Cleaning out the wine tasting notebook--Part II

[Michael Malinoski]

Below is the second installment of notes on random wines drunk at home with my family over the past few months, which I haven’t been able to fit into any other postings. I guess it truly was time to clean out that notebook...

White wines:

2012 Domaine de la Hersandiere Muscadet de Sèvre-et-Maine Sur Lie. The nose of this wine is light and airy, featuring somewhat straight-ahead scents of limestone, lime, crushed shells and orange blossoms that are proper but not that exciting. It has some effervescence to it in the mouth, with exceedingly dry flavors of lemon, white pepper, flint and sea brine. For $10 or whatever, it’s tough to complain, but it’s not all that distinctive to my way of thinking.

2012 Argyros Atlantis White Santorini. This is abundantly sunny, citrusy and tangy on the nose, delivering bright and zesty aromas of lemon, white peach, sea foam, schist and orange blossom. It’s quite similar in the mouth, coming across as clean and bright, and refreshingly zesty in a light-bodied package of lemon-lime, chalk and mineral flavors. Composed of 90% Assyrtiko, I could definitely see enjoying this again on a warm summer evening next year.

2012 Martín Códax Albariño Rías Baixas Burgáns. This is clean and bright on the nose, delivering straight-ahead but refreshing aromas of citrus skins, river rocks, pear and white pepper. In the mouth, it’s much the same—zesty, fun, easy to drink and enjoy, not overly complicated but clean and juicy with flavors of lemon-lime, grapefruit, orange zest, crushed shells and peach pit.

2012 Fattoria Laila Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi. This presents a flinty nose of seashells, crushed rocks, juniper berry, lemon and wild herb aromas that are a tad reticent and narrowly-focused but fleshing out a bit as it warms. It has a bit more heft to it on the palate, where it is pleasantly mid-weighted, with an acidic ease and a minerally spine. There’s a bit of bitter smoke tinge to the core flavors of mixed citrus fruit, sea brine and herbs, and a nice gentle crunch and lift to the finish. It’s nothing profound, but it’s a good honest wine and does well with our tuna tartare.

2012 Ernesto Picollo Gavi. This is fresh and prickly, sort of green-tinged on nose, with aromas of white pepper, lemon zest, prickle pear, cantaloupe rind, orange blossom and pea tendrils. It’s similarly prickly and zesty in the mouth, with a narrow beam of tangy lemon, sea brine, green melon and white pepper flavors that are direct and modestly refreshing. It’s pretty simple, but clean and easy-sipping.

2012 Eisacktaler Kellerei / Cantina Valle Isarco Kerner Alto Adige. This wine presents an extremely fragrant bouquet focused around puffy aromas of mango, peaches, orange blossoms and fruit cup. In the mouth, it surprises with just how sweet-toned the fruit is and how soft and languid it feels all around. There’s some spritziness that keeps it from getting too flabby but it really could use more cut and delineation to help the peachy/floral flavors. The heavier body and the general softness is a turn-off for several folks at the table.

2012 Masseria Li Veli Verdeca Askos Valle d'Itria IGT. This is fairly dark yellow in color, but quite healthy-looking. It presents hefty, rounded aromas of lemon zest, yellow apple, pear and chalk that feel dense and pleasing. In the mouth, it’s wonderfully leesy and earthy, with medium to full body and a rather fleshy concentration to the tasty flavors of yellow apple, pear, lemon cream, toasted spices and minerals. It has nice subtle lift and great staying power, with a lasting spicy impression. It has some individuality to it that I appreciate, and it delivers very nice drinking enjoyment in my opinion.

