N/V M Lawrene Sex Batch #79

So many cheap jokes with this wine, I'm just going to leave it be.

Watermelon Jolly Rancher on the nose.

Peach, strawberry, watermelon, a touch of sugar, but balanced.

Almost a toasty quality, like ever so lightly toasted white bread with a bit more of that watermelon candy thing on the finish.

At $15 a bottle, I have no objections.

Score: 87

N/V M Lawrence Green

This is a new, limited offering from M Lawrence - it's called Green because the bottles are reused (actually reused/washed/sanitized - not recycled) and because it's their spin on vinho verde....the grape is cayuga, which is a green grape as well. How green! Retail is fifteen bones.

A clean nose, kinda grapey...

Light overall - apples, grapes, loads of acid, quite dry overall to my palate.

Some lime, lemon, and slate lingers on the finish along with a green apple candy thing way on the back.

It's a solid wine, but it's certainly in a distinct style. Great for the remaing summer heat - light, crisp, dangerously drinkable, and well priced, no complaints!

Score: 86

2010 Old Shore Vineyards Turkey Nest Pinot Gris

This bottles retails for $18, but the winery produces only a limited number of bottles, so you pretty much have to buy direct from their website.

A mild grapefruit thing with some interesting gasoline sorta notes. I hate when Americans use the word petrol.

Dry, light, orange blossom, peach fuzz, grapefruit zest, well integrated acid, almost a bit of rose...it's a fairly floral wine really, but not in a perfumey sort of way. Don't ask me to explain it.

The finish starts with pink grapefruit, then fades to white, then fades further to zest. It's a finish and a half really - quite lengthy and pleasant.

This wine makes me crave oysters....a very nice bottle to be sure, perfect for the summer, but dangerous in its easy drinkability.

Score: 89

2006 L Mawby Sandpainting

This is a special release from L Mawby, I don't think it's necessarily an exclusive to their wine club but at only 500 bottles or so it's certainly one of their more limited releases.

Caramel on the nose - an interesting thing I sometimes read about but never actually get. It's not necessarily sweet smelling, but it's distinctly caramel. Beyond that a bit of pear.

Caramel apple on the finish, straight up red apple dipped in caramel sans peanuts...very interesting. A bit of limeade thrown in, but overall a rich, complex mouthfeel.

A second big fat burst of that caramel dipped red apple on the finish with some peach skins, and a bit of grapefruit linger for some time on the finish.

This I like...a lot. The "Sandpainting" line is going to be limited release offerings and this first one is a great start.

Score: 92

2006 Tabor Hill Dry Traminette

I had a few days off of work and had planned on heading up to Michigan, hitting wineries, and driving around, but when push came to shove, heading down the road to Meijer and sitting at home seemed more appealing. This was eight bucks and is perhaps a tad too old, but whatever.

Grapefruit, orange, apricot, peach - a rather bold nose.

To me, this is reminiscent of a slightly over the hill Gewurz from Alsace...vanilla, peach, apricot, lychee, orange blossom, chamomile, nice acid, thick mouthfeel, a touch of sugar, but nothing overbearing.

Stone fruit and lychee on the finish.

Pretty damn good, I'll definitely grab a newer vintage without question.

Score: 87

N/V L Mawby Blanc de Noir Cuvee 168

We've had this one several times and really enjoyed it, but something about this particular bottle grabbed my attention, so I'm revisiting it here. This retails for $19.

A bit of red apple and a bit of bright red raspberry on the nose.

A lot of berries - blueberry, blackberry, raspberry, boysenberry, everything but the elusive Boo Berry really. Red apple as well, and a bit of red pear. "Red fruit" is what some would say. Dry, a bit toasty, a bit nutty,

A nutty finish - walnuts, pecans...I don't like nuts, so I can't rattle off what this may taste like, though I do find it enjoyable. Nuts and a bit of rye toast, perhaps with some blueberry jam. I'm also getting a black tea component...a slice of rye toast, a glass of tea, and a pecan or two on the side...this wine would pair well with breakfast.

I'm not sure how different cuvees are - it could all be in my head and something could be hitting me different this bottle around.. That said, this is, genuinely, outstanding. We have hit up a bunch of $30-50 Champagnes in recent weeks - and this wine was reviewed blind, so for all I knew it was yet another one. If you're willing to drop twenty bucks on a sparkling wine, from anywhere, this gets my top recommendation. If you see it, buy it.

