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Putnam Weekley

putnam
i miss you guys. and not only that, i miss my caps key.

so like mom and dad's, i show up only when i need something. advice, at present.

is it wrong to be completely smitten with some of the new bonny doon wines? i don't see them discussed much here. the 2007 syrah le pousseur has been very drinkable, even after several other bottles of known good stuff. it's acid, and clearly recognizable as the syrah, and clearly thick in the neck like california wines must be. also, it comes out of its shell only gradually. also, i can almost afford to drink it, at ~$17 in michigan.

the 2009 vin gris is nice too, pale as a rash, delicate as baked eggplant skin.

what else you want to talk about? i have been drinking 08 cazin cuvee renaissance - too early i think, but i don't cellar these days, so ... except for the 07 marechal cuvee gravel that seems promising if presently brutal.
 
Drinking Villaine's 2008 Clous tonight. It's a bit tony at $25, and it's too young to drink. Opens like a young Olivier Muscadet, lemony with a touch of mineral and richness, then settles into a groove seething with mineral dust. One of two or three Chardonnay-based wines outside of Chablis I'd want to have on hand.
 
I like him but wish I liked his wines more. As a proud member of the proletariat, I consider him to be the rich man's Edmunds St. John. Steve, thank you for being no running dog lackey for the bourgeoisie.

Best,
John
 
Hi, Putnam, welcome back.

Haven't had any of the latest Bonny Doons, but I was not thrilled with my last bunch a year ago. Nothing awful, but nothing great.

Drinking as much '09 Roillette as I can guzzle.
 
originally posted by SFJoe:
Hi, Putnam, welcome back.

Haven't had any of the latest Bonny Doons, but I was not thrilled with my last bunch a year ago. Nothing awful, but nothing great.

Drinking as much '09 Roillette as I can guzzle.
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So you bought it all up.
 
originally posted by Tom Glasgow:
originally posted by SFJoe:
Hi, Putnam, welcome back.

Haven't had any of the latest Bonny Doons, but I was not thrilled with my last bunch a year ago. Nothing awful, but nothing great.

Drinking as much '09 Roillette as I can guzzle.
Click to expand...
So you bought it all up.
Click to expand...
Not really.
 
originally posted by SFJoe:

Drinking as much '09 Roillette as I can guzzle.
Click to expand...

I've been pretty impressed myself. And if the rest of the 2009 Beaujolais are anywhere near as good, there will be lots of difficult decisions in the months ahead. Just not enough time for all this great wine. Life could be worse!
 
The Bonny Doon wines have the admirable quality of not being (much) fucked-with, and so even when they're not good, they're more or less refreshing. But as is always worth pointing out, the more back-to-nature a wine is (whether it be natural, biodynamic, or whatever), the more you're placing almost your entire bet on grape quality. And it's not my sense that Bonny Doon gets a lot of great fruit.

I really know almost nothing about their vineyards, other than they're biodynamic on their estate plots. This is something I should probably rectify.

Vintage-to-vintage, there's good stuff. Not always the same as last year, and probably not to be repeated next year. But when they were Doon-owned, my favorite wines from BD were always the Big House White & Red, because they were the uncomplicated, fruit-forward, bargain-priced wines for which (in my opinion) an awful lot of California grapes were ideally suited, and on which Bonny Doon's approach seemed to work best. They've sold those off, and so now they're making more "serious" wines at more "serious" prices. They're only sometimes worth it.

Grahm's an interesting guy. A smart guy. Certainly a clever guy. I think some of what he believes (e.g. sensitive crystallization) is more Bonny Loon, but...you know, whatever. It doesn't really matter.

I think that, ultimately, the "problem" at Bonny Doon is that they're more interested in being interesting than they are in being good. It's not that they don't care about being good, it's just that they get distracted; they're Scholium Project minus the incomprehensible lack of sense and taste. And of course, it's true that striving to be better can lead to all manner of depredations in California winemaking. But I don't know if they'll rise, more than occasionally, over "pretty good" until they devote laser-like attention to grape quality...which means more than just transitioning to biodynamic viticulture. It might mean different sites and grapes.

