Keith Levenberg
Keith Levenberg
Dom. de la Grande Colline 2012 "S" - Somehow I managed to get by this long without ever trying any wine from Hirotake Ooka, so seeing this on the wine list at Reverie (wonderful restaurant, btw) seemed like a perfect opportunity. Gorgeous bottle of syrah here. Intense black-pepper scents with fruit of such vivid summer ripeness it's like being thrust into the book Jamberry. [*Footnote: This is a children's book about a boy and his grizzly bear picking fresh berries. It's nicely drawn and unlike most children's books these days, the meter actually scans correctly, with great little verses like, "Raspberry / Jazzberry / Razzamatazzberry!"] There is some serious razzamatazzberry here.
Dom. de la Grande Colline 2012 [sub silentio] Cornas - Tastes like a cross between Eric Texier Cote-Rotie and Verset Cornas if it were made by Dard & Ribo, which sounds kind of awesome but to be honest I am on the fence trying to figure out if this is maybe just too far into the red zone on the tach for its own good. The non-fruit elements are so overwhelming - bacon, cured aged meat, sweaty horses that probably indicate a non-zero amount of brett - that I almost feel like this should be served with a knife and fork. Some compoted red fruit scents hit the nose eventually but on the palate the balance between sweet and savory has the savory needle in Spinal Tap territory. This isn't so much a wine you drink with dinner as it is dinner. It's either Soil-to-Glass Transfer Cornas or the sausage stall at the farm market + a bit of the compost pile at the farm run through the Dan Akroyd Bass-o-Matic, depending on which angle you look at it.
Dom. de la Grande Colline 2012 [sub silentio] Cornas - Tastes like a cross between Eric Texier Cote-Rotie and Verset Cornas if it were made by Dard & Ribo, which sounds kind of awesome but to be honest I am on the fence trying to figure out if this is maybe just too far into the red zone on the tach for its own good. The non-fruit elements are so overwhelming - bacon, cured aged meat, sweaty horses that probably indicate a non-zero amount of brett - that I almost feel like this should be served with a knife and fork. Some compoted red fruit scents hit the nose eventually but on the palate the balance between sweet and savory has the savory needle in Spinal Tap territory. This isn't so much a wine you drink with dinner as it is dinner. It's either Soil-to-Glass Transfer Cornas or the sausage stall at the farm market + a bit of the compost pile at the farm run through the Dan Akroyd Bass-o-Matic, depending on which angle you look at it.