Le Pew

Pepe 2001 Trebbiano d’Abruzzo (Abruzzi) – Smells, unmistakably, of kriek lambic, with all the sourness and brett that implies…and not some easy-drinking Lindemans bottling either, but an extreme, take-no-prisoners Cantillon version. The texture is of drying soup, with fantastic minerality enveloped in lanolin. Very complex and strikingly long, with fine balance. Not that this is any surprise, but the wine is very divisive; among a half-dozen tasters of this bottle, about as many despise it as adore it. (12/08)

My funny Valentini

Valentini 1999 Trebbiano d’Abruzzo (Abruzzi) – Smells like lambic…sour berries and an edge of brett…with leaves and fresher berries in the mix. A baffling wine. It seems flawed one moment, then fresh the next. Too old, too young, then just right. It’s impossible to get a handle on it, or to say anything useful about where it is or where it’s going. Deliciously weird. (9/08)

Lugana beach

Tenuta Roveglia 2006 Lugana (Lombardy) – Quite striking, Leaves, yellow and green fruit, light traces of herbs, perhaps some freshly-cracked bivalves; there’s a lot going on in this wine, all at the same time, and the confusion is rather delicious. (3/08)