Rosso, Brunello, Riserva & IGT

Tuscany covers an incredibly large area of Italy. Many kick-off with Chianti and Chianti Classico.

Head a little further South and you’ll discover Montalcino home to Brunello di Montalcino.

Made from Sangiovese, specifically the Sangiovese Grosso Clone, Brunello can reach epic heights.

The Consorzio di Brunello di Montalcino classifies wines into 3 groups from bottom to top we have:

Rosso di Montalcino
Brunello di Montalcino
Brunello di Montalcino Riserva

The usual array of restrictions around yield, time in wood, and, total time aging before release including time in bottle apply.

Check out our Wines from Montalcino!

Classification is The Choice of the Makers

The determination of Rosso vs Brunello vs Riserva is most unusual. Unlike the extreme opposite, Burgundy where classifications are defined in detail, makers in Montalcino can make their own choices. Often the difference between a Rosso and a Brunello is bunch selection along a row of the same vineyard. From a Brunello to a Brunello Riserva it may simply be a barrel that looked better and was then aged for a further year.

The better producers tend to have specific sites for Rosso vs Brunello and are more likely to declassify Brunello into Rosso than the other way around.

An incredible proportion of the Montalcino can be classified as Brunello di Montalcino, around 2,100Ha. Unfortunately, this is not simply for reasons of quality. There is an abundance of underperforming vineyards and wineries.

Hopefully, over time a more detailed classification with an emphasis on quality will be established.

Combining these two factors makes it even more important to taste the wines before committing to buy!

Going Their Own Way!

The lack of genuine quality control over the classification has been the reason for some exceptional producers choosing not to maintain membership of the Consorzio, simply classifying their wines as IGT. One of the more basic classification.

Far and away the best example of this is Soldera make of one of the very best Sangiovese’s in Montalcino, in reality, one of the very best wines in the World! One of the most stunning incarnations of Sangiovese on the planet, you would be forgiven for thinking you were drinking an exceptionally good bottle of Grand Cru Burgundy!

To Oak or Not To Oak!

Like many Italian regions use of oak can be a defining factor between success and meh! Those using large, often, older oak typically have a better chance of success.

Botti at Soldera

The lesson here is the same for most regions:

Know your producers and know your sites!

Over time we’ll dig deeper into Montalcino and explore some of the well known, sub-zones.

The Producers of Montalcino

Click to enlarge

The post Getting Your Head Around Montalcino home to Rosso + Brunello di Montalcino appeared first on WINE DECODED.

Spending a couple of hours with Pietro exploring the history of Barolo, Poderi Oddero and the people behind the scenes was a pleasure. The quality and personality-filled wines of Poderi Oddero make sense … you’ll see!

Pietro’s grandfather Giacomo, the 5th generation, played a major role in establishing the DOC for Barolo and a suite of agricultural produce, think hazelnuts and white truffles!

While the red tape of a DOC can feel restrictive, at the time the impetus was to collectively set base-level standards that would see the profile of the Langhe raised on a global stage.

Few would argue they haven’t achieved their goal!

Pietro mentions Giacomo saying that you rate a Barolo producer on their Dolcetto.

Based on Oddero’s Dolcetto, and the array of wines across vintages that offered conditions from perfect to hot to cold, frosted, hailed and everything in between, it’s clear the Oddero family and the group of people that work with them will do whatever it takes to get the most out of each season.

Chapter 1: Intro

Chapter 2: Timorasso 28min

Chapter 3: Dolcetto 42min

Chapter 4: Barbera 49min

Chapter 5: Langhe Nebbiolo 54min

Chapter 6: 2017 & 2018 Barolo 1hr:05min

Chapter 7: Villero ~ Brunate ~ Vigna Rionda 1hr19min

Exploring Tannin Profiles
Texture is the missing link between good and great wines!

This is a great opportunity to explore tannin and mouthfeel.

Check out all the Wines from Poderi Oddero!

To Compare & Contrast

1. Drink a Dolcetto, Barbera and Langhe Nebbiolo to dial into the differences between the varieties.

2. Drink a Langhe Nebbiolo, a Barbaresco Gallina and a Barolo next to each to see how the tannins step as you move from the Langhe to both the Barbaresco and Barolo and how they differ between the Barbaresco and Barolo.

3. Drink the Barolo next the Brunate, Villero & Vigna Rionda to see how the Crus layer up and have very different tannin profiles.

4. Drink a warmer year in the 2017 Barolo next to a cooler year in the 2018 Barolo

Like all of the greats Oddero has a strong focus on texture and as soon as funds and brain space have permitted they have invested in the likes of a sorting table and a super gently destemmer allowing whole berries to have their tannins gently infused into the wine.

Continual experimentation has seen small amounts of whole bunch trialled amongst countless other initiatives.

The podcast from Levi Dalton with Isabella Oddero from 2009 and one with Giacomo Oddero that just dropped is well worth a listen.

The post Wine Decoded Meets Pietro Oddero of Poderi Oddero in La Morra, Barolo appeared first on WINE DECODED.

What do they taste like?

The best of Priorat have evolved into sophisticated creatures full of personality. The incredible high elevation vineyards, planted on slate, many over 100 years ago, yield little fruit, what little they do yield is exceptional.

Natural acidity sees many running with acid levels similar to crisp white wines. The way the tannins, fruit, alcohol and acid complex and balance together gives us superb mouthfeel.

The Reds

Although several French varieties are prominent in the region, sticking to the native varieties, on the red front have the option here to try wines made of the two hero varieties Garnatxa (Grenache) and Carinyena (Carignan) both indiviually and as a blends, some times with a small percentage of white grapes. Like so many varieties around the world, the clones here are unique.

Intoxicating perfumes, vibrant, red fruits, sometimes red apple and pomegranate come to the fore in the Garnatxa, earthy, dark savoury traits in the Carinyena. That overlay of soot, licorice and more often present.

The Whites

And, that’s just the reds. The whites made from Garnatxa Blanca, Pedro Ximénez, Macabeu, Moscatel are invigorating. Fresh, zippy, texutrual, again with insane perfumes.

Two words on the capsule of Àlvaro Palcios’ wines sum it up beautifully:

‘Personalata Única’

Deep Dive

Watch the video and read the booklet republished from the works of Scott Wasley and you will see this story told in the context of Priorat.

Check out all the Wines from Priorat!

The following has been republished with permission from a booklet by Scott Wasley of The Spanish Acquisition. Scott imports a great many delicious Spanish beverages and is a font of knowledge! The content is unchanged with the exception of some of the media.

DOQ Priorat and DO Montsant

by Scott Wasley, The Spanish Acquisition

CONTENTS

Intro
Map
Basic wine characteristics: wines that smells of suits?
A wine history of Priorat in numbers: rise, fall, rise
Then came the Priorat 5
Priorat into the 21st century … the unlikely progressiveness of the Consell Regulador
More on geography, climate, soils
Grape varieties of Priorat and Montsant
Meanwhile, in Montsant … (enter the post-modern co-op)
End Notes

INTRO︎ Index

A place with two place names, containing two appellations

SERRA MONTSANT – the name of the mountain range circumscribing the region.

PRIORAT COMARCA – the council name of the region – its socio-political identity. The Comarca itself is named after the Priory at the village of Scala Dei, on land gifted to Carthusian monks by King Fernando 1st in the 12th century.

DOQ PRIORAT – a wine appellation in the centre of the Montsant range’s valley, defined by schist soils.[1]

DO MONTSANT – a wine appellation within the Montsant range encircling DOQ Priorat, based on limestone soils.

(FRIED) EGG THEORY︎ Index

The two appellations are delineated by soil type.

Pull out your drone and imagine the valley floor lying flat below you (which it absolutely is not), resembling a fried egg. The perimeter (the white) is limestone soils which are defined DO Montsant. The coloured interior (the yolk) is a mix of blue and brown slate, and these soils, locally known as llicorella, are DOQ Priorat.

Driving north out of the southern ‘capital’ Falset, you can sense the change in soil, the delineation of appellations in a visceral, immediate manner. As you swing left around a bend 3 or 4km out of town, towards Gratallops, you cross from limestone into slate, and it’s like someone just pulled the blind down in a lounge room on a sunny day.

YOU ARE NOW ENTERING PRIORAT …︎ Index

90 minutes south of Barcelona, in the province of Tarragona and just 20 minutes in from the coast, Priorat and Montsant are wine regions within the majestic Montsant mountain range.[2] The normal entry to the region (coming from Barcelona) has you arriving in the main town of the region, Falset, in the southern third of the area and on the cusp of the Priorat and Montsant wine appellations. On approach, driving up the back of the Montsant range, rising up out of the flats of Tarragona, the heart quickens. Breaching the encircling mountains and looking over the hilly valleys within feels as if discovering an ancient, hidden land for the first time. And so it is …

Within, the Montsant escarpment dominates the landscape. It’s hilly everywhere, with very little valley floor, just tight river valleys below ancient hillside villages. The villages (pueblos, in Castellano, vilas, in Catalan) are linked by tiny local roads winding through the internal ranges. Vistas appear and close off in constant flicker. Everywhere, the limestone Montsant range looms, remote and watchful. The northern parts are the hilliest, highest and greenest, and lavishly forested despite the general dryness of the region. In the south-western quadrant, the hills unwind, rolling out to the Ebro River delta and the Mediterranean. The vines cling precariously to the steep, rocky hillslopes.

Click to enlarge

BASIC WINE CHARACTERISTICS︎ Index

Wines that smell of suits?

There is a smoky-but-fresh mineral soil character in DOQ Priorat wines which is unique – a dominant terroir smell characteristic enough to unify varieties as disparate as Garnatxa and Cabernet in a meaningful sense as Priorats. On my first visit to Alvaro Palacios, I asked if they had a word for this distinctive soil smell, and was told:

“yes, it’s SUIT!”

“Suit?”

“Yes, you know – like the black dust in a chimney?”

… “Aaaah, soot!”

Indeed, great Priorats do have a ‘sooty’ ashy mineral smell – a dark, polished and fine mineral earthiness with fantastic clean, reaching steely freshness. The minerality of Priorat llicorella often has a subtle truffled-honey aspect, along with licorice, and other earthen tells of dry stone, sand and clay. Although ripe berry smells of red and black forest fruits are the obvious story of Priorat wines, in all the best expressions, these fruits are subsumed in, and moderated by fresh earthen minerality.

Hand in hand with the smell of the earth in Priorat wines are balsamic characters. Essential oils (the terroir from above) imbue wines with the landscape’s fresh pungency: aniseed, mint, thyme, rosemary and much more abound.

This is warm country, which naturally makes full-bodied wines, mostly dry reds. There’s a bit of – increasingly good – pink and white too, and some remnant old sweet/rancio styles. In the past, Priorats were often hot, heavy wines, extracted and oaked without subtlety. Such wines remain easy to find … however, the regional offer increasingly features fresh, vital, lively and highly drinkable wines. The best wines of Priorat are nimble, with fruit concentration a secondary factor behind (within) countryside smells of herbs, balsams and the fresh mineral jag of the llicorella.

The history of wine here is complex, even when talking about the region’s main (red) grape variety.

Yes, Garnatxa is the standout local cultivar[3], but until recently it accounted for very little of the region’s crush. Carinyena[4], a French grape, accounted for most of wine production during the tough times after the Civil War.

An outsider? A bulk grape?

Yes and yes, and we are right to celebrate the return to prominence of the native Garnatxa.

At the same time, with increasing vine age and the luxury of care and investment in the variety, many producers are experiencing, and promoting an upswell in the esteem afforded to Carinyena.

Cue the Soviet propaganda card:

“Glorious llicorella elevates a French workhorse into something it has never been!”

Priorat is midstream of an ongoing cycle of regeneration, and a new wave of village-specific producers are demonstrating increasing confidence in and commitment to the nuances of the region’s identity. Good news.

But we need to understand what was lost, in order to appreciate the gains being made in the current era …

A WINE HISTORY OF PRIORAT IN NUMBERS: RISE, FALL, RISE …︎ Index

10,000 hectarios

In the late 19th century, DOQ Priorat had vast historical plantings, perhaps more than 10,000 hectares under vine. Locally-adapted Garnatxa cultivars dominated, and were planted and pruned according to knowledge acquired and refined over centuries. All viticulture was organic, and the best grapes grew on the poorest hillslopes. Then came phylloxera, in 1893, and afterwards the various blights of the 20th century.

Re-planting in the early 20th century on American rootstocks saw a quick recovery from the devastation of phylloxera. By 1930 the historical genetic material and associated planting patterns had been re-established – the patrimony of the land, the ‘long history’ of Vitis Vinifera adapting in this place, was being restored. At first, even the disaster of the Civil War seemed not to interrupt recovery too much. The last great vineyard of the region, ‘L’Ermita’, was planted in 1939, by which time perhaps half of Priorat’s historical vine lands had been re-established.

750 hectarios

But recovery stopped dead then: instead of recovery came ‘the abandonement’.

During the half-century of fascist rule after the Civil War, a number of ills befell wine regions such as Priorat and Montsant. Economic pressures favoured volume over quality: plantings tended toward the more fertile soils and towards higher cropping varieties – toward the reliable big-colour, big-yield Carinyena rather than the more fickle Garnatxa. Socio-economic pressures also devalued country life, and youth left to seek work in the army, the mines and the cities. De-population and economic depression saw plantings diminish in quantity along with lower quality. Generational renewal ceased; the population aged. Through the second half of the 20th century, most of the land under vine returned to the forest as capital fled to the cities.[5] Old costers vineyards were being abandoned right into the ‘90s. Priorat’s area under vine declined to a mere 750 hectares by 1989, of which 75% was Carinyena. Even when the fascist regime ended (in 1975, or 1978, or 1982 depending on the marker you choose), social and economic recovery took time. Particularly in the countryside … Priorat was “a desert of grape vines” (Alvaro Palacios).

2,000+ hectarios y contando …

Since 1989, a rebirth has taken place.

Now there are 2,100 hectares of DOQ Priorat, and about 40% is Garnatxa, with 600 growers and 100 producers.[6]

THEN CAME THE PRIORAT FIVE︎ Index

One of the most important ‘moments’ in Spanish wine history came in 1989, when a group of five converged in Priorat with the intention of preserving and re-interpreting the vanishing old vines of Priorat. Alvaro Palacios ventured into Priorat with Rene Barbier, who worked at the time for Alvaro’s father Jose at Palacios Remondo in Rioja (Rene had been checking out Priorat for a decade by this time). Rene and Alvaro led a group which also including Daphne Glorian, Josep Lluis Perez and Carles Pastrana. Sourcing neglected old vines from the hilltops of Priorat, these five made a single garage wine together in both 1989 and 1990 and bottled a fifth each under their own labels (the wine was bottled without DO as ‘Costers del Siurana’):

·       Alvaro’s eponymous label, ‘Alvaro Palacios’ (originally ‘Clos Dofi’)

·       Rene Barbier’s ‘Clos Mogador’

·       Jose Luis Perez’s ‘Clos Martinet’

·       Daphne Glorian’s ‘Clos Erasmus’

·       and Carles Pastrana’s ‘Clos de L’Obac’ (nowadays, ‘Costers del Siurana’).

Below are the Priorat Gang of 5 without Carles Pastrana.

From Priorat pioneers celebrate 25 years by Ferran Centelles for Jancis Robinson

Even today, the 1989 has all the tells of Priorat: spicy red fruit, fennel, faded roses and countryside smells of medicinal herbs, bosky woods, cold dark rocks, mineral, licorice, soot, brick dust and balsam.

Much of import spun out from this moment. Much of it good, although for a time it seemed the initial boon might quickly become a blight. ‘Los Closos’ first releases were embraced wholeheartedly by wine blogger Robert Parker Junior. Big Parker Points meant big $$ in the US and there was now a ‘Priorat Boom’. Going from ultra-low-value co-op plonk to US-hyper-bucks in about 5 minutes, the value of Priorat fruit was renewed instantly. Founding the DOQ in 1999 effectively wiped out the grey market for DO Catalunya wines made from Priorat (and Montsant) fruit, which was now bound by a rule that 95% of production must be grow and bottled in the DO.

It also let to a crass rush to mine Parker points from the slate.

“by the late 1990s, the football stars, the singers, Gerard Depardieu – all the people nobody needs – were in Priorat because it was hip and they could show off that they could afford to buy a winery in Priorat …”[7]

Predictably, this lead to an instant ‘investment’ wave and every man and his banker took to Priorat like a new el Dorado – only here one mined for Parker Points.

Damn, man, they were virtually lying on the ground!

The minute the low-crop old-vine mountain Garnatxa was ‘discovered’ in Priorat (even ‘though virtually none such actually existed), a fool’s gold rush ensued. Large companies came and bought up tracts of land, cutting new terraces and planting broad-acres on trellis … and for a decade it seemed that precisely in the moment that Priorat was found, it would also be lost. The influx of big-Capital broadacre producers was shortlived, however, and Priorat has largely settled into the hand-crafted small-maker mode which seems to best fit the difficult sites and shy-yielding vines which suit these poor soils … “there are no hectolitres in Priorat!”[8]

PRIORAT INTO THE 21st CENTURY︎ Index

… the unlikely progressiveness of the Consell Regulador

Spain’s DOs are corrupt.

