Tonight: Château Léoville-Poyferré 1995 St.-Julien. Dusty tannins bordering on musty raised an eyebrow on opening, so we decided to set it aside and open another bottle (see below), but thank the quercus gods, after an hour and a half this was decidedly not corked: intense cassis and tart cherry fruit, layers of earth, slightly meaty, a little graphite, very long and intense with still fairly grippy tannins, but with the concentration to hold it in balance; not closed but still a lot of tannin to resolve, so I'll be in no hurry to open the other bottle. Very good with the potential to be excellent.
Château de Chantegrive 2010 Graves. 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 50% Merlot. Rich, plummy and cherry, ripe but not exactly lush, solid acidity and structure, some toasty oak but not overwhelming. Tasty, too-young, and with surprising depth for a wine at this price point (on sale for $19.99). This will improve for several years.
Domaine du Roquefort 2014 VdP des Bouches du Rhône. A blend of Clairette and Vermentino. Nicely balanced, crisp, lively, lemony, characterful white, opened to cook with (in the pot and in the chef) and proves to be great value at $13.50.
Over the last several days: Broc Cellars 2014 Santa Barbara County Cabernet Franc. Vibrant medium-ruby color, varietally transparent Cab Franc, of which the only give-away of its Californian origin is a zip (in the Barnett Newman sense) of intense, ripe blackberry liquor running through the austere, pencilly background. I don't know that this has the stuffing to age for long but it's very nice now.
Az. Agr. Monteraponi 2013 Chianti Classico. Initially seems a little thin in the glass, tart cherry, herbs, but nothing special; but with air it takes on considerable weight, expressing a lot of dark fruit as well as minerality, and proves to be one of the more interesting Chiantis we've had in a long time (this was purchased as part of an attempt to find some promising labels we haven't tried, since in Chianti we tend to stick with a handful of familiar and serviceable makers like Castellare, Volpaia, Coltibuono). Very successful.
Cowhorn 2014 Applegate Valley, Oregon "Spiral 36". Viognier, Roussane, Marsanne. Terrific stuff; I tend to shy away from new world white Rhônes for fear of flab but this is very much in balance, even vibrant, behind the expected richness, and at $25.00 it strikes me as very reasonably priced. I don't remember where I read about Cowhorn; maybe it was here, but in any case this is an auspicious first bottle.