3/24/2022 - DanR wrote:

Everybody at the table loved this, I thought it very good. Super extracted, chewy, rugged style St Jo with heaps of dark fruit, iron, iodine and an earthy finish. A little ott for me, lacking finesse and detail, but at 14€ I’m not complaining. Should mellow with time and show more focus.

3/24/2022 - DanR wrote:

A pretty, slick and textured savagnin chard blend with honeyed yellow orchard fruit notes and good length and drive. Nice balance of fruit purity and oxidative notes. Picked up steam throughout the evening and worked great with leeks in a cream sauce.

3/24/2022 - DanR wrote:

Tasty stuff, the entire range at this domain is good. Intensely deep and floral, citrus, dried fruit, with a slick texture and really nice mouth presence. Exotic, with a touch of warmth on the finish. Can't drink this everyday, and it's not for the classical white wine palate, but overall a terrific wine, and a style that's pretty fun and unique

3/24/2022 - DanR wrote:

Had higher hopes for this one, but found it in an awkward, closed phase and in need of time. Fine grained and detailed, with wisps of oak and berry fruit underneath but overall shut down and not showing much, even after a double decant. There’s a pretty wine here, but at this point it’s a hold.

3/24/2022 - DanR wrote:

Quite rich, intense, extracted. Fruit is on the darker side. Despite the volume, this does retain nice poise; it's nicely layered, unctuous and vivid. Flavorful and exuberant, nice party wine.

3/24/2022 - DanR wrote:

A good, not great bottle showing burnt orange peel, fig and caramel notes with a dusting of spice on the finish. Somewhat tired, but an interesting glass nonetheless.

3/24/2022 - DanR wrote:

90% Roussanne 10% Vio. Round and generous, fleshy and textured. Honeyed, acacia notes on the nose and orchard fruit on the palate. Deeply flavored, finishes with good length and leaves a nice impression. Sexy wine.

3/24/2022 - DanR wrote:

Good stuff as always, solid producer. Juicy, crunchy, with bitter cherry, raspberry, smoke and herbs on the palate. Very easy to like.

3/24/2022 - DanR wrote:

True to type and drinking well, sweet fruited with a funky edge. Cherry / berry, sweet leather and sous-bois, with a graphite finish. Good for what it is, à perfect burger wine.

3/24/2022 - DanR wrote:

My first trollinger, won't be running out to get more. Missing some balance, not enough stuffing to balance the acid. Vivid red cherry, nice enough with a chill.

3/24/2022 - DanR wrote:

Smoking good, rich and complex. Citrus, peach, wet stone and almond with a caressing mouthfeel.

3/24/2022 - DanR wrote:

Cab Franc, Syrah, Tannat. Lovely wine from the hills to the northeast of Toulouse. On the natural side, crunchy and fresh, with juicy purple fruit and an easy going personality.

3/24/2022 - DanR wrote:

Broad fleshy and generous, this was easy drinking and forward, in a new world style. Missing the cut and precision of Champagne, but elegant and delightful in its own way. The price is right as well. Tasty stuff.

3/24/2022 - DanR wrote:

Chenançon is a new variety for me, this was grown down in the Gard. High toned and earthy, this had a wispy feel in the mouth, somewhat muddled but vibrant as well. Red fruited with soil, some poop and herbal notes. This picked up focus with food, becoming better delineated with a macerated cherry core. On the natural side of things. Quite enjoyable, an interesting wine and all in all a pleasant discovery.

3/24/2022 - DanR wrote:

Plump and round, this has blackberry and plum fruit with a peppery finish. There’s some Brett but it’s not overwhelming. Lacking some refinement and structure but that’s nitpicking. A tad pricey, but great with meat off the grill.

3/24/2022 - DanR wrote:

Asked for a Northern Rhône style wine to follow the Gaillard, the caviste recommended this and, no, not so much. Warm, spicy, extracted and heavy, this is pretty typical for the region (Gard) and frankly a bit boring. Fine for what it is.

3/24/2022 - DanR wrote:

Nicely aromatic, medium bodied with good mouth presence. Wild berry on the attack with heaps of spice on the finish. Crunchy ,forest, mineral finish. Lively, vibrant, fresh. Great energy. Lovely wine.

3/24/2022 - DanR wrote:

Acid driven, with cranberry and pomegranate notes. Natural wine, well made. Needed food

3/24/2022 - DanR wrote:

Richly textured but retaining a nice acid spine, with peach and floral notes. Top notch white from a region where those are hard to come by.

3/24/2022 - DanR wrote:

Blend of Aramon (new to me) and Carignan. Notes from memory, heard good things about this producer and I wanted to like it more than I did. Quite earthy and dull, not quite clean. I’m sure this has its fans, not my style.

3/24/2022 - DanR wrote:

Inexpensive, refreshing citrusy PdP that was perfect on a hot day.

