Bordoverview Blog

Bordeaux 2011, an update

2012-05-25T17:09:00.000+02:00

In Dutch "De Malle" means "The Fool". Perhaps that explains why they, the people at Château de Malle, thought it was a good idea to raise the price of their wine this year—so far De Malle is the 'winner' with a markup of 14% on their 2010 price.

Of course I should take into account that De Malle is a Sauternes, and in fact it are the sweet wines of Sauternes who were most successful in 2011. Most Sauternes have more or less maintained the same price as they had last last year. Perhaps that 14% markup is not even that shocking after all.

No, the real fool is Quintus (perhaps I should write QVINTVS). This used to be Tertre-Daugay, until the château was acquired by Domaine Clarence Dillon (from Haut-Brion and Mission Haut-Brion) who obviously put some serious money into the domain.

But the same vine that produced a wine that was sold for approximately €25 en primeur last year (the Tertre-Daugay 2010), brought forth a wine of a shocking €133 one year later (Quintus 2011). I wonder if the wine sold at all. On Twitter there was much laughter about this release.

The only positive thing that I can say is that the wine is good. I wrote quite nice things about it in my notebook, and also used the word 'promising'. By then I had no idea about the price, and perhaps thought about a modest start in a difficult year, or something like that. For around €25-30 it would have ended up in my list of recommendations. Now it has ended up in the list of commercial miscarriages.

detail of one of the new fermentation vats at Cheval Blanc

There is one wine that clearly proves that this can be done differently. And that is La Tour du Pin, owned and made by Cheval Blanc. Also recently acquired, also owned by a premier grand cru classé, and also from a very good terroir. The important difference is that La Tour du Pin is sold at about 30 euro's. Needless to say, I highly recommend this wine! Made in the same spirit as Cheval Blanc, and really at a fraction of the price.

The last two weeks were crazy. I really hope one day the Bordelais will learn to spread the releases more evenly. Now pretty much all is released within about two weeks. That means that there's hardly any time to process all incoming offers, and that there's definitely no time to write! So I'm glad this Friday is quiet so I can finally publish an update.

The campaign is not completely finished, but most has been released by now. We are still waiting for wines like Duhart Milon, Vieux Château Certan, Léoville-las-Cases and Ducru Beaucaillou.

Let's look at the wines with the most serious price drops. The list is fairly complete and presents all wines up to a price drop of –30%. If you look at the wines from a price-quality ratio it contains some interesting recommendations.

An R means Recommended, RR means Highly Recommended, and RRR means Not To Miss (I foremost looked at the price-quality ratio). The prices shown are indicative consumer prices including VAT in euro's.

–64,0% - La Mission Haut-Brion (297)
–63,8% - l'Eglise-Clinet (139) R
–57,7% - Figeac (99)
–55,1% - La Mondotte (147)
–52,0% - La Conseillante (100) RR
–50,0% - Bellevue Mondotte (150)
–49,3% - Pavie (158)
–47,8% - Pichon Comtesse (100) R
–46,3% - Cheval Blanc (600)
–45,5% - Cos d'Estournel (150)
–45,5% - Haut-Brion (500)
–45,5% - Montrose (100) R
–45,5% - Pichon Baron (100)
–44,6% - Clos l'Eglise (84)
–44,4% - De Valandraud (173)
–44,0% - Malescot St-Exupéry (48) R
–42,3% - Latour (625)
–41,5% - Troplong-Mondot (81)
–41,2% - Clinet (70) RR
–40,9% - Smith-Haut-Lafitte (64) R
–40,3% - Lascombes (61)
–40,0% - Mouton-Rothschild (500)
–39,3% - Haut-Bailly (76) RR
–39,3% - Léoville-Poyferré (72)
–39,2% - Pape Clément (81)
–38,7% - Angélus (191)
–37,5% - Domaine de Chevalier (43) RR
–37,5% - Léoville-Barton (63) RR
–36,8% - La Gaffelière (51) R
–35,7% - Le Gay (76)
–35,0% - Branaire Ducru (45)
–34,9% - Saint-Pierre (48)
–34,0% - Pontet-Canet (92) RRR
–33,7% - Giscours (42) R
–33,3% - Grand-Puy-Lacoste (42) RRR
–33,3% - Clos Fourtet (68) R
–33,3% - d'Issan (46) RR
–33,3% - Le Clarence de Haut-Brion (100)
–33,3% - Le Petit Mouton (100)
–32,8% - Pavie-Decesse (117)
–32,6% - Faugères Cuvée Péby (86)
–32,5% - Croix de Labrie (46)
–32,2% - Clos de l'Oratoire (28)
–32,1% - Le Petit Cheval (155)
–31,4% - Rauzan-Ségla (81)
–31,3% - Calon-Ségur (56) RRR
–31,0% - Lynch Bages (96) RR
–30,6% - Canon (87) R
–30,3% - Lagrange (40)
–30,0% - Canon-la-Gaffelière (56) R
–30,0% - Lafite-Rothschild (650)
–30,0% - Les Gravières (13)
–29,9% - Langoa Barton (45) RRR
+471,4% - Quintus (133)

Note that these price changes are based on the actual Bordeaux release prices. On Bordoverview you find the complete list, sortable any way you want, but here the price changes are based on the average consumer prices.

Plenty of merchants offer Bordeaux 2011 primeurs at competitive prices, that is below the indicative prices above. If you are interested in buying Bordeaux 2011 you are kindly invited to have a look at the Bolomey Wijnimport Bordeaux 2011 offers. And remember: by buying your Bordeaux primeurs at Bolomey Wijnimport you support the free Bordoverview service.

Domaine Anne Gros / Jean-Paul Tollot: two Burgundians in the Languedoc

2012-05-11T21:57:00.001+02:00

Dwayne Perreault — What better an endorsement can the Languedoc get than to have one of the top winemakers in Burgundy, a producer of such grand crus as Richebourg, Echezeaux and Clos Vougeot, come to the region, recognize a great terroir when they see it, and take the risk of making a major investment in an area which, let’s be honest, pales in comparison to the reputation of le Bourgogne?

Les Carretals

But that is what Anne Gros and her husband Jean Paul Tollot have done. Having established reputations in Burgundy, they were looking for a new adventure and were considering purchasing a vineyard in the south of France. They came to the tiny hamlet of Cazelles in the Minervois, bordering on St. Chinian, and it was love at first sight. A brand new winery was built in 2008, now sitting on 16 hectares of vines ranging from 5 years to more than 100 years old. Modern, high-tech equipment is used, including three different sized tractors, since the oldest vines are so narrowly planted that not even a quad can pass between them.

I spend part of spring/summer in Roquebrun, and Cazelles is only a half hour drive away, passing through several different landscapes and the beautiful medieval village of Minerve, perched on an enormous gorge. And this is what I love about the Languedoc, the variety of astonishingly different regions and terroirs within such a short distance. The soils of Roquebrun in the mountains are largely composed of shales, both red and black. Heading into St. Chinian on the plain, these shales are complemented by reddish clays. From Minerve, you begin the steady climb, zig-zagging your way along the small highway until you arrive on the plateau of the Minervois itself, just before St. Jean de Minervois, and suddenly you are blinded by the brilliant white limestones so typical of the region, with its millions and millions of jagged stones.

Les Fontenilles

Unfortunately, neither Anne nor Jean Paul were at the domain at the time of our visit, but no problem: we were greeted by the very knowledgeable and friendly chef de culture, Thibaut Bernabeu. We jumped into a jeep and for the next two hours, Thibaut gave us a very extensive tour of the variegated plots. There is an amazing variety of soils here. On the north side of the winery, they are composed largely of sandstone with mixed pebbles and stones. These are small plots surrounded by garrigues of scrubland bush and fragrant herbs, with occasional pine trees. The vines here are younger, roughly 20 year old Grenache and Syrah, 40 year old Cinsault and Carignan ranging from 30 to 45 years. These vines are used to produce the wines La 50/50 (which receives no wood ageing) and Les Fontanilles (only some wood ageing).

Upon crossing to the southern side of the winery, you might think you’ve arrived in a different country. Here the blinding white limestones on top of clay resembles a lunar landscape, and must indeed be brilliant under moonlight. Millions of rocks are strewn about with an occasional oak tree to provide shade. The stones absorb heat, which allows the clay to remain fresh, and this is important in this particularly hot region where drought can be a problem. Some of the vines here are over a hundred years old. The grapes grown here find their way into the top wines La Ciaude (Syrah, Carignan and Grenache) and Les Carrétals (principally old Carignan). All wines fall under the Minervois appellation.

What followed was an extremely interesting tasting, as they were all samples from barriques which are meant for blending. The 2011 Cinsault from the Fontenilles plot (an experiment, not normally put in barrel) had both power and elegance, rich dark fruits and woody tannins. I have never tasted Cinsault like this before.

The 2011 Carignan from different plots at Les Fontenilles was so Carignan, and I say this as a lover of the grape. Very dark berries, more coarse and with a barnyard component.

The 2011 Syrah from Fontenilles had blue and black berries, spicey with a lighter texture, very fruit driven. You taste here very pure fruit, this would make a wonderful cépage wine, no doubt the result of the producer, more Burgundian than Languedoc in nature.

Finally, a sample of the 2011 Carignan (100 year old vines) from Carrétal. A bit of gunsmoke in the nose, and an explosive fruit character. The 2011 is a refined Carignan, wonderful really. It was a pleasure to visit this domain and taste these yet to be blended wines, particularly fascinating because they are made by Burgundians, truly expressing their own vision in the Languedoc.

Bordeaux 2011 recommendations

2012-04-29T23:44:00.000+02:00

When discussing fine Bordeaux it is common to talk about vintages. Which vintage to buy, and which one to avoid. I don't like that approach.

The difference between vintages is one of the exciting aspects of wine. Isn't the most fascinating thing about wine - as opposed to most other products - that virtually every bottle is different? If you're not into that, why bother dealing with French wines? In hot climates you may find 'great' vintages that are lined up one after another. There the sun always shines, and the irrigation drips...

Boring.

In 2010 I already wrote something about an 'off-vintage', and what to do with it. See here if you're interested: Château Giscours 2007.

Instead of just focusing on vintages I rather focus on producers, as is more common in Burgundy. When I look at the list of Bordeaux 2011 wines that I recommend, it is apparent that there is overlap with my 2010 recommendations from last year. And that's no coincidence. I clearly like the style and approach of certain producers.

Château d'Yquem 2011 tasted at Château Cheval Blanc

For my ideas about the Bordeaux 2011 vintage in general I refer to my previous blog posting. Here I will present the wines that I recommend this year, and for list A & B I add to that the impression that I twittered directly after having tasted the wine, say straight from the heart.

