I’m in the mood for a bit of niggle, and why not? It might be a combination of barometric pressure (electrical storm in Sydney tonight) and hayfever (I’ve been sneezing my head off for a week). But in the wine world, what irritates me is a lack of experimentation by many people in positions of buying authority – the people who decide what will be stocked in the bottle shops and on the wine lists of your favourite restaurants.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had a lot of success and am tremendously grateful for the support I have had over the past 2½ years, with many of Australia’s leading restaurants buying the wines I have chosen and imported.
Marque, Aria, Quay, Tetsuya’s, Rockpool Bar & Grill, Vue de Monde, Ortiga, Fins, Glass, Fino, Bouchard, Must Wine Bar, Bentley Bar & Grill … you can find our wines in all of these fine establishments and many more.
But looking at other wine lists, as I am compulsively and obsessively inclined to do, I note a mundane repetition of certain brands that I believe just don’t cut it any more, if they ever did.
I suspect -- and have been told by more than one sommelier -- that some people buy those wines “because we always have”. Perhaps they don’t explore further to realise there is a greater choice out there these days, often better quality and often less expensive. Perhaps they just can’t be bothered looking at new products. Or dealing with more suppliers. Or risking their bonuses, incentives, overseas trips with the major importers … there must be an explanation for it.
From what I can tell it extends from German Riesling to white Burgundy to red Burgundy to Champagne, and of course these are the regions I love and focus on with my imports portfolio.
Much to my relief there is a wave of young guns out there and they are open-minded, tasting everything they can get their lips on. And then they’re buying those wines for their tiny wine bars, their enotecas, their laneway establishments, even their mainstream restaurants looking for an edge. And it seems to be these people whose businesses are booming, who are the talk of the town. It also seems that Sydney is doing it better than Melbourne, which appears to be a bastion of vinous conservatism.
Rather than denigrating any producers – because I’m sure they’re all doing their best – I would ask you, my very limited mailing list, to keep your mind open when new products come along. Maybe you haven’t heard of the producer, but who’s to say their wines can’t be great if you and I think they are? Why shouldn’t we enjoy the fruits of people who labour away out of the spotlight, away from the beaten track that Robert Parker, Jancis Robinson, David Schildknecht, Stephen Tanzer or John Gilman tread?
The beauty of the vast Eurocentric Wine Imports portfolio is that you are getting the world brought to you: the best wines I have sourced so far, trucked, shipped and stored in temperature-controlled conditions, and available to you in whatever quantities you like. It’s up to you when, where and how. You can buy direct or you can buy through your favourite retailer or restaurant, it doesn’t matter to me, but I hope you – and I – can keep an open mind whenever a wine comes along that we might not know.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Skipping ahead
Sorry to those two people who keep coming back to the blog looking for updates. I have been snowed under with tax and assorted paperwork, not to mention a mate's wedding in England, but I hope to get back and complete the European journal.
I must write shorter entries!
On the road in Australia now. First day I stopped at Caveau in Wollongong, that city's only one-hat restaurant (that I know of) and they have ordered Aladame Montagny 1er cru Cuvee Selection 06 and Alluviale Anobli 08 sweet wine.
Then to the fine wine store in Berry, where the Dombeya Stellenbosch Boulder Road Shiraz 07 will find a home, alongside Mantra Shiraz Viognier 06 and Alluviale Merlot Cabernet Franc 07.
Unfortunately I didn't hear back from Banisters, which I thought was keen on some grand cru Burgundy. Not too many restaurants these days say they don't need entry level, they want top end!
Stayed in Bateman's Bay with a lovely lass who has been a good friend for 26 years. The friendship is easy, even if we don't see each other for months.
After a typical 2.5 hours' sleep on Wednesday I managed 6.5 in BB, had a fairly lazy morning and then set off for a couple of appointments in Canberra. As it turns out they were next door to each other and my last-minute hotel is across the road! I even got free parking. To make up for it, Rydges charges a ripoff $29 a day for internet access, although I have tapped into another hotel's service for $15 a day.
Flint's restaurant wine buyer was very keen on the wine and has promised to order, and also gave me a good lead for a keen French wine lover in the Blue Mountains. Next door, Peter Bell at Parlour Wine Bar ordered the Dombeya Merlot to run by the glass, and is going to look further at the portfolio. Then he filled me to overflowing with good food and lovely wine from his own list.
On Saturday I have an appointment at Onred and will try to make one or two other calls, then I'm meeting with a winery to discuss distribution across NSW.
Another exciting bit of breaking news: I have a fantastic cult Spanish wine on the way. I've also had a look at a solid quirky cheapie, and have leads on some good Italians. All the gaps I want to fill should be taken care of by the end of the year. Or maybe next year if I get to visit those places.
In the meantime I am still shaking trees trying to raise the money necessary to pay my bills and get a couple of containers on the water. The wines to come really are fantastic and should sell quickly.
The business is two years old, sales more than doubled in year two, and momentum seems to be building. People are starting to talk. Or maybe they are just listening to the wines.
I must write shorter entries!
On the road in Australia now. First day I stopped at Caveau in Wollongong, that city's only one-hat restaurant (that I know of) and they have ordered Aladame Montagny 1er cru Cuvee Selection 06 and Alluviale Anobli 08 sweet wine.
Then to the fine wine store in Berry, where the Dombeya Stellenbosch Boulder Road Shiraz 07 will find a home, alongside Mantra Shiraz Viognier 06 and Alluviale Merlot Cabernet Franc 07.
Unfortunately I didn't hear back from Banisters, which I thought was keen on some grand cru Burgundy. Not too many restaurants these days say they don't need entry level, they want top end!
Stayed in Bateman's Bay with a lovely lass who has been a good friend for 26 years. The friendship is easy, even if we don't see each other for months.
After a typical 2.5 hours' sleep on Wednesday I managed 6.5 in BB, had a fairly lazy morning and then set off for a couple of appointments in Canberra. As it turns out they were next door to each other and my last-minute hotel is across the road! I even got free parking. To make up for it, Rydges charges a ripoff $29 a day for internet access, although I have tapped into another hotel's service for $15 a day.
Flint's restaurant wine buyer was very keen on the wine and has promised to order, and also gave me a good lead for a keen French wine lover in the Blue Mountains. Next door, Peter Bell at Parlour Wine Bar ordered the Dombeya Merlot to run by the glass, and is going to look further at the portfolio. Then he filled me to overflowing with good food and lovely wine from his own list.
On Saturday I have an appointment at Onred and will try to make one or two other calls, then I'm meeting with a winery to discuss distribution across NSW.
Another exciting bit of breaking news: I have a fantastic cult Spanish wine on the way. I've also had a look at a solid quirky cheapie, and have leads on some good Italians. All the gaps I want to fill should be taken care of by the end of the year. Or maybe next year if I get to visit those places.
In the meantime I am still shaking trees trying to raise the money necessary to pay my bills and get a couple of containers on the water. The wines to come really are fantastic and should sell quickly.
The business is two years old, sales more than doubled in year two, and momentum seems to be building. People are starting to talk. Or maybe they are just listening to the wines.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Day 14: Taxing the tastebuds
Made a bit of a late and lazy start to the day. Eventually drove south of Beaune looking for the Mercurey venue for a regional Grands Jours tasting. I figured if the GPS could get me to the town then surely there would be signs out to the venue, as there was no street listed in the program. Nope, no signs from the main road into town, so I drove around and around until I happened upon a sagging arrow, and eventually parked almost outside the front door of the hall.
