I recently had the pleasure to attend a wine dinner at Le Cafe Descartes at the French Embassy in Washington, DC. The dinner, focused on the Bordeaux estate Domaine de Chevalier, was organized by my friend and Bordeaux wine guru Panos Kakaviatos.
But, before the dinner, attendees brought some Champagne for popping, and I had a blast tasting through some interesting bottles.
This was something of an embarrassment of riches, but I was happy to taste these wines and jot down some notes, which are below.
Cheers to good Champagne!
N.V. Champagne Lallier Champagne Grand Cru Zero Dosage - France, Champagne, Champagne Grand Cru Super chalky with notes of quinine, crushed oyster shells, limes and lemons. Intense and bright, but perhaps lacks a bit of depth to the fruit to balance the zero dosage. Still a lovely take, though. (90 points)
2004 Taittinger Champagne Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs Brut - France, Champagne Wow, this was everything I was hoping it would be. Rich, biscuity, doughy, lots of apples and lemon curd fruit, but the richness is matched with briskness, brightness, depth, minerality. Gorgeous, deep fruit, lots of minerals and chalk. Showing well but built for the long haul. (95 points)
2006 Taittinger Champagne Comtes de Champagne Rosé Brut - France, Champagne Loving the red fruits (raspberry, strawberry) mixing with the brisk, salty, chalky elements. Good amount of musk, spiced tea, rose potpourri, hints of mushroom coming out. Lots of evolution ahead but beautiful stuff. (94 points)
2006 Nicolas Feuillatte Champagne Brut Cuvée Palmes d'Or - France, Champagne Broad, concentrated, and bready, but also shows brightness, zestiness, minerality. Baked apple, toast, biscuits, chalk, honey. Bold but inviting, I'd like to see what happens to this in five to eight years. (93 points)
2002 Dom Pérignon Champagne - France, Champagne Deep nose of apricot, graham crackers, biscuits, sea salt. Nervy yet dense on the palate, the apricot, quince mixes with toasty bread, saline, crushed shells. Lots going on, seems young and a bit dense, but beautiful. (93 points)
In honor of Valentine’s Day weekend, I have a mix of bubbly, fun wines from all around the globe. This Champagne-less mix of sparkling wines includes some Crémant de Limoux from Faire La Fête, which have a refreshing 6 g/l dosage and a bright appeal. Although they lack doughy, biscuity depth, they’re balanced, lively and offer a lot of complexity for the price. Gloria Ferrer offers a solid vintage sparkler from California, and Cava makes an appearance as well.
For reds, I recent tasted some widely-available, yummy Malbecs from Argentina, and a big, bold Montepulciano d’Abruzzo as well.
These wines were received as trade samples and tasted sighted.
Bubbles & White Wines N.V. Faire La Fête Crémant de Limoux Brut – France, Languedoc Roussillon, Languedoc, Crémant de Limoux SRP: $19 Medium yellow color. Aromas show tangy lemon and green apple, with chalk, bread dough, biscuits, notes of verbena and white pepper. Crisp and bright on the palate, fine bubbles, nice salty kick with almonds, chalk, crushed shells. Green apples, lemon peel, lime and grapefruit, tossed with some slight honey and bread dough. Bright, light style, but solid depth, especially considering the price. Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc, Pinot Noir and Mauzac, aged 15 months on the lees. (88 points)
N.V. Faire La Fête Crémant de Limoux Brut Rosé – France, Languedoc Roussillon, Languedoc, Crémant de Limoux SRP: $19 Medium salmon color. Nose is crisp and floral, with white cherries, wild strawberries, red McIntosh apple peel. Tangy and zippy on the palate, a light style with bright bubbles, white cherries, red apple. Notes of white pepper, baby’s breath, verbena, and a nice salty minerality that lifts it up. Solid bargain. 65% Chardonnay, 20% Chenin Blanc, 15% Pinot Noir, aged 15 months on the lees. (87 points)
