Posts Tagged ‘Natural wine’
MWG September 11th tasting: Grounded, alive, drinkable
Drawing inspiration from natural winemakers such as Yvon Métras and Dominique Derain and mentored by the likes of Eric Pfifferling and Olivier Cousin, young Benoit Courault worked at Domaine des Sablonettes before setting up shop in Faye d’Anjou about eight years ago. His vineyards, which total about 5 hectares, are planted to Chenin Blanc, Cabernet Franc, Grolleau and a little Cabernet Sauvignon. He farms organically, works the soil with a horse, adopts a non-interventionist approach in the cellar and minimizes the use of sulphur. For an extended profile with lots of photographs, see this post on the Wine Terroirs blog.
Vin de France 2012, Les Tabeneaux, Benoit Courault ($28.70, private import, 12 bottles/case)
A middle-Loire blend of organically farmed Cabernet Franc and Grolleau (about 2/3 and 1/3 respectively) from five parcels. Destemmed. Fermented with indigenous yeasts. Matured in concrete tanks. Minimal or no added sulphur. 12% ABV. Quebec agent: Glou.
Fresh but not herbaceous nose: plum, black raspberry, a floral note, a hint of ash. Smooth and round in the mouth, with soft tannins, an acidic hum, pure, ripe fruit, a slatey substrate and a long, clean, tartish finish. So grounded, so alive, so drinkable. Proved the perfect charcuterie wine, unfazed even by pickled pork tongue. (Buy again? Yes.)
(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)
MWG September 11th tasting: Brave Roussanne
After working for several years with the Cave coopérative d’Estézargues, Édouard Laffitte, who had no background in farming, decided to set out on his own. Invited by Loïc Roure, newly settled in the Roussillon, to share the winemaking facilities he had just acquired for his Domaine du Possible, Laffitte began searching for vines, specifically ones growing in north-facing, high-altitude vineyards, the better to make wines that were fresh and not excessively alcoholic. He eventually pieced together 6.7 hectares of parcels in three communes near Lansac to make the Domaine Le Bout du Monde, so named because visitors told him that getting there was like travelling to the end of the earth.
The vineyards are farmed organically and worked manually. The wines are vinified by soil type (shale, gneiss and granite). The estate currently makes five reds (Grenache, Carignan and Syrah alone and in blends) and one white. We tasted the latter.
Vin de France 2012, Brave Margot, Domaine Le Bout du Monde ($32.00, private import, 12 bottles/case)
100% Roussanne from organically farmed old vines grown in granitic soils. Manually harvested. Macerated one week (1/3 destemmed, 2/3 whole clusters) then pressed. Fermented with indigenous yeasts. Matured in old barrels. Unfiltered and unfined. 13% ABV. Quebec agent: Glou.
Another cloudy white: pale bronze-gold. Lovely nose of honey, spice, “floral pear” and a hint of ash. The grape’s verging-on-oily texture is cut by laser-like acidity while complex fruit and dazzling minerals dance across the palate. The long sweet-sour-bitter finish brings Meyer lemon peel to mind. Far and away the liveliest and mineralliest Roussanne it’s been my pleasure to encounter. (Buy again? For sure.)
(Flight: 3/9)
MWG September 11th tasting: Unmuscadets
Located in Saint-Julien-de-Concelles, a few kilometres east of the Loire estuary, Marc Pesnot’s 13-hectare Domaine de Sénéchalière has schistous soils and is planted mainly to Melon de Bourgogne (aka Muscadet) along with Folle Blanche and Abouriou. He farms organically, works the soil manually and favours a non-interventionalist approach to winemaking. Despite being in the heart of the Muscadet AOC, Pesnot is insistent that he doesn’t make Muscadet.
Vin de France 2013, Miss Terre, Domaine de la Sénéchalière ($29.00, private import, 12 bottles/case)
100% Melon de Bourgogne from vines between 50 and 80 years old. Manually harvested and destemmed. Alcoholic fermentation with indigenous yeasts lasts around four months. Unlike Muscadets, this also undergoes malolactic fermentation. Unfiltered and unfined. A tiny amount of sulphur (20 mg/l) is added at bottling. 12% ABV. The cuvée’s name refers to the soil (terre) the grapes are grown in and to the mystery of malolactic fermentation. Quebec agent: Glou.
Lovely nose of elderflower, lemon and minerals. Light- to medium-bodied and quite dry, with a silky texture and a soft tartness. Squeaky clean fruit, a touch of bitter lemon, lots of minerals and a long, saline finish add up to a satisfying, food-friendly sipper. (Buy again? Yes.)
Vin de France 2013, Chapeau Melon, Domaine de la Sénéchalière ($31.50, private import, 12 bottles/case)
The cuvée’s name is a triple pun since it is French for bowler (there’s one on the label), French for “hats off to the Melon grape” and the name of a restaurant where the wine has been served since it opened. 100% Melon de Bourgogne. Fermentation with indigenous yeasts lasts about a year, maturation on the lees about six months. Sees only stainless steel until bottling. No added sulphur. 12% ABV. Quebec agent: Glou.