The Consejos Reguladores of wine regions like Ribera del Duero, Rioja, Rias Baixas and more are typical of a very Spanish conjunction of overweening bureaucracy and flagrant corruption, glued together by the cheap glitz of Big Company Money (Clive Palmer would do well in a land such as this). In Spanish authorities, one can find the antithesis of progress, reason and dress sense.

However, DOQ Priorat is blessed with a relatively progressive official body.

Priorat became an appellation in 1954, the year after Rioja, and was confirmed at the more rigorous classification, DOQ in 2000. The Consell Regulador (offices in Torroja) stood up for a fight in 2007 and bucked Spain’s dire anti-GI laws.[9] In 2007, they brought in a major reform aimed specifically at recognising sub-regionality on a village-by-village basis. There are now 12 sub-regional ‘Vins de la Villa’ appellations, taken from the official 9 Villages of Priorat, plus  Scala Dei and 2 Montsant villages whose municipalities contain discrete parcels of schist soils designated as Priorat terroir.

So, if you have vineyards within a certain village municipality within DOQ Priorat, say Gratallops, and your wine is entirely grown, made and bottled within the municipal bounds of this village, you may release your wine as DOQ Priorat – Vi de la Vila Gratallops. Furthermore, if your wine is from a single vineyard entirely within a village boundary, you may release it as a Vi de Finca – a specific vineyard within the Vila. In between Vi de Vila and Vi de Finca there is also an intermediate toponymic appellation, Vi de Partida (wines of place, like the lieus-dits of France; also spelt Paratje, Paratge).

Priorats Vis de Vilas:

·       In the North are the Vis de la Vila d’Escaladei, la Morera de Montsant and Poboleda.

·       The Vis de la Vila of central Priorat are: Torroja del Priorat, la Vilella Alta, la Vilella Baixa and Porerra.

·       In the south, Gratallops, el Lloar, Bellmunt de Priorat, Masos de Falset and les Solanes del Molar.[10]

Other regulative stipulations:

Vi de Costers is a label permitted to old vine Garnatxa vineyards: they must be uncut (not terrassed), be on pure llicorella, and are typically planted across the slope, at planting spacing of 150×125, with about 5000 plants/ha.

Vins Vells (in castellano, Viñas Viejas, are currently stipulated to have been planted in 1960 or older.

The classifications in Draft, 2016

An addition by WINE DECODED

VINO REGIONAL (regional wine)

– Wines from grapes from any of the villages within the appellation
– Maximum yields allowed: 6,500 kilos per hectare

VI DE VILA (village wine)

– Wines from vineyards from only one village
– Maximum yields allowed: 3,700 kilos per hectare
– Still discussing if minimum age of vines should be a requirement

VI DE PARATGE

(Tricky discussion about the English translation of the name: a paraje (or paratge in Catalan) is a zone larger than a single vineyard; there’s no equivalent in the Burgundian hierarchy and it means literally ‘landscape,’ but I was proposing a free translation like ‘quarter.’ In any case… ideas are welcomed!)

– Wines from a specific quarter/zone within a village
– Maximum yields allowed: 2,800-3,000 kilos per hectare (still under discussion)
– Minimum age of vines to be defined
– This would be an intermediate stage before achieving the following category of…

VI DE VINYA CLASIFICADA (wine from classified vineyard)

– Wine from one or a number of vineyards within a zone/quarter (paraje) of one village
– Maximum yields allowed: 2,800-3,000 kilos per hectare (still under discussion)
– Minimum age of vines to be defined
– Five years of traceability in the vineyard and ten years of international recognition in terms of market and local and international opinion leaders
– Other things that are still open is if they are going to limit the maximum size of the vineyard and if organic farming should be mandatory

GRAN VI DE VINYA CLASIFICADA (great wine from classified vineyard)

– Wine produced with grapes from a single vineyard
– Maximum yields allowed: 1,800 kilos per hectare
– Minimum age of the vines: 35-40 years (still under discussion)
– Traditional viticulture on slopes (coster) in shaded areas (umbría) and organic farming (an open point)
– Five years of traceability in the vineyard and ten years of international recognition in terms of market and local and international opinion leaders

MORE ON GEOGRAPHY, CLIMATE AND SOIL︎ Index

Remote, dry, craggy and extremely beautiful, the Montsant range frames 500 square kilometres of mostly hill country covered in red pines, olive, almond, hazelnut and encina (Holm Oak), all growing in soils 300-400 million years old. The region is cut into three valleys by Rios Siurana, Cortiela and Montsant. The three rivers converge at el Lloar and flow southwest to join Rio Ebro on it’s way from la Rioja and out to the Mediterranean, just 20 kilometres away. Afternoon heat is often relieved by this coastal proximity, as Garbinada breezes freshen from the south-west (and from the north, the serré).

The Montsant range is a warm, dry, hilly region perfectly suited to the local red variety, Garnatxa and its running mate, Carinyena. The western part is sunnier, drier and more open, better suited to Garnatxa, and Gratallops is its main wine town. The eastern side around Porrera is higher altitude (up to 750 metres), and fresher with tighter valleys, and is home to the finest Carinyena. Rainfall averages around 500mm, wetter in the north than the south. Being very dry, mildew and botrytis are not problematic and about 50% of plantings are organic, although some choose to use chemicals to combat viticultural issues such as oidium and the Lobesia moth.

Ploghing the licorella slopes at Mas Doix

The region has several soil profiles:

·       Llicorella (brown or blue schist-slate soils which yield rich and very mineral wines)

·       Calissa (limestone, giving fresh and floral wines from very deep-rooted vines)

·       Argila (clay, producing edgy and wild wines as vines battle in the dense soil)

·       and Panal/Calcare (sand soils – washed out alluvium from the limestone, called Calcares if pebbly – these give fruity, easy wines marked by chalk).

Of these, the schist and limestone are the most important, and determine the identity of the two DOs – Priorat and Montsant. DOQ Priorat is almost pure schist (slate) soils, locally known as Llicorella, of which there are several blue and brown variants. DO Montsant’s soils are about 70% limestone matching the heart-rock of Serra Montsant. The rim of the region is DO Montsant, which wraps all the way around the schist soils of DOQ Priorat in the heart. Much of the land given to grape growing is very steep, and the archetypal vineyards are grown ‘en Costers’: bush vines on very steep slopes.

High elevation old vine planted on Licorella at Mas Doix

GRAPE VARIETIES OF PRIORAT and MONTSANT︎ Index

“the music, the poetry, finesse and vibrancy is in the Garnatxa”

Alvaro Palacios

Debate persists about whether Garnatxa is transplanted Grenache introduced here by French monks, or whether it is entirely of local origin, and was exported to the French. After a thousand years of local evolution, the Garnatxa of the Montsant range is entirely adapted to the locale, and is different to Grenache elsewhere. The local Garnatxa Negre has a variant called Garnatxa Peluda, or hairy Garnatxa, which is in fact derived from French Grenache. However, this strain was introduced a couple of hundred years ago and it too is highly naturalised. The other main local grape is Carinyena (elsewhere known as Carignan, among other names). Cabernet and other French red grapes have become common in recent times. There is also a small white grape presence, mainly Garnatxa Blanca.

Permitted and preferred grapes

RECOMMENDED

Garnatxa, Carinyena, Garnatxa Blanca, Pedro Ximénez, Macabeu, Moscatel

AUTHORISED

Cabernet, Syrah, Merlot, Pinot, Viognier, Chenin Blanc

TOLERATED (JUST)

Monastrell, Chardonnay, Picpoul

In 2013, the harvest from 2000 hectares under vine in Priorat was 54 million kg, 95% of which was red. Of this, 40% was Garnatxa (Negra y Pelluda), 21% Carinyena, 14% Cabernet, 11% Syrah, 7% Merlot, 3% Garnatxa Blanca and 1% Macabeu with traces of Cabernet Franc, Tempranillo, Pedro Ximenez, Xarel.lo, Viognier, various Moscatels, Chenin Blanc and Picpoul Blanc.

Garnatxa and Carinyena (formerly Cariñena, also Samsó, Caranyena … some even call it Carignan)

Garnatxa (in catalan, Garnacha in castellano) is very widely grown throughout Spain, just like Grenache in France. Garnatxa is the parent grape, but there has been plenty of genetic to-and-fro. The general name for the grape in Spain is Garnacha Negre. It buds early, ripens latish and has moderate acid, and higher tannin than Grenache.

There is a variant common in Priorat, Garnacha Peluda, or Hairy Grenache, with one reflective and one absorptive side of the leaf, and this variety has a shorter vegetative cycle. The fur is an anti-heat adaptation. Its wines are lower alcohol but can be prone to oxidisation.

Garnatxa/Grenache is often used to make pleasantly fruity, off-dry pink wines – sometimes at the high end of the alcohol spectrum. Being low in phenolic material (usually), it is well-suited to producing café-quaffer light reds. As elsewhere, low crop levels, dry growing and old vines can produce rather more affecting fruit, and there are a significant number of Spanish Garnach/txas which produce rich, dry, earthy wines with concentration, structure and length enough to handle oak treatment and succeed as premium dry red table wines. But nowhere does it achieve the finesse and beauty attained by Priorat’s finest Garnatxas.

Quality in Garnatxa is closely tied to yield. On trellises it yields too much, but careful growing en vaso or en parra (bush vines on the ground or trained on a pole) controls yields for much higher quality. Priorat Garnatxa has high natural acidity, particularly tartaric, and a refreshing juice profile, with orange, blood orange and ruby grapefruit flashes among the common rosehip, plum and red berry characteristics. The short vegetative cycle of Garnatxa is well suited here, with rains common in mid-September.

Since phylloxera, problems with the economy of Garnatxa saw it lose ground to Carinyena, particularly in the poverty of the post-‘40s abandonment era. Most view Garnatxa, in the guise of it’s derivate, Grenache, as a hardy country plugger … under adversity, so the story goes (and the hotter, windier the better), Grenache will give you a reliable yield from grapes as big as your head, which grow easily and give you plentiful, cheap, gluggable rustic plonk. If only!… Priorat Garnatxa is a fickle yielder anyway, with small bunches of small, skinsy berries, and yield dreadfully in the stony aridity of Priorat. Worse, on American roots it’s especially difficult to grow – it sets small, uneven bunches and when the yield gets to the bodega, it’s very difficult to ferment[11]. Ironically, ‘grenache’ was too mean-yielding and expensive to grow during the hard times from 1940 and the French workhorse, Carignan was recruited to provide reliable, economical yields.

Carinyena (in catalan), the Carignan of Southern France, was introduced to Priorat in the 18th century. It was spelt Cariñena (in castellano) until recently. You will also see it referred to as Carignan, or an empordan linguistic variant, Caranyena, and it’s known as Mazuelo in la Rioja. In the early 2000s there was after outcry from nearby DO Cariñena, which arced up at ‘its’ name being used for a grape variety grown elsewhere (ironically, DO Cariñena produces run-of-the-mill Garnacha). The bureaucracy installed Samsó as the ‘official’ name for the grape in the early 2000s. There are approximately zero producers in Priorat who identify with Samsó as this grape’s name, although many dutifully labelled their wines thus. This silly rule was revoked in 2018, and producers are able to revert to Carinyena. You’ll see all of these names, and possibly a true local variant, Crusilló in use. This is a very Spanish (and/or Catalan) normalcy. For simplicity’s sake, we will stick with Carinyena no matter what’s on a given label.

Either way, as a blender it adds structure, colour and acidity, and it yields well in Priorat. Much was planted during the abandonment years. With Priorat’s economic recovery after the 1990s, those who dry grown and low yield have found that old vine Carinyena can make utterly remarkable (dark, vegetal, leathery) varietal wines! Since phylloxera, Carinyena has virtually displaced Monastrell from Priorat wines – once important, Monastrell is nowadays barely tolerated by the Consell Regulador and never appears on labels.

MEANWHILE, IN MONTSANT … (ENTER THE POST-MODERN CO-OP)︎ Index

Meanwhile, literally across the road … In the southern part of the range, near the main town of the region, Falset, one crosses from slate to limestone soils and from DOQ Priorat to DO Montsant. While instant fortune came to Priorat after 1989, the poor farmers of Montsant were doing it tougher than their suddenly famous neighbours.

In 1933, five families in Capçanes village joined together to found a co-op and make wines from the vineyards being re-established after phylloxera. However, this development was almost immediately followed by the Civil War, during which time political divisions were felt within the village, even within families. Forgiveness and healing started after Franco’s death in 1975 and the restoration of democracy in 1978. On top of this rift, the devaluation of grape/wine prices and rural de-population were multiple hits during the mid-20th century, on top of the ills of war. The almost terminal descent in the fortune of the Capçanes co-op tells the general tale of DO Montsant perfectly.

It even has a happy ending …

By the 1980s and Spain’s ascension to the EU, Capçanes and its co-op were in dire trouble. Increasingly, city wine merchants bought in bulk and cashed in at the coast. By 1980, the region was only producing bulk wines. By the mid-90s, they could only sell grapes in bulk – no longer even having the relative dignity of being able to turn their grapes into wine (albeit to be sold under another’s name). The big company producers from DO Penedes and DO Catalunya bought Montsant and gained colour, extract, power and character for very little money. By the early 1990s, the biggest of these companies, Torres, was buying up all the land they could, particularly in Priorat, while land values remained relatively low yet wine prices were exploding. There was a very real fear for the growers of Capçanes that soon they would not even be able to sell grapes in bulk. Economic extinction loomed in Montsant while boom-time erupted in Priorat.

And then, something great happened! A Rabbi and a German helped the Capçanes Catalans save themselves. German winemaker Jurgen Wagner was working in the region as a wine-buyer for US importer Eric Solomon and saw the potential of the old vines of Capçanes, but it took a crazy twist to achieve the needed change. This came in the form of the Rabbi of Barcelona. Said Rabbi was looking to source a high quality Kosher wine for wealthy Barcelonan Jews, and the old vines of Capçanes were just the thing. Jurgen, along with the co-op’s then winemaker Angel Teixido, persuaded the 85 growers in the co-op to take a risk and provide their best, low-crop old-vine fruit to the Rabbi. In 1995 the first ‘lo mebushal’ Kosher wine was made by the Rabbi (in accordance with Jewish law, the Rabbi was the only one allowed to handle the wine). In 1996, the second vintage of Peraj Ha’abib somehow found its way into Parker’s hands, and it was rated just behind L’Ermita and Pingus as one of Spain’s highest pointed wines!

Thus, in 1996 the Capçanes co-op stopped selling its top fruit cheaply, instead value-adding it in their Kosher wine, realising their holdings’ full value for the first time. Torres responded by cancelling their orders for bulk grapes entirely. Capçanes were, officially, screwed.

Or were they? With no real option, they plunged into the deep end … a vote was taken and all but two of the growers elected to follow the urging of Jurgen and Angel. Capçanes become a ‘post-modern co-op’ making export quality wine bottled under the brand ‘Celler Capçanes’. These wines were to be viticulturally-driven, based on rigorous yield management and fruit selection from marvellous dry-grown old bush-vines. Make less but better wine and make more money (while controlling your own destiny), was the plan. A second, equally daring risk soon followed, with all 82 growers (by now, this number included Jurgen Wagner and Angel Teixido) co-signing to a capital-raising bank loan necessary to build a clean, modern winemaking cellar. This was an extraordinary risk on the part of extremely poor peasant farmers – a desperate leap of faith, which has paid off wonderfully. Nowadays, Capçanes produces several tiers of wine. There is decent quality cheap bag-in-box wines, there’s quite decent co-op plonk you can buy at the cellar door and take home in whatever vessel you bring to fill, and there are about 250,000 bottles of high quality export ‘estate’ wine. How ironic, Jurgen says that “narrow-minded Catholic mountain farmers would invest in the Jewish community to save themselves from Torres!”

Montsant achieved independent DO status in 2000. Prior to 2000, Montsant wines were appellated as a part of the giant DO Tarragona and recognised as a sub-section, called Zona Falset (albeit there was very little Montsant wine bottled as such until the advent of Capçanes in its revolutionary guise from 1996). While DO Montsant still lives somewhat in the shadow of DOQ Priorat, it is much re-invigorated now – led by Celler Capçanes, but with many emergent independent grower-makers entering the scene. Montsant, like Priorat, is beginning to re-interpret and write its own history as it moves through the early part of the 21st century.

