These are from a bunch of recent blog posts.
2005 Gonon St. Joseph - Opened and was immediately tight as a drum. No fruit, all tannins and acidity and tiny peek-a-boo of fruit on the finish. I’ve had this wine many times before and I know it always needs 1.5 to 2 hours to show itself. So forgot about for a while and then poured more at the 2 hour mark. What a wine! A soaring nose of flowers, beef, olives, raspberry coulis and some slight reduction. The palate of this wine is big, brawny and still tannic but there is oh so much fruit. The darker berry kind with some gamey and olivey notes thrown in for complexity. The fruit saturates your palate but is lifted so well with the acidity which is excellent. The finish is long and perfectly delineated. Every sip got better, even drinking it at it’s sweet spot. The 2 2004’s I had earlier this year were wonderful but in a lighter style and ready to be drunk up but this will go for a long time. 10-15 years at least. A beautiful St. Joseph. One more bottle to open.
2008 Causee-Marines Marcillac - I love Domaine du Cros, especially their VV cuvee but just from tasting the Causse Marines you can tell a lot more soul and natural winemaking occured here. Domaine Laurens is not Marcillac despite the label as it is big, stupid, goofy wine that does not speak of Fer Servadou from Marcillac.
The nose is what I love. Some funk (brett?), juicy red fruits, red flowers, some hay, some earth and major and I mean major paprika. Not for the paprika shy. There is a thickness to the nose which lasted all through the first night. The palate is fantastic. Light, yet with some good concentrated tiny berry fruit, and a wildness that suggests Marcillac and my beloved Fer. I have a mini-obsession with Fer and always drink it when one is available that is good. But Cros was pretty much all that was around but I am glad there is a new guy in town. Back to the wine. Bright, crisp, living acidity that almost had a rapier-like intensity on the palate, but you don’t notice because of all the friendly fruit and complex spices. Long, lingering finish. BUT WAIT. Day 2 I was not prepared for how much this wine improved overnight. The palate became velvety, almost like '07 Foillard Morgon CDP (Cote de Py and NOT Chateauneuf-du-Pape!), but with improved laser-like focus and clarity. The purity was astounding, like I was drinking ripe Fer grapes off the vine with a spigot. Great wine. Next bottle I’m gonna open, have a glass and put the cork back in because this wine becomes so much better day 2.
2006 Rudolf Furst Riesling “pur mineral” - This was just as lovely as I remember it. My last bottle but I don’t see this being an age-worthy cuvee. Leave that to his GG’s from the Burgstadter Centrgrafenberg. Although this is sourced from that vineyard it is meant to be drunk young. The heat in 2006 did not seem to affect Furst’s wines in this vintage. Which is odd as many of Wirsching’s wines were hot or appeared hot but then again he is at least 30-40 miles away. The wine had a stoney, floral nose with a hint of wet rains. The palate was dry and edgy but chiseled correctly even if at taught angles. The palate had great acidity, clean crisp green fruits and a slight. and I mean slight, creaminess in the texture. The finish was long and clingy with a lovely lingering minerality. Drink me now if you got them and I suspect many people don’t got 'em.
2006 Rudolf Furst Weissburgunder “pur mineral” - A rich wine as Pinot Blanc can be but with crisp acids, rocky minerality and some juicy apple fruit. Floral and stony on the nose after a bit of aeration.
2007 Laible Durbacher Plauerlain Weisser Burgunder Kabinett Trocken - This was as nervous and edgy as any Weissburgunder I have ever tasted. Tremendous structure as the Ortenau section of Baden where this wine comes from is distinctly cooler than anywhere else in the enormous Baden region. This wine is taught, structured and very mineral. Some juicy Weisser fruit comes through but only after serious aeration and coaxing. One bad thing was that when it warmed up this wine showed some traces of heat which is a big deal-breaker for me. It was long and had nice clingy mineral extract on the finish and showed its cool-climate origins. I will not open my second bottle for many years as this seems to have major structure. Incidently on the Furst bottling it is spelled “Weissburgunder” and on the Laible it is spelled “Weisser Burgunder” which can be attributed to regional spelling differences.
2006 Scnhaittman Uhlbacher Riesling*** - This was merely average. A somewhat flat nose of minerals, wet stones and flowers. Some stone fruits, but with little flesh. A bit watery and confused on the palate and never really came together. It was balanced but towards the fat side. The heat had to be a factor in this wine. I do recall liking my last bottle and tasting it at the estate in February 2007. The estate is in Wurttemberg.
2005 Vare Bianco “Riserva” - This was a memento from when I stayed at George Vare’s estate in Napa last May. I had a bottle there and it seemed a bit oaky. What a difference two years makes. This bottle was very nice. Some toasty oak on the nose but also almond paste, white flowers, and hints of tea. Very nice. The palate was rich and creamy but with bracing acidity and was extremely layered. Good complexity with all sorts of things going on within the texture and crescendo of a finish. Drink 'em now if you got them. Ribolla, Pinot Blanc and Gris. As a side note someone commented on my blog that they tore up all the vines, some Radikon clones in there too, and planted Cabernet and now are selling grapes. If this is true then that is sad as those were great wines.
2008 Domaine de la Pepiere Muscadet Sevre et Maine “Les Gras Moutons - Cuvee Eden” - This is from one of Ollivier’s most sacred terroirs. The wine was good but it lacked a little in the hard angles department which is what I love about Muscadet and particularly Clos des Briords. It had loads of minerality but seemed a bit soft at this point. On day 2 it did get more grippy and more structure was apparent but it seemed to remind me of the Luneau-Papin extended lees wines in that it needs time to fully express itself. I am down with that and will put a few in the cellar.