Compared with the Miss Terre, far more along the lines of how one imagines a natural wine. Cloudy in the glass. Unusual nose: yeasty with oxidized and pickle notes, white fruit, some mastic, sea spray, spice. Despite the spritzy tingle, the wine’s texture borders on creamy. While it’s fruity (sour apples verging on cider), it’s also quite dry. The layers of complexity include veins of minerals. The finish is long. Evolved and improved over the course of the evening. I didn’t know quite what to make of this at first but ended up convinced. (Buy again? Yes.)
(Flight: 2/9)
MWG September 11th tasting: Natural gas
Glou partner Jack Jacob joined the Mo’ Wine Group on September 11 to lead a tasting of several of the agency’s private imports. This being Glou, all the wines were natural (see this earlier post for a working definition) and many of the winemakers involved have shunned the restrictive controlled appellation designation. We began with an impressive sparkler.
Vin de France 2013, Pet’Sec Blanc, Domaine des Capriades ($31.50, private import, 12 bottles/case)
Based in the Loire Valley’s Touraine region, Capriades founder and co-owner, Pascal Potaire, is considered the king of pet nats (short for pétillants naturels, natural sparkling wines produced using the méthode ancestrale). This example is made from organically farmed Chenin Blanc with a dollop of Cabernet Franc (70-30, according to some reports). Spontaneous fermentation without additives. Maturation in old barrels. Bottled unfiltered and unsulphured and closed with a crown cap. 12% ABV. Quebec agent: Glou.
Complex bouquet: apples, lemon, chalk, hint of perfume, eventually pipe tobacco. Fine bubbles, trenchant acidity, clean fruit, veritable strata of minerals and a very long tart and saline finish. Pet nats have a reputation for being summer sippers – off-dry fizzies for uncritical drinking – but this bone-dry and bracing wine is far more serious and accomplished than that: a refreshing and engaging aperitif that’s also substantial enough to accompany oysters on the half shell. (Buy again? Naturally.)
(Flight: 1/9)
Balanced bruisers
Côtes du Rhône 2011, Domaine de Fontbonau ($37.00, 12280134)
Longtime friends Frédéric Engerer (president of Château Latour) and Jérôme Malet (owner of Domaine Sarda-Malet) joined forces in 2008 to acquire the Fontbonau estate, which is located about 15 km northwest of Nyons. The third vintage of this wine is an 80-20 blend of Grenache and Syrah from organically farmed 70- and 30-year-old vines respectively. Vinified on a parcel-by-parcel basis. After manual harvesting and sorting, the grapes are destemmed, cold-macerated and fermented with alternating pump-overs and manual punch-downs. The wine is transferred by gravity to a mix of new (10%) and old barrels and a few 600-litre demi-muids for 12 months’ maturation. Bottled unfiltered and unfined. 15% ABV per SAQ.com, 15.5% per the label. Quebec agent: SAQ.
Pleasing, warming nose: plum, sweet spice, whiffs of garrigue, a peppery note and a hint of leather. Rich but not heavy, extracted but not a bomb. Possessed of round tannins, fresh acidity and a certain dark-minerally depth. The long, spicy finish is marked by a fine astringency and vaporous alcohol. A surprisingly well-balanced bruiser that punches above its AOC weight. (Buy again? Not my style but those who appreciate heady Rhône reds needn’t hesitate.)
Opened at a BYOB (so no notes taken), the Côtes du Rhône Villages – Cairanne 2010, L’Ebrescade, Domaine Richaud ($50.00, 12205097) is a 40-30-30 Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre blend of organically farmed grapes grown on vines between 20 and 50 years old that’s fermented (with indigenous yeasts) and matured in used barrels and bottled unfiltered and unfined with little or no added sulphur. The estate is represented in Quebec by Rézin. It had an entrancing bouquet of plum, fig, black cherry, fired minerals and violet. In the mouth, it proved a big wine with dense fruit, vigorous if fine-grained tannins, sturdy acidity and a long, heady finish. A monolith, it needs another five years or so to open up, though like the Fontbonau, it will always be a warmer (15% ABV), never a refresher. (Buy again? Not my style but those who appreciate heady Rhône reds needn’t hesitate.)
MWG July 17th tasting: Syrah shoot-out
Syrah 2010, Okanagan Valley, Le Vieux Pin ($54.00, 12178674)
Mostly Syrah from vines between five and 11 years old grown in two Okanagan sub-appellations. As is often the case in Côte-Rôtie, a dollop (around 2%) of Viognier is added prior to fermentation. Matured 17 months in French oak barrels, 20% new. 13.5% ABV. Quebec agent: Les vins Alain Bélanger.
On the nose and in the mouth, predicated around a core of sweet fruit and overtoned with spice, meat, graphite and oak. The medium weight, lean tannins and sleek acidity prompted on taster to describe the wine as “linear,” with all that implies in terms of flow and depth. Elegant for a New World Syrah, though I’d like it even better with less oak. Still quite young at this point, so a few more years in the bottle may digest the wood and deepen the fruit. The New World aficionados around the table preferred this to the Côte-Rôtie. (Buy again? Maybe.)
