Posts Tagged ‘oenopole’
A sweet suite of Burgs from oenopole
oenopole‘s Theo Diamantis recently led a tasting of the agency’s new arrivals from Burgundy – mostly from Domaine Naudin-Ferrand – plus a red ringer from Alsace. All the wines are made from organically farmed grapes; the Naudin-Ferrands with the nature moniker have next to no added sulphur. They proved to be Burgundies of remarkable finesse, the best 2009s from the region that I’ve tasted and the kinds of wine that really float my boat.
The first four wines are available at the SAQ. The others are private imports and can be ordered by the case from oenopole.
FIVE WHITES
Bourgogne Aligoté 2009, Domaine Naudin-Ferrand ($17.25, 11589703)
Light lemon, wax, chalk and eventually fennel. Relatively soft for an Aligoté but by no means acid-deficient. Builds to a mouth-watering, crystalline finish. Pure and tonic if a little less characterful than the Chardonnays.
Bourgogne 2010, Soeur Cadette, Domaine de la Cadette ($18.65, 11460660)
Minerals, green grape, a hint of lime. Zingy acid balanced by ripe fruit. Long minerally finish that turns a bit buttery as the wine warms. “Simple but not facile,” someone commented. Clean and delicious, I’d add.
Bourgogne-Véselay 2010, La Châtelaine, Domaine de la Cadette ($22.10, 11094621)
Lemon-lime with hints of toast, tropical fruit and eventually orange. Rich on entry, sweet-fruity on the mid-palate, puckery on the finish. Bright, bracing and clean as a whistle: quite the contrast to the bottle opened at the January MWG tasting.
Chablis 1er cru Beauregard 2009, Domaine Pattes Loup ($35.00, 11349072)
Classy nose: lemon, puff pastry, gun flint. Plush texture. Layers of flavour though more about minerals than fruit. Excellent balance and length. Lots of bang for the buck. Probably not a long keeper.
Bourgogne Hautes-Côtes de Beaune 2009, Nature, Domaine Naudin-Ferrand ($36,25, 12 btls/case)
Astounding nose: pineapple, brioche dough and, unbelievably, menthol. Buttery and hazelnutty attack, turning minerally and lemon curdy. Pulsing with fruit and acidity. Long, herb-tinged finish. Special.
SIX REDS
Bourgogne Hautes-Côtes de Nuits 2009, Nature, Domaine Naudin-Ferrand ($39.75, 12 btls/case)
Initial cherry and spice with hints of hay, gaining mineral, beet and red meat notes. Ça pinote. Delicate. Fruit starts sweet, turns sourer. Light, firm tannins and some oak emerge on the finish. Give it a few years and it’ll be a sleek and silky beaut.
Bourgogne Hautes-Côtes de Beaune 2009, Domaine Naudin-Ferrand ($25.35, 12 btls/case)
Forest floor, mushroom, red berries, less exuberantly Pinot Noir than its nature siblings. Fine and delicate but showing lots of structure. Woody undertones and tight (but ripe) tannins. Needs a couple of years to knit together.
Bourgogne Hautes-Côtes de Beaune 2009, Nature, Domaine Naudin-Ferrand ($37.75, 12 btls/case)
Lovely. Red berries, leaf mould, hints of beet and cola: once again, ça pinote. Supple and fluid. Pure, ripe fruit, fine tannins, a sheen of acidity. Long. Complete and surprisingly approachable.
Alsace Pinot Noir 2009, LN012, Domaine Gérard Schueller ($48.00, 6 btls/case)
Only 680 bottles made. Aromatic, complex, funky nose: dark berries, spice, game, straw, cola, “dill pickle chips,” dried pine needles and more. Medium-bodied. Dry. Spicy red fruit mixed with, beets, game, leather, dried wood. Complex and layered. Long “savoury, salty, tamari” finish. Lots of umami going on but not everybody’s cup of tea (though those of us who liked it, loved it).
Aloxe-Corton 2009, Domaine Naudin-Ferrand ($50.25, 6 btls/case, NLA)
Strawberry pastry, turned earth, forest floor and a hint of oak. Rich but supple. Oak and tannins need time to integrate. Long. Pure, elegant and delicious. A favourite of just about everyone around the table.
Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru Les Damodes 2009, Domaine Naudin-Ferrand ($99.50, 6 blts/case)
Class in a glass. Closed but glorious nose: mineral and berries, fields and forests. Primary but elegant. Layered deep cherry fruit. Very structured and tight yet so fine and balanced. Long, long finish. Full of potential: not peaking for another ten or 20 years.
Tami’s 2010 Grillo
A white grape variety indigenous to Sicily, Grillo is best known as the main component of Marsala. In recent years, it’s been made into table wines, often blends (frequently with Chardonnay). Tami, the négociant firm owned and operated by Arianna Occhipinti and friends, have gone the mono-varietal route and with good reason: their 2010 Grillo is a gem.
IGT Sicilia 2010, Grillo, Tami ($18.50, oenopole)
100% Grillo. Made from purchased organically farmed grapes, fermented with native yeasts, lightly filtered before bottling. Rich gold in the glass. Lemons, chalk and whiffs of hay and flowers on the nose, gaining some dusky spice as it warms and breathes. Quite dry. Round and a little weighty, though far from heavy. Soft-spoken fruit and just enough acidity to keep things fresh. Lingering, bitter-edged, mineral-tinged, come-back-for-another-sip finish. 12.5% ABV.
In Quebec, Tami wines are available on a private import basis and sell out within days of arrival (restaurateurs know a QPR winner when they see one). The shipment this bottle came from is long gone. Until the SAQ gets its head screwed on right and starts listing all three wines, if you want to feel the Tami love, you’ll have to keep checking the oenopole website.
MWG tasting with Pierre Breton: report
Loire winemaker Pierre Breton, who with his wife Catherine owns Domaine Breton, was in town for the Salon des vins d’importation privée. On Friday, November 4, just off the plane from Paris, he came to the MWG’s subterranean lair to lead a tasting of six wines from his current release.
As a group, the wines seemed like a reflection of the man: natural, precise, articulate, speaking of their place, never shouting, always repaying close attention.
Vouvray 2010, La Dilettante ($21.35)
100% Chenin Blanc. Undergoes malo to soften the acidity. Spends eight months in two- to three-year-old barrels. Nose of wax, chalk, hints of honeydew melon and wet wool, gaining a floral note as the evening wore on. Soft on the attack. Pure flavours as minerally as they are fruity. A refreshing sourness but no sharpness. Straightforward yet also layered and very long. Delicious and oh, so drinkable. Serve on its own or with fish, white meats, sweetbreads. A favourite of everyone at the tasting.
Bourgueil 2010, Trinch ($21.35)
Young-vine Cabernet Franc. Brambly red berries and black currants along with the leaves and stems, spice, hints of game, charcoal and eventually gingerbread. Soft on the palate: a light but velvety texture and very pure fruit. Clean finish with a slight tannic rasp. Simple but in no way boring. Served lightly chilled, a wine for pounding back. Not a keeper.
Chinon 2010, Beaumont ($21.35)
100% Cab Franc. The bottle at the tasting was, unfortunately, ever so slightly corked. It was still possible to see that this is a medium-bodied, well-balanced wine, more structured than the Trinch, with ripe fruit and some aging potential.
Bourgueil 2009, Clos Sénéchal ($29.60)
100% Cab Franc. A wine to cellar while drinking your Trinch and Beaumont. Closed but deep nose of spice, red fruit, green leaves and slate. Medium-bodied. Intensely pure fruit. Fine structure. Tight but not harsh tannins. Long. Give it four or five years in the cellar and it’ll be singing (or, if unable to defer the pleasure, carafe it for a couple of hours).
Bourgueil 2009, Nuits d’Ivresse ($45)
100% Cab Franc. The nose again closed, more spicy than fruity, with an underlay of leafmould and slate. Tight yet supple on the palate, the fruit, tannins and acidity adroitly balanced. Long, savoury finish and a lingering dryness. Not very expressive – a little austere, even – but full of potential.
Bourgueil 2009, Les Perrières ($30)
Price notwithstanding, Les Perrières is the domaine’s flagship cuvée. Made from old-vine (70+ years) Cab Franc, aged in one- to two-year-old casks. Pierre says that in good vintages it can last up to 40 years. The 2009 has a more expressive nose than the Nuits’s: dried dill, sweet fruit, spice box and a hint of oak. More supple and accessible. Pure and balanced, the core of sweet fruit wrapped in a tight net of tannins. Long, astringent finish. Will only improve with time.