N.V. Segura Viudas Cava Brut Reserva Heredad – Spain, Cava SRP: $30 Light gold color with fine bubbles. Bready, doughy on the nose with salty, honeyed, floral combinations over peach and lemon. Crisp acidity frames the wine well, there’s some nice bready qualities to accent the lemon and green melon fruit. Sea salt and white flowers on top of nougat, hazelnut elements, it all comes together quite well to offer a more complex but vibrant Cava. Macabeo and Parellada, aged 30 months on the lees. (88 points)
N.V. A to Z Wineworks Bubbles– USA, Oregon SRP: $20/4, 250ml cans Aromas of crisp red apples, raspberries and lemon, with white pepper, floral perfume, some cinnamon candies. Juicy cherry and strawberry appeal on the palate, with crisp acidity, and spritzy bubbles. Fun, fresh, with rhubarb, sea salt and sugarcane notes. Easy-drinking, crowd-pleasing stuff, this could be a big hit for summertime treks. Offers a lot more than other canned wines I’ve tasted. Carbonated Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. (85 points)
2011 Gloria Ferrer Anniversary Cuvée – USA, California, Napa, Carneros SRP: $45 Rich yellow color. The aromas show deep, doughy, biscuity notes, with honey, almond cake, but also brighter notes of chalk, sea spray and honeysuckle. Nice depth on the palate, generous texture with some richness and sugar, but also brisk acidity, which keeps things in line well. Yellow apples, papaya, lime, with deep tones of bread dough, almond brittle, honeycomb, and elements of saline, crushed limestone and chalk. Quite a bit of depth and balance here. 2/3 Pinot, 1/3 Chardonnay, 12 g/l dosage, aged 5 years on the lees. (90 points)
2018 Schloss Johannisberg Riesling Gelblack feinherb - Germany, Rheingau SRP: $25 Pale lemon color. Bright and inviting on the nose with lime, quince, apricot, some white flowers and crushed rocks. Pleasantly plump on the palate, the bright acidity jives well with the off-dry sugar, so this tastes balanced and vibrant. Lemon, green melon and white peach fruit, tossed with chalky, floral, crushed rock elements. Lovely freshness, balance, and depth but also fun, early-drinking style. 2018 German Rieslings have a lot to offer. (89 points)
Reds
2018 Domaine Jean Bousquet Gaia - Argentina, Mendoza, Valle de Uco, Tupungato SRP: $20 Deep purple. Bountiful nose of sweet black cherries, blackberries, along with a pleasantly floral, herbal mix (violets, mint, eucalyptus), with cocoa and vanilla. Smooth and suave on the palate, dusty tannins, fresh acidity, supported by plenty of juicy black cherry and dark plum fruit. A lot of floral and spice elements (violets, pepper, sage), with nuanced coffee and vanilla notes. 50% Malbec, 45% Syrah, 5% Cabernet Sauvignon, aged 10 months in French oak. (89 points)
2018 Alamos Malbec – Argentina, Mendoza SRP: $13 Light purple color. Lively nose of sweet plums and cherries, along with roses, cocoa and vanilla. Smooth and velvety on the palate, fresh acidity, framed nicely with plums, raspberry and cherry fruit. Notes of cocoa powder, earth, vanilla, but there’s also some deeper, more complex notes of earth and graphite, too. Balanced, fresh, lively, I continue to find this a solid, widely-available, value-driven Malbec. (88 points)
2015 Binomio Montepulciano d'Abruzzo Riserva - Italy, Abruzzi, Montepulciano d'Abruzzo SRP: $52 Bright purple color. Deep aromatics of floral tea, violets with loamy, charcoal, incense sticks and clove. Full-bodied with solid grip to the tannins, but moderate acidity keeps it fresh. A tart, deep core of blackberry and plum. Lots of pencil lead, earth, tar, anise, coffee, cedar. Complex, floral, deep, this is a beauty of a Montepulciano, and while it has a lot of density, it also shows a nuance and balance, and an underlying stony minerality. This deserves three to four years in the cellar or a good decant. Aged 15 months in French oak and then six months in stainless steel. (91 points) This post first appeared on the daily wine blog Terroirist.
Syrah (and specifically Syrah from France’s Northern Rhone Valley) gets a lot of credit for my love of wine. As a young wine-drinker would couldn’t afford a lot of wines from Hermitage or Cote-Rotie, I found what I was looking for in wines from appellations like Crozes-Hermitage and St. Joseph — juicy Syrah fruit, solid tannins, lively acidity, and hefty doses of meaty, pepper, earthy, savory goodness.
