Alanera Nero D'Avola 2008, Sicily

Your long lost wine reviewer is back! I decided today that I had neglected our (imaginary?) readers enough and, despite wanting a beer when I got home, I opened a bottle of wine. what commitment! Perhaps drinking wine when I wanted a beer is a greater sacrifice than finding the time to write an entry more often than I do? Of course not. Let's face it: I drink wine almost every night and it's been over a month since I've written about one here. Well, no more apologies or promises. I won't even complain about the plastic fake cork that sealed this wine (see how I snuck that in there?).

Let me start by saying I have no idea why Nero D'Avola is not a greater force in the US wine market. These wines often deliver the big fruit that many Americans crave while remaining food friendly and are generally very reasonably priced. Nero D'Avola is the grape variety and the wines are generally from Sicily, though the variety does pop up by itself and in blends in other parts of Southern Italy.

This wine is distributed by Devenish and can be found for about $13 at retail. It is showing bold, plummy fruit on the nose with a little peppery spice and dirt. I'm also picking up a hint of barnyard. Some of the fruit is a bit muddled and stewed, but there is some fairly fresh black cherry accenting the plum. It's also showing a bit of a perfumy, incensy character. On the palate this is fairly bold (medium plus intensity). It starts off just like the nose, but that leads into a midpalate of fresher, more focused fruit flavors which highlight red and black cherries as well as the plum. The finish (medium length) is quite balanced and almost elegant (certainly elegant compared to the attack). I really like the midpalate and finish of this wine as they show more balance and focus than the attack or nose did (not that the attack or nose are an unbalanced mess; they're nice, too). Picking the wine apart like this, I have unfairly failed to mention that it is downright delicious. It's not thought provoking, but I've finished a small glass just writing this review. I would say the wine is good, bordering on very good, but doesn't quite have the complexity for me to say very good. That equals 84+ points in my book, making this a definite buy. I think this wine shows how Nero D'Avola can appeal to those who like fruity New World wines as well as those who like earthy Old World wines. If you're not drinking Nero D'Avola and you like red wine I think you're making a huge mistake. Get out there and try some.

Laurent Miquel Père et Fils Syrah Grenache 2008

Hi, again, I know it's not really soon, but I am here to write about a locally available wine, as promised. I will also embark on another quick rant at the end, but I promise to be brief this time and I will save it for the end in hopes that people will at least read the wine review as you don't have to wade through complaints about which you do not care. The wine in front of me is the Laurent Miquel 2008 Syrah Grenache. It's got the words "Père et Fils" on it, which I see all the time on French labels, but for which I never bothered to find a definition. I just looked it up and found that it translates to something along the lines of "father and son". Now I know. The region here is Vin de Pays d'Oc, so, again, we're probably talking Languedoc (France) here, though it could technically include fruit from Roussillon. I am sorry for you and the wine that I was drinking coffee earlier, because it certainly impairs my palate somewhat, but I think I can adequately evaluate the wine anyway. At least I don't smoke cigarettes. (Side note, I found it funny in the movie Mondovino [which, side side note, was a great movie if you're a bit of a wine nerd or if you just want a very opinionated look at artisanal winemaking versus making "globalized" or "international" styles of wine which has a lot of footage of people's nice dogs], seeing the super expensive winemaking consultant, Michel Rolland, seem to chain smoke cigarettes when most of his job is to taste wines and give advice based on his evaluations.) So, digression over -- here's my take on the wine:
$10, distributed by DaVine Wine
Nose: jammy blackberry with hints of red berries and a bit of nail polish remover (it's a touch more than I'd like, but it's not enough for me not to drink the wine), along with a little peppery spice. This smells like it's a warm climate wine because of the jamminess, but the intensity is medium and I don't smell heat from the alcohol. The palate is pretty similar, but the red berry fruit is more defined (still more dark fruit than red here), as is the black pepper, which is still not too overwhelming, as it sometimes can be for me. Intensity here is also medium, with medium to medium plus body. On the finish, the fruit fades faster than the pepper. The nail polish remover element (ethyl acetate) is a bit more pronounced than I'd like on the midpalate, but I don't notice it in the beginning or end. The finish is medium minus and quite peppery. Overall, this is a simple wine with a minor flaw and minor imbalance. As a result, right now I'm saying it's near the cusp of acceptable to good, but into the good territory. The ethyl acetate does become more apparent with air, but it's hardly noticeable upon popping and pouring. Keep in mind that my number scores are literal as the poor/acceptable/good/very good/outstanding scale goes, and thus seem lower than those of many professional critics. I'll give this an 81+. To be fair, if you like really fruity wines, you'll like this more than I do. At $10, I'd still say it's a solid value if you like wines like this or wines from this area.

