#401 Pairing 3 - Goldie Hawn & La Chapelle

I recently watched a movie starring Goldie Hawn and Burt Reynolds from the early 1980s.  It was terrible.  This movie was supposed to be a romantic comedy starring two of the biggest box office stars of the time and it had the recipe to be great.  But it sucked.  Reynolds was a damp squib, not the man's man that he made his name playing in films like Smokey & The Bandit and Cannonball Run, and the kookie Goldie Hawn character that made the world fall in love with her was replaced by a ballsy, cold hearted character that feared commitment.

It got me thinking about typecasting.  Hugh Grant is the master of the bimbling, well meaning upper-middle class Brit, and if that is the character you have in your movie, you get Grant to play it.  If you need an evil bad guy with a slight psychopathic bent to him, you get Alan Rickman, and in the early eighties, if you want a kookie, girl next door, you hired Goldie Hawn.  Similarly, if you need that character now, you hire her daughter, Kate Hudson, who has taken up that mantle.

Many people have typecast Paul Jaboulet Aine as a Rhone producer that has lost its way in recent years before being bought by the owners of Chateau La Lagune, who have rejuvenated this old house.  But I got to try two older wines from Jaboulet, from when it was firmly in control of the family, and it reminded me that at one time, the Jaboulet family once produced some of the greatest wines from the Rhone, and that their later typecasting as a farcical producer forgets its serious and talented former self.

1994 Paul Jaboulet Aine Hermitage La Chapelle
A rounded nose, lots of full, dark fruit and with a softer, meatier note.  It is very gentle and elegant, but you feel that this wine is a bit soft, a tiny bit rough around the edge.  The palate has a bit of spice up front, with some lovely dark berries and then some leather and dusty spice coming through.  The finish is long, wonderfully clean and balanced, but like the nose is lacking something.  It really sums up the vintage though.  1994 could have been one of the greats, but rains spoiled the chances of that and left you feeling it could have been better.  90pts

1972 Paul Jaboulet Aine Hermitage La Chapelle
Sweet chocolate on the nose, lovely juicy fruit with a little mint coming out of the glass.  A very pretty aroma.  The palate is super - beautiful, simple and elegant, a touch of spice and some slight earthy flavours coming through.  Black pepper comes out on the finish, with a smoky element that I really like.  A beautiful wine displaying the nudge towards a Burgundian style that I expect from old Rhone.  Gorgeous. 97pts

These two wines remind me of the kookie actresses.  The younger version is great, does everything that you want and does it well, but you won't remember the moment you first experienced it.  The older version though, despite its age, still entertains you to a higher level than it's younger self ever will. 

By Peter Wood with No comments

#400 Six Questions with... Emilio Estevez

Emilio Estevez is an actor, film director and writer, best known for starring in The Breakfast Club, St Elmo's Fire (I think the Stakeout films he starred in are great!) and writing and directing films including Bobby and the new film The Way.  In his new film, Estevez directs his father, Martin Sheen, in a story of a man who loses his son in the French Pyrenees and decides to make the Christian pilgrimage known as The Way of St. James.  The film opens on October 13th in the Heartland Film Festival in Indianapolis.

But something that is not well known is Estevez's career making wine, starting when he decided to rip up his 1 acre backyard in Malibu to plant vines in 2005 when making 'Bobby'. 

When buying flowers from a local florist he was asked by the lady working there why he was sunburnt and exhausted.  He told her, and she asked if she could help as she was eager to learn about the wine making process from the ground up.  He said yes, and the lady, Sonja Magdevski, is now his winemaker and, in a Hollywood-esque storyline - they are now engaged.

So, eager to learn more about a man who apparently on a whim started making his own wine, I asked Emilio Estevez six questions...

Who or what got you interested in wine?
Wine is something that comes along when you least expect it and you think "hmmm, this is interesting".  It also becomes challenging.  It allows for exploration and really emphasizes tastes that are new and exciting.  It is quite enticing and nuanced and so from there you can't help but be hooked.  It wasn't necessarily one bottle or one experience, but there are plenty of those memorable moments and glasses along the way.

Aside from your own wines, what do you like to drink?
I am really enjoying various Spanish Grenache bottles right now.  My fiance, Sonja Magdevski, also the winemaker for our wines, is always bringing home some new and interesting wines that I have never heard of. 

Last night we enjoyed a lovely Traminer from Palmina winery in Santa Ynez.  The ideas of seeking power versus finesse in a wine is something we play with  depending on our mood and company.  And, of course, what we are eating.  Or not eating!  So we are always looking for new things we haven't tried, which allows you to appreciate the wines we love on a regular basis.  Our regular list includes plenty of California Central Coast wines.  That is our neighborhood that we support.

