High-country smoke–a clean grey wisp drifting through freezing blue air over mountains of spring wildflowers and the sort of sweaty glow under layers of virgin wool that goes into toil at such elevations. Pencil eraser and chalkboard dust and Jolly Rancher and vermouth blanc on a slate of acid so mineralific the entire state of California rolls in its grave. Fruit a delightful staccato of unbearable lightness groping along the piles of watermelon and tall cold lemonades on long dirt roads in an irreverent tango with tomato-vine tannin where dried saliva creates an unctuous bench for all to sit on. And think. This wine–however inexpensive, however un-pedigreed or un-appellationed–FORCES you to think.
It’s a beautiful, beautiful wine.
2017 FAMILLE GAEC VAILLANT ‘Cabernet Breton’ CF Anjou Loire France 12.5
Stephen McConnell 