2004 Sutton Cellars Pinot Noir Russian River Valley Cummings Vineyard "The Crossroads"

Raspberry liquor color. Pungent red berry aroma that is hot and tart on the palate. Long warm finish.

NV Goutorbe "Cuvee Prestige" Premier Cru Champagne ***

Ah, it's so freaking hot these days there might be nothing as nice as Friday Night Bubbly. This Goutorbe "Cuvee Prestige" from premier cru vineyards in Ay, displays a deep-golden color with minor pink rose iridescence, with an apple juice top note, and apples, apricots, and lemon zest on this Jennifer-Aniston-bodied fuzzy. A Terry Theise Estate selection, from the Oak and Steel retailer in midtown, where I've been buying all of Terry's wines.

If you're into Champagne like I am, check out the Champagne Manifesto.

2005 Clos Saint Jean Chateauneuf du Pape Vieilles Vignes *

How excited was I to open this wine? Um, well, I raced home from the wine store and had the bottle opener in my hand before I even said hello to my children, if that tells you anything. And it was a 90+ degree day in NYC and I still just wanted a bright red Rhone. I guess that's why I think of it as a Chateauneuf-du-Pape craze I have been on.

The 2005 Vieilles Vignes is a dusky ruby red in color with jammy red fruits on the nose. The top note is a bit alcoholic, but as the nose adjusts to it there is some very berry nice "primary" fruit flavors. On the palate the wine is warm and thin, without too much pepper or spice, and a decided lack of concentration. Perhaps this needs to cellar to put on weight?

Looking for more info on Clos Saint Jean? Click here.

2006 Ridge Vineyards ATP Buchignani Ranch Carignane *

From 16 acres with a rough-average age of about 60 years, this "100% Hillside Grown Old Vine Carignane" from Sonoma displayed a dusky ruby tint, with strong ground hot pepper and lavender on the nose. Spicy and mildly sweet on the attack, with good underlying structure. It only truly opened up - and mellowed out - with a lot of air, displaying mixed dark berries by day two. I might have opened this too soon after it arrived from California - it's probably best to let this cellar at least one year - but hell, I couldn't resist myself.

2006 Louis Jadot Pouilly-Fuisse *

Pale yellow gold. Lemon citrus at first; later, honeydue and tropical fruits. Light bodied and mellow, for the "i don't drink chardonnay" crowd. An all around pleaser that won't break the bank. Good value.

2001 Argiano Brunello di Montalcino ****

This bottle was purchased for me in Tuscany on release and was stored in my cellar since. Considering all the hoopla surrounding the Brunello di Montalcino DOCG recently, I didn't know what to expect of this wine. I'd always enjoyed Argiano's wines, and I was disappointed to learn that the brunellos had - just maybe - been doctored with cabernet, merlot, or syrah. But even if that was true, this was just too good to ignore.

This wine was big and juicy, with a beet color, medium-full body with tar and dried fruit scents. It displayed punchy acidity and a tart 30-second finish. There was incredible complexity to this...and I swear I could smell the illegal cabernet here - it was just too focused a road-tar scent to ignore. It toned down after being open a couple hours. We'll be talking about this wine for a long time to come.

Craft Restaurant NYC

I recently reconnected with an old high school friend on that greatest killer of time: Facebook. We had out first "man date" at Momofuku Ssam Bar, based on the New York Times' wine guru - Eric Asimov's recommendation. Josh suggested we hit up Craft, next, and for the occassion I set him up on a blind date with a friend of Juliana's, Joanna. So after packing in a full day at the library I was off to Craft Restaurant last night with Juliana, Joanna, and Josh.

We started with an assortment of martinis, followed up by a bottle of Salomon Undhof "Von Stein" Gruner Veltliner Reserve 2006 * recommended by our cheerfully friendly server. "From primary rock terrasses in Stein, at the Hund and Danzer vineyard sites," this displayed a pale hay color, strongly suggestive honeyed apricot and almond oil on the nose. Soft and light on the palate and only mildly sweet with a touch of adicity, this went well with oysters. I then ordered Burgundy to finish our main courses.

2005 Dom. Taupenot-Merme Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru "La Combe d'Orveau" *** This was a "wow" wine. From 62-year old vines, this exhibited a deep, lush red rose color. Rich and full-bodied, with oak, dried cranberries and raspberries, and an invisible - but undeniable - structure: enough acidity to balance the serious lemon-cream sauces of our triggerfish, halibut, scallops, and grouper. There's very little information about this domaine online, but from what I can gather, the proprietors have 32 acres in Burgundy (no small amount) with parcels in Gevrey-Chambertin, Chambolle-Musigny, Morey St.-Denis, Nuits-St. Georges Les Prulières 1er Cru, Charmes Chambertin, and Mazoyères Chambertin — and produce excellent wines, all at very reasonable prices (for Burgundy).

