2005 Foreau, Vouvray Sec:
13.2% alcohol; light gold; precise and beautiful aromatics, keeps me coming back to smell again; medium weight, classic chenin flavors, perfect balance and a long finish. A textbook example of Sec and as pretty and well executed a dry Vouvray as I have had in years.
Bravo!
1999 Dugat-Py, Gevrey-Chambertin VV:
13% alcohol; considerable bottle bouquet and lots of secondary smells and flavors, tactile and fleshy but more savory than sweet with excellent complexity and sustain. I would not call this bottle “textbook” but I would be happy to drink it any night. A treat for the senses.
2000 Belle Pente, Pinot Noir Estate Reserve:
Also showing bottle bouquet and secondary development but, IMO, slipping away from peak and little by little, coming apart. Still, a wine of character and interest but not of great pleasure.
2009 Arbe Garbe, Ribolla Gialla:
14.5% alcohol; from the Vare vineyard in Napa; butterscotch and fruit nose; too much new oak in the mouth and little varietal character. Not done on the skins and, IMO, someone tried to make this for the CA consumer. Not my style.
2010 Folk Machine, Jeanne D’Arc:
13.8% alcohol; skin- fermented chenin blanc without oxidation; beautiful, full, rich nose of muddled white fruit and earth; good texture and grip in the mouth with flavors that follow the nose, excellent depth; medium plus finish. A really engaging wine and exceptionally well made.
1995 Edmunds St, John, Syrah Durrell Vnyd.:
14.4% alcohol; a shadow of its former self; still recognizable as syrah but on the slippery slope towards salad dressing. My guess; at some point, this bottle got too hot for too long.
1999 Girardin, Charmes-Chambertin:
Pinot Noir from anywhere and starting to dry out; the wine could not stand the oak regimen. ‘Glad I did not buy this.
2005 de Villaine, Les Clous:
12.5% alcohol; nowhere near peak but showing well if uncomplicated; pure, clean, character driven and healthy; sort of the antithesis of white Burgundy these days. Lovely wine.
1999 Giacosa, Barolo Falletto:
When opened, it had no nose and was hugely tannic; about half an hour later with pork chop, it was an example of why we buy and cellar Barolo; beyond ethereal aromatics that continued to expand and morph; wonderful in the mouth with a substantial component of rose petals but all the other markers of good Barolo; marvelous finish – long but so intricate as to make it seem even longer. A masterpiece and about as much as I ever need from the DOCG.
2003 Leoville Poyferre:
Adequate, but no more; when first opened, an alluring nose and a balanced palate – quickly devolves into prunes and torrefied earth.
Nope.
1999 St. Innocent, Pinot Noir Seven Springs Vnyd.:
13.6% alcohol; smells and tastes like syrah – not the slightest indication this is pinot, not even the texture; drying tannins. An unpleasant bottle.
Best, Jim