Bourgueil 2005, Les Perrières ($35, importation valise)
Beginning to open up. Gorgeous bouquet, the kind you can get lost in: sweet fruit, violets, turned earth, planed wood and a whiff of spicy perfume. Still very young but the tannins are more evolved, less astringent than the 2009’s, the texture more caressing, with a promise of silkiness in store. Ripe fruit swells on the mid-palate. Long, earthy finish. A beautiful bottle.
All the wines except the last are brought in by oenopole, though they’re disappearing fast (I’ve already seen the Vouvray prominently featured on three restaurant wine lists).
Tami double whammy
Good news! Our favourite Silcilian winemaker, Arianna Occhipinti, and partners have launched a négociant line of affordable wines under the Tami label. They buy grapes from local organic growers and make the wines in Arianna’s facilities. In addition to the two wines discussed here, there’s a Grillo, which I’ve not managed to snag a bottle of. All three were brought into Quebec by oenopole earlier this spring and sold out in about five minutes. Tami is reportedly ramping up production and oenopole says availability should be much less tight in the future.
Sicilia IGT 2009, Frappato, Tami ($18.25, oenopole)
Lovable nose: red berry-flavoured hard candies, dusty sun-baked earth, gaining some leafmould. Sweet and sour cherry on entry. Medium bodied. Light tannins. Bit of an acid bite and a streak of residual sugar. Turns darker and drier on the finish with its lingering mild bitterness (cherry pits?). Simple but not facile. Label suggests serving with appetizers and fish. Didn’t stand up well to a pork and mushroom stew perfumed with anchovy and marjoram, though I could see it working with grilled salmon. Serve lightly chilled.
Sicilia IGT 2009, Nero d’Avola, Tami ($18.25, oenopole)
Plum and blackberry, shoebox, hints of dried herb, terra cotta and red meat. Medium bodied. Layered flavours: bright red fruit at first, then darker, with an elusive spice note (star anise?). Tannins still light but so much more present than in the Frappato. Long with a lingering astringence. The wine’s welterweight and acidity mean it avoids even a hint of heaviness. Paired well with that pork stew and with a merguez pizza, testifying to its adaptability to a wide range of savoury dishes.
Compared with Occhipinti’s flagship wines – Il Frappato and Siccagno (100% Nero d’Avola), which run about twice the price – these are simpler, more straightforward, made for immediate consumption. Or, to put it another way, if those wines are not out of place at formal dinners, these wines are for everyday drinking, for al fresco meals, for throwing back: Italian equivalents of a great bistro wine.
La Stoppa’s 2009 Gutturnio
Colli Piacentini 2009, Gutturnio, La Stoppa ($19.40, 12 bottles/case)
A blend of organically farmed Barbera and Bonarda. Fermented with native yeasts.
So intriguing. The nose is unlike any other: hay loft, old leather-bound books, dried beef, turned earth exposed to the sun for a while, black tea leaves and a hint of barnyard against a gossamer backdrop of red fruit stewed with spices. (If it’s not obvious, I’m grasping for descriptors.) The first sip brings a surprise: a sparkling tingle. Judging by the label, this isn’t the estate’s frizzante cuvée that bears the same name but it almost could be. Exceedingly dry yet light and fleet on the palate: acid galore, a fluid texture, light and raspy-bordering-on-rustic tannins and a long sour-fruity finish, all lifted by that spritz. Lingering dried wood (or is it lightly roasted coffee?) and faint astringency. You’d never suspect it was 13.5% ABV.
The fruit sweetens and the carbon dioxide diminishes as the wine breathes.
Cries out for salumi, though it’d also be great with spaghetti with pesto rosso, grilled sausages or just about anything in tomato sauce. A private import from oenopole, and it looks like they’ve got some left.
Be there or be square
The 2010 edition of Raspipav‘s Salon des vins d’importation privée, the city’s most enjoyable wine show, is taking place this Sunday and Monday, November 14 and 15, at the Marché Bonsecours in Old Montreal. The doors are open to the general public from noon to 7 p.m. on Sunday and from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Monday. $15 gets you admission, a tasting glass and a few coupons you use to pay for the wines you taste. Additional coupons are available for purchase, though in practice few booths charge for tastes if they see that you’re serious about wine appreciation.
