Field Blend

2009, La Vendemia Blanc, Famille Darndaud-McKerrow

This complex, idiosyncratic white, our second vintage imported and only the third vintages produced under this label, is from an old vineyard previously owned and exploited by the great legend, Reymond Trollat. Made from a mixed planting, or field blend, of old and somewhat unfashionable white varieties it is thus, not able to be sold as “St. Joseph”, although the vineyard fall well inside the latter AOC’s boundaries. These old vines are situated at St Jean-de-Muzols, (check out this link for a view from the vineyards looking across the Rhone to Hermitage http://www.panoramio.com/photo/2122094 ) across the river from Hermitage, on a sunny south-east site of decomposed granite [similar aspect and geology to Bessards on the Hermitage hill]. In fact this site was part of the Hermitage hill before it was cut off by the Rhone river when it changed course. The ½ ha site is planted with vines over 100yo, including* chasselass, marsanne, rousette [also called altesse], roussanne and even a little ugni blanc.


The grapes are picked by hand, sorted and placed in a cool-room for 24 hours. They are softly pressed and the juice settled before barrels are filled. It’s very simple and traditional, yet effective winemaking. No yeast is added and there is a high ratio of “solids” in the juice. It is co-fermented and aged for 18 months in barrels of 2 and 3 years age and bottled by hand, neither fined nor flitered.

Vignerons Claire Darnaud and her husband Shane McKerrow (winemaker at J L Chave!) have again chosen to show faith and respect to this heirloom vineyard; the 2009 white revels in the culmination of proven ancient vines, time-honored terroir, thoughtful, intelligent and insightful production, and passion.

Made in minuscule quantities (Claire and Shane's largest vintage in 07 tilled the scales at 90 dozen), the 2009 bottling wine shows freshness and vivacity, in fact the acidity seems a little more pronounced than the mellow 2007 which is, perhaps, surprising given the rich, ripe & robust nature of the ’09 St Joseph vintage. Also, those complex sulphides (ethyl mercaptan?) that immediatly jumped out of your glass of 2007 are slightly toned down, though weather is is a winemaking choice or by virtue of sealing under cork instead of cap* im not quite sure.


In other respects, the song, as they say, remains the same; that glowing opulence and a mellow, complex texture that caresses the tongue; evocative patisserie-like aromas of pear danish, vanilla (non-oak derived) and almond croissant and last but not least that pleasing, clean & subtle acidity providing. There is no oak showing and the modest 13.0% alcohol helps to add some richness without fatness.

* The 2009 is bottled under cork. Volumes were well down on the previous shipment and the decision was made to bottle by hand and sealed under cork

Roquefort Corail Rose: Not to be confused with white zinfandel!

There are so many great moment's in this masterpiece, im not sure quite where to begin....N@

"Utterly entrancing" Chablis!

We going crazy for Picq's 2008 wines. Having just landed a second tranche of V.V and 1er Cru, it's just about time to start beating the drum again....come on Spring, where the bloddy hell are you?

2008 CHABLIS

“Bright, pale yellow. Smoky oyster shell, lemon confiture, tangerine, minerals and an almost petrol-like riesling note on the nose. Rich and supple, but with strong acidity giving superb cut to the citrus and mineral flavors. Finishes dry and riesling-like. This would make a great accompaniment for oysters or scallops. “ Stephen Tanzer’s IWC, July 2010

“An exceptionally fresh lemon and orchard fruit nose leads to clean, salty and iodine suffused flavors that possess really lovely intensity on the clean, dry and balanced finish where an attractive touch of minerality arises. This is a lovely wine for its level and it's one to buy by the case for a house white as you can drink it over the next few years.” burghound.com 

2008 CHABLIS VIEILLES VIGNES


“ With its aromas of exotic spices, yellow flowers and citrus peel, plus a buttery note, this reminded me of a pinot gris with some botrytis. Very rich but suave and fine-grained, with exotic flavors of mango and orange peel. Offers compelling sweetness and intensity of fruit leavened by firm acid lift. I'd love to try this with foie gras!” Stephen Tanzer’s IWC, July 2010

“While there is green fruit here too, the nuances are more floral and saline in character with bigger and denser medium-bodied flavors that are quite serious yet delicious on the sappy, persistent and palate staining finish that displays a bit more structure. Again, terrific quality at this level.”