What drove you to dig up your garden and plant vines?
The desire to grow something beautiful and useful in my yard besides green grass, which I never used.  I have always wanted to plant a vineyard but never lived in an area that was viable for a vineyard.  The first chance I got I tore up the grass and started digging holes.  It is quite rewarding working with the soil, earth and sunlight to create something to share with loved ones.

What are your future plans for Casa Dumetz?
Casa Dumetz is growing steadily at a sustainable pace.  We don't want to create a wine corporation that we no longer can be hands on with.  That is the beauty of what we do.  Our wines, from grape to bottle enclosure, is an expression and extension of ourselves and our personalities.  That is what makes it special.  So we have tripled production this  year from last year which is a big jump for us with 650 cases, yet still tiny compared to so many other wineries. 

Describe yourself in three words?
Passionate, hardworking, genuine.

Name three people, real or fictional, living or dead that would be guests at your dream dinner party, and what would you be drinking?
I am not trying to evade the questions, but my dream dinner party happens on a regular basis with my fiance and close friends.   We gather weekly to break bread, eat from the garden and enjoy a nice glass.  It is always very informal, simple and welcoming to anyone who is around the join us.  That is our community.  This ideal is something I try and live as often as possible in the fleeting moments we get to relax amidst the fast paced world we live in. 




Links
Casa Dumetz Website
The Way - a movie by Emilio Estevez 

Twitter
@CasaDumetz
@EMILIOTHEWAY 
@TheWayTheMovie

Facebook
Casa Dumetz
Emilio Estevez

By Peter Wood with No comments

#399 Worst post EVER.....

A couple of months or so ago, Rob McIntosh of the Wine Conversation sent out a call to wine bloggers to promote each other, link to one another and comment more on other people's wine blogs.  The reason for his call to arms was that wine has slumped behind beer bloggers in ratings, and he identified, correctly, that it is due to the online community of wine being an isolated one.  Wine is a social beverage.  There is too much in a bottle for us to drink on our own and it is expensive, so we tend to enjoy our preferred drink with company.  Bottled beer, on the other hand, is relatively cheap and you can buy a bottle and drink it on your own every night and not be considered an alcoholic.
This makes beer the obvious drink of choice for the lonely, single, internet geeks out there who spend their entire evening on their laptop commenting on blogs, writing about every thing they do on Twitter and then, when it is late at night, looking at images of Carrie Fisher in Return of the Jedi.  Think Comic-book guy in The Simpsons.  He could be a beer blogger.

But back to the point in hand.  Rob's comments made me think that maybe my posts should include comment on other people's writing and today I find myself jumping to the defence of the most prolific wine blogger, the now retired, Gary Vaynerchuk. 

I read an article by Steve Heimoff ( http://www.steveheimoff.com/ ) where he appears to gloat about the fact that he has said "for years that Gary Vaynerchuk wouldn't do wine videos forever - only as long as it took him to launch something else that presumably pays more money".  That there was a "one trick pony" aspect to him and that he was like a rock band that has a one hit wonder and then disappears forever.

What Heimoff forgets is that Gary Vaynerchuk is a businessman, he just happens to have made his name in the wine trade.  In his last episode of Daily Grape he says he is an entrepreneur first and a wine lover second.  Similarly, in the very first episode of Wine Library TV, he explains the reasons behind doing a daily video blog on wine was to communicate more with his customers at his family wine shop and give added value - these are words of a businessman, not a wine critic.

And businessmen move onwards when one business has served its purpose.  It is why Richard Branson is known as the owner of an airline and not as a record salesman in London.  By his own admission, Vaynerchuk started off selling baseball cards, and made his name as a wine critic, but his purpose of becoming a critic was to sell wine from his family store.  I am sure that, like Branson, he will go on into other ventures and have successes and failures, but he will keep doing what he loves and that is doing business, not commenting on wine.

Heimoff's comments of one hit wonder or one trick pony have a negative connotation.  Take Steve Jobs, all he has ever done is make computer stuff - he's a one trick pony and has done pretty well.  Sure Vaynerchuk's style isn't something everyone will like (neither are Jobs' products) but he was tasting wine on a video blog, there isn't much you can do to vary this, you just have to do it to the best of your ability.  I would also draw attention to the fact that Jimi Hendrix was technically a one hit wonder, yet his legacy has lived on decades past his departure, as I am sure Vaynerchuk's will not only in the wine world but in the social media world as well.

