Category Archives: France

Château Rocher-Calon Montagne-Saint-Émilion 2006

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I’m in the teeming metropolis of Morgan Hill, California at the moment on another business trip. This is pretty countryside just a ways south of San José; the Besson vineyard that gave us the inestimable Clos de Gilroy grenache is nearby. Thinking I’d drink locally, I headed to the local Trader Joe’s – the Aldi-owned cheap-gourmet grocery store – and intended to buy a bottle of something local. However, what they had was mostly stuff from Napa and Sonoma, and the French wines were keenly priced by comparison – I didn’t want to put $25 worth of alcohol on an expense report – so I wound up with the second most expensive Bordeaux that they had. (Interestingly, the most expensive French still wine was a $20 Ch.-de-Pape.)How is it? Very good indeed. It looks young, all majestic purple and vibrancy. The nose, such as I can make it out given the, ahem, inadequate stemware at the Courtyard Inn, is very soft, with hints of red berries and spice. The entry of the wine onto the palate is all lightfooted elegance, but before you have a chance to notice it firm-footed tannins come sneaking in, which broadens the wine out into a fairly impressive heft. Rich, ripe primary fruit is offset by tannins and smoky, spicy notes presumably from barrels; this is (let’s be straight here) very impressive given its price, and a good introduction to what decent French claret tastes like.The finish lingers, tannins gradually overcoming the supple fruit, until all that’s left is a memory of a distant wildfire. All in all, probably the best wine I’ve drunk at this price point in some time, and probably what the Wayne Gretzsky meritage from the other night wants to be when it grows up.Château Rocher-Calon
Price: $13
Closure: Cork

Domaine Jomain Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Pucelles 2006

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Impossibly muted at first, with suggestions of seaside mornings, all blinding sun, freshly applied cologne, and the faintest hint of a hangover, this wine is hella classy, and I mean that sincerely. I’m transported to an imagine holiday on the Côte d’Azure – scratch that, more like the Costa Brava, home of slightly too much money, blinged-out sunglasses, and overindulgence with negligible repercussions the morning after.OK, let’s try that again. Relatively light yellow in the glass, the wine is subtle, elegant, distanced. The nose is absolutely gorgeous, with faint traces of suntan oil, a distant lemon grove, freshly-churned butter, and just-baked bread. There’s a faint hint of green, almost vetiver in its earthiness, and yet it’s overshadowed by toasty hazelnut and bracing lemon rind.Smooth and poised on the entry, the wine takes its time to announce its refreshing acidity, sliding louchely into a long, gentle fadeout into a slightly woody butter-toasty finish that is smoother than a con artist working the American tourists clutching their Rick Steves guides outside Notre-Dame on a sunny August afternoon. It’s an absolutely mesmerizing effect, and to replay it all all you need do is take another sip: rich, slightly mineral fruit, gentle framing acidity, subtle spicy oak, and then it all runs out again in slow-motion.If this wine were a song, I’m sure Steely Dan would have written it. This is an absolutely delicious wine and yet there’s something slightly dirty behind it that you can’t quite make out. Absolutely recommended for a summer’s afternoon spent undressed with someone to whom you’re not married.Domaine Jomain
Price: $40
Closure: Cork

Domaine Pierre Amiot et Fils Grand Cru Clos de la Roche 2006

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It was perhaps indulgent of me to crack this over a casual weekday lunch, but I’m worth it. As Grand Cru Burgundy goes, this is definitely on the more affordable side; Burgundy, with its intersection of villages, classified vineyards and myriad producers is nothing if not a fascinating case study in free market economics and pricing.

This wine had been decanted for an hour or so prior to tasting. On the nose, bright notes of cherry, spice, char siu and what seems like aromatic stalkiness. Very expressive, definitely on the higher toned side, and really pretty. I wouldn’t say it knocked me out with complexity or thrust, but there’s a sense of correctness to the aroma that is alluring in its prim and proper poise.

Length is the most striking aspect of the palate; the wine really does go on and on. It’s light bodied, with more cherry fruit and what I can confidently describe as a bloody delicious flavour profile. It reminds me a bit of Yarra Valley Pinot in its beetrootey, rhubarbey vibe, but it is both more elegant and powerful than most. Truly an iron fist in a velvet glove, it disarms with its charming, casual air and proceeds to punch the mouth with detailed, ephemeral lightness. There’s a good deal of very well matched oak too, along with delicious sweet tannins. Again, not terribly complex at this stage, but it drips of good breeding.

One is no doubt to be chastised for opening these sorts of wines so soon after they are vintaged, but I reckon it’s drinking quite superbly now. A featherweight powerhouse.

Domaine Pierre Amiot et Fils
Price: $A120
Closure: Cork

Domaine Dublère Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Sous le Puits 2006

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The best thing I can say about this wine is that, alongside its many sensual charms, it prompted a conversation that ranged from the irony of Burgundian terroir to the application of Bloom’s The Anxiety of Influence to winemaking. Some people’s worst nightmare, no doubt, but Heaven to this particular wine tragic; I love wines that are larger than themselves.