2008 CHABLIS 1ER CRU VAUCOUPIN


“This is an utterly entrancing bottle of Chablis. Fine, crisp aromas of apple and chalk dust lead on to a thrilling mouthful of elegant, juicy minerals. Perfect poise, great, delicate length. Yum.” Max Allen, Gourmet Traveller, August 2010.

“ Exotic honeyed soft citrus fruits, coconut and white chocolate on the nose ("the same nose as the 2009; the same wine," says Picq). Sweet on entry, then lush with orange peel and mineral flavors. The exotic quality carries through to the back end, which is firm, minerally and very long, and more thirst-quenching than the nose would suggest. It's hard to spit this. “ Stephen Tanzer’s IWC, July 2010

“As one would reasonably expect, this is notably more elegant, more complex and certainly more refined with pure and airy lemon and acacia notes complementing the detailed and minerally flavors that possess lovely vibrancy and precision on the detailed and balanced finish. This is quite dry and while it will age, the balance is so good that it could be approached now with pleasure.” burghound.com



2008 CHABLIS 1ER CRU VOSGROS

“ Pure but subdued nose hints at oyster shell, ginger and nutmeg; more classic than the Vaucoupin. Sweet on entry, then tactile and taut in the mid-palate, offering superb energy and cut and a subtle touch of citrus zest. Finishes with a captivating phenolic bitterness like peach skin.” Stephen Tanzer’s IWC, July 2010

“Interestingly, this smelled distinctly of wood yet it never saw any. When I mentioned it, Picq agreed with me, noting that he was equally surprised but recalled that we had noticed the same phenomenon last year in their Dessus la Carrière. As it usually is, this is less elegant and refined than the Vaucoupin though it is more complex with a classic Chablis nose that gives way to bigger, richer and more powerful flavors that possess equally good depth that continues on the mouth coating and beautifully intense finish.” burghound.com 

Holy Schist | 2007 La Vendemia St Joseph

A two-barrel, centurion-vine syrah production; gentle yet edgy and rather exciting!

The nose is unmistakably stem-retentive. It’s pure and smoky with a touch of violet, oil, pine and some olive. It’s decidedly old-school in the best sense; its real wine of the earth material, full of true local authenticity. The structure is sinewy, tight with pure bramble and black raspberry fruit adding the flesh to a fine-boned frame of ripe fruit tannin with the tannin leached from ripe-stems adding a fundamentally complex framework for the fruit and acids to duck and dive. It’s a provocative style of wine that the young duo may struggle to replicate in a cooler vintage. Its nervy, graceful and finishes with excellent clarity, clearly stylistically close to Reymond Trollat's (the vineyards legendary retired owner - see below) traditional expression of syrah.

The Clos St. Joseph vineyard has only 1000 vines. Its old, crusty syrah, planted on the schist and granite in Aubert at St-Jean-de-Muzols. There is only about 8cm of topsoil with hard granite underneath, so with solid rock underfoot, the skinny vines don’t have much wood to show for their century of life. The grapes are hand-picked, and in the traditional way, no de-stemming is carried out. The skins and stems are all left with the wine for 1 month to give richness, flavour and extract. There are no pumps used and the winemaking could not be simpler.

We first met Shane McKerrow working as a “cellar rat” in the cave of probably the worlds greatest shiraz producer, Domaine J-L Chave, who was, at that moment, racking fine Hermitage wine, trying not to spill a precious drop.

He and wife Claire later spoke of their own 100yo white vineyard that used to belong to a legendary vigneron Raymond Trollat [for an in-depth explanation, see John Livingston-Learmonth’s “The Wines of the Northern Rhone”], their tiny “Clos St. Joseph” shiraz vineyard that is even older, and their plans to make natural, essential and “honest” wines using all the knowledge, hard work and experience they could muster.

