Jayson Cohen
Jayson Cohen
Notes to follow. Maybe.
Turkish Tuesday
- Thread starter Jayson Cohen
- Start date
Jay Miller
Jay Miller
Sorry to miss but last night was pretty crazy with prep for Arnold flying out tomorrow night.
Jayson Cohen
Jayson Cohen
Still following the Ramonet and Rully and plan to post some notes, but it would ease Wine Disorder’s transition to its Instagram phase of existence if I just let it be.
To MarkS—There are several potentially funny responses, all of which would get me in trouble and/or be entirely insensitive. Maybe our Comrade will respond directly.
To MarkS—There are several potentially funny responses, all of which would get me in trouble and/or be entirely insensitive. Maybe our Comrade will respond directly.
Jayson Cohen
Jayson Cohen
Back to this.
2016 Dirty & Rowdy Especial was delightfully untypical Mourvèdre. Short maceration and minimal extraction. It smells Beaujolaisish-carbonic at first whiff and until acclimating. Shifting aromas of red berries and a hint of grapefruits. Entirely transparent, dancing lightweight and energetic and playful. Built on a confident acidic and light extract base with little to no tannins. Soulful. Absolutely delicious. Because it is so flavorful and so present, it does just fine next to the other reds.
2013 Enderle & Moll Ménage a Trois weaves aromas of intense cooked strawberry, and cranberry, and pickle juice, with minerality. There is more stuffing than the D&R but still purity that is quite Disorderly. The pickle juice fades in and out. Another winner that is drinking well. I have no context to know how it will age but there is a compact structure here that could lead to something interesting perhaps in a few years.
2010 Ramonet Clos St. Jean is somewhat reduced and slow to unfurl. I drank it over three days ultimately. The wine has a medium body rock solid core built to age. The sheer density is a step up. Here the fruit veers toward black cherry. This is an intensely earthy wine with hints of spice and an underlying ripeness to the fruit that is buried under the tannins and extract. It is screaming for more time.
2007 Fourrier Gevrey VV was somewhat light and a bit disappointing. The Dr. was not happy. It is Gevrey but it’s messy and there is a relative hole in the middle. Here one could sense the limitations of the vintage.
I recently sourced the 2002 Vincent Dureuil-Janthial Rully 1er Cru Le Meix Cadot over the internet because I was curious about the hype on this domaine. What I didn’t know when I did is that this was a North Berkeley Cuvee Unique bottling. I.e., this may have received the anomalous, especiallly toasty Cuvee Unique treatment that effectively ruined what I suspect would have been a delicious minerally white Burgundy. Wine retailers need to put the Cuvee Unique designation on their websites, especially during this period of time (mid-90s to mid-00s), so consumers can stay away. It had the solid core I’ve found in many 2002s, just a hint of maturity. This held up structurally with no problem for 2 weeks and was still on a plateau last night when I drank the last glass, but initially and for the entire period it was constantly fighting for fruit and minerality to poke through the literal veneer. A shame. I would be very curious to try the version of this wine sold in France, to see if it is different.
2016 Dirty & Rowdy Especial was delightfully untypical Mourvèdre. Short maceration and minimal extraction. It smells Beaujolaisish-carbonic at first whiff and until acclimating. Shifting aromas of red berries and a hint of grapefruits. Entirely transparent, dancing lightweight and energetic and playful. Built on a confident acidic and light extract base with little to no tannins. Soulful. Absolutely delicious. Because it is so flavorful and so present, it does just fine next to the other reds.
2013 Enderle & Moll Ménage a Trois weaves aromas of intense cooked strawberry, and cranberry, and pickle juice, with minerality. There is more stuffing than the D&R but still purity that is quite Disorderly. The pickle juice fades in and out. Another winner that is drinking well. I have no context to know how it will age but there is a compact structure here that could lead to something interesting perhaps in a few years.
2010 Ramonet Clos St. Jean is somewhat reduced and slow to unfurl. I drank it over three days ultimately. The wine has a medium body rock solid core built to age. The sheer density is a step up. Here the fruit veers toward black cherry. This is an intensely earthy wine with hints of spice and an underlying ripeness to the fruit that is buried under the tannins and extract. It is screaming for more time.
2007 Fourrier Gevrey VV was somewhat light and a bit disappointing. The Dr. was not happy. It is Gevrey but it’s messy and there is a relative hole in the middle. Here one could sense the limitations of the vintage.
I recently sourced the 2002 Vincent Dureuil-Janthial Rully 1er Cru Le Meix Cadot over the internet because I was curious about the hype on this domaine. What I didn’t know when I did is that this was a North Berkeley Cuvee Unique bottling. I.e., this may have received the anomalous, especiallly toasty Cuvee Unique treatment that effectively ruined what I suspect would have been a delicious minerally white Burgundy. Wine retailers need to put the Cuvee Unique designation on their websites, especially during this period of time (mid-90s to mid-00s), so consumers can stay away. It had the solid core I’ve found in many 2002s, just a hint of maturity. This held up structurally with no problem for 2 weeks and was still on a plateau last night when I drank the last glass, but initially and for the entire period it was constantly fighting for fruit and minerality to poke through the literal veneer. A shame. I would be very curious to try the version of this wine sold in France, to see if it is different.
Jayson,
I drank several different whites from Dureuil-Janthial from the 2012 vintage over the past few years. It was part of a mixed case of D-J wines that included 3 bottles of their red. It did not include the Meix Cadot bottling but various other vineyards. I thought all the whites had noticeable oak that for me distracted from some otherwise nice fruit. The wines were not from North Berkeley. I thought they were well made wines but not something I wanted to buy more of. I guess I am pretty oak intolerant with white Burgundy, but I was a bit disappointed as I had read high praise regarding this winemaker.
