Posts Tagged ‘Burgundy’
MWG November 24th tasting: Perfectly Pinot
Côtes-de-Nuits Villages 2012, Viola odorata, Domaine Henri Naudin-Ferrand ($76.75, private import, 6 bottles/case)
Each of the estate’s unsulphured cuvées is named after a different wildflower found growing in the vineyards. The grapes for this 100% Pinot Noir come from sustainably farmed 70- to 85-year-old vines grown in three parcels. Manually harvested. The whole clusters are vatted under carbon dioxide for two weeks’ maceration and fermentation (with indigenous yeasts and occasional punch-downs), followed by a quick, gentle pressing, The must is transferred by gravity into large barrels for 48 hours’ settling and then into French oak barrels (80% new) for malolactic fermentation and maturation (18 months in all). Bottled unfiltered and unfined using gravity and compressed air (no pumping). No added sulphur. 12.5% ABV. Quebec agent: oenopole.
The kind of fragrant nose that makes Pinot Noir lovers swoon: red berries, forest floor, ferns, cola, beet, turned earth, slate, ash and a hint of iodide. A sip shows the wine to be a medium-bodied, silky textured, expansive mouthful of ripe fruit with firm yet lacy tannins and glowing acidity, all grounded in earth and minerals and slow-fading in a long, woody (not oaky) finish. Am not sure how it pulls off the trick of being both rustic and elegant but it does. Carafe an hour or longer if serving now or cellar for another five or ten years. (Buy again? If you can afford it, go for it!)
Vosne-Romanée 2011, Les Jachées, Domaine Bizot ($179.00, 11381953)
The 3.5-hectare estate produces a total 900 cases of wines a year. 100% Pinot Noir from sustainably farmed 80-plus-year-old vines grown in the Les Jachées vineyard. Manually harvested. The whole clusters are vatted, fermented with indigenous yeasts for 14 to 20 days and gently pressed. The must is transferred to new oak barrels for 15 to 20 months’ maturation. Unpumped, unracked, unfiltered and unfined, with not added sulphur. Manually bottled, barrel by barrel (the label specifies which barrel the wine came from). 11.5% ABV. Quebec agent: oenopole.
More assertive but equally textbook nose redolent of spice, cherry, wood, cedar, turned earth, beet: ça pinote, as they say around here. Richer, rounder and deeper, too. Structured though not at the expense of fluidity. Silky fruit unfurls over fine velvety tannins and sleek acidity. Layers of minerals and wood hint at unplumbable depths. Gains a liqueurish note on the seemingly endless finish. Dry but so ripe and pure you don’t notice. In a word, spellbinding. Remarkably accessible for such a primary wine, which isn’t to say it shouldn’t be cellared for a decade. (Buy again? If you can afford it, go for it!)
An interesting flight for several reasons. First, it was arguably the most memorable of the tasting. Also, both wines come from the Côtes-de-Nuits and are made with grapes from old vines. Both estates have similar farming and winemaking practices. And lastly, Claire Naudin and Jean-Yves Bizot were once an item and remain good friends.
(Flight: 3/5)
MWG November 13th tasting: Beautiful, punches above its weight
Macon–Lugny 2011, Les Crays vers Vaux, Vieilles vignes, Domaine Rijckaert ($34.67, private import, 6 bottles/case)
The estate avoids the use of herbicides and insecticides and limits its use of synthetic chemicals to treatments against mildew and odium. 100% Chardonnay. Manually harvested. Fermented in oak barrels with indigenous yeasts. Matured ten months on the lees with occasional stirring in a mix of oak barrels: 5% new, 10% first- to fourth-fill and 85% fifth- or sixth-fill. No additions, subtractions or untoward manipulation (micro-oxygenation, chilling, heating, etc.) during vinification. Lightly sulphured at bottling. 13% ABV. Quebec agent: La QV/Insolite.