More than 500 wines, none of them available at the SAQ, will be poured. A pride of visiting winemakers will also be on hand to present their products and answer questions.
Several agencies have events with winemakers planned in the days before and after the salon. For example, on Sunday evening, La QV will be holding what looks like a fun and affordable cocktail dînatoire with Spanish and French winemakers in their new space on Beaubien. Rézin is organizing several events, including a dinner on Thursday featuring some of the delightful wines of Gaillac’s Domaine de la Causse Marines at Les Trois Petits Bouchons. And oenopole is hosting François Barmès of the biodynamic Alsatian estate Barmès-Buecher for a “six à sec” at Le Comptoir Charcuteries et Vins on Monday and a $90 (taxes included) four-course, six-wine meal at Au Cinquième Péché on Tuesday.
oenopole at the SAQ
Quick takes on eight bottles brought in by oenopole and available at the SAQ. Prices – several of which were recently cut due to exchange rate fluctuations – are in Canadian dollars and include 13% sales tax.
Mantinia 2009, Moschofilero, Domaine Tselepos ($19.55 [was $19.95], 11097485)
Flowers, minerals and white grapefruit. Bright and clean. More about the front of the mouth than the finish (something I’d say about all three of the Greek whites). Slight carbon dioxide prickle. Dry, bitter-tinged finish. Very enjoyable.
Vin de pays de Markopoulo 2009, Savatiano, Domaine Papagiannakos ($15.85, 11097451)
Lemon, soap and minerals. Subtler than expected in the mouth. Peach/pear notes, bright but not glaring acidity, a rounding hint of residual sugar and, again, a bitter-tinged finish. Great QPR.
Vin de pays des Cyclades 2009, Atlantis, Domaine Argyros ($15.95 [was $16.75], 11097477)
Minerals above all with whiffs of sour butter, dried herbs, preserved lemon, charcoal/smoke. Quartzy and a bit zesty. Clean, acidic and savoury but not a lot of fruit. Excellent aperitif or as an accompaniment to raw shellfish, grilled fish, pikilia platter, etc. This has proved to be a big hit at the SAQ; a third shipment will be arriving this fall.
Bourgogne Vézelay 2008, La Châtelaine, Domaine la Cadette ($19.75, 11094621)
True to form and more affordable than ever. Nose of lemon, chalk and sour milk with hints of green hay. A pure, clean and bright mouthful of oats and minerals with flavours building to a caramel-scented finish. Very long. If there’s a better Chardonnay at the price, I’m not aware of it. The 2009 should be showing up soon.
Crémant d’Alsace 2007, Brut, Domaine Barmès Bucher ($21.55 [was $22.35], 10985851)
Yeasty, floral nose. Fruity (oxidizing yellow apples?) on the palate with fine teasing bubbles. Initial hint of residual sugar gives way to a dryish, bitterish finish.
Alsace 2007, Riesling Herrenweg, Domaine Barmès Bucher ($29.70, 11153117)
If one can talk about QPR in a $30 wine, this Herrenweg has it. Serious and structured, long and wonderfully pure. Bursting with stone, lemon and petrol. Very dry. Zesty acidity and a hint of spritz. Classic and complete. Almost sold out.
Côtes du Rhône 2007, Lieu-dit Clavin, Domaine de la Vieille Julienne ($25.70, 10919133)
The best vintage of this wine I’ve drunk. Still in the massive, even monolithic, fruit-dominated style (at least in its youth) but in no way galumphing. Heady bouquet of spicy plum and choco-cherry with notes of sawdust, sweat, red meat, ink earth. Tannins tight but fine. Long. Almost sold out, though a small new shipment will reportedly arrive soon along with the 2008.
Rasteau 2006, Domaine Gourt de Mautens (now $62.25 [was $70.50], 11217774)
Dark plum and spice over earth and wood. 15.5% but elegant: smooth, rich and long albeit not particularly deep (depth may come with time). Fruit-forward but savoury too. A Châteauneuf in everything but name.
Brett happens 