Over the weekend...
2007 Pierre et Catherine Breton Bourgueil "Les Galichets": Gulpable stuff from an unimpressive vintage. Not a lot of complexity, but concentrated fresh red fruit, some pleasant green tastes, some red licorice, and a prickly and perhaps "inelegant" or rustic acidity that shoots it across the palate. I'm a fan. This is a happy wine for drinking now.
2005 Marchesi Di Gresy Martinenga Barbaresco: Drank at Buck's Fishing and Camping, where the brilliant new chef Vicki Reh (who used to work at Arrowine) has redone the wine list with excellent results for fans of "natural" and "terrior" wines (she also cooks in a style that is far more conducive to wine than Greenwood used to). Anyway, I've read that this used to be a wine that straddled the "modern" style and perhaps saw some barrique; I've also read that they've, like others in Piedmont, lightened their touch considerably in recent vintage. No sense of new oak here; to me this is both a classic wine and perhaps the most feminine expression of Nebbiolo I've ever had. A remarkably graceful and transparent wine, it is also a textbook expression of the the grape and the terrior (tar, roses, cherry, etc)--this is obvious even two feet away from the wine, as the nose reaches its arm out of the glass like one of those cartoon aromas that drags a lank floating cartoon character towards the source. The acidity is perfect, the tannins are mouth-coating but well-managed. Best of all, it's drinking great right now. When was the last time you were introduced to a wine off a restaurant wine list that you then decide you have to buy? I'm all in.