Score: 93

N/V M Lawrence Fizz Batch #25

Fizz - one of the M Lawrence line that we haven't enjoyed a bottle of, so I'm stoked to try this as part of the Tweet and Taste. Retail on this is $13.

The nose on this reminds me startlingly - and this was mentioned in the Tweet and Taste but it is so right on I have to say it - dried banana or banana chips, absolutely all the way. Very mild and elegant in its own way.

Reminds me a bit of the M Lawrence label Detroit in some ways, not too shocking seeing as both are unashamedly Demi Sec. White peach in a candied sorta way - something fairly common in many of these M Lawrence wines, but while it's sweet, it had a very light mouthfeel.

While the finish is peachy, some interesting things really start coming through - pear, apricot, red apple, honeydew, even lychee and as it all fades away, a bit of that subtle banana chip thing.

I wasn't sure about this wine on first sip, but it's pretty interesting how complex the finish is while the palate, still tasty mind you, is a tad more one dimensional. As a result, I recommend this wine for (rather than with) dessert.

This wine was consumed and reviewed as part of the Tweet and Taste Michigan Wine on Tuesday, December 14, 2010. This was not tasted blind and the bottle was comped - all effort has been made to be as objective and honest as possible.

Score: 89

N/V M Lawrence US Batch #21

This bottle goes for $13 - we dig L Mawby so when the opportunity to participate in the Tweet and Taste popped up, I jumped on it.

A rather clean nose - white peaches and some artificial peach as well...take a piece of a white peach and shove a peach Jolly Rancher inside and take a bite while avoiding breaking a tooth and you have something kinda like this.

Peaches, oranges, grapefruits...though, none real, all in an artificial candy sort of way, yet not terribly sweet. Interesting.

A candied orange peel kinda thing on the finish.

I was a big fan of batch 2 of this wine, but here we are at batch 21 and I'm not quite so sure....for a $13 sparkler it's worth your while.

This wine was consumed and reviewed as part of the Tweet and Taste Michigan Wine on Tuesday, December 14, 2010. This was not tasted blind and the bottle was comped - all effort has been made to be as objective and honest as possible.

Score: 86

N/V L Mawby Consort Cuvee 136

Sweeter sparklers aren't normally our thing, but this was part of our wine club shipment. This goes for nineteen big ones at the winery and is part of the L Mawby line which is made with the Champagne method.

I couldn't place the nose, but I think I'm going to have to say white cherry, as in white cherry Slurpee. After consulting my archives I've only brought out white cherry once before - in reference to Mawby's Sandpiper. Does 7-11 dump excess syrup in Suttons Bay?

I gotta say it, but once the white cherry thing hit me on the nose that was almost all I could think of. Besides that though, there is pear with a bit of lightly toasted and rather yeasty white bread. Soft golden apples, a touch of mild vanilla, almost a bit of creaminess. A tad sweet (appropriately labeled as "sec"), but as one should expect with this producer, acid balances it all out nicely.

The finish brings a bit of a caramel thing with more pear and, yeah, white cherry.

At $19 I'm going to say this is well worth snagging a bottle.

Score: 89

2009 Old Shore Vineyards Tree Line Pinot Noir

It's funny, when I hate a wine I have no problems with how pointless scores are, but when I love one it really makes me question the process. Give any wine this strong a review? I go all Paul Hodges, ....and then I realize I'm taking this little blog far too seriously.

This is a $28 Pinot Noir from Old Shore Vineyards.  Old Shore Vineyards is a brand new winery in southwest Michigan and this is their second release. Based on the website photos, everyone associated with the winery seems to be young. What do the youth bring to wine in an under-appreciated region?

Raspberry, both the fruit and the leaves of the plant - think raspberry herbal tea - on the nose with a bit of earth and chocolate, way in the back I get some plum as well.

Every once in a while I call a wine 'dangerous' or 'misleading.' Dangerous as in it's so good and easy drinking you drink a bottle over 30 minutes and misleading for you drink it over 30 minutes without much thought beyond 'yep, it's good.' This is that sort of wine. Immediately approachable on the first pour. This is the sort of wine with acid so well integrated, you don't even really think about it. Fruit and earth in such balance it barely registers unless you're concentrating. We're talking raspberry, chocolate, cola, cherry, poached peaches (in some sort light German red wine), black tea, sassafras, almost a rosehip quality as well - all of this put together in a subtle, light bodied wine that if you are a fan of Burgundian Pinot Noirs will almost certainly knock your socks off.

