Posts Tagged ‘Beaujolais’
Foillard’s 2012 Cuvée Corcelette
Morgon 2012, Cuvée Corcelette, Jean Foillard ($35.75, 12201643)
100% Gamay from organically farmed 80-year-old vines growing in the sandstone soil of the Corcelette vineyard. Manually harvested. Whole cluster fermentation with indigenous yeasts lasts three to four weeks. Matured six to nine months in 30-hectolitre oak foudres. Unfiltered. Sulphur dioxide is added minimally and only at bottling. 13.5% ABV according to SAQ.com (the percentage alcohol has been blacked out on the bottle’s front label; on the back label, a sticker reads 12% but if you peel it off, the label reads 13.5%).
Medium blood red and quite hazy. Fragrant, fresh nose: strawberry, dried cranberry, vine sap, rain drops hitting hot slate, faint sweet spice, distant barnyard. Light- to medium-bodied but intense and present. The sweet fruit is grounded by a deep and very dry substrate of minerals, old wood, tangy acid and fine tannins. Texture? Satin at the start, a velvet astringency at the end. An earthy floral aftertaste aftersmell lingers beyond the long finish. Pure and beautiful but also, at this point, primary and elemental. Will benefit from two to four years in the cellar. If drinking now, carafe an hour or two. (Buy again? A bottle or two to lay down. But hurry, there’s not much left.)
Think the price is high? The wine is retailing for US$39.95, not including sales tax, at Crush Wine & Spirits in New York City and north of US$40 at several other stores in the States. If purchased at the SAQ during today’s 15% off sale, the pre-sales tax price drops to well under C$30.
MWG April 17th tasting (4/6): The Greek, the Beauj’ and the Funky
Naoussa 2012, Jeunes vignes de Xinomavro, Domaine Thymiopoulos ($18.70, 12212220)
100% biodynamically farmed Xinomavro from ten-year-old vines. Manually harvested. 80% destemmed, 20% whole cluster pressed. Very gentle pressing. Fermented with indigenous yeasts and no pump-overs. Macerated about one week, then matured nine months in stainless steel tanks. Bottled unfiltered. 13.5% ABV.
A bit stinky on opening, as sometimes happens with this wine. That quickly blew off, leaving a charming nose of slate, candied red berries and spice. Denser than some earlier vintages but still fresh and supple, the fruit pure, the acidity bright and the tannins light and just a little raspy. Dried herbs, spice and minerals add savour. Finishes clean and tangy. Yet another winner from Thymiopoulos. (Buy again? In multiples.)
Morgon 2012, Marcel Lapierre ($30.50, Rézin, NLA)
This was the “nature” bottling available through the private import channel, not the filtered and more heavily sulphured SAQ bottling. 100% organically farmed Gamay from 60-year-old vines. Manually harvested late in the season. Whole-cluster fermentation with indigenous yeasts at low temperatures lasts ten to 20 days. Matured nine months on the fine lees in old Burgundy oak barrels. Bottled unfiltered, unfined and with minimal sulphur. 12.5% ABV.
Cherry, stones, vine sap and faint spice. Silky fruit, bright acidity, supple tannins and that Lapierre trick of being both etherial and intense. Slow-fade finish with lingering scents of minerals, berries and flowers. Classic and delicious. I’m guessing this will peak in two to three years. (Buy again? Yes.)
Vino da tavola 2011, Rosso frizzante, Sottobosco, Ca’ de Noci ($24.00, Ward & associés, NLA)
A blend of organically farmed Lambrusco Grasparossa (30%), Lambrusco di Montericco (30%), Malbo Gentile (20%) and Sgavetta (20%) from ten-year-old vines. Manually harvested. The grapes are macerated for around ten days on their skins and fermented with indigenous yeasts. Refermentation in the bottle (to produce the sparkle) is also natural. Unfiltered and unfined. 11% ABV.
Popped and poured. The wildly funky nose elicited all kinds of reactions, including the descriptor fetid. The miasma lifted some as the wine breathed, allowing hints of slate and red and black fruit to emerge. (A taster who had previously encountered the wine said ours was an unusually stinky bottle.) In the mouth, it’s bone dry, tart and astringent. The light fizz adds a mild creaminess that polishes, if only a little, the coarse texture. Surprisingly mouth-filling fruit and earthy flavours last well into the finish. Despite everything, good enough to make you think a cleaner bottle might have a genuine rustic appeal. (Buy again? With my fingers crossed.)
