Over the course of a week, I taste a bunch of wine, usually with friends, and almost always with my wife. Here are some of the wines we tasted over the past few weeks. These are wines that were not sent as samples—in most cases, I actually paid for these wines (although a few may have been given as gifts).
2024 Caves d’Esclans Whispering Angel, Côtes de Provence, France: Retail $25. Responsible Bottle (507g; 17.9oz). Grenache, Cinsault, Rolle (Vermentino), Syrah, Tibouren. This is a wine that we buy by the case as it costs about thirteen bucks when it goes on sale at my local H-E-B (I love my H-E-B). Somehow, we still had a bottle of the 2024 kicking around in the cellar long after the 2025 came out. I still contend that well made, True Rosé can age just like their white counterparts, but at under $15, why bother? This wine, for me and for many others, is the quintessential Provençal rosé: fruity, tart, balanced, just a delightful quaff. By the pool, at the table, or on the couch binging on our next favorite show, this is as versatile as it gets (next to champagne, naturally). Sure, you can buy it at a Wallgreens (for $25), but that does not make it bad. Not at all. Outstanding. 93 Points.
NV Duval-Leroy Champagne Grand Brut, Champagne, France: Retail $50. Extremely Heavy Bottle (832g; 29.2oz). Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Pinot Meunier. I last tried this in 2024 when my wife saw it at Cosco for $40. Well, this time, I was the culprit, but the price was the same. Last time, I was a bit underwhelmed, I guess (88 Points), it was fine, but I thought there were better options out there for forty bucks. I do like this bottle better, though, as it has a bit more moxie, a tad more tartness, and just a little better balanced. I am still not sure about $40, but this is certainly a notch or two above the last bottle, and with the price of champagne continuing to climb? This might be a future case purchase. Excellent. 91 Points.
NV Mailly Champagne Grand Cru Brut Réserve, Champagne, France: etail $55. Extremely Heavy Bottle (898g; 31.6oz). 75% Pinot Noir, 25% Chardonnay. 100% Grand Cru. Another wine that we buy by the case when it goes on sale at Total Wine (the exclusive retailer for Mailly in the U.S.) As I have mentioned countless times, we named our dog “Mailly” (pronounced “MY-yee”) and this has long served as our “house champagne”. As such, my wife has determined that she can open a bottle whenever she pleases (she adds two more words in between “she” and “pleases”) and she certainly follows through on that assertion. This note represents six bottles that are “Missing” from the cellar. Coincidentally(?) that is the same number of days I was away from home last month. I’m sure my wife would say: “Similar notes”. While we have seen a bit more bottle variation recently, this is still Excellent. 92 Points.
2024 Château Miraval, Côtes de Provence Rosé, France: Retail $25. Heavy Bottle (610g; 21.4oz). Cinsault, Grenache, Rolle, Syrah. Another wine we would buy by the case, but we are coming to the end of the line for the 2024s in the cellar and it is unlikely that we will buying much more of this wine. The price has gone up $5-8/bottle (tariffs?) but we can still get Whispering Angel for quite a bit less. The wines, in my opinion, are of similar quality (if I had to choose, I would likely go for Miraval as it has a bit more fruit, typically, than Whispering Angel), so there is no reason to stock up on these anymore. Plus the stupid bottle does not fit in any wine rack on the planet. Still, this is Outstanding. 93 Points.
NV G. H. Mumm & Cie Champagne Grand Cordon Brut Rosé, Champagne, France: Retail $60. Extremely Heavy Bottle (828g; 29.1oz). 60% Pinot Noir, 22% Chardonnay, 18% Pinot Meunier, 14% red wine. While we typically do not buy this wine by the case, I made an exception when I saw this on sale for a little over forty bucks. Solid, but unspectacular, with decent enough fruit, good balance, and a nice finish. It is always nice to have some bottles of rosé champagne around, but I still can’t understand the 20-40% premium that one needs to pay to obtain one. I paid $43, which is a decent price, I guess, but there are better (non-rosé) champagnes out there at that price. Excellent. 90 Points.
NV Piper-Heidsieck Champagne Essentiel Extra Brut, Champagne, France: Retail $65. Extremely Heavy Bottle (870g; 30.6oz). Based on 2016 vintage. 45% Pinot Noir, 36% Pinot Meunier, 19% Chardonnay. 23% reserve wine. Disgorged 2022. 6g/l dosage. I always say that once I find a wine I like, I always prefer to buy it by the case, if at all possible. There are a lot of benefits to that approach. A downside? I tend not to make note of them when we pop a cork. Thus, when I sat down to write a note about this bottle, I noticed that five were actually missing. Sure, I could blame my wife for a bottle or two, but five? I need to get it together. Oh yeah, the wine? Another fantastic bottle with great fruit, plenty of brioche, and zingy tartness. What else could you possibly want? Other than more wineries in Champagne being more open (like Piper) on their labels? Yeah, not much. Outstanding. 94 Points.
WINE OF THE WEEK: We are very fortunate to live very close to perhaps the best H-E-B grocery store in the state of Texas. I heard from one of the employees that the store is the chain’s flagship when it comes to wine, and who am I to argue? Ever since we moved here over a decade ago, I purchase most of our “everyday” wines from the store and at the top of the list has to be this week’s Wine of the Week, the 2025 Whispering Angel Rosé. I know the wine has plenty of detractors, but when I can get this quality of a wine for around $13? That is as close to a no-brainer as I get these days. (I took this photo several years ago, but unlike almost everything else, the price of WA has not gone up at all.)
What was your Wine of the Week?
the drunken cyclist 