Posts belonging to Category Chablis



Pinot versus Pinot

Hit me!! Good god!

Hit me!! Good god!

It’s the BEST of the New World versus the BEST of the Old World… considering VALUE ev kerse. It should be expressly clear by now that Pinot Noir is the second greatest grape among vinifera; the greatest being Nebbiolo, ev kerse [ed. stop that you idjit].

Recent pullage has tested the claim. We pulled corks on two very fine and exceptional Pinot Noir wines at great value from the Willamette Valley which is the top growing region for Pinot Noir in the New World [ed. FYI that includes New Zealand, Ontario and Pennsylvania]. We tasted one red Burgundy with comparable age from Auxey Duresses which is a lesser known and lesser regarded region among 100 point fiends. The Burg blew the Willamette wines off the chart. This is not to say the Oregon wines were not good. They were wonderful.

Let us delay no further. There is reporting to be completed. But there is more. We opened the Burg with a Chablis at the same time. They fit like Kerry and Hagel [ed. they like each other?]. Kismet in a glass.

wahle08WEB2008 Wahle Vineyards and Cellars Holmes Hill Pinot Noir $30 (in 2010). Lovely, masculine, middle weight, refined not delicate. Dark red color. Great nose. Definitely New World. Bought this at the 2010 Portland Indie Wine Fest – once the finest wine festival on the West Coast. Dotoré picked this out from many candidates. In its middle age with plenty of youthful spirit [ed. like Dotoré]. Too friendly to be brooding although there is definitely some weight here. We stole much inspiration from this excellent site. Words you will never read on tBoW that you will read, apparently, on the Pinot File: “Upon returning to Oregon he discovered that his family transition plan had stalled and this was a life-changing event for him.” Something you will read on the tBoW site: Cellartracker rates this wine 88.5 points. Dopes! If this isn’t moronic… This is a 100 point wine for at least a dozen reasons. Oh. You want me to list them? 1. The wine is well made. 2. It has finesse. 3. It isn’t Cabernet. 4. Wahle is a physician who it looks like never practiced. The only MD who went to med school so he could make wine when he got out. 13.6%

couer-08WEB2008 Coeur de Terre Vineyard Estate McMinnville Willamette Valley Pinot Noir $30: The premium bottle from the “premium” vintage. Another Indie Wine Fest purchase. Understand we tasted dozens of Willamette wines. This and the Wahle wines are not from what we would come to understand is ideal premium wine country in Willamette. That would be Ribbon Ridge. Whatever. This wine is six years in the bottle. The nose is not full of oak. Smells like teen Pinot. The flavors are smooooth and black cherry. mainly, the weight and balance complement. You want firm and full Willamette Pinot Noir made with careful restraint, this is it. 13.8%

auxey09WEB2009 Auxey-Duresses Moulin Aux Clos Moines Monopole $36: Same price point for the Oregon wines. This is stunning Pinot Noir. For the rest of us schlubs who have never ever tasted DRC RC this has to be as good as. The balance is pinpoint delicado. Neither fruity nor forest floor. Fazzinating. Red cherries with a kick of kirsch. Showing the range of Pinot from Burgundy. And this is a less glam community. The Pinot fruit is so Old World I grew callouses holding the glass. The producer is just another guy. Got this from EnoFineWine. I found the wine at a SoCal shop but I ain’t telling. Really should get more. Really. 13%

Here is something we challenge anyone to accomplish with New World Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, same meal, same evening.

chablis-picq-12WEB2012 Gilbert Pica Chablis En Vaudecorse $28 (EoFineWine): Just enough spine to complement the green pineappley fruit. Served it too warm and it was great. Chilled it down and it was super. Let it lose the chill again and… you know. Just delicious. Even Mrs. tBoW who is a die hard unapologetic New World kind of gal loved these wines back to back and mixed in. Red then white then red then white. What a donnybrook. Like Germany and Argentina in a friendly. Try and put a New World Chard next to a California Pinot Noir at the same time. You’re wincing! 13%

DO NOT WATCH THIS CLIP OF JAMES BROWN FREAKING THE FLAMES OUT WITH HIS MOVES. And recall… Mick Jagger had to follow him.

