed with a leather strop. Faint herbal scents in the background. Screamingly taut on the palate at this early stage, the evident fruit quickly subsumed by grippy tannins and abundant acidity. 50% of the wine is aged for 12 months in cement and the rest in used barriques, so the wood is there but entirely judicious in its framing. This will get better and go for a long time.

10/25/2020 - bevetroppo Likes this wine:

In case you're not sure from the wine name that pops up in search, the grape variety here is spelled out in big block letters at the bottom of the label: TIMORASSO. I also think it's hilarious that at least in my market the wine is imported by "The Piedmont Guy." Dude, let your freak flag fly.

The color is a bright very pale straw. The nose combines light lemony citrus notes with herbal overtones and a sharp saline-infused mineral bite. Light to medium-bodied, austere and bone dry on the palate, maybe a touch of petrol on the finish as it warms a bit.

Timarosso is not quite ready for its moment, but the groundswell might be starting. Versatile, refreshing, and interesting. At 12.5% this version could work as an aperitif or accompany freshwater fish and most seafood where ample acidity works. Probably chicken and simple pork preparations. I drank it with shrimp, tomato and feta baked in cast iron. Yes, it cut right through.

4/24/2020 - bevetroppo Likes this wine:

I don't want to say I'm disappointed by this, but it strikes me as decidedly more modern than I'm comfortable with. Dark opaque purple is the first sign, it hasn't been cheated on the ripeness or extraction fronts. Bold-ish nose of dark red kirsch soaked cherry, merlot-derived cocoa powder, mocha and baking spice. Polished and smooth on the palate with obvious oak influence. Still quite young so we need to cut it some slack and imagine a more integrated future. Today I find it too intense, too plush and insufficiently perfurmed to be particularly Margaux-like but it would make a very attractive and subdued Napa meritage. I don't know if this is a vintage effect, a global warming effect, or a conscious choice. I'd be sad if it was the last of these three possibilities because I inhabit an imaginary and lost world of elegant, refreshing 12.5% clarets. In other words, ignore this entire note, what do I know?

12/22/2014 - bevetroppo Does not like this wine:

Note is several weeks old, but this has been bugging me since I tried it and need to get it off my chest. Purchased for $100 at a high end NJ restaurant with a great Burgundy selection and even greater prices, as you can see.

Nose was immediately full of underbrush, a dense thicket in fact. I wondered if it was reduced, but I am not confident in that assessment. In any event, it masked fruit, and other elements as well. I thought it might be a strange expression of being corked, but the underlying wine seemed sound, at least to the degree possible once you cleared the nose. I wrestled with sending it back, which in hindsight I wish I had, but after a few questions my party went back and finished the bottle with appetizers.

Two possibilities present: it was flawed and I failed to act, or it just wasn't very good, especially in view of the producer and vintage. Live and learn. I'm anxious to see what others have experienced after posting.

Update: after checking the other reviews, I'm going to amend my opinion and say this is a wine, like Chateau Nuit San Wagga Wagga, with a bouquet like an aborigine's armpit. Disgraceful.

Update: after reading the professional reviews, I'm going to amend my opinion and say it was a bad bottle.

Update: at this point it doesn't really matter. I'd avoid this wine in favor of a lot of other more humble '05's that are drinking beautifully now. This isn't a vintage where one needs to court controversy-the wines are generally freakin' great.

1/27/2022 - bevetroppo Does not like this wine:

Look, I'm an outlier and I admit it right upfront. i've generally ignored the whole Gran Selezione thing because I was just getting happy with the many efforts across Chianti to return to something approaching well-made, authentic wines without merlot or some other adulterant and that offer some level of refreshment when this phenomenon hit. No one should be blamed for trying to upsell their patrimony, but clubbing the wines with wood and alcohol just doesn't seem like the right way to go. It's almost like Parker getting the final word after having been repudiated everywhere else people really care about wine.

Case in point in tonight's ungainly 15% wood-embalmed monster. Yes there was some extracted kirsch-driven fruit and spice, and the possibility exists that at some point it will knit together into something Gran for lack of a better word. But it's not what I want in a Chianti Classico no matter what you call it. There's a lot of other refined sangiovese out there with more curb appeal.

This was well loved by Antonio Galloni who knows a lot more about wine and what the public wants than I do. He said: "Black cherry, leather, lavender, espresso and spice all develop effortlessly." i wood if I could.