The common thread in this flight was wines that would work with charcuterie. Our cured meats came in the form of duck prosciutto and pork and duck rillettes from Pork Futures and a gifted dry sausage whose provenance I don’t recall. While all three wines proved up to the task, I found the Naoussa best with the prosciutto, the Morgon best with the fatty, mild rillettes and the Sottobosco best with the prosciutto and the dark flavoured sausage.
MWG October 3rd tasting (5/7): A trio of quaffable reds
Alsace 2011, Pinot Noir, Fronenberg, Domaine Hausherr ($38.00, La QV, 6 bottles/case)
Fronenberg is a lieu-dit. This small (4 ha) estate is based in Eguisheim. Until 2000, they sold their grapes to the cooperative. Today, the man and wife team make around a dozen natural wines by themselves, with outside help only for the harvest. Their wines are certified organic, uncertified biodynamic. They work the vineyards with a horse (to avoid compacting the soil), use a manual press (slow and gentle, with minimal extraction from the stems and pips), skip the common step of débourbage (clarifying the must before fermentation by letting particulate matter settle out). The whites are field blends but this is a 100% Pinot Noir. Fermented with indigenous yeasts. Bottled unfined and unfiltered (the whites are lightly filtered). No added sulphur. 13.5% ABV.
Engaging nose of candied raspberry, crushed cedar leaves, spice and old oak. Medium-bodied, exuberantly fruity, tingling with acid, rooted in old wood and slate. Long juicy finish. So drinkable and delicious. A favourite of just about everybody around the table. Several tasters said they planned to buy a bottle despite the high price. No doubt the whimsical label, a cartoon wine-making equation, helped convince them. (Buy again? Yes, despite the high price.)
Chiroubles 2012, Damien Coquelet ($28.75, La QV, 6 bottles/case)
Now in his mid-20s, Coquelet is the stepson of renowned natural Beaujolais producer Georges Descombes. He began working in the family’s vineyards and cellars when he was five and has been making his own wines since 2007. Besides this cuvée, he produces an old-vine Chiroubles, a Morgon, a Beaujolais-Villages and the wildly popular, semi-nouveau Fou du Beaujo. This 100% Gamay is made from organically farmed, manually harvested grapes. Fermented with indigenous yeasts. Depending on the vintage, no or minimal sulphur is used. Coquelet typically bottles his cru wines a year before his stepfather, which makes them fruitier and juicier. 12% ABV.
Your classic natural Beaujolais nose: berries and cherry, barnyard, graphite, vine sap. Supple and pure, fruity but not too sweet, with lifting acidity and good length. A shade lighter and less compelling than in recent earlier vintages but still full of that silky Chiroubles charm. (Buy again? Sure.)
IGP Pays d’Urfé 2011, Les Bonichons, Domaine de la Perrière ($27.00, La QV, 6 bottles/case)
Owned by self-styled artisan-viniculteur Philippe Peulet, Domaine de la Perrière is located in the commune of Ambierle, in the upper reaches of the Loire on the northern edge of the Massif Central, about ten kilometres northwest of Roanne. The grapes for this 100% Gamay come from organically farmed vines between 15 and 50 years of age and grown in the Bonichons vineyard, whose deep sand soil is rich in quartz. The grapes are manually harvested and destemmed or not, depending on the vintage. The wine is fermented with indigenous yeasts. 12.5% ABV.
Initial reductive aromas blew off leaving a dark, almost meaty nose of slate, coal, smoke and tamari. Lighter and fruitier than expected in the mouth. Good balance between the juicy fruit, bright acidity, light tannins and general earthiness. Minerallier and grittier than the Chiroubles but with a definite rustic appeal. Cries out for some charcuterie. At $20 this vin de soif would be a no-brainer; at $27, it’s still worth considering, especially as the winemaker says it improves with a little bottle age. (Buy again? Yes, a bottle or two.)
Early in a late bloomer’s life
Fleurie 2011, Cuvée Spéciale, Vieilles Vignes, Domaine Chignard ($30.50, 11695135)
Gamay from a one-hectare parcel of 75- to 100-year-old vines in the Moriers vineyard on the border with Moulin-à-Vent. Traditioinal vinification, including semi-carbonic maceration, whole-cluster fermentaiton and no temperature control. The wine is matured in oak barriques (20% new), not large fûts. Also available in magnums ($62.00, 11695127). 13% ABV.
Dark garnet-purple: only the fading at the rim would keep you from thinking this is a Pommard or a northern Rhône Syrah. The muted nose hints at cherry, slate and violets. Concentrated and monolithic in the mouth, with a structure so massive it’d crush most Moulin-à-Vents. While the fruit is pure and ripe and bouyed by sappy acidity, an astringent streak robs it of sweetness. In fact, the tannins are reminsiscent of a young red Burg’s, though the wine’s weight is more Fleurie-like. The oak is noticeable, in other words not well integrated. Dimensions? Longer than broad or deep, though that may change with age. The elements are all there but the whole is disjointed and if not exactly rebarbative, not exactly engaging either. Needs time – say, five years in a cool cellar or double that for the magnum. (Buy again? Yes, though maybe not in preference to some of the private import “natural” Morgons, Fleuries and Moulin-à-Vents.)
