Michael Stickings

Château Michel De Vert 2010, Lussac Saint émilion

This Saint-Emilion satellite blend of mostly Merlot and Cab Franc is a decent, if underwhelming, 2010 effort. Aromas of cassis, dark cherry, and pine are appetizing, to be sure, but there's a certain sparseness here, which is simultaneously both elegant and frustrating. It could be intentional restraint, or maybe there just isn't much there to begin with, and what ends up lingering on the palette and through the finish is just red berry sourness. The tannins suggest a bit of further aging, but it's hardly clear this would really get that much better.

Château Fontenelles Cuvée Renaissance Corbières 2010, Ac

This blend of 55% Syrah along with with 25% Grenache and 20% old vines Carignan and Mourvèdre opens with fabulous blueberry aromas -- rich, sweet, and concentrated like blueberry pie. There's other blue and black fruit as well, but before long characteristic southern French elements emerge and overtake the fruit, notably black pepper, garrigue, herbs, meat, and a touch of barnyard funk. It's fine, all in all, and these more savoury notes go well with food, but the combination of a certain feral quality, rather bitter tannins, and diminishing fruit leaves a lot to be desired.

Clos La Coutale Cahors 2011

With its meaty-peppery notes, this comes across initially like a rustic Syrah-based blend from the Midi. But then the fleshy blue/purple fruit and touch of graphite, elegantly presented, pull it back towards Bordeaux, so it ends up like the dichotomous Cahors that it is, more approachable than most. It's the luscious Merlot that softens the blend, the Malbec providing ample structure, and while the deeper flavours end too quickly, leaving cherry tartness and rough, gritty tannins, and while the delicate dichotomy breaks apart, the length is decent and the overall package is rich and compelling.

Porcupine Ridge Sauvignon Blanc 2013, Wo Western Cape

Great value, but not nearly as good a product as the excellent Porcupine Ridge Syrah; there are strong gooseberry aromas and flavours, and there's certainly some broad commercial appeal, but there's little else of note; a middling effort overall, lacking depth and complexity, not unpleasant but hardly memorable.

Anselmann Edesheimer Rosengarten Siegerrebe Spätlese 2012, Prädikatswein

This delicious late-harvest Siegerrebe brilliantly showcases this relatively unknown, cool-climate varietal, with a heady aroma of floral perfume leading to rose, white flower, lychee, peach, apricot, pineapple, and honey notes, a luscious, mouth-coating texture and significant if not exceptional depth. There isn't much acidity, but the sweetness isn't cloying and there's some subtle minerality on the palate. With time and some warmth, it comes to resemble a Riesling Spätlese, the stone and tropical fruit taking over. Exceptional value, and a varietal that clearly deserves greater prominence.

Vavasour Sauvignon Blanc 2012, Awatere Valley

Strong grapefruit aroma, along with typical Sauvignon Blanc tropical notes, especially passionfruit, with vegetation in the background; lean, mean, and green, with overwhelming lemony tartness and dominated by unpleasant sourness, keeping any complexity at bay; there are just so many better options if you want NZ SB, including in this reasonable price range.

Whitehaven Pinot Noir 2011, Marlborough

August 2015 update: Still quite good, but too sweet, with pronounced notes of raspberry, cherry, and cranberry, along with earth, beet, and black pepper underlying the fruit. Quite clean and zesty, a simple but satisfying pleasure.

August 2014: A fairly light-coloured Pinot that, in some fundamental ways, is exactly what a good, solid Pinot (particularly from New Zealand) is meant to be, with perky aromas and flavours of sour cherry and raspberry backed up by pronounced earthy, spicy notes; juicy at first, with good tannic weight and a nice finish; nothing spectacular, but admirably balanced.

Closson Chase The Brock Chardonnay, Unfiltered 2012, Niagara River VQA

This is a delicious and admirably restrained Niagara Chardonnay from a great producer. It opens with austerity, lemon and minerals on the nose and palate, but the body fills out with pineapple, mango, and peach, and touches of butter and white pepper, but hardly too much of either. There is depth here, and an abundance of fruit, but the refreshing acidity cuts through any Chard flab while the minerality keeps everything grounded. It's a delicate balance. The tropical/orchard fruit does threaten to overwhelm, while the crispness softens. But up to that point it's quite lovely and vibrant.

Château Manon La Lagune 2010

This is a fine, if generally unremarkable, 2010 from Blaye, across the Gironde from rather more famous appellations on the Left Bank. Upon opening, it offers quite luscious, Merlot-driven strawberry and vanilla aromas, but then thins out into sharper, tarter raspberry and blackberry along with new leather, earth, wood, and smoked meat, accented with a touch of pepper (it's 25% Cab Franc and 15% Cab Sauv to go along with 60% Merlot). It underwhelms at $22 (CDN), especially for a 2010, but it certainly has good acidity, just not the fruit or savoury elements to provide a compelling flavour core.

Château D'anglès La Clape Classique Syrah/Grenache/Mourvèdre 2010, Ac Languedoc

Lacks a bit of punch at first but then opens up with deep, rich olive, cassis, plum, and other purple/dark fruit aromas along with a rustic earthiness on the palette; a bit rough and wild, which is fine, but it's the herbal bitterness that emerges later that while adding to the overall complexity isn't entirely successful; somewhat more nuanced and balanced on the second day; perhaps not terribly refined, but yet more evidence of the astonishing value to be found in France's Midi.