A Few Luscious Voluptuaries

I want to talk about yeasts soon, but for now, two tasting notes.

Clos du Mont-Olivet Côtes du Rhône Vieilles Vignes Montueil-la-Levade 2007
I can't get over the creamy texture of this Clos du Mont-Olivet. Like a good cappuccino, a cream note is swirled effortlessly into a dark and slightly bitter base. Of course, there's more going on here than that — the nose shows dark fruit, dried herbs, rain on blacktop; the wine is full and dark yet fresh on the palate; the acid / tannin balance is nicely realized — but it's the effortless, unconfected texture that wins me over. Bonus geek notes: the grapes for this wine are only partially destemmed, carignan makes up a small part of the blend, and the fruit is not as sweet as you'd expect from a 2007 CdR.

Bernard Baudry Chinon Les Grézeaux 2005
I joined a friend for dinner at Cafe Absinthe and I was impressed by the wine list. I ordered duck breast, he ordered beef tenderloin. In other circumstances I might have selected the 2004 Clos Roche Blanche "Pif" but if a Baudry's on the list, the idea of passing it by is frankly unbelievable. That's because the wine is frankly unbelievable. The Grézeaux, which comes from gravelly terroir, is harmonious to the point of ur-dom; it's hard to speak of the wine's components when it's so freakin' together. It possesses a smooth, effortless grace. It is undeniably young — still unfolding, yet to achieve its zen-point, as it surely will in the decades to come — but it's also precocious and very expressive now, and if I had any of this wine stashed away, it'd be difficult to keep my hands off it.