Three more reds

Catching up on my notes over the past few weeks...

First up, this Monthelie Le Mons Helios 2009 from Florent Garaudet. I remembered being very impressed with this when we went to visit Florent a few years ago. I decanted it for 2 hours and stuck it in the fridge for a while. It was glossy, with a deep colour and rich nose. On the palate, it was smooth and powerful with lots of berries and cocoa. G found it chewy and it did coat the insides of my cheeks. It was remarkable that this was from Monthelie, not renowned for top notch wines. This actually reminded me of an international-style Volnay such as Clos des 60 Ouvrees. For a village Monthelie to taste like this was a resounding success, and it would last another five years. Definitely a wine to share with others.

Now for something slightly different... a Sonoma Zinfandel 2012 from Quivira. I'm pretty sure this was a random pick from the booze store in Pennsylvania. Can't check the price there at the moment due to website limitations, but wine.com suggests it was around $22. It was a dark purple colour and very glossy. It looked like port, smelled like port... Tasting it, it was big, sweet, rich and jammy, with dried currants and hints of fruit cake. G also detected a citrussy note. "I don't think there's any doubt about which continent it comes from" he said. There was some doubt as to whether we would be able to finish the bottle, but in the end it did make an excellent port substitute to go with cheese. At 14.5% I'm not sure I'll be rushing back for more.

Finally, a Morey-Saint-Denis "Les Crais-Gillon" 2014 from Odoul-Coquard, which G bought at auction. We used to drink a lot of their wine back in the day and I always loved them, so was looking forward to this. 

It was a lovely ruby colour and very inviting to look at.The nose was classic MSD, which I always refer to as black forest gateau - here there was morello cherry, blackcurrant and chocolate cake. It was congruent on the palate, succulent, with a lovely weight. G said it was "not an unrestrained wine", not as flashy as some from this domaine. He thought one might mistake it for a Vougeot. At only 13%, this was a real pleasure to drink..