When I mentioned to the hosts that it might have been an idea to list the road in the program they replied "but this road has no name". Hard to argue with that. I would find more of those sort of roads in many other villages in the days to come!
Stand No.1 happened to be occupied by Stéphane and Cecile Aladame, a young couple who make the gorgeous 1er cru chardonnays I import from Montagny-les-Buxy.
I tried their range of 08s, with a couple of new names appearing on the labels, which have been tarted up with different colours for each cuvee. Smart. My favourites were the Vignes Derrieres and the Cuvee Selection. I hope people finally cotton onto the 06 and 07 so I can buy the 08s. Matthew Jukes went nuts for the 08 Selection at a British trade tasting, buying some and giving them a rave review.
Cecile is a sweetheart who can speak a bit of English, whereas Stéphane had always avoided any attempts. Now he is doing classes, and proudly told me: "The cat is in the kitchen." I think he's got a way to go ;-)
Cecile gave me a couple of tips on producers to check out, and I did the rounds of others I knew or had heard positive whispers. Not available but worth tasting were the Aubert de Villaine wines, two of which were lovely. Others I tried were dry, reductive, oaky or too extracted. Another had abandoned his post -- possibly for lunch, but I'm sure no one would have been surprised if he didn't return.
No point in flogging a dead horse, so I drove back to Beaune for a couple of semi-private tastings. The first was at Maison Alex Gambal, where I ran through the 08 whites and reds that hadn't been shown on Tuesday. Then I tried a bunch of 09 samples from barrel, and they were mighty impressive. They will even have a Genevrieres 1er cru after doing a swap with someone.
Back upstairs and bumped into the delightful and gorgeous Geraldine Godot, the new winemaker at Gambal. I proceeded to make up any excuse for conversation, including a cork/screwcap debate. She looked ready to thump me, which I would have accepted as some form of affection, and then Alex made it worse byremembering some 03 Bourgogne Blanc that they had bottled under screwcap. He raced off to find a bottle and to everyone's surprise the wine -- from a hot, low-acid year -- was bright, fresh and in perfect condition.
On that evidence alone Alex was convinced he should convert, but Geraldine is a tough nut, and while she conceded the nose was impressive she wasn't so fussed on the palate. I offered to debate the matter further over dinner but she saw right through me and, suitably humbled, I left with my tail between my legs.
It's only two blocks from the Gambal winery on the peripherique to the Camille Giroud offices and winery, where a full range of 08s was open for tasting, as well as two verticals and a smattering of ancient vintages.
I had some definite favourites among the 08s, keeping an eye on price, and the verticals of Vosne Romanee (02-07) and Corton Le Rognet (03-07) panned out pretty much as expected, the Vosnes looking good (an the 02 starring for me), whereas the Cortons seemed to improve from year to year, the 07 fine and subtle and showing real finesses and class.
The older wines were: St Romain blanc 99, which had a bit of an odd goat's cheese nose but was pale and quite complex, showing some baked quiche, honey and caramel notes; 1995 Volnay 1er cru Carelles smelled a bit like a Bordeaux, with sweet leather and ample but fine tannins; 1990 Nuits St Georges 1er cru Perrieres was full bodied and rich, showing some iron filings and lots of tannins still; 1978 Volnay Champans was a little tired in the fruit department, smelling of smoke, leather and blood, but still with tannin to burn; and the 1976 Lavaux St Jacques was quite appealing, with a little framboise and leather combo going on.
The evening's activities promised to be quite grand: 40 grands crus fro 2002 and 2008 at the Chateau Clos Vougeot. It wasn't until later that I realised the wines were all supplied by negociants.
I could list all 40 but that would be a yawn, wouldn't it? They were all masked, so it was interesting seeing what I liked and didn't like among the many Chablis GCs, Batards, Chevaliers, Corton Charlemagnes, etc, and for the reds the Clos Vougeots, the Charmes, the Clos de Bezes and so on. The surprises for me were how bad the two Laroche chablis were: the 08 under screwcap was flat and lifeless and the 02 was a bit oxidised. Another wine was served corked and no one complained.
I bumped into wine writers John Gilman and Bill Nanson and had a bit of a chat, and then it was off to an upstairs dining room for some speeches and a bit of food. My table included a German magazine publisher, a Czech TV producer, a couple of winemakers and one or two others, and later the winemakers were told to rotate tables and the viticulturist from Laroche joined us. There was an awkward moment when I shared my enthusiasm for the other winemaker's wine but had to play dumb with the Laroche guy!
The dinner wines were: 2001 Jadot Criots-Batard Montrachet (bit fat and flabby for my liking); 1990 Joseph Drouhin Grands Echezeaux (some loved this but I found it a bit leathery and simple); 1988 Bouchard Le Corton (not memorable but better than the others). I suspect it was a good opportunity to write off a bunch of disappointing old wines.
OK, for my own records, the 40 pre-dinner wines were:
2008 Drouhin Chablis Bougros: Rich and vibrant, with a hint of botrytis. So much fruit density and length. Great.
2008 Simmonet-Febvre Chablis Les Preuses: More refined and minerally. Still heaps of body but more focused.
2008 Henri de Villamont Chablis Vaudesir: A little toast, oats, grapefruit. Lots of body, power, a lick of honey.
2008 Jean-Marc Brocard Chablis Valmur: Much tighter. Some honey, sesame seeds. Not lacking intensity, but not exactly open.
2008 Simonnet-Febvre Chablis Les Clos: A little mealy, iodine, minerality, finesse, less intensity.
2008 Laroche Chablis Les Blanchots (s): Soft, even developed. Smells buttery and lacks intensity. Tried a second bottle: mercaptans aromas, pretty bad.
2008 Lupe-Cholet Chablis Les Blanchots: Creamy, lacks acid, almost cloying. Growing suspicion of cork taint. Second bottle shows more intensity and focus.
2008 Jean-Marc Brocard Chablis Les Blanchots: Rich, almost resiny, lots of grapefruit, quite intense mid-palate but finishes quickly.
2002 Laroche Chablis Les Blanchots: A little oxidised: fat, rich and quite awful.
2008 Louis Latour Corton Charlemagne: A little soapy, vanilla essence, boring.
2008 Roux Pere et Fils Corton Charlemagne: More intensity, honey snaps, vanilla wafers. Length. Could be great.
2008 Seguin Manuel Corton Charlemagne: Rich, intense, full bodied, with a hint of honey on the finish. Broad but not long.
2008 Corton Andre Corton Charlemagne: Paint resin -- my least favourite aroma on CC -- intense grapefruit. Lacks a bit of acid.
2008 Patriarche Pere et Fils Corton Charlemagne: Broader, rich fruit, very ripe, heading towards orange and mandarin. Presume botrytis.
2008 Albert Bichot Corton Charlemagne: Unyielding nose but an intense palate with lots of extract, but lemony, less oak. Oh, love this one.
2008 Olivier Leflaive Corton Charlemagne: Ripe, rich but good. Not too much oak. Heaps of power.
2008 Bouchard P&F Chevalier Montrachet: Power and minerality, silky, finesse, restraint. This is a class above the Cortons.
2008 Olivier Leflaive Batard-Montrachet: Quite intense on the front palate, and the flavour lingers. Bit of vanilla, green olive and grapefruit.
2008 Jean-Marc Boillot Batard-Montrachet: A little toastier on the nose, with grapefruit and honeycomb. Nice length and balance.
