A Bargain Esprit

“…this fine young wine is still mostly about promise,
but the promise is very good indeed.”

Time Sensitive: This is a great buy for $25, but it won’t last long. There were a couple of cases available in the bins at our friendly neighborhood Madison Heights Costco just two days ago. Today, there is half that or less. It may be gone by this weekend, so, quick like a bunny, get some if you can.

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We don’t see nearly as much Tablas Creek in our neck of the woods as we used to. In fact, the bottle reviewed here is the only one I have been able to find around here in at least a year. I had to pull two bottles from our cellar the last time I wanted something from this producer, and I was reminded yet again why TC has been on our short list of favorite California wineries for almost two decades.

This particular bottling has been hanging around our friendly local Costco since at least last fall. We even ponied up the $49.99 to try one sometime around Thanksgiving, when we found it to be good, but in need of more time in the cellar. A few days ago, I noticed that it is now priced at $24.99 at the same Costco, a pretty obvious indication that the wine has not been selling, and that the distributor wants to discount it and move it quickly. At that price, I felt obliged to pick up another bottle and give it further consideration.
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Two Dry Rosés

“This is what dry rosé is all about.”

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Since rebooting Tasting Notes from the Underground this past February, I’ve reviewed no fewer than 10 dry rosés. We’re unabashed fans of this style, and take great pleasure in trying examples from all around the world. Happily, there is a boatload of the stuff available around here, and a lot of it is pretty good. What’s more, it seems like every retailer has at least a few selections that the last place I stopped at didn’t, so there’s always something new to try.

I picked these two bottles up last week at Plum Market West Bloomfield. I was checking the first one out when my friend Paula Hartson, who was working in the department, came up and confirmed my suspicion that I was eying a good one. She then also recommended the Slovenian rosé, telling me, “Those are my two George wines for the day!

That Paula, she always hits the mark when it comes to suggesting the kind of wines I like to drink!
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A Beautiful Barolo

“The texture is silky, and while there’s still some structure here for further aging, this is drinking so well now, one can’t be blamed for pulling another cork soon.”

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Back when I first reviewed this wine in 2016, I wrote the following: “We don’t drink a lot of Barolo here at Gang Central, which is a shame, because it seems like every time we do, we ask ourselves why we don’t drink more.” After trying it again, 7 years later, I feel even more strongly in that regard. I pulled it from our cellar a few nights ago to open and enjoy with my wife Kim and our friends Shar Douglas and Ken Hebenstreit. I was very interested in seeing how it had developed during the intervening time, so when Shar took a sip and exclaimed, “Oh, this is nice,” I figured that the time in the cellar was well spent indeed. When I tasted it myself, any lingering doubts (not that I had many at all) were completely removed. Continue reading

A Ridge for the Forest

“…drinking so well right now, it’s hard not to pull another cork…”

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Now that I’m completely recovered from Electric Forest, it’s time for me to get back to blogging about wine. For the uninitiated, Electric Forest is a four-day music festival held in Rothbury, Michigan in late June. It features mostly (but not entirely) electronic music and jam bands, and has been held every summer since 2011, when, Phoenix-like, it rose from the ashes of the great Rothbury festivals of 2008 and 2009. My co-pilot for these adventures during these last several years has been our old Gang of Pour accomplice, Alan Kerr. The night before heading off for this year’s event, Kerr, Kim and this taster enjoyed some good food and a few bottles of wine. As was so often the case back in our Gang days, it was the Ridge Zin that really caught our attention. 
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More from Mary Taylor Part 3

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

“…these are excellent values and should not be missed.”

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I suppose it’s fitting that the last two wines in my three part report are the first two I’ve tasted imported by Mary Taylor that are not from France. Although Ms. Taylor works with properties from Spain, Portugal and Italy, it’s mostly the French stuff that’s available here in Detroit and surrounding environs. Here then was my first opportunity to selections in the MTWines book from Sicily and Spain respectively.
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More from Mary Taylor Part 2

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

“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.
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More from Mary Taylor Part 1

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

“These are two decidedly different expressions of Gamay, and each
represents the variety beautifully in its own particular manner.”

