Over the course of a week, I taste a bunch of wine, usually with friends, and almost always with my wife.  Here are a few of what we tasted this week:

Not a good color for most non-dessert wines

2005 Domaine Kreydenweiss Pinot Blanc Kritt les Charmes:  Retail ~$20. Purchased for personal consumption.  As I may have mentioned before, I consider Alsace my second home since I studied there for a year in college.  I have a fairly good collection of Alsatian wines, which I typically like to drink with a little age on them. I had a bottle of this a couple months ago and it was interesting, even good, but showed signs of being over the hill.  This one, I really have to call this one ‘flawed’. Dark golden color, notes of oxidation even caramelization on the nose. Tough getting past that. On the palate, more of the same. I have another bottle, ugh… Flawed, not rated. Since I still had one more bottle of this in the cellar, I decided that I might as well pull its cork as well.  Upon pouring it into the glass, it was clear that this one had issues as well–the dark yellow color was showing its ugly face again.  On the nose: oxidation.  On the palate, this one was not as far gone as the other bottle, but it was trying real hard to catch up….

2008 Argyle Brut: Retail ~$22.  Just got to the 2008 after having finished off the last of the 2006 over the weekend. Mostly some muted citrus on the nose and quite bright on the palate. Perhaps not as acidic as the 2006, but this wine shows that Argyle really makes an outstanding sparkler every year. Very Good. 87 points.

2004 Davis Bynum Pinot Noir Allen Vineyard: Retail ~$35. Cellar Tracker says this wine should be consumed by 2010.  Well.  First, I love Cellar Tracker (CT).  I use it all the time and it is great.  Second, a lot of CT users, apparently, are typical wine drinkers in this country where the average amount of time a wine is aged is about two hours.  2010? Seriously?  This wine is really drinking well right now.  Lots of fruit on the nose and palate (cherries and some plum) and a very balanced mid-palate.  Long consistent finish.  Outstanding. 91 points.

1999 Beaulieu Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Rutherford:Retail ~$20-25. Had this after dinner with one of the owners at our local BYOB restaurant.  The previous bottle of this wine was rather austere and vegetal.  This was one was far better.  Dark black fruit with an faint freshly brewed coffee on the nose.  The coffee/mocha persisted on the palate, making this a very interesting wine.  Excellent. 89 points.

2007 Louis Jadot Fleurie: Retail ~$15-20.  It was pizza night at the old homestead and my wife surprised me by saying that she wanted a Beaujolais.  So I ran down to the cellar and grabbed one of these Fleuries.  I am a big fan of Beaujolais, and this wine is from one of the ten ‘Cru’ villages.  I usually like to throw my Beaujolais in the fridge for about 30 minutes to put a bit of a chill on it to regulate the acidity a bit.  This was a Thursday night though, when I teach a Spinning class at the local gym, so by the time I got home, I just grabbed the bottle and pulled the cork.  At first, as I feared, the acidity was a bit overwhelming, but paired with the pizza, the acidity balanced out.  The wine had some nice dried cherry fruit and a very long finish.  On the first taste, this wine was a bit of a disappointment, but it came around like so many old world wines once the food was introduced. Excellent to outstanding.  90 points.

2003 Cosentino Edie: Retail ~$50. This is a wine from one of our old favorites: Cosentino.  It was my very first wine club–a former girlfriend (don’t tell my wife) took me to a wine dinner with Cosentino wines where Mitch Cosentino waxed poetically about the vino and the food. This is a dessert wine made from Semillon, one of the classic grapes from Bordeaux.  It is also made in the Sauternes style (the grapes are allowed to botrysize–the get moldy, essentially dehydrating the grapes, which intensifies the sugars and flavors).  Once again, Cellar Tracker users say this should have been consumed by 2008 (?!).  Well, it certainly is dark–darker than ginger ale (even darker than the glass shown above).  Intense nose of honey and more honey.  It makes a powerful first impression on the palate, almost overwhelming.  It just takes a while to get used to, I guess, since this turned out to be one of the better dessert wines I have had this year.  Based on the somewhat negative comments on CT, I think this one just needed some more time to intensify a bit.  Outstanding. 93 points.

2010 Argyle Pinot Noir: Retail ~$20. More solid wine from what is quickly turning into one of my go to wineries.  A bit thin, certainly, but some nice bright fruit that usually characterizes Oregon pinot.  We actually had this with leftover choucroute and it was a very nice pairing.  Medium finish.  Very Good. 87 points.

2009 Tori Mor Pinot Gris:  Retail ~$18. More pinot goodness from Oregon, albeit the ‘gris’ version.  I have not had many wines from Tori Mor, but this was a very solid, impressive effort.   Not an overwhelmingly fruity wine, but there were some hints of orange and pineapple.  On the palate, bone dry–I guess I was expecting an Alsace style, with at least a bit of sweetness.  Very nice acidity and tartness, but a little weak on the finish.  Very Good.  86 points.

2009 Château Le Gay Festival: Retail ~$12-15. This is a rosé from Bordeaux and given all the heat that we have had this summer, we certainly find ourselves reaching for the rosés more often.  Even though this one is a few years old, it is still drinking beautifully.  It has quite a bit of heft, with rather intense strawberry notes.  It certainly drinks more like a red than a rosé.  A nice finish even though it seems to lack a bit of acidity.  Very Good. 87 points.

2003 Domaine Vincent Girardin Santenay 1er Cru La Maladière: Retail ~$35.  2003 was an incredibly hot year in France and many worried how individual vignerons would handle all that heat.  Well, at least with this wine, Girardin went big.  This is much more ‘New World’ style than ‘Old World’, meaning a lot of fruit and not much ‘forrest floor’ or ‘barnyard’ that can characterize Burgundies. This Girardin does it successfully, lots of plum and sour cherry with a lot of weight.  Outstanding.  90 points.

Wine of the week: Well, it really is a no brainer, the Edie from Cosentino was very impressive and it takes top honors, but I have a soft spot for the town of Santenay–where I fell in love with Burgundy (don’t tell my wife), so it came in second.