The Official Wine Thread - Page 825

Also, certain styles of composite cork cause every bottle to have a low level of TCA. And there are definitely multiple sources of TCA.

Really enjoying this.

Not been giving this thread enough effort lately. Picked up yesterday:

Left: Quite good, lots of berries/cherry. A little too acidic though.
Right: Too much tannins. Otherwise decent.
Both very young - too young, I guess.

If you don't know Marcillac, try it out. It's actually pretty similar to bordeaux imo - just much less popular.

^ Fer servadou? I've only tried the varietal once or twice (and can't remember exactly what label I tried), but I like it.

Actually I don't know. Might look it up later in the interwebz if I find it. Until now I somehow thought the grape was called Marcillac, too. D'oh. At least one of them is a cuvée, so not just fer servadou - if any. Still, pretty similar to Bordeaux' taste.

Its a shitty grape. No offense - I'm sure there are some people in southwest France (its home) who manage to make a decent wine from old vines, but there isnt much to recommend it as a varietal. I made some last fall that ripened to a whopping 15 brix. The must was so weak that I joked that Jesus made water into wine and so did we.



Tonight I opened one of my coveted bottles of Lioco Hirsch Vineyard Pinot Noir - the 2009. Really nice stuff if Sonoma Coast Pinot is your thing. Light and tart with cherry & pomegranate fruit and some nice tea, orange peel, and damp evergreen forest aromas. Very solid.

Last night was a 2006 Lioco Michaud Vineyard Chardonnay (Chalone AVA - Monterey County.) These are very nice, lots of lemon, minerals, and acid.

Also picked up two bottles of Ken Wright Pinot - the 2009 Willamette Valley. Looking forward to trying them.3

Today I had a '10 Justin Viognier and an 09 Elyse l'Ingenue Naggiar Vineyard. It's a very tasty white Rhone blend of Roussanne, Marsanne, Viognier and Grenache Blanc

2008 Barao de Vilar Proeza (Douro). Really quite nice for the price (<$15). A wine retailer near my place does a large wine-by-the-glass tasting station and retail. They only had this one on the BTG station and weren't selling it by the bottle just yet. I convinced the owner to sell me a bottle.

I don't know much of anything about Douro, but I really like this as a daily drinker.

^^I appreciate Douro for the fact that it's a DOC with so many grapes native to the region. It really is unique. And most come to age quite quickly. I've enjoyed most everything I've had made with Touriga Nacional.

Doing a little research, this one is from Touriga Franca, Tinta Roriz, Tinto Cão & Tinta Barroca and has about 13% alcohol.

This was the other night. A very nice muscadet from Jo Landron / Domaine de la Louvetrie selection Hermione d'Or.
Great value for ~$15 with all the acidity and minerality you'd expect from a good muscadet. We roasted a whole arctic char and the wine was a fine match.

Okay guys, I come in search of recommendations. I'm looking for a birthday bottle to treat myself as I hit the quarter century mark. My budget is about $40-60 because I'm a winery intern. Basically I want to make it around to having had at least one excellent bottle from each major wine region. So in this case, the Rhone and New World pinot are out. I had been thinking about Rioja and Piedmonte, but I'm afraid I won't be able to afford a good barolo or barbaresco thats ready to drink. So lay it on me!

Produttori di Barbaresco should have plenty of offerings in that price range that are drinking fairly well young.