List A. THE FAMOUS MONEY'S-NOT-AN-ISSUE LIST
five monumental wines, price tag neglected

1. Cheval Blanc 2011 "#bdx11 Cheval Blanc impresses: purity, minerality, balance. Same for Petit Cheval & La Tour du Pin(!), recommended! Less fwd fruit this year"
2. Pontet-Canet 2011 "#bdx11 [Vibrant vital Grand Puy Lacoste. Elegant power, precision.] But Pontet-Canet winner this morning. Has it all, seducing, pure, fresh..."
3. Vieux Château Certan 2011 "#bdx11 Vieux Ch Certan mineral, pure & juicy, as always in great shape, with high 29% Cab Franc this year + 1% "salt & pepper" Cab Sauvignon"
4. Margaux 2011 "#bdx11 Impressed by the velvet texture & delicacy of Château Margaux and Pavillon Rouge. Chalky tannins, one of the few drinkable primeurs!"
5. Pétrus 2011 "#bdx11 Pétrus tender & beautifully balanced. Same league as Margaux. Short 17 days maceration to keep out unripe tannins. Comparison: 1975"

Tasting at Vieux Château Certan with Guillaume Thienpont, son of Alexandre Thienpont

List B. SOME MORE IMPRESSIVE WINES
the ones I couldn't get into the previous list

1. Providence 2011 "#bdx11 Moueix wines: Providence young untamed horse, surprising, expressive. Trotanoy stony & attractive. Good also: Certan de May & Hosanna"
2. Ducru-Beaucaillou 2011 "#bdx11 Bruno Borie calls Ducru Beaucaillou 11 Nicole Kidman (10 Charlize Theron, 09 Beyoncé) Cellaring needed for Kidman & she will age well"
3. Latour 2011 "#bdx11 Latour impresses too: elegant power, seductive fruit & ripe tannins. Forts serious wine, precise & quite dense. Not really a 2nd wine"
4. Grand-Puy-Lacoste 2011 "#bdx11 Vibrant vital Grand Puy Lacoste. Elegant power, precision. [But Pontet-Canet winner this morning. Has it all, seducing, pure, fresh...]"
5. Lafite Rothschild 2011 "#bdx11 Lafite-Rothschild beautiful, vital & harmonious, great texture, fine acidity, mineral finish. Carruades great too, tender & elegant."
6. And Sauternes 2011: d'Yquem & De Fargues.

List C. MORE RECOMMENDATIONS PER APPELLATION
not just a 3rd list, these are top-buys and some are even affordable

Margaux: d'Issan, Brane-Cantenac, Giscours, Rauzan-Ségla, Clos du Jaugueyron
Saint-Julien: Léoville-las-Cases, Clos du Marquis, Léoville-Barton, Langoa-Barton
Pauillac: Lynch Bages, Pichon Comtesse, Haut-Batailley, Duhart-Milon, Petit Mouton
Saint-Estèphe: Montrose, Calon Ségur, Lafon-Rochet
Pessac-Léognan rouge: Domaine de Chevalier, Haut-Bailly, Smith Haut Lafitte
Pessac-Léognan blanc: Domaine de Chevalier, Smith Haut Lafitte
Saint-Emilion: Tour du Pin, Larcis Ducasse, Canon, Canon-la-Gaffelière, Trottevieille, Le Carré, Beau-Séjour Bécot, Clos Fourtet, La Gaffelière
Pomerol: Nénin, Conseillante, Clinet, Hosanna, Petit Village, Beauregard
Sauternes: Rieussec, Suduiraut, Rayne-Vigneau, Tour Blanche, Doisy-Daëne

The brand new cellar of Château Cheval Blanc

List D. THE BEST VALUE WINES PER APPELLATION
great value for reasonable prices

Moulis: Poujeaux, Chasse-Spleen
Margaux: Du Tertre, Siran
Saint-Julien: Gloria, Lalande Borie, Petit Lion, Croix de Beaucaillou
Saint-Estèphe: Capbern Gasqueton, Ormes de Pez, Dame de Montrose
Pessac-Léognan rouge: Parde de Haut-Bailly, Carbonnieux, Louvière
Pessac-Léognan blanc: Carbonnieux, Couhins, Lespault-Martillac, Latour-Martillac, Olivier
Saint-Emilion: Teyssier, l’Arrosée, Fonroque, Tour Figeac, Grand Corbin-Despagne, Fleur Cardinale, Quintus, Villemaurine
Pomerol: Fugue de Nénin
Sauternes: Lafaurie-Peyraguey, d’Arche

To see what others recommend check out Bordoverview. And the Bolomey Wijnimport offers are and will be presented on the page bordeaux-2011.nl.

Bordeaux 2011 - vintage character

2012-04-13T14:46:00.004+02:00

In april 2011, when we were cruising the Bordeaux Rocade with temperatures hitting 30 degrees Celsius, we joked about the birth of yet another vintage of the century.

One year later it is clear: Bordeaux 2011 is not another stellar vintage. Thank God. Or better: thanks weather gods.

The result of the summery spring was that Bordeaux 2011 was an exceptionally early vintage: budding was exceptionally early, flowering was, and eventually harvest was early. So far so good.

The extreme drought. That was the main problem for Bordeaux 2011.

The 2011 samples of Cheval Blanc and Petit Cheval in the impressive new barrel room of Château Cheval Blanc

The winter had already been quite dry, so at the beginning of the growing season the water reserves were low. And after the warm and dry spring, a hot and dry June followed. By that time many vines got stressed, that is suffered from water stress: development and phenolic ripening of the grapes got blocked.

The main activity of the vine, of any plant, is photosynthesis:

6 CO2+ 6 H2O (plus warm sunlight) = C6H12O6 + 6 O2

Sugars are built up from carbon dioxide and… water! Without water no photosynthesis and no development. Drought is a prerequisite for a good vintage, but that’s certainly up to a limit. All over Bordeaux water stress was serious in 2011.

The vintage was saved, to a certain extent, in the second half of the summer. Thanks to rain in July, and more moderate temperatures, the vines could more or less recover (but rot arrived too, further diminishing the yields). Thanks to a good late summer the grapes continued to ripen again. But not in the way they did in 2009 and 2010.

Ripening in 2011 is more limited: sugar levels are lower, and full (phenolic) ripeness of tannins in skins and pips is not always there.

Not only the grapes were stressed halfway the growing season. Director Thomas Duroux from Château Palmer for example, had almost decided to skip the 2011 vintage altogether. In June many grapes got sunburnt during the excessively hot days of 26 and 27 June.

As said, the vintage was saved by friendlier weather afterwards, but the yields during harvest were low. In fact, for Palmer they hadn’t been so low since their monumental 1961 vintage (remember: the only wine that got 6 stars from Michael Broadbent).

The vineyard of Vieux Château Certan, Pomerol. "VCC" presented a great wine again this year.

Low yields combined with the effect of hot weather had resulted in small thick-skinned berries. Read: tannins! Yes, Bordeaux 2011 is a tannic vintage.

For the red wines we're looking at an average to above average vintage. We tasted a shipload of 2011s last week, and we found good wines, and wines that were not so good. For the whites, the general opinion is that 2011 is a good to very good year, but to my taste I found quite a few that are lacking freshness (acidity), so I’m going to be picky here as well.

Most winemakers were carefully enthusiastic about what they made this year. Some were jubilant, but that must have been an unfortunate commercial automatism playing up wrong time wrong place. Most surprising were the Bordelais who were explicitly reticent about the Bordeaux 2011 vintage.

Asked how I had found the wines at J-P Moueix, I politely answered that "I tasted some beautiful wines" - which was actually not just politeness, but the truth - but instead of agreement I saw a shooking head before me "No, this is not a great vintage."

An often heard characterization for Bordeaux 2011 is that it is a "classical vintage, in the positive sense of the word". This might ask for some explanation: usually the word "classic" is used as an euphemism for "bad". For Bordeaux 2011 it foremost means that the vintage does not have the sex and fat of the 2009s, and not the power of the 2010s.

So what classical features does it have? Christophe Jacquemin Sablon from Château Pétrus summarized 2011 as follows: tannins = high, acidity = high, sugars = low.

The vineyard of Château Petrus. Their 2011 is very attractive, I think mainly because the Petrus-team 'gently' followed the vintage characteristics

The low amount of sugars besides high tannins and high acidity don't make Bordeaux 2011 an easy vintage. And definitely not to taste en primeur. More than once I suffered from what I call tannins-poisoning: the mouth gets paved with harsh tannins that do not disappear with spitting. Every next wine will taste - more or less - tannic as it releases the tannins that are still present on tongue and palate.

The wines with aggressive, unripe tannins are the ones to cause tannins-poisoning (the remedy is to eat a piece of bread, or to avoid these wines). Over-extraction during winemaking is the most common reason for wines to be unpleasantly tannic.

In years with great ripeness, i.e. phenolic ripeness also of tannins in grape skins and pips, extracting is in fact less dangerous. But in a year like 2011 the best winemakers follow the vintage characteristics and are cautious not to over-extract.

In general the more attractive wines this year aren't the heaviest ones. Here Pétrus is a good example. Pétrus 2010 and 2011 are quite different wines. The 2010 is "high on everything" with lots of fruit, the 2011 is more modest, elegant, and in comparison to 2010 much less dominated by fruit.

The low level of sugar led to wines with less alcohol, and the 13 - 13,5% for this vintage is also more "classical".

Note that for a wine to be tannic is not necessarily bad, as long as the tannins are ripe. Powerful wines with good ripe tannins are for example (from North to South) Montrose, Lynch-Bages, Léoville-Barton, Rauzan-Ségla and Haut-Bailly. These are serious wines for the long, and perhaps very long run.

Unripe tannins make the mouth dry and bitter, it is an unpleasant experience. Ripe tannins especially differ in the finish: they sort of tingle on the tongue. And they tingle off, or should I say tingle away.

Jacquemin Sablon compared the 2011 vintage to the 1975 vintage. That was also a tannic and seriously structured year. The sad story for many of the 1975 Bordeaux’s is that they never really got mature: the hard texture never really softened out, and when it finally did, the rest of what the wine constituted had already died.

It is probable that the 2011s with the toughest (and partially unripe) structure will be facing a comparable unfortunate future. It is for that reason that I would not advise a wine like Pavie 2011. And I would advise a very refined wine like Château Margaux, for me one of the "wines of the vintage".

The 2011 samples of Château Margaux and Pavillon Rouge du Château Margaux. Hard to spit!

To summarize: Bordeaux 2011 is a difficult vintage, and only the winemakers who made the right choices (and had some luck) made interesting and sometimes beautiful wines. Of course it depends on pricing too whether these wines are interesting to buy.

The next posting will contain my personal Bordeaux 2011 recommendations. Thus: to be continued!

Update 18 April: as from now on you can follow the Bordeaux 2011 offers on our bordeaux-2011.nl page.

Bordeaux 2011 - about to discover

2012-03-31T11:55:00.000+02:00

Tomorrow we drive off to Bordeaux to taste the 2011 vintage. Many people have already written and speculated about this new vintage, so I won't. Instead I will give you the link to Chris Kissack's write-up, which is interesting and covers most things that can or should be said. And, across the board, I agree with what he is saying.

You can also check out what early-bird James Suckling writes on his blog, clear and to the point. Suckling publishes earlier than any other wine critic, for what it's worth. Some critics don't need to be fast, which is a more preferable position I suppose.

