A Malbec from Walla Walla - It's good (trust me).

Mmm, mmm, mmm. This is a really tasty wine that I will happily drink again, and again. It smells like Malbec, with some mixed berry fruit and subtle floral notes. The texture is very soft and supple, with mulberry and some raspberry fruits, and the inner mouth floral notes that I love to perceive in wines and seldom do in more inexpensive offerings. Tannins are light and very well integrated. Nowhere is the overoaked, cloying, manipulated quality found in many Argentine Malbecs. Seven Hills Malbec is refreshing, food friendly, and should please many a Euro-centric, jaded, geeky palate. At least it certainly did with folks I was tasting with.

Why don't more folks in the US make wine like this?? If they did maybe more younger wine drinkers would support their wine instead of buying imports.

1996 Champagnes are the greatest

No newsflash here. I really do love these wines though - true wines for acid heads. I had some 1996 Pierre Moncuit Blanc de Blancs a few days ago which reminded me yet again of the greatness of these champagnes. It had what some may find to be jarring acidity, but with plenty of richness, length and nutty tones on the finish. Some other '96's I've enjoyed recently: Fleury 1996, Bruno Michel 1996 (interesting blend of 80% chard and 20% meunier, all original massale selections, with fascinating flavors and nearly endless length) and Bollinger 1996 RD (WOW).

Rhone, Rhone Wine

Here are some notes, mostly on '05 Rhone reds. Southern Rhone wines are not my favorite wines. Never have been. Nevertheless, it really seems like many folks in the region, in CdP in particular, are going down the path of over-ripe, simple, fruity, hot (high alcohol) wines that I wouldn't want to drink on their own, and certainly not with food. For an interesting post on the same topic, click here (make sure to read the comments as well). Anyway, it is a mixed bag here - some winners and some duds.

2005 Domaine la Garrigue Cotes du Rhone Cuvee Romaine - This is importer Eric Solomon's very profitable custom cuvee for the States. It's supposedly declassified Vacqueyras from very old vines (Grenache, Mourvedre, Syrah). In the past I have enjoyed this wine. It has always been a Cotes du Rhone with good meaty savor, that tasted honest and, for $12 or so you could do a lot worse. Well this year, there are some unresolved tannins and a really sharp astringency on the finish. In the midst of this imbalance, some dark cherry fruit and cough syrup flavors sneak in there. A truly unpleasant wine, this.

2004 Gigondas Raspail-Ay Reserve - Bright red fruits on the nose. After opening up for a few hours, the wine revealed a bit more: plums and some rose petals. On the palate the wine is all crunchy cherries, with excellent purity, texture and energy. No surprise that I find this to be a better balanced, more interesting wine than any other in this line-up, given the cooler '04 vintage and the fact that winemakers in Gigondas seem not be as easily given to the temptation of making over-extracted wines for the export market. I'd give this wine another 5 years, though 7 would probably be more ideal.

2005 Alain Corcia Chateauneuf du Pape 'Patricia' - A pretty, perfume of mixed dark fruits leads to more of the same on the palate. An enjoyable lighter style of CdP for this ripe vintage.

2005 Ollivier Hillaire Chateauneuf du Pape - Here is a CdP that is rich and just fruity enough for the fruit sluts, but elegant, balanced and lively enough for people who want a balanced Grenache based wine to go with food. This is CdP of the blackberry and licorice stylee, with a slightly soft, creamy vanilla aspect towards the finish. May be too much for some - for me, it works. 8 years would be ideal for this one to come around.

2005 Ollivier Hillaire 'Le Petits Pieds D'Armand' - Blackberry jam. Hot. Brutish. For $30 less I'd go for the basic CdP above, but some other folks who tried it really enjoyed this 100% Grenache wine. They of the non-hyper critical wine geek, happy to be there tasting mold.

2005 Vieilles Julienne CdP - This one could be even worse. Yep, this could be the nadir of the line-up. I'm sorry, this wine is way too smooth, creamy, dumbed down and hot to be remotely interesting. There is very little spice, no floral aspects, no licorice, no gamey savor. And I don't see these notes ever emerging from this wine.

2005 Vincent Paris Cornas 'Granit 30' - OK, things are now getting better. The northern Rhone is an area where I have limited tasting experience, but plan to rectify the situation by tasting a lot more of the wines. They are generally more my style: lower in alcohol, greater in aromatic nuance, more subtle in their fruit flavors. Blueberry and plums, charred embers, white flowers, white pepper and mixed Indian spices come together on this beautfiul nose. On the palate, there is a bright, huckleberry quality, and though it is still tightly wound and a bit over-laden with sulphur, it should shape up really nicely and be a charmer in another 3 or so years.

2005 Bernard Burgaud Cote Rotie - This wine was just nearly impossible to taste. So tight. Nevertheless, there was great acidity and a gorgeous, velvety texture. Apparently the wine is aged 15-18 months in barrique, mostly new. Hmm...nonetheless, I think this Cote Rotie might become pretty interesting with a decade or so of bottle age. But then again, my experience with Cote Rotie is so limited. Someone please chime in and give me some insight here on the northern Rhone tip. I'd appreciate it.

Sunday Jazz Brunch - Richard Groove Holmes

I'm off to work. You enjoy the jazz.

The Pharcyde - Drop

OK, all of you with the Spike Jonze comp will know this incredibly dope video. Anyway, I agree with folks who say that Labcabin was a very underrated, slept on album. There was a real dark feel to this record, sort of like the way De La Soul's Stakes is High was dark. Hip-hop was in the process of changing, becoming less fun for many and gearing up for a new era of Bad Boy, flossin, and dumbed down material.

Real wine: the future is upon us!

If you have not read the post below, please do so now...
...ok now that you have seen the dark side, I would like for you to witness the fitness, if you will. Get into the now. Follow these instructions:

Google 'real wine'
Click on the first link listed
Learn about real wine from pioneering importer Joe Dressner.

Congratulations to Louis Dressner for having their site come up first when typing 'real wine!' That right there is some skillful search spider coaxing, and well worth it.

Google-ing 'Wine'

Try it. You will notice that the first thing to come up is a web retailer known as wine.com. Just to give you an idea of their business plan, here is an excerpt from their website:

"It starts with our wine list. Our sommeliers scour the globe to be able to present you with thousands of the highest quality wines representing all varietals and regions. A list we're particularly proud of is our 90+ point rated wines for under $20. This brings you the highest rated wines (according to independent wine critics such as Wine Spectator and Robert Parker's Wine Advocate) at affordable prices. Our sales figures tell us our customers appreciate this feature, which can be sorted by popularity based on our sales over the last 30 days, or by price, region or varietal. And for the real connoisseurs out there, we�ve got our list of 94+ point rated wines which can make impressive gifts or additions to your cellar."

You may notice the immediate importance placed on points, especially as it relates to the perceived value of the products wine.com wants to sell. Let me preface my next point by saying that I am opposed to describing wines via any point scale. Nonetheless, I truly think that this way of categorizing and selling wines will come to a gradual end within the next 10-15 years. As wine consumption grows internationally and more of a wine culture develops, peoples' tastes will become increasingly independent and less reliant on professional criticism. Sure, marketing will continue to play a role, as will a growing range of wine criticism. But the amount of influence a select few publications currently hold in the sales of wine is so incredibly disproportionate to other consumable goods. As the wine industry matures, points will become less important, which as far as I'm concerned is a very good thing.