WTN: Another romantic cork moment, plus Boulay and Selbach-O

With a shrimp/orzo/spinach feta dish and a pear/avocado/greens salad, the 2005 Gerard Boulay "Les Monts Damnes " Sancerre. Bigger riper version of Sancerre, mango and gooseberry. Despite big body, pretty good core of acidity. Some gunflint mineral notes make it through the fruit after awhile. Nice wine. B+/A-

Ah, the romance of cork. I really think the reason I paid for the 1997 Willi Schaefer Graacher Domprobst Riesling Spatlese and cellared it for 5 or 6 years (didn't buy on release) was so I could enjoy the stench of mildewed cardboard - romance!!

However, the 2001 Selbach-Oster Zeltinger Schlossberg Riesling Kabinett was a lovely wine. Nice counterpoint to a warm chicken salad (with peanut sauce and red and green peppers) served over rice. Really bracing acidity, racy as hell, but that's perfect for the food. Light petrol notes, clean lime and green apple fruit, loooooonnnnggg for a Kab. Precise, sprightly, clean, vivid. A-


Grade disclaimer: I'm a very easy grader, basically A is an excellent wine, B a good wine, C mediocre. Anything below C means I wouldn't drink at a party where it was only choice. Furthermore, I offer no promises of objectivity, accuracy, and certainly not of consistency.

My sympathies on that Schaefer. Ouch - really tragic!

That Sancerre does sound very nice though, and glad to hear about the Selbach. I love those wines more and more each time I open a bottle. The experiences I've had with 01 Germans recently have been sensational - those wines seem to be in an amazing place right now and I'm looking forward to opening some of mine soon (as I just took delivery of a bunch of 01s/98s that I ordered from Flickinger ).

I too recently tasted a Boulay whilst in London. The `02 Clos de Beaujeu went well with a Goats Cheese salad.
The wine came from the cellar of a good friend Nicos, known to some here!!

Once again the cork monster strikes a Riesling. More than 80% of the corked wines I have opened over the years have been made from the Riesling grape. Why does Riesling seem to be disproportionately effected by TCA? I do seek out Riesling under screw cap.

[David M. Bueker]

Riesling is so transparent that any flaw is magnified.

David,

Many, if not most of the corked Rielsings I have opened have been real stinkers. The TCA has not been subtle. From my log, it looks like TCA runs about 6% among among Rieslings, and less than half of that among everything else.

[David M. Bueker]

My comment still stands.

By the way, Muscadet gets similarly high corked percentages in my tastings.

Salil writes...That Sancerre does sound very nice though.

I don`t know why but I am starting to suffer from Sancerre withdrawl symptons!! Not much choice up here, mostly industrial juice, what should I do?!!

Salil writes...That Sancerre does sound very nice though.

I don`t know why but I am starting to suffer from Sancerre withdrawl symptons!! Not much choice up here, mostly industrial juice, what should I do?!!

I feel your pain, except lately it seems to extend to all sauvignon blanc, including NZ, and even most unoaked chardonnay. I blame riesling and chenin, the buggers! I hope it's just a phase...

Tim York has sent me a letter of condolence. Lucky bloke out there in Belgium, sitting on a Sancerre treasure-trove it seems!!