Glou trade tasting with Guy Breton
In 1987, working as a mechanic and encouraged by his friend Marcel Lapierre, Guy Breton took over the family estate, founded in 1935, from his grandfather. At the time, the estate sold all its grapes to local cooperatives that churned out soulless industrial wines, in particular faddish Beaujolais nouveau. Joining with Lapierre, Jean Foillard and Jean-Paul Thévenet, the so-called Gang of Four, he decided not only to start making his own wines but to do so as naturally as possible.
The principles are simple. The grapes come from old vines and are harvested late. Synthetic pesticides and herbicides are avoided (the only chemicals used in the vineyard – and then lightly and on an as-needed basis – are sulphur against oidium and copper against mildew). Sorting is rigorous. Fermentation is spontaneous, using indigenous yeasts. Chaptalization is banned. Sulphur dioxide is used minimally if at all. The wines are bottled unfiltered and unfined.
Breton markets five wines: Marylou, a Beaujolais-Villages named after his daughter; a generic Morgon; a Morgon Vieilles Vignes; P’tit Max, a Morgon from very old vines; and the most recent addition to the lineup, a Régnié. All are made using carbonic maceration, the length of which depends on the wine and the year, pressed in an old wooden vertical press and matured either in epoxy tanks or, for the old-vine cuvées, in used Burgundy barrels. A minute amount of sulphur dioxide is added at bottling.
Once again, I was struck by the resemblence of the wines to the winemaker. Honest, approachable, down-to-earth, easy to get along with. I’d gone to the tasting thinking I’d stay for an hour and ended up spending more than three. The wines – especially the Vieilles vignes, which got better with every sip – were part of the reason, of course, but so was the company.
Morgon 2010, Guy Breton ($26.45, Glou, 12 bottles/case)
100% Gamay from 35-year-old vines. 12.5% ABV.
Lean and supple. The fruit is ripe but this is as savoury as fruity, with underlying minerals and black pepper overtones. Smooth acidity and good length. (Buy? Sure.)
Régnié 2011, Guy Breton ($30.15, Glou, 12 bottles/case)
100% Gamay, half from 100-year-old vines, half from 35-year-old vines. Spent five months in barrels. 12% ABV.
Fresh and pure with a hint of spice. Burgundy-like texture. Silky fruit, perfectly dosed acidity and a light but tight grip. The finish is long and slatey. Straightforward and elegant; if Beaujolais crus were clothes, this would be a simple black dress and a string of pearls. (Buy? Yes.)
Morgon 2011, Vieilles vignes, Guy Breton ($78.50/1500 ml, Glou, 6 bottles/case)
100% Gamay from vines averaging 80 years old. Spent seven months in barrels. 12.7% ABV.
Grapey, rich, floral note. Richer, fleshier, more masculine. The fruit is ripe but not sweet, deep-rooted in earth and slate and balanced by glowing acidity. Long. So drinkable. Breton says this is more ageable than the 2010. Absolutely classic Morgon if less tannic than some. (Buy? A must for Beaujolais lovers.)
Morgon 2011, P’tit Max, Guy Breton ($36.05, Glou, 12 bottles/case)
Don’t let the petit fool you: this is Breton’s most serious cuvée, the one that bears his nickname (his dad was Max, so everyone calls him petit Max). The early vintages were denied AOC status. 100% Gamay from century-old vines. Spent 12 months in barrels. 12.5% ABV.
Rich and deep but not very expressive nose with a bit of élèvage showing. The densest and, for now, least giving of the quartet. Liqueurish core of fruit against a backdrop of herbs and slate. Bright acidity. Long, minerally finish. (Buy? To lay down for a decade.)
A BV with pretensions
This is a Beaujolais-Villages but one in which the actual village name, in this case Leynes (northernmost Beaujolais, southernmost Burgundy and also the operations base of Jean Rijckaert), replaces the “Villages” (along the same lines as what’s allowed for certain Côtes-du-Rhône villages like Cairanne and Séguret). The Bien-Venu is a vestige of the first vintages, the producer’s way of getting around the AOC authorities who declassified the wine and forced it to be labeled as a vin de table, not a Beaujolais.