11/24/2018 - bevetroppo Likes this wine:

It's been a good 5 years since I had to add a new wine to the cellartracker database. It hasn't gotten any easier. You need to search a zillion parameters to make sure someone hasn't mislabeled the wine already. Then each new field takes 20-30 seconds of server response time to update. Then you have to deal with the possibility that there is no acceptable way to enter certain fields because what you're drinking doesn't exist. It's the price you pay for drinking obscure wines and having the tenacity to enter them faithfully here.

So first, let's get to the approximations, or let's be honest, errors. This is labeled Calabria IGP (Protetta) not IGT. There was no Calabria IGP available to pick. I could look up the difference to give you the correct distinction but I only have so much time to devote to cleaning this Augean Stable of a website. Second there is no grape to choose called "malvasia blend." This is 60% malvasia and 40% zibibbo for those keeping score at home.

Very pale straw. Nose quite hay-like, some almond, sage, very light lemon fruit, attractive in a shy subdued way. Bold mouthfeel (holy zibibbo Batman, it's 15% ABV, didn't see that coming), although it's not hot. A little bland on its own, but leaps into focus with food, gaining fruit and a more lively energy, tonight with a tomato and fennel swordfish. Hey, it's called Mare for a reason, am I right or am I wrong?

Calabrian wines have a hard time escaping a label I'm going to apply that may get me in trouble, but so be it: they're coarse. It's freaking hot and I can't believe anyone thought it was a good idea to make this wine at 15%. Global warming won't be any help, and it will probably be like making wine in Algeria in a few years. With all this said, I think malvasia is an underrated varietal and worth testing wherever someone has the will and the skill. Ok, if you made me guess, I think IGT and IGP are largely interchangeable and in this case not worth arguing about.

1/27/2022 - bevetroppo Likes this wine:

How appropriate that after a ponderous Chianti Gran Selezione I opened this, a Calaveras County, Sierra Foothills field blend of god knows what. It came unbidden from a random cheap-o case selected by the experts at Chambers Street Wines cause there's a zero on the Kelvin scale chance I would have bought it on my own.

And what a loss that would have been, not to buy a wine labeled "A Forlorn Hope Joint." It's like Existentialism meets Spike Lee. And since I have no idea what's in it, except the labeled 12.6% ABV, this is for all intents and purposes a blind tasting.

The color is an appealing cherry red, lightening but not browning at the rim. Maybe a wavy sense of something pale in it, like schiava or trousseau. The nose is all fresh red and blue fruits, There's some deep sweet and sour cherry and raspberry and light appealing earth notes. Very primary, not a savory (Old World) impression in sight. It's not complicated at all on the palate but what's here is delicious, fruity and eminently quaffable. Abundant acid leaves a pleasing sour tang and gentle but persistent tannins on the finish.

So we'll take a guess and then look it up and see how wrong we were. The last refuge of a blind tasting coward is to say I don't drink New World wine very often (you can look it up to confirm based on the distribution of my notes), but here goes anyway: gamay cut with zinfandel and maybe something unexpected like trousseau for that lightness it conveys.

Alright, someone take the bag off. I went directly to the producer's website which looks something like a hippie bacchanal and after much scrolling and admiration for their seeming free-spirited approach found that the "Queen" series" are sold wholesale, while other wines are sold direct. The red Queen is "composed primarily of Zinfandel, Barbera, Tempranillo, Trousseau noir, and Mondeuse." Ok, so the trousseau was a super lucky guess.

Honestly, this is just a treat to drink and it's making me reevaluate my whole worldview regarding California. This is a simple pleasure that shouldn't be overlooked. One thing I'm pretty sure about is these folks have more fun than whoever presided over that over-oaked 15% Chianti.

12/17/2021 - bevetroppo wrote:

I fought this wine to a standstill over two days, mainly because for most of the first 36 hours I thought it was flawed. There was some short bright gamay fruit quickly subsumed by an onslaught of dirt. It wasn't brett or a mineral quality-it was like drinking a mouthful of dirt. You can see where that might be problematic.

On day two, and quite miraculously for an inexpensive gamay-labeled Vin de France, with a very strange Modigliani kind of prominent booty motif on the front label, it seemed to improve, perhaps aided by a full day of refrigeration. The cold knocked down the dirt and the added oxygen sweetened the fruit and even gave it a cocoa edge. It was at that point I spun the otherwise mute bottle around and saw one helpful word on the back-"Loire." But in that inscrutable New France way, the producer was like, ok, if I am stuck with a Vin De France label, you're stuck figuring out what the hell is really going on here.

Turns out "Loire" in this case means, who knows? The producer is ostensibly based in Cheverny and makes a boatload of wines from grapes both grown and purchased. The gamay in question comes from organically farmed 40-year old vines with no sulfur added until bottling. Early thoughts I had that this might just be a bad natural wine weren't completely off base...

