Consumed with various meals over the past couple of weeks:
?? Bordertown Red (Merlot/Cab Franc blend) I forgot to write down the year on this one, but it was probably an '11 or '12 (Howie?). On first opening, it had a bright red berryish smell but also a distinct VA note. While appealing, the VA was a tad offputting. Fortunately, I saved half the bottle, because 1-2 days later it was a wine transformed. The VA was gone and the nose had become far less primary and more savory, with leather and herbal notes aplenty. The Cab Franc character was much in evidence and it bore a strong resemblance to a good St. Emilion, though it had higher acidity and less torrrefactive character than most Right Bank wines. Well done, Howie!
This week, with spaghetti and freshly made tomato-basil sauce, we opened Howie's 2011 Incognito (Vidal/Foch/Chambourcin). This wine was greeted with no fair measure of skepticism given my previous experiences with wines made from hybrids, but -- in keeping with a theme here -- this wine exceeded, if not smashed, all expectations. A generous nose of red and black berries with a juicy pong of acidity was followed on the palate with a smooth, racy mouthfeel. Had I been tasting this blind, I would have gone for an alpine wine from France or Italy, something like Mondeuse or Trousseau. It went very well with the tomato sauce and had only a subtle foxy aftertaste. All in all, this was far and away the finest hybrid-based red wine I've ever had. Again, bravo, Howie!
Mark Lipton