2012 Luigi Maffini Fiano d’Avellino Pietraincatenata Paestum IGT. There’s a nice stoniness to the nose here, with sunny lemon and lime aromas atop orange blossom, cantaloupe and crushed shell scents. It’s wound a bit tightly still, but comes on strong as it warms in the glass—showing more florality and more rounded fruit the longer you stay with it. In the mouth, it has pleasing weight and a nice mix of grounded flavors (smoke, struck flint, stone) and tangy citrus fruit. There’s an interesting leesy or skin contact sort of note to the texture but with fine underpinning acidity all the way through. This is a bit serious and still pretty young, but really interesting and quite tasty with our tuna dish.

2012 Aia Vecchia Vermentino Maremma Toscana. There’s a nice, summer-like nose to this wine, with airy but directed floral scents of honeysuckle, white peach, orange blossom and crushed shells. In the mouth, it’s a bit fuller and rounder in body than expected, with plump but stony flavors of peach, grapefruit, like and wet rocks. It feels fresh but generous, without any hints of austerity to be found. It’s a nice QPR and shows especially well with just a little chill to it.

2012 Domaine Eugène Carrel Vin de Savoie Jongieux. Here one finds quiet, reserved scents of apple, flinty smoke, lime, cantaloupe and a nick of funky cheese from time to time. In the mouth, it features lemon, cantaloupe, slate and saline flavors that are pleasing enough, but I just never really connect with the wine due to a strong sense that it tastes kind of flat and devoid of sufficient cut or rise. It just doesn’t pull it all together for me, I guess.

2010 François Chidaine Vouvray Le Bouchet. This is darkly citric and wooly on the nose, with intriguingly funk-tinged aromas of dark peaches, brown spices, wild honey, clotted cream and copper pots. In the mouth, it’s full-blown demi-sec in sweetness, with a beautifully honeyed texture and full, limpid weight. It has some tart citric acidity at the back end with some steely tinging, but through the mid-palate it’s quite expansive and tongue-coating with its flavors of nectarine, lime, guava and tropical rich fruit notes. It possesses a sort of foxy, wooly, wild streak, too, which I could see being an issue for some folks but which really gives it a unique character to my way of thinking. Overall, this is a style I quite enjoy.

2009 Aubert Chardonnay Hyde Vineyard Carneros. This captures the imagination right off the bat with a bold yet buttery bouquet featuring aromas of lemon zest, hazelnut, cold butter and a quartzlike minerality. In the mouth, it’s flamboyant with its popping flavors of vanilla bean, hazelnut, ground nutmeg, sesame, pear and lemon oil. The texture is creamy and almost unctuous, but it keeps a classy poise and grippy tension as it pumps out the rich, driven flavors. It’s a delight and could be for my tastes one of the best bottles of Aubert I’ve had.

2006 Peter Michael Chardonnay Ma Belle-Fille Knights Valley. This is a charming Peter Michael Chardonnay on the nose, featuring very nice aromas of butterscotch, pistachio nut, liquid rock, white peach, white currant, wet lumber, lemon oil and light baking spices that grow increasingly sexy as the night progresses. In the mouth, it starts out cool and minerally on the attack and then begins to flesh out and sweeten up through the exotically-spiced mid-palate. The flavors of candied lemon, vanilla, spiced pear and cream never get out of balance and indeed the wine stays relatively toned and classy throughout—especially when compared to the more extroverted Aubert drunk alongside it. This is really enjoyable but on this night bested by the Aubert.

2005 Peter Michael Chardonnay Mon Plaisir Knights Valley. This wine displays a big, overt bouquet of ground nutmeg, hazelnut, fresh lumber, lemonball candy, pear flesh and clotted cream aromas, to go along with a fine shiver of granite stone running through it all. It’s delightfully spicy in the mouth, with fleshy dense body and languid flow. It’s showing some oak and barrel spices still, but also lots of luscious yellow apple, pear and lemonball flavors that are plump and giving, with a long spicy finish. This is excellent now and likely better in another 2-3 years.

