Red – Page 9 – @sommeligay

Grenache, especially from the new world, is the alcoholic embodiment of lazy summer nights in your underwear at home while your gut hangs out and all you want to do is watch videos of cats and turn on Netflix. (Wow, invite me over already and I’ll bring the pizza.)

The grape is an early budder and late ripener, and therefore needs sunlight and heat. It’s also a plump grape with thin skins, which equates to a fuller body without being too tannically textured, and let’s not forget about how much alcohol the grape can pump out as a result of its own gut. The grape isn’t often impressively intense in flavours, but all these reasons are exactly why Grenache is often blended.… read more

WSET Diploma

Like a supermodel: Abel’s Tempest 2012 Pinot Noir

December 7, 2014November 16, 2015 by Josh

[Tasted during WSET Diploma – Unit 3 – Week 7: Australia]

The wine was kinda like a supermodel, we sort of agreed: pretty, but just a tad skinny. Not in an overtly negative way, of course, but just as part of its personality: the wine did have a good level of intensity and concentration, even though some complexity and length was left to the imagination.

For old world Pinot, I find that there can be that difficult balance between being elegant and being watery. There’s a bit of a parallel in warmer regions, where you don’t want to amp up the volume too much, since excessive ripeness can take over Pinot’s elegance. So it’s great that Pinot is being grown in the cooler pockets like the Yarra Valley and Tasmania, where we can find ballsier but balanced versions of Pinot Noir.… read more

WSET Diploma

“Soldier’s Poem” – Muse: Lucien Barrot 2009 Châteauneuf-du-Pape

December 3, 2014November 16, 2015 by Josh

[Tasted during WSET Diploma – Unit 3 – Week 6: Rhône]

Just from the looking at our flight of five, it was obvious that this was the most aged from the orange-tinged garnet hue, but I’m pretty sure everyone pegged it as Châteauneuf-du-Pape because it was the last wine (including myself, perhaps). The most kingly appellation in the southern Rhône can offer some level of variety like other southern Rhône blends, allowing something like 13 different grapes (18 including mutations) into its wines, with top producers varying their recipes dramatically. Château de Beaucastel, for example, is known for making a Châteauneuf-du-Pape with all of the allowed varieties, while Chateau Rayas makes one that’s virtually a Grenache clubhouse.

The most evolved wine of the bunch of course had more leather, nuts, spice, and earth to match the stewed and dried fruit.… read more

WSET Diploma

Cancelled plans: Brunel 2012 “La Gardine” Côtes du Rhône

December 3, 2014November 16, 2015 by Josh

[Tasted during WSET Diploma – Unit 3 – Week 6: Rhône]

In our flight of a rosé (obviously Tavel, being in a Rhône-themed class) and four reds, this was the penultimate wine of our tasting. Everyone in the room had the middle three muddled up because they were the most similar. Perhaps three levels of Côtes du Rhone blends, we all thought.

I surmised that this was the lowest quality out of the three middle wines we tasted. In the wine’s defence, it probably tasted washed out because of the two bulkier blends before it. I thought it was less than ordinary at only the acceptable level: though it had peppery fruit on the nose, the palate just seemed less vibrant and rather light despite the high alcohol, like someone decided to go to a party and then cancel right when it started.… read more

WSET Diploma

“Smoke on the Water” – Deep Purple: Domaine Maby 2012 “La Fermade” Lirac

December 3, 2014November 16, 2015 by Josh

[Tasted during WSET Diploma – Unit 3 – Week 6: Rhône]

The middle three wines in this flight were notably similar: so we were given three choices. One was a simple Côtes du Rhone, one was a step high in quality as a Côtes du Rhône Villages, and one was a step higher in quality than that, as another appellation in the Southern Rhone, or an appellation that used to be at the Villages level but was drawn into its own appellation. I thought that the third in the flight was the obvious simple CdR level, because it didn’t have the same concentration, intensity, or length. That left us with the first two, which were actually rather similar.