Sad Bordeaux 2011, the vintage that will always be in the shade of its two monumental predecessors. But it seems everybody is glad that there's not this ecstatic atmosphere again. That couldn't have been there anyway.

So if the quality is fairly good, and if the prices will be quite reasonable, things might become interesting in the end... but let's not start speculating now.

For now I'm just very curious to taste all the wines. Monday morning we start at Château Cheval Blanc and Château Ausone, and the last visit is Friday to Château Pétrus.

And on Saturday we will clean our teeth in Champagne, we'll be visiting Georges Laval (remember, the dry ultra-pure and lively organic-since-1971 Champagne which you can find at Noma, and at Bolomey Wijnimport).

If you want to follow our Bordeaux 2011 impressions from day to day follow Bordoverview on Twitter.

In the course of April primeur offers will appear on bordeaux-2011.nl.

Twenty-something Chenins

2012-03-20T13:19:00.000+01:00

The more people start drinking the wines that I import, the less time I have to maintain my blog. It's great to see the business grow, but it hurts to see my almost five year old baby (i.e. the blog) suffer from a lack of attention.

It's not that there's nothing to write about, it's finding the time to actually write it down. It's about time to hire someone for the business.

Normally I would have written about the surprisingly pleasant wines from Graubünden and Sankt Gallen that we tasted when we were in Switzerland earlier this month. Wines that are too expensive for the export markets (plus the amounts are small) so you will hardly ever find them abroad. For example the Sinfonie Helig Chrüz from Rathauskeller Mels (AOC St. Gallen). A lovely blend from Pinot Noir, Gamaret and Regent. The Gamaret grape was new for me.

Yesterday we had a blind tasting of 21 Chenin Blancs (plus 1 pirate) from both the Loire region and South Africa. The easiest way to distinguish between the two regions, it appeared, is to look at the amount of acidity, which is, not surprisingly, higher in the Loire. Not that it is easy to tell whether it is the one or the other, I made enough mistakes.

In general you can say that Chenin has many fascinating faces. The organizers brought together a series of very interesting Chenins, we only tasted quality stuff from smaller production. So no supermarket wines in this tasting.

It wasn't so much a tasting with good and bad, it was much more a tasting about styles and preferences. I was able to reconfirm my own preference for lively natural French stuff, but I tasted some beautiful South Africans as well. Most notably the Swartland Mullineux White Blend 2009 and the Teddy Hall Auction Reserve 2010.

To my relief I identified my own three Chenins that I brought in. Carême's Vouvray Sec 2009 was received with much enthusiasm, Delecheneau's Montlouis Clef de Sol 2010 was a faulty bottle unfortunately. It was just awkward and nothing compared to the spirited and linear freshness that I had tasted just 2 days earlier. That happens in tastings, unfortunate bottles being judged, also when you're not there.

The tasting of the third wine caused excitement: Mosse's Anjou blanc 2010. It started with the remark of yet another vin naturel with that apparent yeasty smell. Someone else called it a difficult wine. I disagreed, fiercely, but I tried not to misbehave. The richness and honey, the energy, the thrilling acidity that carries on dancing on the tongue. Nothing difficult about it. It only makes me happy.

Other French beauties: the Clos du Breuil from François Chidaine, a very vital wine, and the Domaine du Collier 2006, an exciting rich and complex Saumur that is well worth discovering.

And I should mention a surprisingly good pirate: there was a lovely Hungarian wine between the Chenins: the Béres Tokaji Furmint Löcse 2008.

So I would have written about that tasting. And I'm afraid I just did. This is clearly the way to proceed: just write. A modest thank you to myself for that simple lesson.

And a thank you to Tom Spronk and Elly de Goede for organizing this wonderful tasting!

- Mullineux & Teddy Hall: Winematters
- Chidaine & Domaine du Collier: Wijnhandel Koninginneweg
- Béres: Miranda Beems Wine Import
- Carême, Delecheneau & Mosse: Bolomey Wijnimport

Burgundy vs Bordeaux vs Languedoc?

2012-02-29T10:12:00.000+01:00

Dwayne Perreault — Comparing Burgundy to Bordeaux to Languedoc wines is like comparing apples to oranges to bananas I suppose, yet it seemed like a novel idea for a tasting, so David Bolomey, Jan van Roekel and myself met recently to open some beautiful bottles. The idea was mine. Being the rather estranged Rhône/Languedoc lover in our little group, I wanted to see how some top Languedoc wines would stack up against similarly priced Burgundy and Bordeaux. We chose €35-50 per bottle as our budget to try to keep it competitive, and the results in my opinion were predictable: you cannot compare apples and oranges and bananas. There was perhaps only one exception. But first, the wines. We decided to start with Burgundy, then move to the Languedoc and then Bordeaux.

Jan fittingly brought a Chambolle-Musigny, "La Combe d'Orveau" 2009 from Anne Gros. I say fittingly, because Jan has worked several seasons picking grapes for Anne Gros and knows her and her wines well. But not only that, Anne Gros is one of the few Burgundian producers who has also expanded to the Languedoc, to Cazelles in the Minervois.

The Chambolle is a beautiful, seductive and elegant Pinot, a feminine wine I would say, with a hint of licorice behind the red fruit, and sublimely integrated oak with a light pepper in the aftertaste. A classic and beautiful red Burgundy, with 13% alcohol.

I provided the next two bottles. First, the Côteaux du Languedoc, Mas des Dames "L'Unique" is indeed unique, as only 666 bottles are made after aging three years in a 500 liter barrique. Only the best Syrah and Grenache grapes are used, at yields of 25 hl/ha. What a change of gears here, very deeply concentrated dark fruits and also an intriguing barnyard note. Silky texture in the mouth with powerful tannins, a well balanced, powerful and truly Languedoc wine, with 13.5% alcohol.

Next, the most atypical wine, the VDP de l'Herault, Mas de Daumas Gassac 2007. In retrospect, I should have served this before l'Unique, as this is a leaner, less robust wine made from 80% Cabernet Sauvignon and 20% "Variétés rares," whatever that may be. According to winemaker Samuel Guibert, "We belong more to the Bordeaux 1961 attitude—wine with 12.5% alcohol and good acidity. Only 15% new oak is used to get finesse. The wine is no more typical of Bordeaux than it is Languedoc." This is a very expressive wine which may yet in some ways be compared with Bordeaux, with darker notes of coffee and toast with different tannins than the Syrah, well balanced with good acidity.

Finally, it was time to try David's bottle, the Pomerol, La Gravette de Certan 2009. This is the second wine from Vieux Château Certan, still a young vintage with 14% alcohol, though you wouldn’t notice it in the very user-friendly taste. Super elegant, fruit driven (both red and dark berries) with softer, melted tannins held up by upright acidity. There is a beautifully integrated use of wood, not overdone but showing notes of tobacco and spice. The wine remains elegant yet gripping in a quite long, fresh and fruity aftertaste. A truly beautiful right-bank specimen which will only gain more complexity with some bottle ageing.

After tasting, we start drinking. Some cheeses and dry sausages are brought out, and I notice that the Pomerol is the first to disappear. But all of these wines are beautiful representatives of their genres; it gives us more pleasure to enjoy them instead of compare them.

Loire trip through a handful of tweets

2012-02-12T23:10:00.000+01:00

I like Twitter. Twitter forces me to summarize whatever special or noteworthy I experience, in 140 characters. I don't tweet about dull daily stuff, only about things I like. And those likeable things then need to be summarized to its essence. It makes Twitter a sort of diary also. I can look back for example at the few remarks I made when visiting Angers and Champagne last week.

Tweet #1 on 6 Feb 2012 « Tasting with @chris_kissack & @burgoholic at Carême #salonvinsloire True discovery y'day in Chez Rémi - details later http://pic.twitter.com/ijxD7iL1 »

Jan and I tasted some exciting young wines again at the Salon des Vins de Loire. But this is the last time we will be going. The organization decided to thwart the organizers of small 'bio' fairs like Dive Bouteille and Greniers St-Jean and choose a different weekend for their Salon. Great to see my contacts, but it's not the place for the most exciting new discoveries. So next year we will make a short tour along the alternative fairs.

But of course it was good to taste the new vintages of the producers that I work with. Next year I will taste these somewhere else. Perhaps at a smaller fair, perhaps at the domain, perhaps in Amsterdam, we'll see.

At the stand of Vincent Carême (who wasn't there because he was so unfortunate to break his foot) we ran into Chris Kissack (again), whose Winedoctor is one of my favourite resources on the web. I have always wondered how somebody can have such a complete website with so much information and tasting notes. But now I understand: Chris and his laptop are virtually glued together.

The Chinon producer that I've been working with for a few years presented a good new vintage but decided to raise his price by 40%. Perhaps something the Bordelais can get away with, but we felt it was time so look for an alternative. Some time. To our own surprise we ran into something great the same day. More about that later.

I mentioned another discovery that we made in Restaurant Chez Remi. Will also get back to that later. You have to be careful these days. Just heard that one of my 'colleagues' is hunting my Orléans...

Tweet #2 on 6 Feb 2012 « À Chartres Bistrot à Vins: Andouillette "AAAA" sauce moutarde http://pic.twitter.com/Y2lxyv9H »

Yes another event, that evening, in Chartres! A lovely smelly sausage to make followers back in Holland jealous (or not at all). It was an okay andouillette by the way, I have tasted better stuff.

The organic Cheverny that accompanied the food was just okay, actually a bit disappointing. Jan and I did not finish the bottle, and that's quite a bad sign.

Tweet #3 on 7 Feb 2012 « Dégorgement manuel par Emmanuel Brochet. Millésime '06. Exciting organic Champagne. Very refined and ongoing finish... http://pic.twitter.com/Ry84BKmK »

Perhaps the best part of this short trip was our (second) visit to Emmanuel Brochet. We tasted his 2009 Extra Brut plus the millésime 2006. I love his approach. Brochet releases (dégorges) purely based on what he tastes. So after the 2007 now follows the quite accessible 2009. The 2008 isn't ready yet.

And the early batches usually receive a modest dosage, like this 2009 that we tasted (Extra Brut). For later batches of the same vintage the dosage gets smaller and smaller, and might eventually be omitted at all. I'm currently selling the 2007 Non Dosé. A pure beauty!

"Ça sent bon!!"

2012-01-25T16:38:00.000+01:00

A while ago I stumbled upon a Canadian website that clearly deserves attention. It would have made sense if not me, but Dwayne, the Canadian, would have come up with it, but he hasn't.

This is what I have seen on the web: Bu sur le web. Aurélia Filion tells about wine, in a contagious manner, mostly about natural wines from France. She does that in very intelligible, articulated French (because it is Québécois I guess), and in a few cases also in English.

As an example I show you the French and English version of Mme Filion sharing with us the biodynamic Anjou blanc 2009 from René and Agnès Mosse. As the Dutch importer I am inclined to say that it is good wine (which is an understatement), but I rather have Aurélia say it. Because she says it very clear, and besides that she's nice to look at.

My favourite part is in the French clip, when Aurélia smells the Anjou and shouts out: "ET ÇA SENT BON!!" (while doing a sort of disco thing with her arm). It totally makes you want to smell the wine yourself. The bad news: the 2009 is sold out (a/o bought by Holland's famous wine writer Nicolaas Klei). But the good news: the 2010 has just arrived!