END NOTES︎ Index

[1] Note, instead of Denominació d’Origen Qualificada Priorat, elsewhere you may see references to DOCa (Denominación de Origen Calificada) Priorato, which is Castellano (Spanish), rather than Catalan. As most producers in the region label in Catalan, rather than Spanish, we use Catalan terms and spelling where possible: DOQ/DOCa; Garnatxa/Garnacha. ‘Priorat’ is a term derived from the French for priory … the central (wine) factor in the region’s history was the (evidently thirsty) Carthusian monk retreat established at Scala Dei during the 12th century.
[2] We use the term the Montsant range to unify the series of mountains encircling Priorat. In fact, the Montsant range itself is the northern boundary, with Serra LLaberia in the south. The south-western boundary opens to the delta of the Rio Ebro and ultimately the Mediterranean. There are 50,000 hectares, of which about 17,000 are delineated as DOQ Priorat. To a certain extent, when we talk about ‘Priorat’ generally, we are discussing the land encompassing both DOQ Priorat and DO Montsant. That said, most of the fact-and-figure stuff here does refer specifically to DOQ Priorat. Montsant specifics are presented here as a separate end story, see page 8.
[3] The local Garnatxas can have an electric-OJ citric jolt: when coupled with llicorella’s mineral freshness and line, wines in a fluent, even poetic, register can result.
[4]Carinyena (perhaps, Caranyena) is the Catalan spelling of Carignan (it’s French name). see further notes in Grape Varieties section further on.
[5]The first bottling of Priorat wine since 1878 took place in 1974! Most wine was sold as ‘vi de granel’ … byo container wine.
[6] Adjacent DO Montsant had 10,000 hectares at the time of phylloxera, 10% of which was farmed by 2,500 peasants in the village of Capçanes alone. After the cycle of devastation and recovery, Montsant now has 2,000 ha under vine, 190 of which are shared by the 75 growers of the Capçanes co-op (the village now reduced to a population of 400). In 1990, DOQ Priorat and DO Montsant combined had 10 bottling wineries, by 2009 this had risen to 133. The Comarca del Priorat now totals 4,100 hectares of vines, down from a peak of 27,000, with an overall population of 10,000 where once lived 35,000.
[7](Jurgen Wagner, Celler Capcanes)
[8] A handy line given by one of Priorat’s current producers helps tie up the short version of the Priorat story. Big Company, industrial farming is ill-suited here. But to triumphantly hold out that Priorat is a natural home to the small, organic, artisan farmer and that its reality is wonderful old vine mountain Garnatxa is a little indulgent, however. For starters, there was actually very little old vine mountain Garnatxa left when ‘Alvaro and The Five’ descended. ‘L’Ermita’ is in fact the largest such chunk in existence, and it’s only just over a hectare in size.
[9]At the insistence of Big Capital, wanting to make generic wines and be famous for doing so, Village and Vineyard GI-specific naming of wines was outlawed in Spain during the 1980s … perversely, just as the post-Franco recovery kicked in!
[10] Note that the last two, Falset and el Molar are Montsant villages which have significant parcels of Priorat schist terroir in their municipality. So, most of the town land of Falset, for example is DO Montsant limestone and is thus DO Montsant Vila wine of Falset; however the northern reach of Falset’s municipal boundary is llicorella within DOQ Priorat and a variant Vila name, Masos del Falset applies for such land. The ancient Priory at Scala Dei, while not technically a village, is nevertheless afforded a Vi de la Vila appellation. The current Consell Regulador is Salustiá Alvarez, and his predecessor was local teaching academic Toni Alcover, who oversaw the re-introduction of true GI naming.
[11]A significant issue for the successful deployment of Garnatxa as leading lady of Priorat wines has been the difficulty of growing it on American rootstocks. Always a shy bearer, and difficult to flower, things got significantly worse on the most common rootstock – Rupestris du Lot. Nowadays a new hybrid, R-110 has significantly aided flowering and therefore the economy of growing Garnatxa in Priorat.

The post Getting Your Head Around Priorat appeared first on WINE DECODED.

A historical stalwart of the UK & US fine wine market and now the Asian market, Bordeaux like all wine regions has been evolving.

The 1960’s & 1970’s

The Claret Era

My first experience of Bordeaux was the wines of the 1960’s and 1970’s classic claret styles, elegant, fine, lower alcohol thirst-quenching reds.

In that era a difficult year was could be underwhelming to say the least.

The view of Latour from the terrace at Pichon-Lalande double exposed with me on crutches in a Moldovan winery.

The 1980’s & 1990’s

Bigger and Bolder

Moving to the wines of the 1980’s the blockbusters started to come through with 100 points scores aligned to tannin extraction and new oak driving the styles.

Brettanomyces levels were on the rise and spoilage common.

Technology was making its way into wineries with must concentrators used remove water and building genorisity in lesser years. Techniques like micro-oxygenation were being used to soften green hard tannins.

Making wine at Yarra Yering gave me the opportunity to explore the progression from 1960’s through to the 1990’s with many a vertical and horizontal session highlighting these shifts throughout the quality echelons in Bordeaux.

All of course with the aim of supporting our thinking of just how we could ourselves evolve Yarra Yering Cabernet blend the Dry Red No.1.

The 1st year barrel cellar at Mouton-Rothschild full of new barrels with crystal bungs double exposed with the winery crew during vintage in Moldova 1996.

The 2000-Today

The Sun Drenched 2010’s

A series of sun drenched years in recent times has offered us oppulence. The divine clarets of olds are becoming a distant memory for many.

Precision in the Vineyard

A warming climate saw less need for such techniques. Awareness of Brettanomyces and how to stop it spoiling wines thankfully gave us cleaner wines that were and expression of fruit and the terroir. In recent times there’s been increasing application of precision viticulture. Bordeaux’s Estates are much larger than those of Burgundy and many of the other icon regions of the wine world.

Vineyards are being mapped in fine detail to the point where it is possible to care for individual vines fully informed of their unique nutritional requirements. It’s always been relatively easy to see what’s going on with vines above the ground. Knowing what’s happening belowground requires much more work.

Practices are changing with sustainability and biodiversity rightly having greater emphasis.

Combined this addresses the conditions in a vines micro-terroir and helps address the impact of a warming climate.

We have been seeing varietal make of vineyards shifting with Cabernet Sauvignon, the latest to ripen of the trio that includes Merlot & Cabernet Franc increasing in plantings. Petit Verdot that rippens after Cabernet Sauvignon remaining a bit player.

The winery office in Moldova, Ivan and me double exposed with Saint-Emillion in the background.

New Varieties

Beyond shifts within the mix of historically approved Bordeaux varieties, in 2021, 6 new varieties suited to warmer climates were approved by France’s national appellation body, INAO. Naturally, it will take time for vineyards to be replanted, yield fruit and wine to reach our glasses.

There are four new red varieties – Touriga Nacional, Marselan, Castets, Arinarnoa – and two white grapes, Alvarinho and Liliorila. A seventh proposed variety, Petit Manseng, didn’t make the final list.

Potentially useful characteristics among the grapes listed below include naturally high acidity, structure or strong aromatics, as well as good resistance against specific vine diseases, from mildew to grey rot.

The varieties below could only collectively make up 5% of a producer’s vineyard area and 10% of the final blend.

Precision in the Winery

In the winery, specialised fruit processing equipment enables gentle handling and sorting of fruit with technologies that cost upwards of $500K to implement. A far cry from your rudimentary $15K crusher.

Combined investment in sophisticated fermenters, this allows infinite control of the infusion and extraction process during fermentation and post fermentation maceration.

All of this mirrors the efforts to raise the baseline in Burgundy, Barolo, Barbaresco, the Rhône and beyond.

A Moldovan fortune teller reading our cards with Saint-Emillion in the background. We were all supposed to get lucky that night and marry a beautiful Moldovan woman. Maybe her predictions for Bordeaux’s future will be more accurate.

The Future

With the funds accumulated in across decades of strong support for Bordeaux and the knowledge now available, there is really no excuses for Bordeaux not to push to raise the bar.

Bordeaux Visualised

Pierre Le Hong has beautifully visualised much of this detail for several of Bordeaux’s Château.

Château Pichon-Longueville-Comtesse de Lalande Pauillac

This is an excellent video visualising many of the elements of Bordeaux’s evolution in both the vineyard and winery over time through the history of Pichon-Lalande.

Château Montrose – Saint-Estephe

The video below guides you through the varying vineyard parcels, the different soil types, varieties and when each parcel was harvested in 2021.

The post The Changing Face of Bordeaux from 1960-2022 appeared first on WINE DECODED.

Time for a re-cap!

For those with a little French the film below recording a harvest at Domaine de la Romanée Conti is epic. I’ve made a few observations below from a winemaker’s perspective.

Observations

Aubert talks of the differences between the terroirs, and the effect of soil radiating heat onto the low vines.

Shallow picking boxes are used to minimise damage to the harvested bunches in transit to the winery. Others will harvest into large ‘backpacks that are transferred into trailerss that hold 1-2 tonnes. The weight of the grapes will crush those at the bottom.

They run a very slow sorting table with people power to ensure every bunch is assessed.

They use open to wooden cuve to ferment.

The cuve help keep the ferments warm. You’ll see shots with a cross-section of the wood at the top of the vats where you can see just how thick it is.

Bernard Noblet, Chef de Caves (winemaker), notes the vats are cleaned with a flambée of marc prior to use.

Aubert in discussion mentions that the fruit is nice and cold. Cold fruit is important as they don’t want the ferment to start to quickly and race away getting too hot at its peak. A slow, progressive ferment allows gentle extraction of flavours and tannins.

They show partial destemming of the fruit. Leaving some whole bunches.

The destemmer is actually a good one yet relatively basic compared to the latest super gentle ones available on the market.

The fruit is not pumped to the cuve. It is lifted using the gentle bunch elevator and destemmed / transferred directly into the vat.

Aubert talks of the importance of phenological ripeness. Ripe tannins and flavours.

The stalks add a little complexity.

The meal you see in the middle of the film is very typical of a harvest lunch in Burgundy. All of the pickers and staff eat together every day. Many domaines provide board during the harvest.

In the footage of the second pick you see harvest is stopped when rain starts and care is taken to cover picked fruit from any rainfall and dilution.

We see the initial ‘shaker at the beginning of the sorting table, this shakes off any matter other than grapes (MOG) and any shot berries, those berries that didn’t fertilise fully and are tiny hard and not mature.

A scene follows where a small portion of fruit is been levelled in a cuve and foot stomped. This practice provides free juice for wild fermentation to start reasonably quickly and produce carbon dioxide to protect the remaining fruit from oxidation and stop the development of volatile acidity.

The ferment will slow transfer to the rest of the fruit.

They add dry ice to produce dry ice adding further protection to the unfermented fruit.

The grapes start at about 15°C. Aubert comments that he doesn’t want the fermentation to be too quick.

We see a temperature monitoring panel. The warmest ferment is up at 33.1°C. Most Pinot makers don’t like to go much above this temperature. Too low a temperature during ferment can give the wine a primary fruity character to high a temperature it may look cooked and the yeast may get stressed producing volatility and hydrogen sulphide, and may stop working resulting in the fermentation getting stuck before all of the sugar has been consumed leaving the wine sweet and prone to spoilage.

The fermentation is relatively quick with the primary fermentation pretty much complete in 5 days.

There is a scene with a green watering can being used to irrigate the top of the fruit with a sulphur solution, again protecting against oxidation, and development of volatility.

You can see different sized wooden cuves. These are have been tailor-made to suit the vineyard holdings and keep them separate. It is important that they are not too empty or overfull. To empty and the fruit will be spread too thin and the skins and stalks will not easily infuse into the liquids and oxidation risk will be high. Too full and as the ferment progresses the vats will overflow.

We see a photo montage of 4 photos starting bottom left working anti-clockwise. You can see a temperature probe in the first shot and increasing levels of fermentation as we progress through the photos. The last still being very early in the ferment. The foam from fermentation is very pale and the fruit still quite dark / black in colour. The stalks yet to take on any red colour.

Aubert talks of the beautiful foam of the ferment. It’s an indicator of a good fermentation.

We see the fermentation being irrigated by what looks like a stainless steel spider. Behind the man on the plank there is a cylindrical stainless steel strainer with a hose in it. This is being used to allow them to pump the liquid only from the bottom the vat back over the top and through the ‘spider’  splitting the wine into 9 different channels allowing a very gentle irrigation of the fruit at the top of the ferment. One single outlet would be very aggressive more like a firehose than a trickle. The aim here is gentle infusion.

By actually plugning the spider into the ferment this ensures a good even and gentle turnover of the liquids. This is a very early stage of the ferment, it isn’t really active, the process would also evenly spread yeast throughout the cuve.

Some wineries are using sprinkler like arrays in an attempt to be even gentler with the extraction of colour, flavour and tannin. Others use air pulses from the bottom of the vat to gently turn the liquids over the top of the ferment. Ferments end up being full of carbon dioxide like soft drinks and if agitated, just like a can of fizzy drink they’ll erupt.

In the following scene, we see a basic pump over in a marginally more advanced ferment. Again small hoses running with pumps at low speed are used and the end of the hose is placed on top of the fruit rather than the liquids being shot down from high above.

If you pause and look closely you can see grape seeds at the top of the ferment. They are brown in colour. This is something makers look for as it is an indication of tannin ripeness.

There is talk of use of biodynamic practices over the last 25 years.

Then we see another method of cap management in again a slightly more advanced ferment. Pigeage or plunging is being used to submerge the cap at the top of the ferment. This stops the cap drying and spoiling and also aids in the extraction of colour, flavour and tannins.

These different methods of cap management are employed at different stages of the ferment according to the winemaker’s intent.

As the fermentation progresses and the skins break down, plunging becomes easier.

In the following scene, we see what look like around 500L barrels in front of cuves being used to ferment small volumes of fruit. They both have a cooling plate in them. Coolant is passed through the plates to cool the fermentation if it gets too hot. The single steel tube next to the cooling plates is a temperature probe.

Ferment monitoring is taking place, samples of the ferment being taken, poured into a meauring cylinder and density measured using a hydrometer that will indicate the sugar level in the ferment.

Tasting the ferment takes place daily to assess progression, tannin management and any potential problems that may need to be addressed.

10 days later it’s time to press. The vats are emptied using a conveyer directly into an air bad press to avoid pumping the fruit.

During the pressing process, the wine is tasted.

They use a very gentle peristaltic pump to transfer the wine into a tank before transferring it to barrel for malolcatic fermentation.

If you have any thoughts, questions leave them below.

The post Domaine de la Romanée Conti Romanée-Saint-Vivant Give Away appeared first on WINE DECODED.

Gigondas has stepped out of the shadow of neighbouring Châteauneuf du Pape, in the land where Grenache is King, they offer wines of intensity and flavour that are distinctly their own.

The wines are typically blended with smaller portions of Syrah and Mouvèdre amongst other Rhône varieties.

Look for the bottle embossed with the Gigondas Crest

Blending these varieties gives the wines of Gigondas their highly nuanced, complex range. Each producer carefully crafts their wine in their own way, vinifying grape varieties separately or together, partially or totally destemmed, with maceration periods of 2 to 4 weeks, depending on the vintage and the choice of the individual grower.

The diversity of sites, soils, micro-climates and winemaking offers us a spectrum of styles from Burgundian to bold and structured.

Check out all the wines from Gigondas!

Moulin de la Gardette ‘Tradition’ 2019

Rhône Blend | Gigondas, France

Jean-Baptiste Meunier's Gigondas wines, from the land where Grenache is King, have an intensity and flavour that are distinctly their own. Moulin de la Gardette sits firmly in Gigondas' 1st Division. Seriously good. So pure, precise and energetic. Incredible tannins, fine silky mouth coating, the shape so poised and long. Again the counterplay of red energy with darkness. More baked rhubarb, delicacy in the baking spice, harmony here. A little woody herb. These are wines of presence. Oh so so

$110

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$100ea in any 6+

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Moulin de la Gardette ‘Ventabren’ 2019

Rhône Blend | Gigondas, France

Jean-Baptiste Meunier's Gigondas wines, from the land where Grenache is King, have an intensity and flavour that are distinctly their own. Moulin de la Gardette sits firmly in Gigondas' 1st Division. The sophistication and elegance here shows lovely line of acid, poached quince, baked rhubarb, fresh ripe mulberry, spice and delicacy. Seamless, dancing across your tongue with twirls of complexity. Superbly dialed in. All the element sitting in balanace. Entrancing, intoxicating and divine. Suc

$154

$147ea in any 3+

$140ea in any 6+

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Moulin de la Gardette ‘Ventabren’ MAGNUM 2019

Rhône Blend | Gigondas, France

Jean-Baptiste Meunier's Gigondas wines, from the land where Grenache is King, have an intensity and flavour that are distinctly their own. Moulin de la Gardette sits firmly in Gigondas' 1st Division. The sophistication and elegance here shows lovely line of acid, poached quince, baked rhubarb, fresh ripe mulberry, spice and delicacy. Seamless, dancing across your tongue with twirls of complexity. Superbly dialed in. All the element sitting in balanace. Entrancing, intoxicating and divine. Suc

$317

$307ea in any 3+

$297ea in any 6+

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Moulin de la Gardette ‘Tradition’ 2018

Rhône Blend | Gigondas, France

Jean-Baptiste Meunier's Gigondas wines, from the land where Grenache is King, have an intensity and flavour that are distinctly their own. Moulin de la Gardette sits firmly in Gigondas' 1st Division. This is very very good. It has presence with sophistication, the core of fruit is superb. Of depth and length. Incredibly silky tannins caress. Bright energetic fruit, strawberries & red fruits, slate, earth baking spice, darkness, anise, pops of bubble gum over rhubarb, a little orange and m

$110

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Moulin de la Gardette ‘Ventabren’ 2018

Rhône Blend | Gigondas, France

Jean-Baptiste Meunier's Gigondas wines, from the land where Grenache is King, have an intensity and flavour that are distinctly their own. Moulin de la Gardette sits firmly in Gigondas' 1st Division. An extra layer of flavour & complexity over the 'Tradition'. The 18’s are bolder, darker than the 19's. A little fruit cake here, not at all jammy, five spice, tobacco, flowers, progressing well past bubble gum to a more sophisticated blackberry fruit. Excellent tannins with depth. Persiste

$154

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$140ea in any 6+

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History

Gigondas is one of six village districts that for almost eight centuries formed the principality of Orange. In former times it was overseen by the capital of Carpentras, but today Gigondas retains few links with its past administrator. A few documents, fortified city walls (much of which are still visible), the vestiges of the castle and the village’s coat-of-arms emblazoned with the horn of Prince Guillaume of Orange are the remaining traces that bear witness to this past.