Now the biggest problem I have with this wine: it comes sealed with one of those rubbery plastic fake "corks". I've complained about these before, so I'll stop there.

Muscadet and Proposed Legislation

So, this is about a wine I recently got really excited about. I drank the wine last night, so please understand that I will do my best to describe it based on my recollection. The wine's aromas and flavors are fairly fresh in my mind because I was so excited about it. This is not the best or most complex wine, but I put it right at the top of very good, bordering on outstanding, and I think it's relevant that I review it here now. The reason is that this is another wine that is not available in Maine. I'm sure you might be asking yourself why I am bothering to review another wine that's tough to get your hands on. If you've read my other entries, you might now be worried about another tiresome, inappropriate political rant. Well, I do have political motives, but I'll try to be fair to those involved and not throw around accusations that are not true this time. I also really want to tell you about this wine, which is the best Muscadet I've ever had. Muscadet is a wine from near the mouth of the Loire river in France. The grape variety is called Melon de Bourgogne. These wines are generally fresh and light, with mineral driven flavors and something reminiscent of sea air. If you open up whatever wine resource you might have, you'll probably see these talked about as wines that should be drunk as young as possible; certainly nothing to throw in your cellar and age. Relatively recently in the long history of this wine region, a small number of growers have realized that if they drastically reduce what are normally very high yields and set out to make serious, rather than rather neutral quaffing, wine, they end up with something that is, indeed ageworthy and complex. I have been intrigued for some time as I have read about these wines but not, until last night, had the opportunity to try one. What's neat is that this wine has already been aged, though I suspect it will continue to improve for the next 5 years or so. The vintage of this wine, in case you couldn't make it out in the picture, is 1997. It is rare to find a well aged wine at retail in general, and almost unheard of to get a wine over 12 years old for under $20. That's what my New Hampshire resident friends (not me, of course; I live in Maine) were able to do, though, by mail ordering this wine. Okay, with tax and shipping it probably came to more like $25 a bottle, but I still consider that one of the best values I've seen for wine.

Before I get into a tasting note, I will say that my reason for writing, besides my excitement over the wine itself, is that there is a bill in the House of Representatives right now, H.R. 5034, that is going to make it very easy for states to pass laws that unconstitutionally prohibit interstate commerce, namely the interstate sales of wine. This bill would make it very difficult for a citizen to challenge the constitutionality of such laws, which is the main way they have been challenged in places like Massachusetts. I will try not to get too political here, but in short, I am for the Constitution and its enforcement, and I am for the right to buy wines not represented by wholesalers in Maine. I cannot buy from retailers in other states, but I now can buy from small producers who do not have representation in our market. I love having this right and applaud the lawmakers involved in recently granting it to citizens of Maine. Allowing states to stop such practices (many will due to the power of liquor wholesale lobbies in all states and on a national level) by writing laws that violate the Constitution would be a great injustice. It could also put a lot of small, quality minded producers whose only way of staying afloat is to sell directly to their small, dedicated customer base throughout the country. I implore anyone who shares my views in this matter to write their House representative and urge that person to vote against this bill. Here are a couple of websites where you can find out a bit more:
Decanter article
Facebook page
actual bill text
Wilson Act (bill would change)
If you do some searching you'll find much more.