2008 Michel Picard Batard-Montrachet: Paint resin, sesame seeds, toasty. Meh.
2008 Louis Jadot Batard-Montrachet: Honeyed oats, creme fraiche, bit of vanilla oak. These Batards are huge!
2002 Jean-Marc Boillot Batard-Montrachet: Not tasted.
2008 Corton Andre Corton Bressandes: A little meaty, good mouthfeel. Nice intensity, some florals, silky fruit, bit of grip. Love this.
2008 Stephane Brocard Corton Bressandes: Meaty, earthy, iron filings, strawberries, pretty fine but shows a bit of wood on the finish.
2002 Louis Latour Corton Grancey: Soapy, mousy, lot of tanin. Will get more leathery. Pretty bad.
2002 Prosper Maufoux Corton: Blood, oven-roasted tomatoes, lot of tannins. Needs heaps more time.
2002 Louis Jadot Corton Pougets: Meaty, earthy, tannin overload. Leave another 10+ years.
2008 Bouchard Aine & Fils Charmes Chambertin: Fresh and pretty. Blood and juicy strawberries, bit of grip but heaps of bright red fruit, even though the colour is quite pale.
2008 Jean-Claude Boisset Clos de la Roche: Luscious red fruits, strawberries, red cherries, bit of tannin. Needs a fair bit of time.
2008 Louis Max Clos de Vougeot: Really heady florals. Love it. Pretty, intense red fruit and spice and a bit of underlying earthiness. Grip is OK.
2008 Seguin Manuel Clos de Vougeot: Really dark crimson. Very plush and sweet in the mouth. Heaps of power. So dense. Lot of acid too. Holy crap. Tannins are there but not too dry.
2008 Albert Bichot Echezeaux: Big boy. Plush, refined and long in the mouth. Linear. Lots of power. Fair bit of tannin at the finish. For the long haul.
2008 Bouchard Aine & Fils Echezeaux: Pretty nose, florals on the palate, red fruit, sappy, very fine, bit of grip, lasting tannin.
2008 Henri de Villamont Grands Echezeaux: Pretty, very fresh nose. Framboise, a little cream, smoky, hint of spice. Lovely already.
2002 Joseph Drouhin Grands Echezeaux: A little meaty, not complex, quite fine, masculine style. Not my type of wine.
2002 Bouree et Fils Charmes Chambertin: Quite pale, browning on the rim. More gamey, raw meat, iron filings, getting tired.
2002 Prosper Maufoux Charmes Chambertin: Rich, crammed with red cherries and strawberries, fine tannins and a little acid on the finish. Nice.
2002 Jean-Claude Boisset Mazis Chambertin: Very fine. Some high-toned fruit, little bit of iron filings, tough of game. Nice oak. Excellent.
2002 Michel Picard Mazis Chambertin: Meaty, animale on the nose. Quite fresh, with nice fruit on the palate. Very fine tannins.
2002 Bouchard P&F Chambertin Clos de Beze: Soft, round, roast tomato, good persistence, fine tannins, oak a little murky. Becoming meaty, more animale.
Make of all that what you will!
When I mentioned to the hosts that it might have been an idea to list the road in the program they replied "but this road has no name". Hard to argue with that. I would find more of those sort of roads in many other villages in the days to come!
Stand No.1 happened to be occupied by Stéphane and Cecile Aladame, a young couple who make the gorgeous 1er cru chardonnays I import from Montagny-les-Buxy.
I tried their range of 08s, with a couple of new names appearing on the labels, which have been tarted up with different colours for each cuvee. Smart. My favourites were the Vignes Derrieres and the Cuvee Selection. I hope people finally cotton onto the 06 and 07 so I can buy the 08s. Matthew Jukes went nuts for the 08 Selection at a British trade tasting, buying some and giving them a rave review.
Cecile is a sweetheart who can speak a bit of English, whereas Stéphane had always avoided any attempts. Now he is doing classes, and proudly told me: "The cat is in the kitchen." I think he's got a way to go ;-)
Cecile gave me a couple of tips on producers to check out, and I did the rounds of others I knew or had heard positive whispers. Not available but worth tasting were the Aubert de Villaine wines, two of which were lovely. Others I tried were dry, reductive, oaky or too extracted. Another had abandoned his post -- possibly for lunch, but I'm sure no one would have been surprised if he didn't return.
No point in flogging a dead horse, so I drove back to Beaune for a couple of semi-private tastings. The first was at Maison Alex Gambal, where I ran through the 08 whites and reds that hadn't been shown on Tuesday. Then I tried a bunch of 09 samples from barrel, and they were mighty impressive. They will even have a Genevrieres 1er cru after doing a swap with someone.
Back upstairs and bumped into the delightful and gorgeous Geraldine Godot, the new winemaker at Gambal. I proceeded to make up any excuse for conversation, including a cork/screwcap debate. She looked ready to thump me, which I would have accepted as some form of affection, and then Alex made it worse byremembering some 03 Bourgogne Blanc that they had bottled under screwcap. He raced off to find a bottle and to everyone's surprise the wine -- from a hot, low-acid year -- was bright, fresh and in perfect condition.
On that evidence alone Alex was convinced he should convert, but Geraldine is a tough nut, and while she conceded the nose was impressive she wasn't so fussed on the palate. I offered to debate the matter further over dinner but she saw right through me and, suitably humbled, I left with my tail between my legs.
It's only two blocks from the Gambal winery on the peripherique to the Camille Giroud offices and winery, where a full range of 08s was open for tasting, as well as two verticals and a smattering of ancient vintages.
I had some definite favourites among the 08s, keeping an eye on price, and the verticals of Vosne Romanee (02-07) and Corton Le Rognet (03-07) panned out pretty much as expected, the Vosnes looking good (an the 02 starring for me), whereas the Cortons seemed to improve from year to year, the 07 fine and subtle and showing real finesses and class.
The older wines were: St Romain blanc 99, which had a bit of an odd goat's cheese nose but was pale and quite complex, showing some baked quiche, honey and caramel notes; 1995 Volnay 1er cru Carelles smelled a bit like a Bordeaux, with sweet leather and ample but fine tannins; 1990 Nuits St Georges 1er cru Perrieres was full bodied and rich, showing some iron filings and lots of tannins still; 1978 Volnay Champans was a little tired in the fruit department, smelling of smoke, leather and blood, but still with tannin to burn; and the 1976 Lavaux St Jacques was quite appealing, with a little framboise and leather combo going on.
The evening's activities promised to be quite grand: 40 grands crus fro 2002 and 2008 at the Chateau Clos Vougeot. It wasn't until later that I realised the wines were all supplied by negociants.
I could list all 40 but that would be a yawn, wouldn't it? They were all masked, so it was interesting seeing what I liked and didn't like among the many Chablis GCs, Batards, Chevaliers, Corton Charlemagnes, etc, and for the reds the Clos Vougeots, the Charmes, the Clos de Bezes and so on. The surprises for me were how bad the two Laroche chablis were: the 08 under screwcap was flat and lifeless and the 02 was a bit oxidised. Another wine was served corked and no one complained.
I bumped into wine writers John Gilman and Bill Nanson and had a bit of a chat, and then it was off to an upstairs dining room for some speeches and a bit of food. My table included a German magazine publisher, a Czech TV producer, a couple of winemakers and one or two others, and later the winemakers were told to rotate tables and the viticulturist from Laroche joined us. There was an awkward moment when I shared my enthusiasm for the other winemaker's wine but had to play dumb with the Laroche guy!
The dinner wines were: 2001 Jadot Criots-Batard Montrachet (bit fat and flabby for my liking); 1990 Joseph Drouhin Grands Echezeaux (some loved this but I found it a bit leathery and simple); 1988 Bouchard Le Corton (not memorable but better than the others). I suspect it was a good opportunity to write off a bunch of disappointing old wines.
