Michael Stickings

Cono Sur Bicicleta Pinot Noir 2013, Central Valley

A great value year after year, this light, refreshing, easy-drinking wine from Cono Sur offers pretty much everything you might want in a basic, inexpensive Pinot Noir, with invigorating fruity notes of cherry, raspberry, and redcurrant supported by earth, crushed rock, and even a touch of smoked meat. The too-obvious flavour profile makes it seem a bit forced, even a bit fake, and an unyielding musty-rubbery aroma prevails throughout, but otherwise it's pretty good for what it is, lack of character and all.

Chateau Timberlay 2010, Ac Bordeaux Superieur

Yuck. There's often nothing terribly wrong with "value" Bordeaux, but even the great 2010 vintage can't rescue this one. It's decent on the nose, if obviously manufactured for apparently easy and broad appeal, with tons of oak, vanilla, baking spice, and black pepper, masking sweet plum fruit, but the taste is sour and unappetizing, mostly redcurrant and cherry. The dominant Merlot keeps it soft and plump, but there's almost no structure to speak of, and by the second day the nose is all rubber, the taste a flabby muddle of overripe purple fruit. Crass commercialization, plain and simple.

Barahonda Sin Madera Monastrell 2011, Do Yecla

This uncommon single-varietal from an uncommon Spanish appellation may not be a great wine, but it's certainly an outstanding value; intriguing initial cola aromas lead to meaty, earthy, spicy notes accented by blueberries and ripe dark fruit; a bit rough and chalky in the mouth, but still pleasantly rich and rustic, with nice length.

Gérard Bertrand Grand Terroir La Clape Syrah/Carignan/Mourvèdre 2009

This is a fine "Grand Terroir" from Bertrand, if lacking in charm and elegance and instead offering a certain brooding rusticity that one might expect from the region. A Syrah-Carignan-Mourvèdre blend, it features a dense core shaped by those three southern French staples, heavy on black pepper, funky cured and roasted meats, earth, dried herbs, and old leather. The fruit is dark and dense -- blackberry, blueberry, plum -- but this is a wine that seems old, dusty, and stale until with time it offers up a nice acidic streak of zesty cherry and redcurrant. But the roughness remains throughout.

Domaine De La Valériane Vieilles Vignes Côtes Du Rhône 2012, Ac

This has pretty much everything you can ask for in an affordable, well-structured CDR, the depth of flavour coming from old Syrah/Grenache vines close to Avignon: rich blueberry, raspberry, and dark cherry, some redcurrant zing, loads of herbs, black pepper, cinnamon, even a mysterious hint of soy sauce in the background. This complexity gives way initially to excessive Syrah meaty notes and then to one-note blackcurranty softness, but in general the balance and density are quite impressive.

La Casona De Castano Old Vines Monastrell 2013, Do Yecla

If there were a competition for the sub-region with the best values in the world, Spain's Yecla would have to be a candidate, and this astounding value doesn't disappoint, with inviting notes of violet, dark fruit, tobacco, leather, spice, and, emerging later, sweet strawberry and even licorice, though there's not as much going on deeper down, and it's a bit flat, if still rich, on the palette, ending with some bitterness amid the sudden dryness; overall, somewhat out of balance, with firm tannins but not quite enough fruit to stand up to aging, but it's still fairly lively and interesting.

Braschi Albana Di Romagna 2012, Docg

Bitter and short. That's certainly how this wine comes across at first. But it *is* an "orange" wine, beautifully gold-bronze in appearance, a very old-school Albana that is nothing if not interesting, a wine that gets better with time, if still a wine that's much better with food than on its own. There's some peach-apricot and lemon, but more than fruity it's nutty and herbal, with a load of wet-stone minerality providing backbone. It gets longer, to be sure, but the bitterness remains, and defines it. Admirable, even if, for all its character, it lacks charm and is rather too severe overall.

Kim Crawford South Island Pinot Noir 2013, Marlborough

This is a decent if generally forgettable Pinot that plays it safe but also achieves obvious and perhaps understandable popularity. The usual flavours are all there, cherry, raspberry, and strawberry, the fruit fully accessible, sweetness creeping in, the tartness mingling with earth to keep it all fairly well balanced, not too austere. There isn't much depth, and that rubber note common to cheaper Pinots brings it down somewhat, but overall it hits the right notes without ever reaching for more.

Peique Tinto Mencía 2012, Do Bierzo

July 2014: Nothing all that complex, but lovely aromas of strawberry and cherry, with an intriguing licorice note, then black pepper emerging on the finish; young, from a less-appreciated Spanish appellation, but also pleasantly, mouth-fillingly rich; excellent value.

April 2015: No changes. Basically, it's a pleasant, textbook Mencía that points to the varietal's appeal (while hinting at its higher-end complexity and depth) and goes well with a wide range of casual fare.

Talamonti Trabocchetto Pecorino 2012, Igp Colline Pescaresi

This pleasant, aromatic Pecorino from Abruzzo opens up with a waft of lemon and peanut-buttery nuttiness before broadening into an appealing range of notes including lemon-lime, peach-apricot, green apple, gooseberry, a melange of tropical fruits, and raw nuts, with a streak of minerality running through it and a light spritziness livening it up, the whole affair quite dry and tart. It actually comes across like a subdued Sauvignon Blanc, in a good way. The problem is that the parts don't really hold together all that well, and so for all the appealing complexity the whole is a tad disjointed.