Month: July 2022

2020 Bodegas Borsao Vina Borgia Organic Garnacha

Another from the July Dan’s import selection. This one is first one on the left in the photo. Spanish Grenache is always a good place to find value but recently there’s been more sulphide reduction and this is already showing that box of spent matches smell. Hope it doesn’t go the way of Borsao’s recent vintage Tres Lagunas. If it does, it’ll be clearance special at a giveaway price too. Happily the reduction clears and it’s crisp Spanish Garnacha as we know it. Mid weight, tart dark berries and a rocky cut of fine skin tannin. The difference to good clean Rhône versions is noticeable. More sharp red fruit compôt, less Rhône sweet jammy berries. More austere cut, less soft chocolate tannin perhaps. Enjoy the freshness now maybe before it gets too volcanic? Nonetheless a sense of good fruit and place for not much, although there’s no reference to Borja on the label. A rebuy, maybe, probably not.

14.5% alcohol. Screw cap. $12.

88 points but needs air now.

2020 Guillaume Gonnet Le Petit Reveur Côtes du Rhône

It seems the most read posts here are for budget friendly direct imports from the empire of Dan’s and the odd Aldi surprise. I try and make the pilgrimage to the old Alphington barn of Dan once a month for a six or so buy in an attempt to even out the budget. It’s a shame the recently opened and more local Collingwood version is so woefully stocked. As there’s always an odd compulsion to taste the unknown, the selection veers towards the new and possibly interesting. This month I managed to find seven untried bottles from Spain, France and Italy for a meagre $132. Third from right in the above line up and it’s 85% Grenache with the rest Syrah. This little dreamer hoped Le Petit Reveur wouldn’t turn into a nightmare. It didn’t. Initially jammy ripe with cherry, plum and Mediterranean scrubby flavours, it changed up a gear with a day’s air. The ripeness still as much as you’d want but the fruit’s deeper, kirsch and chocolate, spiced and carried on cocoa tannin, all trimmed with a good swish of satisfying ripe acidity. A special mention for how clean and tasty. Definitely think it’s at its best now. Time will only make things more dull and gummy maybe. Nonetheless, another one wouldn’t be a chore and you can’t say that about all my recent choices.

14% alcohol. Screw cap. $19.00

90 value points.

2019 Domaine des Closiers Saumur Champigny Expression

A newish enterprise with wise investment across vineyard, viticultural and winemaker input it seems. 15 hectares of oldish Cabernet Franc on good limestone and clay soil. A viti expert from Roche Neuve, one of my favourite reliably clean producers and winemaking input from the famous Clos Rougeard. No small investment or expectation then. The added recommendation from Randall’s, simply put as effing amazing, tipped me in. Made with no recourse to oak suggested there could be an absence of the oft encountered Loire horse stable held together by a dirty band aid…er…terroir. And joy, spotlessly clean powerful but even aromas of great Cabernet Franc. Raspberry, leaf and fruit. Darker fruit and sparkling pale limestone in the rain. Initially seemed to show a bit too much gloss of slippery ripeness but as air worked its magic, the fruit cooled to a fresh mouthful of perfectly ripe raspberries, sweet green leaves and chalky minerals, that word again. Inadequate but… Concentrated and intense. Long and measured. Power supported by a wave of ripe grape skin tannin indistinguishable from a tug of sweet ripe acidity. Beautiful grapes and no mucking about.

14% alcohol, quite something for the latitude. Cork. $55ish.

93 points and hooray for medium weight delicious purity.