WTN: Graves blanc, Sancerre, and maybe Etna

No wine Monday (Betsy’s quartet was doing couple pieces in a new music festival at Symphony Space, just ate a wrap before jumping on train to see), so good excuse to open 2 Tuesday.

The cooking wine was the 2013 Ch. Gales (Graves) blanc. Pretty standard for cheap white Bordeaux- grapefruit with a little gooseberry, hint of pepper, decent acids, a bit thin. Seems more SB than Semillon (as expected). B-/C+

Dinner was mussels in white wine, roasted zucchini, and herbed tomatoes. Dinner wine was the 2014 Girard “La Garenne” Sancerre. This is quite nice, lemon and grapefruit, rosemary, flint. Good acids, mid to full bodied, pretty classic Sancerre. B+

Wednesday Betsy made pork cutlets, roasted cauliflower, and a quinoa pilaf. Wine was the 2012 Passopisciaro. I thought this was Etna but its is labeled IGT Terre Siciliane. In any case it’s awful good! Black cherries, lots of herbs and flowers. Bright acids, juicy, long. A smoky/flinty note on finish. Some tannin but quite gulpable. B+/A-

Grade disclaimer: I'm a very easy grader, basically A is an excellent wine, B a good wine, C drinkable. Anything below C means I wouldn't drink at a party where it was only choice.Furthermore, I offer no promises of objectivity, accuracy, and certainly not of consistency.

Thanks for the notes, Dale!

Out of curiosity, did you find the alcohol on the 2012 Passopisciaro to be in balance? I recently picked up a bottle of this in a shop -- and then put it back down after seeing it was over 15%. But maybe it hangs together...

BTW, my understanding is that the Passopisciaro vineyards are high enough up the Etna slope that they technically fall outside the DOC.

I didn't find it hot at all. I didn't see the abv until after dinner, was surprised.
It's certainly ripe, but for me in balance.

Thanks! I may give it a try, then -- I liked the single-Contrada bottling enough, and this being half the price...

I will say that retasting Friday (recorked, down to cellar, but not gassed) the Passopisciaro was quite stewy and disjointed, went into vinegar crock. I don't buy into idea that time open is a predictor of aging, but it can give some clues. I think that hgher alcohol wines -even balanced ones- sometimes are better drunk young.

Out of curiosity, did you find the alcohol on the 2012 Passopisciaro to be in balance? I recently picked up a bottle of this in a shop -- and then put it back down after seeing it was over 15%. But maybe it hangs together...
.

Patchen, not Dale (obviously), Etna wines can be BIG wines, which many in the "Etna is the new Burgundy" camp fail to mention. To me, they can show their alcohol like Chateauneuf-du-Papes, meaning they can still be big but hide it well, yet you will feel it after 2 glasses. The problem is they are usually so seductive you don't notice until later.

Thanks, Mark. As I've begun to explore the region more, I have noticed that higher-end or site-specific bottlings tend toward 14% rather than 13%; and my impression is not so much that Etna is the new Burgundy as that it recalls both Burgundy and Piemonte in different ways . The bigness of the wine may be one way in which it's more Barol-ish than Burgundian. (And, anyway, why do we need to force everything into the mold of a handful of well-known regions?) Still, even with my admittedly limited experience, this particular Passopisciaro's ABV had seemed surprisingly high, which was why I asked. In any event, I don't mind big, as long as the wine can carry it!