Jean-Philippe Charpentier, Vin de Pays des Coteaux de Peyriac Rouge, 2003: A clean, lean and elegant wine from around the Minervois region. I’ve no idea what the cepage is, but I believe there to be a good portion of Carignan and maybe some Mourvedre and Grenache. Strawberries, thyme and balsam zipping around of the palate. The sturdy structure integrated and smoothed out on the 2nd day - but started to fall apart after the third. Medium-full bodied and quitly confident. Crushed rocks and strawberry Pez on the finish - Priorat-like - I wouldn’t be surprised if some there was some schistey/rocky soils in the vineyard. A character-full wine for the price (>$15US) for fellow terroir-heads.

Bernard Baudry, Chinon ‘Franc de Pied’, 2002: This bottle jumped out to me on the wine-list of local wine-bar-restaurant Chalk - at a good price on a bottle I’ve rarely seen at retail. Popped and poured.

Baryard funkdified, murky and massively old-skool. I loved it, but my wife was less convinced, especially by the nose. Classic Cabernet Franc flavors like bell pepper, V8 juice, and cherries. Some curious curry and saddle-leather in the mix. Chewy and round palate - this wine is beautifully open right now and probably wil be for a year or 2. Medium-bodied and a good mate to the duck and burger we had. Unfortunately, this vineyard succumbed to phylloxera a few years ago  - 2006 being the final vintage.

Domaine Oratoire St Martin, Côtes du Rhône, 2005: Probably the most accessible and easiest to love of the 3 wines - this Grenache-based red was singing with a buckets of strawberries and blueberries, pepper-spice, and minerality. Some Quince and plum. Great aromatics - I could smell the fruits across the room. Killer body and palate -  a spicy attack, generous and round-mouthfilling middle, and a welcome acidic lift on the backend. Smacking gravelly finish. Food friendly and still on the upswing in terms of longevity - This will be a repeat performer at our place, no doubt.

~15$US, 100% Cabernet Franc, Bourgueil, Loire Valley, France

The unsung red wines from the Loire Valley tend to be my goto wines when I’m having trouble deciding on a food-wine pairing. They tend to be lighter-bodied than most domestic reds, and less of a gamble in the sub-$20 range in terms of oaking/manipulation/obliteration that can rob a younger wine of it’s food-friendlieness.

The major red grape of the Loire is Cabernet Franc (Cabernet Saugivnon’s old-school Dad - Sauvignon Blanc being the Mom), and in regions like Chinon and Bourgueil the varietal has been taken to great heights in terms of quality and experience. The best of these wines are very age-worthy and in the past they’ve held as much esteem as great Bordeaux. But as daily drinkers, they offer solid values for the old-world palate.

This entry-level Bourgueil is a little shy on the nose, but typical sugar-snap peas and bing cherries come through. The nose is echoed on the palate - but much more lively and snappy - with an over-riding cleanliness to the fruit. Some Bourgueils can get a little “boggy” with wet leaves and soggy tobacco - but this stays out of the muck with bright cherry and some hot spice (cinnamon?) flavors. Great acidity and medium-fine tannins make this terrific with any meat dish that has a lots of vegetables along with it.

Sleek but solid, and not over-the-top in any one aspect.

~$15US, Gamay / Pinot Noir Blend, Cheverny, Loire Valley, France

Cheverny is one of the many unheralded appellations within the Loire Valley a.k.a. The Garden of France. By appellation law both red and white  wines must be blends - so the actual mix is here unknown, but Gamay Noir and Pino Noir are both in play - predominately Gamay.

After popping there was definitely some barnyard funk and a rustic edge, so I decided to decant to let things blow off. After about an hour, aromas were much more harmonious; obvious cherries and something like the smell of the forest right after a rain…damp and earthy. Home-grown, understated, but over-achieving, like a back-woods guitar prodigy that can play like the devil, but doesn’t realize it’s anything special.

A great food partner with medium-bodied cuisine - nothing too exotic and bold, and nothing too delicate. Grilled pork, salmon, simple pastas, and goat cheeses all would make easy friends.

We tasted and enjoyed a bunch of French wines over the last week/weekend. It’s hard to pick a favorite; they all tasted great, but the Bougogne Blanc and the Beaujolais Village were the most distinctive and fun to drink.

Domaine Patrick Javillier, Bourgogne Blanc, ‘Cuvee des Forgets’, 2002: Beautiful soft lemon-drop core with long mineral-driven finish. Slight nuttyness. Sexy. Great with cheese and creamy sauces.

Terres Dorees, L’ancien Beaujolais Village, Vieilles Vignes, 2007: Fresh strawberries and bramble patch with a smokey, meaty midpalate. Tons of white pepper. Remains light-medium bodied, but bursting with fruit. Tight acidity and some tar on the back-and. Fabulous value and a controversial wine - I’d be scared to if I had to compete with village Beaujolais like this. Salmon or pork on the grill.

Château Picque-Caillou, Pessac-Leognan, 2005: Warm cedar, cherries and tobacco. Rich. Totally distinctive and almost renegade, with structure to carry it into the 2020s. With smoked duck, or bacon-wrapped fillets.

Jean-Luc Colombo, Cotes-du-Rhone Blanc, ‘La Redonne’ 2006: Bananas and peaches on the nose. Very well-balanced with enough acidity to keep it from the syrupy hot mess Viogniers sometimes go. Totally tropical on the palate and medium weight. A very solid summertime white, begging for grilled shrimp or steamed lobster.

