(Looking For) 2009 Dark Corner Durif

For all that it sometimes feels like cheating I'm generally very happy to have subscribed to the Wall Street Journal's wine club. A recent case brought us a random gem, the 2009 Dark Corner Durif from Sam Trimboli. It's a nice, big red, with far more complexity than you'd expect from a relatively young wine.

I liked it enough that I looked into acquiring a case. Strangely, I haven't been able to find much information on the wine, much less turn up some place where you can actually buy it. A Google search turns up a bunch of wine rating sites referencing the 2009 (and 2008 and 2007) vintage which indicate that its currently unavailable.

So, digging further... the bottle states that Dark Corner is produced by Warburn Estate Pty Ltd., a search for which takes you immediately to the "our wines" page for Warburn Estate Winery. Great, except there's no mention of Dark Corner anywhere. Looking for information about Sam Trimboli doesn't get you much either. I was able to turn up a page at Laithwaites indicating that the gentleman exists (and that his car's license plate says "DURIF") but Dark Corner isn't listed among the wines associated with Mr. Trimboli.

The bottle says that Dark Corner is imported by Lionstone International, but that seems to be a dead end as well. My only conjecture at this point, based on some of the verbiage on their site, is that they might be the exclusive distributed for Dark Corner, which might explain why it doesn't show up elsewhere.

Today's Random Wine: 2009 Grande Reserve De Gassac

One of the amusing games you can play with French wines is trying to interpret the labels without the aid of a guide or inside knowledge. For example, the label on tonight's bottle bears the following phrases:

• Grande Réserve De Gassac
• Sélection Famille Guibert
• Vin De Pays De L'Hérault
• Par Cave de l'Ormarine GAG
• 2009
  
• Red Languedoc Wine

If I wanted to tell someone what I'm drinking this evening what's the canonical way to go about doing so? Here's how CellarTracker breaks it down:

• Grande Réserve De Gassac: Producer
• Cave de l'Ormarine, Famille Guibert: Vineyard
• Vin de Pays de l'Hérault: Appellation
• Red Languedoc Wine: Varietal

So, according to them, the canonical name for this wine is something like "2009 Grande Réserve De Gassac Vin de Pays de l'Hérault". Which seems to be about right; Googling "2009 Grande Réserve De Gassac" primarily turns up references to this and other wines from the same estate.

Now, of course, on to the most important question: How is it? Pretty good, but not stellar. Here's the notes:

• Color: Dark red bordering on purple.
• Boquet: Almost non-existent, though I'm congested so my sniffer might be off this evening.
• Mouth feel: Soft, chewy, good body.
• Taste: Pleasantly tannic

This is definitely a bottle I'd crack open with friends over a good steak.

2005 Château de Lyde Premières Côtes De Bordeaux

In my previous post I mentioned that we've started getting some of our wine from the WSJ Wine Club which, so far, has turned out to be a pretty good deal. The average quality of our wine has gone up without spending a tremendous amount more. I, in particular, have been quite happy with the whites that we've receive so far; they've generally been much better than what I typically drink. Anyhow, a little while ago they were offering a special¹ on 2005 Château de Lyde, so the wife and I picked up a case mostly on account of having heard that 2005 was a good year for Bordeaux. Unfortunately it remains to be seen whether 2005 will be a good year for Château de Lyde.

Our first sign that Château de Lyde might not be the greatest Bordeux, had we chosen to research rather than just throw caution to the winds, was that neither it nor it's parent company (Château de Marsan) appear on neither the 1855 Bordeaux Classification nor Lichne's expanded list. So we're not dealing with one of the recognized crus, but at $190 a case that can certainly be overlooked. The wine itself, however, isn't remarkable; my wife and I agreed that we wouldn't have picked it out as anything special in a blind tasting. It doesn't compare favorably to the 2008 Casa del Rio Verde Cabernet Sauvignon Reserva that I'm drinking right now, a random bottle that we got from the WSJ in a case of mixed reds.

One of my primary objections is that its overwhelmingly tannic, and I'm generally a partisan of robust wines. The nice thing about tannins, however, is that mellow with age, so there may be hope for the vintage yet. We're going to put the rest of the bottles up and see if they've improved in a year. Stay tuned.

---

1 Which, to their credit, genuinely appears to have been a special; I tried to find Chateu De Lyde on their site tonight and it appears that they're all out.

The Wall Street Journal Wine Club

In a stroke of amazing coincidence (or a mere affirmation that we're really the same person) my co-conspirator and I gave each other cases of wine from the Wall Street Journal wine club¹. We're now in the process of determining whether this little experiment is worth continuing. There are a couple of factors which seem to be arguing in its favor at present:

1. It's brain-dead convenient. Go to the website, select your case-o-wine, supply a CC, and some time later said wine shows up at your door (adult signature required).
2. We're getting exposed to the products of small wineries which we probably wouldn't find in our typical wine-purchasing venues, much less be inclined to try.

The main question is whether we're getting good bang for our buck. The "Holiday Reds" case, for example, is $179.99 ($198.98 after tax/S&H) which works out to $15/bottle ($16.67 final cost). That looks to be about the middle of the range; the wine club site currently has cases for as little as $99.99 (a half-and-half of Il Papavero Rosso & Bianco) and as much as $284.99 (the "Holidy Luxuries" mixed case of high-end stuff). Anyhow, $17/bottle is a little above what we're used to paying for our "everyday wine", but well below what we're willing to pay for "good wine". So what do you get from the wine club for $17? We've tried a couple of the bottles we've received and so far so good:

• 2008 Vina Baccana Pinot Grigio: As I've probably mentioned before I'm more of a red wine drinker; I certainly don't drink enough pinot grigio to distinguish a good one from a great one. That said I did find this to be a quite pleasant wine that I would gladly drink again.
• 2007 Un Vent de Folie Côtes du Roussillon Villages: This is a very full-bodied wine, a little rough around the edges, but tasty none the less. I suspect that it would benefit greatly from aging for a couple more years. At 16% alcohol by volume it definitely has noticeable kick; they ought to adopt the tagline "A Respectable Way To Get Smashed".

Both of the above were interesting and, taken in conjunction with items 1 and 2 above, make me think that the WSJ wine club is worth pursuing for at least a little while.

---

1 I was actually going to get her a case from the New York Times Wine Club but strangely enough they don't ship to WA even though the WSJ does.