I’m also of the opinion that Mas de Daumas Gassac is a miserable, hard, unyielding wine of toughness with vanishingly little in the way of attractive characteristics. A long time ago Aime Guibert himself came to Oxford to give a large vertical tasting which went back to his first vintage. The young wines were hard and tough, the old wines dry and tough. Being a lad of principals I refused to attend the post-tasting dinner we would arrange for visiting speakers. I was not two-faced enough to be polite over dinner to someone whose wines had turned my palate into a dried-out husk of leather and instilled in my mind the aesthetic terror that I might have to taste such bottles of awfulness in the future.
I do like Tempier Bandol, though. Ideally the special cuvees, but even the basic Bandol is not so bad (they are all getting so bloody pricey these days). The wines are a lot less shit-themed since they got a new winemaker for the 2001 vintage. He replaced all of the ancient, brett-infested fermentation foudres with new, clean ones which he keeps rigorously clean. I have found the 2001s onwards to be much cleaner, more alcoholic and (dare I say it?) vaguely approaching an ‘international’ style. Maybe this says something about the state of my mind, but when the older, shit-themed wines were good (and there was a lot of bottle variation but ‘good’ was not so rare) they did deliver a rustic kind of pleasure.
I believe the only liquid stronger than baijiu is gasoline - 100 octane racing fuel.
It’s flavor is very difficult to describe, but there’s sort of a faint hint of anise maybe? You burp it back up all day, and it always tastes the same. Gets you rocked quickly (typically 120-140 proof) but no hangover for some reason, and when you open a bottle, you are supposed to finish it.
Some months ago, I was invited to a Mollydooker tasting a friend of mine won due to some charity auction or whatever. We tasted through the entire lineup, and even did “blending trials.”
As much as I enjoy a wider variety of styles than many folks (including many Aussie Shirazes), it’s very easy to see why some folks DETEST the Mollydooker style–exceedingly plush/ripe fruit, relatively low acid, and relatively high alcohol. Even so, the people around me were gushing over the wines, and I don’t think they were trying to be polite. These are, dare I say, “cocktail wines.”
I will say that some of the Silver Oaks and Bryant Family Cabernets that I’ve tasted, especially with age, have come to resemble alcoholic pickle juice. But perhaps I can’t think outside of the pickle barrel…
“Being a lad of principals I refused to attend the post-tasting dinner we would arrange for visiting speakers. I was not two-faced enough to be polite over dinner to someone whose wines had turned my palate into a dried-out husk of leather and instilled in my mind the aesthetic terror that I might have to taste such bottles of awfulness in the future.”
You completely discounted the fact that food can (and probably DID) change everything with wines like this?
Sorry, I was unclear. We tried his wines in the tasting and then we went to a restaurant and ordered wines/drinks from their list to have with the food. No one in Oxford did BYO back then, alas, so we could not have had his wines with food even if we had wanted to. The most popular restaurant destination with our speakers was Oxford’s quite wonderful Thai establishment; this was where Monsieur G. was entertained. Thai food is not a great match with tough red wines.
I’ve tried MdDG with all kinds of food and following ludicrously hopeful decanting times but it has always seemed so abso-tmesis-lutely tough and lacking anything that might give you a good time. I don’t like the stuff and never have.
Ah well, we cannot all love the same stuff, but it is fun to rant about our likes and dislikes.
Baijiu (Chinese: 白酒; pinyin: báijiǔ), or shaojiu (烧酒) is a Chinese distilled alcoholic beverage. The name baijiu literally means “white liquor,” “white alcohol” or “white spirits”. Baijiu is often mistakenly translated as “wine” or “white wine,” but it is actually a distilled liquor, generally about 80 to 120 proof, or 40-60% alcohol by volume (ABV) (ethanol).
Baijiu is a clear drink usually distilled from sorghum, although sometimes other grains may be used; baijiu varieties produced in southern China are typically made from glutinous rice, while those from northern China are generally made of sorghum, wheat, barley, millet, or occasionally Job’s tears.
I remember spitting the first vintage of Far Niente Chardonnay on the table right in front of the rep. Made Rombauer look like Muscadet. Later that week I was in the same room with the rep as he had a MEGA famous Italian producer with him and when that guy tasted the wine he said, “You-a know…you wanna make-a the red wine…maybe is better you start with-a the red-a grapes, no?”.
Far Niente? Their first vintage of Chardonnay was 1979. Real gold in the label, IIRC. Had it on the list at a La Jolla restaurant where I worked in the early 80s. Not my favorite, (even with the real gold in the label!) but I don’t remember it as a sweet fruit bomb. Possible you are thinking of something else?
2005 Alban Vineyards Syrah Central Coast- USA, California, Central Coast (1/25/2010)
Very rich nose of crème de cassis and sap. Continuing on, I like the blackberry, sage, and tar character of this wine, but it suffers from a tragic case of flab. The pH is so high you could probably use this to clean up acid spills. Will not last three more years in the cellar, does not last that long after opening either. (80 pts.)
2005 L’Ecole No. 41 Perigee Estate Seven Hills Vineyard- USA, Washington, Columbia Valley, Walla Walla Valley (5/11/2009)
Spicy and elegant, but utterly lacking in intensity, like somebody had stuck a volume knob on the wine bottle and had turned it down to 3. A crushing disappointment, since I’d tasted this before and thought it very good. I couldn’t detect any obvious flaws like TCA or heat damage, so I don’t know what the hell is going on, since everybody, their mother, their mother’s brother, and their great-aunt’s hairdresser’s orthodontist seems to love this wine. Fark me. (77 pts.)
2003 Grgich Hills Cellar Cabernet Sauvignon Yountville Selection- USA, California, Napa Valley, Yountville (12/18/2009)
Austere, clipped and bitter finish, some OK fruit on the palate. $130 down the drain, literally. I was on crack when I visited the winery a few years ago and bought a bunch of stuff that almost all turned out to suck. (78 pts.)
2004 Zlatan Otok Plavac Mali Barrique Sveta Nedjelja- Croatia, Dalmatian Coast, Hvar (12/13/2008)
Technically competent, but I can’t get past the bizarre, unattractive flavor profile. The closest analogy I can give is to Devil’s food cake combined with Mexican spices. (80 pts.)
2006 Carlisle Zinfandel Sonoma County- USA, California, Sonoma County (8/29/2008)
I guess I’m the only person on Earth who doesn’t get this wine. Despite being 82% Zin, the Petite Sirah in this blend overwhelms that Zin character I love so much, and the wine ends up tasting a bit murky. I’ll take this as a signal to avoid anything with more than 10% Petite in the future, I guess; I’m growing to hate that grape with a passion (except for Scholium Project’s, but the normal rules don’t apply to Abe). (80 pts.)
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