750 mL An independent public journal of tasting notes for wines from around the world--750 mL at a time. Statistics Unique Visitors: Total Unique Visitors: Outgoing: Total Outgoing: 0 0 133 2879

Articles from 750 mL

2003 Domaine Albert Belle, Crozes-Hermitage Cuvee Louis Belle 2007-11-10 12:58:00 This is one of those appellations I talk about all the time, but rarely get the chance to drink. A parasitic twin of the unholy Hermitage vineyards it surrounds, it feeds off the eponymous appellation--taking its gravelly terroir and sometimes producing wines that taste, in their youth, like Hermitage does after several years. The Louis Belle comes close to that. Its grapey fruit is rich and dark ...

05 Grochau Cellars, Rogue Valley Syrah 2007-11-06 18:58:00 If you slapped a Cotes du Rhone label on this wine, I'd buy it by the case. It hurts to be so shallow. But the truth is, there's just too much good syrah being produced right now in the Pacific Northwest. And sometimes, there's no fooling the soil, which here seems destined for pinot noir. Grochau's syrah is elegant--too elegant--sweet and floral on the nose. There's a real bouquet here--violets ...

05 J. Christopher, Pinot Noir Dundee Hills "Sandra Adele" 2007-11-03 18:40:00 I think people will be talking about this wine for a long time. And J. Christopher's dad better get his boxing gloves ready. Because every post-adolescent young man is coming for his wife Sandra Adele. Rivaled only by J. Christopher's own 2002 vintage of this same cuvee, it's the most perfectly ripe, balanced, and sensual of Oregon's great, young pinot noirs. It's juicy to the point of being ...

06 J. Christopher, Willamette Valley Sauvignon Blanc 2007-10-30 20:49:00 This wine is so dry and austere that the corked bottle I opened first actually had a richer aroma. Granted, the smell of wet, moldy rug isn't really what you're ever looking for in a wine, but it says something that the clean bottle is so muted. Yet you can sense how sharp it really is--all that great grapefruit acidity, like sucking right on the pith, and white pepper. Once the wine comes up to ...

01 Antoniolo, Gattinara 2007-10-27 20:41:00 We'd driven so close to the tornadoes, going south toward the flatlands, that the antenna had bent over on itself. Listening to the static dialed in through the hail, we gunned the V10 home. The paint had started peeling off from the hood. The door panels felt electric. And I was hungry. The storm had whetted my appetite--that faint smell of wet earth, the sweetness of the day breaking through, ...

06 Bodegas Zabrin, Calatyud Garnacha de Fuego Old Vines 2007-10-16 20:24:00 I guess it's not that much different than the 2005, but it's just not a wine you can have much patience for. This year's is dustier, a bit leathery I guess, with loads of blueberry. Vinegary blueberry--sort of a weird sensation, closest to drinking merlot that's been open a couple days. You can get past that acid, but why even give it the time? It's like Jason Wahler on Celebrity Rap Superstar-- ...

01 Tandem, Chardonnay Sonoma Coast Sangiacomo Vineyard 2007-10-13 13:58:00 "1, 2, 3, 4, tell me that you love me more. Sleepless, long nights--that is what my youth was for." It's not just that this 01 Tandem (which Parker said would last though only 2005) is alive and well. That would be enough. But the careful Burdgundian methods that the Tandem vintners apply to this chard make it completely impossible to decipher. It has nothing to do with California or Burgundy--as ...

05 Clos la Coutale, Cahors 2007-09-27 17:28:00 There are only a few occasions that this wine is meant for. Divorce. Boar hunting. Winning the world hot dog eating contest in record time. Which might make it a natural for some holiday tables, but not mine. No, a three-seat round table overlooking the city won't do. Nevermind the candles and Edith Piaf. This is a wine that begs chaos. Children wearing cranberry jam hats. A Bruno Magli in the ...

05 Domaine le Sang des Cailloux, Grenache Vacqueyras Cuvee Doucinello 2007-09-18 20:39:00 There was a reason we'd bother collecting wrappers of Tootsie Roll Tootsie Pops when I was a kid. There was a rumor that, if you got enough wrappers with the little Native American boy shooting an arrow at a star, you could send them in--like some cumulative Golden Ticket--for all the sugar-veneered chocolate-candy-on-a-stick you could eat in a year. So we sucked down as much blue raspberry, ...

05 Chateau Pesquie, Cotes du Ventoux Les Terrasses 2007-09-13 20:27:00 In its least adulterated form, I think this is as good as grenache can possibly be. Whether you consider it a delightfully fruity grape or just some cheap requisite for Chateauneuf-du-Pape, what's sure is that grenache declares itself loudest in Spain and Southern France. And it's usually a dead heat between the two, with Spain often taking the lead--at least in terms of QPR. But Chateau Pesquie ...

NV Canella, Bellini 2007-09-11 19:02:00 Well, I think today we'll have the abbreviated 187 mL version of 750 mL. You're wondering why I'd even write about a wine cocktail, and new readers might never want to come back to this blog. If I keep this up, you shouldn't. But the truth is that just about everyone drinks stuff like this at the end of summer and it is, technically, wine--a blend of some anonymous bubbly and peach nectar. And ...

04 Gaja, Langhe Sito Moresco 2007-09-03 15:45:00 For all the criticism Gaja gets in shucking tradition, this wine is incredibly boastful of terroir. It just depends what your definition of terroir is. Sito Moresco sits on the southern and southwesterly slopes of the Langhe, where the grapes bake in the sun and the vines marinate on the loose marly clay--as if the ground might suck them up for itself at any moment. And while the blend is barely ...

05 Domaine Parent, Bourgogne Pinot Noir 2007-08-25 14:43:00 They're all different; they're all the same--Bourgogne. And unlike the village-level wines, these "declassified" pinot noirs can't really show off much of the land. It's not their job. So, no, this doesn't have the density of Domaine Parent's Pommard or the red currants of its luxurious Corton. Disappointing, perhaps, to some. But I think these "basic," verecund wines give us an opportunity to ...

02 Maysara, Pinot Noir Willamette Valley Estate Cuvee 2007-08-23 20:03:00 I can't believe Smuckers never got a hold of Jimi Brooks before he died. The 02 Estate Cuvee is the most passionate wine he ever made--defiantly different than the elegant Brooks label wines, this is like a Runaway Red picking up steam a third of the way down the hill before it crashes into a giant creek. There's inertia to this pinot, driving a jammy raspberry, black cherry, bitter dark ...

NV Rene Barbier, Mediterranean Red D.O. Catalunya 2007-08-08 20:47:00 You don't really need Catalunya to make this wine. Any place warm and uncontrolled will do. This is jug wine repackaged and given a D.O. Lean, with hints of black olive, it's good enough for food. But it's almost as though they intended it to be vinegar some day. Acetic acid dreams to be this good. Of course, being a potentially great vinegar hardly makes you a good wine. And were it not for this ...