This final release of April means 4 months have gone in another year. Holy smokes, time flies when you’re drinking wine. This week’s Vintages release is a cornucopia of diverse wines and styles. Three different options this week - The Pacific Northwest, Australian Whites, and lastly Roses from around the world. It’s a release that has a lot of promise. Most of it unfulfilled. Ah well.
WHITE TABLE WINE
LOIRE - CHÂTEAU DE
LA BRETESCHE MUSCADET SÈVRE ET MAINE SUR Lie
799 cases of 12 $13.95 – Melon de
Burgogne grape doing a great impression
of an unoaked, full fruit, bargain priced chard.
BURGUNDY - VIGNERONS DE BUXY LES CHANIOTS MONTAGNY 1ER CRU
2013 219 cases of 12 $24.95
BURGUNDY - VINCENT MOTHE CHABLIS 2014 249 cases
of 12 $26.95
RED TABLE WINE
WASHINGTON St - HOGUE Genesis
Meritage – Good, solid wine for the upcoming BBQ season. Black fruits
with oak in support. If you like the CC H3 red blend, this’ll be right for you too.
ARGENTINA - LAMADRID SINGLE VINEYARD RESERVA MALBEC 2012 2998 cases
of 12 $17.00 A good wine, not up to Suckling’s score but
probably 90. Great for the BBQ with marinated steak, burgers or rare lamb
chops.
AUSTRALIA - WAKEFIELD JARAMAN CABERNET SAUVIGNON 2013 380 cases
of 12 $24.95 – Wakefield is renowned for the QPR of their wines. This one goes
a little upscale but should be very nice.
Australia –
SIDEWOOD SHIRAZ 2013 -$19.95 – Festooned with plenty of gold and scored like
crazy by Halliday, this is a new Shiraz for me but I’ll be trying it. The
‘drink by 2043’ is pretty difficult to believe. I expect to be long gone by
then but so will Halliday, so how is anyone going to call him on it?
AUSTRALIA - MITOLO
JESTER CABERNET SAUVIGNON 2013 493 cases of 12 $22.95 – Good stuff this.
RHÔNE -LE GRAVILLAS PLAN DE DIEU CÔTES DU RHÔNE-VILLAGES
2014 598 cases of 12 $17.95 – As good as the
Domaine le Grand Retour from recent releases? This one is a year younger and 3
bucks more. I’d buy the latter if it’s still available.
TUSCANY - TENUTA DI CAPRAIA CHIANTI CLASSICO 2013 649 cases
of 12 $21.95 – Nice, fruit driven Chianti Classico – not a great year though.
Did I say it was cold and wet that May?
SPAIN - DOMINIO
DEL VIENTO CRIANZA 2011 712 cases of
12 $16.95 - Might be the better of the two Spanish
selections this week.
SPAIN - MARQUÉS DE CARRION PATA NEGRA RESERVA
2010 2991 cases of 12 $17.00 – Price is right but
only if this comes in like the Muriel 2008 Reserva of last year. If so, it
might be a box worthy purchase. However, two bottles of this were thin,
insipid, uninspired, oaky messes when bought and tried at two different times
by my brother and sister in law in B.C. The wine was released there recently
(for substantially more $, I might add) so I was looking forward to their
opinions. Their palates are finely tuned to the old world so for them to be so unimpressed,
it had to be less than mediocre. Here’s the lot number from their second bottle
– my public service announcement now comes to a close with two words – buyer
beware.
ARGENTINA - BODEGA SANTA JULIA VIDA ORGÁNICA MALBEC ROSÉ
2015 523 cases of 12$13.95
MIDI - L'OSTAL CAZES
ROSÉ 2015 447 cases of 12 $14.95
PROVENCE - GASSIER SABLES D'AZUR ROSÉ 2015 1199 cases
of 12$15.95
SPAIN - VIÑA REAL ROSADO 2015 794 cases
of 6 $15.95; MUGA from the previous
Catalogue -$13.95
BIG BUCKS and ISDs
ARGENTINA -TRAPICHE TERROIR SERIES FINCA AMBROSIA SINGLE
VINEYARD – An ISD so 49 cases of 6 at $39.95 – I love these single vineyard
productions from Trapiche. Impenetrably dark, unctuous fruit and a bottle made
for wrist curls or for bar fights.
NORMAN HARDIE UNFILTERED CHARDONNAY 2014 131 cases of 12 $39.00 – Perhaps not quite
so puckering as his PEC Chard, but very good nonetheless.
Tuscany-RENDOLA
BRUNELLO DI MONTALCINO 2004 300 cases
of 12 $39.95 – Want to know what your
2010’s will be like in 12 years? Try one of these. 2004 was almost as good a
vintage as 2010 so fear not.
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