Archive for the ‘Tastings’ Category
Wines of the extremes
Fortified wines are a seriously undervalued category of quality wines. Somewhere we have bought the line that to be taken seriously wines must be dry (many fortifieds are also sweet) while proper concerns about alcohol consumption put a question mark against wines that can be around 20% in alcoholic strength. Vintage Port is the exception, not the rule, receiving lots of proper attention, but it is rare treat. But there is a whole range of excellent wines, many at really good prices for the quality and sophistication which they offer. And what really marks these wines out is their character as wines of the extremes – of location, climate, wine making, ageing and quality. Here is the line up I recently presented at the Officers’ Mess at Andover.
The evening started with two Sherries. The image of Sherry is cosy and suburban but it is made in an extreme location. The Southern tip of Spain is far too hot and dry to contemplate growing grapes for quality white wines. And most styles are made from one of the dullest grapes in the world, Palomino Fino. But it is the peculiarities of soil type (water retaining albariza chalk), the distinctive approach to ageing the wines in the solera system and making use of the climactic peculiarity of a hot region which is on the Atlantic coast which leads to great and highly distinctive wine. We tasted the two classic styles from which all other Sherry styles are based – if you ignore the inky black sweetness of PX. Las Medallas, Bodedgas Argüeso is a classic Manzanilla, the palest and lightest in the Fino style, a wine of mouth refreshing freshness and tanginess. The key to its distinctiveness is that it is aged under a layer of flor, a special type of yeast which rises to the surface in the barrel and which grows particularly thickly in the moisture rich environment of Sanlucar de Barrameda, right on the Atlantic coast. The solera system – a series of barrels which feed younger wines into progressively older blends – ensures consistency and complexity in the three year old final product. For a wine of this complexity, it is a great bargain at £7.
In complete visual contrast, a true Oloroso sherry is a mid amber colour and looks like a seriously old and viscous wine. Remarkably, it is made from exactly the same 
boring grape variety but, being fortified to a higher level, 18%, does not grow a protective layer of flor. As a result it ages in interaction with the air above it – hence the dark colour and the characteristic nutty, woody and even date flavours. Our example was an excellently made Viejo Oloroso from Sanchez Romate, who provide the Wine Society Exhibition range wine in this style. The only disappointment is that there is absolutely no indication about how old this ‘viejo’ is – I guess 10 years but perhaps more. (The Wine Society agree with this estimate and explained that it not financially viable to get the expensive certification of age for a small lot of wine.) To complete the sherries, this is a ridiculously good wine at £10.75 – but then, sadly for the producers but good for the discerning drinker, Sherry is deeply unfashionable.
The two sherries were followed by two Madeiras. If the tip of Spain is not recommended for white wines, the sub-tropical island of Madeira, 500+ kilometres off the coast of Morocco, surrounded by the Atlantic, is completely improbable – too hot, too wet, too humid. You have to add to those factors an overly rich volcanic soil and steep sites which require terracing. Once again the trick is in the ageing which breaks all the rules about keeping wines cool to preserve quality. Here you either actively heat wines to a seriously hot 50° for three months (the estufa method) or, more 
gently but equally improbably, leave them to age in a hot spot (the canteiros method), for example under the roof for years where temperatures will fluctuate wildly through the seasons – cf. the method of making Vin Santo in Tuscany.
Our two examples were from the grand old house of Henriques & Henriques: the first was the inexpensive Full Rich Madeira, no doubt made from the commoner Tinta Negro Mole grape variety and heat treated in the stainless steel estufagem you can see on their website. Moderately sweet, it offers marked, luscious, caramel flavours. Much more sophisticated was Bual, 15 year old, made from one of the four so-called noble varieties, in this case Bual (both a grape variety and a style), which is grown on the warmer south side of the island. In addition to the moderate sweetness it had a beautiful and complex combination of dried fruit, rancio, subtle wood and spice notes, with the characteristic acidity well clothed – poised, elegant, persistent. £22 for a 50cl bottle is decent value. And this is a baby by Madeira standards. Madeiras are probably the world’s longest living wines; if a wine can survive this heat treatment and has high acidity, it is virtually indestructible. For example, H&H still offer wines from the 1930s. Extreme indeed.
The second half of the tasting was devoted to four Ports, appropriately enough for an officers’ mess. Here the extremes are the summer temperatures and dropping 
rainfall as you get further inland, steep riverside sites which have to be worked by hand, fast extraction of the colour and phenolics in the first two days of fermentation and, in the case of vintage ports, decades of ageing potential.
The first two wines were in common styles – a simple, if high quality Ruby and then an LBV. Ruby is made from a range of red grapes, typically grown in the wetter and cooler western part of the Douro. Nowadays the fruit will be pressed mechanically with the aim of getting as much colour and tannin from the skins as is possible in the two days available before distilled grape spirit is added to leave a red, fiery, fruity wine. Krohn Porto Ambassador Ruby more than fulfils this brief. By contrast, the Wine Society’s LBV Port 2006, made by the dominant Symingtons group, was a star wine – showing a fresh attack of red and black fruit, edges rounded out by around 5 years in wood barrels, excellent balance between sweetness and acidity. Late Bottled Vintage (LBV to its friends) as a style is one way of getting something of the character of vintage port but without the wait or the need to decant. This example was made from quality fruit from the central, most prestigious, part of the Douro valley and has retained its weight despite being fined and filtered before bottling. Why ‘late bottled’? Because it is bottled just before it is ready to drink, while vintage port proper is bottled in its infancy, with all its growing up to do. This example from Symingtons showed outstanding value at £11.75 a bottle.
And finally, two contrasting example of aged wines. Inexpensive tawny port is paler than ruby and alcoholic, and that’s about it. True tawnies are wines that have been in 
a barrel long enough to go, well, tawny. A tawny made with high quality fruit of a single year, which has been wood aged for at least seven years, qualifies to be a Colheita, the Portuguese word for ‘harvest’ here doing service for a vintage wine – given that ‘vintage’ in the language of port has a very particular meaning. Krohn Porto Colheita 2000 was an excellent example, having been aged in wood for a full 10 years in the cooler Vila Nova de Gaia, across the river from Oporto itself. Amber in colour, pleasantly and slowly oxidised fruit flavours, it was long and subtle.
True vintage ports are extreme in other ways: only the best fruit in the best years will do; much greater use is made of the very best grape varieties including Touriga Nacional with its meagre yield of 300 grams per plant; and it needs years, decades, of ageing in the bottle to show its potential. Surprisingly, it is the simplest of all these wines to make – select the very best fruit, extract all that you can from the skins for two days, fortify, age in wood for a couple of years, bottle without any sort of treatment – no fining, filtering or stabilisation. Some of these wines are still made by the traditional pressing under foot in a long, low trough, producing excellent results if you can get people to do it; others by modern equivalents. The result is a wine of massive concentration and great levels of extract, which is pretty much undrinkable in its youth. It will throw a prodigious and solid sediment in time … and it will evolve ever so slowly in the bottle under its original cork. Graham’s 1980 Vintage Port showed really well at the climax to this tasting but has years left in it – a remarkable combination of continuing fruit and fine, evolved tertiary notes; a great balance between power and refinement; remarkably young for its 32 years.
Art of fine living at the Harrow
February’s meeting of Andover Wine Friends was a spectacular lunch at The Harrow Inn, Little Bedwyn. They put on a great show for 17 of us, while running the front half of the restaurant as usual. I was seriously off duty – too much good food, company and excellent wines – so there are no detailed notes this month. However, here are a selection of photos of some of the seven or so courses plus cheese, almost entirely from these islands. And a brief note on some outstanding wines.
The approach in this restaurant is easy to describe – genuinely warm hospitality, outstanding sourcing of ingredients, perfect timing in the kitchen, innovative combinations and a profound love of wine. What a great combination! The event started well with Ruinart Blanc de Blanc Champagne, being poured above left.
And the wines? Some were bought at the Harrow and some came from people’s own collections. To pick out some unfairly:
- the Ruinart is wonderfully balanced and very refined
- Didier Dagueneau Pouilly-Fumé Silex, Loire – great, concentrated mineral Sauvignon Blanc … because there is a tradition of drinking this great wine at the Harrow
- a stunningly good, moderately priced Semillon from Australia which the Harrow stocks: Mount Horrocks Semillon, Clare Valley, Australia
- a wonderful white Grenache (not a phrase you can often employ!) from Catalan Spain – Ctonia, Masia Serra
- three Rieslings to compare – Eden Valley, Australia; classic Mosel; Schlumberger Grand Cru from Alsace
- decent Condrieu from Christophe Pichon and Cornas from Domaine de Rochepertuis
- sadly another ‘drink at the Harrow’ tradition here did not come to pass as the 1985 Hermitage from Jaboulet was over the hill – I suppose in this case it just rolled gracefully down the hill
- Spinnifex’s Indigene and Shiraz-Mataro from the Barossa, big fruit numbers but beautifully structured and complex, especially the latter
- there were quite a few others which probably deserved a mention …
- and finally, a brilliantly concentrated and only moderately sweet Banyuls: Coume del Mas Quintessence Banyulus Rouge
- some people found a little space to try two different Grappas
With many thanks to the whole crew at the Harrow – you deserve your success.
Pale, red and elegant
With the whole world of wine to choose from, which three grape varieties would you group together for a focused red wine tasting where there is noticeable relationship between the varieties? The two Cabs and Merlot would be one obvious choice – but the range of styles around the world might lead to a loss of focus and what would you do about blends? Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre typically make a better blend than a comparison based on single varietal wines. Lea & Sandeman made an excellent choice with Pinot Noir, Nebbiolo and Sangiovese. This worked really well for two reasons. First, all three varieties make relatively pale wines which rely more on perfume, elegance and balance than just sheer power. Second, they are (probably!) my three favourite varieties of all – think sublime red Burgundy, evolving, long-lived, tannic Barolo and Barbaresco and finally, complex, herby, acidic Chianti and Brunello. How could it go wrong? With this quality of wines, it couldn’t.
The tasting offered a superb example to compare the styles of the three varieties, mostly in their classic regions. The Pinot from Burgundy, which travels the best of the three, was joined by a few choice examples from New Zealand and Argentina (yes). The Nebbiolo came from the Langhe in Piemonte, that is from its unsurpassed home territory. The Sangiovese came in its Brunello form only from Montalcino, one of its classic Tuscan expressions. The bulk of the tasting – in fact the two sides of the table you can see – was Pinot and Nebbiolo, with the Brunello an interesting side show with the producers present.
While these varieties all show marked, if subtle, variation from one vineyard to the next (thereby keeping wine writers in business), there are generalisations to be made. The Pinot at these levels (from generic red Burgundy up to some premier cru) were pale in colour, with fresh and attractive raspberry and strawberry fruit, moderate oak notes, relatively light in the mouth, around 13% of alcohol, present if unobtrusive tannins; in short, elegant and refreshing. They compliment food with their moderate flavours, refreshing acidity and poise. Of the many excellent examples, I would pick Domaine Theulot Juillot, Mercurey Premier Cru Les Combins 2009 for its perfume and elegance, the combination of lightness in the mouth and depth of fruit, and its length (£15.60 plus VAT). Great quality and value from a less exalted area.
Having worked up the rue de Pinot Noir, you take a 180 degree turn and head down the strada di Nebbiolo. It would be far to simple to state that you head down ‘tannin street’, but obviously this is the most marked change. These wines made from Nebbiolo have an noticeable structure which comes from a combination of higher alcohol levels, typically 14% though right up to 15%, and that wonderful tannic rasp which, if the fruit is ripe and it is well handled, makes for great, long lived wines. To be fair to these examples, the alcohol was not at all obtrusive but was balanced by fruit and acidity. The flavour and textural profile is rather different too: the red fruit is there (sour cherry) but is held together with the effects of ageing in, mainly, older and larger barrels. The wine has a steely tautness. This time two choices: an entry level wine of great quality: Nebbiolo, Langhe, Andrea Oberto, 2010 (£11.50 plus VAT) and a fine expression, Barbaresco from the Fausoni vineyard, Andrea Sottimano, 2008 (£29 plus VAT).
And finally ‘the brown one’, ie the type of Sangiovese grown on the Montalcino plateau, at 450m above sea level which increases the day/night temperature difference and gives a longer growing season, concentrating flavours. Most Sangiovese is not as pale as either of the other grape varieties in this line up and Brunello, with its long ageing in large oak barrels, is certainly the darkest of these three wines. Unfortunately there was no Rosso di Montalcino on show as that would have made a better comparison with the basic Pinot and Nebbiolo; but fortunately there were seven Brunello to be tasted! These wines (apart from the very best) do not jump out of the glass at you like some of those above – but they have a solidity, a lasting structure in the mouth which makes up for that. Interestingly, they were refined, not bold and rustic, with subtle sour cherry and sharp black plum fruit, restrained old oak, a full palate, with weight in the mouth with refined tannins and real length. The one that showed most promise for the future was Collemattoni, Brunello di Montalcino, 2007 (£22.25 plus VAT) with splendid refreshing sharpness; the current star, Fuligni, 2004 riserva with fabulous depth of fruit and complexity, the aromas now coming out of the glass … simultaneously rounded and demanding (£46.75 plus VAT).
Congratulations to Lea & Sandeman for this study in pale (mostly), red and elegant.
1970s Claret – old friends reunited
Saturday night’s Andover Wine Friends’ Fine Wine supper was remarkable by any standard, the main act being eight wines from Bordeaux from four vintages in the 1970s. The first thing to celebrate was the friendship and generosity of those who love wine. The eight wines all came from the cellar of one of our number who happily shared them with the rest of us. This was no small gift – among the eight there were two second growths, three third growths, a ‘super 5th’ from the Medoc and a Premier Grand Cru Classé from Saint-Emilion. At today’s prices – if you could find the wines at all – they were together worth a four figure amount but were shared with us at their original prices. One still had a price label on it from the year after decimalisation – £5.91. They had spent the past thirty plus years mainly in one cellar before being moved to Hampshire in the last few years. It was a great act of generosity and, let’s face it, a sharing of an experience that no of us are ever likely to have again.
The second reason for celebration was that all eight bottles – and a 1982 which another member shared with us from his cellar – 
were in good condition. Nine wines in drinkable condition between 30 and 42 years old were a testimony to the longevity of wine itself. It represented a triumph of the wine maker’s art, made possible by impermeable glass and high quality cork. Those who remember the 1970s will know that it was a poor decade but that there were some half decent and better vintages represented here. The warming of the climate since then has meant that the lottery of the weather is no longer the feature it was, especially for the production of ripe Cabernet Sauvignon grapes, a late ripening variety which is the backbone of the Médoc. One feature was clear enough in these examples – while most had Cabernet Sauvignon as the principal grape variety, the amount of Merlot has increased at the expense of Cabernet Franc in particular. Young wines are no doubt more approachable now than then – for this reason, combined with warmer weather and better work in vineyard and cellar. But we of course were tasting seriously old wines.
While all eight 1970s were still alive and well, there was quite a range within them. Two of the three 1970s shone – the oldest wines of them all – while a 1978 from a very famous chateau also sang. But some famous names in relatively good years did not.
Best of the ‘70s
Top wine of the evening, with 5 out of 15 tasters voting for it, was second growth Ch. Ducru Beaucaillou 1970. The Ducru led with classic cedar box and perfumed bouquet and still had beautiful sweet fruit and a mildly tannic finish. Not many of these wines showed that balance, and where they were grippy it was in a drying out way, not still lively tannins. Interestingly, Michael Broadbent many years ago stated that aside from Latour and Cheval Blanc, this was the best bottling of the 1970 vintage. From the same vintage but rather less prestigious in terms of rankings, Ch. La Lagune also showed really well – a deep colour, most youthful of the bouquets of all these wines, excellent red fruit character. The other, rather more predictable, star wine was Ch. Palmer 1978, well known third growth with a very imposing label. We did not taste these wines blind so we will never know how much reputation swayed people’s judgments. The Palmer was certainly very fine: capsicum, balsamic and lavender notes on the nose, much more fruit than its 1978 partner and still a fine refreshing finish. Last up in the top half of the table was another prestigious wine, second growth Ch. Brane Cantenac 1970, which was positively farmyardy and could just about have passed for old Burgundy, with a superb texture, which was a feature of so many of these wines.
Texture, now there is subject in its own right. The great thing about fine old wines is the evolution of bouquet and flavour, followed by the mouth feel. The forceful flavours of young fruit have long gone, the acidity is somewhat attenuated and the tannins have got longer and suppler. Even some of the less good wines in this line up still showed a remarkable subtlety in the mouth. Apart from sheer curiosity about longevity, this is a quality which makes it positively worth keeping good or excellent wines for decades to witness how they will develop.
The ‘we’re still here from the 70s’ wines
Our one wine from the Graves, ie south of the city of Bordeaux, put up a good show in this company: it certainly got the most original tasting note of the evening. Ch. Malartic-Lagraviere 1978, was a humble Graves then, but has since been promoted to AC Pessac-Léognan. Notes of green pepper, cattle hair (sic), grass and leather, not much fruit, but that super subtle texture which has been commented on. Ch. Malescot St Exupery 1976 had some fading plum fruit but was drying out, while that old British favourite Ch. Lynch Bages 1975 still had some cedar and blackcurrant notes and that sinewy, perfectly knit together palate with some freshness. Our only representative from the right bank (ie from predominantly clay soils rather than gravel) Ch. Trotte Vieille 1975, showed some balsam perfume and old fruit, but was also drying out, from an originally tannic vintage.
This was a superb evening, further enlivened by some other fine wines, excellent food and great company. Of the wines, the following should get a mention, however brief:
Champagne, Pol Roger, Brut 2000: a beautiful aperitif but perhaps not quite the wow factor I was hoping for
Ch. Fonréaud, Les Cynes, Bordeaux 
blanc 2009: prominent oak, then bold lemon fruit and waxy texture (Sauvignon Blanc, Sémillon, Muscadelle)
Ch. de Pez 1982: very fine fruit, tobacco and balsam, very subtle, very good Claret from the ‘Parker vintage’
Clos de Bourg, Première Trie, Moelleux, Vouvray, Domaine Huet, 1990 – a quite superb deep orange gold in colour (see picture on right), only moderately sweet, brilliant marmalade fruit, outstanding
The four colours of 2003 Dom Perignon
2003 – the season
Everyone knows that 2003 was an exceptionally hot year in Europe. Janet and I spent a small part of that summer working in the large garden of friends and found ourselves having to adopt habits more typical of Mediterranean countries – get up early and work outside until late morning, have a long lunch break, and resume the campaign in the early evening. In the wine world, after the great success of the much more typical 2002 vintage in Champagne and elsewhere in France, the question was could great wine be made in the hot year of 2003? Nine years on at the launch of the 2003 Dom Pérignon, chef de cave Richard Geoffrey, was, unsurprisingly, upbeat: yes, we did make the 2003, and we always thought we would – it is like 1947, 1959 and 1976 … Unfortunately he did not bring along a bottle of any of these vintages to prove his point!
But it was not just the heat that made 2003 a very demanding year. The season started with severe spring frosts which led to a loss of viable fruit buds so that in parts of the Côte des Blancs eventual yields were down by up to 75% at 20 hectolitres per hectare. As a result of this and the summer heat, there was a very small, fast ripening crop. In line with their usual practice the ripeness of the fruit was carefully monitored in the final weeks of the year. As the thermometer reading soared above 40°, the vines shut down, so no further sugars were made, but the phenolic ripening of the skins and seeds continued. As the the wine maker told his story he got limited sympathy for having to interrupt his holiday in San Tropez in order to return to the Champagne area for a harvest which started on 25 August, at the time only the second ever August harvest since 1822. There were many technical challenges for wineries more used to dealing with the harvest of a cool and damp climate – the temperature of the grapes, the choice of when to pick, issues to do with skin contact and then clarification – but they were by no means insurmountable. It was fine if you were open-minded enough, says Geoffrey with a knowing smile. The challenge in wine making was to turn strength into intensity.
2003 – the wine
The 2003 wine is remarkable if unusual. It starts with a fine floral note but this quickly gives way to a range of components – ripe if muted exotic fruit, honey, currently noticeable oak, some herbiness, an intriguing bitterness and a notable minerality. The palate is currently moderately intense and the acidity, not surprisingly given the heat of the summer, very low by Champagne standards. If the mark of outstanding wine is its complexity, then this stands out – even if it is right up one end of the spectrum for cool climate wine. Richard Geoffrey is adamant that there is no basis for the commonplace that wine needs elevated acidity to age well. It is the flavour intensity that matters. He is sure that the 2003 will age for decades … ending the debate by his assertion that Dom Pérignon 1976 is a now a monument!
2003 – the colours
So much for the season and the wine, how do Dom Pérignon wish to present the wine? After the introduction and simple tasting we were treated to an interactive, almost theatrical experience. In darkened rooms – DP believes in the eternal chicness of black – we are assigned a sommelier and a tasting bar, and led (very willingly) through the colours of white, gold, hibiscus red and blue-black … four colours, four micro dishes with exquisite tasting combinations. Let’s do the photo blog first:
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You can’t accuse of Dom Pérignon or their chefs of not trying! This was a spectacular line-up of colour, the non-colour of black and flavours. If the idea was to broaden our concept of ‘what goes’ with vintage Champagne, it certainly worked. For me the most remarkable combination with the wine was the very first – a cream and egg yolk ‘egg’ with cinnamon, a coarse black salt and just a touch of the luxuriant sweetness of maple syrup. In a ‘like with like’ match, the indulgently rich texture of the dish brought out the richness of the wine, cream meets cream, while in a cross current, the cinnamon brought out the fruit and the whole was livened up with the hit of salt. This was more than a taste, it was a unfolding series of rich textures punctuated by hits of cinnamon, salt and sweetness. Remarkable.
The two middle dishes, were very good, but tasting-wine combination were not on the same level. In the gold dish, the La Mancha saffron was certainly warm and powerful and the Livorno risotto rice, called Acquarello, holds its marked firmness while being cooked. The dish was finished off with the intense bite of four year old Parmesan. Despite being a classic combination, I felt the dish stood side by side with the wine. Similarly with the red number: all the fireworks were from the low salt farmed caviar from Aquitaine on its bed of hibiscus reduction, rather than its interplay with the wine. However, the textural pyrotechnics returned with the final ‘black’ dish, foie gras and a 40-ingredient mole sauce, including the key contributions of chocolate and mild chilli. Whatever the colour, richness is the key to 2003 Dom Pérignon.
Subtle variation
The Bring a Bottle Club was in a rather different format for its late January tasting, or rather a refinement of its format. We already have ‘BBC1’ which is ‘bring an interesting/good bottle of any sort’, while ‘BBC2’ has a theme, on this occasion, white Burgundy. The refinement was that one of our number offered to liaise with members before hand so that we didn’t end up bringing the same wine – a particular problem given that just about everyone in the group has a strong connection with Caviste in Overton. It was just as well that there was this level of organisation as the wines posed the usual challenge in terms of identification. The region and the colour had been fixed and there is a very strong likelihood that we were going to be tasting Chardonnay in its various guises. We started with a pair of wines.
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This first wine opened with a powerfully oaky nose, some good lime and peach fruit, sophisticated oak again on the palate, altogether a very polished performer. Nobody spotted that it wasn’t Chardonnay, not even the person who brought it. This a very fine wine made from the Aligoté grape variety, normally the source of thin, acidic wines best made into aperitifs. Arnaud Ente, Bourgogne Aligoté, 2009. I had thought about bringing Sauvignon de Saint-Bris to complete the set of possible grape varieties. |
| By contrast wine number two was unoaked and full of green apples and lemon, showing vibrant fruit but with a taut, mineral, even seashell, undertone – which sent us all off in the Chablis direction, wrongly. In fact this was Simon Bize’s ‘Les Perrières’, a lieu-dit (named vineyard but not a cru) in Savigny: a fine wine trading simply as Bourgogne 2008, with the racy acidity of that cool year. 2-0 to white Burgundy. |  |
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There was a strong connection between wines three and four, with wine number three showing particularly well. Pale lemon in colour and medium intensity on the nose (as most of these were) this had fine, subtle fruit, balance and was very attractive. Eventually its importer recognised Sur le Mont. Domaine Cheveau, Mâcon Solutré, 2010. |
| Something had gone wrong here: a heavily oaked wine with caramel and nut notes, a bit dried out if with continuing acidity: Aux Bouthières, Pouilly-Fuissé, Domaine Michel Cheveau, 2006. Same family of producers as the previous wine, but an earlier generation. The only spoiled wine of the evening. |  |
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The next mini-flight was three wines with a connection of some sort. By this point in the evening, I had the advantage of knowing that the two wines which Janet and I had bought had not yet appeared. Wine number one was delicate, with pleasantly spicy oak and a fruity palate that was more intense than the nose. Number two had good lemon notes, good sharp grape fruit (that’s fruit of the grape rather than grapefruit), and eccellent acidity, classy. |
| Wine number three was all toffee apples and oxidisation; someone else suggested marshmallow – something of a marmite wine. And the connection – all three were from the most northerly part of Burgundy. The complication was that they weren’t all Chablis – after a few moments it came to me. Wines one and two were the wines we had brought: Cuvée |  |
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Louis Bersan, Dom. Bersan, Bourgogne Côtes d’Auxerre 2008 – next door to Chablis and great value and Chablis 2008 from Vignoble Dampt, ‘Vielles Vignes’. Number three was Patrick Piuze, Chablis Premier Cru Les Fourneaux, also 2008. Time for some food: a superb chicken dish from the Red Lion, Overton. |
| Having done Chablis, Mâcon and some outstations, the final line up of four wines had to be from the Côtes de Beaune, from the great white wine communes – and indeed they were. Sorting them out and distinguishing between village level and premier crus was much more challenging. I got the quality levels right but had no idea about the communes. |  |
| All from the same cool 2007 vintage, the Meursault was was fresh and taut while the village Chassagne-Montrachet was powerful, exotic and fatter. The Chassagne PC by contrast was showing a real complexity on the palate with some more vegetal notes and the Puligny-Montrachet an excellent combination of lime fruit, subtle use of oak and some still vibrant youth. |
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It is easy to knock white Burgundy – you can find more vibrant young wines in Australia and bigger, more powerful Chardonnays in South Africa or California. But for subtle differences in a range of food friendly styles, you can’t really beat where it all began.
Burgundy 2010 – a first view
Burgundy en primeur week in London gives a chance to taste the 16 month-old wines which have been bottled specially for this purpose – see the previous post; this post focuses on the wines. As Burgundy is a relatively northern location for wine growing, there is big vintage variation due to the weather conditions in individual years. 2009 and 2010 are perfect examples. 2009 was warm and even for the grower – which meant good quality grapes and lots of them. 2010 was quite different. The year opened with a cool and wet spring which meant that the flowering and later fruit set were poor, leading to lower yields. Summer was no great shakes either. The season was saved (which happens quite often) by three great weeks in September, including some summer like days. The overall result was that good wines could be made by good growers/ winemakers but yields were down, between 10% and 50% down depending on which grower you talked to. Domaine Marquis d’Angerville reported that while they would crop at 40 hectolitres per hectare in a good year, in 2010 they only made 20 hl/ha. That is an extreme example but it shows the problem – both for the grower and, inevitably, for the consumer in terms of higher prices.
In a cool year you would expect the white wines to shine – and indeed they do. This piece will pick out some wines from two very impressive tastings at Lea & Sandeman (LS) and Corney and Barrow (CB) – we only like the very best on this website. (Actually, on a serious note, it is a shame that the Burgundy growers association did not put on their usual mammoth tasting as that gives you a great snapshot of the general state of the vintage. The BIVB is promising ‘something better’ than the usual tasting next year.) For some wines below, I have put in in-bond prices to give an idea of rough pricing levels.
Domaine Moreau-Naudet (LS)
I love this great value Chablis and it is not just the striking label – I can’t decide whether the drawing is of a hand rising out of the vineyard with a nugget of gold or a piece of the precious earth. In the end it comes to much the same.
Of the seven wines tasted I would pick out:
Chablis – there is also a Petit Chablis but otherwise this is the basic wine and very good it is too. Characteristic fresh green apple fruit and typical minerality, good concentration and only £90 a case in bond (add £22 per case excise duty and then 20% VAT on the total = £134, ie just under £11.20 per bottle). The freshness of the vintage shines through this entry level Chablis.
Chablis Vaillons Premier Cru – much broader on the palate, substantial minerality, very long; classic quality Chablis
Chablis Valmur Grand Cru – one for keeping of course but great mineral notes, many years of potential ahead but it should retain the raciness which is the hallmark of Chablis.
Domaine Pierre Labet (CB)
Much further south on the Côte d’Or, Labet produces high quality Meursault, other whites and, from other appellations, reds.
Bourgogne Blanc Vielles Vignes – rounder, riper fruit, with fine acidity, slightly drying oak evident at the moment (and most drinkers are not going to keep this long),
Meursault Les Tillets – juicy palate, very youthful, excellent fruit, pleasant whiff of oak, good persistence
Savigny Premier Cru Vergellesses – a different flavour profile, ripe apple and some stone fruit (peach), refreshing acidity, needs time to develop but very good
Moving to the reds:
Beaune – elegant red fruit, lovely acidity, surprisingly drinkable now but enough structure to develop
Gevrey-Chambertin – superb fresh red fruit, beautiful lines – something about the way that the fruit is followed by the acidity and then the tannic rasp, quite lively tannins
Beaune Premier Cru Coucherias – a more lifted bouquet, then refined fruit, superb
Domaine de l’Arlot (CB)
In a rather different style, the wines of this domaine have a rustic quality.
Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru Les Petits Plets – quite powerful vegetal notes, some lifted aromatics, needs time, difficult to know how this will develop
NSG Clos des Forets – very dense, high impact on the palate, lives up to NSG’s reputation for big, robust wines
Some grand wines
Last year I commented on Corney and Barrow’s top wines from Ch. de la Tour who have, by Burgundian standards, a massive six hectare plot in the Grand Cru, Clos de Vougeot. The 2010s are very promising too: the Cuvée Classique at the moment hits the nose with a great whack of super-refined oak, rich forceful fruit, high acidity and tannins – all the components the wine needs for a long and developing life. The Vielles Vignes is more muted but the palate has an remarkable concentration.
Over at Lea & Sandeman there were 117 wines if you tasted them all and the final straight groans with great names. In whites the Henri Boillot’s Grand Cru Corton-Charlemagne (£786 in bond), is tightly closed, fine and concentrated on the palate but with ripe fruit showing through. In the reds, their Clos Vougeot has super supple and beautiful fruit, managing to combine sophistication with drinkability. Another step up to Grand Cru Clos des Lambrays with yet greater concentration, quite superb. Finally, there were three great wines from Thibault Liger-Belair finishing with Grand Cru Charmes-Chambertin – very refined beautiful fruit again, great density and persistence – and Grand Cru Richebourg – old wood clove notes, tight knit, huge potential, not for now. If you need to know the prices of these wines they are probably beyond your wallet – the last named gets above £2K per case in bond.
2010 is a vintage that Burgundy lovers will cherish. After the full charm and ripeness of 2009, 2010 is a marked by lovely clear fruit, refreshing acidity and good concentration. It won’t be ready to drink as soon as 2009 but it is more classic and likely to be longer lasting. From the best growers, there are good wines at all quality levels and the middle to top wines are very good indeed. Happy drinking … from now or 2013 onwards.
En primeur – spotting potential
The first full working week of January is a highlight of the English wine trade’s year. If you have the stamina you can spend every hour of the working week tasting the new season’s wines. Jancis Robinson complained and celebrated the fact that her team of three would be aiming to taste and write a brief note about wines at each of 26 tasting this week. But it is a testimony to her stamina and personality, that at the end of the week I heard her say to a colleague that yes, it had been a long week – and that it was a privilege. Now that is style. Her patent stainless steel-like blocky shoes were a sight to behold.
En primeur is a controversial concept in it own right. The vine grower spends a whole year tending the vine, harvesting and making the wine. But with Burgundy, and even more with Bordeaux, the wine is not going to be ready to drink for a minimum of three years, in the case of Bordeaux up to ten years. So at what point should the labourer get his or her wages?
Most wine we buy when it is in the bottle and ready to drink. But if that were the case, the vine grower would not be paid for three to ten years after the work has been completed – and that takes no account of the long term investment in the land, its preparation and in the winery. Traditionally, you hang beef for 14 days and then you sell it. Pickles and Christmas cake you might keep for three months, some cheeses for two years. So you can see that there is a case (pun intended) for the grower getting payment before the product is going to be at its best.
The down side is that if you buy en primeur you are buying the wines when most of them are still in a barrel or vat. They are not ready to bottle yet and there is a great deal of development to undergo. The fruit will be very fresh but the acidity should be raw and the tannins untamed; certainly, the various elements of the wine will not have combined into a harmonious whole. You only need to taste a recently bottled sample of vintage port to confirm this – it will be very fruity, but fiercely alcoholic and acidic, with nigh on undrinkable tannins. In 20-30 years that will all have come together beautifully. And even with table wines, many classic European styles of wine need a bit of time. In turn this means that if you buy wine en primeur you are trusting that the wine will come together in an attractive way. It is at this point that the quality of the wine merchant and the scribblings of the scribes kick in – the consumer needs a reliable guide, or preferably a range of guides, and then he or she can make up his or her own mind.
If we are being mathematical about it, the fairest point for the drinker to part with his or her money would be at the half way point between picking and drinking. This would point to the en primeur campaign to be a year later than it is for Burgundy – which would certainly be a better point to judge the wines as they would have been in bottle for some time. But of course the market is not a perfectly level playing field; it is affected by supply and demand. For those of us with good or average incomes, it is difficult to remember that it is the top end wines for which there is the most competition. If you have just five barrels, 1500 bottles, of something really sought after, you can name your own price. Some of the wines on display this week will cost £1000 a case plus VAT and some have not named a price yet. So the market is intensely competitive for the very top wines, while there is plenty of choice at the £200-250 a case level. This means that for those who are not bidding for the most sought after wines, the en primeur season is just too early, even if it is fair in principle to pay in advance for wines that are not yet ready to drink.
And what are the 2010 Burgundies like? We will save that for the next post.
Birthday bubbles, streams of Syrah
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One birthday at the Overton blind tasting group, marked by the last of three bottles of a special wine. Lively, bubbles, youngish tasting bright fruit, mild nuttiness, noticeable acidity, balanced and attractive – but not really giving its origins away. One member in the group in the trade thought it was very, very good Cava – which would make Cava makers very happy indeed: Champagne Dom Pérignon 2000. Very good if slightly underwhelming |
| My immediate thought on this was ‘Sauvignon Blanc with attitude’ because of its mildly gooseberry fruit, attractive greenness and high acidity. From the Mont Damnés, Chavignol, Sancerre, this comes from a micro production: La Fleur de Galifard, Thomas-Labaille, Sancerre 2010: concentrated rather than highly mineral, perhaps because it is made with very ripe grapes. |  |
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Not many clues on the nose here but then waxy and full on the palate, medium acidity and good length. Subtle use of oak to give some structure but not flavour. This is a blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon but not from Bordeaux. North West Spain was a good punt: more North East: Castell d’Encus, Taleia, Costers del Segre, 2009, Spain |
| This is the sort of wine you want in a blind tasting: green apples, lime spritz, petrol notes, low alcohol, off-dry with obvious residual sugar. German Riesling we all thought rightly (except one experienced member of the wine trade – but that is the joy of blind tasting). Beautifully balanced and complex: Forsterer Jesuitengarten Riesling Spätlese, Pfalz, 1999. |  |
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This was announced as ‘light red’ which it wasn’t. The colour was not that deep, but then good dark plum fruit, coffee and some slight stalkiness on the finish. Once we established we were were in Australia, the question was: ‘Which island of Australia are we in?’ ‘The big one’ was the answer. A good quality Australian Grenache from the Barossa: Thiele Road, Schwarz Wine Company, Grenache 2006. |
| Chakana Reserve Bonarda Old Vine 2009 from Argentina is not a wine or even style I have come across before. As with Malbec, it is an example of Argentina doing something remarkable with a grape variety which is not seen as a major player in its (in this case) north Italian homeland. In this wine it presents a bit like Malbec – good dark fruit, chocolate notes, the richness offset by by sharp acidity, very worthwhile. |  |
