Moon Palace, Koehler-Ruprecht, Larmandier, Burn Cottage, Dard & Ribo. Notes to follow...
02/16/2011
02/10/2011
Real Wine Tour - Day 6 - Marc Ollivier
Yes, the posts are out of order and furthermore I'm blogging from the comfort of home. Writing while on the road is somewhat less glamorous than it seems especially if the only method you have to compose and post your writing is an iPhone, a buggy app and indifferent WiFi connections.
Visiting Domaine de la Pepiere was one of the highlights of the Real Wine Tour 2011 and this is always a twelve hour affair since Marc and his wife love to put on quite a party for their American guests. From previous attendees I gather that each year the feast gets larger and more elaborate so when we strolled passed a table of langoustines, oysters and various wild game terrines on the way to the cellar this was only the very tip of the iceberg. While I was seriously work-minded for the first half of the day at Pepiere I have to confess that I did not take notes for the library wines we drank through the course of the evening. A rare treat was Andre-Michel Bregeon crashing our party and bringing us several amazing magnums of his wines. It was moving to seem him so humble when we gave him a standing ovation when he had to leave, he will be retiring soon and there appears to be no one to take over his estate. Luckily Marc Ollivier is working with a young assistant, Remy and they've started to merge their holdings so it looks like there will be a long future for Pepiere.
While it is possible to find some truly dreadful Muscadets in the United States, for the most part all the best estates have thriving export markets here so the overall quality of Muscadet in the US far exceeds that in France. It might be more accurate to observe that I just hang out with the right crowd where Bossard, Bregeon, and Landron flow freely in addition to Luneau-Papin and Pepiere, therefore my judgement on such matters may be impaired. But back to Marc Ollivier. All hand-harvested which is increasingly rare in a region that is so easily machine farmed but Marc pointed out that by manually harvesting he gets healthier fruit and with healthier fruit he doesn't have to discard any portion of his must...
This is where things got really enlightening. For years I've been mistrustful of marketing terms like biodynamic, or natural or organic because they represent one fixed step in the whole process of making wine. If an organic vigneron machine-harvests and then has to treat his must with more sulfur is she any better or worse than a conventional vigneron who may occasionally spray but hand-harvests and uses minimal sulfur. The biodynamics, or the minimal sulfur or the hand harvesting is besides the point, like a blind man having to describe an elephant while only holding the trunk. The web of steps necessary to make a wine that is alive and vibrant cannot be reduced to a simple marketing slogan. Marc Ollivier farms organically because he gets healthier fruit, he picks by hand because his harvesters can make sure only the best fruit makes it to the cellar, he needs healthy fruit so the first pressings which are full of natural yeasts can be retained. In estates where the fruit is not so pristine either through lazy farming or machine harvesting they routinely have to discard the initial 15% of the pressing because of all the impurities it contains. If you have healthy must you need less sulfur and if you age the wine on its lees for an extended period of time it is more stable and will not have to be filtered severely before bottling. The process is a sum of its parts and that is the only way to explain it. This isn't a very succinct slogan however and a little too ranty for the back of a bottle.
From which vineyard would you like your wine to come from?
There are dozens of vats at Pepiere from smaller upright stainless steel tanks to underground concrete tanks. These allow for each parcel at the estate to be fermented separately. Nine vats will be used to make the blend for the basic Muscadet in 2010. There are two vats of Briord by comparison. When the grapes from each lot are brought to the cellar they are pneumatically pressed and pumped into a tank according to size. The must is given four days to settle and begin to ferment. If the ferment does not begin in four days Marc will inoculate the vat from one that is already fermenting. While this does not happen often it allows him avoid using commercial yeasts. The basic Muscadet usually remains on its lees through early Spring but in 2009 everything moved so quickly that he bottled some Muscadet in January which is very unusual for the estate. Marc reports that 2010 was a very dry summer and after a green harvest there were only about 8 bunches of fruit per vine. Overall yields were around 40hl/ha.
The notes:
(2009?) Bulles
A new sparkling wine from Marc Ollivier that is seriously gulpable. Made from 100% Melon, without sulfur and bottled from tank with active yeasts for the secondary fermentation. While there are 20 g/l of residual sugar it comes across as drier than the lab analysis but it is definitely in a crowd-pleaser sort of style.
2010 Pepiere Cuvee 1 - La Croix - harvested 9/13/10
Granite soil, very mineral, tart apple but with some earthy bass notes, used to provide freshness to the final cuvée.
2010 Pepiere Cuvee 15 - harvested 9/14/10
Located close to the cave and some of the oldest organically farmed vines on the property. Vibrant, citrus, energetic, dusty mineral finish
2010 Pepiere Cuvee 4 - Clos de Briords - harvested 9/17/10
From some younger vines on the property (actually 30 years old!) and while it is in the Clos de Briords it goes into the estate Muscadet because of it's youth. Fruitier cuve, meyer lemon with a sweet talc minerality, very engaging and pleasing
2010 Pepiere Cuvee 2 - Clos de Briords - harvested 9/20/10
Only 13 year old vines from the Clos de Briords, these also get declassified into the estate Muscadet. A little muddled, unfocused unlike Cuvee 4, simple and mineral. Fresh.
2010 Pepiere Cuvee 16 - harvested 9/22/10
Near the cave and the village. Most forceful nose of the bunch, smoky mineral, flinty, solid with bass notes of mineral, very good.
2010 Pepiere Cuvee 26 - Moulin de la Gustaie - harvested 9/25/10
All gneiss and granite, vines between 20-60 years old. Coiled, nervy, all mineral and structure, an excellent backbone. Makes your mouth water.
