MWG January 10th tasting (1/7): Fleith’s Crémant d’Alsace
The MWG recently spent an enjoyable evening with La QV’s Cyril Kérébel tasting through an impressive and wide-ranging selection of the agency’s new arrivals, all of them private imports. We wet our whistles and whet our palates with an Alsatian sparkler.
Crémant d’Alsace, Domaine Fleith ($30.75, 6 bottles/case, La QV)
A blend of biodynamically farmed Pinot Blanc and Auxerrois (65%), Riesling (20%) and Pinot Noir (15%). The producer’s website appears to indicate that the grapes are botrytized, though I can’t say I detected any botrytis aromas or flavours.
Pale yellow with electrum glints and a fine bead. Yellow apple, yeast, lemon, chalk and a white floral note. Bright in the mouth, dry, complex and pure. Soft, caressing effervescence. Long, lemon-pithy finish. Delicious and refreshing: light enough to serve as an aperitif, substantial enough to accompany the first course if it’s something like coquilles Saint-Jacques. (Buy again? Gladly.)
Blot on the Loire
Bourgueil 2009, Mi-Pente, Domaine de La Butte ($35.00, 10903684)
Jacky Blot’s top Bourgueil cuvée. 100% Cabernet Franc from vines averaging 50 years of age. The estate practises lutte raisonnée (often translated as sustainable farming). Yields are kept low: 30 hl/ha in 2009 for the entire estate vs. the authorized 55 hl/ha, though probably more like 15–20 hl/ha for this cuvée. Manually harvested. Destemmed. Fermented in wooden vats with no added yeast or chaptalization. Once-daily punch-downs and regular pump-overs. Matured for 16 months in a mix of old and new barrels. Bottled unfiltered and unfined. 13.5% ABV.
Complex, dark, umami, intriguing nose: dried wild cherry, fruitcake, leaf mould, soy sauce, slate, tobacco leaf, a hint of blanched rapini, coconut, leather and sawed wood. Rich and fluid on the palate. The sweet-tart fruit transitions to a spicy mid-palate underpinned by tannins that seem soft until you chew the wine. The finish is long, astringent and bitter-edged, like you’ve chomped down on a cherry pit. A flavour not unlike blackberry tea lingers long. Delicious and fascinating. The ripeness of the fruit and tannins means it’s approachable now, though the structure, balance, complexity and freshness (that acidity!) also indicate age-worthiness (up to a decade or two, according to the winemaker). A disappearing must-buy for lovers of Cabernet Franc.
At table, the wine worked well with – but was arguably too grand for – a chicken stewed in vinegar. A better food pairing would be roasted, stewed or flavourfully sauced red meat (even lamb), game or, especially in a few years, guinea fowl.
A regular Bobal
Utiel-Requena 2010, Bo, Vicente Gandia ($15.40*, 11676680)
*$13.40 through January 27, 2013.
100% Bobal. Fermented at 28ºC (82ºF) in stainless steel tanks, with 15 days’ maceration on the skins. Matured nine months in medium-toasted French oak casks. 13.5% ABV.
Dusty red berries, stewed plum, old leather, oak and a charred note. Medium-bodied and quite dry. Smooth and velvety with soft tannins and some oaky/earthiness on the finish. Decent length and balance, though the bright acidity seems a little incongruous with the rest of the package. Drinkable but not what you’d call memorable.
Vicente Gandia, the largest winery in the Valencian Community, has 15 products at the SAQ, all but two of them in the regular catalogue. This Bobal is the latest addition and it stacks up pretty well against similarly priced, “industrial” wines on the monopoly’s shelves. That said, it offers none of the purity and tart juiciness and little of the refreshment of Calabuig’s organic Bobal, available on a private-import basis from La QV for $15.00 (stay tuned for a note on the newly arrived 2011).
Riesling rules
If the photographs of dishes in Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi’s excellent new Jerusalem: A Cookbook leap out at you, the one of the crazy-good and super-easy Roasted Chicken with Clementines and Arak (adapted recipe follows) may be the long-jump champion. The combo of citrus, fennel (blubs, seeds and spirits) and a hint of sweetness present a wine-pairing challenge that Riesling seems uniquely qualified to meet.