This is the French video. For those who are time-pressured: the ça-sent-bon exclamation happens at 45 seconds:

And here's the English video:

There's more good news: with Mosse's Anjou's (blanc and rouge) and their Savennières a new wine traveled along with this shipment: the Bois-Rouge 2010, a Vin de Table made from 75% cabernet franc plus cabernet sauvignon, both from young vines. This pure vin de plaisir et de soif can only become a hit, there's no doubt. I will keep you posted on that.

Perhaps one day we will see the Bois-Rouge on Bu sur le web...

Winemaking Apprenticeship, Mas des Dames 2011, part 2

2012-01-15T20:52:00.000+01:00

Dwayne Perreault – To continue from my last posting, which had more to do with the viticulturalist aspect of winemaking, I will now turn to the actual making of wine, which begins with the process of adding yeast to the grape juice, the basis for the wine. Mas des Dames, being an organic estate, wishes to avoid using yeasts which impart flavours, so "levures naturelles," or natural yeasts are used. These actually come from Syrah vines from Guigal in the Rhône.

The question might be asked: why not just use natural yeasts which exist in the vineyard, but oenologist Xavier Billet explains that this at all costs is to be avoided. Some of these yeasts may be from the Saccharomyces cerevisiae family, but others (Brettanomyces, etc.) not. These are unpredictable yeasts which can rapidly turn wine into vinegar, or not. But one chooses for certainty.

The adding of yeast is a delicate process. One kg of dried yeast (for 50 hl, or 20 gm/hl) is added to a 10 litre bucket of water at 35° Celsius and left for an hour. Before adding the yeast solution to the vat of grape juice, special care must be taken that the temperature of the yeast solution and that of the grape juice do not differ by more than 10° Celsius, otherwise thermal shock could ensue, which can hinder or even stop fermentation. Since the yeast is alive and writhing and foaming in the bucket, it does not lose its temperature quickly. To help matters, after an hour we add gradual portions of the cooler grape juice to the bucket, to bring down the temperature. Once the yeast solution has been added to the vat, fermentation begins.

Before long, the vat of grape juice begins to change, with a fine mousse growing on top and becoming thicker by the day. After 48 hours of fermenting we perform our first débourbage, or removal of the lees, the dead yeast cells which collect at the bottom of the vat as sediment. This is done by climbing up a ladder to the top of the vat and inserting a large hose into the tank, thus pumping the clear juice into another vat which has been sealed with CO2.

One could of course choose to vinify sur lie, or with the lees, possibly even pumping over twice a day, the macération sur bourbes, which provides thicker wines, but Lidewij chooses for pure fruit expression and freshness.

Samples are regularly taken from the fermenting vat to measure the density and temperature of the must, the now fermenting grape juice. The sweet pure grape juice contained a lot of natural sugars, which have a higher density than water, precisely 1100 at the beginning of fermentation. These sugars are the food for the yeast required to make alcohol, and as the sugars are converted into alcohol the density of the must will decrease, while its temperature will increase.

Samples of the fermenting must are also taken by Xavier Billet to a laboratory in Béziers to receive a total analysis. Xavier is one of six oenologists for the entire Départment de l’Hérault and all indications point to the Mas des Dames Blanc being a healthy, fermenting wine. But the wine is not only fermented in the vat, it is also fermented en barrique, so after several days it is pumped over into oak barrels, after which it is fined with bentonite. The use of new oak is eschewed, which leads to a more subtle oak influence in the wine, round but with freshness.

Our work in the vineyard was in the meantime interrupted twice by heavy rains, on August 31st and September 4th. This inopportune rain puts harvesting behind schedule, as the grapes become gorged with water (and predisposed to rot). A delay in work means the pickers don’t get payed, and this can become troublesome in trying to keep a team together. Many pickers are itinerant workers, and they know that by driving to the Médoc they could work for two weeks without stopping. But on September 7th we harvested some choice plots of Syrah to make the rosé. In total we had 21 hl of delicious juice, 19 hl after débourbage. Once again, with the rosé we are only vinifying the dark pink juice, which has had only a short maceration with the grape skins. In other regards, vinification is the same as the white wine, although only 10% of the rosé receives oak ageing.

And at this point, on September 12th, my apprenticeship at Mas des Dames came to an abrupt end, as I had to leave. The work was not yet done, as the vinification of the reds was about to begin. I hope to return another time to finish what I had started. My thanks to Lidewij van Wilgen for giving me this opportunity, for her instruction and answering my many questions. Special thanks to Xavier Billet for the same and for giving me a guided tour of his laboratory. It has been a great experience and I look forward to coming back. I also look forward to tasting the 2011 Mas des Dames when they are released! In the meantime, the 2010 white and rosé are still available at Wijnhuis Zuid, as well as the 2009 La Dame and the 2007 La Diva.

Two tastings in weekend 27-29 January

2012-01-09T13:53:00.001+01:00

Friday afternoon 27 January there will be a wine and oyster tasting in downtown Amsterdam, in the red light district. Famous Oesterman Marcus van den Noord will present his oysters, while you can taste the wines from laVieleVin and Bolomey Wijnimport. French wines only!

This tasting will start around 17h so you could consider having dinner afterwards in one of the many restaurants in this part of town (for example Lastage, Blauw aan de Wal or good old Nam Kee).

Location: Oudezijds Voorburgwal 59 Amsterdam
Date and time: Friday 27 January from 17h00 - 20h00
Admission: presumably around € 20 per person

Grotere kaart weergeven

This last weekend of January not only has a good start, it also has a good finish! Because: Sunday 29/1 the second Amsterdamse Wijnmarkt will take place. Seven specialized and Amsterdam-based importers will then present their wines. Specialized means that these importers do not cover a wide range of wines, instead they all focus on one specific country:

France: Vleck, Pomme d'Or and Bolomey Wijnimport
Germany: Markvandewijn
Hungary: Miranda Beems Wine Import
Italy: Monega
South Africa: Coza Wijnimport

In addition, Chocolaterie Atelier Alexandre will present its traditional, handmade chocolates.

Location: Café Schiller, Rembrandtplein 24 Amsterdam
Date/time: Sunday 29 January from 14h00 - 17h30 (press from 13h)
Admission: € 10 per person

Grotere kaart weergeven

It would be great to see you at one of these tastings!

Some last thoughts, and Bruno Clavelier

2011-12-31T15:45:00.000+01:00

I say goodbye to 2011 with fifteen random personal thoughts & remarks.

1. Being a wine merchant and a wine blogger is a difficult combination in December (hence the 20 days of silence).
2. Beaujolais Nouveau in general is not very popular these days. But Natural Bojo Nouveau of raving beauty appears to have a (small) group of very devoted followers!
3. The pivotal role of scent in wine is comparable with its role in sex.
4. My favourite website on wine is Chris Kissack's winedoctor.
5. This year's most popular posting on this blog is the Bordeaux 2010 recommendations posting of 2 May.
6. Bordeaux 2010 was, other than expected in the first place, a success: customers were again willing to buy at high prices.
7. If Bordeaux 2011 is going to be a bargain vintage like 2008 sales will be good, otherwise it will be very quiet.
8. Unfortunately raising prices in Bordeaux is easier than lowering prices; it's always 2 steps up and 1 step back. Sort of cheating.
9a. For a truly interesting read about Bordeaux check out Filip Verheyden's Bordeaux special of Tong Magazine.
b. One of the authors is Benjamin Lewin MW, author of What Price Bordeaux?, a highly recommended page-turner full of interesting Facts (and figures, and not myths) about Bordeaux.
10. Another fact: I drink more Burgundy than Bordeaux.
11. Then an opinion: a wine from a hot climate will never match the quality of its peers from cooler climates.
12. Wine is made for drinking, not for sipping (which doesn't mean that you have to drink a lot).
13. Fresh milk is an underestimated drink in most countries outside the Netherlands.
14. The high excise tariff on sparkling wine (3,4 times as high as on still wine!) are rubbish, they simply don't make sense.
15. Since I work with wine, my appreciation for beer has grown.

La Combe d'Orveaux, the little corner in the Musigny vineyard that did not become Grand Cru: Clavelier's grandfather never applied for that status, it would have meant higher taxes...

Last but not least: an announcement. A new top Burgundy producer has just entered the Bolomey Wijnimport selection: Bruno CLAVELIER from Vosne-Romanée. Clavelier makes pure, meaty, deep-dark pinots, convincing and seducing. Impressive stuff - organic wines made according to the principles of biodynamics.

I created a Primeur 2009 offer (pdf, in Dutch) in November already, but never found the chance to send it out. So let the blog - in the end - have the scoop. Early January this offer will be sent to a selection of Dutch Burgundy lovers; note that the available quantities are tiny for these sought-after reds.

A happy 2012 to all of you!

Winemaking Apprenticeship, Mas des Dames 2011, part 1

2011-12-11T19:55:00.001+01:00

Dwayne Perreault - It seems only natural to me that anyone seriously involved with wine would want to do a winemaking apprenticeship. It’s an idea I’ve had for some years now. Since I work in wine, I spend most of my waking hours with it. It is my profession and in the evening it is my joy and solace, a continually changing mystery: originating from all over the world, constantly differing and charming in so many ways.

Yet what is it, really? Fermented grape juice would be the most prosaic answer, yet in many cases I feel that good wine, like food, is art, the personal expression of the winemaker using grapes as material. It is the divine act of the alcoholic fermentation, the ancient alchemical transformation of grapes into a Bacchanalian elixir which has been a part of our history for 8,000 years, that interests me.

Lidewij van Wilgen at the sorting table

I’ve already written about Lidewij van Wilgen, owner/winemaker of Mas des Dames, who I met this past spring, while vacationing in the Languedoc. I received a tip that a Dutch woman produces great wines nearby and was about to publish a book about her experiences. Intrigued, I drove to her estate and met her briefly. She invited me the next day to a tasting for 13 sommeliers from top restaurants in London. After tasting the wines, I was thoroughly convinced. I contacted the importer, purchased the wines and invited her to do a tasting/launching for her book Het Domein, which took place in Wijnhuis Zuid on May 15th.

I thought Mas des Dames looked like a great place to do an apprenticeship: small yet not too small, and fully committed to producing the best possible biological wines from a domain with a great terroir and a broad variety of grape varieties, including 90 year old Alicante Bouschet vines. Not only that, it was a 15 minute drive from where I was staying, and Lidewij seemed to be just the kind of earnest and enthusiastic soul I was looking for as a teacher. So on a lark, I proposed the idea and she agreed.

I showed up on August 30th early in the morning and was able to stay until September 12th, too short a time really, as I just missed the vinification of the reds, except for a few choice plots of Syrah for the rosé. But as it were, I helped and learned with the vinification of two wines, the Mas des Dames Blanc and Rosé: 2011 was a particularly good and abundant year, especially for the Grenache Blanc, in Lidewij’s words “maybe the best year ever.”

