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

Via Kermit Lynch. Berry patch vs. vegetable garden. Fresh spinach and tart cherries, with a slight bell-pepper aroma. I expected a bit more brawn given the vintage, but the wine proved to be light-medium bodied with surprisingly bright acidity. Dusty tannins smoothed out and sweetened as the wine breathed. Chalky mineral-laden finish. Oh-so-drinkable weeknight food wine - it was empty when I went for that last glass.

Old-skool, old-world Loire Cabernet Franc, for pasta primavera and grilled chicken. Another year or two in bottle would beef up this this mustachioed-vest-wearing-sonumagun-of-a-wine.

~$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.

~$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… 

Pepiere Muscadet Clos Des Briords 2006, Loire: Fierce acidity, grapefruit, lime, and chalk dust. Very mineral and acid driven. Razor sharp and focused. Mouthfulls of gravel. Very long and persistent for a wine under ~$12. Drink with food you’d normally squeeze a lemon on.

Galena Priorat 2004, Priorat: Quite austere, but intriguing black tea, wet leaves, and high-toned fruit. Firm and acidic - leaning towards an elegance rather than an opulence. Restrained fruit, but really nice 2nd and 3rd tier herbal (oregano) characteristics. Good value @ $24, and an interesting blend of Garnacha, Cabernet, Merlot & Carignan. Try with pork dishes.

Kiona Cabernet-Merlot 2001, Washington: Old-world aromas - sweaty sock and barnyard - are welcome and characteristic of this unusual $11 wine. Caramelized broccoli and asparagus on the nose, with a black fruit core. Very juicy and lush on the palate - easy to drink indeed - the fruit has held up nicely and retains a fresh ripeness. The only thing holding this little wine from greatness is an annoying bitterness in the finish. This has gobs of character and charm, and is a great value. With ostrich or buffalo burgers - or asparagus wrapped in pancetta.

Tolaini Duesanti Toscana IGT 2003: A shocking combination of old-world Italian viticulture with Bordeaux grapes. This gem really delivers with a distinctive nose of black currant, dried parsley and mint, and a forest-floor woodsiness (not oaky). Great focus and purity on the palate - still tight with firm tannins but very expressive fruit ripeness and length. Much more interesting than the Paulliac tasted alongside it in the sub-$40 range. Try with braised veal shank and fresh pasta.

M5 Monastrell, 2005 Yecla: Undrinkable. Syrupy over-extracted and hot. Cheap raspberry-balsamic vinegar poured over a wet animal. Yuck. 92 pts Jay Miller?!?.

~$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.

~$12US %100 Chenin Blanc, Saumur, Loire Valley, France

Color: Medium Gold
Nose: Bracing and complex - green apple, lime zest, pineapple, under-ripe strawberries, honey
Palate: Medium-bodied, citrus freshness, river-rocks, piercing acidity in the midpalate
Finish: Fairly lengthy - tart, appetizing grapefruit and mineral water

A complex wine, not easy (for me) to like at first - but definitely finely crafted. A ‘grower’. While I appreciate fresh acidity, this was straight-up sour right after I popped the bottle. But, even at 5 years old, the wine really rounded out over the course of a few hours, making me think it could use another 2-3 years to continue improving. With some air-time, it became more integrated and nuanced - especially on the nose. Stylistically, this wine must be paired with food you’d squeeze a lemon on - I could imagine it being magic with with fresh oysters and shellfish. A specialized wine, well done.

~$14US 100% Cabernet Franc, Saumur-Champigny, Loire, France

Nose: Red cherries, Autumn leaves, damp soil
Palate: Rollercoaster; Begins very broad and round, giving the illusion of big red fruits (like a big California Pinot), but transitions through the palate towards a leaner, almost bright finish. It never feels sweet, although as the tannins kick in later on the palate, the sweetness resides and the acidity plays the balancing role. Nice earth and fruit interplay.
Finish: Tobacco, very firm and vigorous.

Fresh and stimulating - but easy to drink. This Cab Franc displayed more earth and fruit than vegetables, and a mercurial palate. A great “gateway”wine to the Loire region. I would bet this will improve over the next 3-5 years in bottle as well. A perfect autumn lunch wine.

~$14US 100% Cabernet Franc

This medium ruby Chinon delivers a crazy nose of grilled asparagus, jalapenos peppers, and some black cherries deep in the background. Great balance of acidity and medium tanins makes this an killer food wine; we really enjoyed it with calzones (a proscuitto+pineapple and a meatball). This wine is a “Vegetable Bomb”. New World Fruitbombers  beware; you are probably not going to love this, but you should try it to see what the other side of the world looks like.

Stylish, and great with food, especially vegetables.