This piece by Steve Heimoff reads as though he is a bit bitter that this young wine merchant from New Jersey has got the recognition he has searched 30 years for and he is so glad GV has gone, he is saying "I told you he would ditch you, now come back to me - a real wine enthusiast." and if he intended the article to read this way, this attitude is counter productive.

If my tongue in cheek stereotype of a beer blogger was accurate in the real world, then wine bloggers are the comic book store guy in the online community, and both Steve Heimoff and I are as guilty as the next blogger.  We live in our own isolated internet world, writing about what we think and ignoring anyone else, and we tend to comment only when we are critical, not complimentary - exactly what I am doing now!  Sure, we might have a family and a life outside us, but online we are on our own.  Vaynerchuk tried to construct an online community focused on wine, and he was successful , but maybe the wine world wasn't ready for him yet.  Gary put in the hours, replying to tweets, answering his critics and passionately promoting wine internationally, even when wine was (by his own admission) his second professional passion. 

The only people who should be criticised are the people who are professionally passionate about wine first, as it took a businessman, not a wine communicator, to show us all what we were doing wrong in communicating our message.  We  need to open our eyes to each other's content, point out the positive, debate the negative and simply communicate.  I am glad I happened upon the twitter conversation between Vaynerchuk and Heimoff, as I'd never heard of the latter and have been introduced to a wine communicator, who I suspect, I might have a lot of differing opinions with.  He isn't right or wrong, he just has a different opinion to me.  Hopefully that will start an online communication between two wine blogs and maybe that will expand my readers and his reader's palate for wine writing, and expanding your palate is what Vaynerchuk encouraged us to do for over a thousand episodes.

Links
Wine Conversation
Daily Grape
Wine Library TV
Steve Heimoff

By Peter Wood with 4 comments

#398 Gary V hangs up his corkscrew

It feels a bit like an obituary, which it shouldn't, but today a major thing happened in internet wine reviews.  Gary Vaynerchuk, who pioneered wine video blogging, has retired after 1089 episodes of Wine Library TV and Daily Grape.

I have enjoyed sharing five and a half years of his life, watching him taste wines that (generally) I never had a chance of trying as they aren't available in the UK, and sharing his passion and enthusiasm for everything wine related.  He has done things that no critic has ever done before, and his signing off phrase has become famous amongst wine lovers all over the world.

I doubt that he will be off the radar for long, no doubt having something else up his sleeve to raise enough money to buy the New York Jets, but he is no longer a video wine blogger. 

He has always said that "with a little bit of me, we continue to change the wine world." but he does himself a disservice.  He changed it a lot and the wine world is a little less interesting and (sadly) a little quieter for his retirement.

Above is my favourite episode. 

Thanks Gary

By Peter Wood with No comments

#397 Pairing 2 - Fontanafredda Barolo

Old Barolo isn't something that crosses my path very often, but whenever it has, it has never failed to amaze me.  My previous experiences have tended to revolve around Pio Cesare, but here I managed to try two versions from Fontanafredda.

I've never really thought of Fontanafredda as anything but an entry level producer of Barolo, with their high end wines like La Rosa being very good indeed.  But what amazed me here wasn't that the 1961 had held on and was still a lovely wine, but it was how good the 2006 vintage was.

1961 Fontanafredda Barolo
Sweet cherry with a little plasticine on the nose, with a touch of smoke as well.  There are some dried cherries and floral elements coming off and a bit of dried tomato.  The palate has a lovely dried fruit flavour, some more smoke and then a good dose of tannin - that was a surprise.  Soft vegetal notes round off this wine with more dried berries. 90pts

2006 Fontanafredda Barolo
Lush cherry and cassis fruit with a note of Fluff and mint.  Very pretty with slightly grippy tannin, yet a soft, elegant palate with coffee bean, tobacco and sour cherries.  Add in a dose of cocoa powder, a little spice and some prunes on the back end and you have a really outstanding bottle of wine.  92pts

Quality comes through on both these wines.  I'd expected the younger wine to be nothing like the older, suspecting that the '61 would be more like Fontanafredda's higher priced wines, but I was wrong.  Both of these wines show a lineage with one another that you realy notice, and for £25, the 2006 Barolo is one of the steals of the wine world.

By Peter Wood with No comments

#396 Pairing 1 - Chateau Ducru Beaucaillou

One week - four pairings of wine spanning, at the very least, seven years, and all wines that I have been very fond of in the past.  Hermitage La Chapelle from Paul Jaboulet Aine is the only good wine from my birth year of 1978, and I have been trying to figure out a way to try that wine for a decade now, but it is far too expensive.  Fontanafredda Barolo has always been a great entry level Barolo and Graham's is my favourite Port house.  But first, my favourite bordeaux producer, two vintages of Chateau Ducru Beaucaillou.

