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April 17, 2007

04 Chateau de la Dimerie, Muscadet de Sevre et Maine sur Lie

This wine is a broken watch--time stuck inside as the world ticks on without it. Oh, I can be so cheesy. And that would normally just be a lame metaphor, were there not some truth to it. This review takes place 24 hours after pouring the wine in my glass--a point at which most wines would have at least begun to turn. But this powerful, stubborn white stayed put through the night. A half-glass full I was ready to toss stopped me in my tracks today. It is exactly as it was when first poured yesterday. A strict, herbal, slightly pungent wine. Subdued, as so many Loire whites, by its stony terroir, it gives us what it can with flavors of ripe golden apples, pear, dry sage honey, pressed grass (yeah, that's right), nectarines, and tangerines. It sounds like a lot, but it isn't. There are no layers to this wine. It's all there, in every sip (even the next day), buried beneath an intoxicatingly terroiriste salinity and waxy mouthfeel that once again show many Loire whites are "Loire" through and through--long before they're muscadet, sauvignon blanc, chenin blanc, or any other varietal. And while other wines and winemakers evolve almost by Moore's Law today, I rather picture Dimerie's muscadet camped beneath a tree eating Chavignol and charcuterie. I, with my shoes off, would join it--my watch floating in the river behind us.

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April 14, 2007

04 Clos la Coutale, Cahors

A squirrel lived here once. Not in Cahors, but in this bottle. A squirrel wearing a leather jacket. Why a squirrel? I don't know--because there's something fidgety about this wine, something quick, lean, and gamey. The 80% malbec--far better than its cousins from South America--
is wild in that way, a damp soil midden full of bitter chocolate, flint, fall leaves, and campfire embers. All of which could lead to a delightful, but purely academic wine, were it not for the 20% merlot, which powers through with fresh, ripe blueberries. This wine might be all about the malbec, but I really just see that as a seasoning--an old, dusty cabinet of savory spices--for the fruit. It's rare to find a wine so terroir-driven, yet so approachable at the same time. It's crawling inside me.

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April 12, 2007

NV Aveleda, Vinho Verde

This tastes like Slice--a pallid metaphor for lemon and lime that would pair fittingly with cocktail shrimp or canned salad nicoise. Slightly fizzy, slightly flabby, slightly dull, and completely satisfying on a warm day. A reason to mow the lawn. Or move to Miami. Glasses optional. Sleeveless tees required.

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April 04, 2007

04 Celler Can Blau, Montsant

Straddling Priorato like fresh legs around an untamed horse, the innocence of Can Blau's Montsant is what makes it so good. You expect it to fall off, but then it locks in its heels. A depth-charge of fresh blueberries, muddled raspberries, and chalky mineral, the fruit explodes, as if atomized through a cloud of eraser dust. There's syrah down there. Deep. And it bleeds slowly over an hour, adding the weedy aroma of wildflowers and espresso-burnt fennel, damp from its Mediterranean climate on the right elbow of Spain. That secret weapon also adds a profound silkiness, jammy and tannic without being tight--a wholesome elegance that calms the lusty garnacha grape.

5 Comments:

Blogger Drew said...

grr, meant to be "good one"

8:35 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Funny, I was thinking about this wine this morning...

8:10 AM  
Blogger 750 mL said...

You were thinking about a wine at 7:30? Oh, we're so different, yet so much the same.

8:39 AM  
Blogger Drew said...

you're both weak. I sleep with a bottle under my pillow.

:)

12:18 PM  
Blogger 750 mL said...

It is my pillow.

12:24 PM  

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