This was a tasting that my 5 year old girls would really enjoy, as the focus was on pink wines. Our host, Rob, prepared a bunch of great plates (including beef heart) that we tasted throughout the evening, and a good time was had by all.
N.V. Camille Saves Champagne Brut Grand Cru Rosé. Our opening sparkler of the night offers aromas of graphite dust, watermelon, strawberry, white flowers and chalk that are nice and summery. In the mouth, it has a fine tanginess to it, with citrus notes of lemons and pink grapefruit to go along with flavors of powdered mineral and cherry pits. It has a nice easy balance all the way across the palate and finishes soft and pretty. It is a really likeable and friendly bottle of bubbles. This tied for second place in group voting for wine of the night.
2008 Inman Family Pinot Noir Rosé “Endless Crush” Olivet Grange Vineyard Russian River Valley. This wine opens with a strong, pungent nose of lime pith, graphite, strawberries and pine resin in a nice and surprisingly voluminous aromatic package. In the mouth, it is similar, with an outstanding squirt of lemon acidity giving it a very fresh and immediate feel. Flavors of strawberry, lime peel and fine minerals lend an engaging inner perfume to the wine. It is tangy, clean and fills the mouth through the middle quite nicely. It has a soft enveloping feel, yet good cut and acidic structure, too, especially on the dry, lingering finish. This wine was fourth in group voting at the end of the night.
2008 Domaine Massamier La Mignarde Vin de Pays des Coteaux de Peyriac Cuvee des Oliviers. This wine has a quiet nose, with some aromas of dark cherry, strawberry and a hint of mineral that comes in after a while in the glass. There is not a whole lot going on, though. In the mouth, it has rounded body, but not a whole lot of definition or cut. Lemon/lime and strawberry flavors vie with a bit of spritzy quinine, but overall it is not very giving at all with the fruit. Overall, it seems a bit unfocused and frankly pretty bland.
2007 Les Lauzeraies Tavel Rosé. The Tavels are among the darker-colored wines on the table. This one offers up a nice, fruity bouquet of maraschino cherries, sweet raspberries and licorice rope, with a bit of stonier characteristics running underneath. In the mouth, it is fuller-bodied and pleasingly rounded, yet with good mineral-tinged acidity. It is fleshy, with flavors of dark strawberries and cherries that are not terribly complex, but feel well put-together and cohesive in personality. The density, if anything, grows as it warms, allowing the fruit also to flesh out some more and give this more gravitas later in the evening.
2007 Chateau d’Aqueria Tavel Rosé. There are a lot of smoky elements on the nose of this wine, including burnt toast and recently-struck matchstick, which ally nicely with the fresh cherry and crushed rock notes. In the mouth, it is pithy and fleshy, with very good flavor intensity and a sort of pure vinosity. The fresh ripe strawberry, citrus and light cocoa dust flavors are substantial and finely layered. It stays fresh and tangy through the well-balanced and lengthy finish. This was my #2 wine of the night but only garnered one other third-place vote.
2008 Cataldi Madonna Montepulciano d’Abruzzo Cerasuolo Rosato. This wine has a really nice bouquet of fuzzy strawberries, cranberry juice, red grapefruit, red flower petals and Swedish fish candy. It’s really juicy in the mouth, with a very good density of fruit carried along by the lively tang that simultaneously provides an airier counter-punch to the richer qualities. It feels more substantially-constructed than any wine that has come before it, but it stays lively and fresh, especially as it crisps up on the long, full finish exhibiting great push. My WOTN and tied for second place in group voting.
N.V. Comm. G.B. Burlotto Elatis Vino da Tavola Rosato. I believe this Piedmontese wine is largely made from 2005 Nebbiolo fruit. The store I bought it at advertised it as 2005, but there is no specification on the label indicating any particular vintage. In any event, the nose is fairly tight right now, with some aromas of dusty cherries, strawberries and graphite minerality. Yet, in the mouth, it is explosive and oh-so lively. It blasts across the palate with overt and lively flavors of red licorice rope, pink Sweet-tart candies, lime rind, strawberries and soft cocoa powder. For all that, it shows fine balance, even as it pushes ahead to an absolutely intense finish of amazing vibrancy. This was my #3 wine of the night, though my wife was the only other taster to have it in her top 3 of the night.
