Posts Tagged ‘biodynamic’
MWG March 16th tasting: report (3/4)
Wildass Red 2008, Niagara Peninsula, Stratus ($24.00, 11601143)
A hodgepodge of a dozen or so grape varieties, including Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Gamay, Petit Verdot, Malbec and Tempranillo. Complex if not particularly deep nose: black cherry, shoe leather, turned earth, leaf mould, sawed wood, volatile herbs. Smooth and fluid from start to finish. Structured but not rigid. Spicy fruit, racy acid and a slatey finish. Pure and appealing. One of the most drinkable Ontario reds I’ve tasted; too bad it doesn’t go for $20. (Buy again? Yes.)
Colli Euganei IGT 2006, Gemola, Vignalta ($43.50, 11581074)
Vignalta’s flagship wine. Mainly Merlot with some Cabernet Franc, grown in volcanic soils. Red fruit with notes of tomato paste, cola and tobacco leaf. Medium-bodied, velvet-textured. Rich but vibrant: sweet dark fruit and a touch of vanilla shaped by firm tannins and keen acidity. Long, savoury finish. Lots of class. (Buy again? Quite possibly.)
Toscana IGT 2006, Pergolaia, Caiarossa ($23.55, 11604619)
Biodynamically farmed Sangiovese (90%), Merlot (7%) and Cabernet Franc (3%). Fermented with native yeasts. Sulphur is used minimally and added only after malolactic fermentation. Aged 14 months in neutral barriques and botti. Textbook Sangiovese nose, albeit fresher than a Chianti’s: black cherry, savoury spice and terra cotta with herbaceous and graphite notes. Medium-bodied, with sweet fruit, tight, drying tannins and coursing acidity. Fairly long, tobacco-scented finish. Straightforward, nothing profound but pure and enjoyable. (Buy again? Yes.)
Vino Nobile di Montepulciano 2001, Vigneto St. Ercolano, Carpineto ($50.00, 11566464)
Sangiovese (85%) with some Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, all from a vineyard planted in 1995. Fermented in cement vats with indigenous yeasts. Matured 13 months in new French and American oak barrels. Bottled unfiltered in 2003, then cellared for five years before release. Suave nose of plum, cedar, spice and cigar box. The fruit starts smooth and silky but dries on the leathery finish. The lightly astringent tannins are mostly resolved. Not much depth or dazzle for a $50 wine. (Buy again? Unlikely.)
Vin de terroirs
As explained by the young and personable Mathieu Deiss, who was in town last week for the Renaissance des appellations event, the Marcel Deiss estate has two basic lines of wine: variety-driven and terroir-driven.
Vineyards where, in the winemaker’s opinion, the expression of terroir is muted are planted with single or segregated grape varieties, and the wines are made and labelled as varietals: Riesling, Muscat, etc. With the exception of a handful of high-end bottlings (the so-called vins de temps, which are vendange tardive and sélection de grains nobles wines considered particularly expressive of the character of their vintage), these are marketed as vins de fruits.
Vineyards where terroir trumps variety are planted with mixed varieties, all of which are harvested, pressed and fermented together (Mathieu says co-planted, biodynamically farmed grapes “learn” to ripen at the same time). These vins de terroirs are the estate’s flagship wines. Although such field blends were once the norm in Alsace, it wasn’t until 2005 that Deiss convinced the INAO authorities to allow estates to label wines from grand cru vineyards with only the vineyard name and sans the grape variety.
Alsace 2009, Marcel Deiss ($22.60, 10516490)
The estate’s entry-level vin de terroirs is a field blend of biodynamically farmed Pinot Blanc, Riesling, Pinot Gris and Gewurztraminer. Gold with a pale green cast. Attractive if hard-to-pin-down nose: dried lemon peel, quartz, grapefruit, sweeter fruit in the background, a hint of pine needles and alcohol. Soft and round on entry – yellow-fruity and verging on off-dry – followed by a faint, spritzy tingle. Dries as it goes along, the fruit becoming more citric, the flavours more savoury. Bit of heat and bitterness on the longish finish. Lingering straw and brown sugar notes.
