Wines to Impress Archives

Red Wine Review: Chateau Lassegue 2006

January 9, 2014 by Joe Janish

Chateau Lassegue 2006 | Saint-Emilion, Bordeaux, France

Yet another stellar example of right bank Bordeaux by brilliant winemaker Pierre Seillan.

Generous, open nose give opulent scents of ripe black fruit, earth, and mild hints of dark chocolate, tobacco, and something vegetal. On the palate it’s more restrained — really tight, not ready to offer the ample fruit waiting to erupt after a few years in the cellar. What you do get — after several rounds of double-decanting and allowing the wine to hang around in the open air — is complex layers of red and black fruit, earth, tar, and tobacco. What tips off the future greatness of this wine is its lengthy, perfectly balanced finish. No one element jumps out to be counted, but the subtle, complex flavors are preserved with appropriate levels of acidity and tannins. Visit our website tadalafiltablets.net for buy generic cialis online. The finish goes on, in balance, for five minutes plus; even when it finally disappears from the palate, there’s no heat, astringency, nor bitterness taking away from the pleasure.

If you want a New World, fruit-forward, jammy ripe cocktail-hour wine that bursts in your mouth with upfront flavors right now (and goes better with a cigar than food), then stay away from this wine. However, if you prefer an understated, youthful, harmonic wine with structure to match with beefy or gamey dishes, then stock a case of this in your cellar, forget about for about five years, and start uncorking a bottle a year until it reaches its apex. It will be well worth the wait.

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Disclosure: I received this wine as a press sample

White Wine Review: Luna Mater

July 12, 2013 by Joe Janish

Fontana Candida Frascati “Luna Mater” 2009 | Lazio, Italy

This is one of those wines for that rare person who enjoys drinking wine with food, and/or considers wine as food.

OK, I’m being a little facetious / condescending. The truth is, like most Italian wines, this is food — at least, as far as I’m concerned.

Don’t — under ANY circumstances — attempt to [Read more…]

Red Bordeaux Wine Review: Chateau Lassegue

May 25, 2013 by Joe Janish

Chateau Lassegue 2005 | Saint-Emilion, Bordeaux, France

Wow. That’s the initial impression on the nose, which is generous with aromas of numerous black fruits, spices, mineral, and earth tones. I could sit here and smell the wine all day, the fragrance is so lovely — and continuously evolving. Which takes me to a vital point: decant this wine, several times.

At minimum, I recommend “triple decanting,” which means, pour the wine out of the bottle and into a clean, dry, glass vessel — such as a decanter — then pour it into another vessel (or, back into the bottle, using a funnel), then pour it back into the decanter, then repeat the cycle one more time. This back-and-forth effort from one container to the other will aerate the wine, allowing the deep aromas and delicious goodness to begin to emerge.

I say “begin” because this wine is still quite young, despite being eight years “old.” There are many layers to this complex juice, and only a hint of them are showing themselves right now. Generally speaking, I like to drink high quality (read: expensive) wines when they’re younger than most serious enophiles and critics would recommend, but in this case, even I would stash this in a cool cellar for another four or five years — at minimum. I’m certain this wine will continue to develop and mature for 10-15 years at least before it starts a descent.

As with all wines I’ve tasted by winemaker Pierre Seillan, Chateau Lassegue is [Read more…]

Red Wine Review: Murrieta’s Well The Spur

May 15, 2012 by Joe Janish

Murrieta’s Well The Spur 2008 | Livermore Valley, California

Lately I’ve been spending too much time at my very awesome job, commuting, blogging elsewhere, giving baseball lessons, and doing other things in life that take me away from writing here. I took a look at my list of “drafts” and there are now two dozen waiting in the hopper — but, not all are necessarily “ready” by my standards, which is why they’re not yet published. However, I’m going to make an effort to get some of the reviews out — even without much editing — because if I wait any longer you won’t find some of these wines at your retail shop any longer.

So without further ado, herewith a review of Murietta’s Well The Spur, tasted far too long ago and likely tasting even better now.

A Bordeaux blend — 54% Cabernet Sauvignon 23% Petit Verdot 10% Petite Sirah 9% Cabernet Franc 4% Malbec — from California, but I wouldn’t confuse this with a true Bordeaux. The nose is expressive, dominated by chocolatey spice notes and black fruit — plum, cassis, blackberry. In the mouth you get some sweet oak spice upfront, with blackberry, cassis, black raspberry, and plum flavors following. Decent acidity and dry tannins appear in the finish, which also brings in dusted dark chocolate. For me, this was a hard one to match with food because of the sweet oak character, but it’s a nice “cocktail” wine to drink on its own. For me, it profiles similarly to a modern (i.e., American oak-aged) Rioja. At about $20-$25, this is a good deal.

Visit my friend Christopher Null’s site “DrinkHacker” to read a review of Murrieta’s Well The Spur 2009 vintage, which is more likely to be found at your local retailer.

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NOTE: I received this wine as a sample

Emiliana Coyam

December 5, 2010 by Joe Janish

The 2007 vintage of this wine was originally sent to me by Wines of Chile for their blogger tasting in October; I tasted the 2005 vintage at an “importers seminar” at Puro Chile a few days ago. Both were led by Master Sommelier and Chilean wine expert Fred Dexheimer.

Interestingly, I didn’t realize the other day that I’d tasted the Coyam before. More interestingly, when I compared my notes, they were almost identical — and highly positive. The ’07 is not surprisingly slightly more fresh, but both are juicy, complex, and delicious wine — and one of the best I’ve had from Chile. That’s saying something, considering that my company imports some outstanding wines from De Martino.

The blend is 38% Syrah, 21% Cabernet Sauvignon, 21% Carmenere, 17% Merlot, 2% Petit Verdot, and 1% Mourvedre, all from the Colchagua Valley.

The nose exudes typical Chilean aromas, which to me are similar to earthiness you smell in a classic French Merlot — i.e., distinct green bell pepper, dirt, and tobacco — along with ripe red and black fruits and hint of chocolate. Similar flavors flow on the palate: ripe red and black berries, mild earth notes, hint of chocolate — all held together by ripe tannins and ample acidity. On its own, the tannins and acid are slightly too much, but those elements are ideal when pairing with food; I matched it perfectly with a buffalo burger.

According to the label, “coyam” is a Mapuche term meaning “oak” (the Mapuches were a tribe of peoples native to South America, particularly in Chile and Argentina). However, this wine does not have overwhelming oak influence; on the contrary, there is just enough wood to add a lovely, subtle spice component (I think this is where the chocolate element comes from).

This is a very tasty, complex, well-balanced wine that is best enjoyed with lean protein. Match it with the buffalo burgers that I did, or try it with turkey burgers, mildly spiced chili, bean-based dishes, mild cheeses.

By the way, this is also an organic / biodynamic wine, if you care.

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