OK, for my own records, the 40 pre-dinner wines were:
2008 Drouhin Chablis Bougros: Rich and vibrant, with a hint of botrytis. So much fruit density and length. Great.
2008 Simmonet-Febvre Chablis Les Preuses: More refined and minerally. Still heaps of body but more focused.
2008 Henri de Villamont Chablis Vaudesir: A little toast, oats, grapefruit. Lots of body, power, a lick of honey.
2008 Jean-Marc Brocard Chablis Valmur: Much tighter. Some honey, sesame seeds. Not lacking intensity, but not exactly open.
2008 Simonnet-Febvre Chablis Les Clos: A little mealy, iodine, minerality, finesse, less intensity.
2008 Laroche Chablis Les Blanchots (s): Soft, even developed. Smells buttery and lacks intensity. Tried a second bottle: mercaptans aromas, pretty bad.
2008 Lupe-Cholet Chablis Les Blanchots: Creamy, lacks acid, almost cloying. Growing suspicion of cork taint. Second bottle shows more intensity and focus.
2008 Jean-Marc Brocard Chablis Les Blanchots: Rich, almost resiny, lots of grapefruit, quite intense mid-palate but finishes quickly.
2002 Laroche Chablis Les Blanchots: A little oxidised: fat, rich and quite awful.
2008 Louis Latour Corton Charlemagne: A little soapy, vanilla essence, boring.
2008 Roux Pere et Fils Corton Charlemagne: More intensity, honey snaps, vanilla wafers. Length. Could be great.
2008 Seguin Manuel Corton Charlemagne: Rich, intense, full bodied, with a hint of honey on the finish. Broad but not long.
2008 Corton Andre Corton Charlemagne: Paint resin -- my least favourite aroma on CC -- intense grapefruit. Lacks a bit of acid.
2008 Patriarche Pere et Fils Corton Charlemagne: Broader, rich fruit, very ripe, heading towards orange and mandarin. Presume botrytis.
2008 Albert Bichot Corton Charlemagne: Unyielding nose but an intense palate with lots of extract, but lemony, less oak. Oh, love this one.
2008 Olivier Leflaive Corton Charlemagne: Ripe, rich but good. Not too much oak. Heaps of power.
2008 Bouchard P&F Chevalier Montrachet: Power and minerality, silky, finesse, restraint. This is a class above the Cortons.
2008 Olivier Leflaive Batard-Montrachet: Quite intense on the front palate, and the flavour lingers. Bit of vanilla, green olive and grapefruit.
2008 Jean-Marc Boillot Batard-Montrachet: A little toastier on the nose, with grapefruit and honeycomb. Nice length and balance.
2008 Michel Picard Batard-Montrachet: Paint resin, sesame seeds, toasty. Meh.
2008 Louis Jadot Batard-Montrachet: Honeyed oats, creme fraiche, bit of vanilla oak. These Batards are huge!
2002 Jean-Marc Boillot Batard-Montrachet: Not tasted.
2008 Corton Andre Corton Bressandes: A little meaty, good mouthfeel. Nice intensity, some florals, silky fruit, bit of grip. Love this.
2008 Stephane Brocard Corton Bressandes: Meaty, earthy, iron filings, strawberries, pretty fine but shows a bit of wood on the finish.
2002 Louis Latour Corton Grancey: Soapy, mousy, lot of tanin. Will get more leathery. Pretty bad.
2002 Prosper Maufoux Corton: Blood, oven-roasted tomatoes, lot of tannins. Needs heaps more time.
2002 Louis Jadot Corton Pougets: Meaty, earthy, tannin overload. Leave another 10+ years.
2008 Bouchard Aine & Fils Charmes Chambertin: Fresh and pretty. Blood and juicy strawberries, bit of grip but heaps of bright red fruit, even though the colour is quite pale.
2008 Jean-Claude Boisset Clos de la Roche: Luscious red fruits, strawberries, red cherries, bit of tannin. Needs a fair bit of time.
2008 Louis Max Clos de Vougeot: Really heady florals. Love it. Pretty, intense red fruit and spice and a bit of underlying earthiness. Grip is OK.
2008 Seguin Manuel Clos de Vougeot: Really dark crimson. Very plush and sweet in the mouth. Heaps of power. So dense. Lot of acid too. Holy crap. Tannins are there but not too dry.
2008 Albert Bichot Echezeaux: Big boy. Plush, refined and long in the mouth. Linear. Lots of power. Fair bit of tannin at the finish. For the long haul.
2008 Bouchard Aine & Fils Echezeaux: Pretty nose, florals on the palate, red fruit, sappy, very fine, bit of grip, lasting tannin.
2008 Henri de Villamont Grands Echezeaux: Pretty, very fresh nose. Framboise, a little cream, smoky, hint of spice. Lovely already.
2002 Joseph Drouhin Grands Echezeaux: A little meaty, not complex, quite fine, masculine style. Not my type of wine.
2002 Bouree et Fils Charmes Chambertin: Quite pale, browning on the rim. More gamey, raw meat, iron filings, getting tired.
2002 Prosper Maufoux Charmes Chambertin: Rich, crammed with red cherries and strawberries, fine tannins and a little acid on the finish. Nice.
2002 Jean-Claude Boisset Mazis Chambertin: Very fine. Some high-toned fruit, little bit of iron filings, tough of game. Nice oak. Excellent.
2002 Michel Picard Mazis Chambertin: Meaty, animale on the nose. Quite fresh, with nice fruit on the palate. Very fine tannins.
2002 Bouchard P&F Chambertin Clos de Beze: Soft, round, roast tomato, good persistence, fine tannins, oak a little murky. Becoming meaty, more animale.
Make of all that what you will!
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Day 13: Easy does it, Tiger
No, this isn't a story about Tiger Woods, although you do know that I watched him win his first US Masters at Augusta National in 1997 and got him to autograph the program, don't you?
I can name drop with the best of them, but the Tiger in question was a stuffed toy in a window in a store on the Rue d'Alsace, just a couple of doors up from where I've been staying in Beaune. My friend Helena has a fetish for collecting a stuffed toy from each place she visits (I'm not sure how long she has to be there for the place to qualify ... perhaps it's one souvenir per trip) and she spied this particularly dashing Tiger and gave me instructions for its capture. Luckily for David, it easily exceeded her limit of 40 euros. The miserable cat was a whopping 53 euros!
Strange that this stands out as the event of the day, but that's what happens when you leave blogging till days after the fact. Well, I did eventually haul my sore head and tired body down to the Palais de Congrès in Beaune for a triple-header of tasting.
I had high hopes of finding a decent producer from the Macon region, but anything decent was well overpriced, in my opinion. I mean, I have a great producer from Montagny, with 1er cru chardonnays selling for less than $50, and people resist, even though they are listed in many three-star restaurants in France. It's like the current fascination with Chablis -- which is cool, I love the stuff -- while people reject the whites from the Cote de Beaune. OK, guys, you know it's all chardonnay, right? Is it the absence of oak that makes Chablis so appealing, or the price, or do people think it is another grape variety altogether? And is white Burgundy confusing? Do people think it is decoloured pinot noir? Or are they worried about premature oxidation (seems strange, given that most wine is drunk almost immediately). Are they took oaky or too expensive?
Anyway, there was nothing to move me from 131 Macon winemakers ... right, I didn't try them all, but I used the scientific method of sampling every bottle that stood out on the trial bench, whether by label appearance or the "je ne sais quoi" of the domaine name. Then I worked my way around the hall to those that had appealed from the run-through, and to those I already knew and had earmarked for investigation.
