Oswaldo Costa
Oswaldo Costa
2007 Franois Cotat Sancerre Les Culs de Beaujeu 13.0%
Classy aromas of grapefruit, lime and lemongrass. Good weight, biting acidity, some lemon oil, minerals and white flowers. Tart finish. Very fine.
I used to love drinking minerally Sancerre, straight from the fridge, sitting on the porch. Then I went through a phase of loving tropical fruit cocktail Kiwi sauvignons, sitting in the Porsche (just kidding). Now I find just about every SB I taste, well, unexciting. I dont want to jump on the SB bashing bandwagon, but I do wonder what place it retains. Serious examples like this (and Dagueneau, which Ive never tried) may not have enough sheer fun, and perhaps I want my SBs to be that, too. I don't appreciate taciturn Beaujolais, no matter how complex, so maybe some of the same subjectivity applies here.
2004 Paulo Bea Montefalco Rosso Vigna San Valentino 13.5%
Bottle 1,931 from and edition of 6,333. 70% Sangiovese, 15% Montepulciano, 15% Sagrantino. Loved this from an enomatic machine a few months ago, so brought a bottle down for Marcia to experience the Bea magic. But this tasted very different. Perhaps damaged, in that infuriatingly unclear way that wines sometimes have of not being what they should be. Intriguing nose of herbs, pine resin (garrique?) and dishrag. Kept thinking light cognac, light chinato, light digestif. Sumptuous mouth feel, with excellent grip from acidity and fine tannins. Enjoyable to drink, exotic and different, but I just know theres something wrong. Weird.
There are defects that make a bottle undrinkable. At least those are clear cut. There are defects that make the wine dull and lifeless. These are puzzling because its sometimes hard to tell if the wine isnt simply closed. There are defects that make the wine taste different. These are perhaps the rarest, and hardest for me to grasp.
Classy aromas of grapefruit, lime and lemongrass. Good weight, biting acidity, some lemon oil, minerals and white flowers. Tart finish. Very fine.
I used to love drinking minerally Sancerre, straight from the fridge, sitting on the porch. Then I went through a phase of loving tropical fruit cocktail Kiwi sauvignons, sitting in the Porsche (just kidding). Now I find just about every SB I taste, well, unexciting. I dont want to jump on the SB bashing bandwagon, but I do wonder what place it retains. Serious examples like this (and Dagueneau, which Ive never tried) may not have enough sheer fun, and perhaps I want my SBs to be that, too. I don't appreciate taciturn Beaujolais, no matter how complex, so maybe some of the same subjectivity applies here.
2004 Paulo Bea Montefalco Rosso Vigna San Valentino 13.5%
Bottle 1,931 from and edition of 6,333. 70% Sangiovese, 15% Montepulciano, 15% Sagrantino. Loved this from an enomatic machine a few months ago, so brought a bottle down for Marcia to experience the Bea magic. But this tasted very different. Perhaps damaged, in that infuriatingly unclear way that wines sometimes have of not being what they should be. Intriguing nose of herbs, pine resin (garrique?) and dishrag. Kept thinking light cognac, light chinato, light digestif. Sumptuous mouth feel, with excellent grip from acidity and fine tannins. Enjoyable to drink, exotic and different, but I just know theres something wrong. Weird.
There are defects that make a bottle undrinkable. At least those are clear cut. There are defects that make the wine dull and lifeless. These are puzzling because its sometimes hard to tell if the wine isnt simply closed. There are defects that make the wine taste different. These are perhaps the rarest, and hardest for me to grasp.