We’re so accustomed to associating fine Alsatian whites with varietal characteristics that drinking such an unmistakably Alsatian yet varietally elusive wine is disconcerting. Nonetheless, this bottle delivers pleasure by the glassful and convinces me that tasting through a range of Deiss’s vineyard-specific vins de terroirs would be a fascinating exercise.
MWG February 9th tasting: report (1/4)
Demands on my time mean the notes for the Mo’ Wine Group’s latest tasting will be served, like the wines, in four flights.
Sancerre 2010, Les Chailloux, Domaine Fouassier ($28.15, La QV)
100% biodynamically farmed Sauvignon Blanc from 20-year-old vines; fermented with native yeasts. Chalk and bath powder, then boxwood and jalapeño, then a hint of peanut. Light, fluid and quite dry. More minerally than fruity, and what fruit there is is of a crystalline purity. Longish finish and a lingering impression of freshness. (Buy again? Yep.)
Sancerre 2010, Terroirs, Sylvain Bailly ($22.10, 10861808)
100% Sauvignon Blanc. Textbook nose: grass, cat pee, white fruit, gunflint. Taut and vibrant, with a smooth surface, acid undertow, minerals and green fruit. Long, bright finish. A classic Sancerre and great QPR. (Buy again? Def.)
Sancerre 2010, Domaine Vacheron ($30.25, 10523892)
100% biodynamically farmed Sauvignon Blanc. Closed nose hinting at seashells, hay, green pear. The driest of the four wines. Green fruit, grapefruit and minerals, bracing acidity. Long albeit muted/soft finish. Elegant. (Buy again? Maybe.)
Sancerre 2009, Cuvée Edmond, Domaine la Moussière ($56.50, 10269273)
100% biodynamically farmed Sauvignon Blanc from 40 to 70-year-old vines. Fermented in oak casks (60% new). Pale gold (quite the contrast to the other wines’ silvery-green). Complex nose of ripe yellow fruit, kiwi, camphor, custard, lemon verbena. Round and weighty in the mouth, showing a bit of residual sugar. Just enough acid to save the wine from heaviness. Long, honeyed finish. Imposing and impressive if atypically rich for a Sancerre or even a Cuvée Edmond. (Buy again? Probably not.)
A star(t)ling Pinot Noir
Renowned for its Sauvignon Blancs, Sancerre is also the source of the Loire’s best Pinot Noirs.
Sancerre 2006, L’Étourneau, Domaine Fouassier ($29.75, La QV)
100% biodynamically farmed Pinot Noir from 25- to 45-year-old vines. Manually harvested, fermented with indigenous yeasts, aged in oak barrels for 12 months. Nose of beet and red berries but also surprising baked earth, leather and dried herbs. Pure, fluid, medium-bodied (13% ABV) yet substantial. Initial sweet fruit submarines under the fine, tight tannins, racy acidity and minerals, then partially resurfaces, adding berry and cola notes to the faintly sour and astringent, flinty finish. Delicious now but – as the tail-end revisited the next day implies – smoother, suaver, more Pinoty with another two to four years in the bottle.
Hat tip to wapiti for the find and the flinty.
A grower champagne to toast the new year
The holiday selection of “affordable” champagnes at the SAQ took a quantum leap forward this year. (Champagne is arguably the world’s most overpriced wine, and affordable is here defined as bottles under $80.) Along with long-lost friends (Ayala, for example) and unexpected delights (Billecart-Salmon’s Brut Réserve in half bottles) came an impressive list of grower champagnes from producers like Larmandier-Bernier, Égly-Ouriet, E. Barnaut and Pascal Doquet, not to mention Pierre Gimonnet. A wine that appeared to slip under most local reviewers’ radar is made by Franck Pascal, a young vigneron with 4 hectares of vines in the Marne valley. On taking over the vineyard, Pascal converted to organic practices. The estate has been certified biodynamic since 2008.
