GUD BLOG: SINGLE POST
Recent Tastes
My wife is gone for a few days, and I miss my in-home drinking companion. It’s no coincidence, I think, that a glass viewed from a heavenly direction looks like a ring. Without her here, I’m forced — forced, dammit! — to drink a full bottle all by my lonesome.
So at this moment, I’m struggling through a 2007 De Montille Bourgogne Rouge. Fans of the wine documentary Mondovino will recognize the family name from one of the film’s larger-than-life figures. However, the vineyard and winemaking duties have since been turned over to Etienne De Montille, the son of the affable, elderly gentleman portrayed not just in the movie but on its promotional posters.
The bourgogne rouge is lighter and far more feminine than the few cru wines I’ve had from De Montille. The nose absolutely reeks of cherry and creme de violette, and on the palate, tart cherry and raspberry dominate. The fruit is never jammy — always playful and natural tasting — and the finish explodes in a wash of lovely acidity that lingers with some minor, funky undertones that really make it sing.
Earlier today, I had my third cup of coffee. Ever. Beyond the look of bewilderment on the faces of several colleagues, great enjoyment has been derived from the eye-opening exploration of what coffee offers. The revelation actually came late last week when I sampled the Kenya Kirimikui single origin from Intelligentsia via Lab Cafe in Ann Arbor. Standing in stark contrast to the Nicaraguan product I’d had (and blogged about) previously, the Kenyan coffee exploded with acidity — absolutely pure lemon and lemongrass flavors just ripping through the mid-palate and finish.
Today’s drink, a Guatemalan coffee delivered to me via the same outlet, was a bit harder for me to understand. The roaster describes the acidity as being akin to that of tropical fruit, and perhaps I simply haven’t learned the lingo, but I thought of it more as chewing on a peach pit. There was fruit there, and the flavor wasn’t nutty, but it had that tannic, fibrous quality one might get from gnawing on a fruit pit a bit too long. It wasn’t distinct enough to scream any real notes to me, but it was so very clearly different from previous drinks that I was at pleased that my reaction wasn’t something like, “Oh, huh… it’s coffee.”
I love everything Lab does, so I’ll be back there this week for one thing or another — it’s unquestionably my favorite spot in all of Ann Arbor right now, as evidenced by my three or four plugs for them in as many weeks — but I may grab my next cup of coffee at Comet Coffee, also in Ann Arbor, just to try something completely different.
I love my hobby. And I think there’s just a splash of that De Montille left. Gotta go.
2010.07.20 Evan Hansen at 2:41 am
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One Response to Recent Tastes
Evan, I like the way this post moves from companionship to wine to coffee. I'm not sure what our hobby is, exactly, but it's a great hobby all right.