The name of the village in Roman times was “Jocunditas”, Latin for “Happy Town” – surely an accolade to those early winemakers!

Climate

Gigondas is subject to the region’s contrasting climate of hot summers and strong, cold, northwesterly Mistral winds. The area is hot and dry, receiving some 2,800 hours of sun a year.

The turbulent geology of the Dentelles de Montmirail, which lies at the heart of the appellation, results in the varied orientation and sun exposure of its vineyards. The sharp ridges also create a microclimate with advantageous effects on the terroir’s wines. The abrupt peaks that jut out of the plain generate updrafts and downdrafts that moderate excessive temperatures. The morning sunlight is limited by the Dentelles de Montmirail. The west–northwest orientation of the majority of the area’s vineyards keeps the vines well ventilated, protects them from excessive summer heat.

These cooling micro-climates lengthen the ripening period allowing tannins and flavours to fully develop whilst retaining acidity and keeping alcohol levels under control. Here it is possible to make wines of elegance and subtlety.

In the images below you can see the Dentelles shading a valley (left) and even a small outcrop shading a terraced vineyard (right). Click an image to enlarge

Grape Varieties

The maximum permitted yield of the Gigondas appellation (36 hl/ha) is one of the lowest in France.

Grenache

Grenache is king of the grape varieties in Gigondas contributing 70-80% of the blend for the region. In Gigondas, it can be sophisticated and elegant, dare I say Burgundian in nature with long fine tannins.

Syrah

Used to a lesser extent, Syrah boosts the colour, adds richness and brings a certain aromatic intensity.

Mourvèdre

Mourvèdre enhances the spicy, aromatic complexity typical of Gigondas wines, adding perfume of flowers and violets, and a little structure.

Pictures courtesy of one of Gigondas great vignerons, Moulin de la Gardette.

Other Varieties

Cinsault, Clairette and a few Terret Noir, Counoise and Picardan vines are also found here.

Geology

The film below explores a year in Gigondas. A few things to note: the use of large old oak, at around 2 minutes in you can see the shadows of the imposing Dentelles cast over a vineyard, the cooling effect has a slows ripening and in the right hands offers wines of freshness and energy. You’ll see the incredible diversity of sites from terraced hillsides to gentle slopes / flats on the plateau. Viticultural practices vary from bush vines to trellised rows.

In the film below the geology of Gigondas is explored. The impact of soil type and shade from the Dentelles on wine styles shapes the wines of Gigondas.

Pierre Le Hongs epic exploration of the Gigondas through the Southern Rhône adds great context to the region. You’ll see how several key soil types progress through the village and just how different they are from sand to pebbles.

Where in the World is Gigondas?

Gigondas in the Southern Rhône Valley, France.

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

The post Getting Your Head Around the Southern Rhône Village of Gigondas appeared first on WINE DECODED.

In our Getting Your Head Around Burgundy, we’re exploring the main villages of Burgundy, its viticulture, winemaking, classifcation systems, and, of course, Burgundy’s wines.

Part 13 explores the Village of Rully in the Côte Chalonnaise near the border with the Côte de Beaune.

Make sure you join our community to get the latest articles from the Wine Bites Mag as they come out. You’ll find all of our Burgundy related articles here.

There’s a quick refresher on the regions of Burgundy at the end of this post to help you place yourself within Burgundy and France as a whole.

See all of our wines from Rully

The Village of Rully

The AOC, Rully was created in 1939 and makes both Chardonnay (2/3rds) and Pinot Noir  (1/3rd). It has 23 climats classified Premier Cru.

Situated at the end of the Côte de Beaune region, it marks the begining of the Côte Chalonnaise.

Rully is a village with a long history. It boasts a château which has been in the same family for six centuries, a church with an elegant bell-tower, as well as fine houses and parks. The abbey of Saint-Bénigne in Dijon, the powerful Maison de Vergy, and the Dukes of Bourgogne have all played their part in the history of these vineyards in the Côte Chalonnaise. Since the early 19th century it has been, in addition, an important centre for the making of Crémant de Bourgogne.

Notable producers in the region include:

Domaine Vincent Dureuil-Janthial

Domaine de Villaine

The geography and geology of the Rully

This video provides an overview of the geography and geology of the Rully as explained by Jean-Pierre Renard.

See Rully through the eyes of local winemakers Felix Debavelaere

Felix Debavelaere, from Domaine Rois Mages mentions the different personnalities of the Rully appellation. It is not easy to put it in a single box, not only because it can be produced in red and white but also because the wines can show different characters according to where the vines are planted.

Detailed Map of the Rully

Click to Enlarge

The Regions of Burgundy

The best bit of Burgundy is a thin strip running from North to South around 50km in length, to the South East of Paris

It’s split into three main regions, within each of these regions there are villages which have specific single vineyards planted in them to the varieties red varieties: Pinot Noir and Gamay, and the white varieties: Chardonnay and Aligoté, a lesser variety that produces some fun wines at more affordable prices.

The three main regions in the strip South of Dijon are:

1. Côte D’Or – meaning the Golden Slope, derived from it’s original name, Côte d’Orient, East Slope, within which rest:
   1. Côte-de-Nuits – South of the city of Dijon and North of the town of Beaune famous for it’s Pinot Noir. The best known villages are: Gevrey-Chambertin, Morey-St-Denis, Chambolle-Musigny, Nuits-St-Georges and Vosne-Romanée. 5% of Burgundy production including Chablis.
   2. Côte-du-Beaune – The area around and South of Beaune famous for Chardonnay including the 5 Grand Cru vineyards and many very good Pinot producing vineyards. The best known villages are: Puligny-Montrachet, Chassagne-Montrachet, Mersault, Volnay, Pommard and Saint Aubin. 10% of production including Chablis.
2. Côte-Chalonaise – Mixing more affordable Chardonnay and Pinot that can be of excellent quality. The villages of Rully, Mercurey and Givry producing their best wines.
3. Mâconnaise – The least regarded of the main regions, still capable of producing some very good wines. Becoming a shining light for value with the ever increasing prices of Burgundy.

In addition to these, the two regions of Beaujolais, mostly producing Gamay, (at the South end of the Dijon Strip) and Chablis, mostly producing Chardonnay (between the southern part of Champagne and Dijon) are part of the Bourgogne wine region.

Click to view full sized map

The post Getting Your Head Around Burgundy Part 13 – The Village of Rully appeared first on WINE DECODED.

In our Getting Your Head Around Burgundy, we’re exploring the main villages of Burgundy, its viticulture, winemaking, classifcation systems, and, of course, Burgundy’s wines.

Part 11 explores the Village of Pernand-Vergelesses in the very north of the Côte de Beaune

Make sure you join our community to get the latest articles from the Wine Bites Mag as they come out. You’ll find all of our Burgundy related articles here.

There’s a quick refresher on the regions of Burgundy at the end of this post to help you place yourself within Burgundy and France as a whole.

See all of our wines from Pernand-Vergelesses

The Village of Pernand Vergelesses

The appellation of Pernand-Vergelesses is tucked into the junction of two valleys among the hills of the Côte de Beaune. The nearby Hill of Corton stands guard over it and two other villages, Aloxe-Corton and Ladoix-Serrigny.

Most of the vineyards face East or South with a few facing North-East and range in altitudes from 250-300 metres. On the lower slopes are clayey-limestone soils mixed with “chaillots” (flinty residues from silcaceous limestones). These soils are easily worked and rich in potassium and phosphoric acid. Mid-slope, the pebbly limestone soils suit the Pinot Noir, and at the top, the brown or yellowish marly soil harbours the Chardonnay.

Stylistically, Pernand-Vergelesse is known for its terroir-driven wines, producing Pinot Noir and Chardonnay with pronounced mineral characters. In their youth, the whites are often characterised as tight and lean, with fresh natural acidity and attractive aromatics. With time they open and evolve, gaining layers of complexity while retaining their distinctive minerality.

Pernand-Vergelesse reds are known for their pronounced red fruit aromas, firm fine tannins and excellent minerality. The Premier Cru Pinot Noirs often display greater depth than the villages wines, striking a balance between finesse and structure with concentrated fruit and silky tannins. These wines can be enjoyed young, but can also age very well – in some case for 5-10 years.

Pernand-Vergelesses is home to eight climats classified as Permier Crus: Clos Berthet, Creux de la Net, En Caradeux, Ile des Vergelesses, Les Fichots, Sous Frétille, Vergelesses, Village de Pernand. The village also boasts a number of highly-regarded Lieux-Dits, including Les Plantes des Champs et Combottes, Sous le Bois de Noël et Belles Filles and Sur Herbeux.

Check out Levi Dalton’s podcast with Claude de Nicolay which touches on this excellent appellation.

This video provides an overview of the sites, soils and styles of Pernand-Vergelesses.

See Pernand-Vergelesse through the eyes of winemaker Christine Dubreuil of Dubreuil-Fontaine.

Detailed Map of Pernand-Vergelesses

Click on any image to view full size map

The Regions of Burgundy

The best bit of Burgundy is a thin strip running from North to South around 50km in length, to the South East of Paris

It’s split into three main regions, within each of these regions there are villages which have specific single vineyards planted in them to the varieties red varieties: Pinot Noir and Gamay, and the white varieties: Chardonnay and Aligoté, a lesser variety that produces some fun wines at more affordable prices.

The three main regions in the strip South of Dijon are:

1. Côte D’Or – meaning the Golden Slope, derived from it’s original name, Côte d’Orient, East Slope, within which rest:
   1. Côte-de-Nuits – South of the city of Dijon and North of the town of Beaune famous for it’s Pinot Noir. The best known villages are: Gevrey-Chambertin, Morey-St-Denis, Chambolle-Musigny, Nuits-St-Georges and Vosne-Romanée. 5% of Burgundy production including Chablis.
   2. Côte-du-Beaune – The area around and South of Beaune famous for Chardonnay including the 5 Grand Cru vineyards and many very good Pinot producing vineyards. The best known villages are: Puligny-Montrachet, Chassagne-Montrachet, Mersault, Volnay, Pommard and Saint Aubin. 10% of production including Chablis.
2. Côte-Chalonaise – Mixing more affordable Chardonnay and Pinot that can be of excellent quality. The villages of Rully, Mercurey and Givry producing their best wines.
3. Mâconnaise – The least regarded of the main regions, still capable of producing some very good wines. Becoming a shining light for value with the ever increasing prices of Burgundy.

In addition to these, the two regions of Beaujolais, mostly producing Gamay, (at the South end of the Dijon Strip) and Chablis, mostly producing Chardonnay (between the southern part of Champagne and Dijon) are part of the Bourgogne wine region.

Click to view full sized map

The post Getting Your Head Around Burgundy Part 11 – The Village of Pernand-Vergelesses appeared first on WINE DECODED.

In our Getting Your Head Around Burgundy, we’re exploring the main villages of Burgundy, its viticulture, winemaking, classifcation systems, and, of course, Burgundy’s wines.

Part 12 explores the Mâcconais, the southern-most wine producing region of Burgundy. Its climate and geography vary considerably from the Côte de Nuits and Côte de Beaune, often producing wines with more weight and body.

Make sure you join our community to get the latest articles from the Wine Bites Mag as they come out. You’ll find all of our Burgundy related articles here.

There’s a quick refresher on the regions of Burgundy at the end of this post to help you place yourself within Burgundy and France as a whole.

See all of our wines from Mâcon

The Villages of the Mâconnais

The Mâconnais is the soul of southern Burgundy, extending over some 40 km of the Côte Chalonnaise as far as the Rock of Solutré.  The vines occupy a landscape of little hills and valleys, and are bordered on one side by the river Saône and the Grosne on the other. Vines were first planted here in Gallo-Roman times and were fostered in the Middle Ages by the powerful abbeys of Tournus and Cluny.

We’ve seen acquisitions in Mâcon from Domains including Meusault’s Comte Lafon, both an acknowledgment of the quality potential of the region and the cost of expansion in the Côte d’Or. The world has become increasingly aware of what many savvy French have known for a long time, there is some serious tasty vino and affordable vino coming out of the Mâcon.

Today the Mâconnais represents the biggest winegrowing area in Burgundy and is home to the Mâcon AOC, which covers 4224 ha. Established in in 1937, this regional appellation is divided into now four levels, which correspond to production under different sites, regulations and of varying quality levels.

The first level covers wines that bear the Mâcon appellation and are produced across the entire area. They can include white, red and rose wines. The second level is the Mâcon Villages appellation, which is reserved for white wines produced in a more restricted areas. The third level corresponds to the highest level of regional appellations, and covers white, red and rose wines from a limited area within the Mâcon – approximately half the AOC. For these wines, the label must include the name of one of 27 specific villages or geographical denominations.

In a demonstration of just how good the wines of Mâcon are, after a 10-year application process, the French National Institute of Origin and Quality (INAO) approved the classification making Pouilly-Fuissé the first appellation within Burgundy’s Mâconnais sub-region to benefit from premier cru vineyards.

The 22 new premier crus represent a total of 194ha under vine, accounting for roughly 24% of Pouilly-Fuissé’s total vineyard area (800ha). The newly-classified vineyards are spread over four communes of the appellation that only produce white wine from Chardonnay: Chaintré, Fuissé, Solutré-Pouilly and Vergisson. The new status begins with the 2020 vintage.

It is the first time since 1943 that a premier cru level is newly recognised in a Burgundian appellation.

There are undoubtedly other sites worthy of Premier Cru status, Viré-Clessé will surely push for their best sites to be upgraded too!

To learn about these geographical denominations in more detail, watch the video below.

Separated by a series of parallel faults, the hills of the Mâconnais are linked along axes which give them either a North/North-westerly or a South/South-easterly exposure. Here, the limey soils produce fruit for elegant Pinot Noirs and age worthy Chardonnays. Elsewhere, flinty sands and clays, often mixed sandstone pebbles yield more youthful, early-drinking wines from Chardonnay or Gamay, which is equally at home on granitic soils that signal the nearby presence of the Beaujolais.

This video provides an overview of the geography and geology of the Mâconnais as explained by Jean-Pierre Renard.

Get your head around the different Mâcon villages and the general Mâcon appellation + geographical denominations with Charles Lamboley

See Mâcon through the eyes of local winemakers Théo et Paul Merlin.

Detailed Map of the Mâconnais

The region of Mâcon

Click to enlarge

Pouilly-Fuissé including new Premier Cru’s

Click to enlarge

The 22 new premier crus, commune by commune:

Chaintré:

• Le Clos de Monsieur Noly
• Les Chevrières
• Aux Quarts
• Le Clos Reyssier

Fuissé:

• Le Clos
• Les Brulés
• Les Ménétrières
• Les Reisses
• Les Vignes Blanches
• Les Perrières
• Vers Cras

Solutré-Pouilly:

• La Frérie
• Le Clos de Solutré
• Au Vignerais
• En Servy
• Aux Bouthières
• Aux Chailloux
• Pouilly
• Vers Cras

Vergisson:

• Les Crays
• La Maréchaude
• Sur la Roche
• En France

The Regions of Burgundy

The best bit of Burgundy is a thin strip running from North to South around 50km in length, to the South East of Paris

It’s split into three main regions, within each of these regions there are villages which have specific single vineyards planted in them to the varieties red varieties: Pinot Noir and Gamay, and the white varieties: Chardonnay and Aligoté, a lesser variety that produces some fun wines at more affordable prices.

