Nov 10th 2008
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Vintage: 2007
Purchased: Aug 30th 2007
Price: $20.00
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Tasting Notes:
This is a great example of dry chenin blanc. It's got good tropical and apple fruit notes, a hint of smokiness, tons of minerals, and crisp acidity. I wish I had more.
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Oct 7th 2008
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Vintage: 1990
Purchased: Feb 29th 2008
Price: $38.74
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Tasting Notes:
For Kathrine's birthday we brought this along with us to eat at a local French restaurant,
Cremant. The wine was a light red in the glass and completely transparent. Darker than a rose, but much lighter than most red wine produced today. The nose was complete barnyard and manure. It was not unpleasant, but was strikingly strong. As the night wore on, the barnyard started to blow off and fade to the background leaving scents of smoke, cedar, and bright tart cherries. The wine was extremely tasty. The first flavors were of cherries and bright red fruit. On the midpalate I found a slight green vegetal character and notes of sun dried tomato. Kathrine detected more of a tin/metallic flavor. The finish was quite long with the soft tannins fading away to the great acidity and lingering smokey and cedar flavors. As the night wore on, it opened up even more with the cherry flavor brightening up; and it even started gaining a cherry pit flavor as well. This was not the best wine I've ever had, but it was one of the most interesting.
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Jul 30th 2008
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Vintage: 2005
Purchased: Dec 3rd 2007
Price: $14.93
Number on Hand: 1
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Tasting Notes:
I do love me some Loire Cabernet Franc. I love it so much it makes me talk like a redneck. This is an outstanding wine with a QPR off the chart.
The color is fairly dark and inky with aromas that just explode. There is a ton of juicy raspberry, with just a hint of green herb notes and even a little tar. In the mouth, the aromas are duplicated with a perfect acidity and just enough astringency from the tannins to keep everything in check. The finish is long with a bitter dark chocolate note.
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May 2nd 2008
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Vintage: 2004
Purchased: Aug 15th 2007
Price: $16.99
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Tasting Notes:
This is a different style of Loire Cabernet Franc than I'm used to. Where as most is lighter and a touch green, this is very concentrated and extracted. In the glass it's a dark inky purple that could be mistaken for a much more warm climated cab franc from Washington State. One sniff though, and you know it's a different beast. The first sent that hits you is saved pencil lead. Odd, but intriguing. It's rather closed at first but more aeration leads to dark fruit scents and a touch of flowers. In the mouth this is a concentrated wine! Tons of dark fruit mingle with a minerality that is just great. The tannins are there, but not over powering. The bright cranberry flavored acid cuts right though everything. The best part was how it evolved and opened as the night went on. This is a great wine at this price, and one that would probably benefit from extended aging.
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Apr 22nd 2008
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Vintage: 2006
Purchased: Aug 8th 2007
Price: $11.84
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Tasting Notes:
This wine was quite different than the
2005 and really shows how variation there can be from vintage to vintage.
It is a nice golden color, which a fruity peach and pear aroma. There is just a hint of grapefruit in the nose, and not much mineral. The dominant flavor of the wine is pear. It's very juicy and pleasant. More fruity than I expected. The acidity is very prevalent on the finish along with a slight chalky taste.
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Feb 13th 2008
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Vintage: 2005
Purchased: Sep 13th 2007
Price: $11.99
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Tasting Notes:
This is a wine that would be a decent wine at about twice the price. At the price I got it for, my only regret is I didn't buy more.
It is a bright gold color. The nose is a combination of fresh pear, orange and lemon. There are components of flowers, grass and anise just underneath. The acids are gentle but give plenty of support to the flavor. It is medium bodied with orchard fruit flavors and pleasantly bitter grapefruit note adding interest. The finish is juicy and pliant, ending on a note of spice and grass.
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Dec 28th 2007
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Vintage: 2005
Purchased: Mar 18th 2007
Price: $12.87
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Tasting Notes:
We had this with individual quiches and sauteed brussel sprouts with smoky bacon. Normally, one thinks of Muscadet with Oysters or Mussels; but this was a great pairing.
2005 was supposedly a great vintage in the Loire, and nothing about this wine leads me to say anything different. It was a much more golden color in the glass than I was expecting. It is a little older than normal, but I was hoping it wasn't past its prime (who ever heard of aging a Muscadet?). The aroma was wonderful. A mixture of grapefruit and wet limestone. In the mouth, the fruit was muted. The predominant flavor was again the grapefruit, but there were hints of apple and citrus rind (a slight bitterness that I loved). The finish was long and dominated by the minerals. This minerality played wonderfully with the smokiness of the bacon.
I have a bottle of the 2006 waiting to be tasted, and even though it's not as good of a vintage, I can't wait to compare them!
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Nov 21st 2007
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Vintage: 2005
Purchased: May 4th 2007
Price: $9.99
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Tasting Notes:
I don't have a way with words that some people possess. Let's just say that I enjoyed this wine immensely. I will let John Rimmerman of Garagiste say it for me:
"From a select parcel of vineyards above the River Cher, the 2005 Prestige du Vigneron we offer below was the Liger d'Or winner (Gold Medal) for Touraine at the Loire Concours among very stiff competition - all for a wine that sells for $9.99. This is Cabernet Franc and Cot (Malbec) raised in tank and left to their own devices, without additions or subtractions. What you see is what you get and in a vintage like 2005, you get a lot. A lot of color, a lot of flavor and lot of intense, perfumed, deep fruit. Think of the pigment John Hancock used to sign the Declaration of Independence and this free-spirited wine will satisfy your curiosity in more ways than one. While this wine will not age as long as the Declaration, it should drink quite well for a number of years - at least the next 3-5 and possibly longer."
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Nov 1st 2007
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Vintage: 2006
Purchased: Jun 24th 2007
Price: $6.00
Purchase Location: Uwajimaya
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Tasting Notes:
I like French sauvignon blanc best of all the versions. This is a pretty stunning example of what you can get from France for not a lot of money.
The wine is a pale straw color, very light in the glass. The aromas are of apple, grapefruit, and mineral. It's quite brisk and refreshing with the apple and grapefruit dominating, and just a little of the herbaciousness that you sometimes get from the grape.
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Oct 24th 2007
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Vintage: 2005
Purchased: Mar 11th 2007
Price: $13.87
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Tasting Notes:
This wine has a very long name. But I'm here to help.
Cave des Vignerons de Saumur is the producer, I've had a fair number of their wines and they all seem to be fairly good.
Saumur-Champigny is the AOC in the Loire Valley that this wine comes from. "Les lieux dits" is basically the French way of saying that this wine comes from a single vineyard, in this case one called Les Poyeux. Like most of the red wines from the Loire, and nearly all the red wines from Saumur, this is cabernet franc. Wine Spectator also happened to give this wine 90 points, if you're into that.
This wine is a deep purple, almost inky black color in the glass, with a bright purple rim, and a slightly watery edge. The nose is tart black cherry, plums, and a slight perfume scent. In the mouth it is very fleshy with the same fruit flavors up front. The acidity is perfect with a long finish that evokes both chocolate and olives. As bad as that sounds, it's actually wonderful.
This is a superb value, and a great example why cabernet franc is becoming one of my favorites.
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