Montinore Estate 2007 Willamette Valley Oregon Almost Dry Riesling

Extremely pale straw color.

Smell of a melon crushed by a smoky diesel bus that's gone off-course in the melon patch / vineyard.

Apple flavor with a bit of grapefruit, off-dry as a Kabinett, a bit petillant.

A pleasant wine for $11.99, a wonderful match for a spicy Chinese take-out.

Tahbilk 2006 Victoria Marsanne

Pale golden color.

Melon smell, pineapple, a bit of Champagne-like toast. Warm alcohol in the finish. I can detect apple if I expect to find it.

Rich ripe pineapple flavor, melon, peach, fruit and quite full-bodied.

A thoroughly enjoyable wine for $14.99. No shrinking violet.

The Black Chook 2007 South Australia Shiraz Viognier

I aerated this vigorously and let it rest for most of a day after opening.

A very trendy Rhone-like blend that's common in Australia lately.

Near-opaque red/purple color.

Smell of prunes, cherries,

Taste opens with a big mouthful of sweet prune, gets drier in the mouth, oak flavor emerges with blackberry and peach, fruit fairly balanced with acid. Alcohol warmth dominates the finish.

I have mixed feelings about this $18.50 95% Shiraz, 5% Viognier blend. This fruit-bomb with 15% alcohol wins for size and exuberance, but loses on grace and finesse.

Jean-Marie Arnoux 2004 Vacqueyras Vieux Clocher Cuvee Non Filtree

If you squint hard enough you might mistake a bottle of this for one from its close neighbor, Chateauneuf-du-Pape. (A day after I wrote this I experienced an aneurysm on my retina, not dangerous but it wants treatment, so no more snide comments from me about squinting.)

This wine is 70% Grenache, 25% Syrah, and 5% Mourvedre.

I aerated this and let it rest for a day after opening.

Dark red color.

Berry and wildflower smells. wood and cherry.

Cherry, blueberry and raspberry flavors, oak. Full-bodied.

Quite a nice wine for $17.99, but I can't help seeing it as as a Cote-du-Rhone that became very impressed with its self.

(I visited my primary care doctor, who arranged for me to see an opthamologist the next day, who's sending me to a retina specialist next week. Until then, reading is a little hit-or-miss.)

Update: Watchful waiting did the trick, in time, with no other treatment, I healed up fine.

La Nunsio 2004 Barbera d'Asti

I aerated this vigorously after opening. In a subsequent bottle some days later, not aerated, there was considerable petillance on the tongue. A third bottle, the next day, taught me that vigorous aeration can drive off petillance, a virtue I hadn't appreciated before.

Medium garnet color, seems a bit cloudy. With subsequent bottles I came to recognize this cloudiness as an attribute of the petillance.

Smell of plum, cherry, and oak.

Rich stone fruit and vanilla oak flavors, hint of menthol.

Not the finest Barbera I've recently enjoyed, but, still, a good buy for $11.50. The petillance, in a 5-year-old wine, gives me some second thoughts. It is a flaw in red wine (and not generally a virtue in white) but one the consumer can fix for free with some trivial effort.

Chateau de Pizay 2008 Morgon

A rather squat little bottle that reminds me of Chateau de La Chaize from Brouilly.

I aerated this wine and let the bottle rest for about 1/2 hour.

Medium-dark garnet color.

Smell of raspberry, cherry, a hint musty.

Black raspberry flavor, red cherry, tart, refreshing,

It's been a few months since I last enjoyed beaujolais. $16.50 for this bottle reminds me how much I like Gamay.

Romano Clelia 2006 Fiano di Avellino Colli di Lapio

Extremely pale straw color.

Smell of melon and green apple. The inside of my glass displays many pinpoint bubbles.

Before any flavor, my tongue is stung by petillance, then melon and green apple fruit emerge.

I had expected a wine similar to Viognier. In fact, it's quite different. Neither are usually oaked, and both are medium-bodied, but I don't think the similarity goes much further. I don't detect the apricot flavor I often detect in Viognier.

I find this an interesting refreshing wine, but a bit of a disappointment for $19.99. I have five more bottles of this and since it's often said that Fiano rewards moderate aging, I intend to open a bottle each year until I run out.

Firriato 2006 Nero d'Avola Chiaramonte

A few days ago I posted notes on the 2005 example.

I aerated this and let it rest for most of a day after opening.

Medium-dark red color, maybe a bit darker than the 2005.

Plum/prune smell with a lot of oak and a minty note I didn't detect in the previous vintage.

Black cherry/plum fruit flavor, like the 2006 food-friendly with acid, oak taste only surfaces at the end along with that mint I smelled.

With another day of rest, the minty smell and flavor blows clean off.

