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North America: Odd Bottles

The USA has a fair share of excellent vineyards, but sadly my experience is limited. In the UK price and availability can be a barrier to enjoying these wines regularly. There's also a single note on a Canadian wine here. Click to locate stockists.

Cline Vineyards Ancient Vines Mourvèdre 1996: A dense colour, and a great nose, full of sweet and tarry fruit. Similarly, the palate has dense, chewy fruit, backed up with a lovely tannic structure. Acidity is on the low side which only makes the wine seem more opulent and mouthfilling. A rich, powerful wine. Good length. 17/20 (October 2002)

Fetzer Sundial Chardonnay 1999: Nose of bananas and tropical fruits which at first seems enticing, particularly in the absence of a strong oak influence. The palate has a similar profile, with an oily, glycerol mouthfeel, and soft acidity. It rapidly becomes tiring. 13/20 (May 2001)

Fetzer Viognier (Mendocino) 1997: A fairly pale wine. Delicious pear, apricot and pine nuts on the nose. The palate is richly textured, with good balancing acidity and flavours that mirror the nose. The overall mouthfeel is marred by the 14.5% alcohol, but it's still quite drinkable. 14/20 (March 2001)

Fetzer Barrel Select Viognier (Mendocino) 1997: Also pale, but with a luscious nose of pear, peach and nuts, with a streak of buttery but unobtrusive oak. The palate is delicious - rich and creamy peach and apricot fruit, with sufficient acidity, but again that big alcohol. A lovely wine in terms of aroma and flavour, but it has a big and somewhat clumsy structure. 13.5/20 (March 2001)

Fetzer Barrel Select Pinot Noir (Mendocino) 1996: Intense fruit on the nose - packed full of raspberries, cherries and blackberries, with background farmyard, earthy scents. The palate has good weight, soft tannins and good acidity. Predominately fruit flavours, cherries in particular. Good finish, and some length. Very drinkable. 14.5/20 (July 2000) Retaste: This wine has faded in colour, from a fairly rich hue to a red garnet, with a tinge of tawny age at the rim. The nose carries hints of the fruit this wine once offered, but this sits alongside a nutty, polished wood aroma suggestive of oxidation. A fairly rich palate, some fruit, more complex animal fur notes, and an oily, slightly disjointed feel. Soft tannins, and a low acid, flabby texture. The alcohol really shows up on the finish. Clearly a wine on the way downhill. 13.5/20 (June 2001)

Bonterra Cabernet Sauvignon (Mendocino) 1996: Purple, with a deep pink rim. Initially blackcurrants on the nose, with old cabinets and toffee - typical oaked Cabernet. With time it takes on more spicy leathery notes. The palate is similar, but it develops richer chocolate, cream and black fruit flavours. Tannins are soft but evident. Acidity provides pleasant balance and a refreshing mouthfeel. Finish is soft with no surprises. 14/20 (September 2000)

Hess Select Chardonnay 1999: Good buttery fruit on the nose, and as expected a big oak element. On the palate it actually works quite well, with the lemony, buttery fruit standing up to the oak, with reasonable acidity. Simple but not too blowsy. 13.5/20 (May 2001)

Quady Essensia Orange Muscat (Madera) 1996: A deep and rich peachy-amber colour, with big legs. The nose has quince and orange marmalade, orange blossom, honey and some nuttiness. The palate has lovely fresh acidity, and is not overly rich. Some attractive floral notes lie with rich almond flavours and a honeyed sweetness. A clean finish and delicious length. Excellent for quality/price ratio. My favourite wine of the trio. 16/20 (August 2000)

Quady Batch 88 Starboard (Madera) NV: A blend of Tinta Roriz, Tinta Cao and Tinta Amarella. A fairly pale red hue compared to true Port, with a hint of tawny. On the nose there is the strong fruit notes of a young Ruby Port, and some pleasant woody notes resembling a Tawny. A juicy, alcoholic palate, with a rich, molasses-like sweetness. Adequate fruit, surprisingly low tannins. Very easy drinking. 15.5/20 (August 2000)

Quady Elysium Black Muscat (Madera) 1997: A pale, cherry red appearance, resembling a Pinot Noir. On the nose, however, distinctive sweet cherry fruit with aromas of rose petals. Pleasant alcohol on the palate, low tannins and sufficient acidity. Sweet, aromatic cherry fruit with quite noticeable residual sugar, leading into a clean finish and quite a good length. 15.5/20 (August 2000)