Alsace 2009, Riesling, Grafenreben, Domaine Bott-Geyl ($27.80, 11778037)
100% biodynamically farmed Riesling from the Grafenreben lieu-dit in Zellenberg. The manually harvested whole bunches are gently and slowly pneumatically pressed. The resulting must is allowed to settle for 24 hours. Fermentation with native yeasts begins two or three days later and can last up to six months. When fermentation is complete, the wine is racked off the lees. No chaptalization or fining. 13.5% ABV.
Bone dry. Slight fizz at first. Among the most crystalline Rieslings I’ve encountered. Considerable extract and biting acidity. The ripe fruit is lemony and has a lot of pith. As the wine breathes and warms, it gains green apple and peach notes. The fruit quick-fades on the finish, leaving bitter minerals, a hint of hard caramel and maybe, just maybe, a whiff of petrol.
A fine bottle. The clerk I queried about the wine hadn’t tasted it but thought it would be a step toward off-dry. We should have looked more closely at the label, which bears a useful dry-to-sweet scale rating the wine 1 out of a possible 10. In any event, the flavours and weight worked well with the chicken, though a slightly less dry wine would have made for an even better match.
MWG December 14th tasting (4/4): Cornas × 4
The final flight featured three private-import Cornas from a young, up-and-coming producer with a decade-older bottle from another winemaker thrown in for comparison.
Farmed organically since 2001 and biodynamically since 2002, Domaine du Coulet is a 13-hectare estate run by 30-something Matthieu Barret, who says his aim is to make vins 100 % raisin (100% grape-driven wines). His Cornas vineyards are terraced and face southeast. The soil is mainly old, decomposed granite locally called gore. The vines are pruned to produce low yields (no more than 25 hl/ha). The harvested grapes are fed to the fermenting vats by gravity, with a single daily punching down of the cap. After fermentation (with indigenous yeasts), the must is gently pressed to avoid extracting hard tannins. The wines are allowed to clarify naturally, without filtration or fining. Barrels are large (400 or 500 litres) and neutral (having been used for at least eight vintages). Since 2006, a little less than a third of each wine is matured in egg-shaped concrete vats. Sulphur dioxide (a mere 2 g/hl) is added only at bottling and only for bottles that will be shipped.
Alain Voge has been growing grapes on his family’s farm since 1959. In Cornas, the 6.5 hectares of Syrah vines are rooted in decomposed granite. Harvest is manual and on a parcel-by-parcel basis. The grapes are destemmed, then fermented in small stainless steel vats, with daily or twice-daily punching down of the cap. The resulting wine is matured from 14 to 24 months in barrels.
Cornas 2009, Billes Noires, Domaine du Coulet ($108.00, La QV, 6 bottles/case)
Like all Cornas, 100% Syrah. The vines here are, on average, 55 years old and located at the top of the Arlettes slope. The grapes were fully destemmed before fermentation, which lasted two weeks. Clarified by settling, then twice-racked into barrels. Maturation lasted 24 months, 12 of which were in 10-year-old 500-litre barrels and 12 in vats. 5,500 bottles made.
Deep nose of slate, blueberry, char, smoke and a hint of rubber. Rich and chewy in the mouth, the texture poised between velvety and silky. Spellbinding tension between fruit and acidity with sleek tannins in a supporting role. Tangy, slatey finish. Long, balanced and complete if a little austere at this youthful stage. A beautiful bottle. (Buy again? If I were a rich man…)
Cornas 2010, Brise Caillou, Domaine du Coulet ($57.50, La QV, 6 bottles/case)
The estate’s entry-level Cornas, designed to be more immediately accessible than traditional Cornas (should peak at around four years of age, according to the winemaker). A blend of old- and young-vine Syrah from all the estate’s vineyards except the tops of the slopes. Maturated 13 months in 400-litre barrels and egg-shaped concrete vats. 8,000 bottles made.