The three main regions in the strip South of Dijon are:

1. Côte D’Or – meaning the Golden Slope, derived from it’s original name, Côte d’Orient, East Slope, within which rest:
   1. Côte-de-Nuits – South of the city of Dijon and North of the town of Beaune famous for it’s Pinot Noir. The best known villages are: Gevrey-Chambertin, Morey-St-Denis, Chambolle-Musigny, Nuits-St-Georges and Vosne-Romanée. 5% of Burgundy production including Chablis.
   2. Côte-du-Beaune – The area around and South of Beaune famous for Chardonnay including the 5 Grand Cru vineyards and many very good Pinot producing vineyards. The best known villages are: Puligny-Montrachet, Chassagne-Montrachet, Mersault, Volnay, Pommard and Saint Aubin. 10% of production including Chablis.
2. Côte-Chalonaise – Mixing more affordable Chardonnay and Pinot that can be of excellent quality. The villages of Rully, Mercurey and Givry producing their best wines.
3. Mâconnaise – The least regarded of the main regions, still capable of producing some very good wines. Becoming a shining light for value with the ever increasing prices of Burgundy.

In addition to these, the two regions of Beaujolais, mostly producing Gamay, (at the South end of the Dijon Strip) and Chablis, mostly producing Chardonnay (between the southern part of Champagne and Dijon) are part of the Bourgogne wine region.

Click to view full sized map

The post Getting Your Head Around Burgundy Part 12 – The Villages of the Mâcconais appeared first on WINE DECODED.

In this series, we’re covering as many of the main villages of Burgundy, home to some of the world’s greatest Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.

Make sure you join our community to get the latest articles from the Wine Bites Mag as they come out. You’ll find all of our Burgundy related articles here.

There’s a quick refresher on the regions of Burgundy at the end of this post to help you place yourself within Burgundy and France as a whole.

See all of our wines from Chambolle-Musigny

The Villages of Chambolle-Musigny

On the southern border of Morey-Saint-Denis lies the appellation of Chambolle-Musigny. Its AOC status dates from September 1936, making it one of the first French vineyards to be designated.

Like Gevrey-Chambertin, Chambolle-Musigny is completely planted to Pinot Noir. However, the styles associated with the respective appellations present an intriguing contrast. Where Gevrey-Chambertin has a reputation for powerful, structured Pinot Noirs, Chambolle-Musigny typically offers more delicate expressions. This is not to suggest that Chambolle-Musigny is a wilting violet; rather its intensity manifests in more subtly, with soft tannins and pretty aromatics.

Chambolle-Musigny is home to two superb Grands Crus: Bonnes-Mares, which links its vineyards to those of Morey-Saint-Denis, and the great Musigny vineyard, which overlooks the Clos de Vougeot. The village also boasts among its fine wines the prestigious Premier Cru, Les Amoureuses.

The appellation’s sloping vineyards face east at altitudes of 250-300 metres with only a shallow covering of soil overlying the parent rock, but fissures in the hard Jurassic limestone allow the roots to seek nourishment deep within the sub-soil. Boulders and gravels in the valley bottom ensure good drainage.

This video provides an overview of the Côte de Nuits and explores the villages of Gevrey-Chambertin, Morey-Saint-Denis and Chambolle-Musigny in more detail.

Explore Chambolle-Musigny through the eyes of Christophe Roumier of Domaine Georges Roumier film (in French).

Veronique Drouhin explores the characteristics of the villages of Gevrey-Chambertin, Morey-Saint-Denis and Chambolle-Musigny.

In the video below we explored the 3 adjacent villages Chambolle-Musigny, Morey-Saint-Denis & Gevrey-Chambertin tasting through wines from each Village.

UPDATE December 2017: The Charmes-Chambertin tasted in the video has started to settle and my initial concerns around ripeness are well and truly a distant memory! Unfortunately, it’s all sold out!

Detailed Map of Chambolle-Musigny

Click on to enlarge

The Regions of Burgundy

The best bit of Burgundy is a thin strip running from North to South around 50km in length, to the South East of Paris

It’s split into three main regions, within each of these regions there are villages which have specific single vineyards planted in them to the varieties red varieties: Pinot Noir and Gamay, and the white varieties: Chardonnay and Aligoté, a lesser variety that produces some fun wines at more affordable prices.

The three main regions in the strip South of Dijon are:

1. Côte D’Or – meaning the Golden Slope, derived from it’s original name, Côte d’Orient, East Slope, within which rest:
   1. Côte-de-Nuits – South of the city of Dijon and North of the town of Beaune famous for it’s Pinot Noir. The best known villages are: Gevrey-Chambertin, Morey-St-Denis, Chambolle-Musigny, Nuits-St-Georges and Vosne-Romanée. 5% of Burgundy production including Chablis.
   2. Côte-du-Beaune – The area around and South of Beaune famous for Chardonnay including the 5 Grand Cru vineyards and many very good Pinot producing vineyards. The best known villages are: Puligny-Montrachet, Chassagne-Montrachet, Mersault, Volnay, Pommard and Saint Aubin. 10% of production including Chablis.
2. Côte-Chalonaise – Mixing more affordable Chardonnay and Pinot that can be of excellent quality. The villages of Rully, Mercurey and Givry producing their best wines.
3. Mâconnaise – The least regarded of the main regions, still capable of producing some very good wines. Becoming a shining light for value with the ever increasing prices of Burgundy.

In addition to these, the two regions of Beaujolais, mostly producing Gamay, (at the South end of the Dijon Strip) and Chablis, mostly producing Chardonnay (between the southern part of Champagne and Dijon) are part of the Bourgogne wine region.

Click to view full sized map

The post Getting Your Head Around Burgundy Part 9.3 – The Village of Chambolle-Musigny appeared first on WINE DECODED.

In this series, we’re covering as many of the main villages of Burgundy, home to some of the world’s greatest Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.

Make sure you join our community to get the latest articles from the Wine Bites Mag as they come out. You’ll find all of our Burgundy related articles here.

There’s a quick refresher on the regions of Burgundy at the end of this post to help you place yourself within Burgundy and France as a whole.

See all of our wines from Morey-Saint-Denis

The Villages of Morey-Saint-Denis

Located at the heart of Côte de Nuits, Morey-Saint-Denis forms a bridge, between the wines of Gevrey-Chambertin to the north and those of Chambolle-Musigny to the south. Most of the appellation’s vineyards are planted with Pinot Noir grapes, producing wines that are typically full-bodied, structured and complex. However, a few parcels are planted with Chardonnay or Pinot Blanc varieties, yielding a rare and interesting white wine, generally quite firm and opulent.

The vineyards of Morey-Saint-Denis transition from the valley flats to 270m in altitude on the slopes. The region also has a diversity of terroirs – from pebbly, limestone rich soils in the north and south to more alluvial, clay soils in the mid-region. Watch Jean-Pierre Renard’s video below for an in-depth look at the geography, geology and climatic conditions of Morey-Saint-Denis.

With many well-regarded Premiers Crus, Morey-Saint-Denis boasts also 5 Grands Crus: Clos de Tart, Bonnes Mares, Clos de la Roche, Clos Saint-Denis, Clos des Lambrays.

Much like surrounding appellations, Morey-Saint-Denis is returning to a more holistic approach to winegrowing with a number of producer promoting biodiversity and organic viticulture. Learn more about the intricacies of this sub-region with Laurent Lignier.

Jacque Seysses explores his life and experience in Burgundy, and at his Domaine in Morey-Saint-Denis.

In the video below we explored the 3 adjacent villages Chambolle-Musigny, Morey-Saint-Denis & Gevrey-Chambertin tasting through wines from each Village.

UPDATE December 2017: The Charmes-Chambertin tasted in the video has started to settle and my initial concerns around ripeness are well and truly a distant memory! Unfortunately, it’s all sold out!

Detailed Map of Morey-Saint-Denis

Click on to enlarge

The Regions of Burgundy

The best bit of Burgundy is a thin strip running from North to South around 50km in length, to the South East of Paris

It’s split into three main regions, within each of these regions there are villages which have specific single vineyards planted in them to the varieties red varieties: Pinot Noir and Gamay, and the white varieties: Chardonnay and Aligoté, a lesser variety that produces some fun wines at more affordable prices.

The three main regions in the strip South of Dijon are:

1. Côte D’Or – meaning the Golden Slope, derived from it’s original name, Côte d’Orient, East Slope, within which rest:
   1. Côte-de-Nuits – South of the city of Dijon and North of the town of Beaune famous for it’s Pinot Noir. The best known villages are: Gevrey-Chambertin, Morey-St-Denis, Chambolle-Musigny, Nuits-St-Georges and Vosne-Romanée. 5% of Burgundy production including Chablis.
   2. Côte-du-Beaune – The area around and South of Beaune famous for Chardonnay including the 5 Grand Cru vineyards and many very good Pinot producing vineyards. The best known villages are: Puligny-Montrachet, Chassagne-Montrachet, Mersault, Volnay, Pommard and Saint Aubin. 10% of production including Chablis.
2. Côte-Chalonaise – Mixing more affordable Chardonnay and Pinot that can be of excellent quality. The villages of Rully, Mercurey and Givry producing their best wines.
3. Mâconnaise – The least regarded of the main regions, still capable of producing some very good wines. Becoming a shining light for value with the ever increasing prices of Burgundy.

In addition to these, the two regions of Beaujolais, mostly producing Gamay, (at the South end of the Dijon Strip) and Chablis, mostly producing Chardonnay (between the southern part of Champagne and Dijon) are part of the Bourgogne wine region.

Click to view full sized map

The post Getting Your Head Around Burgundy Part 9.2 – The Village of Morey-Saint-Denis appeared first on WINE DECODED.

In this series, we’re covering as many of the main villages of Burgundy, home to some of the world’s greatest Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.

Make sure you join our community to get the latest articles from the Wine Bites Mag as they come out. You’ll find all of our Burgundy related articles here.

There’s a quick refresher on the regions of Burgundy at the end of this post to help you place yourself within Burgundy and France as a whole.

See all of our wines from Gevrey-Chambertin

The Villages of Gevrey-Chambertin

When asked to describe the appellation, Nicolas Rossignol, of Domaine Rossignol-Trapet, summarised Gevrey-Chambertin in three words: Prestige, Pinot Noir and Power.

Gevrey-Chambertin lies 15km south of Dijon in the Côte de Nuits. The region takes its name from the village, Gevrey, and the appellation’s most prestigious vineyard, Le Chambertin. This village-vineyard naming convention is commonplace today, however, Gevrey-Chambertin set the trend, officially linking the two in 1847.

Covering approximately 550 hectares, it is one of the largest appellations in the Côte d’Or and certainly the largest appellations for reds; Pinot Noir is the only variety planted in Gevrey-Chambertin. Due to its size, the sub-region has a variety of terroirs – from gravels in the Vau de Combe to rich clay-soils on the norther côte – and produces a diversity of styles. Traditional viticultral and winemaking predominate, however, there has been growing trend towards more organic practices over the past two decades.

Gevrey-Chambertin has earned a reputation for producing Pinot Noirs with rich fruit and structured tannins. The best expressions see this intensity tempered with elegance, yielding concentrated wines with complexity and finesse. Watch Jean-Pierre Renard’s video below for an in-depth look at the geography, geology and climatic conditions of Morey-Saint-Denis.

Learn more about the Gevrey-Chambertin Appellation from the winemakers themselves! The one with Charles Rousseau is in French.

In the video below we explored the 3 adjacent villages Chambolle-Musigny, Morey-Saint-Denis & Gevrey-Chambertin tasting through wines from each Village.

UPDATE December 2017: The Charmes-Chambertin tasted in the video has started to settle and my initial concerns around ripeness are well and truly a distant memory! Unfortunately, it’s all sold out!

Detailed Map of Gevrey-Chambertin

Click on to enlarge

The Regions of Burgundy

The best bit of Burgundy is a thin strip running from North to South around 50km in length, to the South East of Paris

It’s split into three main regions, within each of these regions there are villages which have specific single vineyards planted in them to the varieties red varieties: Pinot Noir and Gamay, and the white varieties: Chardonnay and Aligoté, a lesser variety that produces some fun wines at more affordable prices.

The three main regions in the strip South of Dijon are:

1. Côte D’Or – meaning the Golden Slope, derived from it’s original name, Côte d’Orient, East Slope, within which rest:
   1. Côte-de-Nuits – South of the city of Dijon and North of the town of Beaune famous for it’s Pinot Noir. The best known villages are: Gevrey-Chambertin, Morey-St-Denis, Chambolle-Musigny, Nuits-St-Georges and Vosne-Romanée. 5% of Burgundy production including Chablis.
   2. Côte-du-Beaune – The area around and South of Beaune famous for Chardonnay including the 5 Grand Cru vineyards and many very good Pinot producing vineyards. The best known villages are: Puligny-Montrachet, Chassagne-Montrachet, Mersault, Volnay, Pommard and Saint Aubin. 10% of production including Chablis.
2. Côte-Chalonaise – Mixing more affordable Chardonnay and Pinot that can be of excellent quality. The villages of Rully, Mercurey and Givry producing their best wines.
3. Mâconnaise – The least regarded of the main regions, still capable of producing some very good wines. Becoming a shining light for value with the ever increasing prices of Burgundy.

In addition to these, the two regions of Beaujolais, mostly producing Gamay, (at the South end of the Dijon Strip) and Chablis, mostly producing Chardonnay (between the southern part of Champagne and Dijon) are part of the Bourgogne wine region.

Click to view full sized map

The post Getting Your Head Around Burgundy Part 9.1 – The Village of Gevrey-Chambertin appeared first on WINE DECODED.

Today, the best champagne comes from houses dedicated to quality in the vineyard and winery. As they become better known, they are receiving the recognition they deserve. More importantly, these delicious champagnes are making their way into our glasses.

The days of relying on a few big houses with massive marketing budgets turning out generic fizz are over. But champagne is more than just fizz. It’s wine, and should be consumed like any other.

For optimal enjoyment I encourage you to trade in your flutes and coupes for a universal white wine glass and serve a little warmer than fridge cold. And, believe it or not, good champagne tastes just as good when the bubbles have gone flat. This is when you can best appreciate its vinous quality. (To really bring out these flavours, pair a glass with some salty hard cheese – Percorino or Reggiano Parmigiano work a treat.)

Trade in your flutes for a proper fizz glass

‘In success you deserve it and in defeat, you need it.’

Sir Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill was a famous Champagne lover. As a fizz enthusiast myself, I completely agree with Winston’s sentiment: champagne is a drink for all occasions.

Champagne is produced in a wonderful variety of styles, which is part of what makes it such a fun category to explore… and drink! But it’s more than just a celebratory welcome drink, champagne in its various styles can be enjoyed at every stage of a celebration and meal. From a crisp aperitif style to rich Blanc de Noirs, complex blends, and, when done right, some of the most inspiring Rosé.

Understanding what distinguishes one style from another is important to identify your personal preferences.

The diversity present across the category can make it difficult to generalise, but  three major considerations that will influence the way champagne tastes include grape variety, region and the cuvée.

In addition to these factors there is a myriad of potential stylistic choices available to a producer, including pre-tirage élévage, time on lees and dosage; the influence of different viticultural and winemaking approaches should not be underestimated. But, the impact of choices made in the vineyard and the cellar is so immense, I think they deserve articles of their owns.

Below we dip our toes into the sea of champagne styles, beginning with a brief overview of the three key varieties, where they are found and how they typically appear in champagne.

Champagne Varieties

The three major varieties in Champagne: Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Meunier. On rare and special occasions you’ll find champagnes made with all seven permitted varieties, which include Fromenteau (aka Pinot Gris), Abanne, Pinot Blanc, and, Petit Meslier. There is increasing interest in these varieties, resulting in more experimental cuvées, more delicious champagnes and greater opportunities to innovate in a historically tradition-bound region.

Nevertheless, the majority of champagnes comprise a blend of the three key grapes. Each variety brings its own character, structure and potential style to the wine. Appreciating how these features are expressed is most obvious in varietal expressions, such as Blanc de Blanc and Blanc de Noir, but can be evident across all cuvée styles.

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Meunier (Pinot Meunier)

When visiting Champagne in 2019, one winemaker referred to Meunier as “le vilain petit canard” – the ugly duckling. While Pinot Noir has the elegance, Meunier is an awkward cousin – a little rough around the edges, all acidity and upfront fruit. However, as with cygnet in Hans Christian Anderson’s fairy tale, in the right context our perceptions of the variety are transformed and its underlying elegance shines through.

Meunier (no longer called Pinot Meunier in Champagne) is an important component in blends, providing youthful exuberance to champagnes with soft, mid palate fruitiness, moderate acidity but without considerable structure. Given its fruity generosity, Meunier-dominated wines tend to drink well when young.

The variety planted throughout the various sub-regions of Champagne and is a popular choice for growers in cooler north-facing vineyards, in the damp, frost-prone Vallée de la Marne, and in the cold valleys of the Aisne.

Varietal Meunier champagnes are rare, but a handful of winemakers are working with the grape to give it the attention it deserves. A great example of this is R.Pouillon ‘Les Chataignieres’ Extra Brut. We caught up with Fabrice Pouillon and learned about his unique winemaking. Read about it here.

Explore the full range of 100% Meunier fizz here.

Pinot Noir

If Meunier is a swan, the Pinot Noir is hardly a duck. In champagne Pinot Noir offers structure, power and body, with mid palate concentration, refreshing acidity and focused fruit.