So, if you're still with me and you haven't forgotten that this is a wine blog rather than a political one, here's my take on the wine:

1997 Pierre Luneau-Papin Muscadet Sevre & Maine Sur Lie Cuvee Medaillee (not available in Maine, was about $19)

At first, this wine smelled a bit funky. It had a dusty, musty aroma (not cork taint) masking some of the orange and peach that was still coming through. After a few minutes, the mustiness had blown off, revealing layered aromas of stony minerality, orange, peach, and hints of a saline quality and petroleum jelly (sounds weird, but it was interesting and smelled very good). On the palate, this wine was delicious. It was very similar to the nose. It had great finesse and freshness, and that mustiness that blew off was subtly showing itself as a sort of dusty, earthy flavor that was mingling beautifully with the core of fresh fruits. If I hadn't known better, I would assume this was a much younger wine, maybe 4-5 years from vintage. I only might think it was even that old because of the petrol element, but really some wines will show that in their youth, and the freshness of the fruit (fruit elements tend to start tasting dried out or stewed as wines age) would have me thinking this had been bottled within the past year or two. At close to 13 years, I've rarely experienced a white wine with this kind of freshness of fruit, and I've only seen it before in Riesling. Even the Chenin Blancs I've had with similar age have seemed more mature than this wine did (not in a bad way, but it was evident). Considering that those are some of the longest lived dry whites, and Muscadet is generally seen as one of the shortest lived, this is really interesting. It didn't quite have the complexity or progression of flavor for me to call it outstanding, but it is as high as very good goes for me. 89+ points.

If you're sick of reading about wines that aren't available here, or if you don't care and think it's still interesting, let me know by leaving comments. If you're in the former category, send me an email (missatiejacket@yahoo.com) and I will come to your place and open something not locally available that I think will show you why I do care so much about such wines. I will review a wine that is available in this area soon. I promise.

Puydeval 2008 Rouge

Hi, folks! I'm still alive and my computer still works, regardless of what the inactivity here might have led you to suppose. I am here with an open bottle of the 2008 Puydeval, which is a blend of 60% Cabernet Franc, 28% Syrah, and 12% Merlot. The wine has been sealed with the dreaded plastic "cork", which I detest. These closures have been shown to leach flavor components out of the wine, though it hasn't (to my knowledge) been studied to what extent that effect might be noticeable. What really bothers me about this closure is that it does not reliably last more than about 2 years, if even that long. I once got a great deal on a case of wine with these closures that had been in bottle maybe a year or year and a half and was drinking fine. The last few bottles I got to were all oxidized, but all showed different levels of oxidation. Some were kind of drinkable (if you've already opened a few bottles, who cares?) and some went straight down the drain. The wine itself should not have been that bad yet. sad.

Back to the wine at hand: it's labeled as a "Vin De Pays D'Oc", which tells me it can contain grapes from anywhere in the Languedoc or Roussillon areas in Southern France, more likely Languedoc. It's distributed by National and is probably about $14 retail if I remember correctly. This wine is purple and almost completely opaque, except at the rim. It has a big nose of licorice, a jammy melee of somewhat indiscernible fruits, both red and black, but mostly black (my palate might not be at the top of its game today, but I didn't want to neglect the blog any longer), black pepper, a bit of graphite, and a bit of a floral character. I am able to pick out some blackcurrant in the fruit character, which is not as jammy as some but not really smelling like fresh fruit either. There's also a hint of alcohol and just a hint of paint thinner (ethyl acetate), which I usually consider a flaw right away, but it's very faint here and I can deal with it, along with a little cedar.

The wine's body is probably medium plus, as is the flavor intensity. The palate is a bit hot (alcohol coming through), but overall fairly pleasant. I notice a lot of blackberry and blackcurrant, along with that peppery spice and those hints of purple flowers and cedar. There might even be a barely perceptible (to me, but I think my recognition threshold is below average) amount of residual sugar here, which brings out the fruit more. Don't get me wrong; this is still a dry wine. The fruit here is fresher than it was on the nose (not as jammy), though this is clearly not a cool climate wine, which would generally have more definition of flavor and less heat from the alcohol. There is a bit of tannin, which is fine grained and enjoyable. I could see this going well with roasted meats or some kind of game. The finish is about medium, which is fine. If the nose were as good as the palate, I could get more excited about this wine. Frankly, I've not been drinking a lot of "New World" styled wines lately (I know it's France, but the Languedoc wines often taste more New World to me), and they're not generally my preference, so I might be being a bit hard on this wine. Every time I go back to it, though, the nose is kind of weird and the palate is really nice. Overall, I'd give this 84 points (good, almost very good) and say if you like this style it's probably right up your alley and priced fairly. EDIT: Later in the evening this wine started smelling really stewed, like I was cooking with wine. The flavor did not degrade nearly as much, but it did start tasting just a little more like my initial impression of the aroma. I would have to say, after the whole experience, that this is more of an 82+ point (good) wine for me. If it had shown as it did later from the start, I'd really be trashing it. Too bad. I think this is a great illustration of how unfair it can be to a wine and to a readership to make such snap judgments as we often do. A wine can easily change this much for better or for worse with a couple hours' aeration. I strongly believe that this shows how flawed a system of wine scoring and the power the professional critics' scores are. I have also noticed what a significant difference as little as six months more in the bottle can have on a wine, which again illustrates the same point. I will continue to use scoring as I am a hypocrite, but I would encourage people to pay more attention to the poor/acceptable/good/very good/outstanding scale than the actural number, and to always remember that we all taste things a bit differently and we can have vastly different preferences in taste. I was fortunate enough to buy this when Hannaford had it marked down after its time in the Limited Reserve bins, which is something to look for if you live near a Hannaford that has a bunch of those.