Closed but nuanced and appealing nose of yellow apple, citron, chalk and flint with hints of oatmeal, wood and ash. Medium- to full-bodied and satin-textured. Dry. The oak is discreet, the fruit faintly tropical, the minerals stony. The sustained acidity is softened and rounded by the wine’s considerable extract. A salted butter note colours the long, delicious finish. Lots of class. A beautiful white Burgundy that punches above its weight. (Buy again? Def.)
(Flight: 5/9)
MWG September 11th tasting: The perfect excuse to guzzle
Nicolas Vauthier entered the wine scene as the owner of Aux crieurs de vins, one of the first bars to specialize in natural wines. In 2008, he founded a négociant firm, Vini Viti Vinci, based in Avallon, near Auxerre, in northern Burgundy and dedicated to making unmanipulated, terroir-driven wines with no added sulphur. He learned the basics by working with Philippe Pacalet in Beaune, who continues to advise him. While Vauthier doesn’t see himself as a winegrower – he says he’ll never own any vineyards – he does have a talent for sniffing out parcels with great potential. And while he’s happy when the winegrowers he contracts with farm organically, he doesn’t insist they do: the quality of the grapes and their expression of terroir are what matter most.
He buys the grapes à pied, on the vine, harvests them with his own pickers and transports them to his winemaking facilities. Fermentation, with native yeasts, is in old wooden foudres. Some of the reds undergo semi-carbonic maceration to bring out their fruitiness.
Though his first two vintages included AOC wines, Vauthier has decided to buck the appellation system and now labels his wines as vins de France. And speaking of the labels, their whimsical line drawings of men and women in various states of undress so alarmed the SAQ that it refused to accept responsibility for the bottles in case scandalized buyers returned them. [Insert eye-roll emoticon here.]
Vin de France 2012, L’Adroit, Vini Viti Vinci ($30.95, private import, 12 bottles/case)
100% Pinot Noir from northern Burgundy. And look at that: 11.5% ABV. Quebec agent: Glou.
Exuberantly Pinot nose (ça pinote, as the French say): wild strawberry, cedar and dried leaves, some of which a distant neighbour is burning. Medium-bodied and fluid yet richly flavoured. The silky ripe fruit is carried on a stream of lively acidity, light but raspy tannins and coloured with spice overtones and shaded with a slatey ground base. Pure, clean, fresh, long and so very drinkable. Generated a real buzz around the table. A downside: Glou says the wine flatlines about four hours after opening. The upside? You now have the perfect excuse to guzzle. (Buy again? In multiples.)
(Flight: 4/9)
Basic Bret
Mâcon–Uchizy 2012, Cuvée La Martine, Bret Brothers ($28.75, 11491677)
Owners of the La Soufrandière estate since 2000, Jean-Guillaume and Jean-Philippe Bret also make wines using grapes purchased from a handful of trusted growers in southernmost Burgundy. The latter are sold under the Bret Brothers négociant label. The grapes for this 100% Chardonnay come from a single parcel of vines more than 50 years old located just outside the village of Uchizy. Manually harvested and whole cluster-pressed. Fermented with indigenous yeasts. Vinified and matured for 11 months in 228-litre oak barrels. 13% ABV. Quebec agent: Trialto.
Textbook Chardonnay nose: oats, chalk, lemon and a hint of tropical fruit. Medium-bodied and mouth-filling. The tense balance between fruity extract and racy acidity really holds your attention. Some ripe fruit sweetness notwithstanding, dry and minerally, especially on the bitter-edged finish. Clean, pure, intense, layered, even complex – what’s not to like? Cellar for a year or two or carafe for an hour or two. (Buy again? Sure.)
oenopole workshop: picnic wines (3/4)
The reds were also served with three sandwiches: a Jewish-French fusion of chopped chicken liver and mousse de foies de volaille on raisin bread; open-faced corned beef garnished with red cabbage; and beef salami with chiles on a lobster roll-style hot dog bun. As is always the case at Hof Kelsten, everything – including the corned beef, salami, pickles and ballpark mustard – was made in house.