Unlike Meunier, it has great ageing potential with long-lasting fruit character that can also develop as the wine matures. As in Burgundy, Pinot Noir lends itself well to site-specific or terroir driven expressions. In addition to its capacity to produce complex autolytic characters, Pinot Noir flavours tend to be red fruited with some darker fruit in Blanc de Noir examples.

Pinot Noir is planted throughout Champagne, but the regional big guns are in the north around the Montagne de Reims and Vallée de la Marne.

Chardonnay

Chardonnay supplies a laser-like, linear acid structure, a lithe body and an overall finesse. It is less broad shouldered than Pinot Noir and may appear more delicate and nervy. In a blend it the perfect complement to Pinot Noir’s richness and Meunier’s fruitiness; as a varietal wine, it yields elegant, sophisticated wines with great ageing potential.

Chardonnay is traditionally grown on the east-facing slopes of the Côte des Blancs but has also proved successful in many other sub-regions, especially the Côte de Sézanne.

The Basic Styles

Champagne in a variety of styles. At its core, good champagne possesses a filigree acidity, a delicate but expressive fruit character and an overall cool climate sense of balance, precision and purity.

Winemakers in Champagne are master blenders. They have an arsenal of options at their disposal, whether combining varieties, fruit from different sites and sub-regions, fermenting and maturing base wines in different vessels, or using reserve wines from a solera system assembled over a period of decades.

Equally some of the finest champagnes are made from single vineyards and vintages.

Like many of the worlds large wine regions there are efforts underway to further define the sub-regions of Champagne, partly in a push to recognise the quality of sites previously afforded less recognition.

Below is an outline of the basic styles and cuvées; the full fleet of champagne styles on offer will be explored future posts.

The Cuvée

The cuvée refers to the general blend of a champagne. This can be a blend of varieties, a blend of vintages (non-vintage or close vintage), a blend of sites or villages, or even a combination of the three. Explore our blended champagnes here.

The traditional champagne mantra is that blending is all important, however we are starting to see increased promotion of single village and lieux dits wines as well as more varietal champagnes, such as Blanc de Noirs and Blanc de Blancs.

Blanc de Noirs

French for ‘white of blacks’ this cuvée describes a white wine made from dark-skinned grapes – Pinot Noir or Meunier – by pressing them very gently and running the pale juice off the skins as early as possible. Blanc de Noirs are a particular speciality of the Aube as Pinot Noir and Meunier dominate plantings. However, many of the best examples can be found in the Montagne de Reims and Ay in the Vallée de la Marne.

How do you get white wine from red grapes? A cross section of dark-skinned berries reveals the fruit’s clear flesh. With quick pressing and limited contact with skins, the juice will be virtually uncoloured.

Based in Bouzy, André Clouet is a Blanc de Noirs specialist; the Grande Reserve Brut NV is 100% Pinot Noir and is seriously good. Want to go one better? It’s also available as a Magnum.

From Ambonnay, Benoît Maruget is producing awesome Pinot Noir wines, such as ‘Le Grand Ruelle’ Blanc de Noir Grand Cru.

Also from this part of Champagne, Egly Ouriet produces a varietal Pinot Noir in addition to a Meunier Blanc de Noir. From the village of Ambonnay, Egly-Ouriet’s Grand Cru Blanc de Noirs Vielles Vigne will take you to a happy place.

Discover the full range of Blanc de Noirs here. 

Blanc de Blancs

French for ‘white of whites’, this term indicates a champagne made exclusively from Chardonnay grapes. Celebrated examples come from the Côte des Blancs, a mostly eastern-facing slope that owes its name to the colour of the grape that is planted: 95% Chardonnay. Notable villages include Avize, Cramant, Le Mesnil-sur-Oger, Oger, Chouilly and Vertus.

A great starting place for this style is Pierre Péters Blanc de Blanc Cuvée de Réserve Grand Cru NV, a blend of multiple Grand Cru sites and vintages from the Côte des Blancs.

Another favourite, fast assuming the role of a modern classic, is the Agrapart Terroirs Blanc de Blancs NV is a stunning example of Blanc de Blanc style. To really get to the heart of this style, compare it with the same wine, but with +3 years in bottle. Drink side by side to see how bottle age affects the character of quality champagne.

Check out our selection of Blanc de Blancs here.

Rosé

While not necessarily a varietal style, Rosé is another important cuvée style amongst champagne and can be something of a litmus test for the quality of a winemaker/grower.

Rosé champagne can be produced in two different ways: by maceration, where destemmed black grapes are left to soak until the desire colour is achieved (typically 24 to 72 hours), or by blending, where base red and white wines are blended prior to tirage – the latter is the most commonly used method.

The addition of red wine, typically from Pinot Noir, contributes more than just colour; it also emphasises red-fruited flavours and breadth and texture on the palate.

For truly sensational experience of Rosé champagne, the Benoît Marguet Amobonnay Rosé Grand Cru Brut Zero and the R.Pouillon Rosé Brut NV are two particular standouts from the category.

Explore our Rosé champagne offering here.

To really understand the different styles of champagne and, more importantly, your personal preference I encourage to taste widely and with curiosity. Discover our excellent selection of champagnes here. You can also dive deeper into the world of Champagne further in the Wine Bites Mag.

The post Getting Your Head Around Champagne – Varieties, Regions & Styles appeared first on WINE DECODED.

A few of years ago I was blessed to attend a dinner with a double vertical of Capellano wines, the Rupestris and Piè Franco. These names refer to rootstock of the vines. Rupestris vines being grafted onto American rootstock, resistant to phylloxera, Piè Franco or French foot vines being ungrafted, on their own roots, and thus susceptible to attack from phylloxera!

For the second time, March 2021, I had the chance to repeat the session!

The two wines although from the same vineyard and made in the same way are remarkably different. Typically the Rupestris has much more generosity of fruit a richness and certain power. The Piè Franco is lythe, elegant and sophisticated. It’s going to be fascinating to see what happens in the Yarra Valley, where, as of the last 5 years or so, replanting from old vines on their own roots to grafted vines on large scale to combat the ingress of phylloxera has commenced. Will we see the same powering up of the wines? Only time will tell.

A Vintage Chart for Barolo … Is it possible?

Just prior to attending the session a Vintage chart from Giuseppe Vajra was posted on instagram.

I’m well known for bagging the crap out of vintage charts. Never seen a good one, until now. Scoring a wine range with just one dimmension is a waste of time, particularly when it covers an area like South East Australia AKA NSW, Vic & SA.

I’ve finally seen one that shows careful consideration and merits the same.

Not surprisingly it’s Giuseppe Vajra’s behind it. It’s only for the 10km x 15km Barolo region.

Presenting 2 spectrums, and 3 vintage descriptors, it’s designed to give an insight into the last 20 years in Barolo.  It simply highlights the key elements of Barolo with enough detail to add context.
Reflecting on the wines in the Uber home I flicked to this chart, it all made sense. F#@k Me! A vintage chart that actually added real value.

The baseline in Barolo has lifted over the last 30 years. Dud years are less of an issue. Vignerons are much further down the long and winding road of understanding how to manage vineyards and fruit in any given, climate change impacted year.  Now it’s more a case of which years to drink early and which years to hold.

Perhaps that would be 6 dimension to add to Giuseppe’s chart! It could only be an extreme generalisation given just how much winemaking choices impact the life span of any wine.

Maybe one day we’ll see this format used for other regions and wine types.

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The Wines

2014 Barbera

Dark with an edge of lift. The vibrant acid of Barbera sitting well on the palate which has resolved and settled. Secondary characters building with florals, earthy and savoury notes.

2013 Langhe Nebbiolo

Excellent Nebbiolo. Line, length and purity. Dark licorice Fun floral with great harmony. Just delicious.

Cappellano on the Barolo ‘Piè Franco’

The great deeds are not accomplished when sober

Yamamoto Tsunetomo

Heresy, challenge to homologation, return to the origins. In the second half of the 1980s, Teobaldo Cappellano put into practice what many regarded as folly, namely the decision to grow in the Gabutti vineyards some rows of ungrafted nebbiolo Michet, the system in use before the adoption of American graft after the diffusion of the Phylloxera. A “backwards evolution” to borrow Teobaldo’s own words, guided by the desire to somehow return to the true Barolo and to the idea of purity; but also, a homage to grandfather Giovanni who spent the final years of his life in Africa trying to understand whether the adoption of the new system was inevitable and in search of vines resistant to the new terrible parasite. Many bet on the failure of the enterprise, persuaded as they were that the Phylloxera would quickly attack the ungrafted vines: instead, those rows are still there, intact and healthy, proud as a hymn to bravery and utopia. Their gift is an “irregular” Barolo, seductive, of extraordinary complexity and intensity, which conveys the unmistakable imprinting of the Serralunga territory, without posturing and magic tricks.

Tradition

Tradition noun Latin traditio -onis, literally «delivery, transmission», derived from Latin tradĕre «to hand over, deliver»]

During the years we have been sometimes added, for various reasons, to the ranks of the “traditionalists”. We believe that this definition is a limit only when it is associated with the deceptive term of “conservatives”. We do not reject it ‒ rather, we lay claim to it ‒ in its true meaning of delivery and transmission of lore and practices, indispensable values for progress and for that sort of “backwards evolution” my father loved to talk about.

In practice, these values translate into an activity respectful of the land and of its offerings: in the vineyard we work with an organic methodology (copper, sulphur in different ways, and no pesticides), in the cellar we limit our interventions to the minimum by reproducing exactly what the elder generations used to do, only with more refined tools.

The basic concept is that of ‘delicacy’, from the grapevine to the bottle: we prune with non-invasive techniques, we harvest with tools which preserve the integrity of the grapes, we stock our bottles in an underground cellar purposely built to guarantee the perfect ageing until shipping.

Revolution

Who does not stand on one side or the other of the fence, is the fence himself

Vladimir Il’ič Ul’janov

Winemakers Cappellano have often been associated with the concept of “revolution” ‒ quite an oxymoron if one thinks of the established renown as “traditionalists”. And yet, tradition and revolution are two sides of the same coin ‒ a revolutionary or nonconformist attitude seems to be inscribed in the genes of the Cappellano patriarchs.

A grandfather, Francesco, so stubborn as to leave the Langhe to set up a wine business in Africa (specifically in the former Italian colony of Eritrea).

A father, Baldo, who returned to Italy with his family and with the dream to restore the family vineyard from scratch. He purchased back a plot of land in one of the most prestigious crus in the Langhe ‒ Gabutti. He re-established the production of Barolo Chinato with the old recipe, and realised his father’s old dream of an ungrafted vineyard.

A bit crazy, dreamers, reckless. Visionary, brave, precursors. These words and many more were used about them, this ‒ and much more ‒ can be inferred from their family history, only briefly sketched here. These traits best characterise those personalities which bring about change and revolution. We like to believe that this tiny seed of folly, suggestive of a brighter future and of a dream worth fighting for, is now endemic and permeates me as well as all the wonderful people who have made the vineyard reach this day. We strongly believe that the right motivation, fuelled by a fire, is necessary to make life worth living. Call it a cause, call it utopia. This pursuit makes us happy and, hopefully, also active and productive parts of this world-system.

Anarchy

If I dare to use the word, ideologically I am certainly an anarchist. I believe that I am civilised enough to grant myself a degree of self-rule.

Fabrizio De André

I would like to indulge with memories now because the term “anarchy” is inseparable from my father. I grew up together with the vineyard, and both of us were grown by a free and responsible man. Free to express concepts and elaborate projects against the mainstream views; free from the human calling to follow the flock for the sake of comfort and safety. Responsible for he was always animated by unyielding respect for the others and by the innate attitude to side with the weak. Anarchy and sociability, freedom and responsibility. For a child as well as for a company, growing up in the union of the opposites means to put a philosophy into practice, to take it as a model beyond the mere theory. My father bequeathed to us a sort of anarchic thinking and independent attitude which prompted us to even question (or re-think) his own work, lest we fall into the trap of a diverse yet equally undesirable homologation. What remains, unforgettable, is an approach to life ‒ and to winemaking ‒ which signifies what really matters to us: it is unthinkable to follow a random dogma, in particular when it is nothing more than a momentary fashion. We are interested in the meaning. A good produce, the true expression of what the land and the season give, combined with the wisdom necessary to pursue harmony and pleasure. We are devoted to the ethics of land and man, we believe in humankind and in Nature, but we start from small to think big. Do not look for us on the big stages, rather expect to find us in uncommon places, in unexpected situations which may let us share a glass of wine and a part of the journey.

Counterlabel

To Wine “Guides” humbly­speaking:

In 1983 I asked the journalist Sheldon Wasserman not to publish scores for my wine. Not only did he not publish the scores in his book “Italian Noble Wines” he also wrote that I had asked not to be in the “classificatios” in which a comparison becomes a divise numerical term rather than expressing shared human toil. I have not changed my mind: my tiny farm producing 20,000 bottles of wine a year interests only a small number of customer­friends. I believe in freedom of information, even if the judgement is negative. I think of my hills as an anarchical arena, with no inquisitors or opposing faction’s, whose inner richness is stimulated by severe, thoughtful critics; I strive for a community that can still express solidarity with whoever has not been so well­rewarded by Mother nature.

Wishful thinking? Allow me to dream.

Teobaldo

Where in the World is Capellano?

The Garbutti Vineyard is in Serralunga roughly in the center on the western border with Moneforte d’Alba. It’s contours run continue into the Cru’s of Parafada and Lazzarito.

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If you have a Barolo MGA subscription you can check out more details of the Gabutti Cru here.

The post A Decade of Cappellano Pie Franco Barolo appeared first on WINE DECODED.

Thanks for joining me at Wine Decoded’s Playground to explore all things vino!

I’d love to hear your thoughts and ideas for future Wine Camps!

Hit me up in the comments or send me a message.

See you for the next Wine Camp next December 2021 to January 2022!

Quick Note: Links to wines will become redundant over time. You can always hit up the search box to find them!

Wine Camp Bite 1

Wine Camp Bite 2

We’re Continuing Our Focus on Burgundy!

Something to Drink

Wine Camp Bite 3

We’re Continuing Our Focus on Burgundy!

Explore Chassagne-Montrachet, Puligny Montrachet &
Saint-Aubin

Something to Drink

Côte du Beaune Burg’s

Wine Camp Bite 4

We’re Continuing Our Focus on Burgundy!

In the Vineyard with Those Tiny Vines

Something to Drink

Wine Camp Bite 5

We’re Continuing Our Focus on Burgundy!

Get it in Your Gob!

Something to Drink

Wine Camp Bite 6

We’re Continuing Our Focus on Burgundy!

Exploring the Village of Meursault

Something to Drink

Wine Camp Bite 7

Our Last Day in Burgundy before we head to Italy!

Something to Drink

Wine Camp Bite 8

Jump Aboard We’re off to Italy

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Wine Camp Bite 9

One more day playing with fire in Italy

Wine Word – ‘Contrada’
Live Stream: Letizia Patanè of Passopisciaro joined us to talk all things
Etna, Lava Juice and Nerello Mascelese!
Watch or listen, the choice is yours! Enjoy!

Something to Drink

Wine Camp Bite 10

Heading North to Montalcino for some Sangiovese

Something to Drink

Wine Camp Bite 11

A Short Trip to Chianti

Something to Drink

Wine Camp Bite 12

Our Last Day in Chianti

Something to Drink

Wine Camp Bite 13

The Land of Truffles, Hazelnuts, Nutella & NEBBIOLO!

Something to Drink

Wine Camp Bite 14

From Barbaresco We Head to Barolo!

Something to Drink

Wine Camp Bite 15

From Barbaresco We Head to Barolo!

Something to Drink

Wine Camp Bite 16

8 Cru’s + 5 of Barolo’s 11 Communes!

An Epic Trip through Barolo & some of the best Cru’s in the land!

Something to Drink

Wine Camp Bite 17

Off to Wave at the Swiss from Valtellina

Home to Chiavenasca AKA Nebbiolo of the North!

Something to Drink

Wine Camp Bite 18

Back for a Quick Visit to Barbaresco Before We Head to Germany!

Home to Chiavenasca AKA Nebbiolo of the North!

Roughly translates to foot of tank. Pied de Cuve is the winemaking equivalent of a sourdough starter.

Something to Drink

The post Wine Camp 2020-2021 appeared first on WINE DECODED.

Got any questions or thoughts? We’d love to hear from you. Leave a comment at the end of the post!

Check out all of Sordo’s Wines!

Watch full length 4 part series covering the 2016 wines & get the full experience with flyover maps of the communes and more. Listen if the NBN is annoying you!

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David Ridge, Neb-Head, responsible for bringing the likes of Bartolo Mascarello, Giacomo Conterno and Bruno Giacosa to Australia shared his incredible depth of knowledge of all things Barolo in a session at Wine Decoded HQ.  David spent a couple of hours with us tasting through all 8 Cru’s made by Sordo. Yes, that is right, 8 Cru’s from one producer!

There is so much gold in David’s insights, you’re going to need to watch or listen a couple of times … preferably with a glass in hand.