But as I hung in there, it occurred to me the dirt was like an amplified version of the attractive slaty quality I experience in some Loire cab franc. Was this a terroir effect, or something else entirely? Since i don't know the answer I'm not going to rate this wine. Like the peace of God, it passeth all understanding.

12/11/2021 - bevetroppo Likes this wine:

I'm so hungover I shouldn't be allowed near a keyboard, but last night my brother and I went at it and even though I told him I'm no longer capable of drinking four bottles that's what we did. This was the last and it would have had to be great to penetrate the descending fog. Fortunately it was, and I'm only writing this now to pay tribute to it.

Remarkably fresh and fruit forward, would have been difficult to come within a decade if served blind. Cascading dark berry and cherry, lots of earth, somewhere in a happy place between rustic and refined. The plush palate was almost gushing through to a long, full finish. Despite my protestations, it was gone before we knew it and so was I. I don't believe this vintage is necessarily underrated but it absolutely deserves respect. The community drinking window I see is 2017 and that's so wrong I have to wonder if they all had the same wine we did. I'm pushing it out a decade.

11/5/2021 - bevetroppo Likes this wine:

I bought this because it was recommended highly be our local MW, who compared it to Clos Rougeard at 1/10th the price. Clos Rougeard prices have gotten stupid, so I no longer drink them, and in fact my last tasting note on their Poyeux bottle was in 2013 (for the 2002 vintage) well before it eclipsed $100.

So to even put it in that category is a bold assertion, which I guess you can get away with if you're an MW. The color is a deep red and fully opaque just short of the bright cherry on the rim. The nose has a touch of appealing wet slate and cool red fruits, mingling berry, tart plum and cherry, with slight leafy overtones and hints of tobacco, cocoa and coffee in the background. That's a lot of stuff in a $40 bottle. So far so good.

The palate was stony and elegant, with restrained fruit given its youth. At first I felt there was some attenuation in the mid-palate but it smoothed out with an hour or more of air to a very attractive even sleek mouthfeel.

I don't remember the ghost of Clos Rougeard from almost nine years ago well enough to make a meaningful comparison but there's an air of refinement here that gives it almost a cru-llke quality. I'm not averse to disputing an MW (oh the arrogance!) but he's definitely on to something here.

3/13/2021 - bevetroppo wrote:

Stephen Spurrier died earlier this week. In a butterfly effect-like cascade, I owe my appreciation of wine to him. The Judgement of Paris tasting in 1976 allegedly caused one of the judges to flee France temporarily to avoid the blowback. His name was Christian Vanneque, and he had been the Chef Sommelier at Tour D'Argent, with a degree in oenology (from Bordeaux) before most people could spell it. In Boston in 19977 Christian taught me how to taste wine and inspired al lifelong passion for blind tasting. Both of these giants are now gone. I salute you!

Unfortunately, I can't salute this bottle. I've owned it since release. The fill level was impeccable when I removed it last night as a tribute to the gentlemen scholars above. It betrayed a sawdust/woodiness with strange burnt cinnamon flavors that never abated, and which entirely clipped or masked the fruit I was eagerly anticipating. I know '05's are taking a long time and some have been described as "hard," but this was one of those corked bottles that doesn't reek of TCA, it just gets knee-capped somehow. Who said life was fair?

7/5/2021 - bevetroppo Does not like this wine:

There are few things sadder in life than a NJ restaurant with the license for a full bar and no corkage policy. You almost invariably get a hardwired wine list that is prepared for the establishment by a distributor, and the only thing worse is when the staff actually attempts to sell off it, or heaven forbid, defends the list and the no corkage policy. Don't give me some lecture about how the place needs the margin to survive. The $15 cocktails and $25-30 pastas take care of that just fine.

I was secretly hoping that the presence of a single wine from Emiglia Romagna represented some kind of subversive break from the ho-hum mass-produced or even private-labeled crap that populated the list, one where a no-name, probably adulterated Brunello goes for $100.

As you may have guessed, I was wrong. Maybe I should have picked up on it when I couldn't find a vintage on the label, only to be informed by my wife that it was somehow dot-matrixed on the back in dark ink on a dark label and was thus effectively invisible. This wine was a pathetic pastiche of overly oaked, dull fruit with something that smelled like your grandmother's perfume passing for floral overtones. Smoothed to death on the palate like it had been pounded by an oak mallet. To be honest, I really couldn't drink it but my wife and a guest said it was OK (not oaky), so maybe I'm being unduly harsh, but I have given it a score that I "risereva" for stuff I'll never rebuy. Like Perth Pink, it's a wine for laying down... and avoiding.