Côte-Rôtie 2012, Nature, Jean-Michel Stephan ($72.75, 11953616)
Last year the “nature” on the label was blacked out with a magic marker; this year it isn’t. A blend of Syrah (90% or 80% depending on whom you believe) and Viognier (10% or 20%) from organically farmed vines between 15 and 45 years old. Half of the Syrah – a clone (some would say a separate variety) known locally as Sérine – underwent semi-carbonic maceration. The Viognier was macerated on the skins for 15 hours, then destemmed and pressed. Alcoholic fermentation (with regular pump-overs for the first two weeks) took place at 15°C for five days, then at 31°C until complete. Matured 18 months in Burgundy barrels ranging from two to six years old. Unfiltered and unfined. No added sulphur. 12% ABV. Quebec agent: Glou.
An echt-Syrah nose of violets, black pepper, red berries, animale. Sits suppley on the palate yet is intensely present. The remarkably pure and fresh fresh fruit is supported by a framework of fine tannins, carried on unfurling skeins of silky acid and sustained well into the long, aromatic finish. Time in the cellar will surely reveal more depth but, for drinking here and now, this is a joy, albeit an expensive one. (Buy again? Budget permitting, yes.)
MWG June 12th tasting: A sweet, sparkling, natural Garganega
Veneto 2011, Dolce Racrei, Davide Spillare ($40.00, private import, 6 bottles/case)
100% Garganega from organically farmed (though apparently not certified as such) vines. Manually harvested and placed on wooden frames for about four months to partially raisinate. Fermented in stainless steel tanks with indigenous yeasts for six months. The wine is then bottled unfiltered, unfined and with no added sulphur. In the spring and summer, as the cellar warms up, the wine resumes fermenting, converting some of the residual sugar into alcohol, producing carbon dioxide gas as a by-product and thereby creating the sparkle (see méthode ancestral). 13.5% ABV. Quebec agent: La QV/Insolite.
Hazy pale gold with a fine bead. Intriguing, aromatic nose: orange marzipan, brioche, pear clafoutis and a whiff of something lactic. In the mouth, it’s a softly effervescent middleweight, a tad sweeter than demi-sec but with the sugar checked by abundant acidity. Flavours? Baked apple dominates, hay field and chalk chime in. An orange wine-like hint of bitter tannins colour the finish. Odd but interesting – a great way to end a great tasting. (Buy again? Sure.)
MWG June 12th tasting: A natural CDR
Côtes-du-Rhône 2011, Le Claux, Domaine La Roche Buissière ($36.65, private import, 6 bottles/case)
The 18-hectare estate is located northeast of Vaison-La-Romaine and has been farmed organically since 1980. This is a blend of Grenache (90%) and Syrah (10%) from 50-year-old vines. Manually harvested. Fermented with indigenous yeasts. Unfiltered and unfined. No additives were used in making the wine, including sulphur. 13.5% ABV. Quebec agent: La QV/Insolite.
Black raspberry and spice – black pepper above all – with hints of olive, garrigue and licorice. A medium-bodied, juicy mouthful. Fine tannins texture the silky ripe fruit while bright acidity lifts the mid-palate and enlivens the clean, mineral-shaded finish. A bit overshadowed by its more outgoing companions but, on its own terms, really quite enjoyable. (Buy again? Sure, though I wish it were under $30.)
MWG June 12th tasting: Balearic warbler
Sistema Vinari was created on a lark in 2010 to make wines not to sell but to share with friends and trade with other local winemakers. 2012 is its first commercial vintage. The estate specializes in local grape varieties, though it does allow a little Monastrell and Syrah into the mix, and favours a non-interventionist approach. The wines’ names and minimalist labels are provisional. The only listed distributors are on Majorca, in Barcelona, Madrid and Valencia, in Australia and here in Quebec.
Vi de la terra de Mallorca 2012, Château Paquita, Sistema Vinari ($33.00, private import, 6 bottles/case)
This blend is made from organically farmed (but uncertified as such) Callet (40%), Manto Negro (40%), Monastrell (aka Mourvèdre, 15%), Syrah (5%). The grapes are manually harvested and fermented with indigenous yeasts in stainless steel tanks. Alcoholic fermentation of the Callet and Manto Negro lasts 20 to 25 days and is temperature-controlled (26°C or less). The Monastrell and Syrah undergo carbonic maceration. The wine is matured for six months in fifth-fill 500-litre oak barrels and refined three months in stainless steel tanks. Bottled unfiltered, unfined and with no added sulphur and aged in the bottle for five months before release. Total production: 4,500 regular bottles and 90 magnums. 13% ABV. Quebec agent: La QV/Insolite.
Deep and engaging nose of peppery plum and raspberry with accents of cinnamon, leaf, graphite, smoke and leather. Medium-bodied and velours-textured. The spicy fruit – dominant but not heavy, structured by round tannins, brightened by sustained acidity, deepened by coal and old wood notes – lasts through the long, clean finish. This elegant, savoury, food-friendly wine is a real find. (Buy again? With pleasure.)
Brett happens 