For lovers of great northern Rhone wines, they have released a pair of 2007 wines that are not only stunning and intellectually stimulating, but are now available in Australia [the entire production of 90 cases!].

Nic@

Smorgasbord

An excellent array of wines floating about my digs this weekend. All very welcome,too, even if my liver disagrees vehemently. I even managed to fit in a local wine for good measure (all four of my friends will be so proud).

Beaujolais featured heavily with an aristocratic Moulin a Vent from Vissoux, 2008, up first. Tasting like a bastard child of a Montille Beaune and Thivin Cote de Brouilly, the 2008 comes across as a hypothetically syncratic blend of the best of two worlds; Beaujolais fun draped over a Cotes du Beaune frame. Well, they do say that opposites attract. The 2007 Chignard Fleurie Vieilles Vignes was a more fun, less serious approached to Cru Beaujolais. Chalk dust tannins framing bubbly, joyous, violet-kissed fruit, this looked even better day 2. Yum. Both wines show, in their respective styles, what the Gamay grape is truly capable of, when handled with respect and are testament to the diversity and regionalism of this once maligned area.

A 2006 St Joseph ‘Offerus’ (of unknown origin, made and bottles for J L Chave Selections.... oo-er) was similarly impressive hitting all the right notes of high-toned mulberry fruit, great spice and tumbling tannins whist avoiding the over-the-top wall-of-fruit characters that characterized many Northern Rhone’s in 06.

Under the all seeing eyes of Douglas Neal and Graham Bonney the rejuvenated Moorabool Estate, (now renamed after the original Paradise IV Vineyard planted in 1848 by Swiss vigneron Jean-Henri Dardel) has been quietly releasing some of Victorias most exciting bottles of recent. The Paradise IV Chardonnay 2009 is another new release that revels in the fastidious viticulture and back to basics approach of this quality partnership. That Neal’s palate is finely tuned toward the Cote du Baune is evident in the structure, its the juicy, yet smoothly elegant glade of fine fruit that steals the show.

Finally a Heart & Soil number; a 2007 Vaudesir Grand Cru from Domaine Louis Moreau. At such a young stage of evolution its a cornucopia of aromas and flavour; of Peach liquor, Argentinean Lemon Verbena, Moroccan cinnamon and Mexican vanilla. Strewth! That said, the structure, the wines crackle and it’s sinewy skeleton, are defiantly French, suggesting this needs at least a few more years for it’s subsumed terroir to find its voice amongst the more boisterous elements currently dominating the wine. Delicious.

Nic@

Etienne Grivot on his 2008's

Wine Funnies

King Of The Mountains

Pinot Noir, 2006
Jacques Puffeney, Arbois, Jura

I opened a bottle of this to wash down my first concerted attempt at the Jura specialty Poulet au vin jaune et aux morels (except without the morels which were notable by their absence from the East Geelong Happy Shopper). Not quite in the same league as Randalls 'Poulet' efforts, though I’m quite happy with my sophmore result.

The wine takes its time to unfurl before revealing it’s bright cherry kirsch bouquet spiked with dried herbs. There’s something mineral or umami/savoury coming to the party too. This is wild, mountain Burgundy. I can’t imagine this being an instant hit in a one-size-fits-all society; it has none of the modern attributes that make a wine instantly appealing to the mob; obvious fruit, sweet oak, alcoholic power and sucrose saturation. With a world of wine at our fingertips we become picky. The wine has to fit our, often-inflexible, notions of good better and best. This is thankfully one of those wines that doesn’t fit in. Perhaps a misunderstood loner that speaks of a time and place on the brink of vinous extinction.

US importer/writer Eric Asimov summed up Puffeney as a creator of “jagged wines in a silky-smooth world.” Well said. Nothing slick is happening here. No consulting oenologists, no pandering to export markets. Puffeney inherited a sliver of land from his father, which he expanded to 7½ acres by earning extra income as a cheesemaker, producing the region’s famous Comte cheese. He hand-harvests all of his vines, including the .6 acre parcel of Pinot farmed to produce this bottling. The wine is fermented in large old oak foudre and then aged in barrel for up to 30 months before bottling. Puffeney does not fine or filter, this, or any of his wines.