Firstly, the 1970 Ducru Beaucaillou, is a wine that I have tried before and love it. This bottle had a rich, rounded aroma, some muted cassis and cherry.  There is a bit of mint to it, some semi dried berries and a lovely menthol aromas coming through.  The palate has a sweet, earth - potting compost almost - with some cherry and some leather flavours.  A long finish with savoury leather flavours and a vegetal finish.  This is proper Ducru, and delicious, but not as good as I remembered it.  92pts

The 1995 Ducru Beaucaillou had rich, sweetened fruit, a lot of dark cassis and soft bramble aromas.  There is an earthy element to it too, very dark with a deep liquorice and cinnamon stick flavour.  There is a touch of aniseed at first followed by chocolate, bramble and a little dark peppery flavour.  It is a nice wine, but just lacks the charm and the rustic elegance of 1970.   88pts

Both wines are good, but I wasn't blown away by them.  The 1995 lacks something, it is not really what you want from this St Julien producer and is a bit too big, but the 1970 is very good, just not brilliant.

Next - Fontanafredda Barolo

By Peter Wood with No comments

#395 Being Irish helps - but not in wine

I went to America years a number of years ago.  It was my first time out of the UK, and I hadn't a clue what I was doing.  I rocked up at the border control in Seattle, was greeted by a few heavily armed guards, quite an imposing sight for a chap who was used to just seeing British bobbies with their truncheons.  Beyond them lay the passport control, and a man with Latin American heritage sitting in a booth.

Now I was going to see a friend and didn't know anything - their address, land line phone number - nothing.  I didn't know I needed to fill out a form saying where I was planning on going.  I wasn't even going to Seattle, I was flying elsewhere, so I approached the booth with nothing but my fresh passport and a slightly disheveled jacket under my arm.

This was post 9/11, and America was deep in the middle of the Bush administration and border controls were tighter than... well, a tight thing.  I get to this booth and the gentleman behind asks me the usual questions - 'what is the purpose of my visit', 'where have I come from' and so forth.  He then asks me for the address of where I was staying.  I hadn't a clue, I was due to be met at the airport and so there was no need for me to have an address.  "I'm afraid we have a problem then" said the border person.  Images of being led off to a room and strip searched, followed by a swift trip to Guantanamo Bay entered my head.  That was until the man brandishing my passport, a man with his origins firmly in central America, said "oh, you were born in Ireland?"

I replied in the positive, "Oh I love the Irish.  I feel as though I am Irish.  We'll just say you are staying at the Seattle Holiday Inn" he continued as he stamped my passport, and that was me, in America.  I didn't tell him that I left the country when I was six months old and had never been back, nor did I tell him that I have not a drop of Irish blood in my veins and that the nearest I had ever been to embracing the Irish heritage he so dearly loved was an occasional pint of Guinness and listening to Terry Wogan.  I realised that having "Northern Ireland" on my passport was the key to many an American heart, and had also resulted in me avoiding being probed in case I had ingested a bag of cocaine.  There are perks to being an Irishman.

And I think this is why we see so many winemakers falling back on their roots in Ireland and Scotland.  The fact that these nations have absolutely no wine making history is irrelevant, if a winemaker's great auntie Mary came from Cork or Peebles, they will drag up some mystical native story to name their wines after, thinking it will give them a unique selling point.  I came across three such wines a few days ago, named after some Irish folklore, and I wish they had put more time into the wine than into the rubbish they spout about their wines.

Take for instance the 2008 Setanta Emer Chardonnay from the Adelaide Hills.  Apparently, Emer is the most intelligent and beautiful woman in the whole of Ireland, the daughter of Forgall Manach, who 'possessed the qualities of beauty, sweet voice, gentle speech, wisdom and chastity...'.  Sad really that the wine doesn't follow the character traits of the person.  It had a lot of oak up front, more of a big rugged bruiser than beauty.  There are some sweet elements on the palate, a bit of papaya and mango, but then you get a kick of alcohol on the finish, mixed with weak fruit and a bitter element.  A big pass.  82pts £19.49

