So, last Saturday I was heading into Manhattan and thought I might stop into a couple wine shops where they were holding some interesting tastings. On my way over, I grabbed lunch in Newark at one of my favorite Portuguese places, where I had an excellent grilled flounder (BTW, a flounder is 'solha' in Portuguese, where a sole is 'linguado') with a half bottle of '15 Pedra Cancela Dao Branco (white, Encruzado, Cercial, and Malvasia). I want to say, this was the best white I've had in a couple weeks: distinctive, mineral and lingering. Also sells for about $8 for a 750 ml bottle in the shops.
On many Saturdays, Union Square Wines puts on a generous tasting of interesting wines, and this day was no exception - Burgundy. The only white on offer was a '11 Dominique Lafon Mersault Les Narvaux, which I found nice enough, but oaky, with some melon and decent length, but certainly not worth the $125. Shockingly, I'd take the Pedra Cancela, at least as both wines stand now. And, although I love good Burgundy, the QPR just wasn't there with the wines on offer. My favorite being the '13 Denis Berthaut Fixin En Combe Roy (aromatic and firm - don't see wines from this village very often) at $58, followed by a few Bourgognes - '14 Hudelot-Noellat $35, '13 Paul Pillot $33, and '13 Faiveley Paulee $21. Some other, more expensive wines were pretty meh, like the '11 Cecile Tremblay Chambolle Les Cabottes, which was just oaky and monolithic, not something I would pay $100 for.
So off to Chambers Street Wines to try the Oregon wines they had on offer. Interestingly, there were six wines and none were Pinot Noir. Among the whites there was a sparkler that spent 48 months en tirage from Minimus, made mostly from Pinot Gris (meh, not a big fan of that grape), a couple unusual but interesting Sauvignon Blancs (Minimus again plus Bow & Arrow). The reds included a really nice OR Grenache (!) from Minimus (elegant and complex, grown in the Applegate Valley in the southern part of the state, and a couple Gamays. These showed real promise and great character: a Bow & Arrow '15 and Omero '15, both from the Willamette Valley. Some good work done here with all these wines.
So I picked up a few bottles and tonight I am drinking one of them, the '15 Vin de France Exspectatia from Christian Ducroux. This is Gamay from Regnié, but is the product of a super non-interventionist producer, who apparently doesn't want to follow whatever convention is needed to get his wine labeled Regnié. You can go to the Chambers website and see the effusive praise which concludes with 'Really a profound wine of terroir that expresses the incredible farming and winemaking of Christian Ducroux - certainly one of the finest natural wines of France.' I do agree with the 'deep opaque red/black color' and that the wine is a bit reduced right out of the bottle. But as far as the terroir goes, I'm getting poop, soil and a bit of ethyl acetate on the nose, with some sharpish raspberry fruit. The 'lingering finish' is not being found, but the wine does become a bit less stinky with some air. Pretty underwhelming wine; I daresay I enjoyed a bottle of '15 Jadot Beaujolais Villages a lot more (a 'safe' impromptu purchase from a Mom & Pop shop next to a BYO restaurant). Well, both were only about $15 dollars....
I feel like I'm being regularly disappointed in the more 'geeky' wines in the last month or so, while really enjoying bottles that might be dismissed as 'cheap and cheerful'. Maybe this is good?