2010 Pepiere Assemblage #1 - 45% #2, 45% #26, 10% #4
Did you get that? Very mineral, racy, firmly dry, poised with a green apple finish.
2010 Pepiere Assemblage #2 - #15 & #16 (oldest organic vines)
Sweeter fruit impression, odd fermentation esters seem to be lingering but vibrant and energetic.
2010 Pepiere Briords Cuvee 7 (1 of 2) - harvested 9/15/10
An 18 day fermentation without any problems. High-toned, lemongrass?, pushy aromatics, a juicy sweet-tart tension, very mineral, frank, punchy acidity. Seems like it wants to fight.
2010 Pepiere Briords Cuvee ? (2 of 2) - harvested 9/16/10
Lush palate feel, but then linear finish. A thirty day fermentation. Strange to taste in comparison to the first Briords Cuve, still unresolved at this point. Overall much edgier despite the initial weight on the palate- seems promising.
2010 Pepiere Briords Assemblage - 60% Cuvee 7, 40% Cuvee ?
And the sum is greater than the parts, this really notches up the tension of the Cuvee 7 by deepening both the fruit and the acids. Vintage in and vintage out this is my favorite Muscadet and the 2010 looks to be true to form.
2010 Pepiere Gros Mouton - single vat, didn't catch the harvest date or the cuve number, sue me.
Energetic, great acidity, but overall less angular than all the proceeding wines. Gras indeed. Expansive (within the Muscadet idiom I should say, this is no slutty Viognier)
2010 Granit de Clisson
Still working overtime, some rs?, plenty of trapped CO2, hard to assess.
2010 Granit de Thebaud
Another working cuve, more advanced than the Clisson , very pure citrus, slatey, excellent length. The 2007 Thebaud which I recall from memory was amazing, as much as I love Clisson, the 2007 Thebaud may be a bit better. More delineated at this point. To be released soon.
Enjoy the extra pictures...
Moody Muscadet
Old but healthy vines
Many Bothan spies died for this wonderful spread, Admiral Ackbar's cousin was also consumed during the attack on Langoustinia.
That, my friends, was an amazing sea urchin.
The famous Pepiere apple tarts, they did not disappoint
Some older bottles, still fresh
Almost as good as the 1996 Briords
02/09/2011
Real Wine Tour - Day 10 - Don't Ask Stupid Questions
Nadi Foucault is not the sort to suffer fools lightly. For that reason alone I would be willing to admire him but after visiting his cellars I've come to praise him as well. Chacé is an unassuming place which bears a strong resemblance to any of a number of small villages around Saumur. The region is remarkably monochrome with most of the buildings being build out of a pale tuffeau limestone and roofed with black slate. This is not the warm, buttery tuffeau of the Touraine either but its frigid and pallid cousin. Perhaps during warmer months these bleak houses might be livened up with flowering vines and verdant greenery but early February in the Loire is funerary and somber. Still things warmed up in the cellars at Clos Rougeard.
The visit began with us not being able to find the cellars. Apparently Nadi decided to repaint his gate another color (a lovely somber grey that really picked out the corpse-like white of the limestone and the black slate of the roof) and since he has no need to advertise his presence, there is no sign announcing that you've arrived at Clos Rougeard. Luckily Denyse was not led astray and she backtracked to the right address.
Our group had shrunk a bit through the attrition of other appointments, projectile vomiting and just plain fatigue so we huddled around in the small courtyard for introductions before being led underneath the house to the cellars below. The cellars at Clos Rougeard are a maze of tunnels thick with a kaleidoscope of various molds and mildews. At some unforgotten point, a visitor had impressed a coin into the soft, fungal walls of the cellar so that it lodged there on a sea of mold, slowly being corroded by the ever-present moisture and thereby changing the natural hue of the neighboring flora in sometimes radical ways. Over time some words and patterns built of additional coins had been sketched out by countless visitors and then subsequently swallowed up by the living rock giving the impression that if one spent enough time in these cellars one could also be absorbed into its body as well.
And we were not alone in the cellar- for a short way into our barrel tasting we were joined first by two natives, slick in the way that only score-hounds or Veuve Clicquot salesmen can be. I'll refer to them as the unself-conscious and the self-conscious man. They may have both been idiots but only the unself-conscious man opened his mouth to prove it. We were also joined by an old friend of Nadi's who assisted in pouring the wines, making fun of the unself-conscious and self-consciuos men and occasionally giving Nadi crap to about this or that in a running commentary. At times the visit seemed absurd but none of us dared laugh out of respect for Nadi but also, frankly out of fear as well. Nadi uses words like a lumberjack uses an ax, in short, abrupt bursts of destruction so that you couldn't help but admire his candor. It also didn't hurt that he had one of those amazing French mustaches that would look absolutely ridiculous on anyone with one iota less of a personality than Nadi's in fact I can guarantee that the mustache had more personality that most sommeliers these days.
Clos Rougeard has always been farmed organically mainly because seven generations of Foucaults, who lived in the same house and used these same cellars, farmed in this exact manner. Nadi did add that his family has owned Poyeux since 1664 so his roots go deeper than seven generations at this one address. There are several vineyard plots at Clos Rougeard: the Clos, 4.5 ha of assorted smaller plots of Cabernet Franc, Poyeux, a 2.7 ha Cabernet Franc vineyard on sandier soils with vines around 50 years old, Bourg, a 1 ha plot of old vine Cabernet Franc close to 80 years old and on a soil of clay over gravel and Brézé a 1.2 ha plot of Chenin Blanc. There are officially no new plantings taking place at Clos Rougeard due to regulatory red tape but if a few dead or dying vines are getting replaced here or there...? the gallic shrug.