The next wine, the 2007 Setanta Cuchulain Shiraz is apparently about a dog.  Setanta, a fella in Ireland, killed a guard dog of King Conchubar and, having miffed the king, pledged that he would protect the king until a new mutt had been brought home from the pound.  The funky named Cathbar the Druid, named Setanta "Cuchulain" or the 'hound of Culain'.  The relevance to the wine is probably never going to become apparent, so let me tell you what it tasted like.   Sweet and sour cherry with a little bit of milk chocolate and pepper coming off the nose.  There is sweet menthol, some mint aromas too and it is quite punchy.  The palate is surprisingly soft, not at all jammy, with some subtle, slightly dried fruit - almost pomegranate - flavour.  There is a spice too, and with some dusty notes throughout, it is almost as though someone has emptied a spice rack on my tongue.  86pts £20.49

Finally,  the 2007 Setanta Black Sanglain Cabernet Sauvignon is about a horse that emerged from the Black Lake of Sanglain and dragged the body of Setanta back to the lake which then proceeded to boil.  Delightful really, person soup.....


Anyway the wine has sweet jammy fruit mixed with a little bit of Cabernet vegetation.  Semi dried cherries, a bit of glace cherry too, and then a touch of Bounty bar.  An touch sweet on the palate, but with some dusty fruit, a bit of cocoa powder and some bark flavours.  The finish has an alcohol spice, but it is more than calmed by the rich, dense fruit.  A little bit of cigar tobacco on the finish.  Aside from the slightly firm tannin, I like this wine, but it is in the same way as I like Pork Pie and Mushy peas.  You know it isn't good, but you can't help being fond of it.  90pts £20.49

I really wish people wouldn't use folklore to sell their wine.  There is nothing worse than some story about a chicken running up a hill and then being made into soup that fed three thousand people.  Setanta aren't the only company doing it, d'Arenberg do it as do many many others.  Be proud of your heritage, by all means, but don't put it on your labels as it does you no favours.  These wines range from poor to good, but what will stick in my mind is not the quality of the Cabernet, or the poor performance of the Chardonnay, but the stories from their websites that are just silly and have no place (in my opinion) on a wine bottle.  Having said that, if they had named one of their wines "Cathbar the Druid", I might buy that.


Setanta Website

By Peter Wood with No comments

#394 Being honest with a friend

There are four brands within Tramontane wines.  Firstly, Coume del Mas, established by the Gard family in 2001, and these wines have already established themselves as some of the finest in the Roussillon.  Then there is Mas Christine, an estate wine that overlooks the town of Collioure, on the southern edge of the Cotes du Roussillon appelation.  Next is Tramontane wines, the negociant arm of the company, and finally Consolation, the strange and wonderful playthings of the company owners and winemakers, Phillippe Gard and Andy Cook.

Now whenever I have tasted wines from Tramontane before, I have always admitted that I know one of the people who makes the wine, but, if I'm honest, I don't really feel the need to.  I've tasted wines many times with Andy, and he, like me, will be honest about what he is tasting.  If it is terrible, he would say so, and if it is great, he would heap praise on them.  So, if these wines are rubbish, I'll say so and then have an awkward chat with him in a weeks time when he is visiting with his family.  The thing is, they aren't rubbish.  In fact, they are rather good.

2009 Tramontane Chardonnay
Bright fresh fruit with a touch of lemon curd.  A lot of light herbs with some more lemon fruit with some floral flavours coming out.  There is a sandstone meets chalk element coming through too. 90pts

2009 Tramontane Grenache Gris
Soft peachy aromas with a really tasty creamy element to it.  There is a tea like element to this wine, some soft creamy flavours mixed with a bright minerality element to it.  A lovely wine. 90pts

2010 Mas Cristine Blanc
Marsanne Roussanne Macabeu Grenache Gris & Carignane Blanc
Lovely fresh citrus meets clay aroma with a soft sweet fruit notes coming through - lychee almost.  There is an initial sweetness and then some savoury Marsanne flavours come out with some peach and a touch of white pepper and melon pith on the finish.  Gorgeous.  92pts

2010 Consolation Filles de Mai Macabeau
A simple, bright fruit with some gentle grapey or yellow peach skin aroma to this.  There is a beautifully soft palate with some slightly oxidised flavours to it.  A little tannin comes through with some spice and a bright underripe fruit.  A lovely wine. 90pts

2010 Coume del Mas Folio Blanc
Bright lemony aromas with some herbs and a little bit of bright fruit.  A nice, slightly oily fruit driven palate that leads onto a creamy, slightly bitter pithy fruit flavour with some creamy textures and a long finish. 89pts

2009 Tramontane Grenache
Big, spicy, lots of chunky leathery aromas with cassis, cassis leaf and a chunk of dark raspberry.  There is a big dark powerful aroma with some gutsy, spicy fruit.  There is a really tasty liquorice, aniseed and leather flavour coming to it.  Gorgeous.  90pts