Champagne 2002, Brut, Cuvée Prestige, “Équilibre”, Franck Pascal ($65.50, 11552871)
33% Pinot Meunier, 34% Pinot Noir, 33% Chardonnay. Fermented with indigenous yeasts, dosed with organic cane sugar (4.5 g/l). Pale gold with a faint green cast, lazy bead and tiny bubbles – very attractive in a flute. Expressive nose of brioche and lees with hints of lemon, minerals, hay and barley sugar. Rich yet lithe in the mouth: the winey roundness is countered by a minerally acidic bite and persistent bitter undertow, lifted by the soft effervescence. Oxidizing pear and sour apple and a suggestion of vanilla give way to a long, creamy/quartzy finish. Elegant enough to serve as an aperitif, vibrant enough to serve with food. A compelling wine that punches above its weight.
Pascal’s Tolérance champagne rosé (a two-vintage blend of Pinot Meunier and Pinot Noir with a dollop of Chardonnay) is also available at the SAQ.
The Rodney Dangerfield of wines
If there’s a wine that doesn’t get the respect it deserves, it’s Muscadet – not surprising given the boatloads of thin, flavourless crap floating around. But in the hands of a master like Guy Bossard, the Muscadet grape’s principal vice, its neutrality, becomes a virtue, the perfect vehicle for expressing terroir. Enlightened farming, low yields, native yeasts, no pumping (gravity feed), non-interventionist winemaking, a low sulphur régime and, of course, a terroir worth expressing make all the difference.
Muscadet-Sèvre et Maine 2009, Expression de Granit, Domaine de l’Écu ($20.70, 10282873)
100% Muscadet (aka Melon de Bourgogne). The domaine has been organic since 1975, began converting to biodynamic practices in 1992 and is now Demeter-certified.
Lemon, green apple peel, chalk and, yes, some granite (or is it gun flint?). Rich texture and a hint of sugar on the attack. Wax and white-fruit flavours. Citrusy acid kicks in on the mid-palate and persists through the long, vaporous finish. Lingering notes of minerals, lemon oil and pine needles. A beauty that will only improve with time in the cellar (up to ten years). 12% abv.
A bouquet of bubblies from La QV
Notes from an informal tasting of some of the sparklers represented by La QV. The champagnes are sold at the SAQ; the others can be ordered through the agency.
Bubulle 2009, Méthode traditionnelle, Les Pervenches ($30.00, 12 bottles per case)
2/3 Chardonnay, 1/3 Seyval. Made from biodyanmically farmed grapes grown near Farnham in the Eastern Townships. Produced using the champagne method and with zero dosage. The owners have been making a few cases of sparkling wine for several years now (the 2008 was 100% Chardonnay) but this is the first vintage sold to the public. Only a half dozen or so cases have been released due to a purely aesthetic problem with the other bottles, namely the lees sticking to the side of the bottle instead of sliding into the neck for removal during disgorging. Encouraged by our and others’ assurances that such a superficial blemish wouldn’t prevent us from buying bottles, the winemaker said he may decide to offer the lees-streaked bottles for sale in the new year.
Crystal-clear with a slight green cast and a very fine bead. Appealing nose of brioche and lemon with subtle mineral and floral notes. Soft bubbles. Fruity but bone dry. Bright, clean and long with a gooseberry note (the Seyval?) coming out on the finish. Like the estate’s still Chardonnays, a delicious wine that can easily stand comparison with similarly priced wines from around the world. 12% abv.
Foule Bulles, Clos Saragnat ($15, 12 bottles per case)
This sparkling cider is made from fruit farmed organically near Frelighsburg. Several varieties of apple are pressed to make the base cider but fresh plum juice is used for the dosage. Rusty pink to the eye (due partly to the apple varieties and partly to intentional oxidation of the raw fruit). Nose of sweet apple and, yep, yellow plum. Fruity but with an appealing sourness. Fine bubbles. Long drying finish. 9% abv. As they say around here, original.