In addition to farming without any chemical additives the grapes are harvested by hand in small crates but unlike most of his neighbors who routinely pick over a period of a couple of weeks, Nadi and his brother Charlie pick within a couple of days once they decide the grapes are at peak maturity. They accomplish this by enlisting a team of over fifty pickers at each harvest to get the grapes in as soon as possible. The first selection takes place in the vineyard then the clusters are sorted back at the winery, destemmed, then the fruit is sorted a third time before being crushed and fermented in barrel. Pigeage and pump overs are done to break up the cap, not for extracting. In fact when Nadi was talking about this very point he quoted a famous Burgundian who said, "Great wine is concentration and finesse, but do not confuse concentration with extraction or finesse with dilution." Skin contact varies by cuvée with Bourg seeing up to six weeks and Clos and Poyeux between four and five weeks. Only free run juice is racked into barrels for aging. In the past Nadi sold his press wine to a friend, who has recently died, so he's thinking of distilling his future press wine and making a Fine.
According to Nadi, Saumur-Champigny has a long tradition of extended barrel and bottle aging before release. Personally I feel the modern perception of Saumur-Champigny as a light quaffable wine for Parisien wine bars as being the invention of over-cropping negociants in the 1970s and 1980s. Real Saumur is meant to age and Nadi reports that five years of aging used to be the norm for the wines of this region because the have such deep and cold cellars to keep the wines fresh. The Bourg is aged twenty-four months in new oak crafted by a local cooper specifically for Clos Rougeard. The wood is air-dried for three years and is untoasted, just warmed enough to allow the cooper to work the wood. The combination of the tight grain, extensive drying and low toast means that the barrels contribute more subtle spice than obvious oak flavors to the wine. In more structured and riper vintages like 2005 and 2009 Bourg will be aged for thirty months before being bottled. Breze also goes into new barrels and while it shows the oak more readily than the Bourg, it absorbs the wood very well with bottle age. Like a Meursault, it is aged for two years before being bottled. Poyeux is aged the same length of time, primarily in second fill casks but since the production of Poyeaux is greater than Bourg and Brézé combined Nadi has had to rely on used barrels from Chateau Latour. He chooses Latour not because of the reputation of the wine but because they are large enough and wealthy enough to afford the best barrels, therefore their used barrels are the best as well. Clos is also aged for twenty-four months in older barrels noticeable in the cellar by their thick carpet of mold.
Enough talk, time to taste:
2010 Poyeux (2nd fill barrel, Rougeard)
Just beginning malo, remarkably forward, gorgeous delineation already which seems typical of the vintage, concentrated but with good freshness. I would have thought this wine at this point would have been less charming. Excellent potential
2010 Poyeux (2nd fill barrel, Rougeard)
Gamy, same purity of fruit but more reductive than the first wine, spicier and more structured. Remarkable to see the variation from barrels of the same provenance.
2010 Bourg (new barrel, Rougeard)
Wood spice apparent but it doesn't stand out or dominate, malo hasn't started so the wine has a hard unfinished quality so it is hard to judge, the sweet fruit and acid structure is hard to miss though. This could potentially be amazing.
2010 Bourg (new barrel, Rougeard)
What a difference one barrel can make, intense, partial malo, bigger and showing more refinement with a remarkable incense quality from a marriage of the wood and aromatics from the Cabernet Franc
2009 Poyeux (2nd fill, Latour)
Profound, brooding, dark, potent tannins and a sleek mineral backbone. Like a punch to the gut that leaves you begging for more tannin.
2009 Poyeux (2nd fill, Latour)
Autumnal, wood varnish, earth, chunkier tannin with a furry, mineral quality. Very yang energy to the yin energy of the previous wine.
2009 Bourg (new barrel, Rougeard)
Incense again, seems to be a trademark of Bourg, cherry (sorry for the lame fruit analogy), violets, tense like a coiled spring, vibrant aromatics for a wine aged in new wood. Brawny but lithe at the same time.
2007 Clos (bottled 2010)
I should say at this point the unself-conscious man asked if this wine was from barrel even though Nadi clearly stated that all of his wines spend a minimum of two years in barrel. Nadi suggested that the man might consider listening more and talking less. Animal, red, tight with some unresolved tannins. Very youthful and sleek. Obviously from a cool vintage. Suave.
2007 Poyeux (bottled 2010)
Greater concentration, still sleek but riper and deeper but with more tannin. Raspy, furry with aromas you could luxuriate in. Prickly.
2007 Bourg (bottled 2010)
Dense, hints of fruit burried deep under a furry mineral attack. Stern like old school Bordeaux. Needs a lot of time but very promising.
2006 Clos (current release)
Forward, sweet, frank, fruit, rounder than 2007 due to the vintage or the bottle age or both. Forceful and delineated with a potent acid backbone. Showing more of a fruit side to Cabernet Franc than the 2007 which was much more terroir.
2006 Poyeux (current release)
Beautiful, well integrated fruit and tannin but there is a sense that this could shut down for a few years to reemerge more profound. Very long, persistent finish. This cuvée has always been a personal favorite because of wines like this- they walk a fine line between richness and structure and seldom fall to one side or the other.
2006 Bourg (current release)
Full on incense, could this be entirely wood? Or is it what I feel is the magic between the high quality barrel and the excellent raw material. Too afraid to ask. This wine is all paired conflicting adjectives. Elegant and brutish, intense and delicate, powerful and lithe. Wow.