Achaïa 2012, Kalavryta, Tetramythos ($16.10, 11885457)
The estate is located in Achaea, on the Gulf of Corinth in the northern Peloponnese. This wine is made using the free-run juice from organically farmed Black of Kalavryta (Μαύρο Καλαβρυτινό) grapes, an indigenous variety once widely grown in the area but now nearly extinct. Alcoholic fermentation (with native yeasts) and nine months’ maturation are in stainless steel vats. Malolactic fermentation is prevented. Use of sulphur dioxide is kept to a bare minimum. The wine is unfined but coarsely filtered before bottling. 13% ABV.
While other bottles have often been reductive, the wine needing at least a couple of hours in a carafe to right itself, this was sweet from the get-go. Lightly candied red fruit, dark spice, slate, undergrowth and a hint of band-aid. Medium-bodied, supple, juicy and dry, with enough acidity to keep things perky. Not very tannic though a faint astringency and bitterness mark the finish. A savoury vin plaisir and a QPR winner. Drink slightly chilled. (Buy again? Yes.)
> A surprisingly good match for the chicken liver, which brought out the wine’s fruit. Excellent with the salami, unfazed by the smouldering chiles. Serviceable with the corned beef. Based on this sampling, the most picnic fare-friendly of the reds.
Bourgogne Hautes-Côtes-de-Nuits 2011, Domaine Henri Naudin-Ferrand ($27.65, 11668698)
100% Pinot Noir from vines averaging 43 years old. Manually harvested. Destemmed. Three days’ cold maceration was followed by 11 days’ alcoholic fermentation with indigenous yeasts, punch-downs and pump-overs. Undergoes malolactic fermentation. Matured 12 months on the lees, 20% in new oak barrels. Blended and filtered before bottling. 12.5% ABV.
Classic red Burg nose: red berries, old wood, beet, minerals, forest floor and hint of new oak. A medium-bodied, silky textured delight with sweet-ripe fruit, supple tannins, bright acidity and darker mineral and wood flavours that linger through the clean finish. As elegant as in earlier vintages but even purer and fresher. (Buy again? Yes.)
> Good with the chicken liver, the berry fruit coming to the fore. Worked with the salami but not with the chiles, which killed the wine. The best of the three wines with the corned beef.
Côtes du Rhône 2011, Daumen ($21.00, 11509857)
Biodynamically and organically farmed Grenache (60%), Syrah (30%) and Mourvèdre (6%) according to the SAQ (earlier vintages have included a dollop of Cinsault) from vines averaging 60 years old. Although marketed under Jean-Paul Daumen’s négociant label, the grapes come from the estate’s own vineyards. Manually harvested, partially destemmed, fermented in temperature-controlled vats with indigenous yeasts and punch-downs for about 20 days, matured approximately 12 months in concrete vats and neutral 50-hl barrels and bottled unfiltered and unfined. Sulphur is added – and then minimally – only just before bottling. 14.5% ABV.
Heady nose of lightly stewed plum, sweet spice, black pepper, leather and graphite. A suave middleweight filled – but not packed – with sweet fruit, enlivening acidity and ripe, round tannins. Pepper and spice perfume the long finish. So fresh and drinkable, the kind of wine the QPR Winner tag was made for. (Buy again? Absolutely.)
> Didn’t sing with the chicken liver. Not bad with the salami, though the chiles did the wine no favours. Very good with the corned beef. Would really shine with grilled red meat – a lamb burger, say.