From this I decided there was nothing that would woo the unadventurous drinkers out there in the big brown land. I moved on to scour the 64 producers from Aloxe-Corton, Chore-les-Beaune, Ladoix-Serrigny, Pernand-Vergelesses and Savigny-les-Beaune (are you starting to get the idea of what a momentous task this event presents?) and checked out the two stands of interest in the Beaune lineup of 25, Domaine des Croix and Camille Giroud.
It was a good opportunity to catch up with the charming David Croix, winemaker at both domaines, and have a look at some of their 08s. He never obfuscates, but then again that's the first time I've used that word in a sentence, so I can't be too sure ;-) No, there is no deceit about the man: if you call reduction and it's there, he'll concede it. If you tell him his 05 and 06 Corton Charlemagne were fat and heavy, he will tell you why (the vineyard ripens so quickly it caught him off guard the first two years, and, just like that, the 07 and 08 are light, fresh and mesmerising!)
Right, enough of this. I hadn't eaten anything all day and was feeling light-headed. I beat a hasty retreat and prepared for one of the dullest nights of my life, the Saveurs du Monde, an event when the organisers try to showcase just how adaptable Burgundy is by offering the wines of several producers with some odd dishes from some of the best local chefs.
The food, although served in tiny portions to people who had to queue for ages to get it, was nice enough, and the wines satisfactory, but the event started late and then groaned into gear with a couple of boring speeches, the worst by a woman from the sponsor company, who went into excrutiating detail about how and why her decanters and glasses were so wonderful. I hate that company now and will never buy their products. I hope she's happy ;-)
I couldn't stand this for long ... I left after an hour or so and went back to my friends' place for a proper dinner. Sigh. It's tough getting beyond the superficial sometimes!
I can name drop with the best of them, but the Tiger in question was a stuffed toy in a window in a store on the Rue d'Alsace, just a couple of doors up from where I've been staying in Beaune. My friend Helena has a fetish for collecting a stuffed toy from each place she visits (I'm not sure how long she has to be there for the place to qualify ... perhaps it's one souvenir per trip) and she spied this particularly dashing Tiger and gave me instructions for its capture. Luckily for David, it easily exceeded her limit of 40 euros. The miserable cat was a whopping 53 euros!
Strange that this stands out as the event of the day, but that's what happens when you leave blogging till days after the fact. Well, I did eventually haul my sore head and tired body down to the Palais de Congrès in Beaune for a triple-header of tasting.
I had high hopes of finding a decent producer from the Macon region, but anything decent was well overpriced, in my opinion. I mean, I have a great producer from Montagny, with 1er cru chardonnays selling for less than $50, and people resist, even though they are listed in many three-star restaurants in France. It's like the current fascination with Chablis -- which is cool, I love the stuff -- while people reject the whites from the Cote de Beaune. OK, guys, you know it's all chardonnay, right? Is it the absence of oak that makes Chablis so appealing, or the price, or do people think it is another grape variety altogether? And is white Burgundy confusing? Do people think it is decoloured pinot noir? Or are they worried about premature oxidation (seems strange, given that most wine is drunk almost immediately). Are they took oaky or too expensive?
Anyway, there was nothing to move me from 131 Macon winemakers ... right, I didn't try them all, but I used the scientific method of sampling every bottle that stood out on the trial bench, whether by label appearance or the "je ne sais quoi" of the domaine name. Then I worked my way around the hall to those that had appealed from the run-through, and to those I already knew and had earmarked for investigation.
From this I decided there was nothing that would woo the unadventurous drinkers out there in the big brown land. I moved on to scour the 64 producers from Aloxe-Corton, Chore-les-Beaune, Ladoix-Serrigny, Pernand-Vergelesses and Savigny-les-Beaune (are you starting to get the idea of what a momentous task this event presents?) and checked out the two stands of interest in the Beaune lineup of 25, Domaine des Croix and Camille Giroud.
It was a good opportunity to catch up with the charming David Croix, winemaker at both domaines, and have a look at some of their 08s. He never obfuscates, but then again that's the first time I've used that word in a sentence, so I can't be too sure ;-) No, there is no deceit about the man: if you call reduction and it's there, he'll concede it. If you tell him his 05 and 06 Corton Charlemagne were fat and heavy, he will tell you why (the vineyard ripens so quickly it caught him off guard the first two years, and, just like that, the 07 and 08 are light, fresh and mesmerising!)
Right, enough of this. I hadn't eaten anything all day and was feeling light-headed. I beat a hasty retreat and prepared for one of the dullest nights of my life, the Saveurs du Monde, an event when the organisers try to showcase just how adaptable Burgundy is by offering the wines of several producers with some odd dishes from some of the best local chefs.
The food, although served in tiny portions to people who had to queue for ages to get it, was nice enough, and the wines satisfactory, but the event started late and then groaned into gear with a couple of boring speeches, the worst by a woman from the sponsor company, who went into excrutiating detail about how and why her decanters and glasses were so wonderful. I hate that company now and will never buy their products. I hope she's happy ;-)
I couldn't stand this for long ... I left after an hour or so and went back to my friends' place for a proper dinner. Sigh. It's tough getting beyond the superficial sometimes!
Day 12: Packing down in the Grand scrum
I've got a lot of posts to catch up on ... some great stories to tell. Will try to catch up a few days at a time. Day two of the Grands Jours is a bit of a nightmare. It's the busiest day, the most producers and the most important regions spread over four venues. It's insane, really.
Two years ago I started at Nuits St Georges and was pulling splinters within an hour. The palate was soon shot and the rest of the day was tough work. This time I figured I'd start in Marsannay-la-Cote for the "Jewels of Cote de Nuits" session, the venue for 69 producers from Gevrey, Marsannay and Fixin.
It was a good chance to look at the 2008s of Dupont-Tisserandot and Humbert Freres against some of the other producers I had been thinking of, and also to look at several vintages of Camille Girouds, including 06 and 07 Chambertin and Latricieres. There was also a table containing a bottle from each producer, which gave the opportunity to try one wine and decide whether it was worth exploring more and enduring the inevitable awkwardness of a wary importer meeting an eager producer.
Overall it was pretty hard work, the recent bottling of most wines reflected in their dry finish and protruding structure. I'm not sure I learnt a lot, except a couple of producers to avoid.
From there it was off to the Gilly les Citeaux for the Chambolle Musigny/Morey St Denis tasting, and what a relief it was. So much sweet fruit, soft tannins and finesse from some of the 46 exhibitors here. I made a beeline for the Mugnier table as I'd tasted twice previously at this domaine and like to badger them regularly. Freddie is affable and his assistant Audrey is gorgeous -- although now a married mum of one, I'm a sucker for her dark Audrey Tautou eyes and hair and, strangely, her English accent! She spent a couple of years in Kent, it seems.
Mugnier was smart enough not to bottle before the show, so the 08 Chambolle Musigny, NSG Clos de la Marechale and Musigny all looked fine, fruity and friendly. He's too cagey on where to place the vintage, let alone the 09s that the Americans have been going gaga about, but he admitted he wasn't about to rain on their parade if they wanted to start another buying frenzy. Mugnier has no need to pour wines at such a show but to support his community and try to attract more punters for his peers.
Other highlights were Camille Giroud (they showed each wine in the relevant appellation venue), Lucie & Auguste Lignier (great to compare 07s, 08s and 09s for various cuvees) and Faiveley, whose new softer approach has made the world of improvement to their wines.