3/24/2022 - DanR wrote:

Gamay / Mondeuse from Savoie. Had one of their whites some time back, wanted to try their reds, quite glad I did. This is brilliant. Fleshy, juicy, really nicely extracted with great mouth presence . Despite the fruity density this has a lively core. Gamay fruit on the attack and Mondeuse spice on the finish. Complex and long. Just really gratifying and easy to like. The fruit / spice / weight / vibrancy balance here is special. Electric. Love it.

3/23/2022 - DanR wrote:

Natural Grenache from the Gard. Outlier, light and lean, with a focus on linear strawberry fruit and acid. 12%. Some red licorice. Vibrant. Sappy. This is great with marinated flank steak on the plancha. By itself, there’s a bitter, almost stemmy (?) note that clips the finish. 90 with food, 86 without, we’ll meet in the middle.

3/23/2022 - DanR wrote:

Quite well-oaked, with a toasted nut nose and a vanilla creaminess on the finish. This is plenty ripe, with peach and apricot on the palate along with marzipan and almond notes. Nice wine for the style, there’s enough oomph to merit the shellacking of wood I suppose, just a tad overdone for my taste.

3/23/2022 - DanR wrote:

Nice , crisp, light apéro wine from the Côtes catalanes - macabeo, Grenache blanc, carignan blanc. 11% alc. tastes like champagne base wine kinda. Hyper mineral, laser acid, lime zest / peach pit / verbena character. Electric. Not for all moods and situations but what it does well it does really well.

3/23/2022 - DanR wrote:

Nice label, better wine. Rolle and GB. 12.5. VdF made in the Gard. Aromatically reserved, showing a yeasty, slatey quality. Some shy magnolia notes on the nose. On the palate it shines. Surprisingly fruity, pear and apple forward, saline. Very mineral on the finish. This was really unique and easy to drink. Turns aldehydic after an hour or so, but that serves to broaden out the palate. Not great the second day but meh. At under 10 euros, 💥 🔥

3/23/2022 - DanR wrote:

Structured, dense, minty. Firm and tense, almost chewy, with floral, sour cherry, and earthy components on a nervy acid spine. This packs a punch and really has quite a lot going on. Bright future ahead . Gorgeous.

3/23/2022 - DanR wrote:

First rate pizza wine - medium bodied, red fruited, super spicy. Zippy acidity. Tasted blind, you’d think Italy. Really cool stuff.

3/23/2022 - DanR wrote:

Don’t have too many CdThongue wines in my database, the large region southeast of Faugères. Apparently they allow in excess of 110 varietals in the IGP. Anyway, this was super. Super aromatic, spiced pear, white flowers and herbs. Nicely lifted. On the palate the pear / floral theme is repeated, along with a jolt of minerality of the wet stone variety. This was nicely structured, direct, and vibrant. Really nice acidity. Who knew 🤷🏼‍♂️ ? Great effort.

3/23/2022 - DanR wrote:

Serviceable , generic CdR, plump, soft, fruit forward. Nothing exciting, nothing wrong either. It is what it is. 70 / 30 GN / SY

3/23/2022 - DanR wrote:

Lovely wine, nicely balanced, firm and direct. Medium bodied, with nice restraint for the vintage. Good interplay between the red fruit and savory notes - spice, iron, earth, mint. Decent grip on the finish, with nice verve. Great with food.

2/11/2022 - DanR wrote:

Wow what a revelation . Field blend of grapes from an abandoned, pre-phylloxera vineyard that they rehabilitated with friends. Smoking good. Nose is slightly volatile, not off putting, with lilac, macerated cherry, some garrigue. Slightly spritzy, this is quite natural, but no prob with some swirling. Medium bodied , sappy, this delivers red and black fruit in a tight beam at first, then fleshes out nicely. Herbs. Floral. Decent acidity on the finish. The texture is remarkable, caressing, supple. Hard to write a note for this, totally unique. Slamming good, unfortunately virtually impossible to find, Really memorable.

2/11/2022 - DanR wrote:

Super aromatic, lifted, lovely. Lacks a touch of stuffing on the mid palate, quite acid driven, but a lovely bottle nonetheless

2/11/2022 - DanR wrote:

Perfect lunch time wine. Surprisingly full, with good mouth presence, but still retaining plenty of freshness. Salty, with forward peach fruit and a fennel mid palate . Burnt orange peel finish. Refreshing and generous at the same time. Two points extra for the setting and the great food.

2/11/2022 - DanR wrote:

80 / 20 Syrah Grenache , 12 mos in barrel. Juicy, with berry and coffee notes and a plump, soft, thick mid palate. Spice notes on the finish. Sweet fruited. Very good for what it is, albeit a bit tiresome.