2009 Tramontane Cotes de Rousillon
Bright, fresh, just a bit of sweet, gummy bear aroma coming off.  There is a strawberry and cherry flavour coming off with some bright, simple fruit. The palate is light with a touch of spice and leaf coming off.  There are floral notes to it, a touch of dark, leathery liquorice, and some spice coming through.  A really beautiful wine.  94pts

2008 Consolation Dog Strangler Mourvedre
Big, sweet, concentrated fruit with a lot of cherry, bramble, some spice and a bit of beef jerky.  There is a darkness, some earthy elements coming through with some spice and blueberries.  Powerful, with lots of dark silky tannin and a sweet note.  This is a stonker of a wine, lots of power, yet with a grace and elegance too.  95pts

2008 Coume del Mas Quadratur
Perfumy violets with some really gentle, stoney aromas.  There is a lot of plum, some subtle creamy spice coming off with a lovely dark berry flavour.  Quite tight, but with a leathery, tannic grip that keeps things going.  93pts

2008 Consolation Armistice
A delightful bright fresh aroma of cherry, raspberry, a little bit of fig and plum coming through too.  There is a gorgeous bright fruit, some cherry, lots of honey and with some very clean, peach skin coming through.  Some blood oranges comes through.  90pts

1996 Consolation Antic Rivesaltes
Lots of honey, bright citrussy and raisined aromas.  A salty note comes off the palate, a nutty, caramelised cashew flavour too.  Some really tasty bright, spiced toffee with spice and almonds.  Seriously lovely, with a long, salted caramel, grapefruit and lemon skin flavour.  94pts

2008 Consolation Coume del Mas Banyuls
A lot of honey coated brambles with a lot of cherry jam and a little bit of chocolate.  Lots of grape sweetness with a very well balanced, slightly leathery aroma, some cinnamon chocolate, a little dusty spice and with some honey notes coming through.  A lovely balance with super spice on the finish. 94pts

Tramontane Website
Twitter @tramontanewines

By Peter Wood with No comments

#393 2007 Chardonnays USA vs Oz vs France

Three 2007 Chardonnays, one from Burgundy, one from Australia and one from America, and all so good I rated them over 95 points.  That was a good night! 

Firstly, a known quantity, the wine that has had the title "Greatest Chardonnay in the world" bestowed upon it.  The 2007 Cullen Kevin John Chardonnay had aromas of rich, toasty oak and with some mango and pineapple coming right out of the glass. Very bright lots of herbs and lemon coming off.  The palate is full, some very noticable oak, tinned cooked pineapple with some pork fat elements coming through.  Then lemon thyme and chalk on the finish.  A really nice, well balanced, definitely noticeable Australian, but very refined, Chardonnay. 95pts (£50)

Next up was a wine I've been looking forward to trying for ages.  I've never had Chateau Montelena before, and wondered if the 2007 that I had been given held up to the hype.  Pleasingly it did.  Bright, fresh herbs and lemon on the nose, followed by some lemon curd, some dirty citrus and a bit of tobacco.  There is a lot of tropical fruit coming off, but it is restrained with sweet cashews and a little fat.  There is a bit of alcohol off the front end of the palate, some pithy fruit, a touch of fat half way through and then some pineapple with a little bit of pencil lead.  Very clean, some savoury graphite notes comes through and just a touch of melon skin on the finish. Very clean and very well made, very Burgundian in style, but still showing its origins.  Lovely.  96 pts  (Not available in UK)

But the best wine?  A 2007 Chablis Grand Cru Valmur from Jean-Claude Bessin.
Lovely, bright, chalk and cream elements on the nose.  There are round mango and pineapple aroma with some oriental spice coming off.  Beautiful balance, some pepper and a rich mango, melon pith and honey flavour coming off. Stone and then some warm pepper and a little bit of apple on the finish. This wine is a masterpiece, hard to pull it to pieces and get the flavours out, such is its balance and completeness.  This is an experience to savour, not just a series of flavours.  97pts (£35)

So there you have it.  The best chardonnay in the world was the worst (though that is like saying Cindy Crawford's mole makes her ugly), and the cheapest is the best. 

By Peter Wood with No comments

#392 The Sniffing Note - Glenfiddich 1937

I've been away for a week due to a duff laptop.  I do have an iPad, but I hate typing on it, so decided to give myself a week off from writing and sort out a few things in my life.  But I didn't stop tasting, I tried some great American wine, some Vintage Port that wasn't in tip top condition, and this little gem.