MWG April 17th tasting (5/6): Pinot Noir and Pinot Nero
Savigny-lès-Beaune 1er cru 2010, Les Hauts Jarrons, Domaine de Bellène ($57.25, 12239262)
The estate is the former Domaine Nicolas Potel, now renamed but still run by Potel; the estate wines are labelled Domaine de Bellène, the négociant wines Maison Roche de Bellène. 100% organically and biodynamically farmed Pinot Noir from 50-year-old vines. Manually harvested. Vinified without additives other than sulphur dioxide. Around 40% of the grapes are destemmed. Fermentation with indigenous yeasts and at temperatures up to 32°C takes place in stainless steel tanks and old oak foudres and lasts between 15 and 25 days. The must is subsequently pressed in a vertical press, with the wine being gravity-fed into first- to third-fill oak barrels for maturation lasting a little more than a year. Unfiltered. 13.5% ABV.
Bizarre nose of smoked meat and the expected red berries, eventually gaining spicy, cedary and ferny notes. In the mouth, primary and closed. Finely structured, with sinewy tannins and fresh acidity. The silky fruit is lean, ripe and clean, the oak discreet. Minerals come out on the finish. A balanced wine with real presence but one that moved no one around the table. That was especially disappointing as the staff at the Laurier SAQ had raved about the wine, declaring it one of the best $60 red Burgs they’d tasted in ages. By coincidence, two staff members happened to be around when this was poured and both said it smelled nothing like the wine they’d tried. So, was our bottle off? (Buy again? Not without tasting another bottle first.)
Alto Adige 2010, Pinot Nero, Ludwig, Elena Walch ($36.50, 12142567)
100% Pinot Noir. Macerated at low temperatures for 48 hours. Part of the must is fermented in Slovenian oak vats, the rest in stainless steel tanks. When malolactic fermentation is completed, the wine is transferred to French oak barrels for 16 months’ maturation. 13% ABV.
Outgoing, unnuanced nose: red berries, dill, spice and oak. Smooth though, compared with the silky Hauts Jarrons, the texture verges on velvety. The fruit is rich, ripe and not particularly deep, the acidity soft, the tannins round. Sweet oak crescendos into the finish, where it’s joined by spice box flavours and a lingering astringency. Popular with some around the table but I found the oak distracting and cloying. Better in a year or two when it has digested the wood? (Buy again? Unlikely.)
An evening with Olivier Guyot (6/6)
Morey Saint-Denis grand cru 2008, Clos Saint-Denis, Domaine Olivier Guyot ($193.00, oenopole, 3 bottles/case)
100% Pinot Noir. 12.5% ABV.
Classy, layered and just beginning to open up – that’s true for the nose as well as the palate. Only a series of reconciled contradictions can hint at the wine’s allure: mouth-filling yet middleweight; intense yet fleet; structured yet supple; complex yet pure; refined yet down-to-earth (no need to give itself airs). With fruit, acidity and tannins in perfect balance, its elegance seems natural, unforced, while its depths seem unplumbable. The ever-evolving aromas and flavours – sweet berries, forest floor, sandalwood, earthy minerals, burning leaves, notes of beet, sarsaparilla, game and spice – hold you in thrall from first sniff through the very long finish. So proportionate and nuanced, so precise and complete. A thoroughbred. (Buy again? If price were no object, yes.)
An evening with Olivier Guyot (5/6)
Gevrey-Chambertin 2010, En Champs, Domaine Olivier Guyot ($66.50, oenopole, 6 bottles/case)
100% Pinot Noir from 60-year-old vines. 12.5% ABV.
Intense nose. Berries and black cherry, slightly candied, with hints of leather, wood and ink and a faint medicinal note. In the mouth, the rich, even weighty fruit is joined by mineral, oak and Asian spice flavours. Beautifully structured though still fluid: the tannins are firm but not astringent, the acidity present but not sharp. The sensation of fullness lasts well into the long finish. Young, true to the appellation (more country gent than city slicker) and full of potential. (Buy again? Sure.)
Gevrey-Chambertin 2007, Les Champs, Domaine Olivier Guyot ($66.50, oenopole, 6 bottles/case)
100% Pinot Noir from 60-year-old vines. 12.5% ABV. And, no, that’s not a typo; the cuvée recently changed names.