8/23/2021 - bevetroppo Does not like this wine:

Following longstanding advice from Chambers Street Wines regarding older Barolo (and this isn't really all that old) I decided to give the bottle plenty of air, opening it around 1PM. Good thing too, because the first impression after opening was like, what? Red/brown at best on the rim, chunky and monolithic on the nose and barely anything but wood on the palate.

Five hours later Lazurus began to stir. Some sweet oaky notes and subdued red fruit emerged joining acetone and alcohol on the nose. The palate was lean with fruit clearly overrun by the persistent astringent tannins. I'm going to give this the rest of the night off and see if anything improves by tomorrow...

It's a day later and there's still no joy in Mudville. In fact, the muddy color was a clue to a wine that reminds me of old school over-oaked Rioja before modern hygiene was introduced and so many bottles just tasted like dead fruit, dry leather and wet wood. Hard to say whether this is a bad bottle or a bad wine at this point.

Schiavenza has gotten a lot of favorable press recently and I thought it worth investigating their practices in the wake of this unpleasant experience. Imagine my surprise (not!) when I found this paragraph on the importer's website:

"Over the last few vintages, Schiavenza has made some subtle but effective changes in the cellar. There is a gentler approach to extraction and when the press wine is used, it comes from their new, delicate hydraulic vertical basket press. The length of aging in bottle for the Barolos has also been reduced, coming down to around 30 months whereas it had previously been 36+ months. Getting the wines into bottle earlier has helped preserve the fruit for the long haul."

No shit, Sherlock. I guess we should be wary of anything older than the last few years here per their advice. I have another bottle to try and can only hope for better luck next time.

9/1/2021 - bevetroppo wrote:

Certainly an odd day on all counts. First, I am officially retired as of this morning. No paycheck for the first time in 38 years. Time will tell how that affects my wine budget but it remains a priority in the retirement plan! It's also entirely ominous right now as Hurricane Ida passes through central NJ overnight. Thoughts, prayers and donations to everyone affected. I was corresponding earlier in the day with a friend who is visiting Croatia and Fruili, reminding me of the three trips to the EU I've canceled in the last 18 months. Finally, I'm all alone today, so lots of time to think about the future and decide what to drink tonight. Celebrate doesn't quite seem like the right word. Somehow, better to open a bottle that rewards introspection, if not an outrighr vino di meditazione.

I've referred before to the case of 12 individual wines procured directly from a tour guide in Piedmont, most of which have no US distribution. So with Italy already on my mind I picked the oddest sounding name among them to an American ear, a Barbaresco from Azienda Agricola Quazzolo, with a tangled web of red yarn spanning the black label. Do they have cats? Given the fact that I bought it “direct,” there’s no importer’s label to either illuminate or confound what’s going on in the bottle.

I don’t know whether Quazzolo sounds more like an exotic antelope or a Spiderman nemesis. Nonetheless, the wine is a translucent garnet color. It definitely benefits from air, and at this juncture I’d recommend at least an hour. The nose is more deeply pitched than I would expect, showing notes that tend more to cherry and dark plum than any kind of berry, joined by leather light spice and a touch of alcohol, which isn’t strange given the labeled 14.5% alcohol. Medium-full on the palate with considerable tannic astringency that slams it shut to a certain degree. Would assume this has seen some barrel aging.

I let it sit for another hour or two and it began to fill out nicely, adding more plummy fruit, a little mocha, and a rounder, riper mouthfeel. Seemingly built to age in a traditional style with few if any concessions or compromise and would bet it could improve substantially from here. One to watch if I ever see another bottle in my lifetime.

6/21/2021 - bevetroppo Likes this wine:

Fragrant and delicious from the pour, which was actually initiated on the new Coravin Pivot, more on that to come. Color is surprisingly dark and it continues in a saturated and opaque deep vein all the way to the rim. There might be a slight brownish cast as the only indicator of age. Nose soars like a hawk with an overwhelming array of getable descriptors befitting classic claret: piercing blackberry, cassis, mint, graphite, tobacco, cedar, or if you prefer, what my daughter said-like smelling an old book, but in a good way. I think she meant musty, but kids, what do they know? If you told me I would have to drink this in a stuffy English club library with the smell of old books all around me, I would sign up in a minute. On the palate the maturity is evident, the fruit yielding quickly to minerally graphite, pepper and savory leather underneath. Medium-bodied (God Bless you 12.5% alcohol), which confers a soft texture on the palate propped up by well-integrated drying tannins that seem perfectly appropriate to the age of the other components.

