cognitivebottletherapy

2020 Gran Sasso Montepulciano d’Abruzzo

For not much money we may be getting something a nudge up from the bottom of the quality pyramid. I think it’s from a clever operation buying good grapes in quite a few regions and looking for something safe and clean but properly whence it comes too. In the days when friends would let me tell them what to put on their restaurants’ wine lists, this often helped financially and slid the pasta down nicely. A decade later and it’s still helping with the illusion that the wine budget’s OK. Maybe one of the better recent years? Vivid purple and red, clean, a punch of bramble fruit, fresh and preserved. Not that deep but the boisterous Monty skin tannin and crunchy acid are well under control, nipping the fruit but not imposing. There’s a volcanic smell and salami savoury lick that adds interest. Really well made. Bouncy fun.

13% alcohol. Screw cap. $15 well spent.

89 for sure, easily persuaded 90.

2016 Ritme Celler Ritme Priorat

You have to like Priorat. It seems it can produce wine that’s both lush, rich and full but still holds an almost paradoxical freshness. The landscape looks similarly rugged but hospitable. Wines and their places again. That makes it fascinating to some of us but it isn’t cheap. This one’s imported by Langton’s into Australia and ended up their auction site in some quantity. Maybe they couldn’t sell it in their online store? This one is laboratory clean and bright. Sour dark cherries, sooty fireplaces, cocoa and a balsamic edge. A waft of alcohol warmth gets sternly reprimanded by some gruff acidity and silty texture. Bit too tart(aric). Both elements seem big and biffy, close to overdoing it but sort of balanced like elephants on a seesaw. In time, there’s roast meat pan juices you seem to get with good Carignan. Maybe not the softness of the best Grenache and Carignan Priorat blends but the oak interferes not and the price was right. Not quite enough enthusiasm to bid for more in the next auction but still, nice.

15% alcohol, hic. Cork. $20.64.

91 to start, got enthusiastic at 93, then more a 92.

2018 Eden Road The Long Road Syrah

Another inexpensive bottle, thanks to auction luck, to test the recovering olfactories. Gentle scents of blackberry and other summer joys, some nutty savoury treats and a touch of chocolate. Only medium bodied and an unforced caress of stony acidity with perhaps a touch of ripe stem tannin. All in harmony. In no way trying to be more than it can and charms in so doing. Less can be nice.

13% alcohol. Screw cap. $15 at auction, happy days.

92 points.

2021 Wynns Coonawarra Estate Shiraz

Stricken by flu, then a nasty encounter with the major pandemic can really damage your mood, your sense of smell and any confidence in a return to anything like objective tasting, should there be such a thing? A gentle and familiar toe in the water then in good old Wynns Shiraz. Still so enormously discounted that there’s no serious loss if it tastes as bad as my normal coffee drink did for a while. Phew, it tastes like red wine. In particular, starts with low key blackberry and plum jam with a touch of earthy tar all put firmly in place with a rasp of lemony acidity and green herb fine tannin. In time, there’s more bright red fruit, pepper and the acidity tends to freshen instead of jar. Tannins are nicely bound. A friend fancied the 2021 Reframed Shiraz x Riesling version brought to mind the North end of the Rhone valley. There’s a parallel here maybe in terms of just over the line ripeness and freshness within the boundaries of local flavours. Still a bargain with a sense of real grapes rather than an industrial recipe. Coffee tastes good too now.

13.6% alcohol. Screw cap. $13.

89 points.

2018 Domaine Georges Vernay Les Fleurs du Mai Syrah Des Collines Rhodaniennes IGP

One of the most respected Condrieu producers who also make great Côte Rotie which I’ve been lucky enough to drink just once. This bottle appeared on the Langtons auction site. To follow the old Clive Coates maxim that you should seek the colder sites in hot years I made a bid. It seemed oddly appropriate as November is our May in the inverted Southern Hemisphere. Maybe a flowery omen? My $28 bid won to my eyebrow raising surprise as googling revealed you can still buy a bottle in Melbourne for $65, lucky me. Clean and extravagantly smelly on opening. Just so ripe raspberries, exotic spice bazaar fragrances and incense, blimey. Flowers and smoke. Hints of liquorice too. Just medium bodied, it tightens across the tongue and floats off on wisps of high resolution tannin with both the flavour and acidity of really ripe and dark blood orange. Incredibly good grapes coaxed into my lucky glass with no mucking about, great lightness of touch. Two words, clarity and focus. How good is their Côte Rotie these days?

13% alcohol. Diam. $28, like winning a lottery.

