Category: Quaffing

Quaffing

2011 Wild Goose Autumn Gold

Posted on by Josh

Tasting Notes:

Eyes: clear, very pale lemon – almost water white
Nose: clean, med intensity, green fruit, lychee, notes of stone fruit, sweet aromas
Mouth: off-dry, med body, med- to med acidity, med- length, tart, round, tropical fruit finish
All in all: Good quality, drink now.

Maybe it’s because of the label, but compared to the Sauvignon Blanc I tasted next to this, this was more ripe and more spring sunset than spring sunrise. Don’t worry, I’m not sure I know what that means either, and I’m not even sure why I said it. Typed it. Whatever.  

On the nose, you get a whiff of green fruits – almost-ripe apples and pears – with a touch of stone fruit, all wrapped up in this light and sweet tone.… read more

Quaffing

2011 Chateau Cailleteau Bergeron Sauvignon Blanc

Posted on by Josh

Tasting Notes:

Eyes: clear, pale lemon
Nose: clean, med+ intensity, passionfruit, floral, citrus (rind), grapefruit
Mouth: dry, light body, med- to med acidity, med- length
All in all: Good quality; drink now.

Compared alongside the 2011 Wild Goose Autumn Gold.

This is SUCH a spring wine. On the nose you get hit with a glass of passionfruit in a garden. The floral notes are well-echoed into the palate with this touch of bitter citrus rind. What was interesting was the acidity, which was lower than what I would have expected from a Sauvignon Blanc. Although an Old World wine, I’ve heard interesting comments about the fact that this wine sort of bridges between the Old and New World styles, being more fruity and outgoing in character.… read more

Quaffing

2010 M. Chapoutier Tavel Beaurevoir

Posted on by Josh

Tasting Notes:

Eyes: clear, pale salmon
Nose: clean, med- intensity, light red berry aromas, white pepper, earthy/woodiness
Mouth: dry, med bodied, light tannins, med acidity, short length
All in all: Acceptable to good quality, drink now

Some people at work really liked this. I was excited to try it (and even put it back on the shelf a couple of times, trying to balance the skepticism and the desire), but it didn’t do much for me.

Although decently balanced in terms of structure – and I’ll give it that much – there was something on the flavours of this wine that happened to strike both my “odd” and “boring” cards. The lightness of the red fruit disappointed me (although perhaps more typical for old world rosés?),… read more

Quaffing

2010 Tranchero Moscato d’Asti

Posted on by Josh

Tasting Notes:

Eyes: clear, pale straw, few fine bubbles
Nose: clean, light intensity, lychee, green apple, touch of stone fruit, orange/tangerine
Mouth: med sweetness, med acidity, light body, med finish lychee, orange, citrus
All in all: Great quality; drink now.

I bought this wine one Saturday night where I think I decided that I needed to treat myself to an entire bottle of wine and an uninterrupted evening of 9gag and SNL. It was pathetically amazing. So there.

Moscato d’Asti is such a crowd pleaser. A typical one will be sweet but light, along with beautiful fruity and floral notes. I recall aromas of lychee, green apples, notes of stone fruit, and oranges. It had a medium sweetness with a perfect balance of acidity to clean off the palate.… read more

Quaffing

2010 d’Arenberg “The Hermit Crab” Viognier Marsanne

Posted on by Josh

Tasting Notes:

Eyes: clear, med lemon-green
Nose: clean, med intensity, floral, melon (honeydew), tropical fruit, notes of honey, flintiness, and lime
Mouth: dry, med+ body, low to med- acidity, med length
All in all: Good quality, drink now

My goodness. What a night of work. Technical difficulties all around. Thank goodness wine exists. Blind tasting time!

We started off with a white wine. I was honestly in this sweet and refreshing mood (perhaps a beer mood? Brachetto/Moscato/fruit ale mood?) so it was both a bittersweet moment when I tasted this fruity and floral wine with lower acid. I instantly guessed a hot climate new world wine, although I pegged Australia on the third guess. This wine had a lot of body to it – a really weighty and thick character.… read more

Quaffing

2007 Le Ragose Classico Superiore Valpolicella

Posted on by Josh

Tasting Notes:

Eyes: clear, med- ruby
Nose: med- to med intensity, red fruit (sour cherry, hints of strawberry), black pepper, cloves, liquorice, earthy
Mouth: dry, med body, med- tannin, med+ acidity, med to med+ length, sour cherry
All in all: Good quality, drink now; save the bones for something more interesting.

So lots today happened in my world of alcohol. Just after tying up my Superman chucks and opening the door to jet out to the bus that’s almost at my bus stop, I see this huge package in my mailbox which I can only hope is my WSET Advanced-level books. And it is. So I snatch it and run for my bus. I dizzily flip through it and end up with some lack-of-sleep-early-morning-physical-extertion-motion-sickness nausea, but new books, or new reading material – new anything, for that matter, is too exciting to pass.… read more

Quaffing

2005 Champalou Vouvray Le Clos du Portail

Posted on by Josh

Tasting Notes:

Eyes: clear, deep lemon
Nose: clean, med intensity, honey, overripe apples, pear, slightly oxidized, touch of herbal (fennel)
Mouth: dry, med to med+ bodied, med- acid, med length, slightly sweet impression
All in all: Interesting, teasing, worth a try, very good quality; can drink now, but has potential for ageing.

I’m starting this new game at work where I ask whoever I’m closing with to pick a random bottle from the store given a reasonable price range, have them charge it to my card (I trust them THAT much, I know) so that we can both taste it while I can try it blind and perhaps attempt to guess the varietal given I’m not too embarrassed to do so.… read more

Quaffing

2008 Cave de Lugny Crémant de Bourgogne

Posted on by Josh

Tasting notes:

Eyes: clear, med lemon, froth upon pouring but few bubbles in glass
Nose: clean, med- intensity, citrus, green apple, flint, slight autolytic (or none) – hard to pinpoint
Mouth: dry, persistent bubbles, med- body, high acidity, med+ length
All in all: Good quality; drink now.

So, I recently started a new job (and who knows when this post will be posted?), and I decided to celebrate that and the end of a mediocre exam period with some Crémant! I don’t recall ever trying one (let alone a vintage Champagne-style bubbly) so I thought I’d give it a go.

Basic stuff at first. Medium lemon, obvious froth upon pouring. I was disappointed in the fact that I detected little to no autolytic notes, though.… read more