Archive for the ‘Tasting notes’ Category
Le génie de la Loire
In honour of Bastille Day (because these beauties could only have come from France), notes from a recent tasting of Loire wines chosen by Sam with a connoisseur’s eye. Most were private imports, a few were importations valise and, as far as I know, none are currently available in Quebec.
PRELUDE
Vouvray 2008, Brut, Méthode traditionnel, Philippe Foreau (Clos Naudin)
100% Chenin Blanc. 13% ABV. The 2011 can be found at the SAQ for $30.
Limpid gold. Tiny bubbles and not tons of them. Yellow fruit, lemon blossom and toast against a chalky background. Dry and minerally with a nipping acidity and effervescence. Long, toasted brioche finish. Impeccable.
FLIGHT 1
Muscadet de Sèvre-et-Maine 2010, Clisson, Domaine de la Pépière
100% Melon de Bourgogne. The estate is represented in Quebec by Vinealis.
Closed nose: faint lemon, pear and chalk. Dry, extracted and dimensional. Trenchant acidity. As much about minerals as fruit. Long, saline finish. Great presence. Austere bordering on severe but oh, so pure and beautiful. My wine of the flight.
Sancerre 2001, Clos de Beaujeu, Gérard Boulay
100% Sauvignon Blanc. 12.5% ABV. Represented in Quebec by Rézin.
Intriguing bouquet: overripe white peach, crystalline minerals and, as one taster noted, a suggestion of mushroom. Dry. Minerally more than fruity – faint citrus and gun smoke. A not off-putting acrid note surfaces on the long finish. Tasting double-blind, I didn’t peg this as either a Sauvignon Blanc or – due to its vibrancy and tension – a 12-year-old wine.
Saumur 2009, La Charpentrie, Domaine du Collier
100% old-vine Chenin Blanc. 13% ABV. Represented in Quebec by oenopole.
Rich nose: peach and some tropical fruit, honey, sour white flowers. Silky and rich with a touch of residual sugar. Brisk acidity provides welcome cut, faint herbs and chalky minerals welcome complexity. Immaculate, authentic and delicious though not particularly deep, at least at this point in its probably long life.
FLIGHT 2
Bourgueil 1993, Busardières, Domaine de la Chevalerie
100% biodynamically farmed Cabernet Franc. 12.5% ABV. Represented in Quebec by La QV.
Delicate but complex: ash, spice, ripe but not jammy boysenberry, humus and hummus, slate and stems. Smooth and supple with fully resolved, velvety tannins and bright acidity. Seemed a bit thin next to the Chinon. On its own, however, complete and surprisingly vibrant at 20 years of age.
Chinon 2005, Domaine Les Roches (Alain and Jérome Lenoir)
100% Cabernet Franc. 12.5% ABV. Represented in Quebec by Glou. This bottle cost around $25.
Initially closed, the nose became more complex and perfumed over the course of the evening. Elderberry liqueur, floral overtones, a hint of meat, some old wood and the faintest note of bacon and new leather. Concentrated, even chewy, yet silky and not heavy. Layers of rich fruit and dark minerals structured by fine, firm tannins and energizing acidity. Long, lightly astringent finish. Superb. My wine of the flight and Cab Franc of the night.
Saumur-Champigny 2008, Clos Rougeard
100% Cabernet Franc. 12.5% ABV. Last I heard, the estate was represented in Quebec by Réserve & Sélection.
Darker, meatier with a hint of fresh tomato, background slate, sawed wood. Tighter than a drum: structured more than fruity and the élevage is showing. You can see that the wine is perfectly proportioned, that the fruit is pure, ripe and deep, that the use of the barrel is masterful. You can also see that the wine needs – at a minimum – another decade to open up. Tasted 24 hours later, the tail end of the bottle had hardly budged.
FLIGHT 3
Chinon 2009, Coteau de Noiré, Philippe Alliet
100% Cabernet Franc. 13% ABV. Represented in Quebec by Le Maître de Chai. The 2010 is sold at the SAQ Signature for $46.
Young, unresolved nose: choco-cherry, sawed wood, dill, ash. Smooth, dapper, restrained. Fine albeit tight tannins. The clean, ripe fruit – showing some tobacco but not a hint of greenness – is deepened by dark minerals and subtle wood. A delicate astringency velvets the long finish. Good potential. Revisit in five years.
Saumur 2009, La Charpentrie, Domaine du Collier
100% Cabernet Franc. 13% ABV. Represented in Quebec by oenopole.
Plummy (a sign of the hot vintage?) and slatey. Round, rich and balanced. The tannins and acidity are fruit-cloaked but there’s plenty of underlying structure. Lightly yet pervasively astringent. The élevage shows on the long finish. While its potential is obvious, this is another case of a bottle too young.