That said, they served me a barbera recioto that I loved, largely because it wasn't buried in volatile acidity. I'd love to know how they did that. Spins or osmosis? Voodoo?
 
Didn't Grahm lose many of his own vines from disease and now does a lot of sourcing? If I have that right, I think it also took some wind out of his sails (sales). I agree with Thor that they seem more interested in seeming interesting.
 
thank you thank you for the replies

most of the criticism of the doon and grahm i read above i have voiced myself too, almost word for word, including up until the (relative) recent past. but i think the latest fruit qualities taste surprisingly good. the biggest complaint i can think of is that the wines (this year's issue) take time to show what they are. and that is the hitch in so much of the goodies. i think.

also, we still need to find mr edmunds a home distributor here. even when, the doon prices flirt as dangerously close to the bottom as anything.

anyway. again. thanks for the thoughtful replies. i been pondering and pontificating about taste and art, and i thought it was high time i got myself over to the disorder to check my bags.
 
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originally posted by Ian Fitzsimmons:
Drinking Villaine's 2008 Clous tonight. It's a bit tony at $25, and it's too young to drink. Opens like a young Olivier Muscadet, lemony with a touch of mineral and richness, then settles into a groove seething with mineral dust. One of two or three Chardonnay-based wines outside of Chablis I'd want to have on hand.
Click to expand...

you speak (write?) my language.

i do not get to drink villaine wines in these parts. i wish i could.

another surprise recently: 2008 gilbert picq chablis. raging acidity. and fat with substance. and about as typical chablis as i can ponder. just on the far side of an easy sell, but good enough to drain a bottle eagerly.
 
Looks like Titian is visiting your skies these days too, Putnam...thanks for posting. Could always enjoy more of your writing and pics, in fact.
 
Putnam - Can you tell me what Michigan wines I should be drinking right now? I've been scoping out the selections at Village Corner but have yet to pull the trigger...
 
originally posted by John Roberts:
MI VINOPutnam - Can you tell me what Michigan wines I should be drinking right now?
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i'm not sure. i wouldn't presume to. except that i recently drank a bottle of 2008 "requisite" from circa winery (blaufraenkish) and thought it might be the best bottle of michigan red wine i ever drank. the price is not particularly friendly at about $35 though. but it seems small to complain. the wine is dense and white pepper scented. no oak taste. monolithic? perhaps that's a blaufraenkisch trait. ian fitzsimmons was over this summer and we drank a bottle of the 07, which is pretty nice too, and you should be able to find that for about 25 standard units of us currency.

chateau fontaine's 08 riesling is nice too.

if your in ann arbor come by the wine shop in kerrytown (where i work two days a week)
 
originally posted by Thor:
I really know almost nothing about their vineyards, other than they're biodynamic on their estate plots. This is something I should probably rectify.
Click to expand...

No, please, let them remain biodynamic.
 
The Circa 07 was good; I'm intrigued by Blaufraenkisch now. Hard to believe MI is doing so well, wine-wise, with all the medieval trade restrictions on wine in that state. I don't think you could go wrong, John, dabbling in the MI Rieslings either: the base-level Grand Traverse demi-sec for $11 was shockingly good, for example, with extended airing.

Morgan and York in A2 carries Villaine wines, Putnam, though their pricing is not the best. Thanks for the nice photos: great colors and contrasts. Breathtaking cloudscapes.

I guess Parker's on about 09 Beaujolais, too - tant pis; 'twas probably Keith's Roilette note that clued him in.
 
originally posted by Ian Fitzsimmons:
The Circa 07 was good; I'm intrigued by Blaufraenkisch now. Hard to believe MI is doing so well, wine-wise, with all the medieval trade restrictions on wine in that state. I don't think you could go wrong, John, dabbling in the MI Rieslings either: the base-level Grand Traverse demi-sec for $11 was shockingly good, for example, with extended airing.

Morgan and York in A2 carries Villaine wines, Putnam, though their pricing is not the best. Thanks for the nice photos: great colors and contrasts.

I guess Parker's on about 09 Beaujolais, too - tant pis; 'twas probably Keith's Roilette note that clued him in.
Click to expand...

Parker doesn't do Beaujolais, Schildknecht does. And he does know the grower wines. Or is this from somewhere else.
 
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