TN: Some-or-a

Foradori, Vigneti delle Dolomiti, ‘Morei’, 2011
Teroldego. Typical blackish-purple-red color. Such a sour wine! Sour plums and unripe blackberries with a healthy wallop of acidity. Simply no nuance: it’s all about the sour juice, like drinking an unsweetened Ribena. Ridiculous nearly 2 pound bottle that Greens may want to take note of and avoid and not a bargain for $40-50. Becoming less a fan of these Hapsburg red grapes the more I drink them.

Guigal, Saint Joseph (blanc), ‘Lieu Dit’, 2012
Don’t know why Guigal needs to put ‘lieu dit’ on the label while simultaneously not telling us which one? This a medium deep gold with paraffin on nose and a rich stew of butter, boiled peanut, and lemon-thyme honeycomb wax on the palate. There’s that rich, dull, unctuous quality on the end that many white Rhones have and a little bit of alcohol warmth as well. [93% marsanne/7% rousanne]

Ver Sacrum, Marsanne, Uco Valley, ‘Geisha de Jade’, 2018
Has a back label that I am surprised passed BATF standards, with several nude women floating about on it. A quiet nose, but has the buttered boiled peanut and a slight floral element that denotes marsanne to me. Nice, if a little neutral, but a nice surprise from Argentina that should catch a nice audience. 13%

Felsina, Chianti Classico Riserva, Rancia’, 2004
Deep and dark aromas of black fruits with a little menthol. A big wine, despite the 13.5% alcohol, full of loganberry and blueberry and menthol and a white balsamic volatile note on the end after some time. Strong acidity and melded tannins. Good, but I feel more impressed than I enjoy it.

Biondi, Etna, ‘San Nicolo’, 2016
Lightish cherry-strawberry red color. Faded aromas of old hawthorn fruit, crabapple and dried raspberry. Austere and mineral…dare I say ‘volcanic’? At the moment this is a bit thin; am unclear whether this will fan out or if this is as good as it gets.

Pierre Boisson, Meursault, 2011
Light apple and pear, with oak spice on the nose and palate. Medium acidity and a light gingered ending. Very good, yet despite feeling youthful, doubt it will improve much. Still very nice for a simple village chardonnay.

Domaine Rossignol-Trapet, Gevrey Chambertin, ‘Les Corbeaux’, 2008
13% Only the very faint sense of forest floor and faded fruit, with light cherry and slight field mint. Good, if a bit one note. Ready now and I suspect could hold for another 2-3 years but would probably want to drink it before then.

Donnhoff, Norheimer Kirschheck, Riesling-spatlese, 2004
Slightly heavy oily nose. A bit one note with diesel and apple-seed. Good, but not great. What do we expect from our 15 year old wines?

Don’t lose faith in Teroldego.It’s not the world’s best grape, but done well it can be delicious, and as you, I don’t think the 2011 Morei is Teroldego done well. The bottle is an abomination.

Thanks for posting honest notes that help avoid wines. So much of what one reads is laudatory you might think there are no more ordinary wines out there!

Felsina often leaves me that way.

Really useful notes. Thanks for posting

I believe the name of the lieu-dit is Saint Joseph and the appellation got its name from this vineyard/parcel back in the day.

Do you mean that because it is only a village wine an even better performance should not be expected or that while what is in the bottle comes of as simple it still manages to be quite nice? I am just asking as the prices for Boisson/Boisson-Vadot are getting quite high as of late so I suppose my own expectations would be rather high even for the base Meursault bottling.

Thanks! This was pointed out to me somewhere else and was unknown by me.

I think many people are dismissive of village wines and some of that perception has probably rubbed off on me, but this was a very fine bottle making me wonder what their premier crus are like. For the price I paid, around $40US, I would most certainly buy it again. Hope that explains better.

2004 German Rieslings are exactly in my preferred state (early maturity) right now. I don’t see them as old bones wines, but no danger of decline for a while yet.

It most definitely does, thanks. I personally think that quite many skilled, ambitious growers are nowadays putting out so good quality below the sub-1er Cru level that one needs not to have too modest expectations when choosing the producers well. Of course the prices have been reflecting this for a while and I think it would be hard to find the Boisson Meursault for 40 USD now.