Wine Skeptic

Clos de las siete

The winner of our night, everyone, especially the ladies tried to slog this one down. At 15 bucks, I may consider a case, just extremely good transitions and quality make this wine a winner. Not too tart, not too sweet. I would say a bit plain, but polish is everything.

I portali Anglianica de vulture

An amazing experience, and at 10 bucks, something you all should try. There is a decent fruit, tannin, nice tasting and smelling wine, but at the end – boom – black pepper! As solid as a pepper grinder. I loved it, and would think paired with a good pasta dish, its killer. I tried an Anglianico before from a different producer and thought it was off, I would like trying a few more of this region though based on this.

Gallo chardonnay

So this is what they talk about when they mention oaky chardonnay! Wow, this completely tastes like buttered popcorn. With a little booze in it. I suppose the fruit is ok, and since I like popcorn, it was pleasant enough, but there is something fundamentally weird about the experience. Reminds me of a Merasault (also chard) with similar oak that I didn’t care for. I suppose Oak=price, its reasonable if the wine spends a year in oak to charge more, but for these wines, I think the chablis from a few posts back had more honest fruit, balanced wood, and generally more spectacular, this seems expensive and fake – at 20 bucks, there are much better choices.

domaine de la mordoree

Summer is coming, and its going to be the summer of rose if I have anything to do with it. Begin with this nice melon, with stones, and rich strawberry overtones. Who can not like this stuff, its delicious!

Bellefont-Belcier

I had a meaningful, but disastrous time last new year with some friends in California, basically looking for a decent bottle of wine. Being artists, and somewhat high society, they had a few bottles lying around, which we tried, all of which fell flat. I had purchased a bit of bordeaux, which also was unripe and unsatisfying. Finally we went back to their house where lo and behold their gallery owner had sent them a case of St. Emillion gcru (can’t remember the maker) which when opened and sniffed magically restored all that ailed and disappointed me. If I could describe it its the dirty fruit thing, but somehow stewed and mashed and explodes in your head. It also tasted great.

Now to this number, yes, has it all, but olfactory challenged, which leads me to the idea that just smelling wine can be enough pleasure, forget drinking it. I recall a pricy burgundy that I didn’t even want to sip, it was enough to just smell it. So, perhaps I let it decant for awhile, warm it up, something like that, but disappointing.

Regaleali Rose

Gotta love the pink stuff, this one has the most amazing color, a super cherry red, again nice acidity, a bit much for me to really go nuts, but since rose’s are almost entirely shunned, this is a good entry point, although look back to see the Elise post, that was something really special.

neumayer gruner

Beautiful acidity, with that odd little german medicinal kind of aftertaste, that since i drink all whites at room temperature most people won’t notice. Just got to give it up for gruner vetliner, and Austria seems to have some real strong price points. I do remember a chardonnay something blend that I should track down and blog about. A shame they only had one bottle of it, and, like many wines it is here and then gone.