Thank you so much for checking back here despite so many weeks of nothing. I appreciate more than you probably realize that you would take the time to do so.

Harlaftis Winery Athanassiadi, Nemea, Greece 2007

Hi, again. I sit in front of my computer once again with an open bottle of wine in front of me. This wine might interest some people (me included) because it is Greek. With the LONG history of winemaking in Greece it might seem surprising what a small portion of the US market its wines control. I believe we will be seeing more and more Greek wine as their general quality continues to rise with the help of more winemaking experience and better technology. This wine is from the Nemea region and I was told that it is made from 100% Agiorgitika grapes and sees no oak. Here are my initial impressions (the picture shows the wrong vintage):

Harlaftis Winery Athanassiadi, Nemea, Greece, 2007, 100% Agiorgitika, about $11 retail, distibuted in this area by So Po Wine Co
dark ruby with watery rim
nose: medium- intensity of juicy, almost candied red fruit (sweet red cherry, raspberry) and just a hint of peppery spice and green pepper
palate: quite like the nose. The fruit manages to stay fresh enough (not candied) that I enjoy it. The nose had me a little worried that the wine would taste "fake", but it doesn't. The lack of oak treatment is, I think, allowing the fruit to take the forefront, and the hints of spice and green pepper that I got on the nose remain just hints on the palate.
The wine has medium- body, acid, tannins, and length. It doesn't really change much during the palate and is a bit one dimensional, but that dimension is tasting good. I would call it good, probably 83 points for my palate, and considering that it comes from a category not hugely represented in our market, I think it is a reasonable value. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to try something new or anyone who knows they like this style of wine.

I would like to thank everyone who has made it this far for reading our posts. If you are reading, please leave us comments. We would love your feedback, including any suggestions or requests you might have.

2006 Barone Cornacchia Montepulciano d'Abruzzo

Hi, again, folks. I'm running the risk of alienating those who check this blog solely for Galen's posts by writing my second in one day. Don't worry; I'm in a better mood now (I'm drinking wine). I am willing to take this risk because I am hoping my presence will encourage (or shame) Galen into continuing with this, his, blog. I understand that people wonder where to get these wines about which we write. I agree with the sentiment of not promoting any single retailer. I do think maybe it will help people to know who distributes the wines in this area. If you have a favorite wine shop you can ask them to special order you a bottle of the wine. That should be easy for them provided you can tell them which distributor to ask and that the shop buys from that distributor. If they don't buy from that distributor, you should be able to find someone who does. Now, on to the wine.

2006 Barone Cornacchia Montepulciano d'Abruzzo, about $15 retail, distributed by Easterly Wine
opaque ruby with lighter ruby rim
medium intensity (nose and palate), body, acid, and length; medium-, fine tannins
The nose shows some game and oak (comes across as smoke, toast, and plain old oak staves) with overtones of dark plum, red cherry, graphite, and dust.
The palate starts out a lot like the nose, but gives way to a fairly explosive midpalate with a lot more fruit dominance. The components are similar, and everything is still there, but the dominant flavors change. The finish is more like the attack. I also get a little raspberry and maybe some other dark berry fruit. Some coffee also emerges from the midpalate to the finish. The flavors are nicely balanced and I like the combination of earthy tones and fruit. As the fruit drops out on the finish, I am left with a slightly awkward bitterness that's costing this wine a point or two. The gaminess might be a little weird to those not familiar with that element, but this wine would go gorgeously with a variety of meats and would, with such a pairing, be pleasant even to such people. Personally, I think it's quite nice on its own and is delivering very good quality for the price and category. Heck, this is very good quality in general. If you like the reds of central and southern italy, this wine is for you. If you're not familiar with the montepulciano grape, this would be a good start. 86 points

If there are regions or varieties whose wines you want us to write about, please let us know by leaving comments. Thank you for returning after we let this endeavor go for so long.

