Wine Tag: F

[Brad Ballinger]

Plenty of "f" to go around. For grape varieties, there's fume (sauvignon) blanc, freisa, furmint, fiano, falanghina. Producers from around the globe include Falesco, Felsina, Fontodi, Figeac, Ferrari-Carano, Freemark Abbey, Fess Parker, Fetzer, even Freixenet. AOC/DOC/AVA regions include Fixin, Fleurie, Faugeres, Fiano di Avellino, Frascati, Finger Lakes, and of course France. There are the German villages of Forst and Freinsheim. There's fortified wine such as Porto produced by Fonseca. There's first growth, fourth growth, and fifth growth Bordeaux. There's wine that is floral, fruity, and fizzy. Please, though, no flabby wines. And foxy wines have a limited audience. Of course, it's all fermented.

1996 Franck Bonville Brut Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru, Champagne. It had been two years since I last had this wine, and this one was my last bottle. Over that time, this wine has developed from a steely, flinty, lemony wine with a laser beam focus and seamless mousse to one that is nuttier, toastier, fuller, and more mellow. I like both versions very much. The finish on this wine is very mineral-driven, and the mousse appears to play a larger role than it did two years ago. If I didn't open it, I'm sure it would still continue to develop for a couple more years at least.

[mangosteen]

Chateau de Fieuzal in Pessac-Leognan, France.

Their white wine is highly reputed and more expensive than their red, but I find it way over-oaked (maybe I need to taste some older vintages?). On the other hand their reds are excellent and still well-priced (around 30Euros for recent vintages). I recently enjoyed a 1998 and adored the cherries, black fruit and violets that came through in the nose after decanting. The tannins were already well-integrated but structure-wise I believe the wine has many good years ahead of it.

[GordonCooks]

Feudi di San Gregorio

[mike volker]

Jacob FRANKLIN petite sirah '01

With prime rib over the charcoal christmas day. This is the best petite I've ever had. It probably needs a few more years, but its oh so good now.

Best

Mike