Beaujolais-Leynes 2011, Bien-Venu In X-Tremis, La Soufrandière / Bret Bros. ($29.75, 11904611)
100% organically farmed Gamay from 65-year-old vines. Manually harvested. The whole, uncrushed clusters are macerated two to three weeks, with light pump-overs and occasional punch-downs. Matured 18 months in Burgundy barrels. 12.5% ABV.
The staff at my neighbourhood SAQ store opened a bottle of this when it arrived back in February and found it off-puttingly bad, so bad that they decided to give it a second chance after the shipment had had a couple of months to recover from suspected travel shock. A good call, as it’s now a textbook Bojo, albeit one in a rich style. The texture is dense enough to have you thinking velour instead of silk. There’s lots of red fruit, some vine sap and minerals and an unsweet floral note (iris?). The acidity is cranberry juice bright, the tannins are light and the fruit lasts right through the finish. While cru-like in terms of body, it falls short of that level in the depth department. In fact, it seems kind of one-note, unexciting and, above all, poor value when set aside true crus like Lapierre’s Morgon ($28 though NLA) or Brun’s Moulin-à-Vent ($24) let alone some of the private import Bojos. Maybe it needs more time, but I wouldn’t bet on it. (Buy again? Unlikely.)
MWG November 22nd tasting (3/5): A case study of terroir
While not part of the pioneering “Gang of Four” natural Beaujolais producers (Marcel Lapierre, Guy Breton, Jean-Paul Thévenet and Jean Foillard), Jean-Paul Brun has been making natural-leaning wines for a long time (his first vintage was 1977). Based in Charnay, in the southern Beaujolais, he also owns several cru vineyards in the north. He farms organically, harvests manually, ferments using the yeasts on the grapes’ skins and, preferring naturally lower alcohol levels, doesn’t chaptalize.
His other wine-making practices are more Burgundian than modern-day Beaujolaisian. Many Beaujolais producers favour carbonic maceration of whole clusters. But at Terres Dorées, the grapes are table-sorted, destemmed, placed in open vats and stomped. The resulting juice is macerated for three to four weeks, then transferred to concrete and/or oak vats, all depending on the cru and vintage. The wines are very lightly filtered and sulphured before bottling.
Though Brun’s wines have featured in several Mo’ Wine Group tastings, we’d never had the opportunity to taste side-by-side the three crus carried by the SAQ in the same vintage (Brun also produces a Fleurie that I’ve never seen on the monopoly’s shelves). As the wines are, for all intents and purposes, made identically, any discernible differences should be attributable to terroir. The idea behind this flight was to see what those differences would be.
Morgon 2010, Terres Dorées, Jean-Paul Brun ($19.85, 11589746)
100% Gamay from low-yielding old vines planted in very poor granitic and sandy soil in the Grand Cras section of the appellation, south of the Côte de Py. 12% ABV.
Effusively scented nose dominated by lightly candied cherry and slate. Rich and fluid. The ripe fruit is brightened by tangy acidity and deepened by faintly bitter minerals. The overriding impression is one of purity and freshness. Lovely and accessible, though like the other crus, capable of improving with some time in the cellar. (Buy again? Definitely.)
Côte de Brouilly 2010, Terres Dorées, Jean-Paul Brun ($19.25, 10520237)
100% Gamay from 50-year-old vines planted in blue granitic scree in the Petite Roche and Croix Desseigne sections of the appellation. 12% ABV.
Plummier, with a sappy, ferrous note. In the mouth, similar to – though more fruit-driven than – the Morgon, with the same mineral substrate. Silky texture, crisp acidity, good length. Enjoyable today but probably even better in two or three years. (Buy again? Yes.)
Moulin-à-Vent 2010, Terres Dorées, Jean-Paul Brun ($22.05, 10837331)
100% Gamay from low-yielding old vines planted in granitic soil in the Tour du Bief section of the appellation. 12% ABV.
Dark, inky, elegant nose: a step closer to Burgundy. The texture is smooth and velvety and the wine is the most structured of the three. But it’s also, for now, the most closed and least expressive. Vigorous chewing cracks open the door a little, revealing hints of cherry and black raspberry, forest floor and minerals. The potential is clearly there. Give it at least a couple more years in the cellar and up to ten. (Buy again? A patient yes.)
Fou des Fous
Damien Coquelet has Beaujolais in his veins. Stepson of renowned natural Beaujolais producer Georges Descombes, he began working in the family’s vineyards and cellars when he was five and has been making his own wines since 2007, when he was 20. His juicy Morgons, more immediately accessible than his stepfather’s, and silky Chiroubles are well-nigh irresistible and his Beaujolais-Villages can stand comparison with the best.