2005 Bourg
As good as the 2006 was the 05 turns it up a notch or two. Remarkably enjoyable for being so tannic, plenty of concentration to balance the structure. In essence this is what Bourg is all about.
2003 Poyeux
Starting to show a vegetal side to Cabernet Franc- tomatoes and tobacco leaf, sound unappealing but trust me it's not. Remains dense on the palate with a remaining presence to the tannins. Still has a lot of time to fully evolve.
1993 Poyeux
Cooler vintage to show how his wines age. Furry, lean and mineral with a blush of fading fruit, a pleasing vegetal tang and lingering prickly tannins on the finish. Good.
2006 Brézé
Fleshy with a solid core of acidity, awkward, oak seemed a bit to poky for me so I asked, sheepishly through Jules Dressner how Nadi thought his Brézé would age. I was expecting the worst when he pause, inhaled deeply then glancing at the unself-conscious man said, "now that is a good question, because I don't know how to respond." And then off he went into the cellar to pull more bottles of Brézé to taste while I basked in the glow of not only approval but relief that my head remained attached to my torso. Incidentally I was cheered by most of my fellow travelers, more Clos Rougeard!
2007 Brézé
Non-malo unlike the 2006, perhaps that's why the 2006 was showing more oak character. Most Brézé does not go through malo so 2006 is atypical in that regard. More obvious oak aromas but less apparent on the palate. High pitched, toned, very sleek and driven. A completely different wine.
2002 Brézé
Round and fleshy with a pulpy and apply quality, fresh and zippy at the same time. Burgundian to a certain extent but too high-toned and nervy to be Chardonnay. This wine seems to shrug off age.
2001 Brézé
Magical, wood completely absorbed and turned into texture, hints of spice, baked fruit, engaging and pleasing. What white Burgundy wishes it could be. Truly a thrilling Chenin and from a cool vintage too.
My sincerest thanks to Kevin McKenna, Denyse Louis, Jules Dressner, Josefa Concannon and Lee Campbell from Louis/Dressner for making this trip happen. More posts to come from the trip, stay tuned.
02/03/2011
Stay tuned
I just got to Paris last night and am finally feeling 100%. I've got some posts to catch up on but since the weather is beautiful here in Paris I'd rather spend the time outside and about. Look forward to a recap of gneiss and easy with pork ears (Pepiere), Stop asking stupid questions and listen (Rougeard), Romancing Jean (dinner at Barantin), and various other ramblings. Until then enjoy this photo from Clos Rougeard.
01/30/2011
Real Wine Tour - Day 8 - Revenge of the Pigeon
As many of you already know, I dread the pleasant little chit chat one engages in at social gatherings when eventually the topic comes around to what you do for work. Wait, I should back this up and observe that I don't like chit chat at all, under any circumstances but that's a whole 'nother post for a different blog or out patient visit. Eventually some young enthusiast declares my job to be so terribly romantic and volunteers to carry my bags on my next trip.
It's like someone saying they'd like to be an insurance adjusted because they get to meet so many new people.
I've easily been on dozens of trips where I've witnessed first hand people falling ill to the effects of travel, overindulgence or just dumb luck. So last night when the better angels of my nature suggested that I skip the bloody pigeon course and call it quits I plunged ahead anyway and then added cheese and a dessert on top if it. My saving grace is that whatever decided to fell me waited long enough to allow for most of this meal to be digested and forcefully evacuated before the vomiting began. The decision to have a little mint tea for breakfast has also permanently changed my view of mint.
So I dedicate this post to every moron who has confused employment with vacation. I wish you could experience this directly. And yes I do feel a little better now that I got this out of my alimentary canal.
Real Wine Tour - Day Four - Franck Pascal with Tasting Notes
This was my first visit to the Vallee de Marne and the weather proved to be particularly brooding. The sinister clouds made the greens, browns and slate colors more vibrant and the tiny villages perched mid-slope surrounded by vineyard and crowned with pointy medieval churches gave an impression of ancient prosperity faded to sleepy but relentless industry. Franck Pascal seems to convey this all within his personality, at times thoughtful and shy and other times showing flashes of excitement he was completely at home surrounded by the weighty ancient stones and vines; concurrently vital and resistant to lazy tradition. These are broad, occasionally rustic but profound country wines with an earthy and sensual appeal.
Franck began his estate in 1994 when he left his job as an industrial engineer in Clermont-Ferrand and returned home Baslieux-sur-Chatillon. Within a few days he realized that he needed his own estate rather than work with his father, Claude Pascal. When Franck started his estate he was already convinced that that the viticulture had to be biodynamic because as a scientist while in the army performing his national service he studied the effects of chemical warfare on soldiers and he recognized that many of the compounds causing horrendous human suffering were related to the chemicals routinely applied to vineyards. He fully converted his vines to biodynamics in 2000 and is currently certified as such.
With the introduction of biodynamics he saw his soils rejuvenated with a greater diversity of microrganic life, healthier grapes with riper tannins, fruit with balanced sugars and acids and wines with a salty minerality that were less prone to oxidation. His vineyards are composed mainly of Pinot Meunier (73%) with Pinot Noir (20%) and Chardonnay (7%) playing a minor role in the vines and a slightly more important role in the cellar. The soils have a lot of sticky clay and after a trip to one of the vineyards where we were all mired in it we could all appreciate this description. There are occlusions of flint, limestone and conglomerates in the soil but the roots of the vines tend to be on the shallow side, especially if they're farmed conventionally so his farming practices have encouraged his vines to dig deeper into the calcareous sub-soil. Pascal makes his own biodynamic compost of 1/3 to 1/6 animal manure (horse and cow) with the remainder vegetable matter. He hope to convert entirely to vegetable matter in the coming years feeling that it boosts the mineral uptake in his vines.