As part of my general sorting out, I went through a bag of old corks that I'd kept, and found this 1ml sample of 1937 Glenfiddich Rare Collection.  This whisky was the rarest Glenfiddich ever, a 64 year old malt, bottled in 2001, and was the oldest bottle of whisky at the time of release.  The Whisky Exchange is advertising a bottle of this, one of only sixty one produced, at over £50,000, so I just had to open it and see what it was like.

The sample was too small to do a full tasting, so most of my notes are based around what I smelled, and boy, was it impressive.

A lot of rich, honey and caramel aromas, some dried heather and a little bit of peat smoke coming through.  Maple syrup, vanilla, and then some malty sweet aromas come next.  Then there is some orange, a little bit of salt comes off with a tiny amount of baked sponge cake.  Hay emerges next as well with a little bit of perfume. There is bonfire toffee, standing out from all the other aromas for a moment.  It is strange how this whisky is very old, yet has a bright freshness to it and it is simply sublime.  The palate, for what I could determine from a tiny amount,  has some dry toast, a bit of charcoal and then some dried orange skin coming through, there is a touch of the spice coming off too.  I would love to one day be able to explore this malt further, but I know that will never happen.
98 points, for the nose alone.

By Peter Wood with No comments

#391 Six Questions with... Maximilian Riedel

There are many glass manufacturers in the world, but one stands out form all the others, and that company is Riedel.  This family company has been a manufacturer of luxury glass goods since Johann Christoph Riedel went all over Europe, trading in glass but it was Claus Josef Riedel, the ninth generation, discovered that wine tasted differently depending what sort of glass it was in.

Taking the company into the future is the 11th generation.  Joining the company at the age of 20, Maximilian Riedel has expanded the company into new markets, conceived the Restaurant series of glassware for the on trade, and the informal 'O' series of stemless wine glasses, that became the fastest selling series in Riedel's history.  Now CEO of Riedel Crystal of America, I asked him six questions.

Describe yourself in three words.
Particular, detail-oriented and creative

If you were not in the wine glass trade, what would you like to do for a living?
I would like to be a wine-maker

What is the greatest wine you have ever tried?
Any wine shared with my family

When you are at home, what wines do you like to drink on a regular basis?
Champagne and Pinot Noir, both chilled, and both from the same glass.

What is the biggest challenge you have ever faced?
I have yet to find it!

Name three people, real or fictional, living or dead, that would be guests at your dream dinner party, and what would you be drinking?
Mozart, Michael Schumacher and Gianni Versace.  We would start with 2007 Emmerich Knoll Gruner Veltliner, followed by some Krug Champagne, Romanee-Conti Pinot Noir, Kistler Chardonnay and ending with a Chateay d'Yquem from the 19th century.

Links
Riedel Glassware

By Peter Wood with No comments

#390 Montepulciano d'Abruzzo - 3 for the price of 1

So, two bottles of wine.  One is seven quid and the other is three times as much.  One is made by a big famous producer and the other is made by a Formula 1 driver.  One looks like a cheap wine and the other looks very swish in a heavy bottle. The only thing that they have in common is the fact that they are both Montepulciano d'Abruzzos, so what do they taste like?

2009 Umani Ronchi Podere Montepulciano d'Abruzzo
Bright ripe cherries, a little crisp red apple skin coming off and then some slightly meat fat aromas too.  Very clean and lively - this is a simple, fun wine.  The palate is again fresh and clean with some crunchy raspberries and blueberries, lots of under ripe cherries and just a touch of aniseed.  There is more spice on the back end, almost a nudge of honey sweetness as well, and then a dry, leathery texture.  Soft, velvety tannins and a very long lasting, warmed berry compote finish.  Really quite nice.  90pts

2004 Podere Castorani Montepulciano d'Abruzzo
A lot of big, sweet, port like aromas.  Chocolate, brambles, toffee and then some minty sweetness mixed with balsamic vinegar - it is balsamic mint sauce.  There is a little tobacco coming off and a touch of raspberry compote.  The palate follows on where the nose left off.  Slightly less sweetness with some spice coming to the fore.  There is that lovely baked fruit, dry leather and cherry flavour, with lots of spice, but it has a touch of aggressive alcohol.  This calms down, but it stays warm all the way to the end.  The finish is nice, dry with a dar k, savoury, earthy flavour and a little cherry flavour on the back end with cocoa.  89pts

I'd go with the cheapy.  It is very tasty, light fun wine that tastes really nice.  Jarno Trulli's more expensive wine is very good too, but it doesn't make you want to polish off a bottle with your friends and start another one - it is too serious, so instead of buying one Podere Castorani, buy three of the Umani Ronchi wines instead.

