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“There’s a lot of wine here, for not a lot of money.”

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I rarely do organized tastings these days. My modus operandi hasn’t changed much since we started Gang of Pour way back in ‘97: “ We feel that fine wine is best enjoyed and evaluated when we can sip a glass or two leisurely over a period of time, without hurry, in order to more fully appreciate its charms, and to observe how it changes and develops in the glass. We sacrifice quantity of selections sampled, in favor of quality of the tasting experience itself.”

There are exceptions, of course, like when I went to meet Mary Taylor at last Thursday’s Plum Market event. Or, I might be on a “scouting mission,” looking for selections that I can spend a little time with and get to know better on a later date. Again, such was the case last Thursday, when I came home with six wines, two of which have already been reviewed here. I’ve opened two more bottles since then, and both I and my wife Kim really like both. Here are my impressions.

2021 Mary Taylor Wines Anne Sarda Cabrerisse, 100% Carignan, 14.5% alc., $12.99: The aromatics improved in my immediate vicinity as soon as I pulled the cork and poured a glass of this darkly colored red. The flavors echo and expand on the promise of the nose, with lots of rich black plums and berries, shaded with earth, underbrush and a little leather. Full bodied, a bit chewy and built for at least 3-5 years in the cellar, yet loaded with enough fruit to make it a good second and third glass kinda wine right now. Kim really likes it on the second day, and like me, marvels at the QPR (quality-price-ratio) it offers. Find this wine

Our Cabrerisse comes from 40-60 year-old Carignan vines, dry-famed in the stony landscape of this small Languedoc appellation. Winemaker Anne Sarda works her vineyards by hand, and the wine is fermented with native, ambient yeasts and aged in concrete vessels up to 105 years old.

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2018 Mary Taylor Wines Odile Delpon Cahors, 13% alc., $14.97: Clean and dark in color, with nice black currant, black cherry and subtle tobacco aromas. Rich and intense on the palate, this is a full bodied, well-structured young wine that starts to settle down with some air, showing plenty of black currant and blackberry, underscored with notes of earth, leather, underbrush and tobacco. This is a pure expression of 100% Malbec, with none of the oak char that besets too many of the Argentine models we’ve had over the years. If you drink it now, give it an hour in a decanter to open first. I think it’ll be even better in three to five years, and of course, it’s a wine that will pair well with all kinds o’ things beef. There’s a lot of wine here, for not a lot of money. Find this wine

Cahors once covered 48,000 hectares of vines, but after phylloxera shrank to 4,000 hectares. Nowadays there is less wine made in Cahors, but generally the quality is much higher. Our friend Didier Pelvillain farms at the highest level of sustainability and biodynamic conversion is in process. Only indigenous yeasts are used. The outcome is a floral, savory, peppery wine of refinement – clean and fresh – dark plum fruit with more mineral qualities than barnyard.

Next, in my third and final installment, I’ll post my impressions of Mary Taylor’s red wines from Sicilia and Navarra. They may have been my two favorites at the tasting, so it’ll be interesting to see how they perform when I spend a little more time with each.

Mary Taylor Wines are imported by Nashawtuc LLC, Sandy Hook, CT

Reporting from Day-twah,
Bastardo

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