WTN: Eurotrash...

Not these. From across the EC...

Whites:
Poggio dei Gorleri, Riviera del Fiori, Vermentino 'vigna Sori', 2006
From an appellation I've never heard of before, a pretty little vermentino with herbally lemon-oregano mint, medium bodied but with a slight touch of heat on the end. 13.5% B

Domaine du Closel, Savennieres, 'Clos du Papillion, 2002
Reports from another board made me want to investigate my small 3-bottle stash of these, and I am happy report that imminent deaths are grossly exagerated. There is life here, in all its profound walnut meat, salty lemon, and pear curd that wafts from the aromas. More of the same on the palate, with saline kaffir lime, walnut shell, cucumber peel and brass burls, in a slightly oxidixed skin but the acidity herein makes it all feel fresh. With air, some chalky minerals some through as well. Almost as good as it gets, but I would want to drink these earlier rather than later. 14.5% high B+

Peter Jakob Kuhn, Rheingau, Riesling, 'Graziosa', 2006
Gracious indeed! This is a light, etheral riesling bottled under screwcap, so it has no pretensions, but this is very nice. My first Kuhn wine and hopefully not my last (unless prices continue to climb). There's beautiful stuff in here: sunflower petals, an oyster shell wash, lemon mint, and a nice tension between delicateness and tensile stregth. If you can find this around $20 (retails a little higher), it is a Gary V 'no brainer'. A-

Muller Catoir, Gimmeldinger Schlossel, Rieslaner, Spatlese, 2001
medium Chartreuse (the yellow one) gold. Glass-filling aromatic nose of lime calcium zest. Granny Smith apple, lime meringue pie with an ever so-slight smokiness on the end. Also a melange of citrus, including ruby red grapefruit, sweet tangelo. Manages to taste fat and lithe at the same time. Excellent, and probably the best rieslaner I've yet tried (what? all 2 of them?). solid A-/A

Reds:
Domaine Raymond Quenard, Vin de Savoie, Mondeuse, 'Chignin', 2004
Feeling more alcoholic and medicinal in flavor than a previous bottle opened when it first came out. This tastes like old Beaujolais that has lost it's fruit. Drink up. Pity, because I adored this wine the first time. B-

Domaine Charvin, Chateauneuf-du-Pape, 2000
Typical, well made Chateauneuf here, entering a youthful maturity phase, but nothing here that would make me shell out over 50-bucks for. A-/B+

Domingos Alves de Sousa, Quinta da Gaivosa, Douro, 2000
Smoky cherries and carob bean on the nose. Smoky grilled cherries with a spicy, sweetish finsh, talcum powder.. Medium bodied and in a phase of early maturity right now. 14% This reminds me of a cross between new school Douro and old Pesquera. Well made and delicious. A-

Domaine Faurmarie, Coteaux du Languedoc, Gres du Montpellier, 'l'ecrit vin', 2004
What a jumble of words! Musky hawthorn fruit, fresh oregano/thyme, red fruits on the nose, shows again in the mouth, along with not quite ripe raspberry. Slightly flat tasting with a tad touch of alcohol, but tasted again - cooler - seems to have eliminated the heat. Not bad for the price (around mid-teens), but I wouldn't run out and stock up. B+

[James Roscoe]

I thought this was a post about Otto!

Not these. From across the EC...

Whites:
Poggio dei Gorleri, Riviera del Fiori, Vermentino 'vigna Sori', 2006
From an appellation I've never heard of before, a pretty little vermentino with herbally lemon-oregano mint, medium bodied but with a slight touch of heat on the end. 13.5% B

Thanks fot the nice notes, Mark. FYI, Riviera dei Fiori is the westernmost part of Liguria, from the French border and roughly to Alassio. I passed it by train a few weeks ago, but I can't say I've ever tasted any wine from that appellation.

Cheers, Anders

Slightly flat tasting with a tad touch of alcohol, but tasted again - cooler - seems to have eliminated the heat. B+

Good observation. I agree that slight cooling makes many heavy and high alcohol wines better balanced and more digestible.

I was impressed by the Quinta da Gaivosa 99 vintage but found that the wine began to bore me as the bottle progressed - see my note in the Douro OM. Nevertheless it was the best of the up-market Douros which I tasted at that time. Expensive, though, about € 45 for 2003.

Glad to hear that I do not need to be getting rid of my bottles of Closel's Clos du Papillon 02.

Nice notes.

Nice assortment.
I tend to like the better Ligurian whites. I like a couple of Pigatos, which may or may not be a clone of Vermentino according to who you ask.
Thanks for update on the Closel. Glad I didn't hear the reported demises.

Domaine Raymond Quenard, Vin de Savoie, Mondeuse, 'Chignin', 2004
Feeling more alcoholic and medicinal in flavor than a previous bottle opened when it first came out. This tastes like old Beaujolais that has lost it's fruit. Drink up. Pity, because I adored this wine the first time. B-

I love the description - the alcohol that was showing through due to the lack of fruit would have been 12% maximum (and probably at least 1.5% of that was from chaptalization as is usual with Mondeuse every year). In general 2004 was a very tricky year for reds in Savoie, with a very tricky grape that almost never achieves more than 11% and has a tendency to hard tannins, which came out for you on this bottle - such a pity, when Mondeuse is ripe and handled well, it can produce amazing flavours and can last certainly longer than this.

The other thing to note is that Raymond Quenard is pretty much retired - I was amazed to see an 04 went across the ocean. His son Pascal is doing a fantastic job with some of father's vines and some of his own in a separate domaine with his wife Annick.

Note, that there are now at least 6 domaines with the name Quenard bottling under their own name in the one village of Chignin!

I was impressed by the Quinta da Gaivosa 99 vintage but found that the wine began to bore me as the bottle progressed - see my note in the Douro OM. Nevertheless it was the best of the up-market Douros which I tasted at that time. Expensive, though, about € 45 for 2003.

Tim, thank you for your comments. For 45 E I would not buy the Gaivosa, but for $30US on sale, it was a good deal and price, and perhaps I didn't get bored with it since I had it over 3 days (wife hardly drinks and I only seem to be able to polish off a full bottle if it's red Burgundy ).

Best,

Mark