Whew! Time to taste.
NV Sagesse Brut Nature
57% Pinot Meunier, 37% Pinot Noir, 6% Chardonnay. I forgot to note the dosage, but the wine was bottled in May 2007 and disgorged December 30, 2010. This wine shows it's Meunier nature with an earthy funky nose and while the overall impression is one of dryness there is a balancing fruitiness from the time in bottle. Gregarious and forward.
NV Tolerance Brut Rose
The base of this Cuvee is Sagesse 94% and a red wine of equal parts Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier 6%. Dosage 6 g/l and who knows when it was disgorged, I can't keep track of everything. Delicate and so, so, so enjoyable. The moderate dosage really brings out the red fruits in this cuvee which is buttressed once more by the Meunier funkiness (and when I say funky I mean Parliament funky, not James Brown on PCP taking your car for a joy ride funky) and a minerally acidity. I could drink this thought the meal or without a meal.
2002 Prestige Brut
1/3 each ChRdonnay, Pinot Noir & Pinot Meunier with a dosage of 4.5 g/l and disgorged in 2009. Malty cereal grains on the nose then surprisingly tropical sleek and focused with citric freshness. This is beautiful now.
2004 Quinte Essence Extra Brut
60% Pinot Noir, 25% Pinot Meunier, 15% Chardonnay. A dosage of 4 g/l. Sterner stuff here with more minerals and a denser structure somewhat unyielding now and lacking the forwardness of the Prestige but probably has a longer future.
Same wine with a dosage of 6.1 g/l
Generous, impossible to believe that 2 extra grams of dosage could change a backward wine into something so fluffy and quaffable. All apples and pears whereas the Xtra Brut was all menacing mineral. I think I like the Xtra Brut just a bit more.
2007/8 Coteaux de Champenois
This is something wacky that everyone needs to own- a blend of 20% 2007 Pinot Noir, 20% 2007 Pinot Meunier & 60% 2008 Pinot Meunier. This was a riot of raspy fruit in a glass. What we tasted out of tank had that zippy tanky and yummy freshness but the bottle we had at lunch from an earlier bottling was a bit more sleek and polished. One of my favorite wines so far even if completely impractical.
All in all a very impressive line up and best of all Franck will be coming to Chicago soon to show is wines. Stay tuned.
01/29/2011
Real Wine Tour - Day Two - Tasting Notes New and Improved
Version 1.1 of Alice & Olivier de Moor. Thanks to Jose Pastor and Joe Dressner who pointed out the typos, I've decided to repost this entry with all the corrections. I've been blogging via an iPhone and it has corrected some words in interesting ways so my apologies...
It took far too long to start the tasting portion of the day but it was worth the wait. First up was Olivier talking and Alice pouring.
Alice & Olivier de Moor
I've followed this estate for years, first when Vezan brokered them into Wisconsin, later with Roy Cloud and finally with Louis/Dressner. Alice and Olivier got their start working with other estates in Chablis and began putting together their own estate in 1989. The have always practiced manual harvesting and have never used artificial yeasts except once in 1996. Sulfur is only used one month prior to bottling for stabilization and the addition was so low that Jose Pastor, who is along on the trip, looked shocked. The wines are unfined and unfiltered and the viticulture is organic. Olivier stated that well over 90% of the vineyards in Chablis are harvested by machine and about 6% of the vines are grown organically. When asked who else practices such strict methods he and Alice conferred for a moment and then mentioned Dauvissat and Ravenneau.
A note on his vineyards: the Sauvignon St-Bris and Aligote are about 10 km west of Courgis in the region of Auxerre and about one third of the way to these vineyards you will find his Bourgogne Chitry vines in a narrow valley with a fairly steep slope. The best portion of the Aligote vineyard was planted in 1902 and has several vines of Pinot Gris mixed in with the Aligote. The Sauvignon was planted partially in the 1950s with newer plantings of Sauvignon Gris which Alice and Olivier have been interplanting in the vineyard when a vine dies or had died in the past. The Bourgogne Chitry vineyard is about 15 years old and is trained in single cordon with four shoots, Olivier explained that this vineyard was planted right after the officials in the area allowed single cordon as opposed to the tradition Guyot. Bel Air and Clardy are located just north of the town of Courgis on a gently sloping southwestern exposure. Here the terroir is so similar that the wines are blended together forming a single cuvee. Here as well as in his other vineyards he has been battling Esca with very little success and it was easy to pick out the diseased vines by the red and white ribbons marking their location. It was depressing to see all the vines effected by this disease. Finally Rosette is located on a steep southern exposure and produces a very intense Chablis. All of the vineyards are composed of calcerous marls of decomposed Portlandian limestone over a Kimmeridgean base. The soils in Auxerre have more iron in them giving them a reddish tint. The poorest soil is found at Rosette and the upper part of Chitry due to the steepness of the slope.
2009 saw plenty of sun and warmth so it is a very easy going vintage. The harvest was dry well into October so Olivier attempted to make a botrytised Aligote which never came to fruition because botrytis would not form even well into October.
2009 Aligote
Sappy, pure, racy Aligote with an intense citric edge. Half and half tank and barrel. Very pure, very good. Only 11.5% alcohol.