François Pinon, Vouvray, ‘Cuvee Tradition’ 2006: In a dry style, but not overly lean. Finessed and elegant with pineapple, dried flowers and a gorgeous leesy-cheesy component on the nose. Poised but altogether light-hearted. With cheese or as an aperitif.

~$20US, 100% Chenin Blanc, Coteaux du Layon, Loire Valley

Classic Chenin nose, floral, with yellow peach and some woody aromas. Sweet and oily palate, left an overall cloying and flabby impression - just too much residual sugar and too little acidity to balance it. Not a bad dessert wine by any means - the fruit here is delicious and peachy clean but simple, just a little unbalanced. A good introduction to this producer that may improve with cellaring. If im going for a sweet Chenin, I’d rather lay down the extra cash for the more refined and age-worthy Baumard Clos Ste. Catherine, or Foreau’s Moelleuxs.

  ~$10US, 100% Chenin Blanc, Vouvray, Loire Valley  Refreshing, tropically-fruity, simple, and perfect with Indian curries.  A great value Vouvray with a riper balance, but enough acidity to keep it from cloying. Wines like this would be no-brainer additions to Asian and Indian restaurant wine lists, if more people got the word out. Worth putting one in the cellar for 3 years to see what happens. The bottle was gone before we expected it to be… 

~$25US, 100% Chenin Blanc, Savennières, Loire Valley.

Bright gold. Immediately engaging nose - pulled me in like a Ken Burns documentary with a dazzling array of aromas; Fresh-cut grass, quartz landscaping rocks, a creamy goat-cheese component, bok-choy, wet leaves and pavement after a summer rain, seashells, fresh peaches, toast, fresh-cut flower stems, not-quite-ripe strawberries - it just kept giving and evolving…The palate was as dry as the nose complex and subtle, but with razor-sharp tartness and brightness.

The wine manages an elegance and suaveness despite the acidity with a mouth-coating body, and a seamless transition through a long, minerally finish. With 6 years of age, this is just singing, and I believe it will continue to improve for at least another 4-5 years. It rocked with Korean fair and I’m seriously temped to sneak a bottle into the dim-sum joint next time. There is both subtlety and intensity, and working together they blow my mind. It’s my favorite kind of wine; one that is serious, but doesn’t take itself too seriously - it begs you to enjoy it without diving too deeply into it, but rewards you if you do.

~$11US, 60% Chardonnay, 40% Chenin Blanc, Fiefs Vendeens, Loire Valley

Very pale. Fun nose of apple-cider, grass, and fresh peaches. Light, fresh and very balanced fruit vs acidity. This wine walked the line - steely, austere Chablis-like structure, with the fascinating flavor profile of Chenin blanc (tropical fruit, broccoli rabe, river-stones). Although somewhat complex - not a thinker-and-a-sipper - just an easy weeknight white that would rock with roast chicken, grilled fish, or endive/radicchio salads. Awesome value $11 Loire white, right in my wheelhouse.

~$20US, 100% Sauvignon Blanc, Pouilly-Fume, Loire Valley France.

My first Pouilly-Fumé. Very very pale green-yellow in color. Surpisingly aromatic - guava, mango, grapefruit, fresh-cut-grass, and playground gravel on the nose. Explosive and expansive mouthfeel - like a spikey balloon expanding in your mouth - scintillating with spicy acidity on the outside yet round and viscous inside. Gunpowder keeps coming to mind. Very fresh, crisp, and bracing - dry in style, but very ripe fruit flavors balance the deal. It reminded me of a hypothetical mix - a dash of new-world Viognier and a bone-dry, austere Mosel Riesling - but zingier. Long, chalky finish.

To my tastes, this simply outclasses the New Zealand wines of the variety that I have tried (including some at this price and above) in terms of complexity - with the gravelly flinty bits and a the hint of (signature) smoke and great fruit. I’d love this with grilled fish, shellfish, or goat cheese salads. Seek this out if you’ve never had an old-world SB - you’ll be rewarded.

~$US20 Montlouis sur Loire, Touraine, Loire Valley, France

The Chenin Blanc grape is really something special. In the Loire valley, this grape can do just about anything - be dry, be sparkling, be sweet, be demi-sec, be fortified, be affected by noble rot, etc. But, like Riesling, sometimes you don’t know what you are going to get, unless you know the winemakers, the styles, the areas, and the vintages…The Tuffeaux is a blend of several of Chidaine’s vineyards - typically using the select (sometimes riper) grapes to make the best wine possible. I chilled this in the fridge, and popped it - not sure exactly how sweet it would be.

On the nose the complexity is dazzling - especially after it warmed up and had time to open. Apples, pears, flowers, rocks, grass, honey and asparagus (?!) On the palate it was equally beguiling - my wife and I couldn’t decide on how sweet or dry it really was. The facts were thus - there was definitely some sugar, and definitely a firm acidity. How these were proportioned is a mystery (and it changed through the course of the sip, glass, and bottle). Medium-to-full-bodied. There was an ghostly taste just after the swallow that exploded into my nose and reminded me of toast and broccoli. Very persistent finish - but dry. The finish reminded me of a red wine (flinty and Priorat-like).

All and all - a strange wine, but immediately lovable in that it was alive. Not a light, summertime-sipper. This is a versatile food wine - wonderful with exotic asian fair with spice (dim sum, korean seafood soups, spicy grilled squid, etc). An A+ effort and a great value.