The palate, firm and jagged alone, moulds into the chicken. There’s a refreshing cut though the dish creating a mouthful of harmony. It’s a minimalist, idiosyncratic wine, a Jim Jarmuch job; unhurried, lacking clear meaning by focusing on mood and character.

Scorpio Rising

The Premier Cru "Les Cailles" is situated in the South part of the village of Vosne, close to Prémeaux Prissey, surrounded by the "Saint Georges" and the "Porrets" vineyards, with the "Vaucrains" premier cru above.

The vineyard usually produces a wine more accessible, in its early years, that its more esteemed neighbors. That’s not to say its ‘forward’, though these is a generosity of fruit to young Cailles that is not evident in the other Chev bottlings from St George and Vaucrains; it’s often quite plummy and layered with black cherry tones. There is also plenty of game, mushroom/soil notes that are more minerally than either and early on it typically has high tones of violets and blood orange. However, young Cailles is by no means a wine of meager structure; it is a big-boned and sturdy Nuits that just happens to be rather generous with its fruit out of the blocks. This quality tends to ameliorate some of the asperity or ‘adolescent tannins’ that can be found in young Nuits premier crus from this section of the commune. The southern Nuits, Les Cailles included, may have a touch of the maverick, but the robust charms of leather and denim are often no less alluring than the soft elegance of silk and satin.

The vineyards themselves, Les Porrets St.-Georges, Les Cailles and Les St. Georges, are planted on deep brown limestone, on a band of rock and pebbles which continue the marble quarries of Comblanchien to the south. There is often a granular feel about these fine young southern Nuits though, from the top domains, this is balanced by a concomitant measure of complexity and finesse

The 2006, flowing down my trachea, came to my glass via a birthday drink from the Guvnor. It offers an intriguing glimpse of earth-go-glass purity of flavour while its ‘taste-beyond-taste’ has something of the night about it; magnetic, elusive, sexy and determined. Scorpio rising over the gentle hill’s of Nuits St George.

Bouteille Call

A selection of recent local reviews for some of our 'bouteilles'

Bourgogne Blanc, 2007, Domain Fontaine Gagnard, Burgundy.
"The classical chardonnays of France’s burgundy region are totally different to the sunshiny chardonnays to which many Australians are accustomed. Subtlety, texture, length of flavor and balance are very important in these wines, not just ripe fruit character. Fontaine Gagnard is an important Chassagne Montrachet estate in Burgundy’s chardonnay heartland and this 2007 Bourgogne is an excellent introduction to the regional identity.

It offers a complex, honeyed nose of nectarine syrup, citrus, nutty dry oatmeal, and a skillful seasoning of subtle oak. The palate is silky, dry, seamless and long in flavour, with a bracing cut of acidity."

Wine Of The Week, Ralph Kyte Powell, Epicure (The Age) 02/02/2010
(**** First class, a wine of distinction)

La Bastide, Chateau Coupe Roses, 2007, Minervois, Languedoc.
"Chateau Coupe Roses have great respect for the old-vine carignan that prospers on the estates craggy hills. La Bastide is a carignan-grenache blend that fully deserves the epithet ‘honest’. The nose is still muted but in the mouth the wine is ripe and savoury with the flavors of old vine carignan to the fore; earthy black fruits, herbs and dried flowers. It’s not long off the boat and should be in good shape for easy, engaging spring drinking."
Gourmet Traveller Wine, Feb/March 2010.


Cuvee Particuliere, 2008, Pierre De Prunet, Vin de Pays de Mont Baudile.
"The Prunet white is 100 per cent Grenache blanc, a generous, fruity wine that avoids any oiliness. Instead, there is nice roundness, a good lick of acidity, and the taste of lemon, guava, and spring flowers. A lilting wine and a great aperitif."
Gourmet Traveller Wine, Feb/March 2010.

Domaine de L'R, Chino; new agency

Domaine de l'R is a small [5 ha] family estate, located 10 km from Chinon, near Tours in the Central Loire Valley.