2009 Aligote Plantation 1902
A selection of the oldest vines of Aligote. Here bass notes are added to the treble of the previous wine. More mineral than citrus, great depth reminds me of the Clisson from Ollivier in it's pairing of delicacy and power.
2009 Aligote Reversibilite
Richer nose showing hints of honey and concentration reminiscent of honeydew. While showing a piquancy despite the lateness of the harvest the overall impression is more Chardonnay-like.
2009 Bourgogne Chitry
Serene, graceful and linear without being stark, very quaffable.
2009 Chablis Negoce
Terroir nose, amped aromatics, dense and ripe and wound but showing a little more evolved than the previous wines.
2009 Chablis l'Humeur du Temps
Shy, reserved with a funky herbal edge, fascinating density reminding me of a Thevenet.
2009 Chablis Bel Air et Clardy
Displays a ripeness on the nose evocative of lemon curd or marmalade but I usually avoid such descriptions as too pat. Still it's hard to escape the observation. Digging deeper there is some flintiness and minerality. Chiseled. Excellent.
2009 Chablis Rosette
Sleek, beeswax, woolly with a minerality and a smokiness missing in the previous wines. The real deal here.
2009 Chablis Butteaux (Negoce)
Buttery, fleshy, all together a softer wine with structure that builds through the finish, fascinating but somehow confusing. Recent sulfur addition may be the culprit.
2009 St-Bris
Amazing, neon and nervy. It's a party on your palate but not for Chicago- the allocation for the US was too small.
Olivier Horiot
Located in the southernmost part of Champagne in the Cote des Bar are the vineyards of Olivier Horiot. Olivier and his wife Marie took over his father's estate in 1999 and converted to organic and biodynamic practices. Being in Riceys he can produce Rose de Riceys, Coteaux de Champenois and Champagne which he does when the vintage allows. The soils in his vineyards is identical to those in Sancerre and Chablis- limestone rich marls over a Kimmeridgean foundation. Riceys is Pinot country however with 95% of the plantings comprised of Pinot Noir. Horiot's estate is a total of 6.5 hectares planted mainly to Pinot Noir but he's has been expanding plantings of heritage vines such as Pinot Blanc, Arbanne, Pinot Meunier and Chardonnay. The estate has been practicing biodynamics since 2000 and Olivier has been trying to convince the local coop to convert as well. His first vintage was 2000.
2006 Coteaux Champenois Blanc
Aromas of a base wine for Champagne with flavors that match, fresh brioche, lemon curd, punchy, toffee.
2005 Rose de Riceys Valdigrain
Seven day maceration, whole cluster fruit hand harvested from a south-facing slope. That lovely foul Pinot nose with a delicate red berry fruit and a poised, precise mouth feels combining sweet fruits and acidity. Would have in no way guessed this was a rose, more like a really delicate Marsannay. Carbonic maceration after starting the fermentation with a foot pressing of a small portion of the vat.
2005 Rose de Riceys Barmont
Slightly lighter in color, shorter maceration but a different character to the fruit. More muscular and tannic. Forceful structure but with similar aromatics to the Valdigrain.
2005 Coteaux de Champenois Barmont
Three week maceration, denser color than the Roses but still showing that limpid purity and clear rim found in the Roses. Less funkiness to the nose and more pure Pinot red fruits on the palate, delicate, seesaw sweet fruit then bright acidity, refined.
2003 Rose de Riceys Special Cuvee
Made in 2003, 2005 & 2009 and comprised of the best barrel of Valdigrain and Barmont. One again that Pinot funk fading to strawberry ( very pronounced in this cuvee) crazy mineral.
2006 Rose de Riceys Valdigrain
Sweet red fruit, less funk than 2005 with less structure and acid too. Pure and engaging, more pleasurable in someways but maybe less serious? Who cares, I'd enjoy either vintage. Still carries a lot of primary fruit character.
2006 Rose de Riceys Barmont
Similar riper aromas and flavor versus the 2005 version. Shows more tannin than the Valdigrain but less maturity than the 2005. Still needs some time to come around.
(2006) Champagne Extra-Brut Rose
Saignee, with color based on taste, not color. Four day maceration then into barrel for fermentations and aging for about 12 months. Fruit always from Barmont. Deep pink color, almost like a Spanish Rose, pleasantly rustic with caramelized red fruits. Superb.
(2004) Champagne Extra-Brut Blanc de Noirs
Very forceful, tight style with loads of acid and mineral. Needs a ton of time.
Champagne Extra-Brut 5 Senses
Equal parts Arbanne, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Meunier, Pinot Noir, and Chardonnay. C'est top! Custard and baked goods, forceful but balanced very very long finish, engaging.
01/28/2011
Real Wine Tour - Day Three - Ulysse Collin
After a thoroughly invigorating shower in Chablis, shower pressure that would have pleased Kramer, and a less than invigorating drive through the Cote des Blancs and deep into the Cote de Bar we were ushered into the cellars at Ulysse Collin. Olivier Collin's first vintage was 2004 after he took back his family's vineyards from a lease to Pommery. Since his grandfather had made wine he still had much of the original equipment at the family estate including an old coquard press. Always willing to experiment, Olivier used a pneumatic press in 2005, his second vintage, but found the results too oxidative. He feels that the traditional press extracts better tannins from not only the skins but from the stems and pips as well. The tannins act as anti-oxidants and allow for longer-lived champagnes. His goal is to have wines that are still fresh ten years after disgorgement.