Chinon 2009, La Croix Boisée, Domaine Bernard Baudry
100% Cabernet Franc, aged in barrel, not filtered or fined. 13.5% ABV. Represented in Quebec by Balthazard.
So closed on the nose: wood, wet slate and not much else. Closed on the palate, too. Ripe, even liqueurish fruit, old wood, minerals. Sleek tannins. Rich, complete and in need of time, much time.
POSTLUDE
Vouvray moelleux 1986, Clos du Bourg, Domaine Huet
100% biodynamically farmed Chenin Blanc. 12% ABV. The 2007 runs $50.50 at the SAQ.
Amazing nose: dried pear, wax, straw, honey, turbinado sugar… Intense on the palate yet also elegant, reserved and nuanced. Neither dry nor sweet. Brilliant acidity. Chewing reveals all kinds of complexity. Spice, chalk, quartz, caramel, candied pineapple are only some of the flavours. A crème brûlée note lingers through the long finish. Astonishingly young and fresh. Wine of the tasting for most people around the table.
Côteaux du Loir 2009, Les Giroflées, Domaine Bellivière
A 100% biodynamically farmed Pineau d’Aunis rosé. 13.5% ABV. Represented in Quebec by Le Maître de Chai but I’m not sure they bring this wine in (our bottle was purchased at Flatiron Wines and Spirits in New York City).
Strawberry, wax, quartz on the nose. Smooth and quaffable. Off-dry. A basket of fresh berry fruit with just enough acidity and a touch of peppery spice. Simple but charming. Flavourwise, it made a fine pairing for pâte sucrée bars filled with a thin layer of pastry cream and topped with fresh raspberries and a rhubarb marshmallow, though in the best of all possible worlds the pastries would have been a little less sweet.
The good, the bad and… the ugly truth
Chardonnay 2011, Napa Valley, Stags’ Leap ($35.00, 00747444)
100% Chardonnay. A blend of estate-grown and purchased grapes. Hand-picked and whole cluster-pressed. A quarter of the wine was fermented in new French oak, a quarter in stainless steel and the rest in used oak. Malolactic fermentation was prevented. Matured six months on the lees with weekly stirring. 13.5% ABV per SAQ.com, 14.1% per the label.
A pretty promising nose, especially for a CalChard: citrus, pear, understated peach, stones, subtle oak, a whiff of alcohol. A let-down in the mouth. The good: middleweight; clean fruit, mostly grapefruit and green apple, with the expected tropical mix only hinted at; it’s not devoid of acidity; there are actually some minerals albeit vaguely metallic ones; the oak is a minor player; it’s butter-free. The bad: lacks precision; the minerals and acidity don’t coalesce into a structure, so the wine’s a little flabby; an odd bitter note lingers; the alcohol flares lightly on the finish. In short, a wine that’s less than the sum of its parts. It’s not terrible – certainly far more drinkable than some of the butter bomb Chards coming out of the Golden State – but, if you’re like me, you won’t be keen to have a second glass. The ugly truth: hard to justify when $35 gets you an all-singing, all-dancing white Burg. (Buy again? No.)
Alternate Altano
Douro 2010, Organic / Biologique, Altano ($16.95, 11157097)
Altano is owned by the Symington family of Port fame. This is a 100% Touriga Nacional made from grapes grown in the estate’s three organcially farmed vineyards, planted in the 1980s, in the Vilariça Valley in the Douro Superior sub-region, near the Spanish border. After manual sorting, the grapes are fermented at 25-26ºC in temperature-controlled stainless steel vats with extended maceration and regular pump-overs. The wine is matured ten months in second-vintage French oak barrels. 12.9% ABV.
Fragrant – blackberry, blueberry and spice – at first but then shut down (or maybe my sinuses shut down). Medium-bodied and thus lighter than most Douros (which regularly clock in at 14%, 15% and even 15.5%), and all the better for it. Sweet-fruited at its core but also savoury with slate, old wood, a faint stemminess and a bitter plum pit note. The tannins are light, pervasive and just a little raspy and there’s plenty of acidity to brighten and sour the fruit. Finishes dry and surprisingly long. Nothing profound but fresh, tasty and, as the French untranslatably say, digeste. A natural with grilled pork or chicken and a definite step up from the regular Altano. Oddly, though this is a new arrival, there aren’t many bottles around. (Buy again? Yes.)