So I asked my kids to buy me a Coravin Pivot for Father's Day and they kindly obliged. I had a bad experience with the first model of this thing, which never worked properly, wasted the expensive gas, and could only muster the output of an octogenarian with endstage BPH. According to Alder Yarrow, this latest model had worked all the kinks out so I figured they must have learned something in the intervening 5 plus years. And you know what? I think he's right. I used it last night to pour a small glass and then tried again today. No discernible difference and it couldn't be easier to use, rewarded by a stream that would make the Mannekin Pis proud. If you hate the concept of preserving wine (just drink the freakin' bottle, wimp) don't get it, but if you occasionally can't finish something good and want to keep it around for a while, at $99 this might well be the best ever. However, I reserve final judgment until we see how long the argon cannisters last...

4/30/2013 - bevetroppo Does not like this wine:

There's nothing like a self-administered blind tasting. You know, you pull an obscure bottle out of your cellar or rack or whatever, you look at the label, you have no idea where you got it or what it is, what grape(s) are in it, all you know is it's French, the name of the importer, if you've ever heard of them, and alcohol content, here T. Elenteny, NY, and 13%, respectively. And that's all we know, so let's have it.

Deep golden color, too dark for a typical varietal that isn't pre-moxed. Totally different nose, mixing honey, grilled nuts, and a pronounced dusty, chalky note, maybe a little white peach.

Weird tasting in the mouth, dominated like the nose with the dusty chalk quality and no discernible fruit but an unctuous honeyed texture, although ripe, dirt/dust-coated fruit does seem to emerge somewhat richly toward the finish.

I think this is pre-moxed after all, but let's find out what it's supposed to be first. Maybe this is the style of the grape and region of Coteaux du Vendomois, wherever the hell that is. Right now it wouldn't surprise me if it was from the Jura and this is typical in an oxidative style, though it wouldn't make me like it more. I'll be right back after I check...

Well, stomp on my taste buds and call yo' umami. This is 100% chenin blanc made in the Loire in an oxidative style. Here's a blurb from a natural wine web site:

"Winemaker Emile Heredia has a huge amount of respect among the natural wine community in Paris. This beautiful Chenin is made in a partially oxidative style. It is crazy aromatic and savory all the way, showing a little sherry character and salty yeast with a hint of pine. This wine will start lively debate at any dinner party. Winemaking Details: Vinified in Used Barrel, Wild Yeast Fermentation, Unfiltered, Unfined, No SO2 Added."

It'll start a lively debate alright, but in my book the debate will be about solipsistic natural wine-making at the expense of drinking pleasure. Salty yeast with a hint of pine? C'mon, man! A self-indulgent and needlessly unattractive wine that only an effete sommelier could love. Could Alice Feiring be a consultant on this project?

4/4/2021 - JohnMcIlwain Likes this wine:

Last minute (okay, decanted for 90 minutes) sub for a corked bottle of Balthazar 12 Cornas Casimir. Pretty nose, red flowers and blue fruits with just a bit of the young Syrah gaminess lending interest. And a touch of balsamy wood (I’ll get to that later). Fairly dense and textured on the palate with ripe blue fruit and game notes with a bit of black pepper and cedar bring up the rear. Plenty of tannins currently sheathed with the bountiful dry extract. This is a young wine and shows it. The woody bit is an occasional feature of just-past young Syrah and oft-maligned by folks who haven’t experienced it. As Claude Kolm has pointed out, you can wait it out and it knits imperceptibly. And as a way of example, there are plenty of folks who’ve mistaken M. Texier for Jean-Luc Colombo when such a comparison is clearly spurious. Back to the wine: honestly, give this 7-10 years and beyond and it will shine, but right now it’s mostly (vast) potential. Enjoyable with venison and a wild blueberry/red wine reduction, but not yet the wine it should be. Hold for sure.

3/31/2021 - bevetroppo Likes this wine:

It only took me 15 years and 1600 tasting notes to figure out my own scoring system. I finally realized 87 means that a wine meets the (self-determined) parameters consistent with its appellation or terroir. It is correct, appealing, drinkable, "typical" and would not be a disappointment on any level if correctly priced. It is not exciting, uplifting, or inspiring. How's that for precision? Truth is, it's probably as valid as any other scoring system once you realize it's all subjective anyway!