The Coquard press has a capacity of 4000 kg from which he can expect 3000 liters of juice. The first press, the cuve results in about 2500 liters and the second press or taille produces 500 liters more. The cuve provides the structure with the taille providing fruit. Since the cuve is generally higher in acidity it is also used as reserve wine. After pressing the juice is pumped into tank for settling with the cuve and taille going into separate tanks. After settling for about twenty four hours a slight sulfur addition is added to prevent the brown of the must. The juice is then transferred to barrel for fermentation and aging. The cuve goes solely into used barrel with the taille being reserved for new and second/third fill barrels. Malos are not forced so I'm any given year the percentage of malo will change from the previous year. Fermentation is by natural yeasts and since the style at this domaine is reductive no more sulfur needs to be added to the wines. Long fermentation are encouraged so the cellar doors are kept open in winter so the expected time from beginning of fermentation to blending is about 12-13 months. Batonage is minimal.
Two acid stabilizations are preformed to prevent tartrates from forming in the finished wine. The first is done in barrel and the second in vat during blending. The stabilization is done by lowering the temperature of the wine to cause tartrates to form.
The estate currently produces two cuvees with a third in the works for 2012. Perriers is the largest cuvee at 12000 botlles from 1.31 hectares. Maillons is the next largest at 6000 bottles from 2.50 hectares and Roises the smallest at 3000 bottles from .63 hectares. If the numbers look like they don't add up it's because Olivier is still selling a majority of his fruit. A Rose de Saigne was made in 2010 but Olivier is unhappy with the quality so he may not have it go through a secondary fermentation in bottle. 2010 in general was a tough year so a lot of reserve wine will be diverted to this cuvee to beef it up. Dosage is determined by blind tasting several dosage levels and picking the best. The estate has been farmed organically since 1994 and the varietal breakdown is 60% Chardonnay and 40% Pinot Noir.
(2005) Blanc de Blancs Perriers
1.7 g/l, pneumatic press. This is the only wine Olivier has made with the pneumatic press, he also feels that the vines tired themselves out after 2004 in reaction to the difficult 2003 vintage. The result of this fatigue is a wine lacking concentration. Olivier is a perfectionist however and if this was a tired wine I'd hate to meet one that was wide awake. The long maturation in the bottle, it was disgorged in 7/09, show in the aromas, the structure is still youthful but the wine has a generosity that belies the figure of 1.7 g/l.
(2007) Blanc de Blancs Perrieres
The spray of champagne visible from the window of the tasting room shows that this wine was disgorged today. I should note that these are not vintage bottlings, in fact the 2007 in 35% reserve wine with mostly 2006 and a little bit of 2005. This wine was fascinating to taste, it possessed more mature smelling aromatics but the overall impression was adamantly dry and bracing. Olivier referred to this as mineral tension. The 2007 portion of the cuvee was only half malo which may account for some of the structure. Luckily this wine will see a couple more years of bottle age and I look forward to seeing how it develops. Also 1.7 g/l
2008 Blanc de Blancs Roises
Disgorged today, once again a cloud of spray. This is from a single 60 year-old plot of Chardonnay that is prone to millerandage so it always produces small clusters of tiny berries. This was a remarkably forceful wine with mineral depth and an almost tannic sense of structure. Excellent, youthful and needing more time on the bottle but truly thrilling to taste.
2008 Blanc de Noirs Maillons
From 40 year-old Pinot vines planted on a red clay terroir. The color is a striking shade just shy of partridge eye- the color coming from the taille. Chewy in sinewy in it's youth with a vibrantly delicate Pinot fruit expression. The bottle we had with lunch showed even better as it warmed in the glass. When someone commented on the color, Olivier replied that it was very common with Pinot taille to get some pink color and many people remove the color by using charcoal or aging the wine on the lees of Chardonnay. Both manipulations struck Olivier as pointless since he found the color perfectly appropriate.
Real Wine Tour -Day Two - Dinner
Pork cheek pot pie! Just saying.
01/27/2011
Real Wine Tour - Day Two - The Tasting Notes
It took far too long to start tasting wine today but when the tasting started all my concerns melted away. First up was Olivier talking and Alice pouring.
Alice & Olivier de Moor
This estate I've followed for years first when Vezan brokered them into Wisconsin, later with Roy Cloud and finally with Louis/Dressner. Alice and Olivier got their start working with other estates in Chablis and began putting together their own estate in 1989. The have always practiced manual harvesting and have never used artificial yeasts except in 1996. Sulfur is only used one month prior to bottling for stabilization and the addition was so low that Jose Pastor, who is along on the trip, looked shocked. The wines are unfined and unfiltered and the viticulture is organic. Olivier stated that well over 90% of the vineyards in Chablis are harvested manually and about 6% of the vines are grown organically. When asked who else farms and harvests as he and Alice do he replied Ravenneau and Dauvissat.
A note on his vineyards: the Sauvignon St-Bris and Aligote are about 10 km west of Courgis in the region if Auxerre and about one third of the ray to these vineyards you will find his Bourgogne Chitry vineyard in a narrow valley with a fairly steep slope. The beat portion of the Aligote vineyard was planted in 1902 and has several vines of Pinot Gris mixed in with the Aligote. The Sauvignon was planted partially in the 1950s with newer plantings of Sauvignon Gris which Alice and Olivier have been interplanting in the vineyard when a vine dies or had died in the past. The Bourgogne Chitry vineyard is about 15 years old and is trained in single cordon with four shoots, Olivier explained that this vineyard was planted right after the officials in the area allowed single cordon as opposed to the tradition Guyot. Bel Air and Clardy are located just North of the town of Courgis on a gently sloping southwestern exposure. Here the tarring is so similar that the wines are blended together forming a single cuvee. Here as well as in his other vineyards he has been battling Esca with very little success and it was easy to pick out the diseased vines by the red and white ribbons marking their location. It was depressing to see all the vines effected by this disease. Finally Rosette us located in a steep southern exposure and produces a very intense Chablis. All of the vineyards are composed of calcerous marls of decomposed Portlandian limestone over a Kimmeridgean base. The soils in Auxerre have more iron in them giving it a reddish tint. The poorest soil is found at Rosette and the upper part of Chitry due to the steepness of the slope.
