Archive for the Tasting Notes from the Underground Category

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Michigan by the Bottle’s second “Tweet & Taste Michigan,” held last evening, was by all accounts, a smashing success. Conducted on Twitter and featuring three wines from Shady Lane Cellars, the event drew 54 active participants (3 right here at Gang Central), with over 1000 tweets posted. Kim and I had already tasted and enjoyed these three wines last November with Shady Lane winemaker/vineyard manager Adam Satchwell, and the 2008 Dry Riesling and 2007 Pinot Noir were much as we remember. The Riesling is a solid, straightforward representation of what dry Riesling ought to be, while the Pinot is a pretty little middleweight that offers charming varietal character. But it was the 2008 Blue Franc that really caught my attention and focus, for a variety of reasons. Read the rest of this entry »

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I suppose we’re going to have to bring out heavier ammunition when the Detroit Red Wings start the playoffs tomorrow night against the Phoenix Coyotes, but this little beauty provided some excellent red Rhône mojo for Detroit’s strong regular season finish, especially the big 3-2 overtime win against the Chicago Blackhawks in the Sunday afternoon finale. Read the rest of this entry »

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It was like “Olde Home Week” for the Canadian contingent of Gang of Pour, as several wayward souls met up once again on Easter Saturday for good food, drink and making merry in the town of St. Catherines, on Ontario’s Niagara Peninsula. Alan Kerr aka Canadian Zinfan acted as our host, and attendees included Marty Freitas and Robin Caverhill, with whom we’ve enjoyed great times on more than a few occasions, and Gary Bell, one of the stalwarts of our Adventures in Sonoma, back in ’97. And of course, there was Kim and this taster…

The focal point of the tasting was a mini-vertical of four late model Château Clerc-Milon Pauillac, but there were other goodies opened as well. As so often happens, we started off with some bubbly. Read the rest of this entry »

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We’ve been fans of the Perrin family’s La Vieille Ferme line for some years now; their reds, whites and rosés offer consistent quality vintage after vintage, and the prices are hard to beat. We finally took the opportunity to try the 2008 rouge a few days ago and really liked what we found in the bottle. Perhaps ironically, our impressions of the blanc and and rosé seem to have flip-flopped slightly since our last report on them almost a year ago. Both are still drinking quite well, but the white seems to have filled out a bit, while the pinks seems to have toned down some. Read the rest of this entry »

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Jean Foillard’s Morgon Côtes du Py was the first Beaujolais to demonstrate to me that the appellation was capable of producing truly great wine. I had heard rumors and read reports to that effect for some time, but experiencing the proof was another matter entirely. A lineup of 2000s from P. Ferraud & Fils tasted back in ’03 was pleasant enough, but didn’t really wow me, and a similar grouping from Georges Duboeuf the following year was so lackluster that it didn’t even merit a report, as even the Cru bottlings had that bubble gum and banana character that just turns me off to so many wines from the region. It wasn’t until our friend and colleague, Putnam Weekley, turned us on to the 2001 Foillard Morgon Cotes du Py that we tasted just how good these wines could be when they weren’t mucked up with 71B yeast . From there, we went on to discover other delights from the likes of Guy Breton, J-P Thevenet, Marcel Lapierre and J.P. Brun, but it is the Foillard that remains dearest to my heart, as successive vintages have been consistently outstanding. Read the rest of this entry »

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Being that I’m an avid devotee of the varieties of the sparkling wine experience, I was quite jazzed when our friend Christina Donley showed up at Gang Central recently with some bubbly in tow from, of all places, Austria. Not that I was particularly surprised that they make sparkling wine in Austria; they grow the right grapes there, good bubbly can come from anywhere that produces good wine, and they are producing very good wine indeed these days. It was just the simple fact that I’d never HAD a sparkler from Austria, but I’ve had more than a few really tasty whites from there, so this one promised to be a goodin, Sally, not only because of where it came from, but also because of who made it. Nigl makes excellent wines that we’ve enjoyed with cool cats like Cousin Larry Meehan and Florida Jim Cowan, so I couldn’t wait to give it a try. Christina shares my penchant for all things bubbly, and said she wanted to open something a bit different with us and this one fit the bill perfectly. We gave that puppy a chill, popped the cork and poured glasses all around. Read the rest of this entry »

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These two well-priced delights were enjoyed during the Detroit Red Wings‘ recent 4-2 victory over the St. Louis Blues. Looks like the boys are finally starting to play well at just the right time of the season.

2006 Domaine des Pasquiers Côtes du Rhône Villages Plan de Dieu, 14% alc., $12.99: Deep, dark color, almost opaque; sun baked, stewed black fruit on the nose, intense and effusive, fleshing out on the palate with smoky black plums and berries anchored by a solid earthy, leathery base. Big, rich and chewy, yet bone dry, with the structure to age for several years, and a finish that shows drying, slightly astringent tannins. Air really helps a lot now, but the best thing for this is a good five years or more in the cellar. My kind of Côtes du Rhône, this!  Find this wine

Imported by AHD Vintners, Warren, MI

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Château d’Oupia in Minervois has been one of our favorite producers for many years now, and their Les Heretiques bottling is an everyday staple here at Gang Central. A blend of old-vine Carignane and Syrah, it’s a perennial QPR All-Star, but strangely, I had yet to taste the current model. I happened upon some on the shelf at Western Market in Ferndale a few days ago and decided to rectify that situation. Here are my impressions: Read the rest of this entry »

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The Brownbag Irregulars gathered for their third monthly meeting last week to blind taste and consider another dozen wine selections from around the world, and as was the case in the first two episodes, I was pretty much right on with guessing the origin and/or variety of some of the wines, close on a few others and wildly off on several. But hey, that’s part of the fun, right? Participation continues to be a revolving door scenario with this crew, as almost half the tasters were first timers. As usual, we started with two whites. Read the rest of this entry »

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The Detroit Red Wings have been terribly (and disconcertingly) inconsistent during the 2009-2010 NHL season. Unlike the first forty games or so, they can now no longer point to the rash of injuries they sustained as the cause of their up-and-down play, because everyone is pretty much healed or at least patched up and back on the ice. They’ll play a solid game and follow it up with one of their worst of the campaign. (There have been 6 or 8 “worst games of the season” so far.) They’re actually in danger of missing the playoffs, a situation that has been all but unthinkable for the last 20 years. It’s enough to cause Red Wings’ fans everywhere to pull hair out by the roots, sometimes even their own! Read the rest of this entry »