“…it has a welcome place in our rotating selections of dry rosé…”
I haven’t reviewed many of the Mary Taylor Wines lately, because, frankly, I haven’t seen many of them around here in the Royal Oak, Ferndale and Southfield marketplace. The Plum Markets in Ann Arbor have been bringing in new MTW selections fairly regularly, but we don’t get over to A-Squared as much as we used to, and while the Bloomfield and West Bloomfield locations tell me that they can order any of them I like, it’s hard to know what I’m ordering without access to the distributor’s list of what is and what is not available.
I did find the latest vintage of an MTW rosé that we liked a lot back in May of ‘23, at Holiday Market in Royal Oak. It costs $3 more than the previous effort, but it’s still well worth the money.
2022 Mary Taylor Wines Christophe Avi Agenais Rosé, 20% Cab Franc, 80% Cab Sauvignon, 13% alc., $14.99: A pretty pink in color, this has good intensity and even a bit of structure. It is one of those dry rosés that wouldn’t mind a year or two in the cellar, thanks to its zippy acidity and restrained tannins to back it up. That doesn’t mean that you can’t drink it now, however; I enjoyed a few glasses while relaxing and capturing these impressions. There’s a rich, earthy core of a raspberry strawberry watermelon melange shaded with some mineral that comes out more as it opens with air. Like the 2020, it has a welcome place in our rotating selections of dry rosé we enjoy throughout the year. Find this wine
Indication Géographique Protégée means a delineated area which designates a particular terroir style (weirdly hard to translate this). In this case, Agenais is the IGP, overlapping with Buzet, Cotes du Marmandais and Cotes de Duras and is in the Lot et Garonne Department (47) which refers to the 2 rivers that flow through this stunning landscape, speckled with Gothic and Romanesque architecture. The ancient capital city Agen is 84 miles from Bordeaux. Soils here range from sandy riverbed to limestone hills in the north.
Christophe Avi who also makes our Buzet wine is a farmer with a passion for biodynamic viticulture. In his 40s, he runs his ancestor’s farm that borders AOC Buzet and AOC Cotes de Bruhlois. Since 1992, after a degree in oenology and viticulture, Christophe has honed his skills cultivating what is called ‘the blood of the Garonne.
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Reporting from Day-twah,
Bastardo