This is a finish that lingers of well over a minute starting with rich, ripe peaches fading to plums and rainier cherry and far on the back we get some nectarine - I love this stone fruit thing all with a good dash of black tea.

This is one of the few wines where I've felt compelled to open a second bottle (several days later, mind you) and reconfirm my initial thoughts. Let me tell you, I don't feel this strongly about wines often, but when I want Pinot Noir, I want this.

Score: 95

N/V M Lawrence Wet

This is a $15 bottle from L Mawby up in Michigan. The M Lawrence line are all wines with the secondary fermentation done in vats instead of the traditional way. They're also nearly uniformly solid...let's see what this one brings.

The nose has the softness of golden apple but just a faintest bite of green.

Apple is the dominant quality here. Mostly the tart, green apple varieties. The acid has a nice balance, a lot of times green apple implies sharp acid, but it's well integrated here. A touch of sweetness - while this is a sec it feels drier than many Bruts I've had. The best part of L Mawby's cheaper offerings is that even if they are simple and more of a quaffable style, they have none of the flaws you see in cheaper sparklers from other areas (an often metallic kind of quality as well as an unpleasant oily mouthfeel). Light, crisp, tasty.

Yep, more crisp apple and pear qualities on the finish.

Not bad at all. I'd buy it again.

Score: 88

N/V L Mawby Talismon

This thirty dollar sparkler came in our wine club shipment. We had it at the tasting room but it didn't leave much of an impression. Will it now?

Caraway on the nose with something vaguely savory Asian, ginger maybe.

Here's an interesting thing to know about sparklers. Cheap, crappy ones are often quite good served ice cold and consumed within 20 minutes of opening - I mean, pop open a bottle of ice cold Cook's and it's probably pretty drinkable. Good quality ones are often fairly mediocre until they warm up a bit and get a bit of air. I was at a loss, but this came into its own. Some citrus notes along with pear, a slight bit of toast, lots of crisp acid, a bit of caramel - all while being quite dry. Very nice.

Ripe red apple, rye toast, and something of a citron quality linger on the finish.

Pop it cold, let it sit for an hour, and dig in. All that being said, for thirty bucks I'm more inclined to snag a couple other bottles from this producer, but then again, I'm cheap. If presented to me as a gift, I would cheerfully imbibe.

Score: 87

2008 Chateau Grand Traverse Whole Cluster Riesling

This goes for fourteen bones through the winery. A "whole cluster" Riesling means bunches of grapes - stems and all are pressed without crushing.

Pear mostly on the nose.

Nice balance, definitely on the sweet side but enough acid to bring it all together. I'm getting red and pink apple, a bit of vanilla, green grape, white grapefruit, and even a bit of a stemmy quality.

Green apple and pear on the finish.

Nice balance, good depth, some odd things come out - presumably from the whole cluster aspect - but it all works nicely. Though this bottle was comped, it was tasted and reviewed blind.

Score: 88

2007 Black Star Farms Sirius Cherry Dessert Wine

This retails for $18.50 at the winery and that is a 375ml bottle. I will say this right off the bat - I find cherry wine next to impossible to describe so bear with me.

Black cherry on the nose - like, ultraripe, BLACK cherry, the sort of cherry you find in black cherry ice cream where you're not 100% sure they're actually cherries.

Quite sweet, cherry obviously dominate, but I do get cinnamon and clove on the mid palate. There's even a ripe red apple thing going on, peel an apple and dip it in cherry juice, there ya go.

I like this a lot, and I mean no disrespect when I say I'd just as soon put this on pancakes, pour this into a milkshake - or hell, even add a splash to a Manhattan. Of course, I won't, but I could see it. The winery suggested drinking it somewhat chilled which seemed wrong to me, but I'll be damned if it didn't work almost perfectly.

This bottle was comped as part of the Tweet and Taste Michigan virtual Twitter tasting which took place on Monday, June 7, 2010. All attempts have been made to be honest and unbiased.

Score: N/A - I have no idea how to score this.

2007 Brys Estate Signature Red

This retails for $30 at the winery. It's a blend of Cab Franc, Merlot, and Pinot Noir.

A trashy sort of nose with a good dash of cherry.

Another wine I want to force down the throat of anti-Michigan snobs. Seriously, now, find me a $30 wine from anywhere that's shockingly better than this. Yes yes, every producer is different and some things are better than others, but if I drop thirty bucks from Bordeaux or California or Washington or where ever and get a wine of this quality I'm content. I'd call this more Old World in style, it has a bit more earth and funk, but it's not harshly acidic as some can be. Cedar, tobacco, a touch of cola, beautiful tannins - very nice.

