Joguet 2004 Chinon Les Petites Roches (Loire) Salted hearty dark greens still rooted in dark soil, blackberry dust, and a very slightly sandpapery structure (fine grit). Closing up, but still pretty good, and yet I wonder if it might not have been better to drink this one young. (8/09)
C&P Breton 2004 Bourgueil Les Galichets (Loire) With age, the fruit here has moved somewhere into the magenta/mahogany rangenot in color, but in characterthough the aerated layers of grey minerality have not diminished. The structure is very slightly resolved, and while theres no emergency need to drink this, short-term is the guiding principle. (8/09)
C&P Breton 2005 Bourgeuil Trinch! (Loire) Hardening and fading into green-edged structural meanness. Likely a victim of its closure. And yes, I know I wasnt supposed to hold it this long in the first placethis was a found bottle. (9/09)
Domaine de la Fruitire 2007 Muscadet Svre & Maine Cuve Petit M (Loire) Most quaffing Muscadet is so-labeled by commentators as a way to avoid saying that the wines stark and underfruited, and also lacks the mineral complexity of the best versions. The latter is definitely not the case here. In fact, if anything, theres a whitish-yellow aggression to the palate. But theres no real complexity, either. The wines good, simple, andwell, quaffable. (8/09)
C&P Breton 2004 Bourgueil Les Galichets (Loire) With age, the fruit here has moved somewhere into the magenta/mahogany rangenot in color, but in characterthough the aerated layers of grey minerality have not diminished. The structure is very slightly resolved, and while theres no emergency need to drink this, short-term is the guiding principle. (8/09)
C&P Breton 2005 Bourgeuil Trinch! (Loire) Hardening and fading into green-edged structural meanness. Likely a victim of its closure. And yes, I know I wasnt supposed to hold it this long in the first placethis was a found bottle. (9/09)
Domaine de la Fruitire 2007 Muscadet Svre & Maine Cuve Petit M (Loire) Most quaffing Muscadet is so-labeled by commentators as a way to avoid saying that the wines stark and underfruited, and also lacks the mineral complexity of the best versions. The latter is definitely not the case here. In fact, if anything, theres a whitish-yellow aggression to the palate. But theres no real complexity, either. The wines good, simple, andwell, quaffable. (8/09)