Mr. Joe Dressner (?)Now this was my kind of trade tasting. Held in the kitchen of Dressner's west coast rep's Castro home, with a manageable amount of wines to taste through and a friendly group of like-minded wine people. Thanks to Mr. Dressner and Shawn Mead for putting this tasting together.
2007 Lemasson Gama Sutra VdT
100% tasty gamay. This Puzelat protege clearly knows what he's doing.
2007 Lemasson Cheville de Fer
Cot. Deeper and more intense nose. Tangy mixed berries over a very smooth, elegant texture. Less earthy than the wine above, and a bit more heft. Delicious young cot - tasty now but will surely gain complexity over time.
2007 Cascina Tavign Grignolino d'Asti
Excellent. Pure cherry essence with wonderful acidity and loads of freshness. Grignolino as good as this is way too easy to drink (not necessarily a bad thing).
2006 Noussan Torrette Val d'Aoste
Mixed berry and dark fruit skins. Good flavors and focus here. Reasonably bright for a Torrette, which can sometimes be a bit darker and slightly chewier.
2005 Gioia de Colle Primitivo
My notes read simply, "Berry. Dusty cocoa. Best primitivo I've had." Ceri Smith, proprietor of the terrific San Francisco Italian wine shop Biondivino, shared my sentiments, saying that it was primitivo she actually liked. Couldn't agree more.
2005 Gioia Antello del Murge
More intense and brambly. Interesting. A touch more earthy complexity as well.
Massa Vecchia VdT Rosso (vintage?)
I have heard a lot about this wine. Maybe I'm just not ready for it; perhaps it's too 'challenging.' Regardless, I found the aromas to be very heady and intense. Macerated cherries on the palate, a touch of CO2, and the sans soufre/minimal sulphur nutty aftertaste I seem to be picking up with increasing frequency in some natural wines.
2006 Malescondo Rosso di Montalcino
Very intense, earthy, tangy red fruit. Some tuscan savor as well. Quite good.
Back to the French wines...
2007 Puzelat Tesnieres (Pineau d'Aunis)
Classic white pepper and wild strawberry nose, leading to vivid blue and purple fruit flavors. A true original, and very fine.
2007 Tue Bouef Cheverny
Light, earthy gamay. Tasty and decidedly thirst quenching bistro style wine.
2006 Descombes Brouilly
This is serious cru beaujolais; don't let the Brouilly cru designation fool you. Intense raspberry and blackberry on the nose lead to a palate of of lively mixed fruit, with great intensity and unique savor.
2006 Descombes Morgon
Damn, this is good. A good bit more tightly wound than the Brouilly and in want of long decanting or opening a night before consumption. Even better, stash it away for several years. Very dense, explosive berries, but as I mentioned, decidedly stern. It's not showing close to everything it's got to offer.
2007 La Guillaume Monpertuis
'Poopy red berries,' on the nose, according to my notes. Light, dilute, and perhaps too sans soufre-y for my taste.
2006 Ca de Nocci Sottbosco Ca de Roci
Emilia Romagna sparkler. 50% lambrusco grasparossa, 30% lambrusco maestri, 20% malbo gentile. Dark. Tastes like a sparkling Loire cot might taste if they made such a wine (maybe someone out there does?) Nice gripping tannins on finish. This wine makes me hungry for hearty Italian cuisine, of the regionally authentic, homestyle variety that is probably best pursued in Italy (but of course).
Long time, no new content...THANKS FOR YOUR PATIENCE! So despite my strong dislike for writing long posts with a bunch of random tasting notes, here is one such entry below. Occasionally, unique wines do merit my putting down the most boring, gray area prone, self indulgent of all prose known to man, wine tasting notes. Hope you enjoy reading.
Massa Vecchia Bia
Another wine that I don't enjoy. If I've lost points with the geeky Italophiles out there, that's just too bad. I apparently don't think dig these Massa Vecchia wines that much. The red was more enjoyable than this one, which had a weird, Brett and wild yeast geuze style savor to it. The Cantillon geuze of sparkling wines. I'd give you more info but the Dressner website links to the Ca de Nocci above when I drag my mouse over the Massa Vecchia link.
OK, whew...this took a good while to get up here. Busy at work, tired at home, and thus the delay in getting these up. Good wines, though, take a while to learn how to make. And so it follows that their descriptions sometimes take a while to post. Anyway, hope you enjoyed reading, and that you might find something new and exciting to try if some of these are available in a shop near you.
3 comments:
Joe:
Thanks for the thoughtful notes. Appreciate the post and your thoughts. Looking forward to the east coast Dressner show in a month.
No problem, Mike. The east coast show should be a blast, wish I could go.
That does not look like Joe Dressner, Joe, not the man I met three or more times anyway. I'll have to study your notes. I love the wines of Joe : again so true to soil and type and history and terroir. Some of the best coming to the U.S. Cheers to you on your fine writing once again. TONY
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