Cedar and mild strawberry on the finish - this one lingers for a striking amount.

This bottle was comped as part of the Tweet and Taste Michigan virtual Twitter tasting which took place on Monday, June 7, 2010. All attempts have been made to be honest and unbiased.

Score: 91

2006 Bowers Harbor 2896 Langley

This retails for $40 through the winery. It's a blend of mostly Cab Franc with Merlot and a bit of Cab Sauv.

Plum, tobacco, and cedar on the nose.

A few months back I had a Cab Franc from Two Lads blind that, having had it blind, thought was a far more expensive, well crafted, lighter bodied California Cab. This would have been no different. Cherry, oak, vanilla, tobacco, cedar, black strawberry - almost perfectly integrated tannins and acid.

Cherry and vanilla linger for some time on the finish.

The sort of bottle I want to shove down the throat to everyone unwilling to give Michigan reds a chance.

This bottle was comped as part of the Tweet and Taste Michigan virtual Twitter tasting which took place on Monday, June 7, 2010. All attempts have been made to be honest and unbiased.

Score: 92

2006 Peninsula Cellars Gewurztraminer

This retails for $15 through the winery.

White tea and floral qualities on the nose.

In a word - floral. In two words - herbal tea. In three words - I'm digging it. That's really 3 1/2 words isn't it? I once had an Alsatian Gewurz at a tasting (it was $70, so I passed on buying a bottle) that was pungent, bone dry, like drinking perfume straight - it was borderline obscene but it was one of the most fascinating wines I've ever had. This isn't quite that crazy, but it's the closest thing I've had. Bone dry and floral - rosewater, chamomile, vanilla bean - with a touch of underripe pineapple for fruit,

The finish is borderline Chardonnay like - pineapple, vanilla, hints of oak.

This one might be polarizing, I can see why someone wouldn't care for it, but to my palate, this wins the Old Mission Peninsula Tweet and Taste. Kudos.

This bottle was comped as part of the Tweet and Taste Michigan virtual Twitter tasting which took place on Monday, June 7, 2010. All attempts have been made to be honest and unbiased.

Score: 92

2009 Two Lads Pinot Grigio

This retails for $16 at the winery.

Pear and vanilla on the nose.

Solid acid, a touch of sugar, golden pear, green apple, even a bit of green grape, with a bit of vanilla, and even some tropical fruit - mango perhaps.

A solid length to the finish with pear and apple at first fading - way off in the distance - to pineapple.

Pinot Grigio is a tough wine to describe because most of them taste similar, the differences between a good and a great one is in finesse and subtleties. I like this one a lot, I think I may have liked the 2008 a bit more, but regardless I'll probably be buying a fair amount of this next time we're in the tasting room.

Score: 90

2009 Chateau Chantal Pinot Grigio

This retails for $14 through the winery.

Big nose. Almost Sauv Blancy - grassy and grapefruity qualities dominate.

Somewhat lighter than I expected based on the nose - more grass and grapefruit. Fascinating - in a blind tasting this almost certainly would've thrown me off. A good amount of fruit and acid. In the mid-palate I get a bit of vanilla and more tropical sort of qualities.

More grapefruit - where I was getting a bit of a white grapefruit thing on the palate, this is morphing more into the pink category - a bit sweeter, a bit heavier, a bit fruitier even.

An argument can be made that this is simple, but at $13 it won't hold much weight. Serve this blind to your wine snob friend and see what they say.

This bottle was comped as part of the Tweet and Taste Michigan virtual Twitter tasting which took place on Monday, June 7, 2010. All attempts have been made to be honest and unbiased.

Score: 88

2008 Chateau Grand Traverse Ship of Fools

This retails for $14 through the winery. It's a blend of Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, and Pinot Noir.

A somewhat sweet smelling nose which I'd describe as peachy.

Surprising! I was expecting a sweet, perhaps flabby peach bomb - instead, it's a very mild, light bodied, dry wine with white grapefruit. The acid is present, but mild - it doesn't really need much though. A nice sort of quaffable summer wine.

Pithy notes - grapefruit or even lime pith - linger on the finish.

This bottle was comped as part of the Tweet and Taste Michigan virtual Twitter tasting which took place on Monday, June 7, 2010. All attempts have been made to be honest and unbiased. I enjoyed this wine, but it was probably the lightest and most gulp-able of the bunch.

Score: 87