Home alone

[Florida Jim]

Saturday night; twelve hours and 750 miles from NC to FL; I wanted a nice bottle with my pizza:

Earl Alain Michaud, Brouilly Prestige de Vieilles Vigne:

Perfectly balanced, quiet but deep, black fruit mostly and a sappy, focused delivery. A very nice wine still showing quite young.

Sunday afternoon party at John’s with pork roast and braised root veggies (thankfully, the a/c was on):

2005 Terres Dorees, Beaujolais Nouveau:

Juicy, fresh, spicy, clean, delicious, charming wine that should be drunk from a tumbler and slightly chilled. As good as this designation will ever see.

Monday evening after a day of cleaning house, inside and out, I grilled pork chops and had a Caesar salad:

2001 Niepoort, Douro Vertente:

The main constituents seem to be Tinta Amarela, Tinta Roriz and Touriga Franca, if I extrapolated correctly from the website.

Fresh and stewed plums, cocoa and some cooked rhubarb aromas with a slight hint of port wine; mid-weight and pretty bright in the mouth (almost tart) with flavors that follow the nose, fine tannins and mouthwatering acidity; long, grippy finish. Showing young and rambunctious but well balanced and certainly good with the chops.

(While I enjoyed this wine, I can’t help thinking the price ($22) is generated more by the brand name than the juice. Other recent Portuguese table wines, especially Alvaro Castro’s, Dao ($10), have impressed as much or more. And while I have no qualm with anyone charging what they can get, I think the consumer can get more for less. Still, it beats the majority of $50 domestic wines in concentration, complexity and interest; so, bring it on!)

Tuesday evening with salad and crusty bread:

2004 Droin, Chablis:

The nose is solid Chablis but the palate has a burnt/ash/stone component that simply doesn’t let the fruit shine through. I’m just guessing here, but this tastes like a barrel experiment (as this producer has been known to do) that didn’t work.

Best, Jim