Prior to trying the wines, I asked myself, will this result in confusion and seeing a jack of all trades and master of none. After smelling the Langhe Neb, Barbaresco and Barolo Normale I  realised the reality, was going to be the complete opposite. All of the wines were superb individual and delicious! Given the geographic and varietal spread we work with in Australia, it was a silly thought really. Here’s a family working with one variety over an area that is 10km wide and 15km long (excluding the Roero and Barbaresco fruit). Compared to some of my past winemaking experience working across multiple regions hundreds of km’s apart, spanning a dozen varietals, they have some serious focus!

We recorded the session, and, now, share it with the Wine Decoded community. We introduce you to Nebbiolo, take you through the geology of Barolo and its impact on the wines, 5 of the 11 Communes that make up the Barolo region, and, 8 special Cru’s including some of the rarest and most sought after in the world!

Get in touch with us before you next head to Barolo and we’ll get you connected to the Sorodo Crew!

This is an exceptional opportunity to grab a set of wines, break it down into brackets of 2 or 3 and try them along with the film we recorded below! It’s like a masterclass in your own home. Grab some wine loving friends and listen to the Nebbiolo wisdom of Neb-Head David Ridge & Wine Decoded’s very own Paul Kaan who combined have devoured 1,000’s of Nebbiolo’s!

The Perfect Storm – Vintage 2016

2016 has come at just the right time. We have a number of winemakers with incredible experience and wine wisdom. The vineyards in Barolo are in the best condition they’ve been in with incredible detail going into their care.

Combined we have a situation where vignerons are in the best possible position to make the most of the great fruit yielded by the 2016 harvest!

When you compare the 2015 & 2016 vintages you see the difference between a warmer vintage with a shorter ripening period and a cooler one with the longest ripening period in memory.

Nebbiolo responds beautifully to a cooler longer ripening. Once it reaches sugar level high enough to make a wine around 14-14.5% alcohol the sugar levels stop increasing, it tends to hold its acid and the tannins so important to the insane mouthfeel of Nebbiolo ripen and increase in depth.

Such vintages tend to offer wines with more perfume, energy, and, vitality. This is the case for Sordo’s 2016’s.

Watch full length 4 part series covering the 2016 wines & get the full experience with flyover maps of the communes and more. Listen if the NBN is annoying you!

The 4 brackets

All of the wines were beautifully made, expressive, showing great balance and harmony. The élévage was excellent. Loads of energy through the line-up. It really was a case of celebrating the differences. Some of the wines are drinking beautifully now (and have plenty of legs on them) others were still tightly coiled needing time. All had the right bits in the right places and were full of personality.

TOP TIP – If you want to try them in brackets like we did or over time grab a Coravin and use it to save the wines.

Bracket 1 – The Perfect Intro:  2016 Barbaresco, 2016 Barolo

The Barbaresco a blend from Treiso, Barbaresco and Nieve with exceptional energy and vitality. Lively, balanced acidity. Vibrant juicy cherry fruit, excellent mouthfeel. Incredibly transparency. Wicked complexity so much going on. Layered. Showing just how good 2016 Barbaresco is. Such a refreshing wine.

Obvious density of bright fresh red fruits and flowers. Roses. This bottle open (Coravined) a week now and shows secondaries today. Some strawberry or raspberry lolly, more rose, real density here. Mouthfilling, very long, nicely grippy and zesty. So confident and complete **+ DR

Has developed beautifully over the last year. The perfume, the energy, such fine bones, delicacy, delicious juicy fruit. Just keeps getting better. Nice little bit of licoricious on red cherries with excellent vibrant acidity. Lovely Barbaresco. PK

The Barolo Full, dense and obviously really bright. Rose, maraschino, fleshy red plum/red prune.
More fragrant than earthy- forcefully fragrant. This is fabulous, just keeps opening; violets now, more dried rose. Palate is explosive, very full, up and lively, textured and complete.

Notable, tingling acidity woven through. Masterful blending.
A great summary of this vintage. ***+ DR

80% La Morra. Immediate generosity has it open for action but so much more. A little chocolate and little coffee, savoury bits on dark fruit. There is a lot going on here with layers of flavours and tannins. The depth and length are impressive. Wonderful harmony and presence. PK

Bracket 2 – The Playful Ones: 2016 Ravera + Monvigliero

You could happily drink both of these with a decant and time in the glass now. They have plenty of time in them too!

Ravera Aha – this red cherry and brick-dust opening is becoming familiar; the Ravera trademark. Then some gorgeous classy, sappy note, some rose perfumes and back to the recurring essence;  red things. Lush, saturated red things dominate, with whatever might be underneath, mostly swamped for now. A lot of wine. Palate is expansive, nervy and savoury – in fact quite grippy. Reminds a lot of 2013. Great potential, not bad now! *** DR

A wonderful example. Crunchy red fruits with the energy of 2016, there’s the overlying perfume and incredible length just goes for every. The sophistication of the front mid-palate tannin is there. The refreshing balanced acidity. Playful yet leveling up to serious. A lythe yet present flavour profile. PK

Monvigliero Very recognisable again; the graphite and generous almost smoky black cherry/prune announces a Monvigliero. Often the most ready and giving of the Sordo Cru, this is both expressive now, yet clearly very classy. Maybe a bit of orange liqueur today? Probably shows more dense and complex than previously. Even a touch glossy. Moderately grippy as expected, and with a nice fine acid tingle. *** DR

Superb, the flint, the slate, the dark sour cherries, such length. Incredible wine. A hint of macerative, grape marc character, again energy, vibrancy. Nice florals. Tannins that almost remind me of a little whole bunch will resolve. Should be a fun evolution for this one. This has a wonderful personality.

Bracket 3 – The Super Stars: 2016 Villero + Monprivato + Rocche di Castiglione + Parussi

Wow just wow. Incredibly different and complete wines. I could just spend hours smelling these 4.

Villero As tight as … usual. Some cherry/cranberry skin and dried flowers poking out and some hints of the darker layer, tobacco. Opens to quite pronounced pot-purri and some fresh-flower fragrance. fabulously framed full palate with unevolved but full, textured, firm and forceful. Long. Seamless acid/tannin of Castiglione (and St Julien) Tight knit, this one. Wonderful. *** DR

Crystal clear. Darker more broody than the 2015 which had a few more months off the boat when I first saw it. Fresh and vibrant / energetic. Bold, yet very good long, layered slatey tannins compared with the 2015. Wonderful texture here. Perfume comes up in the glass with air. Intoxicating. Such a beautiful wine. This will be epic in 5 years! I can still taste it. Power and beauty! There’s a trick. PK

Monprivato Started dense and fragrant…then shut down. All about delicacy, almost Barbaresco-like with roses, strawberry, orange and musk. Slowly opens, to cranberry, fading flowers and more dense elements of cherry liqueur cinnamon and tobacco. A brilliant classy sappiness tell-tales on a red of essential tightness, but evolving complexities. Palate is big; bigger than Rocche and with some clear ripe red fruit flavours and that Castiglione acid/tannin bonding. Has energy. Should do big things. Slowly. *** DR

Deceptive, a sleeper. Toit as. Lovely long layered tannins. Looking for this to fill out. Perfume on the nose, shifting to savoury and earthy with David’s dried flowers. Closed at the moment on palate. Feel like it doesn’t quite have the depth and length. It reminds me of many wines I’ve seen before that built in bottle over a decade revealing what had been hidden. Only time will tell. PK

Rocche di Castiglione Seeing a more crimson touch (than Villero or Monprivato either side) and certainly Rocche’s density of colour overall. Again a controlled, blockbuster, with layers of dried and fading flowers, tobacco, cranberry and cherry liqueur. Huge, almost sweet palate. Long, but tight and relatively unevolved still, of course. Will be superb again. ***+ DR

Castiglione Falletto. Lustrous mid ruby. Quite ripe but more savoury than sweet. Succulent red fruit with a truly juicy finish and gripping, firm tannins complementing the whole perfectly. (WS) Drink 2022 – 2036 17 ++ Walter Speller

Such a complete wine yet tightly coiled and the moment, everything in it’s place and place for everything. Incredible tannin profile this year. Such lovely ripe nutty tannins of serious depth. The core of fruit is exceptional and long. Mouth filling, I so want to see a bottle of the 2010 to see where it is at right now. It feels like a young 2004. Just restrained enough to stop it blowing your mind. The length of tannin is incredible. Persistance+++. The structure here builds a notch beyond Villero and Monprivato. After 3 hours in the glass it’s just starting to show itself. Sordo’s Rocche always takes a long time to show itself. 2015, 2013, 2006 and 2004 drinking wonderfully. 2004 still in the 2nd phase of development. All take hours to open up. PK

Parussi …doesn’t change its spots. Chubby is the word here – gorgeous lush, ripe, generous red fruits and big vase of fading flowers, some chocolate and cherry liqueur. This will be noticed and loved. Palate is big, sweet and expansive, yet sitting all around, or just slightly under all this, is a nice grippy/tingly frame. Glorious, energetic,  rich Barolo hanging it all out there. ***+ DR

Opulent with again a step up in structure. Broody on the palate, should develop beautifully. As David puts it, it’s chubby. Immediate generosity on the nose. So much aroma and flavour. Mid-palate fruit weight here is insane. Rich and chocolatey with savoury dark fruit, hints of that faded flowers and tobacco. Earthy delicious and just so much pleasure to be had. PK

Bracket 4 – The Bold Ones: 2016 Perno + Gabutti

Here we find the structure, bold tannins, exceptional tannins, will need time to uncoil and build secondary characters and resolve.

Perno Light, tight and teasingly fragrant. Very typical Perno; aromatics jostling with tannins. Cherry liqueur, sandalwood, menthol, violet and blueberry. Very Monforte tannins sit straight up, grippy and chalky in the mouth. Power and finesse, but barely useable just yet. Very long life here. *** DR

Monforte d’Alba. Lustrous mid ruby. A nose bursting with minerals and saline hints. Muscular, gripping but polished tannins with supple crushed red-berry fruit. Very long and focused. (WS) Drink 2022 – 2036 17 ++ Walter Speller

Excellent, immediately took me to the 2010 Riserva. Wonderful density. Every sniff sees another scent wafting out of the glass. The tannins show the benefit of a long ripening season. Yes, they have structure, they are damn fine tannins of exceptional depth and length. Hints of tobacco, earth, savoury bits and such a long deep core of fruit. This will develop beautifully. PK

Gabutti Ooh. Wow. So dense in aromatics that it’s hard to label them! Wait.
Ok start with cherry cola, then a smoky thing, some fennel seed, cigar, porcini and spice, maybe nutmeg or cinnamon. Plate is ultra elegant, complete but not a bit ponderous. Very fine – although the tannins are clearly Serralunga black tea type.
Simply fabulous and the star of this first tasting. ***+ DR

Insanely good, incredibly complete. Benchmark stuff.  Such a fragrance! This is mind boggling. Wonderful flow length+++. The sophistication of tannins here is insane. Here we see an incredibly complete wine. Such sophistication and power. There’s an elegance and lithe nature to this incredibly powerful beauty. The flowers are intoxicating. Again length +++. The sophistication in the tannins this year is phenomenal. PK

About Giovanni Sordi

Sordo HQ is nestled in the corner of Castiglione Falletto comune on the last stretch of the Alba-Barolo road before it takes that left fork up to Barolo village. You take this track (Frazione Garbelletto) just to the left for Paolo Scavino and Azelia, or right another 100 metres to the entrance of the Sordo family’s quite spectacular and beautiful new cellar.

While the sheer impact and architectural quality of this new facility is eye-catching, it’s the wines that demand even more attention. For sheer consistent excellence of this number of wines made in an essentially traditional and unforced style, it is impossible not to take note of the wines of A A Giovanni Sordo . These wines have been described as ‘transparent’ and they are made by people who want their wines to speak of where they come from.

The Winemaking

One of the really fascinating themes to a Sordo tasting is that all the Baroli are made as identically as is realistic. Vinification is in controlled temperature (to 30o) steel & cuve with submerged caps for up to 50 days. A further 2-4 months in steel, is followed by 24 months in large Slavonian botti. Giorgio Sordo likes the wines to have a further 4-6 months in steel, to “freshen them up” before bottling. Aha, so these are the secrets to transparency?

The 2015 Vintage

2015 began with high levels of snow providing good water reserves. Combined with mild spring temperatures and various rainfalls, bud break and flowering were early, followed by an excellent fruit set. From the second half of June throughout July, there was no rain and temperatures stabilized to above-average maximums. Fortunately, the vineyards were not stressed thanks to the plentiful water reserves. In terms of quantity, production was average allowing for careful, targeted green harvesting with special care taken to ensure foliage was managed to provide good protection for the clusters. There was no disease pressure so preventative measures were not required. The white varieties were harvested between the end of August and mid-September and the excellent sugars were matched by wonderful acidity. The Dolcetto harvest began around the second week in September and the wines were aromatic, softer and deeply coloured. Barbera is the variety which perhaps most benefited from the 2015 season with the usually high acidity tempered by excellent ripe tannins, dense colours and richly flavoured fruit and body. Nebbiolo ripened perfectly, though slightly earlier than the last few years. The excellent quality of the tannins balanced by perfect acidity will certainly ensure elegant, long-lasting wines with good structure.

Where in Barolo are Sordo’s 8 Cru’s?

While they release 8 Cru’s, Sordo own of 17 parcels of Barolo cru

And what places these wines come from! Since the very early 20th century, generations of the Sordo family have been quietly collecting parcels of the finest Nebbiolo-growing dirt in the Langhe. They now have numerous plots of vines in Roero, Barbaresco and particularly Barolo – where they actually own 17 pieces of cru classified vineyard and release an unprecedented 8 labelled (Barolo) cru wines from these, so far.

These are a cavalcade of Barolo’s most famous names – many of them appearing in any list of Barolo’s Top 10 cru; Ravera, Monvigliero, Parussi, Perno and Gabutti and the revered Castiglione Falletto trio of Villero, Rocche di Castiglione and the elusive Monprivato; the one most thought was Giuseppe Mascarello’s monopole, isn’t quite. Sordo started making theirs from 2012. Prior to that, it’s been going into the normale.

Sordo’s Released Cru’s

The map below shows the boundaries of each of the 11 communes of the region of Barolo and the location of each of Sordo’s Cru’s within the communes.

Click to enlarge

The map below shows a very rough divide of soil types across Barolo. The MGA soil map shows these in great detail. It’s only a rule of thumb but a reasonably good one.

Click to enlarge

The map below shows details of all of the Cru’s in Barolo say you can see how big or tiny each one is and which vineyards surround the Sordo’s Cru’s. Barolo is roughly 10km wide and 15km long.

Click to enlarge

Check out all of Sordo’s Wines!

The post Getting Your Head Around Barolo “The 8 Cru’s of Giovanni Sordo” 2.0 the 2016’s appeared first on WINE DECODED.

Fabrice makes the later. Where the big houses have all the resources in the world and could do so much more, few have. Fabrice has minuscule resources, yet manages to weave incredible detail through both the growing of his grapes and making of his wines.

Listen to the podcast and you’ll hear fascinating discussions around the soils, real ripeness, oxygen exposure during winemaking, and the unique Méthod Fabrice Pouillon only replicated by Pascal Agrapart (a good mate of Fabrice’s) to perform the second fermentation in bottle.

With the amount of development and experimentation, Fabrice is undertaking you would be forgiven for thinking he is a large house, rather than a grower with just 6Ha of vines!

Wacth or Listen to our Session with Fabrice!

The video includes footage throughout the year in the vineyard and winery, maps of champagne, annotations of the discussion, graphics & video inserts explaining elements of making Champagne.

The Fabrice Session & Inside!

R.Pouillon ‘Les Valnons’ Grand Cru Aÿ 2015

Chardonnay | Aÿ, France

Valnon makes a stunning Blanc de Blanc. Unusual to see Chardonnay grown on a Grand Cru site in Aÿ, a village known for its Pinot Noir. Great power, the incredible intensity of fruit is a clear sign of just how good the vineyard and winemaking are. As with all of Frabrice's wines the mouthfeel and harmony are exceptional. A profound statement in a glass.

$295

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The Fabrice Session & Inside!

R.Pouillon Reserve Brut 375ml NV

Blend | Mareuil-sur-Aÿ, Avenay-Val-d'Or

The perfect introduction to Pouillon's wines, yet, far from an entry level. The gives you a peak into just how much personality and vitality his wines have. Balancing a hint of oxidative character with delicious fruit with great length and depth. The Reserve Brut represents a little splash of fruit across most of Pouillon's holdings. The blend of Pinot, Meunier and Chardonnay is expertly integrated. Fabrice truly gets élévage. This is an incredibly complex, layered and beautiful Champagne. Suc

$74

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The Fabrice Session & Inside!

R.Pouillon Reserve Brut NV

Blend | Mareuil-sur-Aÿ, Avenay-Val-d'Or

The perfect introduction to Pouillon's wines, yet, far from an entry level. The gives you a peak into just how much personality and vitality his wines have. Balancing a hint of oxidative character with delicious fruit with great length and depth. The Reserve Brut represents a little splash of fruit across most of Pouillon's holdings. The blend of Pinot, Meunier and Chardonnay is expertly integrated. Fabrice truly gets élévage. This is an incredibly complex, layered and beautiful Champagne. Suc

$128

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The Fabrice Session & Inside!

