2007 Domaine de la Pepiere Muscadet Sevre et Maine

This wine is the little brother of the Clos les Briords.  And, I must say, it is a great little brother.  It is certainly a simpler wine, but still very nice.  Crisp and light, with great acid.  The nose was pretty light, with maybe a little hint of licorice, which was pleasant, once I found it.  The finish was long and tasted nicely of grapefruit.  All in all, for $12, a great little white.  I’m planning on doing a side-by-side with the two of them soon.  Watch this space!

Wine Grab Bag

I haven’t really been in the mood to do any detailed tasting notes lately, but I thought I would share what I’ve had to drink in the last week or so.

First, I’ve had a few bottles of the 2006 Kartaeuserhof Riesling. This stuff is amazing.  I wish I had a ton more.  It’s a really nice and dry Austrian Riesling.  I love it.  Fantastic acidity.  It really hits my palate exactly where it should.  I have nothing negative to say about it, except that I only have one bottle left.  If there is any way you can get this wine, get it.  Just fantastic stuff.

Next, another Riesling, this one from the Alsace.  It’s a 2004 from Jean Sipp, labeled “Riesling Vieilles Vignes”.  I have mixed feelings on this one.  It’s not nearly as good as the Kartaeuserhof, but it’s decent.  Nice acidity, but a little more sugar than I like. It also has a kind of vomitty back end which I don’t like too much, but it’s good with pizza.  Not worth the $18, in my opinion.

On to one of the more interesting, off-the-wall wines I’ve had.  It’s a Txakoli, which is a wine from the Basque region of Spain.  It’s obscure enough that even wikipedia doesn’t have much to say about it.  The one I got, 2007 Txakoli Gurrutxaga is a rosé.  Low alcohol (10.5%), very low sugar, really tart.  The grapes must be very low in sugar to get that combination.  On the second day I got some good strawberry flavor out of it.  I enjoyed it quite a bit, but it’s a little steep at $20.  A good palate-builder, but not something I would seek out to drink all the time.

Finally, a little red wine.  It’s been pretty cool for July in Oregon and I broke out a bottle of red to drink at the beginning of the week.  This one is a wine recommended by Gary, and I bought a couple bottles of it a few months back, but hadn’t cracked one open before.  It’s the 2005 Clos du Prieur, from the Coteaux Du Languedoc.  Gary raved about it.  I thought it was good.  Nice and tannic and full of fruit and complexity, but it didn’t change my life.  Maybe in the winter I’ll open up another bottle.  My palate is so in tune with high-acidity whites right now that maybe I’m just not in the right mood for it.  Perhaps for someone with a more sophisticated palate it would be a must-buy, but for me it was merely good.  I’ll update again in the winter when I try it again.

That’s all for now.  Maybe next time I’ll get inspired to do a more in-depth tasting, rather than just enjoying some yummy wine.  Or maybe not…

[Sorry for the wacky formatting on this one.  I'm no graphic designer and I'm not sure how I should lay it out, so I let WordPress do it for me, with odd results.  And, thanks to imageshack for hosting the images.]

Independence Weekend Wines!

OK so the picture says 1993, but I really had the 1990.....

So I went to a wonderful dinner in Seattle over the weekend. For those fellow foodies out there I highly recommend heading to The Harvest Vine. It is a wonderful tapas (family style) restaurant which I try to go to every time I visit Seattle.

My friends and I had two yummy bottles to enjoy during dinner. We started with a bottle of 1990 Jos. Christoffel Jr. Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese.

The wine had a very nice sweet citris / pineapple quality and hint of the oiliness you would normally expect. However it was not quite as minerally as I like, but like Mr. Gary I like a little razor action on my toungue. Regardless it was a wonderful wine.

The second bottle we had was a 2005 Walter Hansel Alyse cuvee Pinot Noir.

Thanks to wallywine.com for having a current image.

The wine is great blend of Burgundy and New world .. leaning more towards Burgundy. Everyone enjoyed the earthiness of the wine, but it was not dank nor unapproachable for being younger. It went amazingly well with the Lamb and mushroom dish we had. There were good components of black cherry and hay without being to overpowering for some people at the table who “didn’t like red wine”. They really enjoyed this one.

Cheers!

2005 Chateau La Pierre Levee

Another wine I picked up at Sandy’s, this time I think it was one we actually tasted that afternoon.  I remember thinking “Wow! This is a steal for $13!”.  I drank this wine over two days, so I’ll give my notes for the 2 days.  This wine is from the Cotes De Castillon, as you can see from the label and claims to be 14% alcohol.  I don’t get any fun label notes like with the previous wine, though.

Day 1: This was a “pop and pour” situation.  I needed some wine to drink with dinner, so I opened it up and let it sit for 10 minutes before pouring it.

The nose is pretty tight, just a little hint of mustiness through the alcohol.

The fruit on this wine is not overpowering, which I really appreciate right now.  The tannins on the back end are medium strong and it has a decent mid-palate with no drop-out in the middle.

Given that it is day 1, I’m not getting much more out of it right now.  Overall, I like it quite a bit and would give it an 89 points.  I think quite a good deal for $13!  Very pleasant, although not outstanding.

Day 2: I put this wine in the refrigerator overnight, to keep it cool in the summer heat.  I took it out at lunch time and tasted it at 3:30 in the afternoon, after deciding I could take off a bit early from work on the day before a long weekend.

Now the nose has opened up a bit and I am getting a bit of ripe fruit and some smell of cool herbs.  After smelling this, I went to our spice cabinet and started smelling everything to see if I could figure out what it was.  I think it was some strange combination of lavender, thyme and a little hint of oregano.  Please understand that these smells were not strong, just little hints below the fruit and alcohol.

My impression on first tasting this wine today is that the alcohol is a little strong, even at 14%.  It still has good mid-palate strength and a nice long finish.  There is some fruit, but not much more than yesterday.  I get a little bit of black cherries and maybe some raspberries and some other fruit that I can’t put my finger on.  There are some non-fruit components that my palate isn’t really able to identify at this point, but something a little richer than just fruit flavors.

All in all, I’d still give this wine an 89.  It is really enjoyable to drink and there’s nothing overtly negative going on.  The nose isn’t rich enough to put it up into the 90 range for me.  I enjoy it quite a bit and at $13, I think it’s a great steal.  I might have to see if I can pick up another bottle or so the next time I’m in the shop.