Category Archives: Tasting Notes

Another Fine Agenais Rosé

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“…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.
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Old School Rioja

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“At this price, you can buy multiple bottles and open one
every year or so and see how they develop with time.”

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My wife and I are longtime Costco members, so whenever we shop there, I make a point of hitting the wine department to see what’s new. There is always something good to be had, and I like to try wines that I’ve either never had before or new vintages of those that I have. Sometimes, the selections are uninspiring and forgettable, but usually, the wines are good enough to review, and occasionally, I find little gems like the one in this report.

We learned to love Rioja back in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, when we went through a lot of Marqués de Riscal. It wasn’t the Reserva that is usually found on shelves around here these days, and it was described on the label as “Rioja Light Red Wine.” It was by no means a “light” red however, as it had good weight and a delicious character from vintage to vintage that we loved. As time passed, we tried other Riojas, and the ones we liked most were various offerings from Bodegas Faustino, which seemed to honor tradition, rather than pander to new world sensibilities. When I saw this one, it was an easy choice to pick one up to try, and I’m not at all sorry that I did. Continue reading →

A Well-priced Oregon Pinot Noir

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“If you’re looking for a good new world Pinot Noir
for under $20, give this one a try.”

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As my preferences in red wine continue to evolve, I find myself more and more gravitating towards silky middleweight Pinot Noir and Gamay. I do still love my big Rhones, Zins and Bordeaux, but some of the best reds I’ve had in the last 25 years have been cru Beaujolais, and Pinot Noir from a variety of regions around the world.

This particular specimen is not a “great” wine, but it’s a good one, especially for the money, and it’s in a style I favor. I first tried it a few months ago, then again about three weeks ago, and now, as I write this. I’ve liked it well enough that I keep buying more at Plum Market, and shall continue to do so. Continue reading →

Rosé for May

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“You can pay more for a good rosé, but you don’t have to.”

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I’m starting to see more new vintages of wines I’ve reviewed in the past year, which of course, offers plenty of new scouting opportunities for this taster, along with the corresponding chances to compare them with their predecessors. This is fun for a wine geek like me, because I can gauge the continuity of styles as they progress, or sometimes digress from those that came before.

This dry rosé is a good example. I’ve enjoyed more than a few Campuget wines over the years, but this is the one I’ve seen most often lately. Like last year’s model, it’s a solid value at a very good price (and a buck cheaper to boot, go figure). It’s not entirely clear how or why a wine that has previously been designated as produced in Costieres de Nimes is now listed as an IGP, when even the tech sheet still says it’s from Costieres de Nimes. Whatever the case, the important thing is what’s in the bottle, and this stuff is much to my liking. Continue reading →

Cote des Roses

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“…a great choice for an everyday dry rosé.”

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A few days ago, I played my first music gig in almost two years, blowing harp in a small ensemble backing the very fine Detroit singer-songwriter Emily Rose in her tribute to Townes van Zandt. It was a marvelous night of music, and when I got home, it was too late to open any bubbly or a big red, so I celebrated with a couple of glasses of dry rosé, and that was just fine by me. Continue reading →

A New Malbec from Wapisa

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“These Wapisa Malbecs offer plenty of bang for the buck…”

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It’s been a little slow around here since an upper respiratory ailment paid a visit to our house last month. I haven’t gotten out on scouting missions as much as I would have liked, and when I have, nothing new in the way of wine has jumped out at me. That all changed when my wife Kim and I went to pick up fresh provisions at our friendly neighborhood Costco a few days ago.

This is the 3rd consecutive vintage of Wapisa Malbec that has shown up in the last year. I’ve been impressed by the ’20 and ’21 models, and this one is as good, if not even better than those.
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Rhône-ish Boy

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“This hardy red is perfect for everyday drinking.”

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I’m always in the market for a good, inexpensive red Rhône or Rhône-style red wine. I first fell in love with these critters back in the late ‘80s, when the legendary Tim McCarthy of Cost Plus Wines in Detroit’s Eastern Market put a bottle of the Chateau Chapelle Saint-Pierre Côtes-du-Rhône in my hands. It cost all of $6, and it was a beauty, with no rough edges whatsoever. We went through cases of the stuff, until it finally dried up, but by then, I knew what was what, and Grenache-Syrah (et al) based wines would become my standard for decades to come.

Of course, what was inexpensive back in the day cost rather less than it does now. Currently, if I can find a satisfying red for $12-13, I’m going to jump on it. This wine is a good case in point. I’ve seen it around for a while now, but I avoided buying it initially because of the “cute” cicada troubadour on the label, not wanting to succumb to the “Yellow Tail syndrome,” as I like to call it. However, I finally gave a bottle a closer look, and when I noticed that it is imported by my friends at A.H.D. Vintners, that was all I needed to know. A.H.D. maintains one of the finest portfolios in the Detroit market, and I have confidence in the quality of just about everything they sell.

The entry level wine from Chateauneuf du Pape producer Chante Cigale, this is a blend of Grenache and Carignane. The “Vin de France” designation means that grapes can be sourced from anywhere in the country, but they most likely come from the Rhône Valley or the adjacent Languedoc region.
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La Cuvée Mythique

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“This is one of those wines I want to drink on a regular basis.”

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I had intended to post a report on this wine a few weeks ago, but an upper respiratory ailment came to visit and put me down for the count here at Adams, Heritier and Associates. Recovery took longer than I had anticipated, but I’m finally back in the saddle, and happily, the wine is still available and worthy of your consideration, so here’re my impressions.

I go back to 2003 with La Cuvée Mythique. I liked it a lot back then, but lost track of it for several years. I ran into a batch of the latest vintage during my recent visit to Total Wine, and it was an easy choice to try again, given my previous enthusiasm for this bottling. I should add that it is listed as “limited quantity” availability, so you might want to pick some up sooner, rather than later.
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A Tasty Beaujolais-Villages

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“The more I sip, the more I like.”

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I think I may have found a new favorite not-quite-everyday wine.

The funny thing is, I looked at this one on the shelf at Westborn Market in Berkley for at least a month before I finally decided to take a chance and give it a try. I’ve enjoyed more than a few Nicolas Potel wines over the years, but they were all red Burgundies, for which this producer is best known. Finally, I reasoned that they would probably treat Gamay in essentially the same manner, with the same “house style,” as they do Pinot Noir, and that is exactly what I found here. What’s more, there’s a goodly amount of this available, so Westborn Beverage Manager Steve Rapson must like it, and I have come to trust his judgment in matters such as this. Continue reading →

Oregon QPR

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“These are both good enough that I wouldn’t mind paying
a little more for each if I had to…”

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It has occurred to me more than once that most of the wines reviewed in this blog over the past year have been from Europe, especially France and Italy. There are a couple of reasons for this. First, it’s a simple matter of availability, and second, my primary focus is on QPR selections that fall into the $10-20 range. These days, it’s getting harder and harder to find good values in domestic wines, but that’s not to say they can’t still be had.

Not long ago, an old friend and colleague of ours who now resides in Oregon sent my wife Kim some bottles of his favorite everyday drinkers from his adopted state. He purchased said wines online at Total Wine, and I picked them up at our nearby Sterling Heights location. I got a taste of some of them, and two in particular stood out for me, one white and one red. Continue reading →