wine porn

Those of you who have visited my cellar know it is ridiculously unorganized. I mean–EYE know where everything is (mostly), and there’s a *general* area for some things which have just coalesced over the years. I have a whole bunch of those racks Cost Plus used to sell–they still sell them, but they are unfinished, mine are stained wood. I have about 10 of them, plus some metal racks and of course…

The old Sawyer coming in strong here at an infantile 11 years old and this vineyard has come under a lot of changes in those years. Pretty sure Brooke is gone, while multitudes of producers source from this hallowed spot downstream and across the street from Alban. Row-contracts with their obligatory ripeness quotients notwithstanding, some people still get beautiful fruit from this foggy,…

Glossy banana heat with a vague nose of berry, ridiculous raspy chalk on blithering tannins propped up with blackberry and currant. Is this the best wine you’ve ever had? No. Is it the worst wine you’ve ever had? No. Is it worth writing about. No. Will you buy it again? No. Are you pouring it out? No. Do you love every single sip of it? Yes. Should you stop talking? Also yes. 2018 CHATEAU…

Not a brilliant wine. Oxidized and supple in ripeness. Almost alicante bouchet in feeling and rather unusual for the producer and pedigree. No structural complexity, just lavish glossiness cast across layers of derivation shallow and plump. No cab-franc spiciness, no petit verdot blackness, no Cabernet institutions. Just over-ripe decadence bleaking down on unsavory things easy to pick apart.…

After my Grenache tirade last week, I had to pull one of these out. By now all of you are used to my rash over generalizations on wine, but still the Grenache thing stands. So many of them are just muddy, vague, too-glossy renditions of something pantomining at greatness. This is not one of them. This Mounts Vineyard Dry Creek Valley creeping up on 10 does indeed have some of that glossy…

What a stunning Syrah. These just continue to wow year after year. Crazy astringency and gear lube and nuts & bolts and chalky rock crammed around a ridiculous ripe black cherry buried beneath all the brashness impossible to ignore. Tannins on 11 and not a trace of tertiary anywhere in it just evolving with sublime elegance and angst. The depth and complexity leaves one nearly speechless, with…

A Zinfandel quite unlike a lot of the zinfandels you are used to drinking. And we all know that Zinfandel kind of stopped being Zinfandel about 20 years ago and became this ridiculously ripe flatulent bullshit sponsored by Paso Robles and many of our beloved Sonoma and Dry Creek Valley offerings followed suit. I don’t want to be too hard on zinfidel but in the late ’80s and ’90s I was the world’s…

If horrible aspirations and dread were a wine, this is it. The nose glossy and slutty, the uptake flatulent beyond ripe dirivations, the finish a calm manifestation of what the 99 THINK petite sirah SHOULD BE but in all arenas an abomination to the variety. Please make it go away. Nothing complex or wishing comprised herein: a bland over-wrougt red situation completely devoid of reason or…

Gorgeous BdB from @coast.wine and skurnikwines a delicate peach with green apple bitterness making all the chalk and barely-brutiness go down smoothly. ALL the beautiful info we demand on the back label for a few extra points. I’m really liking chardonnay these days with the extra-brits and brut narures. #champagne @pggimonnet Blanc de Blanc 5g/l 12.5

Started out with an Outward Carmel Valley Cabernet at 13-3 and finishing up with a winery I’m fairly certain is out of business but oh my God what an amazing version of the grape. And the thing about Agllanico is just the timeless effortless aging. Clarksburg files in here, neat and orderly, dropping the delta bottom land sandy brilliance on a variety they shine on only second to the chenin…

I like this one a lot. I know it’s just the normal Santa Rita hills, no special vineyards or or reserve or anything, but that’s typically my sweet spot in Pinot from almost any producer. Good and tight, sharp bright dry, moderate oak, plenty of funk and dirt, but still managing a a sunshiny brilliance of nearly timeless proportions. Classic Pinot, an absolutely classic pinot checking all the…

The most astonishing part of this wine is the absolute lack of tertiary. There’s just nothing about this wine that screams 10 years old. Nothing. A roiled greasy nose of dank Pinot influence, muddled down and glorious of bitter, briary black cherry and hedge trimmings; a mouthfeel sharp and acidic though dull with hammered-out delinquency of pure berry. Glossy while moderately elegant, the shards…

I’ve often said “GSM is for people who hate red wine” and that statement gets a lot of kick-back from people unable to see the big picture. Obviously, I’m not referring to CdP or others, but in New World terms, think about it: People walk into a winery in California with un-educated palates, they are like, I don’t like Pinot, I don’t like cabernet, Merlot is stupid, what is Mourvedre? Syrah is…

Easily one of my biggest explanations and hardest sells to alleged wine people, even more so than J.Lohr wildflower valdiguie or Santa Cruz mountain Cab. People see Korbel–even people who are supposed to know about wine–people see Korbel and they just go instantly to the dark side because they are shallow. Trust me, I’m well aware of the crimes committed against the wine community by Korbel extra…

My love affair with Grenache is honestly, almost over. It’s been going on for 10 or 15 years and it is a charismatic grape, and quite interesting, and a bit of a chameleon, and of course I have been drawn to the lower bodied, more pinot-ish expressions of it, but still, I’ve been really starting to find enough flaws in this variety to seriously deter my interest anymore. The whole “Grenache…

When Bonny Doon made their big shift a half-dozen years ago, I was a bit iffy on their transitions involving several eatablished labels–and still am–but the addition of the little picpoul screwtop Infelt justified. And still do. This is a fairly brilliant wine, almost crystal clear, beautiful nose of pear and natal plum with just enough muddled applesauce to make it interesting. Rich and…

Day in and day out I drink a lot of interesting wines and I try to find the good in all of them, but every so often you open something that just blows you away in its absolute grasp of perfection. SOOOO much beautiful St. Joseph Syrah situation laid down here, from the greasy bright nose muddled down into Pinot territory, but with that tincture of citrus unmistakably Rhone, into fruit so chalkily…