14K gold with green flecks. The nose bespeaks its proximity to the sea, with telltale maritime salinity and notes of garrigue common in Liguria. The winery and the small Colli di Luni appellation in fact straddle Liguria and the Tuscan coast. On a map it looks almost equidistant between Genoa and Lucca. Regulations require 95% vermentino.

The fruit on the nose is not overly generous, tending toward white peach and green apple skin. There's also a bitter, slightly nutty quality. On the palate it's got the oily texture common to vermentino, muted yellow fruit and distinct bitterness on the dry finish.

This almost seems to beg for fresh oily fish like sea bass to mix it up and coax out the fruit a bit more.

2/18/2021 - bevetroppo Likes this wine:

Fun and funky. A natural Piedmont wine, no indication of grape. Pale cherry color, nearly transparent, more like schiava or the least possible skin contact needed to impart a red hue. Clouded with lees from non-interventional unfiltered handling

Per the label and the 12.5% alcohol, I had no reservations about chilling it. Light red berry and intense floral aromas. These are repeated in the mouth with spiky acid and almost non-existent tannin on a bone-dry and bitter finish. What the heck is it? I thought maybe grignolino, but in an absolute first for me I scanned the QR code and learned it was a dry brachetto. Could have spent the better part of a week figuring that out. Almost too austere to be enjoyable on its own, it perks up a bit with food.

2/10/2021 - bevetroppo Likes this wine:

What did you just say? Francois Labet of Chateau de La Tour and Clos Vougeot makes a pinot noir in Corsica that's 11.5% alcohol under screwcap for less than $20? Yeah, I'll try one.

Dark vibrant red. The nose is a little reticent at first, not what I would have expected. It opens up with maybe 45 minutes in the glass and expresses itself in a refreshing wave of dark-red berry and cherry fruit with a slight twang of graphite and bramble. Expectedly light on the palate, it's very well made and certainly has no problem conveying Burgundian character in a sort of low density Bourgogne kind of way. Some pencil shavings toward the gently tannic, adequately acid-endowed finish. I know doodly squat about Corsica but this is fun to quaff and would be a nasty trick to play on friends in a blind tasting. Assuming Corsica is hot, there might be some altitude plus early picking to create the vin de soif character. Will see what the scribes have to say in a moment.

Close but no cigar. The importer's site suggests it's near the sea (duh) and enjoys temperate influences from a nearby "mountain barrier."

2/17/2012 - bevetroppo wrote:

If like me, you spend your days and god bless them internet nights, searching for a reasonably-priced alternative to the wines of Emidio Pepe, well, first you have my sympathy for any number of reasons, but second, I have goodish news for you. This stuff, which cost me about half the freight for a Pepe, is terrific, even if it lacks the depth and electric qualities I hold dear in that wine. Until I got my hands on it, I confess I didn't know that Colline Teramane is the only DOCG red in Abruzzo, which simply tells me I haven't been looking hard enough. From what I can tell the DOCG requires three years aging before release.

The name of the wine apparently derives from a small sanctuary on or near the property. And Santa Maria, this is good! Deep ruby color, wild-ass funky nose with a little barnyard and ripe black fruits. Meaty and ripe on the palate, fruit tends more towards black cherry, storm-tossed with intrusive tannins that pinball around your mouth yet they somehow aren't overwhelming. The wine is labeled with only 13% alcohol, which seems a miracle, and no doubt contributes to the overall impression of feral elegance, though I'd put the accent on the feral side. Don't like rusticity? Put a yellow police tape around this bottle and stay away.

I thought I was doing good paying around $34 for it, but I looked up the Italian producer's site and found if you live in the EU you can pay $18/bottle for a 6-pack shipped from the winery. If I moved to the Old World, you'd have to haul me out of the gutter.

12/28/2020 - beaujolaisjolie Does not like this wine:

Very sweet, like candied or caramelized fruit. Nose smells of syrupy strawberry, reminiscent of a sundae topping. Smooth, glou glou texture with very little tannin. Not my cup of tea but fine for sipping as I cook dinner!

10/19/2019 - bevetroppo wrote:

Yikes. When you're really not that familiar with a grape you want to give it the benefit of a doubt but this tasted like wet wood from the get-go. Cork itself when examined had an odor best described as repugnant. Can't get past it, which is too bad because I was looking forward to getting to know this wine.

12/12/2020 - bevetroppo Likes this wine:

No idea who Lucien Muzard is and I had never heard of him before buying this simple and inexpensive Bourgogne. I'd go out on a limb and say he's one of the new generation of globe-trotting youngsters who ultimately came back to the family property, but he could just as well be some grandpa who just decided to start labeling on his own.

