February 19th, 2011 | 
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Château de La Font du Loup
The last time we saw Anne Charlotte Bachas, co-owner of Chateau Font du Loup, Châteauneuf-du-Pape, just about a year ago, she was in town to promote her wines with AHD Vintners, who import and distribute them locally. We had a delightful time with Anne Charlotte, and loved the wines, so when I heard that she was returning to Day-twah with husband Laurent, I made a point of keeping my schedule open to attend the tasting at Cork Wine Pub, in Pleasant Ridge. Like his wife, Laurent is very friendly and easygoing, and despite his protestations to the contrary, his English is more than adequate for conveying information about his wines and vineyards; frankly, I wish I spoke French half as well.
AHD poured their entire Rhone lineup on this occasion, but I didn’t taste everything. I started out with a charming rose, and then moved right on to the Font du Loups. (Price ranges listed reflect standard retail markup of both post off (sale) and front line wholesale costs.) CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE
Alan Kerr’s Vintage’s February 19th Release – Tasting Notes
Global Cabernet Sauvignon takes pride of place in this edition of Vintages manual. In addition, there are a few wines for Passover and a couple of decent wines in the regular section of the release. It’s time for a barbecue perhaps in this spring-like weather we are experiencing.
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WINES OF THE CABERNET SAUVIGNON RELEASE
212357 NAPANOOK 2007 Napa Valley $53.95
True left bank Bordeaux blend, 85% Cabernet Sauvignon, 8% Cabernet Franc and 7% Petit Verdot, loaded with mineral, iron, dried meat and rich dark fruit. Solid structure on the palate, but tannin is dominant and holds back the dense layer of fruit from presently showing its best. Find this wine
045476 SHAFER ONE POINT FIVE CABERNET SAUVIGNON 2007 Stags Leap District Napa Valley $79.95
Holy cow, pure blackcurrant, Dutch salty licorice, mocha, chalk and dusty cocoa are bold and enticing. A delight to drink, tannin is there, but the layers of dark and red fruits roll across the palate leaving a coat of tingly acidity. Superb concentration and balance with a creamy texture on the finish. Find this wine
671164 ST. FRANCIS CABERNET SAUVIGNON 2006 Sonoma County $28.95
Ripe with a raisin aroma, plenty of sweet blackcurrant, mocha and cigar box. Clumsy tannins and sweet fruit clash on the palate, oaky vanilla note on the finish. Find this wine
A pairing experiment with carbonlia (chili) and almond soup
Recently, we received the following email:
I’m Amber Hoxha from The Thomas Collective, a wine and spirits public relations firm in NYC. I’m writing to inquire if you had any interest in being added to our database so that we can send you updated wine information. Just an email address would be fine.
Thanks!
-Amber
Now, we’re always happy to get any “updated wine information,” and when we replied as such to Amber, she suggested that we might like to sample a couple of wines from one of their clients, Pernod Ricard USA, paired with regional dishes from Spain and Argentina. We like samples at Adams-Heritier and Associates, so, of course, we said , “Sure!” Sure enough, not long afterward, we took possession of two bottles of QPR red wine that, coincidentally, sell quite well at the establishments where I am gainfully employed, but which we had yet to try. These were accompanied by recipes for deceptively simple, yet quite tasty food pairings for each.
We started with a late-model Malbec and an Argentine carbonlia (recipe listed below tasting notes), a chili-like dish, spiked with cinnamon and prepared artfully by Kim.
Alan Kerr’s Vintage’s February 5th Release – Tasting Notes
According to the Vintages catalogue, 2007 was a banner year in Tuscany. Judging from what I tasted, for the most part at least, I have to agree. There is a secondary feature that showcases wines from Washington State and a couple of those are dandies too. And as the 14th of the month nears, what better way to please than cracking a bubbly or two! Please read on. Click labels to enlarge.
211599 LORNANO CHIANTI CLASSICO 2007 $15.95
Amazing nose of pure red fruit, hay, bay leaf, mocha and dried mushroom. It has a fleshy palate, but the balance is in perfect tune showing nice blackcurrant, a pleasing sweetness and just a faint layer of dusty tannin. Great price for a great wine. Find this wine
191361 LA MADONNINA CHIANTI CLASSICO RISERVA 2007 $22.95
Tight at first, but with some enticing the nose shows some wet earth, star anise, Dutch licorice, currant and kirsch. The palate has great structure, laden with blackberry and cola flavours along with gentle tannins that suggest aging will be beneficial. Find this wine
207795 LE CINCIOLE CHIANTI CLASSICO 2007 $19.95
Wine of the Month: unfortunately sample was corked. Find this wine
Wine Guerrilla Redux
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I’m going through something of a Zinfandel reawakening here in Day-twah, and more than a little of it has to do with the good things we’ve tasted from Wine Guerrilla in the last month. Sure, we still love our Mr. Ridge and drink them pretty regularly, but other than those, there have been precious few Zins coming through the door here at Gang Central over the last few years. Had we known what Bruce Patch and David Caffaro were up to, we would have made a point of paying them a visit and getting the lowdown from them directly when we were out left last spring. The ironic part of all this is that we actually stopped in at Caffaro’s place on Dry Creek Road to pick up wine for our buddy Frank Joyce in late April.
There wouldn’t even have been any “oh wells” or “if onlys” had Patch not gotten wind of us and sent some wine for us to try, which we quite liked and reported accordingly. Then, as these things often happen, I ran into three bottles of Wine Guerrilla Zinfandel at retail last week here in the Detroit area and did not hesitate to pick them up and give them a try, and guess what? These are quite good too, and being from the ’07 and ’08 vintage, they’ve given us a good read on how the wines do with a year or two in bottle, which is to say, very well indeed. Here are our impressions of what we tried.
More Morgon and More
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We continued our survey of late model Beaujolais by accepting a dinner invitation from our friends Ken and Jean Schramm. Besides having written THE book on home mead making, The Compleat Meadmaker, Ken is also a home brewer, fruit grower, bee keeper and, yes, wine lover. He had been looking for the chance to pull the corks from several bottles that he’d acquired lately, and finally found the window of opportunity last week. The first three or four selections made fine pairings for Jean’s delightful roast chicken dinner, and those that followed were equally fine on their own. Also in attendance were Ken and Jean’s daughter Sarah, Leo Carey and Tom Bloomer. We got things started with another offering from 20-year-old Damien Coquelet, whom we wrote about in our last entry.
Alan Kerr’s Vintage’s January 21st Release – Tasting Notes
This mid winter release is uninspiring to say the least. It showcases the wines of Chile, not that Chilean wines are not stimulating, but my notes are minimal as palate fatigue took its toll. Anyway, please read on because as always, there is a gem or two to be found.
Three from Morgon and more
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Slowly, but surely, more and more people seem to be coming to the realization that the once much-maligned Gamay grape, when crafted by small batch, artisanal vignerons, is capable of producing heavenly wines. Some of these come from France’s Loire Valley, and our friend Steve Edmunds is producing some very tasty versions in California, but no region is better known for Gamay than Beaujolais. The best wines come from ten Crus, or appellations in the Beaujolais mountains, and of those, our favorite is Morgon, which turns out some of the deepest, darkest wines in the entire region. Our first choice among those has for several years now been Jean Foillard’s Morgon Côte du Py, but there are several other bottlings we’ve discovered that give it a run for its money. One of those comes from the amazing 20-year-old Damien Coquelet. From a recent email offering from Garagista Jon Rimmerman:
