Archive for the ‘Tasting notes’ Category
Three in one
Maxime and Sophie Barmès of Domaine Barmès Buecher and Giusto Occhipinti from Azienda Agricola COS were in Montreal last April and our friends at oneopole generously hosted a dozen Mo’ Wine Group members at a tasting at their world headquarters. oenopole brought the wine and the three visitors and we brought the food.
After his father François died in a cycling accident in the fall of 2011, twenty-something Maxime returned from school to oversee, assisted by his mother Geneviève, the winemaking for the just-completed harvest. He has stayed on as winemaker while Sophie, who obtained a management degree in 2010, looks after the business side of things.
Farming and winemaking follow the practices established by Francois soon after he took over the estate: manually working the vines and soil; abjuring herbicides, insecticides, fungicides and synthetic fertilizers; using only plant-based treatments; strictly sorting the grapes on the vine and at the cellar; pressing gently; adding nothing and taking nothing away. The results are there for the tasting.
We began with an easy-drinking blend made exclusively for the Quebec market.
Alsace 2011, Trilogie, Domaine Barmès Buecher ($19.95, 12254420)
A blend of organically and biodynamically farmed Pinot Blanc (40%), Riesling (40%) and Pinot Gris (20%). Manually harvested. Whole-cluster pressed. Fermented with indigenous yeasts. Matured 12 months on the fine lees in stainless steel tanks. Unfiltered and unfined. Sulphur is added – and then minimally – only at bottling. Reducing sugar: 6.9 g/l. 12.5% ABV. Quebec agent: oenopole.
Quiet nose of chalk, white peach and pineapple with coriander and fennel seed hints. In the mouth, the wine is bright and clean, as aromatic as it is flavourful. A touch of residual sugar rounds and adds sheen. The remarkably pure fruit is infused with white minerals, while an intriguing acid bite appears on the mid-palate and a faint bitterness marks the long finish. Uncomplicated (which is not to say shallow), fresh and appetizing, this has QPR winner written all over it. Perfect for sipping on its own or serving with seafood in Asian-style preparations. (Buy again? Imperatively. Here’s hoping there’s a second shipment.)
MWG April 14th tasting: flight 1 of 6.
A quaffability quotient about as high as it gets
Morgon 2013, Jean Foillard ($27.40, 11964788)
This is the so-called Classique bottling, though the word appears nowhere on the label. 100% organically farmed Gamay. The manually harvested whole clusters undergo carbonic maceration at 4 to 7°C and fermentation with no added sulphur or yeasts for three to four weeks. The wine is matured in tanks for four to five months. Filtering? None or very light. Bottled with a tiny shot of sulphur dioxide for stability’s sake. Reducing sugar: 2.2 g/l. 12.5% ABV. Quebec agent: Rézin.
Delightfully fragrant nose: strawberry, cranberry, leafmould, spice, slate. Smooth and supple in the mouth. Medium weight, medium intensity. The sweet, silky-textured fruit with its floral overtones couldn’t be more pristine. Smooth acidity and featherweight tannins tannins lightly structure. The long finish ends on a faint astringent note. Such perfect balance. Not as deep or rich as some Morgons, including Foillard’s own Côte du Py, but the quaffability quotient is about as high as it gets. (Buy again? Yes!)
The SAQ does natural wines – part 2
The Barbera d’Asti 2008, Terra del Noce, Trinchero ($24.50, 12517710) has considerable initial appeal, provided you’re not bothered by the whiff of volatile acidity. The vibrant attack, pure fruit, upfront cherry and slate flavours, bright acidity and light rustic tannins are typical of the grape and appellation. Too bad, then, that the wine falls short on the finish. Buy again? Twenty-five bucks for a dead-ender? Probably not.
Having enjoyed other wines from the winemaker in his Domaine la Fourmente guise, we had high hopes for the Côtes du Rhône Villages Visan 2012, Native, Rémi Pouizin ($19.90, 12517832). How disappointing then to report it has as many cons as pros. Burned rubber and barnyard cancel out the otherwise attractive nose of raspberry jam, black tea leaves and black pepper. And though I don’t quite agree with one taster’s dismissal (“blackberry yogurt with tannins”), the lean, way peppery fruit is dominated by a parching dryness and tannic astringency while a metallic edge and flaring alcohol do no favours to the finish. Improves – turns sweeter and fruitier – after a couple of hours but not enough to dispel the impression that this is a textbook example of why I sometimes find Grenache hard to love. Buy again? Probably not.
A cipher when opened, especially on the nose, the Corbières 2012, L’Enclos, Domaine des Deux Ânes ($24.70, 12518000) doesn’t really come around until an hour later, at which point it shows itself to be the richest and roundest wine of the six, an agreeably earthy mouthful of red and black fruit, dried herbs and spice with a mineral underlay. The plush tannins and soft acidity have just enough presence while the finish provides a warm-and-fuzzy send-off. Not a throat-grabber by any means but easy to drink. Buy again? Sure, though not without wishing the price was closer to $20.
SAQ natural wines tasting: post 2 of 3.
The SAQ does natural wines – part 1
On April 23, the SAQ came out with its first ever official release of natural wines* (“official” because a few natural wines have made their way onto the monopoly’s shelves in the past, a recent example being the Jean-Michel Stephan Côte-Rôtie that the Mo’ Wine Group swooned over in July). Friends and I had planned to taste through the lineup soon after the release but, for various reasons, the event was postponed until last Friday.
Due to the postponement, most of the wines are – like my free time – now in short supply, so it hardly seems worthwhile to give them the full Brett Happens treatment. Yet the release is a milestone of sorts for the SAQ and for local lovers of natural wines, one that shouldn’t go unremarked. What’s more, the tasting left me with a few thoughts about the operation and the future of such wines at the SAQ. My solution is a set of quick notes followed by a comment or two.
Of the eight wines in the release, two – a Chardonnay and a Syrah made by Gérard Bertrand – were either new vintages or restockings of unmemorable wines that the SAQ started carrying a few months ago. We focused on the other six and on a mystery wine served at the end.
The 100% Gamay, near-Beaujolais Vin de France 2013, Le P’tit Poquelin, Maison B. Perraud ($21.75, 12517998) smells of jujubes and spice with unmistakable meat and soy sauce notes. While the wine is fruity, it’s also very dry, especially on the extremely short, black pepper-scented finish. What structure there is comes from acidity, not tannins. The bottom line? To riff off Gertrude Stein, there’s not much there there. In fact, I don’t know if I’ve ever encountered a red wine with so little presence. Buy again? No.
Another 100% Gamay, this time from 50-year-old vines in the Loire valley, the Touraine 2013, Première Vendange, Henry Marionnet ($24.20, 12517875) has a strikingly lactic nose that, when combined with the fruit, has you thinking of raspberry-strawberry yogurt. In the mouth, it’s richer, deeper, plusher-tannined and more minerally than the P’tit Poquelin, and the juicy finish has a lingering astringency. On its own terms, enjoyable enough – though, when you can get excellent Morgons from Brun for the same price and from Foillard for $3 more, the QPR seems way off. Buy again? No.
If you score a bottle of the 100% Cabernet Franc Chinon 2012, Cuvée Beaumont, Épaulé Jeté, Domaine Breton ($22.70, 12517921), be sure to carafe it before serving because on opening the wine has little to say. After breathing for an hour, it suddenly blossoms. The nose gains notes of red fruit, cured meat, forest floor, green sap, sawed wood and spice. The austere, ungiving palate turns rich and expressive: the texture supple, the fruit bone dry but juicy and pure, the acidity singing, the tannins caressing, the finish long and clean. In short, a beaut. Buy again? Definitely.
_________
*What is a natural wine? According to the Association des vins naturels, the basic principles of natural winemaking are organic or biodynamic farming (not necessarily certified), manual harvesting, fermentation with native yeasts and the avoidance of harsh physical procedures (reverse osmosis, cross-flow filtration, flash pasteurization, thermovinification, etc.) and of additives, including sugar, with an exception being made for small amounts of sulphur dioxide added as a stabilizer at bottling. As a definition, that works for me, though I’d add that many natural winemakers say that their wines are made in the vineyard, not the cellar, that their goal is to add nothing and take nothing away, which leads them to adopt a non-interventionist approach in the cellar and to largely or completely avoid filtering and fining.
The upsides of natural wines include their individuality and a juicy vibrancy that, in the best examples, seems very close to the fruit and terroir. Many also have a rustic appeal – a sense of not taking themselves too seriously – that their more polished and manipulated counterparts lack. Downsides include greater bottle-to-bottle variability, the ever-present possibility of reductive notes on opening, the need to store the bottles at cool temperatures (ideally 14ºC/57ºF or less) and, for some drinkers and some wines, their cloudy appearance and funky bouquets.
SAQ natural wines tasting: post 1 of 3.
La Laïsité n’a nul besoin de charte
Côtes du Roussillon 2012, Cuvée Laïs, Domaine Olivier Pithon ($26.20, 11925720)
The Laïs line is named after Pithon’s pet cow. Organically farmed Grenache Noir (40%), Carignan (40%) and Mourvèdre (20%). Manually harvested at the beginning of maturity, often a week or two before the neighbours start, the idea being to make wines that are fresher and less heavy than the norm. Vinification is traditional (native yeasts, non-interventionist). The wine is matured in concrete tanks and foudres. Reducing sugar: 3.2 g/l. 13.6% ABV. Quebec agent: Planvin.
Unlike several bottles of last year’s 2011, free of reductive and barnyard aromas. Clean as a whistle, in fact. Fragrant nose, redolent of plum and blackberry, graphite and sun-baked earth with sawdust, spice chest, dried herbs and animale notes. Medium-bodied and fundamentally supple. The upfront, ripe-sweet fruit gives way to a taut, drying mid-palate lightly soured by smooth acidity and structured by pervasive fine tannins that lend an astringent haze to the long, minerally, juicy finish. Fresh, balanced and so, so drinkable. Well nigh perfect with bœuf à la Robespierre. (Buy again? Yes.)
When is the SAQ going to start carrying the white?
Pink bliss
Two rosés that the Mo’ Wine Group used to buy as private imports are hitting the SAQ’s shelves for the first time this spring. This is the first; the second, the Alzipratu rosé, should be released soon.
Coteaux d’Aix-en-Provence 2014, Les Béatines, Domaine Les Béates ($20.45, 11232261)
The estate’s name translates as “the blissfully happy.” This is made from organically farmed Grenache Noir (75%) and Syrah (25%). The grapes are manually harvested and immediately destemmed and pressed. The must is fermented with indigenous yeasts in temperature-controlled (17°C) tanks. Matured on the fine lees in stainless steel tanks for four months. Sulphur use is kept to a minimum. Reducing sugar: 1.4 g/l. 13% ABV. Quebec agent: La QV.
Pale gauzy pink. Soft, wafting nose: minerals and red berries with a whiff of garrigue. In the mouth, dry as a bone, a quartzy mineral complex infused with delicate fruit. Ethereal on the attack, it gains some glyceriney weight as it moves across the palate. Sleek acidity keeps things fresh and an appetizing saline thread runs through the clean finish. (Buy again? Yes.)
At one end of the rosé spectrum are exuberantly fruity, dark pink wines that feel and taste like reds without the structure. At the other end are rosés that seem more like minerally whites with a dash of red fruit. This falls squarely in the latter camp: light enough to serve as a nuanced aperitif; substantial enough to accompany Provençal dishes like salade nicoise and pissaladière.
I hate when this happens
I pull an old bottle from my cellar. Thinking it’s probably over the hill and not something I’d want to chance sharing with friends, I open it one evening when I’m alone. The wine is glorious. And I’m the only person around to appreciate it.
In this case, the bottle is a Sonoma Mountains 1993, Cabernet Sauvignon, Laurel Glen, for which I paid a stiff $49.50 back in the day. The reason why was that it was said to be a sleeper, an underappreciated wine that could hold its own against better-known Cal Cabs costing two or three times as much. And you know what? It does.
Earlier in the day, I’d found a a beautiful veal rib steak sitting in my butcher’s display case. Looking for something I could, weather permitting, grill or, weather not, cook on the stovetop, I grabbed it.
Look in food-and-wine pairing books and you’ll often find that mature Bordeaux, in particular Médoc, is a recommended accompaniment for côtes de veau. And I was sure I had a cru bourgeois or two from the 1990s or early 2000s at home. Except when I looked, I didn’t. After hesitating over a 2002 Chinon, I went with this. And now, since there’s no one to share the experience with, I regret it. Except the wine is so delicious, I don’t really.
Gorgeous Bordeauxish nose of cassis, cedar and cigar box along with notes of turned earth and slate. A joy in the mouth: the fruit sweet and vibrant, the texture satiny, the tannins resolved into velvet, the acidity bright and streaming. The long finish is remarkable for its complex of savoury, minerally, tobacco/herby nuances. What’s more, the wine is dry and perfectly digeste, spritely, invigorating, with an alcohol level of 12.5%. Probably as good as it ever will be, though probably not declining for a few years more.
It’s the kind of wine that restores my faith in California. Except does anyone in California make wines like this any more?
Orange is the new white
IGT Emilia 2011, Ageno, La Stoppa ($41.00, 12512046)
Malvasia di Candia Aromatica (60%) with Ortrugo and Trebbiano (for whatever reason, SAQ.com says 60% Malvaisa Nera and 40% Tebbiano) from organically farmed vines averaging 40 years old. Macerated on the skins for 30 days. Fermented with native yeasts. Aged 12 months, 50% in stainless steel vats and 50% in used French oak barrels, followed by another two years in bottle. Unfined. Lightly filtered but no added sulphur. Reducing sugar content: 2.3 g/l. 13.5% ABV. About 10,000 bottles made. Quebec agent: oenopole.
Kaleidoscopic nose redolent of fresh and dried fruit (white, yellow and citrus), spice, flowers and lots more. Equally multifaceted in the mouth. Bone dry. Bright yet weighty, fluid yet chewy. The fruit tends to apricot and is shot through with straw and minerals. Surprisingly tannic especially on the long, bitter-edged finish. Involving and fascinating, though about as far from your basic vin plaisir as a white wine gets. Will surely benefit from a few more years in the bottle. If opening now, carafe it up to a day in advance, serve it at cool room temperature and drink it with food (veal in cream sauce or various cheeses spring to mind). (Buy again? Definitely.)
MWG March 12th tasting: flight 7 of 7.
Sibling Teroldegos
IGT Vigneti delle Dolomiti 2011, Teroldego Rotaliano, Foradori ($30.75, 712695)
100% Teroldego from organically farmed vines averaging 40 years old and grown in various sites (10 ha in all) around the town of Mezzolombardo. Manually harvested. Fermented separately by lot in temperature-controlled cement tanks. Matured 12 months in used Austrian and Slovenian oak barrels and cement tanks. 13% ABV. Around 90,000 bottles made. Quebec agent: Balthazard.
Layers of sour cherry, slate, herbs and eventually smoky ash. An elegant, medium-bodied mouthful of pristine fruit, fine, velvety tannins and lively acidity. The long, clean finish is coloured by an appetizing bitter almond note and textured by a light astringency. The balance and energy are spellbinding. In its way, perfect. (Buy again? Absolutely.)
IGT Vigneti delle Dolomiti 2010, Granato, Foradori ($67.75, 12162120)
100% Teroldego from three organically and biodynamically farmed vineyards (4 ha in all) near the town of Mezzolombardo. Manually harvested in late September and early October. Fermented in large wooden vats. Transferred to French oak barrels for malolactic fermentation. Matured 15 months in used Austrian and Slovenian oak barrels. 13% ABV. Around 20,000 bottles made. Quebec agent: Balthazard.
Darker, richer, more primary nose with soy sauce-like umami notes. In the mouth, richer, weightier and more monolithic. Vanilla and spice overtone the dark fruit, indicating the oak needs more time to integrate. Plush tannins and extract-wrapped acidity make for a velours like texture. Impressively broad, deep and long but brooding, too, only hinting at its sure to be glorious future. Enjoyable now but won’t start strutting its stuff for another five to ten years. (Buy again? If feeling flush, yes. That said, I’m not sure I wouldn’t rather have two bottles of the regular Teroldego.)
MWG March 12th tasting: flight 6 of 7.
Brett happens 
The SAQ does natural wines – part 3
with 8 comments
The mystery wine is brought out in a decanter. The bouquet wafts around the table even as the glasses are poured. And what a lovely bouquet it is, a mix of crushed blackberry and blackberry jam with hints of pumice dust, smoke and game and a floral note pitched somewhere between violet and rose. In the mouth, the wine is fresh and pure, medium-bodied and supple, filled with sun-ripe yet ethereal fruit, dusty minerals and juicy acidity, framed by springy tannins that persist through a long, savoury finish. What can it be?
The wine’s solar quality has us immediately eliminating northern climes. After dallying with southern France and considering the flavour profile, we turn our attention to Italy. The fine structure and excellent balance are not unlike those of a Nebbiolo, yet the taste isn’t Baroloesque and that touch of jamminess seems incongruous. The host demands a guess. A newfangled Piedmont blend from a hot vintage?
The answer – and some thoughts about the SAQ’s first ever natural wine operation – are after the jump.
Read the rest of this entry »
Written by carswell
June 1, 2015 at 15:58
Posted in Commentary, Tasting notes
Tagged with Natural wine, Organic, Private imports, Red wine, Sicily, Upper mid