I found this one slightly less exuberant compared to the first, and perhaps less friendly in its aromas.… read more

WSET Diploma

God’s plan: Château La Courançonne 2012 Côtes du Rhône Villages Plan de Dieu

December 3, 2014November 16, 2015 by Josh

[Tasted during WSET Diploma – Unit 3 – Week 6: Rhône]

“Plan de Dieu” is one of the named villages of the “Côtes du Rhone Villages” appellation, much like Rasteau and Gigondas and Vacqueyras once were before graduating to their own AOPs. I also think it’s the creepiest sounding one, and I’d love to both know the story behind it and also keep a bottle on hand every time someone tells me something is part of “God’s plan”. Then I can, in just an ominous whisper, say “no, this is part of God’s plan”, and then subsequently uncork the bottle without breaking eye contact. And then get really drunk. It’s foolproof – to what, I don’t even remember or care.… read more

WSET Diploma

“I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” – The Beatles: Alain Graillot 2011 Crozes-Hermitage

December 2, 2014November 16, 2015 by Josh

[Tasted during WSET Diploma – Unit 3 – Week 6: Rhône]

We had just three wines in our first flight (this was the third), and all were from the northern Rhône, we were told. The first was obviously a Viognier, but the second and the third were clearly born of the same idea, if not grape. Though the wine was clearly more youthful from just the looks of it, it also smelled more playful than its previous, with more intense aromas of flowers and riper fruit to replace the smoked meat.

Hermitage is the rare and more famous appellation and hill, of course, and even by looking at a map and seeing how Crozes-Hermitage surrounds Hermitage like a donut, we can predict off the bat that slopes here aren’t as dramatic.… read more

WSET Diploma

Breakfast in a glass, pt. 2: Delas 2009 “Seigneur de Maugiron” Côte-Rôtie

December 2, 2014November 16, 2015 by Josh

[Tasted during WSET Diploma – Unit 3 – Week 6: Rhône]

This wine was basically breakfast in a glass part 1 with its toast, coffee, and marmalade sort of deal. If you were wondering. Enter part 2! We still have toast on the breakfast menu for this wine, but toss in some smoky peppered bacon and toast with blackberry jam. And then replace the citrus marmalade with something leathery. (Or something.)

The appellation from which this wine comes is the northernmost tip of the Rhône, where gravelly soils extend from Beaujolais. Viticulture is almost as expensive as it gets, with low yields and sloped vineyards, leading to necessary terraces and obligatory manual harvesting.

Like Condrieu to the south, plantings were relatively low as recent as the 60s and 70s but boomed in the 90s, in this case, due to Guigal and Robert Parker.… read more

WSET Diploma

On the list to retry: Zinck 2012 Muscat

November 18, 2014November 17, 2015 by Josh

[Tasted during WSET Diploma – Unit 3 – Week 5: Alsace]

At this point in time we’re halfway through the wines that we need to taste and we’re being a bit rushed. It doesn’t help that my stomach, for some reason, is angry with me. Ahh!

A grapey and floral aroma reminiscent of a subdued and more elegant Gewurztraminer is my benchmark for tasting Muscat blind, but burnt hair and matchsticks are my benchmarks for sulphites. By this point I was rushing and had too little wine in my glass before I could reassess, so retrying this wine is something I need to do. The general consensus was that there was some sulphitic character in the wine that needed to blow off.… read more

WSET Diploma

First impression over the second: Charles Sparr 2011 Cuvée Tradition Pinot Noir

November 18, 2014November 17, 2015 by Josh

[Tasted during WSET Diploma – Unit 3 – Week 5: Alsace]

We’ve started off with the red in our flight of eight Alsatian wines, because Alsatian Pinot Noir is arguably softer and more delicate than its steely whites. I don’t remember the last time I’ve even had an Alsatian Pinot Noir, but it makes total sense that the cool climate region chooses Pinot Noir out of all red grape varieties to specialize in. Alsace tends to produce lighter styles compared to Burgundy with noticeably paler colour and softer texture, but for me it’s been personally hard to generalize because you just don’t see it much in this market, ever. The grape puts a small dent in the total plantings of grapes in Alsace, at around 10 percent.… read more

@sommeligay

Tag: Red

Lazy summer nights: Yalumba 2013 Old Bush Vine Grenache

Like a supermodel: Abel’s Tempest 2012 Pinot Noir

“Soldier’s Poem” – Muse: Lucien Barrot 2009 Châteauneuf-du-Pape

Cancelled plans: Brunel 2012 “La Gardine” Côtes du Rhône

“Smoke on the Water” – Deep Purple: Domaine Maby 2012 “La Fermade” Lirac

God’s plan: Château La Courançonne 2012 Côtes du Rhône Villages Plan de Dieu

“I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” – The Beatles: Alain Graillot 2011 Crozes-Hermitage

Breakfast in a glass, pt. 2: Delas 2009 “Seigneur de Maugiron” Côte-Rôtie

On the list to retry: Zinck 2012 Muscat

First impression over the second: Charles Sparr 2011 Cuvée Tradition Pinot Noir