A few more quick swirls and spits and it was off to the Chateau du Clos Vougeot for 60 Vosne Romanee exhibitors. This was apparently a scrum for most of the day and hence why I wanted to save it for late in the piece when the crowds had dispersed. The tactics worked perfectly -- it wasn't so much of a drama to get a pour and then to get to a barrel spittoon.
The acids showed quite prominently here, but I enjoyed tastings at Anne Gros, Meo-Camuzet, Comte Liger Belair and Alex Gambal. Was tempted by Lamarche but the wines looks a bit dry and stern, while Jean-Marc Millot has great holdings but I am still concerned about hygiene and reduction in some of the wines.
Actually I've learned a fair bit about the olfactory signs of reduction and the role different vineyard soils can play in creating this character: clay is a big contributor.
I skipped the NSG venue altogether and just as well. By the time I had circuited three venues I had major palate fatigue and it was getting harder and harder to avoid tannin overload. I don't know how some people taste and rate hundreds of wines in a day. As I was to find out, liking or disliking something in the middle of a tasting didn't necessarily mean anything when it came to sitting down with a bottle at the end of the day.
Hmmm, as if the first two days weren't busy enough, my evening entertainment involved having dinner with my wonderful friends David and Helena, who are soon to be Mr & Mrs Jenkins.
David has just bought into a wine business in the UK and was over to scout for good value producers from just out of the mainstream. I might have been better off tagging along with him! Anyway, we had an acceptable meal and three decent bottles of wine while we solved the problems of the world. Not such a good idea was a 1964 Armagnac as a nightcap. At 40 or 45% alcohol, it was tough work for me, a non-spirits drinker. David seemed to be getting his second wind and at 6.30am I could only hold my throbbing head as I pictured the two of them having to get up for the three-hour-plus drive to Champagne for their next appointment!
Two years ago I started at Nuits St Georges and was pulling splinters within an hour. The palate was soon shot and the rest of the day was tough work. This time I figured I'd start in Marsannay-la-Cote for the "Jewels of Cote de Nuits" session, the venue for 69 producers from Gevrey, Marsannay and Fixin.
It was a good chance to look at the 2008s of Dupont-Tisserandot and Humbert Freres against some of the other producers I had been thinking of, and also to look at several vintages of Camille Girouds, including 06 and 07 Chambertin and Latricieres. There was also a table containing a bottle from each producer, which gave the opportunity to try one wine and decide whether it was worth exploring more and enduring the inevitable awkwardness of a wary importer meeting an eager producer.
Overall it was pretty hard work, the recent bottling of most wines reflected in their dry finish and protruding structure. I'm not sure I learnt a lot, except a couple of producers to avoid.
From there it was off to the Gilly les Citeaux for the Chambolle Musigny/Morey St Denis tasting, and what a relief it was. So much sweet fruit, soft tannins and finesse from some of the 46 exhibitors here. I made a beeline for the Mugnier table as I'd tasted twice previously at this domaine and like to badger them regularly. Freddie is affable and his assistant Audrey is gorgeous -- although now a married mum of one, I'm a sucker for her dark Audrey Tautou eyes and hair and, strangely, her English accent! She spent a couple of years in Kent, it seems.
Mugnier was smart enough not to bottle before the show, so the 08 Chambolle Musigny, NSG Clos de la Marechale and Musigny all looked fine, fruity and friendly. He's too cagey on where to place the vintage, let alone the 09s that the Americans have been going gaga about, but he admitted he wasn't about to rain on their parade if they wanted to start another buying frenzy. Mugnier has no need to pour wines at such a show but to support his community and try to attract more punters for his peers.
Other highlights were Camille Giroud (they showed each wine in the relevant appellation venue), Lucie & Auguste Lignier (great to compare 07s, 08s and 09s for various cuvees) and Faiveley, whose new softer approach has made the world of improvement to their wines.
A few more quick swirls and spits and it was off to the Chateau du Clos Vougeot for 60 Vosne Romanee exhibitors. This was apparently a scrum for most of the day and hence why I wanted to save it for late in the piece when the crowds had dispersed. The tactics worked perfectly -- it wasn't so much of a drama to get a pour and then to get to a barrel spittoon.
The acids showed quite prominently here, but I enjoyed tastings at Anne Gros, Meo-Camuzet, Comte Liger Belair and Alex Gambal. Was tempted by Lamarche but the wines looks a bit dry and stern, while Jean-Marc Millot has great holdings but I am still concerned about hygiene and reduction in some of the wines.
Actually I've learned a fair bit about the olfactory signs of reduction and the role different vineyard soils can play in creating this character: clay is a big contributor.
I skipped the NSG venue altogether and just as well. By the time I had circuited three venues I had major palate fatigue and it was getting harder and harder to avoid tannin overload. I don't know how some people taste and rate hundreds of wines in a day. As I was to find out, liking or disliking something in the middle of a tasting didn't necessarily mean anything when it came to sitting down with a bottle at the end of the day.
Hmmm, as if the first two days weren't busy enough, my evening entertainment involved having dinner with my wonderful friends David and Helena, who are soon to be Mr & Mrs Jenkins.
David has just bought into a wine business in the UK and was over to scout for good value producers from just out of the mainstream. I might have been better off tagging along with him! Anyway, we had an acceptable meal and three decent bottles of wine while we solved the problems of the world. Not such a good idea was a 1964 Armagnac as a nightcap. At 40 or 45% alcohol, it was tough work for me, a non-spirits drinker. David seemed to be getting his second wind and at 6.30am I could only hold my throbbing head as I pictured the two of them having to get up for the three-hour-plus drive to Champagne for their next appointment!
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Day 11: Not such a Grand start
Day one of the Grands Jours de Bourgogne, a biennial wine trade fair in multiple venues in Burgundy. There were apparently a lot of complaints about the stacking of events on two days after the previous edition in 2008, the first time I attended, but nothing seems to have changed.
Not only are the most appealing events crammed into two days, but the first two days of the Grands Jours clash with the last two days of Prowein in Germany.
Oh well, there is no lack of people focused on Burgundy, as I found out when I turned up in Chablis on day one at a respectable hour -- after midday -- to find most people's snouts already in the trough of free grub (and getting their photo taken with a pig on a spit, appropriately enough).
That seemed like good timing to get around some of the more intriguing of the 90-odd producers on hand, but my mood was soured when I found their were no guidebooks available. These have all the producers' contact information, what they are exhibiting, and more importantly where they are located in the three tasting rooms.
How could you not have one book for every person who registered, I asked. We did, they responded. Well, clearly not, I said. But more people turned up than we expected, they said. Stuff them, you should have kept a guide for those who registered in advance, I replied. Well, finally came the admission, we didn't think everyone who registered would turn up, but they have, and that's why we don't have enough books.
I borrowed one from an acquaintance who was off to have a rice cracker for lunch, and proceeded to tick off my major targets. I was looking for a new producer to replace the cad Jean-Claude Bessin, who sold to another importer after agreeing to work exclusively with me in Australia. That importer subsequently told JC that I was selling his wines too cheaply and he refused to sell any more to me. So there you go: not only was the other importer happy to make 20% more per bottle at wholesale, but the producer actively encouraged such extravagance. He didn't seem to care that I was using refrigeration for transport and storage, or that I had his wines listed in several top Sydney and Melbourne restaurants.
Sadly for me the two standout producers of the day already seemed to be tied up. I don't want to cut anyone else's grass, and after checking with a respected colleague that he was going ahead with an order, I confirmed to the winemaker that I wasn't interested. The wines were fantastic, and cheap, and he made it more difficult by offering to sell me the same wine under different labels! I would hate that if he did that behind my back, so I was happy to walk away.