Copain and a quick rant

Sorry to anyone who cares that we've let this blog die while still an infant. I just stumbled upon it (yes, I had pretty much forgotten) and decided to look through my notes for a decent tasting note to post. This wine is not available in Maine (sorry ... the original idea was to review wines people can find, but I think it's okay since we haven't been doing that anyway), but I'm a big fan of Copain since the '06 vintage. They still won't ship to Maine because our stupid legislators can't properly create a law enabling small producers not distributed in this state to do so. These legislators claim that the new law is great and does allow such activity, but if someone as small as Copain spent the time and money necessary to do so legally, they'd probably be losing money shipping wine to Maine. The last thing I'll say, now that I feel better after having unfairly generalized about an entire group of people, some of whom might even know how to craft good laws, is that this note is from my pocket notebook and will not have the detail as others here. Edit: I am leaving the original text in here so you can laugh at my foolishness, but here's an update regarding Copain. With their next release, they will be able to ship to Maine. I guess they decided it would be profitable after all. Great news for us. If you like wines made in the style I describe here, I highly suggest getting on their mailing list. If you're not sure, I believe you can order the Tous Ensemble series (not single vineyard, but still very good wines) without being on their mailing list. So for now, for this blog, the score is State of Maine:1 -- Doug:-1 (I subtracted a point for being so rude). I hear Maine will even take back the rule about minors not seeing any wine tasting going on. Now maybe they can learn not to create these problems in the first place. I promise to post something better soon. If I fail to do so I encourage people to comment, blasting me as ruthlessly and unfairly as I have just blasted certain lawmakers (don't even get me started on the idiot from Freeport who thinks kids shouldn't see any wine tasting going on). I leave it to Galen to censor me if he sees fit.

2006 Copain Alder Springs "Spirit Rock" Syrah, Mendocino (picture shows wrong vintage)-- not available in Maine, but about $40-$45 on release, if I remember correctly - tasted 12/25/09
opaque purple with ruby, watery rim
The nose and palate of this wine are quite similar. I got blackberry juice, white pepper, green pepper (slight enough to be charming rather than off putting), other savory spices, underripe plum, and black cherry. When I delved further I noticed a little lavender. The length was medium- and the flavor and aromatic intensities were medium+. The wine was very pretty and quite fresh for CA Syrah. This was right on the border for me of very good and outstanding. I scored it 90 points, but I would have gone higher if the finish had held on a bit longer. These wines are built to age and I suspect that element might flesh out a bit over the next few years.

For those who aren't familiar with Copain, Wells Guthrie (cofounder and vigneron) has, since the '06 vintage been focused on sourcing fruit from the coolest sites in CA (mostly Anderson Valley and the rest of Mendocino) in order to create wines of balance and significant acidity (sorry I didn't note the acid in this wine) that will age well. I can't comment on ageability, but in my opinion he is certainly accomplishing the rest of his goal, and the balance and acidity make them great food wines. The pinot noirs are quite elegant and this syrah was extremely well balanced. The wines I've had so far are almost Old World in structure (the pinots are Old World in structure) and yet distinctly Californian in flavor profile. If this style interests you, I suggest trying his Tous Ensemble wines. They're his entry level line (the only ones blended from multiple vineyards) and great values. The '07 Tous Ensemble Pinot Noir is killer and currently being discounted in a couple of places. You can find the wines in Massachusetts if you go there ever, or I would suggest (if I advocated such things, which I do not) ordering directly from www.copainwines.com and having the wine shipped to a friend or relative in New Hampshire. Let NH have the excise tax since Maine doesn't seem to want it (or don't -- I'm not saying this is the right thing to do and am obviously against the illegal practice of transporting alcohol across state lines ... in fact, I have no idea how I acquired the bottle I just reviewed).