Over the years, I haven’t strayed far from my love of Northern Rhone Syrah. The New World Syrahs that I’ve fallen in love with (California, Washington, South Africa, for example) tend to be ones that I might considering sneaking into a blind-tasting of Northern Rhone wines as ringers. But nothing beats the real Rhone Syrah, so I was excited to taste through a few samples recently, most of which are from the 2017 vintage.
After the heralded 2016 vintage, 2017 had some tough elements. Frost and some hail threw off St. Joseph and Crozes-Hermitage a bit. A warm, dry summer led to smaller, more concentrated berries with thicker skins, and Syrah harvest started and ended quite early. While yields were lower, the quality of the fruit seems quite high.
I found these wines showed lots of juiciness, darker fruit, and the tannins, while providing structure, seem to have rounder edges. I’m an acid hound, but while this isn’t a zingy vintage, I found enough balance and freshness from the acidity in these wines. Overall, these Rhone wines make me crave a snowstorm, some grilled lamb, and lots of roasted root vegetables.
Three of these wines are all Syrah from the Northern Rhone, while the last is a Syrah-based blend from the Southern Rhone. These wines were received as trade samples and tasted single blind. 2017 Domaine Faury St. Joseph Vieilles Vignes - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, St. Joseph SRP: $43 Light purple color. Lovely aromas of tangy black cherries and currants, topped in violets, clove, iron, bay leaf and cracked black pepper. Medium-bodied, silky but structured tannins, vibrant acidity – this is all lined up wonderfully. Red and black cherry fruit, suave but tangy, blended well with complex notes of black pepper, violets, bay leaf, iron, paved road. This is pure, vibrant, lively and expressive, but three to five years in the cellar will allow it to blossom (and it’ll age for a decade easily). Excellent St. Joseph for the price. From vines aged 43 to 82 years old, this Syrah is aged 12 months in foudres, demi-muids and barrels (10% of the barrels are new oak). (92 points) 2017 Alain Graillot Crozes-Hermitage - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Crozes-Hermitage SRP: $40 Deep purple color. The nose exudes black fruit (cherries, blackberries) along with animal hide, grilled herbs, black olive brine and cracked pepper. Grippy tannins, tight but balanced with fresh acidity. The fruit is black and tart, and topped in leather, spicy grilled steak, black olive brine, and I get these underlying notes of iron and graphite. This is definitely one to age for at least four or five years, and it will evolve for a long time, but even at this young age, this is impressive. From 30-year-old vines, whole-cluster fermented in concrete and aged in old oak barrels. (91 points) 2018 Matthieu Barret Crozes-Hermitage Et la Bannière - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Crozes-Hermitage SRP: $31 Deep, dark purple color. Juicy and ripe on the nose with gushing black cherries and blackberries. I get lots of mesquite, barbecue sauce, black pepper and soy, with lavender and cocoa dust elements, too. Medium/full-bodied with smooth tannins and medium acidity. This is a dark, juicy, fresh wine with lots of chewy black fruit, but there’s also plenty of pepper, anise, cocoa, dusty earth and charcoal elements. Delicious, fun, but also complex and interesting. From 20-year-old vines, the Syrah undergoes 10 days of carboic maceration, and this is fermented and aged in stainless steel. This is a more accessible, early-drinking style, but it could also age for a few years. (90 points) 2017 Château de Saint Cosme Côtes du Rhône Les Deux Albion - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Côtes du Rhône SRP: $21 Medium purple color. Pretty aromas of black currants, along with graphite, leather, cocoa powder, menthol and mesquite. This is a big, big wine (15.5% alcohol) but it holds it well, with velvety tannins, chewy texture, medium/low acid. Waves of ripe, delicious, jammy fruit (currants, roasted figs, blackberry), with elements of campfire, scorched earth, black pepper glaze, vanilla, coffee grounds. This is a bold, winter-friendly wine, but it shows nuance and complexity as well, especially considering the price. It could definitely use two or three years, though. 50% Syrah, 20% Grenache, 15% Carignan, 10% Mourvedre, and 5% Clairette, whole-cluster, co-fermented in wooden vats and concrete tanks, and aged 18 months. (89 points)
This post first appeared on the daily wine blog Terroirist.