2009 Had plenty of sun and warmth so it is a very easy going vintage. The harvest was dry well into October so Oliviers attempts to make a botrytised Aligote were fouled by an early frost.
2009 Aligote
Sappy, pure, racy Aligote with and intense citric edge. Half and half tank and barrel. Very pure, very good. Only 11.5% alcohol.
2009 Aligote Plantation 1902
A selection of the oldest vines of Aligote. Here bass notes are added to the treble of the previous wine. More mineral than citrus, great depth reminds me of the Clisson from Ollivier in it's pairing of delicacy and power.
2009 Aligote Reversibilite
Richer nose showing hints of honey and concentration reminiscent of honeydew. While showing a piquancy despite the lateness of the harvest the overall impression Chardonnay-like.
2009 Bourgogne Chitry
Serene, graceful and linear without being stark, very quaffable.
2009 Chablis Negoce
Terroir nose, amped aromatics, dense and ripe and wound but showing a little more evolved than the previous wines.
2009 Chablis l'Humeur du Temps
Shy, reserved with a funky herbal edge, fascinating density reminding me of a Thevenet.
2009 Chablis Bel Air et Clardy
Displays a ripeness on the nose evocative of lemon curd or marmalade but I usually avoid such descriptions as too pat. Still it's hard to escape the observation. Digging deeper there is some flintiness and minerality. Chiseled. Excellent.
2009 Chablis Rosette
Sleek, beeswax, woolly with a minerality and a smokiness missing in the previous wines. The real deal here.
2009 Chablis Butteaux (Negoce)
Buttery, fleshy, all together a softer wine with structure that builds through the finish, fascinating but somehow confusing. Recent sulfur addition may be the culprit.
2009 St-Bris
Amazing, neon and nervy. It's a party on your palate but not for Chicago- the allocation for the US was too small.
Olivier Horiot
Located in the southernmost part of Champagne in the Cote des Bar are the vineyards of Olivier Horiot. Olivier and his wife Marie took over his father's estate in 1999 and converted to organic and biodynamic practices. Being in Riceys he can produce Rose de Riceys, Coteaux de Champenois and Champagne which he's does when the vintage allows. The soil in his vineyards is identical to those in Sancerre and Chablis- limestone rich marls over a Kimmeridgean foundation. Riceys is Pinot country however with 95% of the plantings comprised of Pinot Noir. Horiot's estate is a total of 6.5 hectares planted mainly to Pinot Noir but he's has been expanding plantings of heritage vines such as Pinot Blanc, Arbanne, Pinot Meunier and Chardonnay. The estate has been practicing biodynamics since 2000 and Olivier has been trying to convince the local coop to convert as well. His first vintage was 2000.
2006 Coteaux Champenois Blanc
Aromas of a base wine for Champagne with flavors that match, fresh brioche, lemon curd, punchy, toffee.
2005 Rose de Riceys Valdigrain
Seven day maceration, whole cluster fruit hand harvested from a south-facing slope. That lovely foul Pinot nose with a delicate red berry fruit and a poised, precise mouth feels combining sweet fruits and acidity. Would have in no way guessed this was a rose, more like a really delicate Marsannay. Carbonic maceration after starting the fermentation with a foot press of a portion of the vat.
2005 Rose de Riceys Barmont
Slightly lighter in color, shorter maceration but a different character to the fruit. More muscular and tannic. Forceful structure but with similar aromatics to the Valdigrain.
2005 Coteaux de Champenois Barmont
Three week maceration, denser color than the Roses but still showing that limpid purity and clear rim found in the Roses. Less funkiness to the nose and more pure Pinot red fruits on the palate, delicate, seesaw sweet fruit then bright acidity, refined.
2003 Rose de Riceys Special Cuvee
Made in 2003, 2005 & 2009 and comprised of the best barrel of Valdigrain and Barmont. One again that Pinot funk fading to strawberry ( very pronounced in this cuvee) crazy mineral.
2006 Rose de Riceys Valdigrain
Sweet red fruit, less funk than 2005 with less structure and acid too. Pure and engaging, more pleasurable in someways but maybe less serious? Who cares, I'd enjoy either vintage. Still carries a lot of primary fruit character.
2006 Rose de Riceys Barmont
Similar riper aromas and flavor versus the 2005 version. Shows more tannin than the Valdigrain but less maturity than the 2005. Still needs some time to come around.
(2006) Champagne Extra-Brut Rose
Saignee, with color based on taste, not color. Four day maceration then into barrel for fermentations and aging for about 12 months. Fruit always from Barmont. Deep pink color, almost like a Spanish Rose, pleasantly rustic with caramelized red fruits. Superb.
(2004) Champagne Extra-Brut Blanc de Noirs
Very forceful, tight style with loads of acid and mineral. Needs a ton of time.
Champagne Extra-Brut 5 Senses
Equal parts Arbanne, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Meunier, Pinot Noir, and Chardonnay. C'est top! Custard and baked goods, forceful but balanced very very long finish, engaging.
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