Golden Summer Evening with Goldun Fine Wines

just trying to earn a living

just trying to earn a living

Restaurants beg him to store his personal wines with them.

When he sniffs wine he pours it up his nose.

Jon Rimmerman asks him for travel tips.

Miles suggested they invent Barolo jazz.

He is.. the most interesting.. wine merchant in the world.

Eno Fine Wine is Steve Goldun’s new project. Goldun not only offers some of the best pricing we have seen for wines we A-D-O-R-E, he also loves to cook! If there is a better confluence of favors and flavors for an impromptu summer evening, we do not know one. Steve Goldun is 99% ready to go live with his online wine merchant site Eno Fine Wine. Even though it is not in our personal wine-snagging interest to publish what you are about to read, we are going to tell most of the truth regardless because we are reasonably confident only a handful of tBoW readers [ed. compared to the dozens of tBoW readers?]? will believe the hype. Here is the updown. (more…)

New Choices in LA: Coaches and Wines

time out! time out! TIME OUT!!!

time out! Time Out! TIME OUT!!!

Some folks hate to make new choices. They order wine like “I’ll have a Chardonnay” or “something red, please.”

The Athletic Directors for UCLA and USC recently made some big choices going all in with their new basketball coaches. Both went for value with important differences. Dan Guerrero of UCLA played the tradition card picking Steve Alford. Pat Haden showed a bit more moxie getting the Sweet 16 Cinderella coach Andy Enfield before he is priced out of SoCal. Coach Enfield barely gets more exposure than his wife Amanda Marcum the former “swimsuit model.” The next three years will feature Steve Alford versus Andy Enfield; two mid-career guys with different pedigrees and lots of history. (more…)

Izit summer yet?

Arianna Occhipinti works it!

With temps in the 80s, offshore winds and longer daysit is starting to feel like Dotoré’s favorite season. Fighting off the urge to nap we have time to hit you with some wine reviews. And the occasional observation.

What if Andrew Dice Clay reviewed wines?

The Underground Wine Letter is running a series on wine fraud. Phony DRC wines caught at auction. I saw a guy on Auction Hunters crying because he only got $55,000 for his Delorean “time machine.” It was a replica. So these wine frauds pay for empty bottles of premium Bordeaux and Burgundy. If you can get past the effete-iness it makes for interesting reading. Especially the entry where Tilson (UWL editor) goes through a multi-decade process solving a mystery about a case of very unusual 1928 St Emilion he bought at auction. (more…)

Chipmunks & Lasagna Chase Wine Thoroughbreds

ME..I WANT A HULA HOOP! Fortunately, Alvin did not help select the offerings of the day-long tBoW Open House. Dotoré and REL were first to arrive and nearly last to leave eight hours later. tBoW team tasters filled the front lines as veterans retreated for fresh glasses. All indulged enthusiastically on Christmas lasagna and an endless loop of corny cool Christmas music that competed for attention with what turned out to be a very nice wine lineup. The wines were especially intriguing because they included a couple of oldies (mid 90s), a pricey recent vintage white wine, and a slew of U20 bargains in white and red. I’ll tell you what – that was more than a party. It was a dang seminar. After all was poured and quaffed, the wines showed up the Chipmunks pretty well. The lasagna and butter cookies held their own. The next day we skipped the sales and headed for Santa Anita for more excitement!