Bright nose of red and blue berries, spice, animale, polished leather, earth. More understated on the palate. Soft, smooth texture. Fine, faintly astringent tannins and vibrant acidity. Long, graphite-edged finish. (Buy again? Yes.)
Cornas 2009, Les Terrasses du Serre, Domaine du Coulet ($81.00, La QV, 6 bottles/case; a very few bottles of the reportedly graceful and accessible 2007 are available at the SAQ for $78.75)
The Syrah is from vines averaging 45 years of age and grown in the Arlettes, Reynards and Patronne vineyards. Fully destemmed before fermentation, which lasted three weeks. Clarified by settling before transfer into barrels. No racking. Matured 15 months in six- to ten-year-old 400- and 500-litre barrels and 600-litre egg-shaped concrete vats. 10,000 bottles made.
Fruit tending more toward cassis, slate, a hint of marzipan. Singular – the closest thing to an odd man out in this flight. Medium-bodied. Velvety yet supple texture. Pure, intensely flavoured fruit. Crunchy acidity and round tannins. Lingering smoke, slate, blackberry. The driest of the three Coulets. Initially seemed more about the surface but gained depth with an hour in the glass, so it may be passing through a phase. (Buy again? Maybe, though if making the investment, I’d be tempted to throw in another $25 bucks for a Billes Noires.)
Cornas 1999, Cuvée Vieilles Vignes, Alain Voge ($55.00 in 2004; a few bottles of the 2007 are available at the SAQ for $67.50)
Made from manually harvested grapes from various hillside parcels. The vines are at least 30 years old and rooted in old, decomposed granite. Vinified in temperature-controlled stainless steel vats, macerated four to five weeks, with daily punching down and pumping over. Matured 18 to 20 months in barrels, 20% new.
The most evolved and complex bouquet: forest floor, violet, animal, obsidian dust. Still vibrant, the dark fruit is tart and juicy, cloaked in tertiary flavours, pointed by fine acidity, underpinned by resolved tannins. Long, sourish finish. In a good place now. (Buy again? Moot but yes.)
A lovely flight. As a group, the Coulet wines were remarkable for the purity and clarity of their fruit. They’re also elegant, showing none of the chunkiness often associated with the appellation’s wines, especially in youth. At the tasting, it seemed to me their only downside was their relatively high prices. Yet in the days that followed, I found they had a rare length: I could – can – still taste them on my mind’s palate. Like only a very few wines, they’ve stayed with me – thinking about them causes my mouth to water – while in retrospect the Voge Vieilles Vignes seems less characterful and less memorable. So, I’m not so sure the Coulets are overpriced after all. And I’m convinced the estate is one to keep an eye on.
MWG December 14th tasting (3/4): Four Quebec reds
Besides bubblies, the December tasting always includes a few off-the-beaten-track wines. This year, they came from Quebec.
Pinot Noir 2010, Venice, Vignoble Carone ($36.00, 11345258*†)
The winery is based in the Lanaudière region, about a hour’s drive north-northeast of Montreal. 85% Pinot Noir, 15% Landot Noir. Manually harvested. 12.5% ABV.
Oak, candied cherry, undergrowth, licorice, spice, faint vinyl. Medium-bodied and silky tannined with good acidity. Oak – in the form of sweet vanilla, coffee and smoke flavours – initially dominates the ripe fruit. Seemed better – by which I mean drier, less manipulated, more natural – on the finish than the entry. Not bad but not typical: no one around the table guessed it was a Pinot Noir. (Buy again? Probably not.)
Double Barrel 2009, Vignoble Carone ($55.00, 11506630†)
92% Cabernet Severnyi, 8% Sangiovese. Manually harvested as late as possible. Manually sorted, destemmed, crushed and given a 24-hour cold soak. Fermented in temperature-controlled tanks using Saccharomyces cerevisae yeast. Matured 12 months in new American oak barrels and four months In new French oak barrels. 14.5% ABV.
