Gustave Lorentz Crémant D’Alsace Brut NV
The color of sun-bleached straw, this charming Crémant D’Alsace from Gustave Lorentz opens with a lively torrent of fine bubbles and inviting layers of baked yellow apple, smokey pear, granulated honey and sea foam. In the mouth, orchard fruit is couched in blithe minerality and weightier layers of marzipan and wet dough. Finishes on a […]
Camille Braun Crémant d’Alsace Brut NV
Really loving this year’s crop Crémant d’Alsace sparklers, including this honey-hued biodynamic blend of 60% Auxerrois and 40% Pinot blanc from Camille Braun. It’s expansive on the nose, expressing baked apple and poached pear along with a heady topnote of shortbread, brioche, and earth. In the mouth, there’s weight, but there’s nice palate tension, too—a […]
Château Suduiraut Castelnau de Suduiraut Sauternes 2010
A decadent elixir, Castelnau de Suduiraut is the second label of Château Suduiraut—in an excellent vintage like 2010, it offers fabulous QPR—and is exactly the sort of wine I’m inclined to haul out of my cellar during the holidays. Lavishly layered aromas of dried apricot, quince, dried orange peel, sultana, and crème brûlée rise from […]
Domaine Perrault-Jadaud Vouvray Pétillant Haut Les Choeurs 2014
A charming and expansive nose of baked apple, brioche, white flowers, and acacia honey graces this lemon-yellow Vouvray. Full and voluptuous on the palate, with a laser thin beam of acidity cuts a wide swath through orchard fruit, fine lees, and dried honeycomb. It’s slightly sweet, but well balanced. Overall a delight on a brisk […]
Château Cantemerle Les Allées de Cantemerle 2010
Another wine tasted in Transylvania at the ROVINHUD wine show in Timișoara. Les Allées de Cantemerle is the second wine of Château Cantemerle, as such it’s a good value. The 2010 is endowed with a classic profile of cassis, black cherries, blueberries, cedar, and an alluring top note of freshly turned soil. It’s still youthful, […]
Château Lafite Rothschild 1999
The 1999 Lafite Rothschild, is a ruby-hued beauty with a translucent rim—this bottle was incredibly fresh and vibrant on opening. Initially, seemingly more red fruit-driven, the nose evolved into a darker expression with time in the glass. Nuanced aromas of loamy earth, rose petal, black currant, and pencil shavings led into a wine that, while […]
Domaine Guion Cuvée Domaine Bourgueil 2015
Sporting classic Bourgueil notes of red berries, underbrush, orange pomander ball, and an ethereal top note of delicate florality. The 2015 Domaine Guion Cuvée Domaine Bourgueil is angular and tight with high-toned acidity, like crushed raw cranberry—it has a definite edge and considerable tartness, with tannins perched on the fore-palate. An earthy, mineral note emerges […]
Château Angélus Saint-Émilion Premier Grand Cru Classé 1995
Lovely and accessible, the 1995 Angélus shows off its pedigree and high percentage of Cabernet Franc with only minimal decanting. A slightly woodsy bouquet of black currants, plums, cedar, forest underbrush, spiced orange pomander, dried lavender, and incense. On the palate, poised supple tannins and a fine acid backbone underpin steeped blackberry, crème de cassis, […]
Champagne Drappier Rosé Brut Nature Dosage Zero NV
In honor of #ChampagneDay, though really isn’t every day well suited for a bubbly pink such as this? Drappier’s Brut Nature Rosé is a merry kaleidoscope of red berries, blood oranges, pink grapefruit, wet chalk, and oyster shell. There’s no dosage in this bottle and, of note, it’s unfiltered—the sort of deep pink that is […]
Côté Mas Sud de France Rouge Intense 2016
Emblazoned with a sticker that proudly states 33% more, and it is indeed a larger than the average 750ml, though I failed to check the exact ml, it’s at a midway point between a standard bottle and a magnum. A blend of 45% Grenache Noir, 25% Carignan, 15% Cinsault, 10% Merlot, and 5% Syrah that […]