I love the way D and R do Mourvèdre. Pure joy in a glass.
I drank several different whites from Dureuil-Janthial from the 2012 vintage over the past few years. It was part of a mixed case of D-J wines that included 3 bottles of their red. It did not include the Meix Cadot bottling but various other vineyards. I thought all the whites had noticeable oak that for me distracted from some otherwise nice fruit. The wines were not from North Berkeley. I thought they were well made wines but not something I wanted to buy more of. I guess I am pretty oak intolerant with white Burgundy, but I was a bit disappointed as I had read high praise regarding this winemaker.
I love the way D and R do Mourvèdre. Pure joy in a glass.
Jayson Cohen
Jayson Cohen
Like this: “2007 Fourrier Gevrey VV was somewhat light and a bit disappointing. The Dr. was not happy. It is Gevrey but it’s messy and there is a relative hole in the middle. Here one could sense the limitations of the vintage.”
Jayson Cohen
Jayson Cohen
Based on this, not encouraging on D-J. Not inclined to waste my own time and money to confirm for myself.
Embarrassingly this was my first D and R. Brought by big fan Marty L. Yes, I live under a rock. But this will not be my last. Pure joy.
Keith Levenberg
Keith Levenberg
Dirty & Rowdy is probably my favorite winery in California at the moment. Pure joy is a good description for the Especial but they make others which are more 'serious' while somehow staying just as lightweight.
Florida Jim
Florida Jim
Word.
Best, Jim
Peter Creasey
Peter Creasey
I don't "know" them any more.
I used to like a guy (David?) who worked there and steered me to some excellent wines...particularly Maurice Ecard's attractively priced Savigny les Beaune 1ers.
. . . . Pete
I used to like a guy (David?) who worked there and steered me to some excellent wines...particularly Maurice Ecard's attractively priced Savigny les Beaune 1ers.
. . . . Pete
Really glad to have been able to share the Especial with you guys. I am indeed a D&R fanboy, especially but not exclusively re the especial. Pretty sure it was this
note from Keith on Cellartracker that inspired me to check the 2013 version out, following which I promptly signed up for the mailing list.
As Keith mentions above, D&R's more "serious" wines still manage to retain that sense of lightness and clarity, although I've found that there's a bit of a spectrum among the single vineyard bottlings--- they run from the more red-fruited and bright (these are the ones I go gaga for) to more dark and brooding.
I love this style of Mourvedre, and while it's absolutely untypical of the grape, as Jayson puts it, if your image of typical Mourvedre is Tempier Bandol, there are some other producers beyond D&R who make this sort of luminous, high acid, crunchy red fruited, highly perfumed Mourvedre. The couple of examples that come to mind are La Clarine's Cedarville Mourvedre (in screwcap and a screaming bargain about $20-25 per bottle), and some of the Pfifferling blends. I'd love to hear about others.
note from Keith on Cellartracker that inspired me to check the 2013 version out, following which I promptly signed up for the mailing list.
As Keith mentions above, D&R's more "serious" wines still manage to retain that sense of lightness and clarity, although I've found that there's a bit of a spectrum among the single vineyard bottlings--- they run from the more red-fruited and bright (these are the ones I go gaga for) to more dark and brooding.
I love this style of Mourvedre, and while it's absolutely untypical of the grape, as Jayson puts it, if your image of typical Mourvedre is Tempier Bandol, there are some other producers beyond D&R who make this sort of luminous, high acid, crunchy red fruited, highly perfumed Mourvedre. The couple of examples that come to mind are La Clarine's Cedarville Mourvedre (in screwcap and a screaming bargain about $20-25 per bottle), and some of the Pfifferling blends. I'd love to hear about others.
That's disappointing to hear, as this was utterly delicious on release and for several years afterward. Pretty sure I still have a few.
I'm still waiting for my D+R epiphany, the two examples I've had thus ('15 Familiar white and red) were weird, awkward and didn't make me happy.
I hope to have a better experience with the '14 sparkling traditional method and '15 mourvedre Shake Ridge Ranch which I also have somewhere.
Jayson Cohen
Jayson Cohen
LOL. I love this. Short, effective, and to the point.
Jayson Cohen
Jayson Cohen
So I assume it’s not possible to get more now? Is Hardy on WD or just WB?
Keith, I love that note on CT.
I think they’re sold out at the winery, and I don’t know if Hardy is on WD. You could always email him to ask if he’d sell any more or if he knows if there’s a retailer who might have some left—he’s very responsive on email.
I’ve also got a few bottles left and am happy to share.
Hardy Wallace
Hardy Wallace
Currently in Bandol, but I wanted to chime in. First, thanks for the kind words. I really appreciate it. The '16 Especial is a very fun wine. It is sold out at the winery and only a couple (4-6?) of cases went wholesale. I think they all went to NY and CA last May. / June. The especial wines are intended for early consumption and I think best within the year after release. We don't make it every year and hopefully the next one will be 2018.
The Pfifferling / L'Anglore Vejade is dynamite bottle and one of my fav. mourvèdre based wines in the world- Made differently- 100% carbonic with a longer maceration- somehow that and the Especial point in a similar direction. Also Hank's La Clarine Cedarville is always great.
The Pfifferling / L'Anglore Vejade is dynamite bottle and one of my fav. mourvèdre based wines in the world- Made differently- 100% carbonic with a longer maceration- somehow that and the Especial point in a similar direction. Also Hank's La Clarine Cedarville is always great.