I eventually made a shortlist of four or five other lovely producers to revisit in a couple of weeks, and after wearing myself out with 200 or so samples, I pulled up stumps and dashed back the hour and a bit to Beaune for refreshing bottles of champagne and riesling with Gav & Gen.
Not only are the most appealing events crammed into two days, but the first two days of the Grands Jours clash with the last two days of Prowein in Germany.
Oh well, there is no lack of people focused on Burgundy, as I found out when I turned up in Chablis on day one at a respectable hour -- after midday -- to find most people's snouts already in the trough of free grub (and getting their photo taken with a pig on a spit, appropriately enough).
That seemed like good timing to get around some of the more intriguing of the 90-odd producers on hand, but my mood was soured when I found their were no guidebooks available. These have all the producers' contact information, what they are exhibiting, and more importantly where they are located in the three tasting rooms.
How could you not have one book for every person who registered, I asked. We did, they responded. Well, clearly not, I said. But more people turned up than we expected, they said. Stuff them, you should have kept a guide for those who registered in advance, I replied. Well, finally came the admission, we didn't think everyone who registered would turn up, but they have, and that's why we don't have enough books.
I borrowed one from an acquaintance who was off to have a rice cracker for lunch, and proceeded to tick off my major targets. I was looking for a new producer to replace the cad Jean-Claude Bessin, who sold to another importer after agreeing to work exclusively with me in Australia. That importer subsequently told JC that I was selling his wines too cheaply and he refused to sell any more to me. So there you go: not only was the other importer happy to make 20% more per bottle at wholesale, but the producer actively encouraged such extravagance. He didn't seem to care that I was using refrigeration for transport and storage, or that I had his wines listed in several top Sydney and Melbourne restaurants.
Sadly for me the two standout producers of the day already seemed to be tied up. I don't want to cut anyone else's grass, and after checking with a respected colleague that he was going ahead with an order, I confirmed to the winemaker that I wasn't interested. The wines were fantastic, and cheap, and he made it more difficult by offering to sell me the same wine under different labels! I would hate that if he did that behind my back, so I was happy to walk away.
I eventually made a shortlist of four or five other lovely producers to revisit in a couple of weeks, and after wearing myself out with 200 or so samples, I pulled up stumps and dashed back the hour and a bit to Beaune for refreshing bottles of champagne and riesling with Gav & Gen.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Day 10: One for the road
Nice little hotel last night but it could have been better if I had known the internet modem was in a cupboard down the hall and I could have reset it myself every hour that it seemed to lock up.
Finally got connected and caught up with a ton of emails before skipping breakfast and driving north to a quaint restaurant for lunch -- along with about 20 families wheeling their grandmothers out for the day!
We had pre-selected two very interesting wines, and decided to have two courses to go with them. I had a lovely fish and scallop dish with truffled potato and rice for entree, along with a wine I'd never had before -- a 2004 Faiveley Corton Charlemagne. Quite rich -- you'd be tempted to call it an oxidative style, although it's one of those ones that seems to get leaner and tighter with air. A bit of the 04 celery/pistacchio character that I don't mind. An interesting wine at the very least, if not particularly long, focused and intense. We saved almost half a bottle for later.
Main course was young duck with foie gras, and the accompaniment was a 2004 DRC Vosne Romanee 1er cru Duvalt Blochet, which I believe comes from the young vines of DRC's various grand crus. Not at all green, with interesting spicy notes, quite a supple, easy-drinking style, rather than a wow wine.
Full and ready for a nap, but it's not to be. We buy an 06 Duvalt and an 06 Coche Dury Volnay 1er cru for later inspection and hit the road to Beaune. Well, a little detour to Domaine David Clark to pick up some wine I had stashed there and to share some wine and tales with David and his father (who was busy at the time building Vine Buggy Mark VI).
We polished off the two lunch wines, which both looked better rather than worse for the three-hour drive, then enjoyed an 08 Bourgogne from David -- such a juicy, clean, fresh, pure, fine-tannined drink, and I will be getting only 10 cases for all of Australia! -- plus two German reds from Schafer-Frohlich. These were both interesting and quite impressive, but I don't want to give away what they were just yet. Oh ok, an 06 Nahe Spatburgunder (pinot noir) and an 05 cabernet sauvignon from the Pfalz. Really well done! I might import a bit of these as an oddity.
We tore ourselves away for dinner at Gav and Gen's pad in Beaune, and forced down a bottle of Vouette et Sorbee Fidele champagne to celebrate my first night back in Burgundy. It's a big, rich, oaky pinot-dominant champagne with low fizz that really needs food. A lot more delicate than the 04 disgorgement, but a style that will divide the punters, I reckon. Love it or leave it.
Finally got connected and caught up with a ton of emails before skipping breakfast and driving north to a quaint restaurant for lunch -- along with about 20 families wheeling their grandmothers out for the day!
We had pre-selected two very interesting wines, and decided to have two courses to go with them. I had a lovely fish and scallop dish with truffled potato and rice for entree, along with a wine I'd never had before -- a 2004 Faiveley Corton Charlemagne. Quite rich -- you'd be tempted to call it an oxidative style, although it's one of those ones that seems to get leaner and tighter with air. A bit of the 04 celery/pistacchio character that I don't mind. An interesting wine at the very least, if not particularly long, focused and intense. We saved almost half a bottle for later.
Main course was young duck with foie gras, and the accompaniment was a 2004 DRC Vosne Romanee 1er cru Duvalt Blochet, which I believe comes from the young vines of DRC's various grand crus. Not at all green, with interesting spicy notes, quite a supple, easy-drinking style, rather than a wow wine.
Full and ready for a nap, but it's not to be. We buy an 06 Duvalt and an 06 Coche Dury Volnay 1er cru for later inspection and hit the road to Beaune. Well, a little detour to Domaine David Clark to pick up some wine I had stashed there and to share some wine and tales with David and his father (who was busy at the time building Vine Buggy Mark VI).
We polished off the two lunch wines, which both looked better rather than worse for the three-hour drive, then enjoyed an 08 Bourgogne from David -- such a juicy, clean, fresh, pure, fine-tannined drink, and I will be getting only 10 cases for all of Australia! -- plus two German reds from Schafer-Frohlich. These were both interesting and quite impressive, but I don't want to give away what they were just yet. Oh ok, an 06 Nahe Spatburgunder (pinot noir) and an 05 cabernet sauvignon from the Pfalz. Really well done! I might import a bit of these as an oddity.
We tore ourselves away for dinner at Gav and Gen's pad in Beaune, and forced down a bottle of Vouette et Sorbee Fidele champagne to celebrate my first night back in Burgundy. It's a big, rich, oaky pinot-dominant champagne with low fizz that really needs food. A lot more delicate than the 04 disgorgement, but a style that will divide the punters, I reckon. Love it or leave it.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Day 9: More eating
A pretty relaxed schedule today -- my first day off in a week. With Gav & Gen over for the weekend, we drove to one of our favourite restaurants in Alsace for lunch. One course each and a bottle of Coche Dury 2005 Meursault which unfortunately wasn't a touch on a bottle I had a year previously. Thankfully it was only a quarter of the price it goes for in Australia.
We then drove to a little village to check out a special wine shop but it was closed, so we shuffled on to Munster to pick up some stinky cheese. It was a bargain at 11 euros for probably a 500g wheel. Vacuum sealed, too, to spare our noses.
Then we drove south to our hotel for the night, enjoyed a free wildlife show from the local stork population (pictured) and then went out for dinner at our third favourite restaurant in the general area. Yes, I'm being vague on purpose. I can take you to these places, but I'm not telling anyone where they are for obvious reasons!