Unmistakably Syrah

One of the most single important decisions a viticulturist/winemaker has to make is when each parcel of grapes should be harvested, in respect to ripeness and climatic conditions. This is also one of the most difficult aspects of winemaking, as the weather and managing a group of pickers can complicate things. But our day begins by collecting a random sample of 200 grapes in a particular plot, one of many such samples we will be collecting. These will be taken by the oenologist Xavier Billet to a laboratory in Béziers to have their sugar ripeness (potential alcohol), total acidity and Ph measured.

More often we simply walk through the vines, sometimes with a spectrometer in hand to measure the potential alcohol in the grape juice, but even more important, we taste the grapes, biting through their skins, sucking their juices, examining the pips to check for phenolic ripeness. This is still the most trusted way among farmers in France.

Healthy Grenache Blanc grapes at Mas des Dames

The challenge with the thin skinned but succulent Grenache Blanc is that it is prone to rot and is oxidative, so care must be taken that it enters the cave as rapidly and as intact as possible. The real work begins in the fields with the pickers and the freshly harvested grapes arrive stacked in crates on a flatbed trailer pulled by a tractor to the cave, where we wait at the sorting table. We work with tempo as the grapes are coming in by bunches: dessicated grapes are fine, as they are particularly sweet. Grapes with grey rot are removed, along with leaves, weeds, snails and insects like earwigs, spiders, ladybugs, and beetles. Yes, biodiversity does come with a biological vineyard.

From the sorting table the grapes go in whole bunches into the egrappoir, a machine which removes the grapes from the stem. The grapes are lightly crushed, then pumped through a large hose directly into a modern, horizontal air bag press. This ensures that the grapes are pressed gently and evenly, avoiding the crushing of pips which leads to astringent wines.

With white wine, we are only vinifying the juice, so this is directly pumped into a 80 hl vat which is sealed with CO2 to prevent oxidation. In total, we harvested 50 hl from 1.5 ha of land on two plots. Our first sample registered a densimeter/mustimeter reading for 12.5% potential alcohol, and the second lot, harvested later in the morning under the hot sun, showed 14.5%. For this reason, all work stops in the vineyard in the early afternoon. Fortunately, the juice had a measure of 3.8 acidity, which Xavier Billet says is very good for Grenache Blanc, and I agree: my experience with the Mas des Dames Blanc is that it has surprisingly good acidity and freshness for Grenache Blanc.

The quality of the juice is paramount: you can only work with the juice, it is the basis for everything. And it tastes simply delicious, unlike any juice I’ve tasted before, sweeter but also fresher, more alive. This is the basis for the wine, and now I understand the expression “winemaking is done in the vineyard,” as it is possible to make bad wine from good grapes, but it is impossible to make good wine from bad grapes.

[next week part 2]

Today's RVF ranking of the 1855 classification

2011-11-30T10:23:00.001+01:00

I can imagine that most non-French readers of this blog don't have La Revue du Vin de France, France's most well-known and probably most influential wine magazine. The latest edition (No. 557, Décembre 2011) presents in bold big letters the following question on its cover: Que vaut aujourd'hui le classement de 1855? Translated that is: What is today's ranking of the 1855 classification?

My guess is that the readers of this blog would be interested to know which crus are hot - and which not - according to RVF, or at least according to Olivier Poels who put together this overview. Poels' judgment is largely based on the tasting of the following 5 vintages: 1990, 1996, 2005, 2008 and 2009.

For every wine RVF also presents the percentage price increase from 1990 to 2010, an interesting number. For more stats, and for Olivier Poels' story behind the ratings you should find a copy of the magazine yourself.

Apart from the usual suspects there are surprises too. Some nice surprises, but a few of Poels' views made me frown, and foremost for 4 wines that are all mentioned in the category 15,5/20. I think Brane-Cantenac, Giscours, Talbot and Haut-Batailley should all have ended higher in this hierarchy, and perhaps d'Armailhac also. You can simply comment on this posting to share your (dis)agreements, and you are invited to do so.

19,5/20
Latour (Pauillac, 1er cru classé) +1980%
Léoville Las Cases (St-Julien, 2e cru classé) +1479%

19/20
Haut-Brion, (Pessac-Léognan, 1er cru classé) +2013%
Lafite Rothschild (Pauillac, 1er cru classé) +1838%

18,5/20
Margaux (Margaux, 1er cru classé) +1838%
Mouton Rothschild (Pauillac, 1er cru classé) +1838%
Ducru-Beaucaillou (St-Julien, 2e cru classé) +1083%
Léoville Barton (St-Julien, 2e cru classé) +535%
Montrose (St-Estèphe, 2e cru classé) +611%
Lynch-Bages (Pauillac, 5e cru classé) +509%
Pontet-Canet (Pauillac, 5e cru classé) +820%

18/20
Cos d'Estournel (St-Estèphe, 2e cru classé) +1444%
Léoville Poyferré (St-Julien, 2e cru classé) +618%
Pichon-Longueville Baron (Pauillac, 2e cru classé) +680%
Palmer (Margaux, 3e cru classé) +155%*

17,5/20
Gruaud Larose (St-Julien, 2e cru classé) +295%
Rauzan-Ségla (Margaux, 2e cru classé) +997%
Branaire-Ducru (St-Julien, 4e cru classé) + 374%
Grand-Puy-Lacoste (Pauillac, 5e cru classé) +427%

17/20
Pichon Longueville Comtesse (Pauillac, 2e cru classé) +717%
Calon Ségur (St-Estèphe, 3e cru classé) +403%
La Lagune (Haut-Médoc, 3e cru classé) +345%
Malescot Saint-Éxupéry (Margaux, 3e cru classé) +164%*

16,5/20
Lascombes (Margaux, 2e cru classé) +628%
Boyd-Cantenac (Margaux, 3e cru classé) +242%
Cantenac Brown (Margaux, 3e cru classé) +227%
Lagrange (St-Julien, 3e cru classé) +311%
Langoa-Barton (St-Julien, 3e cru classé)
Beychevelle (St-Julien, 4e cru classé) +442%
Duhart-Milon (Pauillac, 4e cru classé) +228%
Lafon-Rochet (St-Estèphe, 4e cru classé) +277%
Marquis de Terme (Margaux, 4e cru classé) +253%
Saint-Pierre (St-Julien, 4e cru classé) +380%
Batailley (Pauillac, 5e cru classé)
Belgrave (Haut-Médoc, 5e cru classé)

16/20
Rauzan-Gassies (Margaux, 2e cru classé) +240%
Issan (Margaux, 3e cru classé) +286%
La Tour Carnet (Haut-Médoc, 4e cru classé) +198%
Cantemerle (Haut-Médoc, 5e cru classé) +70%*
Clerc Milon (Pauillac, 5e cru classé) + 245%
Cos Labory (St-Estèphe, 5e cru classé) +207%
Dauzac (Margaux, 5e cru classé) +192%
Du Tertre (Margaux, 5e cru classé) +156%

15,5/20
Brane-Cantenac (Margaux, 2e cru classé) +345%
Giscours (Margaux, 3e cru classé) +224%
Kirwan (Margaux, 3e cru classé) +115%*
Pouget (Margaux, 4e cru classé)
Talbot (St-Julien, 4e cru classé) +304%
Armailhac (Pauillac, 5e cru classé) + 261%
Haut-Batailley (Pauillac, 5e cru classé) +217%

15/20
Prieuré-Lichine (Margaux, 4e cru classé) +281%
Haut Bages Libéral (Pauillac, 5e cru classé) +278%

14,5/20
Camensac (Haut-Médoc, 5e cru classé) +205%
Lynch-Moussas (Pauillac, 5e cru classé) +202%

14/20
Ferrière (Margaux, 3e cru classé) +40%*
Croizet-Bages (Pauillac, 5e cru classé) +168%

13/20
Durfort-Vivens (Margaux, 2e cru classé) +207%
Marquis d'Alesme (Margaux, 3e cru classé)
Grand-Puy Ducasse (Pauillac, 5e cru classé) +300%
Pédesclaux (Pauillac, 5e cru classé) +83%*

12/20
Desmirail (Margaux, 3e cru classé) +116%

An asterisk (*) means that the price raise is not for the period 1990-2010 but for the period 2000-2010. For some wines the price raise is unknown.

Bordeaux 2009 UGC tasting Brussels

2011-11-15T14:06:00.001+01:00

Last week Jan van Roekel and I drove up to Brussels to attend the annual Union des Grands Crus Bordeaux 2009 tasting with a line-up of 110 crus. These traveling UGC tastings are always very interesting, as you get to try the recently bottled Bordeaux vintage about 1,5 years after having tasted them at the UGC primeur tastings in Bordeaux.

It's also an extensive tasting and you need the full opening hours if you want to taste most of the wines. To try them all is nearly impossible, unless you are a red-toothed speed freak who doesn't care what people around you will think.

There's no doubt that you're attending a tasting of the Union des Grands Crus Bordeaux: there are many people in suits. Mostly dark suits. And some fancy suits but that usually doesn't make things better. Well let's not get into that.

The best thing about the tasting is that you get a good impression of the vintage. It is not the place to taste all your favorites top-down. Not because you won't have the time (you could descend as far as you could), but because there are many omissions. There are no premier crus, and hardly any Super Seconds. And there are many other omissions, for example there are only 7 Pauillacs and 7 Pomerols. And just 4 Saint-Estèphes: Cos Labory, De Pez, Lafon-Rochet and Phélan-Ségur.

So what did we think about red Bordeaux 2009? One striking - but known - vintage feature is the absence of hard, astringent tannins. Good! And another good thing is that only very few wines smell of freshly cut oak, perhaps just one or two go off the rails here.

The vast majority of the wines displays generous, ripe and fleshy fruit. Wines range from juicy to powerful-and-structured, depending also on the style. Acidity generally is good but not predominant, and that makes the wines all the more accessible.

Red Bordeaux 2009 makes a healthy, attractive impression altogether. These are wines with... a sort of natural beauty. As opposed to something that's put together by a winemaker. But this might come across a bit vague, so let's go to the whites.

White Bordeaux 2009. We have tasted some very beautiful, elegant examples, but also some fatter exponents that are sometimes a bit rustic, and sometimes worse than that. More than once the Riedel tasting glass vapored armpit sweat. Hurray Sauvignon! Sometimes I also missed acidity and - thus - freshness.

But I do not want to jump to final conclusions about these animal whites. These in-your-face features are possibly just an age-thing. Many 2009 whites might be true adolescents now, pimpled and blushing, and I'm keen to taste these 'extravagant' whites again!

There were only a handful of 2009 Sauternes to taste, and from these I thought the Guiraud (8++) was the most attractive, with its lovely freshness and purity. I also liked De Fargues (8+), Rayne-Vigneau (8) and Lafaurie-Peyraguey (8-).

I give a Dutch rating, up to a 10 for the best posible. Everything ranging from 8 and up is good to very good, and everything below 7 is not good. In between I shrug and walk on.

