 |
| Take it, take another little piece of my heart |
Weingut Reinhold Haart, Mosel, Piesporter Goldtröpfchen, Grosses Gewaches, 2013
If you're any kind of fan of German Riesling, then you probably are aware of the decades-old debate about 'classic' German off-dry style vs full-dry style. So you might have a preferences for Spatleses and Ausleses over Grosses Gewaches, or vice versa. Me, I'm totally a classic guy, at least in the Mosel, where I feel the balance of sugar and acidity serves to highlight every last bit of flavor and nuances in the wines. This, however, is amazingly delicious, even though the flavors don't carry the same complexity as do the aromas, and marries the dryness of a GG with the sexy sweetness and steely minerality of the Mosel and the creaminess of an Auslese.
Chateau Mont-Redon, Chateauneuf-du-Pape, 2014
This surprised me, because I dislike Chateauneufs so much I would probably be branded an enemy of the church in Avignon. But this is really tasty and fun, a juicy CdP bursting with aromas of tar and garrigue. Not even close to being as overblown as its peers, it seems totally oblivious to the rest of Châteauneuf getting bogged down in extract, alcohol and Parker scores and just chomps happily along as an almost lightweight bistro wine.
Meo-Camuzet, Nuits-St.-Georges Premier Cru, Les Perrieres, 2006
I would make an educated guess that few diehard Burgundy lovers would care to scare up any cash flow for Meo-Camuzet or even have it touch their spit. I actually did start out as a fan (I guess I wasn't much of a diehard in the beginning) and bought two or three bottles. Then, my appreciation for Camuzet set out on a long downslope, which has now come to a temporary pause with this terrific, memorable wine, which I find irresistible and very deep and stirring in a roguish way. It’s a legitimate depiction of Bourgogne, at least after spending so many years in bottle, with aromas of spices, black pepper, saddle leather and black fruit, the body more linear than the other Camuzet's in my backlog.
Francois Villard, Côte Rotie, Le Gallet Blanc, 2012
Syrah is a really sexy grape and it only gets sexier as you near the epicenter of its homeland in the Northern Rhone. Which should be right about the slopes of the Côte Rotie appellation on the west bank of the river. I had this same wine with this same group almost two years ago and this bottle is no less of a sensory and emotional delight: the bacon and violets and black pepper of an adolescent Syrah always get me.
Delas, Hermitage, Domaine des Tourettes, 2013
This is a relatively lithe Hermitage. Still, it’s Hermitage, so it’s darker and weightier than the Cote Rotie. It's a less sexy wine, which might be due to its youth, although I'm not too sure, I'm afraid. Although Hermitage is less sexy, more muscular, than Côte Rotie, nonetheless it is sexy and should be sexier than this. Looking through my old notes, it seems I enjoyed Delas wines from the 90's and less since, but it's a small set of data points, so I can't really offer too many conclusions.
And now we come to this, as convincing proof as any that, centuries after the Dutch drained the swamps of the Gironde, Bordeaux still got game! The perfection of a Bordeaux from a great vintage, no less: the fine silky texture, the sexy cedar-tinged spicing, the subtle shading of the fruit that gave up the essential beauty at its core at harvest time at just the right moment. 2000 Bordeaux is Elvis in a gold suit, and this is the King singing 'Mystery Train" with fluid, carefree ease.
Comments