The Merry Drinker
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Chianti Colli Fiorentini 2005, Fattoria di Lucignano
The nice thing about Chianti is that there is one for every pocket and every palate. If you are rich and discerning, you will buy La Massa???s spectacular Giorgio Primo. If you are a penniless moron, you will buy one of those Cecchi flasks encased in raffia. And if like most of us you are somethi …
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Lirac 2005, Ch??teau de S??gri??s
The best value wines are the ones you have never heard of. This week I tried a well-known, expensive Barolo and wondered why I had bothered. I then drank an obscure Burgundy called Monthelie that cost half as much and gave three times the pleasure. And here is another wine that is cheaper still, …
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Thiele Road Grenache 2004, Schwarz Wine Company
They have been making wine in South Australia???s Barossa Valley since the 1830s. Jason Schwarz, founder and proprietor of the Schwarz Wine Company, made his first Thiele Road Grenache in 2002, but he is very much part of the tradition, being the son and grandson of Barossa Valley growers. Mr Schwa …
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Ripassa 2005, Zenato
Valpolicella is the local grape of Verona, in north-east Italy. ??It gives its name to the everyday wine from those parts. There are some good Valpolicellas and quite a few foul ones. Having drunk more of the latter than the former, I tend to avoid the stuff. But in this part of the world they lik …
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Ch??teau Malescot St-Exup??ry 2001, Margaux
Even people who don???t drink have heard of Margaux. The name has become synonymous with ???luxury wine???, something consumed by rich, sophisticated people, along with Romeo y Julieta cigars and Beluga caviar ??? though ideally not all at once. Lovers of trivia may also know that one of Ernest He …
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Hermitage Blanc 2003, Cave de Tain
One handy rule of wine drinking is to steer clear of anything from European cooperatives. Generally speaking, the words ???Cantina Coop. Soc.??? on an Italian label or ???Cave Cooperative??? on a French one are shorthand for muck, indifferently produced by lazy, ill-shaven peasants stultified by …
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Hermitage Blanc, Cave de Tain 2003
One handy rule of wine drinking is to steer clear of anything from European cooperatives. Generally speaking, the words ???Cantina Coop. Soc.??? on an Italian label or ???Cave Cooperative??? on a French one are shorthand for muck, indifferently produced by lazy, ill-shaven peasants stultified by …
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Neuch??tel Pinot Noir 2004, Domaine E. De Montmollin
In Italy, for 30 years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace ??? and what did they produce? The cuckoo clock. …
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Contado 2003, Di Majo Norante
We all have our little daydreams. One of mine is that someone mistakenly sells me a bottle of 1961 La T??che for the price of a supermarket Chianti. I am sad to report that this has yet to happen, but last week, for a short, blissful interval, I thought I had achieved something comparable. Although …
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Hess Appellation Series Cabernet Sauvignon 2005, California
When talking about wine I often feel like the little boy who blurts out that the Emperor has no clothes. Many houses offer us good budget label wines in the hope that these will tempt us to try their more serious offerings. Needless to say, the serious stuff costs twice, thrice, even four times as …
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Menc??a 2005 Luna Beberide, Bierzo
I have been brooding on the question of wine and national character. One must reflect the other, but how, exactly? This seems impossible to nail down. For example, Americans like powerful wines with concentrated fruit flavours. They also like baseball, SUVs and hot dogs. Is there a common facto …
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Adelsheim Pinot Noir 2005, Oregon
The story of Oregon Pinot Noir would make an amusing though implausible novel. Wine has been grown in the northwestern state of Oregon since the nineteenth century. Until the 1960s most of it was rubbish. Then, against the advice of experts, a young winemaker named David Lett planted Pinot Noir in …
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Bandol 2004, Domaine Tempier
Quite a few of my relatives are tight-fisted. This is a common disease throughout Britain, but it reaches epidemic levels in the North. My Lancastrian relations sweat with terror at the thought of parting with money, and will go to astonishing lengths to avoid doing so. The worst of these ??? I mu …
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Bourgogne Pinot Noir 2006, Collection Alain Corcia
One of the wine drinker???s holy grails is good, cheap Burgundy. By ???good??? I mean typically Burgundian; something with the fleshy, gamey quality of successful Pinot Noir. By I mean under $15 in the US or ??10 in the UK. ???What you want is impossible,??? I am always told, usually by people wh …
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Chrysalis Vineyards Viognier 2005, Virginia
In my item on Condrieu I mentioned that there were successful Viogniers from places other than the Rh??ne. I have now got round to sampling this one, from Middleburg in Virginia, and I recommend it warmly. Its makers, Chrysalis Vineyards, have been in business for only a decade. They have all the …
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Pisano-Arretxea Grand Reserve 2004, Progreso
Uruguayans often describe their country as the Switzerland of South America, presumably meaning it is stabler and more prosperous than its neighbours. Thats fair enough, I suppose, though like any clich?? the point grows tiresome with repetition. A Uruguayan lady of my acquaintance used to say it …
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Meandro Do Vale Me??o 2004, Douro
???Good place, Portugal,??? said a colleague recently. ???I???m thinking of moving there.??? ???Oh? Why OK. Food???s good. So???s the wine.??? That last bit made me perk up. It was over twenty years since I had drunk anything Portuguese, but I could recall the last bottle clearly: an indifferen …
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Ch??teau la Louvi??re White 2002, Pessac-L??ognan
One must always be careful with dry whites from Bordeaux. Far too many of them are sour, ill-bred nasties, guaranteed to leave your breath smelling like a drain. They are the unhappy result of decades of government subsidy, a system which debased much of the regions wine and cheated everyone??else …
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Ch??teau Ksara Reserve du Couvent 2005
One thing the French excel at, apart from food and wine, is giving other nations inferiority complexes. Somehow they have persuaded most of the worlds educated classes that France represents the summit of human sophistication, and that by comparison the rest of us are clodhopping peasants. This …
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Linden Claret 2003, Virginia
Ever tried Virginia wine? When it is good, it is very good indeed. And scarcely anyone has heard of it yet, which means there are some real bargains to be had. In 2003 the state of Virginia grew 3,600 tons of grapes, producing 576,000 gallons of wine. By US standards that is not very much, and by …
The Merry Drinker
