I taste a bunch-o-wine (technical term for more than most people). So each week, I share some of my wine reviews (mostly from samples) and tasting notes in a “mini-review” format.
They are meant to be quirky, fun, and (mostly) easily-digestible reviews of (mostly) currently available wines (click here for the skinny on how to read them), and are presented links to help you find them, so that you can try them out for yourself. Cheers!
- 2015 Coca I Fito Jaspi Negre (Montsant): Might not be winning ribbons for originality, but it’d win the slam-this-while-eating-grilled-hamburgers ribbon handily. $NA B
- 2013 Coca I Fito Jaspi Maragda (Montsant): A little amphora + a good deal of old vine red = a fleshy, concentrated, and powerful Rhone-inspired blend. $30 B+
- 2014 Celler Cairats Seleccio (Montsant): Glazing the plums with smoky, licorice-tinged balsamic reduction, and garnishing with violets and herbs. $NA A-
- 2015 Cellar Cairats Carignan Colleccio (Montsant): Tight, tobacco-laden, thick, and for the thinking person who still likes to get their big red on. $NA A-
- 2014 Catena Zapata ‘D.V. Catena’ Tinto Historico (Mendoza): Not just historico, pero attractivo y especiado, también! $21 B+
- 2013 Giesen The Brothers Pinot Noir (Marlborough): They’re fraternal twins, by the way – Earthy Reservation and Fruity Forwardness. $30 B+
- 2017 Inama Vin Soave Classico (Veneto): Kind of like the Un-cola of refreshing Summer white wine sipping options. $17 B+
- 2017 Cantine-Feudi di San Marzano ‘Talo’ Malvasia Nera (Salento): Earthy, chewy, juicy, and clearly has made peace with its own slightly dark side. $18 B+
- 2016 McCay Cellars Rose (Lodi): Lodi gets lovely, rose gets refined, and a simple pleasure gets simply gorgeous. $18 B+
- 2016 Fields Family Wines Whole Cluster Syrah (Lodi): Black raspberries and black pepper and whooooaaaaaa, bargains like this don’t come around all that often… $28 A-
Joan Ignasi Domènech, talking sh*t in Vinyes Domènech
If you visit Montsant’s Vinyes Domènech, located in the southern portion of the winemaking district that nearly encircles Spain’s famous Priorat area like a talon, be forewarned that owner Joan Ignasi Domènech is likely to talk sh*t.
As in, literally speak about sh*t. Like, fertilizer. Along with solar energy, water collection, and all things botanical. Long enough to really, really, really make you want to move away from the intensely pungent nearby piles of the stuff…
Domènech, who heads up this family-owned and operated vineyard area surrounded by the natural park beauty of the Llaberia and Montalt mountains at roughly 400 meters elevation, is a stickler for all-things natural, biodynamic, and conservatory.
Since 2002, this former tech-guy has overseen some of the oldest vines in Capçanes, in a spot that previously had no real supporting infrastructure of any kind. That Domènech didn’t have any previous experience in wine (aside from drinking it, and living near Priorat in Falset) or in reconstituting rugged landscapes didn’t deter his enthusiasm for transforming a previously nearly-inaccessible 15 hectares of land into what is now the handsome hamlet of Vinyes Domènech.
Domènech was, as he tells it, wooed by the natural beauty of the area after visiting it with his family on holidays, and luckily for us wine geeks, he happens to have access to Garnaxta perluga vines that are well into their elderly stage (60-80 years and counting)…
Read the rest of this stuff »
I taste a bunch-o-wine (technical term for more than most people). So each week, I share some of my wine reviews (mostly from samples) and tasting notes in a “mini-review” format.
They are meant to be quirky, fun, and (mostly) easily-digestible reviews of (mostly) currently available wines (click here for the skinny on how to read them), and are presented links to help you find them, so that you can try them out for yourself. Cheers!
- 2015 Tenuta di Ghizzano Nambrot (Toscana): This one definitely has a little bit of a funky beat happening in its step, though it doesn’t seem to be slowing it down much. $45 B+
- 2017 Adriano Adami Dry Vigneto Giardino Rive di Colbertaldo (Prosecco di Valdobbiadene): Sporting the kind of delicate, gossamer refinement usually reserved for orb spider webs. $22 B+
- 2017 Montesel ‘Vigna del Paradiso’ Extra Dry (Prosecco Superiore di Conegliano-Valdobbiadene): Fruity, floral, fine, fragrant, and fast-to-be-emptied. $16 B
- 2014 Dr. H. Thanisch Erben Muller-Burggraef Riesling Feinherb (Mosel): Only now just rocking a few distinguished looking wrinkles and lines of gray. $17 B+
- 2016 Concha y Toro ‘Terrunyo’ Block 27 Peumo Vineyard Carmenere (Cachapoal Valley): Succulent, savory, sophisticated; also unashamed, unapologetic, and nigh unforgettable. $45 A-
- 2013 Familia Zuccardi ‘Serie A’ Cabernet Sauvignon (Uco Valley): Hitting the “meaty” phase with grace, force, and poise. $14 B
- NV Lucien Albrecht Cremant d’Alsace Brut (Alsace): This is Kingly elegance offered up for a more Duchy-like price. $21 B+
- 2016 Lucien Albrecht Riesling Reserve (Alsace): Was that flint? Or limes? Or exotic fruits? Or an unexpected but awesome bit of roundness around the vibrancy? How about “all of the above?” $18 B+
- 2016 Dutton-Goldfield Dutton Ranch Pinot Noir (Russian River Valley): Orrrrrrrrr…. we could just stay in all night and drink this… and I’d be OK with that… $44 A-
- 2015 Wente Vineyards Charles Wetmore Cabernet Sauvignon (Livermore Valley): This is the kind of tasty earthiness that would get Galactus salivating. $30 A-
Lucien Albrecht’s Jérôme Keller surveys the Oysterhouse Philly bounty
Not too long ago – ok, well, actually, several months ago, but I’m just getting back around to the topic now because I’ve been busy being all self-employed and day-drinking and what-not – I was invited to lunch with the dry-humored Jérôme Keller, Technical Director/Oenologist for Alsace stalwart produce Lucien Albrecht. Now, it hasn’t been all that long (especially by my warped standards) since I devoted quite a bit of the virtual page space here on 1WD to Alsace, but when you’re a wine-geek-turned-critic-type you don’t turn down an opportunity to a) get reacquainted with one of the first three Alsatian firms to have helped launched the Crémant d’Alsace AOC (which, like me, dates back to the early 1970s), which now comprises about 70% of their total production; and b) eat at Phlly’s Oyster House restaurant.
So, yeah, I did those. And while it’s taken me a few months to get around to writing it up, if you consider that we’re talking about a producer whose Alsatian roots can be traced back to 1698 (when Balthazar Albrecht settled in Orschwihr) and whose winemaking roots date back to 1425 (when the impossibly-impressively-named Romanus Albrecht started the winery), then I think I can be forgiven for some tardiness, especially from that timeline perspective.
Anyway, Keller has done some work in the USofA, having participated in harvest at Sonoma Cutrer, so he understands (or at least is adept at faking to understand) what passes for American humor, so we got along swimmingly, popping shellfish and tasting through some of the more recent Albrecht wares (and yes, the food/wine match went as lovably, gluttonously well as you’d expect)…
Read the rest of this stuff »