2009 Dauvissat Chablis Vaillons Premier Cru
$50: First wine this day so it had to be good. With palates alive we found the wine to be even lovelier than hoped for. Baking soda nose. Butterscotch already there although muted. Should develop with a few more years. Wish we had a few more bottles of this. Truly lovely Chardonnay from a supposedly underwhelming vintage in Burgundy. Hnnh. Supposedly from 50 y.o. vines. Maybe that’s why it costs 50 bucks. 13%

1995 Elio Altare Barolo $70: Carried por mano from La Morra in 2001 by Dotoré. It was just the two of us when Doc Holliday’s “heir-ator” apparent bespoke “pop that cork.” 1995 was a tough vintage followed by two magnificently seductive ones. This wine was rough-hewn right out of the bottle. The deeply lined face of Tommy Lee Jones comes to mind, along with his intriguing charm. All the tar is there. We knew the bouquet would open with time and hoped it would be the tell-tale Barolo roses. 45 minutes later the fruit is beginning to show along with meaty aromas and flavors. The wine did not completely bloom to Piemonte roses but the informed few like PTT8Y and T3 Tootsie-The-Taster, kept coming back for more until it was all gone. Nice work Dotoré. 13.5%

2007 Scott Paul Le Paulee $30: We have linked the two wines because a naive taster noted “these two wines remind me of each other.” We love an innocently stated astitution.

tasters review panel

Barolo and Pinot Noir do share qualities and characteristics if not flavors. Usually takes awhile to get it…but not always. Screw top entry level from notable Carlton vintner Scott Paul Wright. 2007 got some negative early press that we now see was based on a misbegotten love affair with the over-ripe 2006 vintage. This wine is delightful and delicious. “Volnay, simply nice” says Dotoré in a good way. Forthright Pinot nose. No mistaking this grape. Not too ripe for which the 2007 vintage from the Willamette Valley is known and unfairly maligned. Really makes the case for the best domestic Pinot Noir coming out of Oregon’s Willamette Valley 40 minutes southwest of Portland. Nice effort. Could easily go another year if you see it anywhere near $25. But why wait? 13.1%

2010 Domaine St Antonin “Lou Cazalet” Faugéres
$15: Garagiste posts another winner! With the 2 Rieslings below this brings the G. record to 4-1-1. Much better. This is the Languedoc blend we know we prefer: Syrah, Grenache, maybe some Mourvedre. Big, rough, middleweight red. “Blowsy” declares the suddenly loquacious Dotoré. This wine held up for 90 minutes before it disappeared. Call me hope-ful but I think the November election will go the same way as this day’s tastes. The voters will go back for what they like and forget about what they don’t like. Uuhhh…the wine. Here is an example of high alcohol level balancing out with enough fruit, weight and general presentation so that the alcohol is integrated. A U20 super value. 15%

2007 Schlöss Lieser Lieser Niederberg Helden Riesling Spatlese $19: Show me the apples! Just fab. I thought we were past the white wines and came the call…Riesling? Where’s the Riesling? This is a G. [ed. G. is Garagiste, soon we will have O.G. for Original Garagiste] winner. Just yummy. Light on its feet as we might expect. Dances across the palate. Amazing that after several hours of reds with the Chablis long gone and a Vinho Verde upside down in the ice bucket (excellent $5 Espiral from Trader Joes) this wine would still be able to call attention to itself. 2012 will be a Riesling year. 8.5%

2007 Reichsrat Von Buhl Armand Riesling Kabinett $13: Mouthful of tangy zesty lychee fruit. Kris-B thinks the wine is a bit simple. We got a whollop of tangerines on the finish after another 15 minutes in the glass and are happy Kris-B suggested we grab it. It is from the Pfalz which is a region a Mösel snob would eschew but this proves how biasing auto-preference can be. What’s not to like? A G. and a U20 winner. 9%

1994 Ferreira Port $87: We started the day in the mid 90s and finished there. Ask and ye shall receive a bookend finish on Christmas Day. These are good years to be opening the finest vintage since 1977. These wines are just perfect and still on the upward arc. This is ready to be enjoyed right now. Solid fruit with next to zero tannins showing. Up-and-coming team taster X captures the flavors: “chewy dried mango fruit.” Perfectly balanced. Complemented the cakes and cookies like the 4th horse in the 4th race. Another winner down the stretch. 20%

Sorry to blog and bolt but another year is already here and it is going to require our full attention. Happy New Year. We leave you with the last of the Krisses Mösel tour images, the Zeltinger Sonnenuhr vineyard.