R.Pouillon Grande Vallée Brut NV

Meunier | Mareuil-sur-Aÿ, Avenay-Val-d'Or

The perfect introduction to Pouillon's wines, yet, far from an entry level. The gives you a peak into just how much personality and vitality his wines have. Balancing a hint of oxidative character with delicious fruit with great length and depth. The Reserve Brut represents a little splash of fruit across most of Pouillon's holdings. The blend of Pinot, Meunier and Chardonnay is expertly integrated. Fabrice truly gets élévage. This is an incredibly complex, layered and beautiful Champagne. Suc

$138

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The Fabrice Session & Inside!

R.Pouillon ‘Les Terres Froides’ Premier Cru NV

Chardonnay | Montagne de Reims, Tauxières

Often in the 'Pro' wine circles, you're asked to nail your banner to a mast in a blind tasting. Although a Chardonnay, Fabrice has fooled, without malice, many a Champenois, who has called this wine a Pinot. It's not so much the flavours, but, the body, richness, and, mid-palate power that this wine offers that can confuse. In the end, all of this is irrelevant. What you have in front of you is a wine of purity, line, length, excellent acid, with lovely ripe flavours, a little pith and grapef

$190

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The Fabrice Session & Inside!

R.Pouillon Rosé Brut NV

Pinot Noir | Mareuil-sur-Aÿ, France

Such a beautiful Rosé. If finding a good wine is hard, finding tasty Rosé Champagne is a true mission. There are so many tricked up hard angular wines. Fabrice has got it all going on here. Rosé made by allowing fruit skin contact rather than dosing a white wine with some Red really does appear to offer a much more refined result. This one has lovely fresh, yet developed, red fruits, a little savoury edge and so much more going on. The halmark Pouillon harmony and energy. Just that very sligh

$190

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The Fabrice Session & Inside!

R.Pouillon ‘Les Chataignieres’ Extra Brut 2015

Blend | Festigny, France

Hanging to do a side by side with Pouillon's Meunier and Prévost's. To excellent makers two different styles! 100% Pinot Meunier from a site in Fesigny.  My Note from the 2012: Like all of Pouillon's wines, this is superb. Fine, delicious, so together with incredible harmony. Not as Oxy as Prévost's, it still has an oxidative note. The core of fruit is there, easily carrying it. Excellent vinosity, pure, fine, long red berry fruits. The texture dances across your palate. Beautifully lay

$230

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The Fabrice Session & Inside!

R.Pouillon ‘Les Chataignieres’ Extra Brut 2016

Blend | Festigny, France

Hanging to do a side by side with Pouillon's Meunier and Prévost's. To excellent makers two different styles! 100% Pinot Meunier from a site in Fesigny.  My Note from the 2012: Like all of Pouillon's wines, this is superb. Fine, delicious, so together with incredible harmony. Not as Oxy as Prévost's, it still has an oxidative note. The core of fruit is there, easily carrying it. Excellent vinosity, pure, fine, long red berry fruits. The texture dances across your palate. Beautifully la

$235

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The Fabrice Session & Inside!

R.Pouillon ‘Solera’ 1997-2016 NV II

Pinot Noir | Mareuil-sur-Aÿ, France

When I was making wine at Yarra Yering we used a Solera barrel of Chardonnay in the liqueur d'expedition for the fizz. The depth, length, and, complexity of this wine with those Oxy notes was a great foil to the richness in the base wines. Fascinating to see what happend to wines made of quality fruit when you age them for extended periods in wood.

$250

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The Fabrice Session & Inside!

R.Pouillon ‘Les Blanchiens’ Brut Nature 2013

Blend | Mareuil-sur-Aÿ, France

Notes on the 2012: This is superb. So fine and delicious. Such harmony is not common, the Pinot and Chardonnay are playing together beautifully. It has just the right level of oxidative vinosity, so well supported by a core of fruit that has great length and depth. I keep coming back the the harmony, layers of complexity and balance. Will the Pinot seems to be the dominant, as would be expected in the front and mid-palate, the line and length from the Chardonnay and the mineral nature to this

$280

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The Fabrice Session & Inside!

R.Pouillon ‘Les Valnons’ Grand Cru Aÿ 2013

Chardonnay | Aÿ, France

A divine, powerful, Blanc de Blanc from Aÿ, typically a Pinot village. Superb poise, incredible mouthfeel, long and fine. Incredible complexity, this builds in a big glass revealing layer after layer of fruit, patisserie notes, lightly toasted almond, and gentle, refined oxidative hints. This is benchmark gear. It's hard to believe it's only 12% alcohol such is the depth and length of flavour. The Méthod Fabrice Pouillon & 5 years on lees offers us up a seamless wine with wonderful shape,

$288

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The Fabrice Session & Inside!

R.Pouillon ‘Les Valnons’ Grand Cru Aÿ 2014

Chardonnay | Aÿ, France

Valnon makes a stunning Blanc de Blanc. Unusual to see Chardonnay grown on a Grand Cru site in Aÿ, a village known for its Pinot Noir. Great power, the incredible intensity of fruit is a clear sign of just how good the vineyard and winemaking are. As with all of Frabrice's wines the mouthfeel and harmony are exceptional. A profound statement in a glass.

$295

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$275ea in any 6+

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The Fabrice Session & Inside!

R.Pouillon ‘Chemins du Bois’ Grand Cru 2014

Pinot Noir | Mareuil-sur-Aÿ, France

“This is our foundation-wine as so many things started with this parcel. First of all, because it’s one of Champagne’s oldest massal selections. Afterwards and most especially because it gave me the idea for my Méthode Fabrice Pouillon used to make all my wines.”  

$425

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The Fabrice Session & Inside!

R.Pouillon ‘Chemins du Bois’ Grand Cru 2015

Pinot Noir | Mareuil-sur-Aÿ, France

“This is our foundation-wine as so many things started with this parcel. First of all, because it’s one of Champagne’s oldest massal selections. Afterwards and most especially because it gave me the idea for my Méthode Fabrice Pouillon used to make all my wines.”  

$425

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The Fabrice Session & Inside!

R.Pouillon ‘Chemins du Bois’ Grand Cru MAGNUM 2014

Pinot Noir | Mareuil-sur-Aÿ, France

“This is our foundation-wine as so many things started with this parcel. First of all, because it’s one of Champagne’s oldest massal selections. Afterwards and most especially because it gave me the idea for my Méthode Fabrice Pouillon used to make all my wines.”  

$885

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About Champagne R.Pouillon

The Pouillon family has been growing grapes in the region for over a century, but it wasn’t until 1947 that Fabrice’s grandfather, Roger Pouillon, decided to produce wine from his holdings. In 1964, Roger was joined by his son James, who added to the vineyard holdings and modernised the cellar. Fabrice joined his father in 1998 after finishing degrees in both business and oenology schools, and he has taken the winery in an exciting new direction.

Fabrice is the current President of Terre et Vin de Champagne

The Champagne Lands and Wines project was born with a real desire to share our taste for authentic Champagne wines. Champagne terroirs are subtle and sometimes difficult to analyze when tasting the wine with its bubbles.

We are 20 winegrowers driven by the same passion, convinced of the quality and diversity of our Champagne soils.
We are 20 winegrowers , of all ages and from different geographical regions, who have the common will to get together in a friendly way to share our wines and our winegrower philosophies.
We are 20 winemakers with our own convictions, our viticulture and winemaking methods in which we believe in order to be able to enhance each grape variety, each climate, each year.

Once a year, we suggest that you experience the latest vintage on more than 30 different terroirs. You will also be able to taste the future vintages available after their foaming. The tasting “Terres et Vins de Champagne” is unique in Champagne, it stands out as the meeting place between enthusiasts united around honest wines made by women and men in the field.

FYI – The 20 are a Who’s Who of Grower Champagne Producers

In the Vineryard

Fabrice Pouillon is dedicated to the vitality, energy and health of his vineyards. In 2003, he began the conversion to organic viticulture and today incorporates biodynamic principles. He currently uses only organic compounds for fertiliser, cover crops to restore nutrients in the soil and plows alternating rows with his horse, Tango, to keep vine competition and soil aeration consistent.

Each year they perform soil analysis, determine how they wish to proceed and work organically and biodynamically to gently and slowly achieve the desired results. Mostly this is the focus of ensuring the vine has good access to the minerals of the soil, can draw them into the fruit and express them in the glass.

A collaborative project with a number of Champagne’s best Chardonnay and Pinot Noir Growers is underway, think Agrapart, Suenen, Brochet, Bérèche, Tarlant, and Laval. Each performing a selection massale. The intent that they will share their best vines with each other and use them to gradually replant sections of vineyard. The aim to increase diversity in the vineyard, and, also complexity in the winery.

Work to find the best ways to manage the topsoil, working with an array of plants that help bring life to the soil, keep it open and allow water to penetrate building a reservoir for the vines is underway. This will give him options, allowing flexibility in how much he must work the soil, potentially enabling cultivation to be reduced.

He has never thought of buying in grapes, not knowing the vineyards as intimately as he does his own would not make for good wine.

In the Winery

Each of their 36 parcels are vinified and aged separately in a combination of enamel, stainless steel and oak, before being blended prior to secondary fermentation.

The simple question ‘How are you pressing?’ elicited just the response I was hoping for. Fabrice not only diverges from the traditional Champagne fractions of juice, free run & pressings. He breaks the juices down into a minimum of 4 components fermenting each of these separately. Fermenting in barrels makes this much easier logistically, their small volume offering flexibility. Not only that the first few litres squeezed from the grapes at the beginning of each pressing cycle are discarded as firstly they have solids in them that Fabrice finds undesirable and are more heavily oxidised. These are not the action of someone wanting to make battery acid fizz!

The cellars are being structured to reduce the need to pump. The press is being elevated, the barrels stored on 2 levels. Why? It allows him to choice when and how much oxygen to expose the juice and wine to rather than a pump under the press doing the job.

Is it overkill? Maybe. One thing is certain Fabrice won’t die without asking.

One of the most challenging aspects of making Champagne is the second fermentation in bottle. You won’t find any other process in a winery that is managed with as much detail as tirage. Failure to complete the bottle ferment has such high costs associated with it even the most ardent natural ferementer, think Prévost uses specialised cultured yeast for the job.

Fabric chooses not only to mess with the yeast, for one of his Cuvées the Chemin du Bois he uses juice from the same grapes as the sugar source. Pascal Agrapart is the only other producer to do this.

His messing with the yeast is natural with technique. During vintage he establishes a Pied de Cuve for the alcoholic fermentation. Once established he has a culture built by a company specialising in building yeast cultures that have the necessary number of live and most importantly very healthy bugs to finish a bottle fermentation.

These are just a few examples of the deep thought Fabrice put into every part of the process, in addition to putting his money where his mouth is to test out his ideas.

Where in the World is Champagne R.Pouillon?

Pouillon is based in the village of Mareuil-sur-Aÿ to the north of Épernay. The Pouillon family’s 36 parcels of vines are in Aÿ, Mareuil-sur-Aÿ and Avenay Val d’Or in the Grande Vallée, Epernay and Festigny along the Marne River, and Tauxières-Mutry, just to the north in the Montagne de Reims. The majority of the plantings are to Pinot Noir (3ha), followed by Chardonnay (2ha), and Pinot Meunier (1ha).

The map below shows the main sub-regions of Champagne

Click to enlarge

From left to right Champagne vineyards by Soil Type, Aspect and Dominant Varietal

Click on a map to enlarge

The post A Session with Fabrice of Champagne R Pouillon appeared first on WINE DECODED.

What an absolute pleasure to spend an all to brief session talking Etna, Passopisciaro, Nerello Mascelese & drinking a few of Passopisciaro’s Contrade.

When you hear of the wine history of Mount Etna, the renewal of ancient vineyards grown on flows it’s hard to imagine anyone ever deciding to climb up a hill to an altitude of 1,000m and plant a vineyard below an active volcano.

The results have been spectacular and over the last 20 years driven by producers like Passopisciaro, we have seen an incredible array of wines full of personality come from Mount Etna.

The Contrada we tried during this session showed a vintage in 2017 that has produced wines that a more approachable than the 2016’s, whilst having wonderful mouthfeel, great depth and length, and, that hallmark Passopisciaro harmony! The bottle of Guardiola I devoured after the session was stunning & the Rampante just devine drinking over the next couple of days!

Passopisciaro Passorosso Nerello Mascelese 2019

Nerello Mascalese | Etna, Italy

These wines are spectacular, loaded with personality, a true expression of extreme sites! Made from Nerello Mascelese, some call it the Barolo of the South, others a cross between Pinot & Nebbiolo. I prefer to say it is itself & delicious. The vineyards of Etna have undergone a major renaissance in the last couple of decades. Passipisciaro has been one of the wineries at the forefront. I was blown away the first time I tasted this wine. Had a glass in a resto. It's looking the goods,

$66

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Passopisciaro Contrada ‘C’ Chiappemacine Nerello Mascelese 2019

Nerello Mascalese | Etna, Italy

The lowest of Passopisciaro's contrada. Chiappemacine is typically fuller and richer by comparison Made from Nerello Mascelese, some call it the Barolo of the South, others a cross between Pinot & Nebbiolo. I prefer to say it is itself & delicious. The vineyards of Etna have undergone a major renaissance in the last couple of decades. Passipisciaro has been one of the wineries at the forefront. I was blown away the first time I tasted this wine. The Chippemacine and Sciaranuovo tend t

$130

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Passopisciaro Contrada ‘P’ Porcaria Nerello Mascelese 2019

Nerello Mascalese | Etna, Italy

Lower elevation builds more generosity into Porcaria. Such wonderful texture! Made from Nerello Mascelese, some call it the Barolo of the South, others a cross between Pinot & Nebbiolo. I prefer to say it is itself & delicious. The vineyards of Etna have undergone a major renaissance in the last couple of decades. Passipisciaro has been one of the wineries at the forefront. I was blown away the first time I tasted this wine. “Aromas of Mediterranean scrub, eucalyptus, smoky flint an

$145

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Passopisciaro Contrada ‘G’ Guardiola Nerello Mascelese 2019

Nerello Mascalese | Etna, Italy

Guardiola higher elevation puts it on the more elegant side of the scales! Made from Nerello Mascelese, some call it the Barolo of the South, others a cross between Pinot & Nebbiolo. I prefer to say it is itself & delicious. The vineyards of Etna have undergone a major renaissance in the last couple of decades. Passipisciaro has been one of the wineries at the forefront. I was blown away the first time I tasted this wine. “Showing its Etna pedigree and loaded with finesse, this gorg

$130

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Passopisciaro Contrada ‘S’ Sciaranuova Nerello Mascelese 2019

Nerello Mascalese | Etna, Italy

Meaning New Lava Flow it's young soils have not broken down to release as much nutrient as the olds flows. Treating the vines mean and keeping them lean! Made from Nerello Mascelese, some call it the Barolo of the South, others a cross between Pinot & Nebbiolo. I prefer to say it is itself & delicious. The vineyards of Etna have undergone a major renaissance in the last couple of decades. Passipisciaro has been one of the wineries at the forefront. I was blown away the first time I taste

$145

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Passobianco Chardonnay 2019

Chardonnay | Etna, Italy

Straw yellow. Concentrated, deep and alluring white- and citrus-fruit nose with hints of kumquat and papaya. Orange and lemon palate with bitter-almond notes on the finish. Long and a little linear and with plenty of substance. Drink 2021-2026  Walter Speller, Jancis Robinson

$70

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Check out all the Lava Juice!

The post Live Stream with Letizia Patanè of Passopisciaro appeared first on WINE DECODED.

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Challenge 2 – Saving Wine from the Drain!

OK, it’s true there is no such thing as leftover wine! But, if there were, these 2 methods are the best way to save the vino from the drain!

The hot tip: It’s all about ensuring your wine is exposed to the minimum amount of oxygen possible until you’re ready to drink it!

We’ll be doing loads of these including:

The post Live Stream Challenge 2 – Saving Wine from the Drain appeared first on WINE DECODED.

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Challenge 1 – Opening a 50 year old bottle of Red!

You got to choose from 3 wines!

1970 Penfolds St Henri
1970 Penfolds Bin 128 Coonawarra Claret
1971 Calon-Segur Saint-Estephe

The Votes were in and you chose the 1971 Calon-Segur!

Ended up being a fun drink. I finished the bottle. Reminded me in weight, acid profile and development of the 1999 Ar.Pe.Pe Pietrosso from Valtellina. Thirst quenching with loads of complexity and still a sweet core of fruit. Robert Parker’s 65 out of 100 was a bit harsh me thinks. In context it was an elegant Claret, true to the styles made in the 1970’s, not, an oaked up blockbuster, like the wines Parker made his name on!

We showed you how we handle the bottle, prep it to be opened & removed the cork in 1 piece!

We’ll be doing loads of these including:

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