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 have been given as gifts).

NV Barbier-Louvet Champagne Grand Cru Cuvée D’Ensemble, France: Retail $55. 60% Pinot Noir, 40% Chardonnay. The winery is located in Tauxières-Mutry, a Premier Cru village on the Montagne de Reims, but the wine is classified as a Grand Cru, so the fruit likely comes from the nearby villages of Bouzy and Louvois. Pale to golden straw in the glass with plenty of green apple and fresh brioche. Yum. The palate is fruity, lively, and rich, with a lengthy finish–just delicious from start to finish. Outstanding. 93 Points.

2022 Caves d’Esclans Whispering Angel, Côtes de Provence, France: Retail $25. Under cork. Grenache, Cinsault and Rolle. I have lost count as to how many vintages of this wine I have tried, but I am pretty sure I have tried each vintage since about 2013. So however many that is. Fairly pale in the glass with oodles of wild strawberry, ripe cherry, with floral notes and minerality. The palate is tart, fruity, and balanced. Once again, another stellar wine from perhaps the leader in Provençal rosé. Excellent. 92 Points.

NV Champagne Collet Champagne Brut Rosé, France: Retail $50. 50% Pinot Noir, 40% Chardonnay, 10% Pinot Meunier. Ever since our favorite, Mailly Grand Cru Rosé (after which we named our dog) has become stupidly expensive and our source for inexpensive Veuve Rosé (“a guy named Danny”) has fallen off the planet (or might be in jail, honestly), this Collet had become, at least by default, our house rosé. Initially, I liked it (a lot), but I might like it even more now. Why? Well, it has all the prerequisites for a great rosé champagne: good fruit, great tartness, a bit of yeasty goodness, tiny bubbles, and a lengthy finish. Unfortunately, this has now pushed up to $45 at our local H-E-B so I am once again looking for a more reasonably priced “house” rosé champagne. Excellent. 91 Points.

2014 Clos Pepe Estate Chardonnay Barrel Fermented, Sta Rita Hills, CA: etail $35. Under screwcap. I bought a half a case of this final vintage from the winery when they were closing up shop, and this is the now the third bottle we have cracked. I’d go with light yellow in the glass with lemon curd, a bit of green apple, and slight hints of vanilla and oak. The palate is quite tart, but also full-bodied (13.9%) and rich with multiple layers of flavor. Opening a bottle of Clos Pepe these days is always bittersweet–I love the wines, but my supply is finite as Wes Hagen will not be making any more. Sure, the vineyard still exists, but those making a Clos Pepe today are a far cry from the passionate, ebullient, and, at times, mercurial Wes Hagen. Excellent. 92 Points.

2015 Masi Valpolicella Classico Bonacosta, Veneto, Italy: Retail $20. Corvina, Rondinella, Molinara. I visited the winery back in 2016 and they gifted me this bottle which I prolly should have popped at least a few years ago. Look, it’s fine; there is some fruit left, above-average acidity, and even some earth milling around the edges. But this wine was meant to be consumed fairly young and, well, I failed at that. Still, a delightfully pleasant quaff but if you have any, it is well past time to open these suckers up. Very Good. 88 Points.

2000 Château Potensac, Médoc, Bordeaux, France: Retail $25. 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Merlot, 15% Cabernet Franc. I bought a slew of these back in 2005 and I have not been disappointed. While not a Cru Bourgeois then, then one of 9 Cru Bourgeois Exceptionnels in 2003, only to be revoked in 2007, then refused to be considered as a Cru Bourgeois in 2010. Yeah, the designation is a mess. But the wine isn’t. A fabulous Bordeaux, regardless of price, this still has fruit, albeit reserved, with just a touch of green pepper (thank you Cabernet Franc). The palate screams for food, to which I obliged with a Texas-sized ribeye. Fantastic. A perfect match. Excellent. 90 Points.

At one tasting in New York, way back in 2016, the pourer for Château d’Esclans (producer of Whispering Angel) was a no-show, so I decided to step in.

WINE OF THE WEEK: Even before we moved to Houston, we drank rosé all year; for us it is not just a summer beverage. And the top of the list of our preferred rosés is littered with wines from Château d’Esclans, perhaps the most well-known producer of pink wine. Its flagship wine, and this week’s Wine of the Week, 2022 Caves d’Esclans Whispering Angel, has become ubiquitous. I have seen it in grocery stores, drug stores, heck, even gas stations. For that reason, it seems, the powers that be in wine critic circles view it as mass-produced schlock, not worthy of the time it takes to type its name. And that is stupid. The wine, vintage after vintage, is stellar and it retails for under thirty bucks (I usually can find it right around $15). A world-class wine at an every day price? Yeah, I will drink that all day every day.

What was/were your Wine(s) of the Week?