2008 Jean-Maurice Raffault Chinon Rosé. This wine is a very, very pale pink color. Aromatically, it shows notes of light cranberry, soft strawberry, lemon rind, river stones and an almost Provencal dried herb character. In the mouth, it is openly fruity, with the sweetest fruit profile of the evening. It is soft and easy, but with plenty of sweet fleshy character that is surprisingly intense and finely-driven.
2007 Bodega Los Aljibes Vino de la Tierra de Castilla Vina Aljibes Rosado. This is a much darker pink color, almost bordering on light garnet. It features some musky Syrah-like aromas of raspberry and cherry, cool bacon fat and cracked black pepper. It is the biggest wine of the night, almost like a lighter-styled red wine. It is kind of meaty, with dark red fruit and cocoa, and some bitter smoke tones coming in on the finish. It is not a favorite of mine, but managed to be the group’s wine of the night.
2008 Commanderie de la Bargemone Coteaux d’Aix-en-Provence Rosé. This is a return to a very light pink color. It has fairly simple aromas of citrus skin, strawberry and pink flowers. In the mouth, it is on the light side, with a soft sweetness and gentle earthiness in the background. It has an easy-going nature, but is sometimes a bit raw. It finishes with a twinge of lime and a bitter smoke note and seems like it could use a short time in the cellar to lose that raw edge.
After all the pink stuff, some of us were looking to open some reds, and thankfully there were a few that people brought and a few Rob pulled from the wine cabinet.
1991 Silver Oak Cabernet Sauvignon Alexander Valley. The classic Silver Oak aromas of fresh dillweed, eucalyptus and cedar absolutely jump out of the glass, along with notes of worn saddle leather, brambly berries and plums, dusty earth, browning tobacco leaf, caramel and milk chocolate powder. It is actually pretty complex and lively. In the mouth, it is sprightly and tingly, with wood shavings, spicebox galore and a bit of tobacco to go along with sweet blue and purple fruit. It turns rather soft and sadly a bit flabby toward the back of the palate, which also features an odd dirty, murky note. However, it seems to re-gain its footing on the fresher finish. Overall, it is sort of a classic caricature of itself, but I know I had fun drinking it. I got the sense that others were not so charitable, though.
2007 Warwick Estate The First Lady South Africa. I believe this is largely Cabernet Sauvignon. I purchased this at the estate and brought it home back in the early Spring. On the whole, it feels like it was opened too soon. It smells of ash, green pepper, cool leaves and cocoa-dusted mixed berries, but needs a good deal of coaxing to get anything beyond straightforward aromas to come forward. It features easy-going yet cool black currant fruit in the mouth, along with flavors of black beans and dark chocolate. It has a bit of a linen sort of texture and the tannins throughout have a matted feeling to them. Those tannins really kick up a storm after a while, and at times the fruit veers away from the friendly back to the primary (though never super-dense or rich). The finish is not terribly long, but I would still suggest a bit of short-term cellaring to see how it fares with the tannins better integrated.
2006 Trahan Petite Verdot Suisun Valley. I wrote down (presumably from the label) that this is from the Ledgewood Vineyard, but there is no information on the company website to confirm this. In any event, this is a wine showing a ton of glycerin on the inside of the glass. It smells of tomato leaf and other green leafy vegetables, but also thick caramel, soft chocolate and brown sugar thrown together in an unusual marriage. It is very rich and dense, with tons of tannin in the mouth. I also sense the alcohol poking out a lot more than I would like. It has a ton of chocolate flavor, along with briery berries, grape stems, dark wood and rich earth notes. There seems to be a lot going on just below the surface, but I have trouble ascertaining what this wine will look like down the road. A few folks really liked this, but I have to reserve judgment.
-Michael