Props to Propolis
Propolis, Saison multi-grains au miel, Brasserie Dunham ($7.99/750 ml at La Fromagerie Atwater)
Brewed from April through August. Ingredients: water, barley malt, wheat malts, oats, rye, hops, honey, spices, yeast. Unfiltered. Available only in 750 ml bottles. 5.2% ABV.
Hazy straw-gold. Abundant, creamy snow-white head. Fine effervescence with tiny bubbles. Complex nose: white flowers, crushed yellow fruit, wheat and oat with hints of lemon yogurt, honeycomb and spice. Light yet flavourful. The initial bready sweetness is quickly checked by a citric sourness and clean bitterness that last well into the finish and prompt another sip. The honey and spice are present as perfumes as much as flavours. Longer than many wines. Refreshing as befits a summer ale but far from facile. One of the best Quebec beers I’ve tasted in ages. (Buy again? Definitely.)
Red Rivière
Fronsac 2006, Château de la Rivière ($29.95, 11588348)
Merlot (83%), Cabernet Sauvignon (7%), Cabernet Franc (5%) and Malbec (5%). Alcoholic fermentation and maceration lasted four weeks and took place in temperature-controlled concrete and stainless steel vats. Malolactic fermentation took place in new barrels. Matured 15 months in French oak barrels, 40% new (with six months on the lees) and 60% second or third passage. 13% ABV.
Primary nose dominated by ripe cassis and blackberry with spice, cedar, dark earth and oak in the background. Denser and heavier than expected but saved by juicy acidity. The sweet, ripe, even a bit brambly fruit is shot through with firm, chewy tannins that still need a year or two to resolve but give the long finish a velvety texture. (Buy again? Fans of big Merlot-based Bordeaux needn’t hesitate but I wouldn’t buy this in preference to a more refreshing and digeste wine like the organic Côtes de Francs from Château du Puy.)
It comes as a shock to realize that this is the first bottle of Château de la Rivière I’ve tasted in over a decade. While I wouldn’t call the 2006 parkerized, compared with my memory of its more appealingly austere and nuanced siblings from the 1980s and ’90s, it does strike me as a step in that bigger-is-better direction.
Hard to read
Meursault 2011, Domaine François Mikulski ($53.00, 11436070)
100% Chardonnay, organically farmed though not certified as such. The grapes come from several estate-owned parcels in various climats and are fully destemmed, gently pressed, clarified by settling and separately fermented and matured before blending. Fermentation is with indigenous yeasts and lasts about two weeks. Racked into French oak barrels (<15% new) for malolactic fermentation and 10 to 12 months’ maturation. Fined before bottling. 12.8% ABV.
Attractive if monolithic nose: lemon, flint, faint cut hay. Taut, acidic and limestoney in the mouth, full of citrus and green apple. Some salinity and a white pepper note mark the long, clean finish. Concentrated more than rich (not a hint of butter), this starts and ends strong but is oddly uneventful in between. I’ve nothing but respect for Mikulski’s wines, so I’m guessing it’s in a closed-down phase. If that’s due to travel shock, a couple of months should be enough time for the wine to find its footing, though it probably won’t peak for another four or five years. (Buy again? Maybe.)
Beatus ille
Isabelle Ferrando acquired Domaine Saint-Préfert in the southern Châteauneuf du Pape AOC in 2002. Her 2007 Châteauneuf, one of the few wines I’ve ever called sexy, impressed the hell out of me. She recently began making a Côtes-du-Rhône. Not only does it bear a family resemblance to that CDP, it proved a great match for a grilled bavette seasoned with rosemary and garlic (recipe after the jump).
And in case you’re wondering, beatus ille, Latin for “happy is the man,” is the opening line of Horace’s second Epode, which “praises country life [and] the pristine joys of working one’s own land free from exploitation.”
Côtes du Rhône 2012, Beatus Ille, Domaine Saint-Préfert ($18.90, 11941631)
Grenache (85%) and Cinsault (15%) from 40- to 70-year-old vines grown in La Lionne (on the border of the Châteauneuf-du-Pape AOC in Sorgues commune). The estate has obtained organic certification for the 2013 vintage. Fully destemmed. Matured six months in concrete vats. 14% ABV.
Seductive nose of crushed black raspberry and red cherry, herbes de Provence, faint brick dust and leather and a whiff of kirsch. In the mouth the wine is a silky-textured if heady middleweight. The peppery fruit, splintery tannins, nipping acidity and underlying dryness are wrapped in a gauzy veil of sweetness and glycerine. The long finish – lifted, not heated, by alcohol – leads to a red licorice, red currant jam aftertaste. While there’s nothing Pinot Noirish about it, I kept coming back to the descriptor Burgundian. Proof that Côtes du Rhônes don’t have to be fruit bombs or bruisers. Grenache lovers should make a beeline. (Buy again? Yes.)