PESSAC-LÉOGNAN ROUGE
- Domaine de Chevalier 2009 (8,5+) mineral and juicy, pure and fresh, quite broad base, lovely ripe fruit
- Haut-Bailly 2009 (8,5) bit closed now, but after some time in the glas the wine starts to fan out from an intense and powerful core
- Smith-Haut-Lafitte 2009 (8+) very round, seducing, modern and warm, broad; if this is your style, this is an interesting wine
- De Fieuzal 2009 (8) lovely pure wine, dark depth combined with freshness
- Malartic-Lagravière 2009 (8-) a bit sweet with a medicinal touch, yet a pleasant wine

The rest: Larrivet Haut-Brion 2009 (7,5), Latour-Martillac 2009 (7), Carmes Haut-Brion 2009 (7-), La Louvière 2009 (7-), Pape Clément 2009 (7-), Picque-Caillou 2009 (6,5), Haut-Bergey 2009 (6,5), Olivier 2009 (6,5)

PESSAC-LÉOGNAN BLANC
- Domaine de Chevalier 2009 (8,5) modest breeze of butterscotch and delicate acidity, then concentration, quite tight also, a shapely & elegant wine
- Carbonnieux 2009 (8+) more pointed, fresh, citric, and gentle in the mouth; good concentration
- De Fieuzal 2009 (8) more straightforward, quite tight, hint of oak, but simply good
- Haut-Bergey 2009 (8-) bit sweaty (at this age) but nice round total with also a good acidity

The rest from what I tasted: Smith-Haut-Lafitte 2009 (7,5), La Louvière 2009 (7,5), Pape Clément 2009 (7+), Malartic-Lagravière 2009 (7+), Larrivet Haut-Brion 2009 (7+), Latour-Martillac 2009 (7), Bouscout 2009 (7), De France 2009 (7), Picque-Caillou 2009 (7-), Olivier 2009 (6,5)

SAINT-EMILION & POMEROL
- La Conseillante 2009 (8,5-9) striking minerality, exciting wine, and lovely, intense juice, great!
- Figeac 2009 (8,5-9) very special, quite lean (not an insult), refined and elegant, super!
- Larcis Ducasse 2009 (8,5+) strikingly fresh fruit, slender, subtile, juicy and intense
- Pavie Macquin 2009 (8,5) close to the Larcis but a bit more ripeness, a bit sweeter
- Canon 2009 (8,5) quite light, purple sweetness and attraction, fine texture, ripe tannins
- La Tour Figeac 2009 (8,5) slender, juicy and pure, very nice wine, refined
- Canon-la-Gaffelière 2009 (8++) distinct style, also rather slender, special, animal features
- Clos Fourtet 2009 (8+) sweet and modern yet elegant
- Clinet 2009 (8) more 'rough', full and powerful, ripe, dark

The rest from what I tasted: Beauregard (7+), Franc-Mayne 2009 (6), La Dominique (6,5)

MÉDOC, HAUT-MÉDOC & MOULIS
- Poujeaux 2009 (8+) quite impressive, round & seductive, rather powerful, slightly tannic, hearty fat juice, broad and good
- Chasse-Spleen 2009 (8) a bit leaner, open, seducing as well but in a different manner; character, some medicinal touch that is either slightly awkward, or exciting
- La Lagune 2009 (8-) dairy-freshness, attractive solid fruit, good, pure
- Cantemerle 2009 (7,5) bit closed at the start, but a good middle-of-the-road Médoc, and that's not an insult, classic and what-you-see-is-what-you-get

MARGAUX
- Rauzan-Ségla 2009 (8,5+) exuberance and ripeness, powerful yet quite smooth, attractive acidity, good all the way!
- Du Tertre 2009 (8,5) expressive and somewhat animal, in the good sense of the word, firm acidity, hearty juice, well-structured
- Giscours 2009 (8+) quite ripe, some sweetness in balance with good classic acidic backbone, complete and refined
- Brane-Cantenac 2009 (8-) very closed at this moment and hard to judge, not sure here

The rest from what I tasted: Dauzac 2009 (7,5), Monbrison 2009 (7,5), Siran 2009 (7,5), Prieuré-Lichine 2009 (7), Desmirail 2009 (7)

SAINT-JULIEN, PAUILLAC & SAINT-ESTÈPHE
- Langoa-Barton 2009 (8,5-9) electrifying wine, snappy, lively, pure and masculin
- Grand-Puy-Lacoste 2009 (8,5+) modest start, then ripeness, roundness and a touch of oak; good acidity with an attractive mineral quality, ripe tannins, well-structured, quite lovely
- Léoville-Barton 2009 (8,5) noble, powerful, bit tannic, very complete but way too young to taste
- Lafon-Rochet 2009 (8+) classic Médoc with attractive acidity and freshness; well-structured
- Phélan-Ségur 2009 (8+) fresh, powerful, spicy & peppery, hearty, good
- Pichon-Longueville Comtesse de Lalande 2009 (8+) elegance with a medicinal touch, modest and stylish, good structure and acidity; quietly developing
- Gloria 2009 (8+) expressive, whiff of oak, acidic (positive) and lively; yes I like this one!
- Talbot 2009 (8+) very complete and classic Médoc, nice and expressive, good
- Branaire-Ducru 2009 (8) expressive, sturdy, good acidity and harmony, spicy
- De Pez 2009 (8) round-full, bit oaky, bon matière, classic and complete; nice surprise!
- Lagrange 2009 (8-) elegant, classic and attractive
- Beychevelle 2009 (8-) bit sweet and seducing, juicy, also quite attractive, already
- Saint-Pierre 2009 (8-) difficult phase? not very expressive (now), bit oaky, and some sharpness; should be better than this, or will get better

The rest from what I tasted: Gruaud-Larose 2009 (7,5), Léoville-Poyferré 2009 (7+)

Again, this is definitely not a complete list, but it gives an impression of this beautiful Bordeaux vintage.

Summary of annual tasting. And coming up: Beaujolais Nouveau evening in Le Garage!

2011-11-07T22:08:00.000+01:00

The 23th of October was one of the highlights of 2011 for Bolomey Wijnimport. Six producers from France visited Amsterdam to present their wines, and over 200 people came over to taste. Shall I be honest? It was a great day!

David Butterfield presenting his Meursault

I don't have a lot of pictures - at least I didn't have the time to shoot any - but these three will give an impression of the tasting. In this first picture David Butterfield is telling about his lovely Meursault, or about his Beaune 1er cru that was presented in Amsterdam for the first time. David is a rising star in Amsterdam, and you might find his wine in one of the restaurants here.

Eddy Oosterlinck presenting his Coteaux du Layon Faye

As you can see we had the luck of having a beautiful sunny day, with a great view from the tasting penthouse over the IJ, the water bordering the old harbor of Amsterdam. In the above picture the Belgian Coteaux du Layon producer Eddy Oosterlinck probably explains why his wines possess such a mouth-watering freshness along with the seducing sweetness characteristically for these sweet Loires.

David Clark presenting his red Bourgogne and Côtes de Nuits Villages rouge

On this third picture it's a bit hard to see but you've got to believe me that this is David Clark - bending over the table - who explains something about his red Burgundies. Probably people are wondering how a 'simple' Bourgogne rouge can taste like a lovely premier cru. As David is a very modest Brit, I wonder how he did this.

Not on these pictures: Damien Delecheneau, Hubert Piel-Montigny and Vincent Carême. A big thanks to all vignerons and tasters to have attended this day! The event will be repeated, so if you missed it there's a new chance next year.

Oh and I forgot to tell that we had a splendid dinner afterwards in Restaurant Le Garage. Thanks to Erwin Walthaus also for a lovely evening!

And this automatically leads me to the announcement of yet another great wine event. Friday 25 November there will be a Beaujolais Nouveau evening in Le Garage featuring the organic and un-sulfured (and dramatically pure) wines from Isabelle and Bruno PERRAUD from Domaine des Côtes de la Molière.

Isabelle Perraud herself will be in Amsterdam that evening. We will be drinking her Nouveau 2011 with an honest French dish. Drinking with us will be Nicolaas KLEI, Dutch wine writer and self-appointed lover of natural Beaujolais. I hope we will have enough bottles that evening (no worries, we will).

If you're into great natural wines you shouldn't miss this evening. More information (in Dutch) can be found on the Bolomey Wijnimport website. If you make your reservation in time, you can be there too.

Château Rauzan-Ségla 2009

2011-10-30T21:53:00.000+01:00

I have been neglecting this blog for 20 days, one the longest periods since October 2007. But the reason is good: the import of fine French wines is taking more and more of my time. A week ago 6 winemakers visited Amsterdam for the grand annual tasting, and over 200 customers came to explore the Bolomey Wijnimport selection. You can imagine that this resulted in some extra work, to put it mildly.

I will put up some pictures of the tasting later on.

This month Bordoverview blog has been around for 4 years. But we're not the only one celebrating. Château Rauzan-Ségla was founded in 1661 and has been producing wines for 350 years now. To celebrate that, the 2009 vintage of this wine has a special, very different label, drawn by Karl Lagerfeld.

Rauzan-Ségla even made a video presentation about the release of the 2009 vintage.

In November I will taste this 2009 - along with many other cru classés from this famous Bordeaux vintage - at the UGC tasting in Bruxelles. I am looking forward to explore all these 2009s, about 1,5 years after having tasted them at the UGC primeur tastings in Bordeaux. Anyway, I will post my findings on this blog.

Back to Rauzan-Ségla. It's an interesting wine, but not an easy one to taste en primeur. It's a Margaux that needs serious cellaring, it doesn't show its charm as a baby. In its youth you can sense that there truly is a lot to this wine, but it's all nicely wrapped up into a powerful core. When you look at the wine, you look at a bud. A beautiful, healthy and promising bud. Nothing more and nothing less. Perhaps I get a first glimpse of the flower next month.

There's one aspect that I like less about the recent Rauzan-Ségla vintages, and that's the price. The release price for the 2009 was high, and for the 2010 was very high. On 16 June 2010 the 2009 was released at an average consumer price of €83,50 (66,7% above the 2008 vintage), and exactly one year later (16 June 2011), another 40% was added, resulting in an average consumer price of €116,50. At the time this led to negative reactions, and demand was slow.

In comparison the 2008 is very good value, and there are still some cases available in the Bolomey Wijnimport cellar. My brief tasting note at the UGC tasting from November last year: "dark and quite supple, matière, blackberries, energy and power, long". A wine to be enjoyed between, say, 2015 and 2030. That is: almost one bottle every year.

I think I will keep at least one case to myself.

Winefield's 20th auction in Amsterdam

2011-10-10T22:20:00.002+02:00

Dwayne Perreault — Winefield’s Auctioneers completed their twentieth wine auction in Amsterdam on Sunday, October 2nd at a new location, the Diamantslijperij. It was once again a very successful day, with over 88% in value being sold.

This is an encouraging result, considering that auctions in 2011 have been challenged to repeat their record setting performances of 2010. Last weekend, Sotheby’s held their worst auction ever in Hong Kong. They have also closed their Amsterdam office, except for sourcing.

A couple trends seem apparent: the crazy prices for Lafite Rothschild have seemed to plateau, but Mouton Rothschild has come on strong, a shift of Chinese allegiance perhaps? Could it be the decision to use a Chinese artist for the 2008 label is helping promote interest in China, whether Mouton intended it or not?