While I continue to believe this is a good buy for $17.99, I understand it's changing distributors and that price and availability will change.

Tahbilk 2006 Victoria Viognier

Straw color, looks petillant.

Melon smell, orange peel, apple.

Bone-dry flavor, melon, grapefruit, orange, apple. Petillance barely detectable on the tongue. Alcohol noticeable in the warm finish.

Considering what Condrieu costs, many Viognier makers are happy with a nice serviceable wine, dry and fragrant, for $14.99, for example. I approve, but a bottle or two of Condrieu once a year isn't amiss.

Firriato 2005 Nero d'Avola Chiaramonte

I aerated this and let it rest for a day after opening. I think I'll make this my default practice for young reds, except perhaps for unoaked lightweight Beaujolais and such.

In February I posted notes on the Morgante 2006 Nero d'Avola and said I wanted to try more examples.

Medium-dark red color.

Plum/prune smell with a lot of oak.

Black cherry/plum fruit flavor, food-friendly with acid, oak taste only surfaces at the end.

Feels like a fair buy for $17.99. I like this considerably better than I did the Morgante.

This is my only bottle of 2005, but I have two of the 2006. Notes on that will soon follow.

Chateau d'Orschwihr 2006 Alsace Riesling Bollenberg

For the last half-year or so, I've been buying almost exclusively from one big national online wine-seller. While not at all unhappy with them, I'm trying an online seller in my home state (free shipping!) with a very interesting selection but also some policies that'll mean slightly more bottles of fewer different wines. I'll see about turning that to an advantage.

While I'll always have a special appreciation for sweeter high Prädikat German Rieslings, I recognize that Alsatian vintners, too, can do impressive things with this wonderful grape.

Medium straw color.

Very full smell, green apple, melon, citrus, wildflowers, and minerals.

Tastes of Granny Smith apple, melon, little bit of grapefruit. Flint mixes with the fruit at the end, when a little bit of petillance also becomes apparent. It makes me recall many of my favorite Rieslings in years past.

Utterly dry fruity wine, plenty of flavor, a style less in fashion in Alsace in recent years. A pleasant surprise for $18.99. A promising introduction to wines recommended by my new seller.

The label indicates that residual sugar is 1.4g per liter. It's been noted that including this information on the label is new and useful and perhaps unique to Chateau d'Orschwihr. Lacking this information, sometimes it isn't clear if a wine on the shelf is dry or sweeter, particularly for Alsace, since both are common. The practice of such labeling deserves to be adopted by more winemakers in Alsace and elsewhere. (Chenin Blanc makers, I'm looking at you!)

Dry Creek 2006 Clarksburg Dry Chenin Blanc

Pale straw color.

Smell of apple, melon, hint of pineapple.

Quite dry apple & melon flavors, petillance on the tongue that isn't expected from visual inspection. Tart sense of peach. Ripe, juicy fruit.

It opens with fruit that makes the mouth expect sweetness, but finishes dry. So unsweetly dry!

A fun bottle for $12.49, not remarkably different from the 2007.

Dona Paula 2007 Lujan de Cuyo Mendoza Malbec

I aerated this and let it rest for a day after opening. My decanting procedure has changed a bit recently. A young red wine is poured into a clean 10-cup Melita manual coffee-maker, through the "cone" filter holder without any filter (an older wine which has considerable sediment or in which a perished cork has crumbled on opening gets a filter.) From there it's poured into another clean 10-cup Melita manual coffee-maker. It goes back and forth between the two until I'm tired when it's poured through a funnel back into the original bottle.

Appears opaque, purple/red at the rim.

Black cherry smell, oak, a bit of spearmint.

Tart plum flavor, peach, oak, a curious spearmint chewing gum note.

An interesting wine for $12.99. At some moments not entirely satisfying, at other moments I think I'm being overcritical, considering the price.

Clos de los Siete 2006 Mendoza

I aerated this and let it rest for a day after opening.

Near-opaque, purple and red at the rim.

Oak and stone fruit smell.

Substantial flavor, roast beef, plum, black cherry. Suffers from a shortage of acid.

A distinctly Argentine blend: 45% Malbec, 35% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Syrah.

This was a good, not a great, wine. For $17.99, it was acceptable. A less full-bodied wine would have merited briefer aeration.

Per Hugh Johnson, Clos de los Siete is a group of seven vineyard parcels. I'm interested in their other blends, though some of the prices extend to the heights.

Vietti 2006 Barbera d'Asti Tre Vigne

I aerated this after opening.

Dark red color, purple at the rim.

Plum and black cherry smells, oak.

Tart black cherry and sweet prune flavors, ripe peach, restrained touch of oak.

A nice bottle for $19.79. I'm coming to really appreciate Barbera. It's quite a revelation after thinking of ordinary Chianti as a representative Italian red.