MWG June 20th tasting (8/8): Two savoury reds
Dâo 2008, Reserva, Àlvaro Castro ($25.20, 11902106)
Touriga Nacional (65%) and Tinta Roriz (35%). Fermented in temperature-controlled stainless steel vats. Transferred to old French oak barrels for 14 months for malolactic fermentation and maturation. 13% ABV.
Coffee, plum, blackberry, spice, background herbs. Smooth, rich and dry – the fruit is ripe but not sweet or heavy. Fine-grained tannins, firm acidity, some subtle slate and a long finish. Remarkably balanced and pure. Perhaps a shade less impressive than its white sibling, this is still one of the most elegant red Dâos I’ve tasted. Sr. Castro’s got talent. (Buy again? Yes.)
Faro 2010, Rosso, Azienda Agricola Bonavita ($37.50, oenopole, NLA though found on resto wine lists)
Faro is a DOC located between Messina and Mount Etna on Sicily’s northeast coast. This is a blend of organically farmed Nerello Mascalese (60%), Nerello Cappuccio (30%) and Nocera (10%) from six- to 50-year-old vines. Manually harvested. The winemaking is non-interventionist: spontaneous fermentation, no additives, long maceration with manual punch-downs, gentle pressing in a basket press. Matured 16 months in neutral oak botti and four months in the bottle. 13.5% ABV.
Complex, wafting nose of red cherry, faint rubber, cut wood, dried herbs, dried ink and eventually cheese. Medium-bodied and fluid but with a dense core of ripe, balsamic- and anise-accented red fruit. Tannins and acidity are firm, though more deep-running than upfront. The bitter-edged finish is long and savoury. A pleasure to drink, this would make an interesting ringer in a flight of terroir-driven Etna wines; I suspect it would come across as rounder and earthier but no less fresh or delicious. (Buy again? Yes.)
MWG June 20th tasting (7/8): Le beau et la bête
Corse Calvi 2011, Clos Culombu ($23.15, 11910368)
Nielluccio (50%), Sciacarello (30%), Syrah (10%) and Grenache (10%). Six days’ cold maceration are followed by a 26-day fermentation/maceration with punch-downs. Matured on the fine lees. 14% ABV.
Jammy red berries, vanilla and toasty oak equal one thing: strawberry Pop-Tarts. Very ripe, very sweet fruit, velvety tannins and just enough acidity to keep the wine from collapsing on itself. The oak is laid on with a trowel. So confected and cloying I couldn’t take more than two or three sips. And where’s the terroir? A real disappointment after the estate’s seductive 2010 Ribbe Rosse. An SAQ wine advisor tells me this is popular with a certain segment. If so, it’s one I’m not in. (Buy again? No way.)
Ajaccio 2010, Faustine, Domaine Comte Abbatucci ($28.85, 11930060)
Sciacarello (70%) and Nielluccio (30%) from biodynamically farmed 10- to 15-year-old vines. Macerated 40 days, fermented with ambient yeasts, matured in concrete vats. 13% ABV.
Beautiful. Subtle strawberry and cherry, garrigue (well, maquis), sawed cedar, schist. So smooth and suave, so poised and perfectly pitched. Medium-bodied and satin-textured. Alive with pure fruit, fine tannins and energizing acidity, all grounded in earth and herbs. A faint medicinal tang threads through the clean finish. The perfect antidote to the Culombu. (Buy again? In multiples.)
MWG June 20th tasting (6/8): An organic Negroamaro
Vino da tavola 2010, Anne, Azienda Agricola Biologica Natalino del Prete ($20.10, oenopole, NLA)
The winery is located in San Donaci in Puglia, the heel of the Italian boot, and has been certified organic since 1994. 100% Negroamaro from 70-year-old vines. Manually harvested. Fermented in termperature-controlled tanks with indigenous yeasts. Unfiltered, unfined, unsulphured.
Dark berries and plum (but not, praise be, prune) with overtones of dried earth, rubber, herbs, cedar and tomato. Round and smooth until you chew, then astringent with tooth-coating tannins. Earthy yet fresh, packed with ripe fruit and juicy acidity. Black pepper, minerals and olive emerge on the finish. The alcohol (14% or 15% if I’m remembering correctly) adds warmth, not heat. Rustic and authentic: the kind of appealing, old-fashioned, terroir-driven wine that internationalization is making an endangered species. (Buy again? Yes.)
We’d intended to taste this alongside Natalino del Prete’s even more affordable Salice Salentino ($17.35, oenopole, now also NLA) but that bottle and a Sicilian rosé were AWOL.
Brett happens 