Whoever he is, he has a deft touch. This is an unbridled pleasure to drink, definitely on the lighter side, but with terrific verve and punch in its own humble way.

Actually benefits from about a half-hour in the glass. Then it offers bright, juicy red-berried fruit with subtle earth on the nose. The texture is surprisingly plush and with a little air gains a very appealing mushroomy quality that I keep coming back to. 12.5% alcohol and even though it's 2019 it's ready to enjoy.

If you were inclined to while away an otherwise dismal Saturday afternoon when it's going to be dark at 4:30, you could be forgiven for opening this at 2:00, knocking it back at cellar temperature, and who's to stop you?

"For everything that's lovely is but a brief dreamy kind delight." Right on.

11/24/2020 - bevetroppo Likes this wine:

I have to say this got distinctly better on Day 2. It's a light gold color, but yesterday the nose was muted, and took almost 45 minutes to become somewhat expressive. There was maybe a tropical top note but not much fruit on the nose, accompanied by toasted straw and saline. Medium-bodied with underripe pineapple and nutty flavors on the palate with a dry, dull finish. It's labeled 12% but has the unctuous quality of a higher alcohol wine.

Today if it hadn't gone from ugly duckling to swan, it at least managed to catch its stride. Hints of green apple, mandarin orange and hazelnuts on the nose, in the mouth still an almost Chablis-like austerity but the yellow fruit and orange peel poke through enough to rescue it. Green-tasting on the tart finish. This is easily the driest Sicilian table wine I've ever had, but I would confine it to aperitif status-it got slaughtered last night by some simple pan-fried sea scallops. And what, decant it?

10/25/2020 - bevetroppo Does not like this wine:

Frappato in the main should be, to quote the bard, a "brief, dreamy, kind delight." Not so in this bottle. The nose resembles the raspberry-inflected appeal I anticipated, but there's a hay-like overtone that almost seems like a flaw, but not one I can identify. It's also a little singed and ashy, a characteristic that might add interest in an Etna Rosso but jars here.

In the mouth it's confected, the fruit baked and lacking the verve and freshness I crave. The finish is harsh, dry and almost tastes artificial somehow. If the labeled 12.5% alcohol is accurate, it's the only redeeming feature.

Not a rebuy and bad enough to damn the entire franchise. I'd cut it a break if it was truly flawed, but like I said I can't put my finger on what's wrong here. It could scare children if I put it in a window on Halloween.

Oh, well. After posting I see Ian D'Agata, whose work I truly admire, loves this wine. He untangled what I tasted into a theoretically appealing mash up of flavors, so read his note if you get the chance for a total contrast.

10/15/2020 - bevetroppo Likes this wine:

Etna Rosso has exploded in the past few years and as you would expect intrinsic quality and/or authenticity are not necessarily the prerequisites when money pours into a hot zone. Nice volcanic subtext, eh?

Ok, I'm not an expert in the category, but this strikes the perfect balance for me. The color is a bright and intense garnet. The nose mingles dark raspberry and blue fruits with an overlay of herbs and volcanic char. Medium-bodied (labeled 13.5%), there's ample fruit but it is subsumed mid-palate by the assertive volcanic-fired minerality.

I'm incorrigible and can happily sip this on its own, others may find the volcanic element that is ashy and slightly bitter better suited to food. Subsequent research reveals it's 100% nerello mascalese fermented in steel and aged for 2 years in large oak barrels.

10/1/2020 - bevetroppo Likes this wine:

I believe this is the 2nd wine I've had under the Samuel Billaud label and it's positively brilliant. Starting with the bright color, which is a glimmering and inviting straw-gold. The nose is Chablis personified, racy, light notes of seashell-laced saline minerality, crisp yellow fruit and at least at this point, a pronounced greenness like biting into a slightly underripe granny smith apple. Just a joy on the palate for acid lovers, steely, with beauty like a tightened bow.

Whether it was the producer or the importer who insisted on labeling this with the designation "Les Grands Terroirs" it's needless hyperbole. It easily speaks for itself.

9/3/2020 - bevetroppo Likes this wine:

Since March of this year, I think I've bought 98% of my wine online, and I've bought quite a bit for current consumption-you probably have too. So in filling out a case I'm casually skimming through a website and see a bottle of well-priced Muscadet (that is something of a self-evident proposition) so I throw in a bottle of 2019.

Two months later I open it with a blackened halibut dish. How wrong can I go for $13.99, plus like Vermentino and a few other grapes there is essentially nothing from the sea it can't handle?