Araujo Estate Eisele Vineyard Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc 2007 **

Straw/hay color. Very nice bouquet of lemon poppeyseed muffins. On the palate the wine exhibits warm grass notes, mellon, and lemon meringue pie. This is very reminiscent of a New Zealand sauvignon, with equal parts fresh cut grass and steel. If you are looking for a New Zeland sauvignon from California - this is it! But this wine has some aging to do, and I expect it to develop secondary complexity exhibiting honey and black licorice, so drink early for a zesty lemony sauvignon, or hold it for a couple years and let it develop a little depth.

Kistler Dutton Ranch Russian River Valley Chardonnay 2004 ***

Impetuous color, whatever that means ... Kistler's RRV chardonnays routinely elude description, and this one does just that: Honey, amber notes, with rich minerality and steely grip. This was very subdued at first and livened up as it breather. It is effortless to drink and impossible to ignore, but somehow, not as good as the perfect 2003 McCrea Vineyard.

Pax Syrah Kobler Family Vineyard Russian River Valley 2004 **

Blackberry and purple color with blackberry and rich, round peppercorns on the nose. Nicely fleshy and robust in the mouth, with pepper and licorice notes. Silky and mildly sweet on the finish.

NV Dynasty Winery Ltd. Red Table Wine from China

My friend Alek brough this back from a study abroad program in China. Apparently, this was the best wine he could find. It's made by a company called Dynasty Winery Ltd., "A Sino-French joint venture. From world-noted grape varieties and aged in oak barrels and in the cellar afte bottled." The label implies Dynasty is a subdivision of Tianjin Plc.

This was woodsy on the nose and flat on the palate, but a rather straightforward red berry profile I'd expect from a cru Bordeaux.

Bordeaux Has No Terroir

In response to my recent comments to Alder's "The Myth of the Monolithic Wine Palate" post at Vinography, which deals with the recent Cornell study that analyzed scoring trends by professional wine critics in the U.S. and U.K., Alder said, "A [professional wine critic's] score is not a validation of terroir, it’s a validation of a very good wine."

But of course that’s not true. Allen Meadows says, "While the concept of terroir remains a controversial issue in the opinion of many people, it is not controversial to the Burgundian mindset—or to me, either. I attempt to convey, where appropriate, how certain wines are particularly good, or particularly bad, at expressing their underlying terroir."

I would have to agree with Monsieur Burghound on this point. A wine stripped of its so-called terroir is the kind of wine being eviscerated as "global" and by analogy, a wine that scores well, but tastes like something other than what it is supposed to taste like, proves that the monoliths care less about what a wine is supposed to taste like and more about what it actually does taste like.

Whether that is or is not important in the context of Bordeaux is my whole point. To my mind, the question is not whether the monolithic tasters get it collectively right, but whether they are monoliths at all.

The really burning issue underlying this -that has been on my mind for some time - is why the paradigm of terroir, so successfully applied in Burgundy and attempted around the world, fails in Bordeaux (and there can be no doubt that it fails in Bordeaux).

My conclusion: "Terroir," as *the* concept-paradigm of fine wine, cannot stand alone. Of course a lot is lost in translation, but in English, terroir is an abstract modifier-concept, like "good," a word that can only be used in connection with others in order for it to have any meaning. It is not even an abstract solo-concept, like "red." It is simply an abstract concept, and not even a particularly good one at that. To speak of "terroir" without at the same time speaking of not only a specific region but of a specific vineyard is an abstraction without meaning. This concept of "terroir" cannot be applied to Bordeaux because, quite simply, the vineyards are too big and the production of wine too commercial to supply the skeleton-concept which is terroir with any stuffing.

Now that said, if "terroir" is a workable concept in wine, and I think that it is, then it must be applied to Bordeaux, somehow, someway, even if that means that the Bordelais need to strip down to their underpants and rethink the whole concept of what they are doing, because right now, (with some obvious exceptions for chateaux that do produce profound wines that sing their terroir) the Bordeaux have no terroir. On the other hand, a fair argument could be made that most Bordeaux never had any terroir to begin with, and let the whole thing go at that.

Big scores, sure, the Bordelais have got scores in spades, but terroir, not so much….and what that tells me about the monolith palates is that they care very little about the kinds of wine that I care about. So does it surprise me that they all always agree – not at all. In fact, I wouldn’t expect anything less.

Peter Michael "L' Apres - Midi" Knights Valley 2005 ***

Yet another riveting sauvignon from Knights Valley. Succulent white rose petals, sweet cream, molasses, and lychee predominate. Still shows the edge of a young sauvignon...the anise seed and chalk are all covered up with zest, but there is a tropical fruit note on the finish. This may have another 2 years to evolve.

Ridge Vineyards ATP Mazzoni Home Ranch Zinfandel 2002 *

Very deep ruby color. Heady nose of ripe cranberries and chocolate. Good texture and nice balance of acidity and tannins here, with some complex minerality on the palate and a little hint of dried herbs and mint. Over 15% alcohol but it's hard to tell. By day 2, though, this wine had not progressed or showed the depth, structure, or complexity I look for zinfandels. So this is probably as good as it's going to get. Drink up.