Tastes like it smells: ripe red and black fruit, some sweet spice and above all oak. Full-bodied, velvet-textured and richly extracted. Round tannins and sufficient acidity. Not heavy but also not refreshing. Showed oakier, sweeter and more monolithic than the bottle tasted in January 2012, possibly due to that bottle’s having been open for several hours and, with repeated pours, being well aerated. (Buy again? While I’d be curious to see what happens to this, arguably Quebec’s first ageable red, in five years or so, no.)
Solinou 2011, Les Pervenches ($15.00, La QV†, NLA)
Blend of Frontenac, Maréchal Foch and Zweigelt farmed biodynamically near Farnham, about an hour’s drive southeast of Montreal. Like many Beaujolais, made using carbonic maceration. 12.5% ABV.
Fresh, bright, juicy, tart and, unfortunately, corked.
Bin 33, Vignoble Carone ($18.50, 11004550*†)
100% Frontenac. Manually harvested. 13% ABV.
Nose of red fruit and, of course, sweet oak along with hints of mineral and turned earth. The flavour profile includes crushed strawberry and not much else. Guessing here but the acid levels seem low and the residual sugar levels, well, not so low. Sweet-tart finish. Little depth or charm. (Buy again? No.)
*Also sold at the Marché des Saveurs (Jean-Talon Market).
†Also sold at the winery.
As usual, the wines were served double-blind. Initial guesses as to their place of origin ranged wide and were limited to warm-climate regions: Australia, Greece, California, Mexico, South Africa, etc. Some guessed the first two were Shirazes. As a group, the Carone wines came across as designed to impress, albeit not in ways we found appealing. They also seemed to lack a sense of place (unidentifiable expression of terroir, cool climate, grape variety), to be wines made in the winery more than in the vineyard. The model appears to be New World; that would explain the bin reference, the big fruit, the heavy oak regime and the “I can’t believe it’s not Syrah” Pinot Noir (like some from California’s Santa Rita Hills). Whatever you think of the style, the winery is to be applauded for marching to its own beat, for pushing the envelope: what other Quebec winemaker is producing reds from Pinot Noir and Sangiovese, wines that can be mistaken for Australian Shirazes? That its wines are antithetical to the MWG’s collective palate (as we’ve explained, “our tastes tend to Old World ‘natural’ wines”) and strike many of us as overpriced is irrelevant. Consumers will determine whether there’s a market for blockbuster Quebec reds or whether wines like Les Pervenches’s eminently quaffable Solinou are the way forward. My money’s on the latter.
MWG December 14th tasting (2/4): Champagne Agrapart
Agrapart & Fils is a small Champgne house founded in 1894 by Arthur Agrapart and expanded to its current 10 hectares by his grandson Pierre in the 1950s and ’60s. Since the mid-1980s, it has been run by brothers Pascal and Fabrice. From its founding, it has made only grower Champagnes, entitling it to the Récoltant-Manipulant (R.M.) designation.
Agrapart is based in Avize. Its vineyards comprise 50 parcels, most of them in the grand cru villages of Avize, Oger, Cramant and Oiry in the heart of the Côte des Blancs. Some of the vines are more than 65 years old, with the average age being around 40 years.
The house considers itself terroir-driven. Farming and wine-making practices lean toward natural – pesticides and herbicides are avoided, the vineyards are worked manually, “homemade” compost and some homeopathic treatments are applied, the wines are fermented with the yeasts found on their skins, chaptalization is rare – though no effort has been made to obtain organic or biodynamic certification. All wine-making is done on a parcel-by-parcel basis. When barrels are used, they’re old 600-litre demi-muids. All wines complete malolactic fermentation and are bottled unfiltered, unfined and with 50 mg of sulphur dioxide. Disgorging takes place 60 days before release.
Champagne grand cru, L’Avizoise, Agrapart ($105.00, 11820320)
According to Agrapart’s website, this is a vintage wine, though our bottle bore no vintage indication. 100% Chardonnay from 55-year-old vines planted in clay-richer soil at the bottom of the Avize hillside. Aged on the lees for five years with manual stirring; aged exclusively in oak barrels. Stoppered pre- and post-disgorging with cork. Dosage is limited to 4 g of sugar per litre. 12% ABV.