Three years ago, Coquelet was visiting La QV, the agency that respresents him here in Quebec, when he flipped over some organic charcuterie made by Fou du Cochon in La Pocatière. A summit of artisans ensued and, shepherded by La QV’s head honcho, Cyril Kérébel, the idea for Fou du Beaujo was born: an easy-drinking vin de soif, the kind of wine we all wish Beaujolais nouveau would be, designed expressly to go with saucissons and terrines. After experiencing both Fous together at Foodlab last night, I can confirm it’s a marriage made in heaven.
The first Fou du Beaujo vintage, the 2009, and maybe the second were sold exclusively in Quebec. But good things are hard to keep a lid on and the wine is now also found in Japan, Germany and, reportedly, select bistros in France. Rumours are also circulating of an impending arrival in the U.S.
Beaujolais 2011, Fou du Beaujo, Damien Coquelet ($19.25, La QV, 12 bottles/case)
A blend of organically farmed Gamay from several Coquelet parcels (all in Morgon in 2010). Fermented with native yeasts. Like Beaujolais nouveau, it undergoes semi-carbonic maceration. Unlike Beaujolais nouveau, it is overwintered in concrete vats before being bottled in May or June with no filtering, fining or added sulphur. 12.5% ABV.
The dictionary definition of natural Beaujolais could have this as its illustration. Red and black berries and maybe some violets over an earthy/slatey bass note. A whiff of barnyardy funk quickly blows off (carafe the wine for half an hour if that sort of thing bothers you). Light-bodied and fluid with ripe, tangy fruit, a faint tannic rasp, fat-cutting acidity and a hint of something darker and more minerally in the background. Ends on a tart, vine-sappy note that has you lifting the glass for another mouthful. Serve lightly chilled.
Lapierre’s 2011 Morgon (SAQ bottling)
This has just hit the shelves and will probably fly off them. It made a fine pairing for a bavette aux échalotes (recipe after the jump).
Morgon 2011, Marcel Lapierre ($27.95, 11305344)
100% organically farmed Gamay. In contrast to the standard “Nature” bottling, which comes in through the private import channel, this SAQ bottling is lightly filtered and sulphured to enhance its stability (and, unfortunately, strip it of some charm). 12.5% ABV.
A little reductive at first. Red berries, sweet spice, a floral note (rose? peony?) and, with coaxing, earth and minerals. Light, bright and supple on the palate. The beguiling sweet-and-sour fruit is darkened by some vine sap and a dissipating lactic note. Lacy albeit tight tannins swell then fade on the tangy, slatey finish. Elegance and purity it has in spades but not, for now, a lot of depth. Of course, this isn’t the Nature. And the wine is just off the boat. And the estate is very consistent. And 2011 is an outstanding vintage in Beaujolais. And the wine did gain weight as it breathed.
Is it worth $28? The answer’s not as obvious as it was for the 2009 and 2010 but I’m inclined to give Lapierre the benefit of the doubt, especially this weekend when the price is $25.15.
If you’re one of the lucky few who can score some of the Nature bottles, don’t buy this in preference. If not and you decide to give it a shot, carafe it an hour or two beforehand or cellar it for at least a few months and up to five years.
MWG August 16th tasting: report (3/5)
A flight of three Morgons from leading “natural” producers. In all cases, the grapes are organically or biodynamically farmed, the wine-making is non-interventionist, only indigenous yeasts are used and the wines are bottled without filtering or fining and with no or minimal sulphur dioxide.
Morgon 2010, Nature, M. Lapierre ($29.30, Rézin, NLA)
Wet stones, berries, sap and eventually leaf mould. Bright acid; light but intense fruit; fine, silky tannins. Supple and pure, the wine slips through the mouth, leaving a scent of minerals, raspberries and flowers. (Buy again? Sure.)
Morgon 2010, Côte du Py, Jean Foillard ($33.75, Rézin, NLA)
Beautiful, fresh nose of red berries with hints of spice and forest floor. Slightly weightier and more richly textured than the Lapierre. The tannins seem light until the minerally finish; in fact, however delicately, this is a structured and layered wine. Morgon at its purest and most seductive. (Buy again? Absolutely.)
Morgon 2009, Vieilles Vignes, Georges Descombes ($30.25, Rézin)
Deeper, darker nose: black cherry, dried wood, slate, faint pepper. Smooth and suave with rich fruit, a fine-grained texture and underlying tannins that turn assertive on the kirschy finish. True to the vintage, a substantial wine light on nothing except, perhaps, charm, though that may come with time. A good candidate for cellaring. (Buy again? A couple of bottles to lay down and forget about for a decade.)
Brett happens 