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By contrast, here is a great red grape variety doing what only it can do in its homeland – and living up to its big name: beautiful richness and balance, complex dark sour cherry fruit, liquorice and tobacco notes, herbs, excellent length and precise reflection of where it comes from: I am delighted to say that some spotted that this was indeed Brunello from the Montalcino plateau, one of the great versions of Sangiovese which (only?) Tuscany does: Castiglion del Bosco 2007. |
| The key here was the weight – full of rounded, developed fruit but medium in weight, not a really hot climate wine, In fact with age, this has developed a sort of elegance not often associated with its appellation. Some experienced tasters even flirted with the idea it might be Burgundy … but one person was spot on further south and actually named the producer correctly! Jaboulet, Crozes Hermitage, 1999. |  |
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This is turning into a stream of Syrah … this one showing good red and black fruit, soft tannins, very drinkable … and, big clue (use all the available evidence!) a very heavy bottle. From California’s Central Coast: Syrah, Bien Nacido Hillside Estate, Qupé, Santa Maria Valley, 2004. |
| And another … a beautiful young Syrah, old world this time … Terres Blanche, AC Saint Joseph, 2007. The name comes from the steep, low yielding patches of limestone and clay, which produce greater concentration that the domaine’s standard St Joseph. Very impressive. |  |
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Definitely not Syrah … gorgeous amber brown, a nose of classy old furniture – beeswax – nuttiness, deliberate oxidation and then searing refreshing acidity on the palate. A bit of a debate on Madeira v. Oloroso Sherry, but he who was certain it was the former was absolutely correct: Justino’s Malmsey, Broadbent Selection, 10 years old: old school and fabulous. |
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Pinot Gris in the limelight
January’s Fine Wine Supper featured the wines of top Alsace producer, Josmeyer. It is always worthwhile to taste the wines of the most well-known domaines, to see if they continue to live up to their reputations. Here they emphatically did. All six wines were very good, some – in fact the cheapest as well as some of the Grand Cru – were excellent. But the real star of the evening for me was the Pinot Gris.
Now that is a sentence you do not often read. The reputation of Pinot Gris/Grigio has suffered badly due to the glut of cheap examples which are neutral at best and sometimes just seriously bland – inexpensive wines, inexplicably popular in bars and the supermarket. Their secret is that they don’t taste of anything … which is a profoundly depressing thought. And even on this evening of quality wines, the Riesling and the Gewurztraminer were more assertive, more flamboyant, more showy. But for quality, balance and a subtle complexity, the Pinot Gris outshone their flashier neighbours.
The evening was based on half a dozen wines put together by the Wine Society to showcase Josmeyer. Rather neatly, there were two examples each of Riesling, Pinot Gris and Gewurztraminer. Each pair showed a good contrast – in quality level, age or between single vineyards.
After a pleasant glass of sparkling wine, Crémant d’Alsace from Dopff, we began with the Riesling. If there was a prize for the best wine of the night for quality against price, it would easily be won by The Society’s Exhibition Riesling 2009, made for the Wine Society by Josmeyer at a creditable £11.50. Beautiful green apple and honey notes, floral, moderate acidity (perhaps lower than expected due to the warm year), effortless balance, superb. There was, however, a marked step up in quality and complexity to the Riesling Les Pierrets 2004, and so there should be at more than double the price. The youthful, bright apple notes have transmuted into something profound, a full palate of fruit (apple, quince) and mineral complexity. The standard ‘petrol, but in a good way’ note won’t quite do: mineral, mildly mushroom and herbal. Magnificent and long lasting.
Then on to the Pinot Gris. It was a risk tasting these between the two aromatic varieties but it paid off. Pinot Gris Fromenteau 2008 is not a cru, being made from a number of high quality sites, but a quality white pinot which sports the old Alsace name for the grape variety. It is seriously difficult to describe – obviously more neutral on the nose but then a wonderful richness on the palate, some stone fruit, obvious ripeness off-set by perfectly balanced sharpness. Pinot Gris Grand Cru Brand 2008 was the revelation of the evening. The Grand Cru system in Alsace is controversial with some growers not accepting those vineyards that were selected. But what ever you call it, this showed it credentials – richer and riper fruit (melon and ripe red apples), lovely spiciness, rich and concentrated (Oz Clark calls it ‘the richness of brazil nut flesh’), outstanding length and overall quality. Subtle and powerful simultaneously. Forget every cheap glass of PG you have drunk and taste this instead.
The final pair of wines were suitably luxurious – two grand cru wines made from Gewurztraminer, with a decade or so of bottle age. Brand (being the vineyard name) 2001 had a superbly fragrant bouquet with the classic rose water and lychee/exotic fruit combination, great viscosity and mouth feel, and very good length. Its partner, Hengst 2002 for me had brighter fruit, the same rich concentration but offset with better acidity. The group had a long debate about this pair of wines, some struggling with the exotic fragrance (‘air freshener’), while others debated the merits of the two vintages and vineyards. Great wines are wines that promote conversation and opinion.
That the best producers in Alsace make great wines is hardly a revelation. But as consumers, we can benefit here in that wines of similar quality in, say, the more fashionable Burgundy, would command astronomic prices. There is great quality and value to be had here. And the wines, even the simpler ones, age well. Our final bottle, a bonus, from Josmeyer was its Auxerrois (a local grape variety with the same parentage as Chardonnay) 2001 which had nice creamy ageing notes, if modest fruit. All in all, these wines showed the very distinctive character of the three grape varieties, their food friendliness and their capacity to improve with age. And the star of the show in all these ways was – for me – the Pinot Gris.