By Peter Wood with No comments

#389 Attention to detail

I recently received a complaint saying that my last blog post, about Vin Santo.  It said;

Dear The Tasting Note.  I wish to pass comment that your last blog post, "When the magic has gone", did not indicate that its content was anything other than a report on the Hungarian Grand Prix.  I felt that most of the article was dedicated to the career of Michael Schumacher and gave no indication that it would eventually become about Vin Santo.  Please, for those of us who are not interested in motor racing, could you stick to the facts and write about your experience of wine and not have some silly link to a sport I don't care about.  Yours sincerely....

I thought that this being a wine blog would be enough to indicate that wine would be coming the reader's way at some point during the article, but never let it be said that I shy away at the face of criticism, here is my factual report on four wines from Bordeaux.

The first wine was the 2005 Chateau Labadie from the Medoc.  A Cru Bourgeois, this wine has a strange bottle.  Although this 1.290kg product is in a traditional bordeaux style bottle, it has an almost oily look to the bottle and a slightly grippy texture - almost non slip.  The label itself is proper old school Bordeaux, nice and cluttered with lots of swirly writing, gold trim around the edge, proving that it is a luxury product and it has a picture of the chateau, that looks like a two up two down building.  The cork is fine, but has a lot of little notches on it.  As is the norm with French wine, there is no barcode on the label, but it does have the picture that bans pregnant women from drinking it, just above the alcohol level, which is 13.5%. £12

The 2005 Chateau du Pavillon Haut-Gros-Bonnet, from Canon-Fronsac, is a slightly heavier bottle, which shows that it is a quality wine, tipping the scales at 1.370kg.  This bottle doesn't have the oily sheen of the Labadie, and the label is much less cluttered.  There is the gold, red and black colouring on a white label, but it looks a lot more neat - without going down this new minimalist route that a lot of Chateaux are doing.  They proudly proclaim in big, red writing that it is bottled at the Chateau (they appear not to have noticed that everyone bottles at the Chateau now and so only put it in tiny writing on their bottles), and they have a minimalist line drawing of their Chateau, which appears to have a wigwam outside.  This wine is 14.5% alcohol, and I assume that because of the lack of the sign banning pregnant ladies, that someone with a bun in the oven can drink as much of this as they like.  What impressed me the most though, was the quality of the cork.  Beautifully smooth, with very few imperfections, and it reminds me of a cork from a wine far more expensive.  £13

The third wine I tried was the 2004 Chateau de Lamarque.  This Grand Vin de Bordeaux is from the Haut-Medoc and everything about it screams class.  Weighing 1.3kg, this 13% wine bans women from drinking it, like the Labadie, but that is where similarities end.  Instead of red, black and gold, the Lamarque has BLUE, black and gold, with an intricate drawing of the grand, fortress like Chateau.  There are two shields on the bottle, resplendent in blue, silver and gold, and there is some ornate gold swirly bits around the name of the wine that is very posh.  I'm also pleased that this wine, whilst staying traditional in it's cluttered label and old world appearance, doesn't go for swirly writing too much, favouring having "Chateau de Lamarque" in block capitals.  This cork is the ugliest of the lot, with lots and lots of bobbly bits.  £16

Finally, 2004 La Fleur de Bouard, a Lalande de Pomerol, is anything but traditional.  Owned by Hubert de Bouard de Laforest (co-owner of Chateau Angelus) since 1998, this wine has a modern looking label, with a quill pen like font on parchment paper.  There is the obligatory gold crest, but some grey and (amazingly) a back label with a barcode.  Upon further reading, I realise this is because it was supposed to be shipped to America, where they obviously require these things.  It has the surgeon general warning that drinking alcohol when pregnant is a bad idea because it will result in birth defects, and that you shouldn't drink alcohol and then drive a car or operate machinery.  I've never had the inclination to have a glass of claret when operating a pneumatic drill, but it is good to know that I shouldn't do it should that urge overcome me.  The wine is 13.5% alcohol, and is a relative lightweight, coming in at the same weight as the Chateau Labadie.  £22

There we go.  I hope that this is a factual and precise article on four wines from Bordeaux that I tasted.  If you are interested in knowing what the wines tasted like, click on the links below.

2005 Chateau Labadie
2005 Chateau du Pavillon
2004 Chateau de Lamarque
2004 La Fleur de Bouard

By Peter Wood with No comments