Vin mousseux de qualité 2004, Domaine de la Chappe ($22, 6 bottles per case)
Based in the Tonnerre AOC, located northeast of Chablis, Domaine de la Chappe has been organic-converting-to-biodynamic since the early naughts. Chardonnay (80%) and Pinot Noir (20%). Colour bordering on pale pink. Intriguing nose with hints of red berries and roasted coffee. Fine bubbles, soft effervescence. Flavourful with a woody edge. Good finish, with sourish fruit giving way to faint walnut flavours. Unusual and enjoyable.
Cava 2009, Brut nature, Cellers de Can Suriol del Castell de Grabuac ($20.75, 12 bottles per case)
Organically farmed Macabeu (30%), Xarel.lo (30%) and Parellada (30%). Lemon zest and quartz. Fine bead. Fruity and floral on the attack yet very dry. Tastes “white.” Lingering bread flavours. Clean, elegant and refreshing. 11.5% abv.
Champagne, Grand cru, Blanc de Noirs, E. Barnaut ($46.25, 11152958)
100% sustainably farmed Pinot Noir. Brioche, white fruit, lemon, oxidized apple. Less dry than the preceding. Denser, too, but lifted by the bubbles and acid. Long. Not incredibly complex or deep but tasty and good QPR. 12.0% abv.
Champagne 1996, Brut, Fleury ($97.50, 11544062)
Biodynamically farmed Pinot Noir (80%) and Chardonnay (20%). Aged under cork – not the usual crown cap – before disgorgement to allow micro-oxygenation and encourage the development of a finer effervescence. Yellow-gold to the eye. Powerful, complex nose: oxidized apple, lemon, honey and more. Rich and deep on the palate, with layers of flavour. Astoundingly fruity and winey and far from bone dry yet in no way heavy thanks to the soft effervescence and coursing acidity. Long. Assertive yet seductive, a complete wine. 12.5% abv.
Two for the life list
Vin de Savoie 2009, Les Alpes, Domaine Belluard ($26.95, 11544417)
100% biodynamically farmed Grignet. Fermented with native yeasts, no chaptalization, lightly filtered before bottling. 12.5% ABV. My first encounter with the grape variety, which the Oxford Companion to Wine says is the Jura’s Savagnin (the more recent Wikipedia entry casts doubt on that claim).
Soft, elusive nose evoking stones, flowers and beeswax. Light and minerally, even rainwatery, on the palate, the fruit – more sensed than tasted – tending toward lemon. Dry and acid bright, though that’s really apparent only on the finish. Surprisingly long given the ephemeral flavours, with lingering notes of honey and linden blossom. Subdued, yes, but also elegant, pure, quenching and delicious.
Lacrima di Morro d’Alba 2009, Panse, Monte Schiavo ($18.40, 11451894 though the link is to the 2010, which appears to have a different name: Marzaiola)
100% Lacrima di Morro. Made from manually and machine-harvested grapes, which are fermented for 7-10 days and raised for 3 months off the lees, all in stainless steel tanks. Filtered before bottling. Lacrima di Morro is a “fast maturing, wild strawberry-scented red grape specialty of Morro d’alba in the Marche” (The Oxford Companion to Wine). Reduced to a single hectare in the mid-1980s, the variety has been revived through the creation of the Lacrima di Morro d’Alba appellation.
The nose is one of the most surprising in red winedom: outrageously floral (“rose water,” said one taster; “peonies,” another; “if you were tasting this blind from a black glass, you’d swear it was a Moscato,” noted a third) along with the expected red fruit. Less unconventional on the palate: medium-bodied (12.5% ABV), lightly structured, with a velvety texture, cherry and wildberry flavours and a faint bitterness on a longish finish. Opened at the most recent Pork Futures event, the wine clashed with the headcheese but worked with the liver terrine adulterated with red currant jelly.
Brett happens 