Breton, Cuvaison, Dettori

M

Mike Klein

Mike Klein
'93 Breton Bourgueil Perrieres. In the same vein as the '89 or maybe '90 Raffault Chinon Picasses. Not quite the ripeness or mid-palate density as the Raffault(s) but really, what's not to like? Leafy goodness.

'78 Cuvaison Cabernet. Still plugging along. Olives/tapenade and herbs in full effect. Great density and long finish. The tannins are a bit coarse but so what. Lots of fun and ain't it great to see what happens to Napa cab when you don't pick at 15% potential alcohol?

'06 Dettori Tuderi. Dear lord, something went seriously wrong here. Loads of sediment on the cork and in bottle but the wine is the palest ruby with marked rust. When I first pulled the cork, the nose was gorgeous for a few minutes with that vivid technicolor nose you sometimes get with the zero sulfur wines. All is well until you drink the stuff and get whacked with alcohol (15.5% claimed IIRC) and notable VA. Still, for the first hour or so there were some positive qualities. After that, this thing slid off a cliff and the nose/palate transformed into some sort of grapefruit/jet fuel cocktail. I'll try another soon in the hope this was a bad bottle, but I'm much more interested to try the Vermentino.
 
I had the 03 Tuderi a month ago and it was not quite such a wild ride. The main flaw was the distinct VA
"sitting on top" of what was otherwise nice wine. I have a few of the 06 too, which I will have to try now.
 
originally posted by David M. Bueker:
I had a Dettori a week ago. Awful wine. Rocket fuel has less of a burn.
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They are big wines but I have had many stunning bottles. The importer/distributor dropped him recently and blew out the wines. I wonder if storage was an issue because one of my bottles from that lot seemed to be partially cooked.
 
Well it cooked me, that's for sure. There was no way to make any kind of excuse for this wine, other than that it was a bad wine - completely out of balance.
 
originally posted by Robert Dentice:
originally posted by David M. Bueker:
I had a Dettori a week ago. Awful wine. Rocket fuel has less of a burn.
Click to expand...

They are big wines but I have had many stunning bottles. The importer/distributor dropped him recently and blew out the wines. I wonder if storage was an issue because one of my bottles from that lot seemed to be partially cooked.
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I don't know how you'd tell if they were cooked. I tasted the wines at Vinitaly last year and thought Mike's note was exactly right. I don't mind VA in moderation, it's my favorite flaw actually, but even I have a limit.
 
Any opinions on the other 2006 Dettori wines? Garagiste just blew out the 2006 Dettori Rosso (Renuso?) in one of their typically hyperbolic offers.
 
Mine came from Garagiste and Rimmerman has been a big supporter of Dettori and usually takes care of his wine in shipping. The cork on my bottle was pushed up a bit but I honestly thought that probably had more to do with re-fermentation in bottle or some other such instability rather than heat. Who knows.

I'm a big fan of a lot of the natural wine guys but I don't like buying science experiments at big $$ prices. If these were under $20 a bottle I might feel better but I really have to wonder why folks gamble on the higher end Dettori wines at the asking prices.
 
How weird is it that Galloni loves these wines and gives them consistently mid 90's scores? I can't think of a "less Parker" wine.
I had the 06 Tuderi twice in the last month and they are all over the place for sure. One last night hit a sweet spot about an hour after opening that I thought was lovely, albeit odd. Someone at the table commented he thought it'd be better poured over a hot dog as pickle relish...
Also bought from garagiste.
 
I was thinking that I over-ordered by purchasing 6 bottles of the Tuderi. On the other hand, I might have to pop 6 in order to find one that's drinkable. Shit, maybe I under-ordered!
 
originally posted by John Roberts:
I was thinking that I over-ordered by purchasing 6 bottles of the Tuderi. On the other hand, I might have to pop 6 in order to find one that's drinkable. Shit, maybe I under-ordered!
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That's some Garagiste-approved thinking right there.
 
originally posted by Mike Klein:
but I'm much more interested to try the Vermentino.
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I've had a few vintages of this and it's pretty good, but I'm not sure it's worth the tariff.
 
Crap. I just pulled one of the 06 Tuderi from storage and will report back in the next few weeks. Indeed, where were these reviews at purchasing time ;)
 
From the truly wonderful translation on the back label of the Tuderi. "Probable remainings and CO2 are natural. Every bottle can be different...Sorry but we don't follow the market, we produce wines we like, wines from our culture. They are what they are and not what you want them to be."

True, as advertised.
 
I have a pretty hard time imagining that the bottle I drank has much to do with the culture of Sardinia. But what the hell do I know...

On a serious note, I also read that label and saw their website. They're portraying themselves as hard core natural wine guys but it almost comes off as being overly defensive. Frankly, I can see why. If you're going hard core natural, zero sulfur, etc. then you've got to be prepared to chuck out bad wine. Putting clearly flawed wine into the marketplace just doesn't seem ethical to me. Overnoy and Ganevat are pretty damn natural and manage to put out stable, delicious wines - and so do lots of the Loire producers I enjoy (although I have no idea whether they are as strict as Dettori in their observation of natural wine practices.) So does Bea for that matter.
 
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