93 points to start, easy 94 to 95 as the bottle went down.

2018 Domaine Verdier Logel La Volcanique

From an obscure and very small AOP close to the source of the Loire up in a valley in the Massif Central and over the hills from the Rhône, this is a clean and deeply fruited Gamay. The ripest, darkest and most squishy imaginable dark cherries are seasoned with cocoa dusted sweet earth. Almost like there’s an infusion of the rocks in which the vines grow. Starts well and then goes deep into the palate, resounding as it leaves with a sweet hug of ripe skin tannin and a sparkle of rock, spice and acidity. Loosens up a bit the next day with a lift of skin shrivelled ethyl acetate and a drying finish. From a hot year up in remote cool mountains. Great wine from nowhere.

14.5% alcohol. Cork. $32 at auction.

94 points.

2015 Innocent Bystander Syrah

When this was first released it was a cracking buy close to $20 when discounted. The very good 2015 vintage fruit looked round, poised and filled the senses with vinous joy with the whole bunch herb and woody spice adding a satisfying counterpoint. I must admit to fretting a bit about how these cooler, or should that be less hot, vineyard Shiraz progress with time in the bottle? Must admit to enjoy calling it Shiraz, it seems to add to the debate, hee hee. Let’s see. Dusty bottle age lifts to perfumed spice, stems or Shiraz spice or a bit of both? Loads of tart red fruits like an English pudding sit fat on the tongue, still fresh and bright. Some pepper and more of that spice too. The end and overall texture are drawn tight by some sour green stem tannin and acidity. Wether this is a pleasant tension or a distraction from some beautiful fruit is open to discussion for me. I found a tech sheet that says 40% whole bunch, so it’s there to some extent. I think I preferred this in its bouncy youth as I do a lot of Australian red wine. Fascinating to get the chance to compare and contemplate. Serious business this wine thing.

13.8% alcohol. Screw cap. $26 at auction.

91 to 93 points depending on whole bunch enjoyment?

2019 Moulin de Gassac Guilhem

Over the years this has been one of the better quality and value direct imports on Dan’s shelves. As I was struggling to find bottles to fill out a six bottle buy, it seemed time to revisit this vintage. A bottle almost exactly a year ago wasn’t quite as good as previous vintages and perhaps a reason to not bother with a scribble. As usual a SGM from the Pays d’Hérault and a year later the sweaty reduced nature of last year’s bottle isn’t there. Bit more mid weight than normal, some sweet Mediterranean red fruit with some dried cherry maybe, brown spice and some woody herbs. A little green rawness to the tannin and just ripe acidity. Certainly more composed after a year on the shelf and shows even the most basic can benefit from a short rest. The previous review was a cool year wine from Coonawarra, this looks a warm year in the Languedoc. For the price it’s still offers something more than just alcoholic soothing which is quite something.

13% alcohol. Screw cap. $10 members’ special.

88 points.

2021 Wynns Coonawarra Estate The Sidings Cabernet

This and Wynns Shiraz are often discounted to below $15 which perhaps makes them amongst the best value Australian red wines. From a cool year with a late burst of glorious autumn weather, this opens with a pretty purple red colour and smell if colours have perfume? Thick in texture and fragrant with sweet earth and green herbs, Tart blackberry and blackcurrant that just qualify as ripe with much fruit sweetness and a tweak of Cabernet leafiness. Lots of extract helps the feel of soft tannin and gentle acidity but doesn’t hinder the impression of Coonawarra claret as it was last century. Just ripe enough but some will perhaps prefer more fruit sweetness rather than the savoury and earthy side of a La Niña season. For the price the discussion could be a bit precious.

13.7% alcohol. Screw cap. $13.25 in a Murphy six.

89 points.

2020 Mommessin Beaujolais Les Papillons

Good basic Beaujolais. Probably enough words. But I’ll bang on a bit more. The second from my desperate Dan’s November six and it’s already the 23rd so I’d better get drinking. Lots of that bubblegum or boiled sweet or lolly as Australians say, coming from fermenting whole uncrushed grapes I think. Underneath a lick of bouncy cherry and red berries and a glitter of rocky minerals. Carries well on clean, well mannered acidity and a flicker of grape skin tannin to a washy dilute feeling ending. Good value but maybe not nearly as good as Mommessin’s Beaujolais Villages or Crus. Dan’s direct import prices means this beggar can choose.

13% alcohol. Screw cap. $12.00 as a member’s special and probably the cheapest way to get an authentic glass of cool Beaujolais.

88 points.