Ravenswood Vintner's Bland Zinfandel 2000: A dark, shimmering colour, but not opaque. The nose offers up aromas of tar, stewed and smoky fruit. On the palate there is plenty of depth and concentration. It is full, rich, and a touch sweet, with sufficient acidity. There is a seam of volatile acids but I don't find it troublesome. Sweet fruit and cough candy on the finish. A barbecue wine. 13/20 (August 2003)

Roederer Quartet Brut NV: Lemon gold colour with a fine bead. Fresh fruit aromas on the nose, very citrussy, with some classy bready, yeasty notes. A lovely, creamy, mouth-filling palate, yet with a fresh, crisp, citrus acidity cutting right through it. Gentle mousse, leading into a creamy finish. Overall a very good wine, with more than a degree of class. One of the more Champagne-like New World sparklers. 16/20 (June 2000) Retaste: An aperitif prior to a meal out. Clearly this wine has experienced some good bottle development, as the nose has developed some intense, toasty, autolytic yeasty aromas, combined with lemon and even orange fruit scents. A good mousse on the palate, big and brash yeastiness with attractive acidity. 16/20 (November 2000)

Saintsbury Garnet Pinot Noir (Carneros) 1998: This wine has a vibrant, cherry red colour, with not even a hint of tawny. Superb fruit aromas dominate the nose, black cherry and blackberry. There are suggestions of mushrooms, chocolate and even horsehair, but overall the nose remains very clean. Good texture with a seam of glycerol is evident on the forepalate, and it is perhaps just a little too rich, bordering on unbalanced. Tannins are integrated and a little woody, and there is good acidity. It is a full flavoured wine, with rich fruit, a sensitive application of oak, and some spice on the finish. A pleasure to drink, and one of the better New World Pinot Noirs I can recall tasting. 16.5/20 (May 2001)

Sebastieni Pepperwood Grove Zinfandel (Sonoma) 1997: This is a dark purple wine. It has a chocolaty, slightly jammy, yet smoky nose, with an opulent level of summer berry fruit. The palate has luscious smoky fruit, with superb tannins and balanced acidity. This profile persists through to the finish. Good length. 16/20 (October 2000)

Seghesio Old Vine Zinfandel 2004: My relationship with Zinfandel is not well developed; aside from the very occasional bottle of Ridge, I rarely drink it. This particular example has a dark and inky garnet-black hue, despite already having four years under its belt. The nose is full of smoky plum fruit, with a super-ripe almost roasted character, and notes of mint and chocolate. Similarly rich and turbo-charged on the palate, this heavyweight 15.5% wine has a double-cream texture, over-ripe blackberry and blueberry fruit, and lots of spicy grip in the middle and finish. Baked blueberry pie at the very end. Certainly interesting to taste, although it seems rather over-the-top and insufficiently fresh for my palate. I have another bottle, so I may see how it is with a few more years in the cellar. Returning to it the following day it still shows a ripe, burly structure and somewhat cola-tinged fruit, but it seems less based on confectionery, more roasted, and the oak has disappeared. Perhaps this just needed a lot of air contact to flatter my palate, and perhaps my other bottle will be more to my taste if I leave it in the cellar for 3-4 years. 14.5+?/20 (May 2009)

Turner Road Reserve Merlot 2005: Synthetic cork. This wine has a rather transparent hue, and a nose of canned strawberries, sweetness too I think, perhaps blueberries. The palate is smooth and rather featureless, fat, but with a burnt character. This last point is an interesting flavour at least. The finish though is bitter, in a harsh rather than interesting manner. It all seems a bit blobby and out of focus, but with a needly-nettly prickling sensation at the end which provides a real challenge. A wine such as this certainly shows the stupidity of any marking system that starts at half marks. 10/20 (November 2007)

Lover's Leap Vineyard Earl's Reserve NV: An oddity brought to a tasting, having been carried all the way home from Nebraska. Made from a French-American hybrid variety DeChaunac, also known as Seibel 9549. A pale red hue. Quite a vibrant nose, with fruity red and black fruit aromas, with a green, blackcurrant leaf edge. Plenty of spice and summer fruits on the palate. Medium bodied with just a trace of tannins. A touch angular, but a polyphenol-influenced mouthfeel goes some way to counteracting this. 13.5/20 (August 2003)

Chateau des Charmes Estate Bottled Late Harvest Riesling (Niagara Peninsula) 1997: A lemon-gold colour. Heady aromas of honeyed tropical fruit dominate the nose. The palate has an elegant combination of a sweet, buttercream richness, with thankfully good balancing acidity, and it drips with more of that honeycomb and fruit. This is far too easy to drink! 16/20 (November 2000)