These ripe & seductive cabernet franc’s (from old vines) made by the talented, young Frederic Sigonneau, one of the Loire’s most exciting prospects, is a really welcome addition to the portfolio. Both cuvees, Les Cinq Elemnets and Les Folies de Noyer Vert , are from 40-60 year old vines grown on the chalk and sand south of the river; plush and textured suggesting this is the red half of the Loire’s answer to Bordeaux’s Pomerol! Sigonneau is bringing real passion and contemporary thought to his wines, which show little of the historical rusticity of wines from this appellation; we tasted Frederic’s wines again in Melbourne, co-incidentally, alongside one of the Cab Franc superstar producers and the latter paled in comparison (in terms of value and appeal). Organic (awaiting certification).

We have two of L'R's cuvees arriving this April


2007 CHINON “Les 5 Eléments”
(A blend of grapes coming from 5 different vineyards. Age of the vineyard: 50- 65 years old. Low yield, elevage; 100% large vats but 7 months on fine lees)

2007 CHINON “Les Folies du Noyer Vert” $29
(From 45 - 65 years old vines. Low yields,alcoholic fermentation done in large vats with foot "pigeage", malolactique fermentation done in barrels (4 or 5 years old), elevage for 12 months).

N@

Here Today gone to-Moreau

Many thanks to Louis & Anne Moreau for their recent cracking, whistle-stop visit to our fatal shores. Highlights were myriad, not least a great dinner at Luke Mangan's Palace Hotel, a scenic tasting/masterclass @ Spring Street's Siglo and the match of China Doll's Sashimi of Hiramasa Kingfish & Ocean Trout with a 2007 Valmur Grand Cru.

Anne & Louis have asked me to pass on their gratitude and thanks to all those who spared their time, generosity and knowledge to make their visit so rewarding. In short value and typicity were the key to these wines appeal; stylistically the 2007 1er and grand cru's rippled with power and substance, the 2008's had more classic crackle and spit, with the latter 1er crus arriving under stelvin this April.

Chablis, 2008, Domaine Louis Moreau.
“This is a very fresh, rather modern, Chablis that combines traditional regional clues with great purity of chardonnay fruit. The nose has steely, mineral notes along with apple and white peach aromas. Its dry, intense and lively, with real savoury presence that lingers in the mouth. A good introduction to this unique French white wine at a fair price.”
Ralph Kyte-Powell , The Age, Epicure, Tuesday January 19th

Chablis 1er Cru Forneaux, 2007, Domaine Louis Moreau.
“What a blinder. This Chablis is the real McCoy. Chalky mineral and honeysuckle aromas; soft but nervy flavours with stone fruit, as well as mineral nuances. Piercing, balanced, dry and racy – a great & classic Chablis.” 96/100, Huon Hooke, Sydney Morning Herald. 26/01/2010

Nic@

Good drinking...with a conscience!

Many thanks to the those bohemian wine fanatics at Blackheart & Sparrow’s for raising some much needed dough, with a little help from Heart & Soil, for North Melbourne’s super-duper Lort Smith Animal Hospital. The premise was simple enough; for every bottle of J.J Christoffel Urziger Wurzarten Riesling Trocken sold to their punters, Heart & Soil and Blackhearts would donate two bucks to the good fellows at Lort Smith. The wine sold well and we wrote a cheque in three figures (which, at the very least, is better than a poke in the eye with a shitty stick). Thanks to Paul & the team @ Blackhearts.

And now, as if by magic, a bit more shameless self promotion:

Joh. Jos. Christoffel Erben Ürziger Würzgarten Trocken Riesling, 2007, Mosel Valley (Germany). Sold Out

“The Ürziger Würzgarten (or spice-garden) is one of Germany’s most famous vineyards. Its wines are fine and minerally, with a thrilling struck-flint aroma and chalky palate. There are floral and baked-apple aromas, too. In the mouth, it’s dry and nervy, and really grows on you as you sip. It’s a properly ripe trocken style, with relatively high (13 per cent) alcohol. A great fish wine, to drink over the next five or six years. Screw-capped.” Huon Hooke, Gourmet Traveller Wine, Feb/March 2010.