The top 5 selling lots were as follows:

1. Château Lafite Rothschild 2000 (12 bottles), €20,880
2. Château Le Pin 2000 (6 bottles), €15,360
3. Château Pétrus 2003 (8 bottles), €10,800
4. Château Mouton Rothschild 2000 (12 bottles), €9,882
5. Château Latour 2003 (12 bottles), €9,760

You get a different perspective, however, if you rate the lots by prices payed per bottle. This is perhaps more the perspective of the connoisseur instead of the merchant. When I last did this, on Winefield’s Five Year Anniversary auction, Lafite and Mouton dominated the list. They’ve since had to make way for other treats, such as Domaine de la Romanée Conti, Château Le Pin and Château Pétrus.

Here is a top ten list of the top selling wines, rated by price per bottle:

1. Romanée Conti, Dom de la Romanée Conti 2003 (1 bottle), €6,405
2. Château Le Pin 2000 (6 bottles), €15,360
3. Le Montrachet, Dom de la Romanée Conti 2003 (1 bottle), €2,074
4. Château Lafite Rothschild 2000 (12 bottles), €20,880
5. Château Pétrus 2003 (8 bottles), €10,800
6. La Tâche, Dom de la Romanée Conti 2002 (6 bottles), €6,832
7. Château Pétrus 1953 (1 bottle), €1,037
8. Château Pétrus 1975 (2 bottles), €1,769
9. Château Pétrus 1992 (1 bottle), €829.60
10. Château Mouton Rothschild 2000 (12 bottles), €9,882

Obviously, the turnout was good on what was actually one of the hottest days of one of the coldest summers, on October 2nd! There were also many successful online bids made. The next Winefield’s auction is in Singapore on October 23rd, and then again in Amsterdam on Sunday, December 11th.

Sunday 23 October: meet the winemakers

2011-09-30T21:01:00.000+02:00

Some people will only know me through this blog. But in real life I'm a wine importer in the first place. Bolomey Wijnimport is the Amsterdam-based company, and we import wines from France (only), from the classic regions Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne and Loire Valley. The focus: natural, typical wines with lots of of energy and freshness. The majority is from small-scale production.

This October will mark the start of a new tradition: once a year, in October, I invite the winemakers to Amsterdam. This year will be the second time, hence the start of a tradition. Te winemakers that I work with come from different regions, and make different wines. But they share the same spirit, they share certain ideas about viticulture (say, natural) and winemaking (that is: don't intervene too much).

I am excited to tell you the following six winemakers will be coming to Amsterdam in October:

- Damien DELECHENEAU (Amboise)
- Vincent CARÊME (Vouvray)
- Hubert MONTIGNY-PIEL (Orléans)
- David CLARK (Morey-St-Denis)
- David BUTTERFIELD (Meursault)
- Olivier COLLIN (Champagne)

To get an idea about the event, here's the summary of the 2010 tasting. It's a small-scale event, most of what is imported is open to be tasted, and foremost, it's lots of fun.

If you would be interested to be there, subscribe on the Bolomey Wijnimport website. There will be two tasting days: Sunday 23 October for the private customers, and Monday 24 October for sommeliers and press. Perhaps we meet there!

"We will sell no wine before its time"

2011-09-25T20:56:00.000+02:00

Dwayne Perreault — If you are old enough and from North America, you may remember the wines of Paul Masson, and the TV commercials from the 1970s featuring Orson Welles. These were some of the first wines I remember drinking, but strangely the memory was half buried and the name was forgotten. I thought the wines were from Paul Mas, but as Brigitte Barreiro, Paul Mas’ marketing manager wrote to me, “Paul Mas wines were not yet available then, but you were already dreaming of them!”

No, it was Paul Masson, who moved from Burgundy to California in 1878 and released his first “champagne” in 1892. Masson eventually became known as “the Champagne king of California.” The commercials featuring Orson Welles are priceless. At this point in his life, Welles was eating and drinking far too much, and the results were sometimes comical. Here is an actual commercial from that time:

If you looked closely, you noticed that Welles was not actually talking but the audio was dubbed over the footage. This is because Welles was completely drunk on the day of the shooting. The following are some actual, unedited takes of the same commercial:

What was Welles drinking that day? We don’t know, but it wasn’t Paul Masson wine. Despite having a lucrative contract which included large amounts of free wine, Welles was fired in the early 1980s after admitting on a US talk show that he never drank a Paul Masson wine in his life. As for the commercial, it has become something of a cult classic by now. As Welles himself might have said, the following parody is eminently worth watching. My favourite part is when he gesticulates to the bottle with an entire chicken in his hand…

Harvest 2011 at David Clark, a summary in pictures and 2 movies

2011-09-15T20:39:00.009+02:00

Last weekend Jan van Roekel and I paid a flying visit to our beloved Burgundy to participate in the two-days harvest of David Clark. This posting is a summary, focusing more on image than text.

Friday morning we started with David's most prestigious, and ripe, vineyard, the Vosne-Romanée. Harvesting is not just picking, so we got some explanations.

We picked with a small but very international team: the pickers had flown in from Canada, the US, Scotland, Holland (ourselves) and of course France. Besides picking we exercised in drinking great wines. The blast of the weekend was the Echezeaux 1966 from Domaine Leroy, a fascinating wine of unbelievable beauty. Thanks Gavin (an Australian living in Beaune) for sharing!

The smallest vineyard of Domaine David Clark (based in Morey Saint Denis) is the Morey Saint Denis vineyard: just the three northern rows of Les Porroux, a villages vineyard close to Chambolle. The production: one barrel.

In this first video you see the sorting and then I walk outside. My friend Jan van Roekel was appointed Chef Container Cleaning (not for the whole time, don't worry). When I walk outside the domain you see the Morey vineyards in the background: part of the grand cru Clos de Tart.

In the second video you see the line-up of instruments. The grapes travel from the selection belt to the destemmer (about one third is not destemmed but processed (fermented) as "whole cluster". The grapes end up in the fermentation vat in this movie.

Or in kilograms: 339 kilograms, including the pallet and the plastic containers.

After weighing a lid is placed on top of the containers, the blackboard saying "Morey" and the amount of kg's. Sorting is next.

During the sorting local god and BBR buyer Jasper Morris stops by to taste the grapes. He seems satisfied with the results. After 10 minutes he's off again.

This picture I tweeted, but it was removed after a few minutes as it apparently violated the terms and conditions. Besides sex and nudity blood apparently isn't allowed. And that while I'm just warning that picking grapes can be dangerous.

Here is a happy David Clark in front of his Côtes de Nuits Villages vineyard in Brochon. We're done picking. These were two great days. We drove home happily, but not after having stopped in Champagne to briefly visit Georges Laval and taste his breathtaking Brut Natures. More about that later, perhaps.

Elk Run Vineyards, Maryland

2011-09-07T23:40:00.007+02:00

Dwayne Perreault — It’s a simple fact, most people here equate American wine with Californian wine. There’s California, and then there’s Oregon and Washington state. Some quality wines are also made in New York state, in the Finger Lakes region (where Château de St. Cosme recently entered in a partnership with Forge Cellars) and on Long Island, but these wines are mostly consumed locally and never make their way overseas.

But the U.S.A. is a big country. Eastern U.S. wines are not limited to New York, as Virginia has over 120 wineries, and there are another 44 in Maryland. A recent trip there brought me to Elk Run Vineyards on Mount Airy, in Frederick County.

Fred Wilson (photo) began the first all vinifera winery in Maryland in 1980, after studying under Dr. Konstantine Frank in the Finger Lakes region for serveral seasons. Chardonnay, Riesling, Gewürztraminer and Pinot Gris were planted, along with Pinot Noir, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah.

Elk Run produces 5,000 cases of wine per year from 9.7 ha of vines from two different sites: Liberty Tavern Vineyard, planted in 1980 and Cold Friday Vineyard, planted in 1995. Soils are mainly shale and schistes on top of sand, with good drainage. Grapes are destemmed, with whole berry pressing for the Chardonnay. Reds are fermented in open top bins, getting a malo in the spring.

The winery itself is a very modest structure, though the site has historic significance, as Liberty Tavern, which is now the house where the Wilsons live, was a meeting place for the Sons of Liberty prior to the Revolution.

Upon seeing the vineyard, I remember thinking something like “I can’t see the forest from the trees,” as for my European eye, the vines looked wild and crowded together, almost forming bushes. At first, I wondered if the vines simply weren’t being overcropped, but Fred assured me that isn’t the case. Average yields are 300 gallons per acre, which is 33.6 hl/ha, which would be the norm for a quality vineyard in the Languedoc.

Elk Run Vineyard’s own website has the following information: “Recent research has convinced Elk Run to more densely plant their vineyards. This permits a lower crop load per vine, which has shown to produce better quality and color in the wine.”
The proof of a wine is, of course, in its tasting. We started with a couple Chardonnays which receive French oak ageing. The Cold Friday Vineyard Chardonnay 2010 ($14.15) has a silky texture with smokey, nutty flavours. Straightforward and pleasing with medium low acidity, but still remains quite fresh. The Liberty Tavern Vineyard Chardonnay 2010 ($24.53) has much more oak, almost Burgundian in nature, very smooth and mellow with a solid finish. Barrel fermented and aged in Allier oak, this is very well done.

The Gypsy Rosé 2010 ($15.09), made from Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir has a light salmon pink colour and light cherry fruit with peppery tones. Nice!

Gewurtztraminer does well in Maryland and finishes in early-mid season. The Cold Friday Vineyard Gewurtztraminer 2010 ($24.53) had a pale gold colour with a sultry nose, thick in the mouth, more off dry than sweet with medium low acidity. Very Gewurtztraminer with spicey notes, but this one did not work with an Indian curry very well.

As for reds, the Cold Friday Vineyard Cabernet Franc 2009 ($28.30) has strawberry jam and chocolate in the nose, dark cherry fruit and medium tannins. Quite an honest expression of Cabernet Franc.

The Liberty Tavern Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon 2007 ($49.95) might be considered the flagship wine. Very dark fruit with some residual sweetness and cacao, soft in texture and not overy tannic. 13.5% alcohol.

Finally, the Vin de Jus Glacé 2008 ($27.36/half bottle), made from Riesling, is one of those examples of cryoextraction wines American vintners are fond of making. Randall Grahm introduced the vin de glaciere on the public with his Bonny Doone wines, but here not the grapes but the actual juice is frozen! I wish I had spent more time asking Fred how this actually works but it does smell like icewine, with a slight Riesling petrol. Not overly sweet, but lacks the acidity, sweetness and thickness of real icewine. There’s still nothing like the real thing, it would seem.

But overall, I’d have to say I was very impressed by my first tasting of wines from an area still unmentioned in most contemporary wine guides, and in Robert Parker’s backyard as it were.

Visit to Château Guiraud, Sauternes

2011-08-30T18:20:00.020+02:00

On our way from Château de Pressac (previous posting) to Château Guiraud we stop for lunch in the ancient village of Castillon-de-Bataille. We’re always looking for that certain place, and our nose to find that certain place is getting better all the time.