Oxidized apple, a bit candied, and brioche, with lemon and almond notes. Dry, light yet complex, the fruit complemented by an umami streak. Vibrantly acidic. Minerally, maybe the most of the five. Hint of caramel on the very long finish. Clean, pure, multidimensional. Impressive. (Buy again? Definitely.)
Champagne, Extra Brut, Blanc de Blancs, Terroir, Agrapart ($59.75, 11552450)
100% Chardonnay from younger vines in grand cru vineyards. A blend of two vintages, part of the older of which is aged in barrels. Aged on the lees for four years, with manual stirring. Dosage is limited to 5 g of sugar per litre. 12% ABV.
Initially straightforward nose of toasted brioche, oxidized apple and chalk gained complexity in the glass. Layered and substantial in the mouth, yet also fleet and light. Less dry than the Avizoise. Fine balance between fruit and mineral, acidity and extract. Long. (Buy again? Sure.)
Champagne grand cru, Brut, Vénus, Agrapart ($146.50, 11797191)
Once again, though Agrapart’s website indicates this is a vintage cuvée, no vintage designation was to be found on our bottle. Chardonnay from a 0.35-hecatre vineyard in Avize planted in 1959; since 2000, the chalky soil has been worked only by Vénus, a white Boulonnais mare who lends her name to the cuvée. Aged on the lees for five years with manual stirring; matured exclusively in oak barrels. Stoppered pre- and post-disgorging with cork. No dosage. 12% ABV.
The freshest nose of all: crystals, chalk, yellow fruit, eventually candied lemon, lees and just-washed hair. Fine, caressing effervescence. Richer and broader than the others, more fruit-forward too, though it’s not as if minerals are lacking. There’s lots of acidity as well but it’s wrapped in extract. Long finish with browning apple, chalk and faint honey notes. A complete wine. With no vintage information, it’s hard to know, but I suspect this is primary and will gain depth and complexity with time in the cellar. (Buy again? If looking for a special occasion Champagne to age for five to ten years, yes.)
Champagne 2005, Extra Brut, Blanc de Blancs, Minéral, Agrapart ($80.25, 11860276)
Old-vine Chardonnay from very chalky Avize and Cramant vineyards. Aged on the lees for five years with manual stirring; half is matured in oak barrels. Dosage is limited to 4 g of sugar per litre. 12% ABV.
Alluring nose: lemon, bread dough, peach pie. Bigger, soft, persistent bubbles. The richest, smoothest and, surprisingly, least minerally, though there’s some chalk on the long finish. Balanced and suave if not what I was expecting: tasted a couple a years ago, the Minéral from the hellishly hot 2003 vintage was a dazzling mouthful of minerals, far less ripe-seeming than the 2005. (Buy again? Maybe.)
Champagne grand cru 2007, Blanc de Blancs, Expérience, Agrapart ($210.00, 11820338)
A new cuvée from Agrapart; the 2007 is the first release. A 50–50 blend of Minéral and Avizoise. Native yeasts are used for both first and second fermentations. Stoppered pre- and post-disgorging with cork. No dosage. 12% ABV.
Complex bouquet, more savoury than fruity: pork jerky, lees, sour cream, hints of ash and smoke. Light, soft effervescence. Clean, pure, dry and very long. Substantial but also poised and precise, with an interplay – between sweet and savoury, between fruit and mineral, between extract and acidity, between weight and finesse, between surface appeal and undertowing depth – that borders on spellbinding. Would love to taste it again in five or ten years. (Buy again? In a fantasy world, maybe, though if plunking for a luxury Champagne, I might be more tempted by a Winston Churchill, Krug or Selosse.)
It’s always interesting to taste through a Champagne house’s current line (or most of it). As a group, these wines seemed less diverse than the Pol Roger line tasted through in December of 2011. The overall level was high and everybody enjoyed all the wines. That said, several tasters – myself included – felt the Avizoise and Expérience stood out.