Rose wines:

2013 Couly-Dutheil Chinon Rosé Domaine René Couly. Dark pink in color, this wine smells of strawberries, raspberries, sour cherries, citrus and pulverized rocks in a giving yet stony profile that I like. In the mouth, it has a vibrant attack and a very juicy mid-palate full of sappy sour cherry, raspberry and pink grapefruit flavors that are zesty and ticklish yet concentrated and enjoyably darker in fruit profile than most roses. The finish pulls in some prickly white pepper accents, and the whole thing is just very nice, very nice indeed. This was the only bottle the store had when I bought it, but I just found a new stash a few days ago and bought some more without hesitation.

Red wines:

2012 Fratelli Alessandria Verduno Pelaverga Speziale. This is a rather pale red color, delivering delightfully pretty, floral and feminine aromas of red flowers, licorice rope, raspberry roll-up, peach and interesting bits of pencil shavings that are fun, light, airy and full of unique character that I really like. In the mouth, it is again quite pretty, with airy strawberry and cherry fruit showing nice lift and a fun finishing tickle. It’s got sneaky bottom note density but generally stays light, fun and dangerously chuggable.

2005 Kosta Browne Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast. This wine delivers an effusive bouquet loaded up with cherry paste, vanilla, cola nut, sassafras, autumn leaf, baking spice and cracked peppercorn aromas that are rather inviting. In the mouth, it’s a big, fun, juicy wine to drink that’s full of cherry, raspberry, allspice, toasty oak, vanilla paste and unsweetened chocolate flavors that are deep and showing fine staying power. It’s full but doesn’t feel that heavy on this night, and it’s guzzled down very, very quickly by the assembled guests. We had a good time with it.

1996 Greg Norman Estates Cabernet-Merlot Coonawarra. This is showing quite well on the nose, delivering rather appealing scents of menthol, tobacco leaf, cedar closet, pungent earthy undergrowth, cassis and cherry paste in classy dimensions. In the mouth, it’s showing impressive restraint and fine resolution to go with healthy fruit and soft oak flavors in a fine-knit and mid-weight package. It has a nice tangy sour cherry entry, pushing toward pure cassis flavors on the giving mid-palate that at times feels almost Bordelais in some ways. It’s a touch short on the finish, and I wouldn’t suggest waiting any longer on it, but it’s a real easy wine to like right now.

2002 Château Pichon-Longueville Baron Pauillac. This is still deeply purple-colored, but is starting to show really nice complexity of aromas on the nose. Soaring up and out of the glass are lifted, enticing scents of crushed blueberries, plums, black currants, clay, charred embers, tar, tobacco leaf and pencil shavings that are sultry and pure yet dark, stony and coiled underneath. In the mouth, it’s cool, lithe, and showing a finely-chiseled backbone of subtle tannin to go with lovely purple fruit flavors with an interestingly yeasty edge. Some thought it still too young, I think, but I thought it was a fabulous time to be drinking this fine effort.

1981 Chappellet Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley. This wine has a pretty healthy but decidedly old-fashioned bouquet to it, with dark aromas of dark soil, iodine, iron ore, charcoal, multivitamin, black plum, black currant, black leather, butcher shop and a bit of balsamic overtone. In the mouth, it’s savory, dark and very earthy, with medium-weighted, wiry flavors of black currant, iron, olive brine, soy and dark earth. It’s quite healthy still, but it’s definitely not a wine of fruity pleasure, but rather one of old-fashioned savory introspection. It’s not what you would call particularly friendly, nor is it for the faint of heart, but it works for me.

2001 Cuvée du Vatican Châteauneuf-du-Pape. The nose here is refined and resolved, but also finely savory with aromas of rawhide leather, caked mud, dry shrubbery, lilac flowers, dusty earth, mocha and pasty raspberry and cherry fruit. In the mouth, there are no hard edges in sight, with easy medium-weighted cherry paste, caramel and herb flavors carried along by tangy acidity. It’s not especially intense, but is quite tasty and in a good place for drinking now. Indeed, I’d probably suggest drinking up soon.


-Michael