And there it is, no doubt. We see the sign saying “andouillette” and it is as if the car parks automatically. There’s no discussion. Once inside it is crystal clear that we made the right choice: half of Castillon is having lunch here.

When the waiter hears us say “three times andouillette” his face changes. “Wow, you’re sure?” From that moment he is our friend. We have to come and see the sausages being grilled on an open charcoal fire.

And at the table something happens that I have not seen before: with a sharp knife the waiter makes a perfect incision over the length of the andouillette (in Holland we do that with a frikandel to stuff it with curry, mayonnaise and onions, and call it “an open leg”). Next he scatters freshly cut onion chips over the sausage, and then the final touch: a generous pour of red vinegar. It turns out to be one of the best andouillettes that I have ever tasted!

Later Pauline Vauthier, daughter of Château Ausone’s Alain Vauthier, sits down at the table next to us and that is the final proof that we have found the place to be: Les Voyageurs.

Fueled and happy we drive south through the beautiful but less prosperous part of Bordeaux called Entre-Deux-Mers: policultural land, as it’s not just vineyards that one sees here. Once we cross the river Garonne the landscape again turns into broad carpets of vineyards: Barsac and Sauternes. And soon we drive up the long, Roman driveway that brings us to the buildings of Premier Cru Classé Château Guiraud.

Guiraud is the first Sauternes grand cru to turn to organic farming, a process of several years, and the first officially certified vintage will be this year, the 2011. It is interesting to look at Guiraud’s alternatives to the various conventional means of agriculture:

1. Fungicides: to protect Guiraud’s vines from malicious fungi, organic products are applied.
2. Herbicides: not used. Grasses and weeds, adding to the biodiversity in the vineyard, are welcome. Competition between vine and other growths forces the former to dive deeper into the soil. Every once in a while the vineyard is ploughed.
3. Insecticides: not used. The most common natural answer, sexual confusion, is not used either. Sexual confusion is about getting rid of the insects. Guiraud has chosen to recreate natural balance by restoring biodiversity.

With that Guiraud has opted for a more complex, but very fascinating route: it’s a true example of sustainable development. The following things have been done to restore natural balance:

• Hotels for insects: little open ‘houses’ with ‘rooms’ holding different kinds of wood to attract a wide variety of insects. The vineyard is the hotel’s garden.
• Bird houses: there are as many as 40 houses for tits and these little birds eat the insects.
• Plantation: between the different vineyards, patches with other plants are grown.
• Clones: at Guiraud they make their own clones. Per vineyard up to 15 different clones are used (instead of 1 optimal one) to strengthen biodiversity.

As a result the vineyards, vines and grapes at Château Guiraud are not just clean, they are also healthy and hence more energetic and strong. I am impressed by their approach.

But there’s more. There seems to be a relationship between working naturally on the one hand, and the desired development of noble rot on the other hand.

In the tourist version of the botrytis story the morning mist that occurs during late summer still plays an important role. In reality this mist is quite a rare phenomenon and cannot be the key driver for the growth of noble rot.

Recent research shows us that the fungus that causes the noble rot comes from within the grape. It has been sitting there – dormant –since the end of flowering and wakes up at the end of the season to do its noble work for us. The mentioned relationship between working naturally and the development of noble rot is simple (or at least seems simple): chemical fungicides used during the growing season have a negative impact on the development of noble rot.

It explains why at Guiraud picking usually takes place rather early, and it explains the lovely freshness that distinguishes Guiraud from many of its Sauternes peers. And to be complete: the relative high proportion of Sauvignon in the blend helps here.

So if we take the mist out of the story, what unique circumstances remain in Sauternes? Not much I’m afraid, and that’s why this mist-thing is so persistent. I’m definitely not saying that there’s no great terroir, as the terroir (gravels over limestone) is great for growing grapes. But it seems that the production of sweet whites in this region didn’t so much sprout from some microcultural uniqueness, but above all from the plain economic necessity to make a preservable wine. But that’s another, less romantic, story.

Let’s go to the wines. From the grand vin Château Guiraud we tasted 2002, 2007 and 2009 with sugar levels ranging from 120 grams/liter (2002) to almost 140 grams/liter (2009), with the 2007 precisely in between. All very elegant wines. There’s marked acidity for the 2002, the 2007 is gentle, refined and harmonious, and the 2009 also but as a whole the 2009 is a bit more impressive, simply a very complete wine.

The second wine has just been renamed and restyled to Petit Guiraud and the attraction here is accessibility. We tasted the 2005 and the 2009. Lighter wines with lots of freshness and and a pleasant hint of bitterness. A wine that needs attention! Specific parts of the domain are now designated for this second wine.

And the same is true for the estate’s dry white wine, Le G de Château Guiraud. The grapes for this wine come from the vineyards close to the village of Sauternes that are not classified as AOC Sauternes, and most of these are planted with Sauvignon. The “G” is made with the same dedication as the sweet wine. The yields are low (25 to 30 hl/ha) resulting in an intense wine.

It’s uniqueness however comes from the ripening of the wine in 2 year old barrels that were previously used for the grand vin. This doesn’t make the wine sweet, yet gives it its particular spicy and fragrant nose. Together with its intrinsical purity (read: beauty) the “G” is as surprising as irresistable.

Readers who got thirsty may be able to find some of these golden treats at Bolomey Wijnimport in Amsterdam.

Also for this posting: photography by my friend Joris Roelants.

Visit to Château de Pressac, Saint-Emilion

2011-08-20T16:56:00.008+02:00

At the east end of Saint-Emilion, perched at the top of an impressive limestone hill, we find Château de Pressac. An unknown little gem on great terroir: steep limestone slopes all around, reminiscent of those from the premier grand cru classés that we find on the famous hill a bit to the west, indeed the one with the town of Saint-Emilion on top. It is early August.

The view from Château de Pressac down towards the Dordogne valley

While looking down over the terraced slopes, and overlooking the Dordogne valley – what an impressive view! – owner Jean-François Quenin elaborates on De Pressac’s unique location, and it doesn’t take much to convince us. He tells about the connection between the limestone around the town of Saint-Emilion, and the limestone here at De Pressac. Later Quenin shows us Kees van Leeuwen’s map with the Saint-Emilion soil types, and yes, that map serves as a sort of proof: the De Pressac hill is like a limestone bulge at the right side of Saint-Emilion.

Kees van Leeuwen's detailed map of the Saint-Emilion soil. The white circle indicates the location of Château de Pressac, sitting on limestone (yellow)

With its viewpoint location close to Saint-Etienne-de-Lisse, and more importantly close to the town of Castillon-la-Bataille, De Pressac has a rich history. One of the first owners came from the Lot around Cahors and brought the Malbec grape to this place. Soon Malbec was called Pressac, after the name of the château. Today Malbec again forms part of the blend, re-introduced by Quenin who put much effort into tracing the original clone.

Quenin did what most people can only fantasize about: buying a potentially great domain in a miserable state, and from close to scratch restore its grandeur. A management buyout led to Quenin’s fortune, and it seems every penny goes into the resurrection of De Pressac. Today the estate covers some 14 hectares (planted with 72% Merlot, 14% Cabernet Franc, 12% Cabernet Sauvignon, 1% Malbec and 1% Carmenère).

Concrete (temperature controlled) vats in the cellar, original ones at the left and new 'copies' at the right side

The cellar is at the same time impressive, and not. Not, because there is no bling bling, everything is functional. From the custom made pigeage devices to gently push down the grapes in the concrete fermentation vats, to the very high tech and very expensive optical sorting machine. No compromise, but no decadence either. Or it must be the prestigious oak barrels made by Quenin’s own cooperage. Is he perhaps, with Château Margaux, the only producer in Bordeaux who makes his own barrels? Well, Quenin clearly does not leave anything to chance.

Quenin's own barrels "Vent d'Autan"

We taste several vintages of De Pressac. The wines exhibit the lush and attractive right bank features with juicy sweetish ripe red fruit, some (more or less) oak, and an attractive dark-purple depth. These are friendly wines that will please most people, gentle and supple in the mouth. I prefer the recent vintages 2008 and 2009, showing a lovely freshness and minerality (2008) counter-balancing the generous fruit.

Fairytale-like Château de Pressac

Jane Anson mentioned De Pressac as one of the likely candidates for promotion to Grand Cru Classé later this year, or early next year. It wouldn’t surprise me. Or in fact, not at all.

I visited De Pressac together with my friends Igor Bijlsma and Joris Roelants. Joris was so kind to take care of the photography.

Visit to Paul Mas, Part 2

2011-08-10T11:24:00.008+02:00

Dwayne Perreault — To continue from my last posting, on visiting Domaine Paul Mas near Pézénas in the Languedoc, the red wines were presented by Cédric Deniset, European Sales Manager.

We first tasted the Vignes de Nicole Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot 2009 (€8.50). A very fragrant, ruby red wine with cherries and some strawberry jam in the nose. Tart red fruits, also some black currants, quite full bodied and very pleasant to drink.

Château de Conas, seated within the Domaine Paul Mas

The Vignes de Nicole Cabernet Sauvignon/Syrah 2009 (€8.50) is much darker, both in its colour and bouquet, but the taste is still predominantly red fruits, with very strong tannins backing it up. This is a solid wine.

The next two wines were both Languedoc grand crus. Many people may still be unaware that the Languedoc has grand crus; there are now ten. According to Rosemary George MW, the complete list is:

- Minervois la Livinière
- Corbières Boutenac
- Saint Chinian Roquebrun
- Saint Chinian Berlou
- Terrasses du Larzac
- Grès de Montpellier
- Pic Saint Loup
- Pézenas
- La Clape
- Limoux (still white and some sparkling wines)

First up, the Terrasses de Larzac, Mas de Mas 2007, made from Syrah, Mourvèdre, Carignan and Grenache. Terrasses de Larzac is a small new appellation created in 2005, and home to Mas de Daumas Gassac. This wine has luxurious fruit with dark jam notes and some residual sweetness, yet remains dry. Softer tannins, really nice and ready to drink, but can easily age another 5-6 years.

Jean-Claude Mas

The Grès de Montpellier, Mas de Mas 2009, however, is clearly not ready yet. Some dark fruit in the nose, with a slight acetone. The taste is extremely tannic. It was interesting to taste this wine in its development, as some bottle ageing is needed.

The last wine I’ll comment on was actually a gift from Cédric, which I enjoyed six weeks later back in Amsterdam. The Côteaux du Languedoc, Château Paul Mas, Clos des Mures is one of the first wines Jean Claude Mas made. Cédric recommended decanting this 2009 and it was remarkable, very nice silky texture with bright red and black forest berry notes. Full bodied and with fresh acidity, very well balanced in a long, shining aftertaste.

If you happen to live in the Amsterdam area, I am hoping to organize a tasting by Paul Mas hopefully in late fall in Wijnhuis Zuid. If I am successful, information will appear on our website.

I will be returning to the Languedoc in a few weeks, to do a short apprenticeship at Mas des Dames. More on that to follow. But before that, I have a report to make on a winery in Maryland of all places, right in Robert Parker’s backyard.