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I don’t get over to Ann Arbor as much as I used to, but when I found out that Mary Taylor would be at Plum Market’s North Campus location this past Thursday, I made a point of being there too. I only just discovered Mary Taylor Wines in February, but I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve tried so far, and here was an opportunity to sample new things that I haven’t had access to previously.

Even better, I had the chance to meet and spend a little time talking with Mary, who is every bit as straightforward and down-to-earth as the wines she imports. She’s had to work her ass off to compete successfully in an industry dominated by men, and now that she’s living her proverbial dream, we’re all better off for it.

There were ten wines available to taste and purchase, two of which (the Bordeaux Blanc and Costières de Nimes) I’ve already reviewed, so I focused on the eight that were new to me. Once again, I enjoyed everything I tasted, but I brought home the six I like most for further consideration, starting with another entry in one of my favorite categories, dry rosé.
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Bastardo’s First Falanghina

“This is no lightweight contender; it has very good presence and intensity, and it hits all the right notes for me when it comes to dry whites…”

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Here’s another one of those dry white wines that drinks so well during the summer months. Of course, you can enjoy it any time of the year, especially when paired with lighter seafood or fowl dishes, but there’s nothing quite like drinking a wine like this during the hot months, when it cools and refreshes the palate and the state of mind.

I like Italian whites every bit as much as many of the better known reds, but as far as I can tell, this is the first Falanghina I’ve had the pleasure of enjoying. It is native to the southern region of Irpinia, located in Campania, along with other varieties such as Aglianico, Fiano and Greco. The Terredora di Paolo estate is one of the most prestigious wineries in Southern Italy, and Corte di Giso, in Gesualdo, is the single vineyard that grows the fruit for this wine.
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A Right Tasty Mâcon-Villages

“This is pure Chardonnay, with no excessive oak bullshit to clutter things up.”

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Now that the weather has warmed to the point where my wife has followed through with her threat to turn on the air conditioning, our thoughts are turning more towards the appropriate seasonal wine selections. While dry rosé certainly hits the mark in that regard, we drink the pink stuff all year around. Our warm weather wines are more often white, and there is seemingly no end to the variety that can be found from all over the globe.

The last time I reviewed this wine, it was branded “Collovray & Terrier,” the names of the two families that own and operate Domaine des Deux Roches, in the southern Mâconnais. (They also have an operation in the Languedoc, the Domaine Altugnac.) Aside from the apparent rebranding, everything else seems much the same as it was in 2015, when I wrote the following: “Christian Collovray and Jean-Luc Terrier have been friends since childhood and shared the same passion for wines. Their friendship was further strengthened when they married sisters Brigitte and Florence, whose father was a winemaker. In 1986, they established the Domaine des Deux Roches, based in the village of Davayé in the Mâconnais; Christian takes care of the vines while Jean-Luc manages the cellar and the commercial end of the business, and Brigitte and Florence both hold administrative positions.

Christian’s son Julien Collovray joined the business in 2009, followed three years later by his wife, Caroline, and in 2019, Florence and Jean-Luc’s son, Pierre-Alexis Terrier. But for our purposes, what matters here is what’s in the bottle, which, from what I can gather, has also remained largely unchanged. The vines that produce the fruit are planted in the clay and limestone soils of Charnay, Davayé and Pierreclos, and fermentation and aging takes place entirely in stainless steel.
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A Country Bordeaux

“A little more exuberant and less “refined” than most
Bordeaux that I’ve run into over the years…”

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It seems that I have found a kindred spirit in Steve, the wine guy at Westborn Market. I stopped in there a couple of days ago to find out if there were any plans to bring in more of the wines from Mary Taylor that I’ve so been enjoying lately, and not only did he assure me that, yes, he would be stocking more of them, but he also mentioned how much he really likes them too.

I’ve been getting my 2020 Mary Taylor Wines Christophe Avi Agenais Rosé, 2021 Mary Taylor Wines Olivier Gessler Côtes de Gascogne and 2020 Mary Taylor Wines Jean Marc Barthez Bordeaux Blanc at Westborn, but had totally whiffed on this one, because it sits right next to the Bordeaux Blanc and the labels are identical. Steve pointed it out, much to my delight, and I immediately brought one home with me to see what’s in the bottle. (It’s made by the same vigneron who is responsible for MT’s Bordeaux Blanc.) Here’s what I found.
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