MWG December 14th tasting (1/4): Two Proseccos and a ringer
The Mo’ Wine Group celebrated its seventh anniversary on December 14. As usual, the tasting featured sparklers, Champagnes, some potentially sublime still wines and an odd bottle or two. We began with two Proseeccos and a mystery wine contributed by one of the group’s original members.
Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore 2011, Extra Dry, Bandarossa, Bortolomiol ($19.50, 10654956)
100% Glera (aka Prosecco). Pressed off the skins, fermented with selected yeasts in temperature-controlled stainless steel vats. Sparkled using the Charmat process, which lasts close to a month. Matured one to three months. 18.0 g/l residual sugar. 6.0 g/l total acidity. 11.5% ABV.
Sliver to the other wines’ yellow-gold. Perfumy nose: bath powder, lemon and a candied note one taster dubbed “Hubba Bubba.” The foam lasted several minutes around the edge of the glass – the first time I’ve encountered that – though in the mouth the effervescence was fine and soft. Drier and more acidic than expected (a good thing) but also shallow. (Buy again? No, not when the far more enjoyable 2011 Bisol can be had for less.)
Vidalsecco 2010, Ontario, Huff Estates ($19.95, purchased at the winery)
100% Vidal Blanc. Sparkled using the Charmat process. Matured in stainless steel vats. 12 g/l residual sugar. 11.5% ABV. 400 cases made. Crown-capped.
Noticeably different nose: lemon and chalk but also mastic, star fruit, chewing gum (“Juicy Fruit” said another taster, continuing the Wrigley theme) and a hint of foxiness. A little like sipping ginger ale, though dry and fine-textured with an appealing tang and a long, clean finish. (Buy again? Sure.)
Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore 2010, Extra Dry, Le Rive di Ogliano, Masottina ($23.15, 11791750)
100% Glera. Fermented with selected yeasts in temperature-controlled stainless steel vats. Sparkled using the Charmat process. 13.0–15.0 g/l residual sugar. 5.2–6.2 g/l total acidity. 11.5% ABV.
Perfumy again, though not to the Bortolomiol’s boudoiry excess, with a honeyed edge and a hint of lemon zest. Soft, almost caressing effervescence. Very dry. A certain complexity of flavours, including a floral note on the finish. Tasty. (Buy again? Yes.)
Cellier, take two
The SAQ’s Cellier magazine and associated releases are about to undergo a major overhaul. Here’s a passage from the Forum SAQ newsletter just sent to the monopoly’s suppliers and their local agents:
Cellier magazine will be transformed and published twice as often, that is, eight times a year. Two of the issues will keep the current format while the six others will inform readers of specialty wine arrivals. Each issue will feature two product releases scheduled for the two weeks following distribution of the issue. The magazine’s content and look will also be revised.
The six new-format issues will reportedly resemble the LCBO’s glossy Vintages circular, i.e. a slick promotional tool focused on the wines in the upcoming releases and little more. The new format is supposed to be rolled out after the last old-format Cellier – devoted, as usual for the spring issue, to Italian wines – is published in late February.
The stated goal is to expand the magazine’s appeal beyond the so-called Connoisseur customer segment and to boost traffic and sales through a combination of more frequent and visible releases, events like the recent Wine Spectator Top 100 promo and more emphatic merchandising of the Cellier section in outlets and of products within the section.
Considering the oyster
The good people at oenopole recently invited a number of local wine and food bloggers and writers to a workshop, possibly the first in an occasional series focused on pairing wines with a single food. In this case the food was raw oysters, Coville Bays to be precise. Impressively fresh and impeccably shucked, the medium-sized, meaty bivalves were some of the briniest I’ve tasted. Aside from four white wines, all that was on the table were mollusks on half shells, lemon wedges and bread – about as straightforward as it gets.