Defective bottle. The wine was heavily oxidized.
An evening with Olivier Guyot (4/6)
Chambolle-Musigny 2010, Vieilles vignes, Domaine Olivier Guyot ($92.75, oenopole, 3 bottles/case)
100% Pinot Noir. 12.5% ABV.
Textbook – if primary – nose: red berries, kirsch, faint notes of forest floor, violet, mushroom. Medium-bodied. Smooth and silky, rich and layered. Fruit, tannins and acidity are finely balanced, a balance that lasts through the lengthy finish. Even at this point, the oak is subtle and well integrated. A charmer. (Buy again? If I could scrape up the bucks, sure, though I’d probably be tempted to push the boat right out and fork over another $30 for the Fuées instead.)
Chambolle-Musigny 1er cru 2010, Les Fuées, Domaine Olivier Guyot ($125.00, oenopole, 3 bottles/case)
100% Pinot Noir. 12.5% ABV. Our bottle had been open for several hours.
Complex, earthy, engaging nose of Marmite, slate and mushroom against a backdrop of strawberry, black raspberry, violet and black tea, along with a faint oxidized note. Intense and fresh in the mouth. Supple yet structured. Possessed of every dimension, including the ability to suspend time. Great purity and balance and the most beguiling satiny texture. Beautiful. (Buy again? Would that I could.)
An evening with Olivier Guyot (3/6)
The Favières vineyard is located toward the bottom of the Marsannay hillside. The Guyot vines were planted in the 1980s. The estate makes another red Marsannay (dubbed La Montagne) from 90-year-old vines located at the top of the slope.
Marsannay 2010, Les Favières, Domaine Olivier Guyot ($35.75, 11906035)
100% Pinot Noir. 12% ABV. SAQ.com shows small quantities of this as being available. At the date of this posting, those bottles are all 2009s. The 2010s are in the SAQ’s warehouse and will be released in the coming weeks.
Primary: grapey nose only hinting at berries, spice, kirsch and oak. Supple, with airframe tannins and sleek acidity – silk to the 2009’s velours. The clean, ripe fruit is joined by some darker humus and mineral notes that linger into the sustained finish. Seems full of potential but a little out of sorts for now; will probably hit its stride in six months or a year. (Buy again? Yes.)
Marsannay 2009, Les Favières, Domaine Olivier Guyot ($35.75, 11906035)
100% Pinot Noir. 13% ABV. A few bottles remain in the system (showing as the 2010 on SAQ.com.
Darker and more reticent, the berries tending to black, the forest floor mixed with savoury herbs and charred oak. On the palate, the fruit is very ripe – not jammy but a little candied. Plush tannins and relatively low acidity give the wine a chewy texture. Broader than the other two but also not as deep. Some smoke appears on the finish. On its own, an amiable wine though more earthbound, less vital than its older and younger siblings. (Buy again? Not in preference to the 2010.)
Marsannay 2008, Les Favières, Domaine Olivier Guyot ($36.25 as a private import in 2012, NLA)
100% Pinot Noir. 12.5% ABV.
Beginning to express itself: red berries, leafmould, spice, kirsch and a touch of cola and vanilla oak. In a phrase, ça pinote. Still tight – maybe firm is a better word – but full, round and well balanced. The ripe fruit is structured by sinewy tannins and shot through with sliver threads of acidity. Sustained finish. The most complete of the three, though that may be partly a function of age. (Buy again? Moot but yes.)
This vertical showed the accuracy of Olivier’s vintage judgements: the unappreciated 2008 turning out classic, structured, long-lived wines; the overhyped 2009 giving birth to fruit-forward wines often short on finesse and best drunk in their youth; and 2010 a winegrower’s vintage capable of producing elegant, balanced expressions of terroir. He suggests drinking the Favières fairly young with grilled beef tenderloin.
Brett happens 