2/11/2022 - DanR wrote:

Quite fragrant, nicely so, with a nice whiff of lavender, dried rose, and red fruit, with some lift. Sweet fruited and soft on the plate, quite generous, expressive. Focus on cherry fruit and pomegranate on the palate, with sweet herb. Not much in the way of structure or acid, but wins points for its vivid fruit and general exuberance. This is quite well done and very enjoyable. For early consumption.

2/11/2022 - DanR wrote:

Heavy. Dark. Must be saignée. Like a claret d’autrefois. Not for…uhh…modern palates.

2/11/2022 - DanR wrote:

Fresh, fruity, brisk, bright. Great fruit purity here. Just plain tasty. Killer gaspacho wine.

2/11/2022 - DanR wrote:

Clos des Boutes. Seeing a lot of this on local wine lists. Wanted to like it more than I did. Comparatively reserved , fruit forward but somewhat hollow. On the simple side. Did well with lamb. Lacking depth / excitement factor. Wouldn’t kick it out of bed but not thirsty for more. I’ll try this producer again due to the local buzz he’s getting though…

2/11/2022 - DanR wrote:

40% Carignan 30% Grenache 20 / 10 Syrah Mourvèdre . Lovely wine, big but refined, elegant even for the region. High toned, cherry fruited, decent lift on the mid palate , was recommended with squid in a parsley sauce and it worked quite well. After tasting too much flat, dull, sweet Grenache here in the Gard this came off as downright refreshing.

2/11/2022 - DanR wrote:

Natural ugni blanc. Smells like kombucha. Lively, fleshy, prickly, forward with mirabelle, melon, herbs on the palate and à honeyed finish. Goes down easy. Quite food friendly. This scores high on the fun rating. A bit pricey but no complaints.

2/11/2022 - DanR wrote:

Big, blocky, coarsely textured bojo. Dark fruited and quite solar, with a plump, baking spice tinged finish. For fans of the style.

2/11/2022 - DanR wrote:

I love this feminine expression of Syrah, this one is still youthful but already approachable , with berry fruit, lavender, gun flint and iodine on the palate, a crunchy, mineral finish on a firm-but-not-rigid frame. Beautiful wine with a decade of evolution in front of it. Not sure it has the extract to go the long term, but who cares when it tastes this good now…

2/11/2022 - DanR wrote:

wallop of brett on the nose gave me serious misgivings. We let it air out while we finished the white burg and wow did it flesh out nicely. Super elegant, detailed, precise with exotic berry fruit and hints of spice. What was stunning was its youthful character - the rim was transparent and the wine was still somewhat reticent. The Brett was there, but served to add complexity rather than overwhelming the palate. This is just entering its drinking window and seems to have a 5-10 year window in my guess, but yeah the Brett was concerning, to me at least. Overall a brilliant bottle, serious artisanal winemaking, frankly as expected w this producer!

2/11/2022 - DanR wrote:

What a treat. The color of drip coffee, this is still humming along, with dried fruit, caramel and a honeyed note on the nose. Dates, dried apricot, walnuts, marzipan and vanilla spice on the palate. Still slightly sweet, and the acidity is hanging on nicely. A pleasure to drink.

2/11/2022 - DanR wrote:

I like this estate, their wines are always evocative and emit a regional personality. This was my first time trying this, the entry level cuvée - it's a plump, juicy little number and an excellent value. Fruit-sweet, with plum, lavender and some black tea notes, along with a cherry pit quality on the finish. Finishes with a peppery kick. It's got a lot of meat on the bones and is definitely warm, but the 15+% isn't too obvious or off-putting. Nice cocktail wine.

2/11/2022 - DanR wrote:

This tastes like a really good version of exactly what you think it would taste like. A good southern French red red that is - kinda foxy, vinous, with some earth and pepper on the palate, some green notes, and a macerated blackberry / raspberry core. Weighty, but with a nice beam of acidity and grainy tannins. Solid wine. Great match with carbonara, it would have killed with caccio e Pepe

6/18/2021 - DanR wrote:

Here's a very cool, floral / spicy, citrusy, exotic and stony Alsatian white. Very citrus and white flower on the nose, the kind of wine you can't keep your nose out of the glass. The palate is surprisingly rich, almost broad, but with good mineral acidity to keep things in focus. A dryer style, and great with food. A winner at under 11 €. Re buy.

6/16/2021 - DanR wrote:

Liked this producer's wines in the past, was excited to see this at the LWS. Excellent. Electric, vivid, with great energy and hums across the palate. Very floral and quite mineral, with red fruit on the palate along with some herbs and funk. Really comes alive with air. Coup de cœur...

6/16/2021 - DanR wrote:

From magnum. Wild. Savage, sanguine notes of juicy wild berry, rose, mushroom, and barrel funk on the nose. This tugs the palate in many directions at once, at times dark fruited, others herb-tinged, others earthy, smoky as well. This needs time. It's a big boy, too, with big boy tannins and real presence in the mouth. Wine of character. Good stuff.