Wine Skeptic

I’m skeptical of wine reviewers that spit. I would say this wine is a perfect example of why. On the nose and first taste, its dynamite, with great fruit (2007) with the heavy black pepper note that really makes a great balance. Now, after that, its gone.. based on my previous post, perhaps you need to drink this with some meat or sausage or something to refresh the palette so you can find the unique elements again? Literally I wanted the black pepper back and didn’t find it again no matter what I tried. Don’t get me wrong, its perfectly palatable and lovely wine, recommended, but I wonder if tasters get excited by fleeting elements and don’t see that some elements don’t stick around for the whole glass.
In fairness: pop-n-pour is just as bad, some bad elements truly can ‘blow off’ if decanted for a while and that can effect reviewers as well. Still, its a tough job, what do I know?

It’s been an eye-opening holiday, due to the economic downturn, or really the need for lots of wine and little cash I decided to dip into the cellar. This included some pretty pricy and rare bottles, mainly red. Hitting the fan on Christmas Day was a bottle of Umathum St Laurent which was my first foray into +50 dollar bottles. Also going was the Keenan Merlot, Chateau Sansonnet 01 St. Emillion, and quite a few others. The verdict? Well.. meh… outside of the Sansonnet which I had before and helped me fall in love with Merlot based wines from Bordeau, they all were pretty good, but not memorable. In a way this was really surprising, since I was saving these bottles because of the price and ratings.
Perhaps the problem is building up expectations, or is it the raison d’être of this blog, which is it reasonable to think more expensive means better? After delving into wine big time, I’m still on the fence, I think some taste profiles seem to mesh with long aging, well picked and processed fruit, perfect weather, slow ripening, etc. Because of the age issue, white wine still seems to offer better quality for less price. Tannins are still a mystery, but aging does help - the Sansonnet bottle was smeared with settled tannins, which if we drank them may have tasted harsh.
What does this have to do with the Colosi? Well, its an exciting wine, around 14 bucks, and since it was featured on Vaynerchuk, I gave it a try. Normally I don’t agree with his ratings, which I will go into later, but when you see a bottle at the local shop he has raved about, what the hell? The real star of this show is big fruit with big acidity which is balanced by sweetness and bitterness of tannins. Simple, huh? Balance, and also the multi-tier, you think it will be too sweet, then it turns acidic, then bitter, drink, repeat. See, this wine thing isn’t so complicated after all?

Braida (Giacomo Bologna) Barbera d’Asti Bricco dell’Uccellone

To go with the last 10 courses at Alinea (well, we seemed to lose count) and having loved the white, we were going to go white again but why not mix it up? So Jason came up with another biodynamic, another weird one, and a Barbera d’Asti, which I think I blogged about a nice one a few weeks back. So now we’re talking, this guy gave up the big barnyard on the nose, although my brother in law described it as roses. Perhaps conceptually a problem for me, but I suppose that fertilizer, perfume thing can throw one off. On the flavor just lovely balance of sour cherries and mud, so its burgundian in style. Again, no one complained, this one seemed to have more fans of the nose, which I concur, but another winner, and I think this goes for 50 a bottle, which puts it right out there in the stratosphere.

Nicolas Joly Savennières-Coulée de Serrant Clos de la Coulée de Serrant

Ah, Alinea. A big night out, and we had planned to forego wine since the food was determined to be too ‘weird’. However, we showed our true wine geek colors by trying to pick out some sort of Alsatian Pinot Blanc or something from the list to go with most everything. I give credit to the Sommelier, Justin Leone, who talked up a Savenniere that was biodynamically produced and something not to be missed. At 160 a bottle, I was pretty skeptical, and having a weird experience with one of this region’s offerings make me even more wary. However, hubris took hold and we went for it. I can say it was an overpowering nose, full of honey and marzipan. A deep orange color, and a taste like white tea with a shot of Jack Daniels afterward. Although not ‘hot’ in a bad way. I can say we were all ecstatic about it, which proves one point that white wines are far more enjoyable and worth paying money for than red. I think people feel red is harder to make or something, or more complex, but this, like the restaurant was doing it’s own thing its own way, which I appreciated.

Chateau de Genaiserie

After the huge meal at Alinea, it was fun to open a dessert wine at home. A category that I imagine most people would be completely puzzled by. I think liqueur or brandy may have the edge in most minds as a hedonistic after meal drink. Still, I have found more excitement in these wines, which of course have sweetness, but often not as much ’sugariness’ as any aperitif. Of course, it lacks the heavy alcohol that can be a bit more palette ruiner. This wine has a nice match in the Savennieres we had earlier, a good flinty, peachy, carmel flavor. A bit sweeter than some of my other experiences, but super enjoyable.

L’arpent des Vaudon

Oh boy, oh boy. I’ve been meaning to go on some rant about Sauvignon blanc. Normally its not my favorite. I find it has out of control acidity that is just unpleasant, secondly, it can have that rubbishy grapefruit thing that I feel like just buy grapefruit juice. However, it can have other neat qualities, namely the armpit / cat pee nose, which while somewhat gross, is normally a sign of some more complex flavors. This wine delivers that nose along with a rich, flinty mouthfeel, no wateriness at all. Add to that a tiny bit of Jalapeno, which is another nifty quality of this grape and its a complete winner.

Le Vieux Donjon Chateauneuf du Pape

My sister and brother in law visited this weekend, and you’ll see the dinner wines we indulged in, but had to go to the cellar and pick out one of the special wines. This one was a birthday present from last year, and something I had been anticipating. The notable quality was that we decanted this before going out to dinner. Dinner was.. excessive, so there was little palette left to enjoy it so I left it overnight, then the next night had a bit, and the night after had a bit more. I can say it was lovely balanced, spicy cherry and meat. Not a lot of barnyard, but terrior driven, but an ability to drink well out of the bottle, the next day showing a new profile of a bit more fruit, then the third day, the oxidation allowing actually a nice stewed plum element. A classy bottle.

Pio Cesare Gavi

In the ‘try new things’ I did have some excitement about this Gavi, since once again the local wine store is doing their summer clearance. I recall a certain amount of meh, nothing really memorable, other than a good thin white wine.