An expressive, assertively complex aroma comprising (amongst other things) grilled almonds and cashews, detailed lees-derived notes, vanilla and an attractive level of sulphur. It’s fresh and savoury, and wears both its fruit character and winemaking very much on its sleeve. That it’s a typically Burgundian, worked style is evident immediately (barrel fermentation, batonnage, malolactic fermentation); thankfully, its technique is sympathetically applied. 
A burst of canned peaches in the mouth, accompanied by a range of mostly-savoury flavours like banana skins, almond meal and spicy oak. The flavours are granular within the fabric of the wine, accompanied by a lively, textural mouthfeel. Flinty acid underlines the palate from start to finish and feels slightly raspy on the tongue, a foil to rounder, creamier textures. The wonderful thing about this sophisticated mix of textures, aside from providing its own interest, is the way it prompts the clear expression of individual flavours: one can both taste and feel almonds, peach syrup, and so on. The effect is especially wonderful on the minerally after palate.  This is a great example of truly integrated structure. 
A really nice Chardonnay, then, smart and delicious in equal measure. The extent of the winemaking poses its own questions that I won’t explore in detail here, except to suggest the archetype of the “winemaker as custodian of terroir” (as I believe my lunch companion phrased it) demands critical thought.

Domaine Dublère
Price: $A90
Closure: Cork

Domaine Jomain Puligny-Montrachet 2006

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As Douglas Coupland recently tweeted, 2009 feels like a party you can’t wait to leave so that you can go off and do something else you’d actually rather be doing.Over the last year, I’ve watched nearly one in four of my friends lose their jobs – and those of us that are still working are watching our incomes erode in the face of increasing costs for virtually everything. (Those of you in Washington state who now have to deal with newly raised prices at state-run alcohol stores? My heart truly goes out to you.)So where’s the silver lining in all of this? Well, quite frankly, I haven’t seen it yet. Although I’m reading about grape harvest gluts in Napa and Marlborough, I haven’t been lucky enough to score any deals on wine. Heck, I’ve bought virtually nothing at all this year: the Scholium Project raised their prices to $100 a bottle, Quilceda Creek is asking $98, and so on. Even if these were the best of economic times, these prices are out of the reach of virtually everyone (save for, I suppose, those of us who work in finance or the health insurance industry). But surely there are huge stocks of unsold wines being marked down to bargain basement clearance prices, right?Alas, no… except for this wine, apparently. This is one of only a few wines I’ve seen so far this year that are being marketed largely on the basis of cost. I paid $27, but the label says “Retail $50!” And did anyone ever pay $50 for this wine? Well, I have no idea… but if I had, I wouldn’t be disappointed.A wonderfully smoky burnt match nose tinged with sea salt, burnt cream, and buttery stewed quince sets things in perspective right away. Yes, the wine is over-bright, somewhat pale, and not much to look at, but oh, what a smell. There’s also a faint hint of night blooming jasmine and other pale flowers; there’s also just a hint of sulphur, but it’s restrained.Cacophonous at first, the wine pulls in half a dozen different directions. At first, there seems to be a strong suggestion of sucrosité, but blink and it’s gone, replaced by a finely textural sensation of slippery elm, buttressed by fine, subtle oaky notes and carried along by the kind of jovial acidity often lacking in California chardonnay. There’s a sort of toasted nut effect here too, no buttery flavor to speak of in particular (although I suspect there’s definitely malo in full effect here, texturally speaking). It all trails off into a lovely, hazy finish that reminds me of dried apples.This is absolutely delicious and good value at $50 – and fantastic at $27. If you can find it, buy it; I’d even hazard a guess that some cellaring would be in order here.Domaine Jomain
Price: $27
Closure: Cork

Dopff Au Moulin Gewürztraminer 2007

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I’ll be tasting a range of wines under $A20 (retail) in the near future. Yes, the bank balance is looking iffy, so what better excuse to explore the value end of the market. Again.

Thick, syrupy aromas of lychees and white flowers. I struggle a bit with Gewürztraminer in terms of how it’s usually described. Lychee and rose petals I get, but these tend to be so obvious and dominant that I struggle to discern much else. In the case of this wine, there’s perhaps a touch of ginger cake baking in the oven, but more a suggestion than anything else. Distinctive and varietal without much complexity. 

In the mouth, good impact and immediacy thanks in part to a fullness of body that exaggerates the fruit flavours (more lychee and ginger cake). I thought at first this was presenting some residual sugar, but I think it’s just sweetly tropical fruit. There’s more and more flavour as the wine moves through the middle palate, again assisted by a round, pumped up mouthfeel that reminds me of a boob job one might have seen on the cover of People magazine. And then, all of a sudden, it deflates (just like many boob jobs in the 80s), flavour falling away precipitously through the after palate. The wine is quite long, but there’s not much there either, more a persistent echo of flavour than anything with substantial drive, with a bit of alcohol burn to boot.
It’s a wine that might alleviate the facelessness of many a Pinot Gris, if only to replace it with a sense of style akin to gaudy Tokyo street fashion. Your call.