It's a pale straw, at best, maritime aromas with green apple and even faintly pineapple fruit. 2019 must have been ripe I'm thinking. Surprisingly rich and layered on the palate, which caused a raised eyebrow but not much more. Softer acid than I might have expected, but enough for a positive backstop to the blackened spice.

I'm eating, I'm drinking.I'm talking, I'm making "hey, this is better than I thought it would be" facial expressions. I look at the bottle and it's 2009, not 2019. I effectively missed the vintage all the way from the website to the glass.

In effect I blind tasted the vintage out of carelessness and was rewarded by being a full 10 years off. In my defense I wasn't studying it, but c'mon. Is there another wine, red or white that could pull off this trick for $13.99? Not likely. Muscadet you are a small miracle.

9/9/2020 - bevetroppo Likes this wine:

I wouldn't say it's necessarily unexpected, but this is quite lovely. From a woefully underappreciated appellation at the tippy-top of the Cote De Beaune, I myself know almost nothing about it other than it has some exposure to Corton along with neighbors Pernand and Aloxe, and quite a few 1er Cru vineyards, which is not exactly chopped liver in this neck of the woods.

The color is a striking deep red with purple highlights. Generous fleshy nose of dark red fruits with spicy and graphite-based mineral overtones, almost like it's winking at Nuits terroir to the north. It definitely opens up with a half-hour or more of air exposure.

Surprisingly sophisticated on the palate, I was expecting perhaps more rusticity but this has a touch of elegance to it. The ripe '15 fruit flows gracefully only showing some hints of wildness on the well integrated but assertively tannic finish. The attractive fruit, overall balance and moderate alcohol (13% labeled) made it very drinkable. Before I realized it, my glass or two with dinner was suddenly the whole bottle.

This can be appreciated now without a second thought but will undoubtedly gain interest with a few more years. To the degree the low profile of Ladoix results in value, it seems at least by this example that one shouldn't hesitate to explore the appellation if you can find any of it around.

After posting this note I saw that no one else had rated this wine yet. Is Ladoix even more obscure than I thought? Is Vincent Ravaut an international man of mystery? The cork says Mise au Domaine, but the label in fine print says, "vinifie, eleve and mis en boutielle". What's the story here?

Shag me, Austin Powers, there's nothing out there about him. Five pages of google search turned up nothing but links to wine stores and some probable cousins Pierre and Gaston, who sound like refugees from Beauty and the Beast. Then it seems Vincent works at Domaine Gaston, Gaston was the father and Pierre is his brother. So can we infer that since Vincent didn't make it to the family label, he got his own in the US? Is it the same wine? Like much of Burgundy it will remain a mystery, at least to me.

8/29/2020 - bevetroppo Likes this wine:

In the summer I lose all winetasting discipline, not coincidentally at a time when I'm drinking the most. It takes a mighty effort to summon enough concentration when every fiber says, to paraphrase AE Housman, wine "is the stuff to drink for fellows whom it hurts to think."

Even though I haven't been entering notes, I've been systematically drinking my way through a bunch of 2015 Brunello. And although I've enjoyed quite a few, this one suddenly snapped me out of my lethargy because it sort of has it all. It's not soul-shattering like the Palmucci-era Poggio di Sotto, but wow, it got my attention.

The nose is a Brunello clinic, deep cherry, feathery notes of herbal scrub, pencil shavings, and pipe tobacco. It is elegant on the palate, with that telltale indication of quality as it spreads across the mouth with more density and tension than you might otherwise expect. It has the right stuff-what in Burgundy might be described as Cru-level sophistication. The finish has abundant tannic structure but is not harsh, and the racy acid leaves a clean, come hither invitation to continue.

This might be a tad too young today but will drink well, soften, and likely improve for a long time. Sometimes the hype is actually worth it.

7/14/2020 - bevetroppo Likes this wine:

Beautiful bright garnet color. Fragrant and alluring nose of red berries, fresh-turned earth and telltale violets. Although I've read dolcetto is not an inherently high acid grape, this makes my mouth water with anticipation, never a bad sign. There's a lightness as well no doubt conferred by the 12.5% alcohol, grazie mille.

Light-to-medium bodied, it dances across the palate and reminds me that I once lost a bet in college because I couldn't believe the word "gavotte" appeared in the song "You're so vain." While it's French, not Italian, gavotte is defined as "lively peasant kissing dance" according to brittanica.com, and I don't think I can do any better than that in describing the impression this makes. Dolcetto in skilled hands can be a sheer delight (it can also be clubbed to death by late picking and over-extraction). But don't take the word peasant literally-at least in this wine there's an edge of refinement and elegance befitting a higher station.