Bourgogne 2010, Sœur Cadette, Domaine de la Cadette ($18.25, 11460660)
In this vintage though maybe not for long, a négociant wine. 100% organically farmed Chardonnay. Slow-pressed, fermented in stainless steel with natural yeast. Matured 12 months in stainless steel tanks. Lightly filtered before bottling. 12.5% ABV.
Light lemon, chalk and quartz with a lactic note. Fresh and bracing on the palate, the fruit (lemon and green pear and apple) discreet. Taut with a tension between acidity and minerals. Long, clean, appetizingly sour finish. You won’t find a better brisk and minerally Chardonnay at the price.
> Lean and bright on its own, the wine was richer, rounder and fruitier with the oyster. A good match.
VDP des Cyclades 2011, Atlantis, Argyros ($16.65, 11097477)
Assyrtiko (90%), Aidani and Athiri (each 5%) from ungrafted vines. Fermented in stainless steel vats with selected yeasts. 13.0% ABV.
Rainwater on stones, crystal lemon, a hint of herbs. Denser than the Sœur Cadette but much less fruity, the sharp-edged minerals and trenchant acidity here softened by the wine’s weightiness. A saline tang flavours the finish. If possible, even better than the excellent 2010. Unbeatable QPR.
> A superb pairing, a whole greater than the sum of its parts. The wine’s minerality and brininess echoed the bivalves’ while its acidity cut their richness. In contrast to the Sœur, the wine’s flavour was little transformed by the naked oyster, though adding a few drops of lemon juice did bring out the otherwise shy fruitiness.
Champagne, Blanc de Blancs, Brut, Pascal Doquet ($43.25, 11528046)
100% organically farmed Chardonnay from the communes of Bassuet and Bassu. Vinified entirely in stainless steel. Matured six months, three of them on the lees. A blend of three vintages. 12.5% ABV.
Faintly floral, candied lemon, chalk, lees. Crisp and delineated yet soft and caressing. The flavours are clean and pure. Dry, the sweetness coming only from the fruit. Leaves on a mineral note. Beautiful and, once again, offering tremendous value.
> If an oyster transformed the Sœur Cadette, here it was the wine that transformed the oyster, amping up its seawater taste (iodine, saltiness, even fishiness). As these were already exceptionally briny oysters, that was perhaps too much of a good thing; I suspect the Champagne would work better with a milder oyster. As before, a squirt of lemon sweetened the wine.
Champagne grand cru 2002, Le Mesnil sur Oger, Brut, Pascal Doquet ($74.00, 11787291)
100% organically farmed Chardonnay from the Le Mesnil sur Oger vineyard. Based on the 2002 harvest (65%) with 35% reserve wines from 2001. About a third of the wine is matured in casks, the rest in tanks. 12.5% ABV.
Classic, refined champagne nose of brioche and yellow apple. Light, even ephemeral on the palate yet rich, complex, layered. Soft, fine effervescence. Some fruity sweetness is apparent on the attack; otherwise very dry. A load of minerals on the long finish. So elegant. A complete and beautiful wine comparable to blanc de blancs costing up to half again as much.
> Interacted with the oysters much like the non-vintage did, though a little less forcefully.
A last-minute addition:
Bourgogne 2011, Les Saulniers, Domaine de la Cadette ($47.00/1500ml, oenopole, six bottles/case)
100% organically farmed Chardonnay from a single parcel located on a path once used by salt smugglers, whence the name. Sorted on the vine, slow-pressed, fermented with native yeasts in wood and stainless steel vats. Lightly filtered before bottling.
Stony, ashy nose with some lemon/lime zest. Fluid. Dry. Pure. Weightier and rounder than its little sister though still acid-bright. Full of green apple, sweet lemon and mineral flavours. Long, clean finish. Tasty.
> Naked oysters made an acceptable pairing, lemoned oysters a better one.
As the crowd chatted and prepared to leave, the cork was popped on a magnum of the always delicious and refreshing Bisol Prosecco ($19.10/750 ml, 10839168; $40.25/1,500 ml, 11549349). Didn’t take notes but the fact that it didn’t taste like a letdown after such an excellent sequence of whites should tell you all you need to know.
Brett happens 