Dopff Au Moulin
Price: $A17
Closure: Stelvin

Louis Latour Montagny 1er Cru "La Grande Roche" 2006

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The first impression is of the circus: hot sawdust, popcorn, leather, saddle soap, and a hint of sulfur – hey, you need something to shoot a midget out of a cannon, right? There’s also a light dusting of minerals and chalk; there’s also a distant yeastiness, the smell of bakers just getting out of bed in the morning. Finally, there’s an overtone of pineapple, lychee, and soft white flowers, a soft halo of freshly baked brioche steaming next to freshly-cut fruit – exactly the sort of thing you’d expect at a French beach resort in, say, Tahiti. It’s all impossibly genteel, subtle, and elegant.Surprisingly, the wine turns out to be pretty substantial in the mouth, landing with the thwack of pizza dough slapped against a cool marble slab. Somewhat akin to butterscotch glaze on a Parker role, the wine is big, chewy, and supported by a thin, steely wire of subtle acidity that sets off the fruit to great effect here. The finish is lacy, hazy, lovely; it begs to be drunk outside in the long days of summer, shared with friends.Louis Latour
Price: $16
Closure: Cork

Domaine du Prieuré Savigny-les-Beaune Les Gollardes 2005

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I had to leave this wine overnight as, on opening, it seemed excessively sulphurous, to the point of being undrinkable. It’s better tonight, although there is a hardness that seems reluctant to depart. I’m not enough of a guru to know whether this is a technical fault or a function of fruit, so I’ll just call this wine as I find it.

On the nose, softly fruited with quite luscious plum and strawberry characters. There’s also an edge of minerality and an underlying hardness that speaks to me of woody stalks. It’s actually becoming less expressive as it sits in the glass, although what’s there is interesting in an elusive way. The entry shows similarly contradictory characters. There’s a thread of the same juicy fruit, but it’s almost completely overwhelmed with hard, savoury characters. Things remain thin through the middle palate, with a thrust of bitterness that obscures pretty much everything. There’s a bit of joy on the after palate, with some sweetly floral characters, before an astringent, hard finish.
I’m not really getting a lot from this wine in terms of enjoyment, though I will persist with it through the evening to see where it goes. 

Domaine du Prieuré
Price: $A36.30
Closure: Cork

Régis Minet Pouilly Fumé Vielles Vignes 2007

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After all this chardonnay, it’s kind of awesome to be hit smack in the face with a huge faceful of cat piss. Honest. There’s also a strange emptiness hinting at celery seed and fresh unsalted butter somehow; I know that’s a bit precious but it’s frankly quite difficult to describe what this thing smells like. It almost reminds me of unmilled wheat; there’s a potentiality in the smell that suggests raw materials, not finished product. Turns out the cat piss was only temporary anyhow; on second thought, it’s much more herbal than that. Hrm.Surprisingly broad on entry, this isn’t a wispy-thin, steely, acidic white. Oh, no, not by a long shot. Acids aboud, yeah, but there’s a surprisingly rich, nearly honeyed aspect to the mid-palate that slyly, teasingly turns like a cat that doesn’t want its belly scratched to reveal other aspects of mineral bananas, carbon honey, I again am at a total loss for words here. It’s like a Karo spill in the dried-herbs cabinet: it’s like licking white sage honey off of stony pebbles.Seriously, I don’t know how to describe this wine at all, and that’s a good thing. Every connection it suggests; every experience it conjures is playful and unexpected. It’s all a bit overwhelming and unnerving as I was just looking for a simple sauvignon blanc, but this wine is the opposite of that.Régis Minet
Price: $20
Closure: Cork

Domaine du Meix-Foulot Mercurey 1er Cru Les Saumonts 2002

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First impressions consist of a freshly picked field mushroom tossed on last night’s campfire. Quite a puzzling nose, actually. Pleasantly so, for it’s elusive and smart, like a subtle conversationalist who prefers to hover at the edges of the discussion. I’m trying, a little unsuccessfully, to pick out threads. There’s the aforementioned mushroom and charcoal, but what is most striking after some time in glass is a thrust of minerality that sits right between sour cherry fruit and musk. This wine is making me work and I’m really enjoying it. 

In the mouth, an elaboration of the aroma with some elements filled out. The entry is subtle, consisting more of a sulphur-like prickliness than any sort of substantial flavour. This fans out to a decidedly savoury middle palate. There is fruit of a sort, again in a sour cherry spectrum, yet flavours are so integrated it’s unsatisfying to pick this out as a discrete thread. Rather, there’s a detailed tapestry of elements, all bouncing atop a layer of well textured acid. The whole is light bodied, lacking much in the way of bass notes aside from some vanilla-nougat oak. It tastes marginal, as if ripeness were only just achieved. Raspy tannins rattle along the tongue with increasing presence. Sappy flavours take off on the lifted after palate and persist through a peacock’s tail finish that resonates with attractive flair. 
I like this sort of wine. It never yells yet has so much to say. The way it is building in the glass suggests a happy future. 

Domaine du Meix Foulot
Price: $A41.80
Closure: Cork