2007 Dashe Le'Enfant Terrible McFadden Farms Potter Valley

[VouvrayHead]

13.8% abv
I paid about as high a price as I can find on the web at $25, but I'm happy with it anyway.

This is such an interesting wine. This wine is completely unfined and unfiltered; it's cloudy purplish red in the glass.

The nose isn't terribly impressive. I tend to agree with one cellartracker reviewer who said it smelled like cheap Beaujolais, though I'd say it's more like adequate Beaujolais.
Normally I'm a nose guy, but this won me over.

In the mouth, this wine is bright red fruits, spice and rocks. All in good measure. Very, very pure in fruit. Strong acidity makes it light on its feet. Focused. Definitely feels burgundian to me.

Totally different Zin, and a style I really appreciate.

Dan, have you tried this? I wonder what you would think... Harvest Moon in the closest Zin I've had to it, though still not all that close.


[This message has been edited by VouvrayHead (edited 02-11-2010).]

[dananne]

I've not tried any Dashe wines, but if I'm not mistaken, they're an outfit out of Healdsburg. I think we tried going there on our last Sonoma trip. If it's anything like Harvest Moon, count me in.

Speaking of HM, we had an '04 Estate Zin from them earlier this week, and it was stellar. Lithe, acidic, pretty fruit, and very delicate for a Zin.

How are your Columbia plans coming along? When you're in town, I still would like to get together for a nice gluten free meal and more than a few gems from our cellar. Anything in there is fair game, so we'll have a ball. And, Anne is excited to meet you and your wife. Keep me posted on you timeline.

[VouvrayHead]

Based on one wine, mind you, I wouldn't call Dashe similar to Harvest Moon. It's just that Dashe seems iconoclastic in a similarly balanced and elegant vein. It seems to me, though, that Harvest Moon is centered on a New California, while Dashe looks more to France. I will be trying more Dashe if I can find it.

I'd say we are 99% heading to Columbia at this point. Nearly all of the schools we liked more than MU have said no. Really there's only 1 school she might still interview at that we'd consider over MU, and that looks like a long-shot both to wrangle an acceptance and to prefer to MU.
The timeline will be early June, and we'll be up in Mid-March trying to find a place to live!

Gluten-Free food and good wine sounds as good as it gets. We're looking forward to getting together too. I'm sure I have fewer gems than you, but I think Huet and Jermann can be dug up.