Alas, this was a disappointment too. The food was good enough, but that's not why we go there. We ordered a 2000 Coche Dury Perrieres, which I'd had 18 months earlier and loved at Trois Gros, but this was painfully shy. To make matters worse, the local water was way over-chlorinated and the glasses smelled terrible.
Our second wine choice was a Rousseau Chambertin Clos de Beze 96, and we didn't say a thing as the waitress produced a Chambertin 96 and proceeded to open it. Again, a bit disappointing, not least because of the glassware. We were wondering about the fruit days/root days bio calendar about this time.
Full but far from satisfied, we retired for another decent night's sleep ahead of our fourth and final shot at wine nirvana ...
Day 8: Last drop, first splash
Drove another 90 minutes south to Siebeldingen in the Pfalz for a tasting at Rebholz. I find the dry wines here harder to gauge as young wines. We ran through some interesting varietals -- silvaner, pinot blanc, pinot gris, riesling, gewurztraminer, a clear pinot noir (they call it blanc de noir), a rosé pinot noir ... some could work better than others.
Germany is ahead of the curve when it comes to dry whites. People might scoff at some of them but dry riesling sales are soaring in Australia and the US at the very least.
Anyway, Hansjorg Rebholz is confident the 09s are his best yet -- he has two levels of many wines and he feels that the standard wines are as good as the reserves of some other vintages.
We had lunch in a cute little joint in the next village where a famous chef has returned to treat the locals. Lovely stuff and no hiccups :-)
Will stomach full and a bit of wine on board I struggled the two hours or so further south to a regular favourite stop of mine for a night out with friends. We stayed in a local pension, ordered two pretty smart wines -- a 2002 Bonneau du Martray Corton Charlemagne and a 1976 DRC Richebourg -- and let the restaurant match a few courses with it.
I managed to stay awake but it was difficult with the restaurant being so hot. A decent sleep-in beckoned though ...
Germany is ahead of the curve when it comes to dry whites. People might scoff at some of them but dry riesling sales are soaring in Australia and the US at the very least.
Anyway, Hansjorg Rebholz is confident the 09s are his best yet -- he has two levels of many wines and he feels that the standard wines are as good as the reserves of some other vintages.
We had lunch in a cute little joint in the next village where a famous chef has returned to treat the locals. Lovely stuff and no hiccups :-)
Will stomach full and a bit of wine on board I struggled the two hours or so further south to a regular favourite stop of mine for a night out with friends. We stayed in a local pension, ordered two pretty smart wines -- a 2002 Bonneau du Martray Corton Charlemagne and a 1976 DRC Richebourg -- and let the restaurant match a few courses with it.
I managed to stay awake but it was difficult with the restaurant being so hot. A decent sleep-in beckoned though ...
Day 7: Nahe two ways about it
A quick drive an hour or so from Winningen and I was at Monzingen for a tasting with Frank Schonleber at Weingut Emrich-Schonleber. This was hiccup day. I had the hiccups for the whole drive after stuffing my breakfast down in the morning. I actually got rid of them while I waiting in the tasting room for Frank, but then they came back as soon as we finished trying the 09s!
We tried a lovely sparkling riesling brut which I will import, then a range of rieslings from dry to eiswein. There were two TBAs fermenting away and not ready to taste. They'll either blend them and sell it direct, or bottle two and sell one direct and send one to auction.
It was interesting to see the differences between their two main vineyards, Fruhlingsplatzchen and Halenberg. I preferred the Fru spatlese and the Halenberg Auslese and, fortunately, Frank agreed. Who knows in a few months' time though, and we were splitting hairs. They are just different styles and will suit different people.
We had a nice lunch and tried matching four wines with a sea trout with a creamy sauce. Then Frank got the hiccups. Heh heh.
I drove about 15 minutes from here to Bockenau for a tasting with producer of the year Tim Frohlich at Schafer-Frohlich. We went through about 20 wines and my hiccups returned mid-tasting, damn it all. It was so annoying ... Tim reckons sweet wine cures them and in fact they stopped when we hit the residual sugar of a kabinett.
Again, a knockout collection. Tim won a lot of awards for his 2008 range and I am wondering how they are going to justify not giving them all to him again when this vintage is even better! He can seemingly handle a lot of different varietals too -- I really enjoyed his pinot blanc and pinot gris, and will probably buy a couple of reds from here as well!
I wanted cheap digs for the night but Frank booked me into a hotel at a local spa resort. I had a room well away from the main restaurant, but it was nice and they eventually forgot to charge me for dinner or the internet ... at least at checkout. I am sure they will catch up with me before long. I struggled to stay awake at dinner too but I enjoyed horrifying the waiter by ordering a Donnhoff spatlese (06). The menu was full of trockens so I wanted to shock him. He thought I would taste it and reject it, but I enjoyed it will all three courses, even steak.
We tried a lovely sparkling riesling brut which I will import, then a range of rieslings from dry to eiswein. There were two TBAs fermenting away and not ready to taste. They'll either blend them and sell it direct, or bottle two and sell one direct and send one to auction.
It was interesting to see the differences between their two main vineyards, Fruhlingsplatzchen and Halenberg. I preferred the Fru spatlese and the Halenberg Auslese and, fortunately, Frank agreed. Who knows in a few months' time though, and we were splitting hairs. They are just different styles and will suit different people.
We had a nice lunch and tried matching four wines with a sea trout with a creamy sauce. Then Frank got the hiccups. Heh heh.
I drove about 15 minutes from here to Bockenau for a tasting with producer of the year Tim Frohlich at Schafer-Frohlich. We went through about 20 wines and my hiccups returned mid-tasting, damn it all. It was so annoying ... Tim reckons sweet wine cures them and in fact they stopped when we hit the residual sugar of a kabinett.
Again, a knockout collection. Tim won a lot of awards for his 2008 range and I am wondering how they are going to justify not giving them all to him again when this vintage is even better! He can seemingly handle a lot of different varietals too -- I really enjoyed his pinot blanc and pinot gris, and will probably buy a couple of reds from here as well!
I wanted cheap digs for the night but Frank booked me into a hotel at a local spa resort. I had a room well away from the main restaurant, but it was nice and they eventually forgot to charge me for dinner or the internet ... at least at checkout. I am sure they will catch up with me before long. I struggled to stay awake at dinner too but I enjoyed horrifying the waiter by ordering a Donnhoff spatlese (06). The menu was full of trockens so I wanted to shock him. He thought I would taste it and reject it, but I enjoyed it will all three courses, even steak.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Day 6: Haart to Heart
It was freezing in the morning -- zero degrees and foggy. But apparently this meant it would be a nice day, and sure enough the sun eventually broke through and the temperatures reached the mid teens.
My day had started at 5am when I must have heard my phone vibrate and I got up to answer about 30 emails. I never got back to sleep but I had a fun day. I went back to Willi Schaefer to pick up some drinking stocks for a friend, then went to Reinhold Haart, where Johannes guided me through their 09s. Again lots of lovely ripe fruit, burying the minerality somewhat, but good acid and excellent balance. We tried a 01 dry wine that had been open 10 days (and still looked great) and a 1982 auslese -- really smart wine for a weaker vintage, and this wine had also been open 10 days!
Dry and sweet riesling end up in similar shape after 10 or 20 years in bottle -- the fruity styles lose a lot of sweetness and the dry styles put on body and complexity.
From here I went back to Schloss Lieser to pick up some goodies, then set out for Winningen, about an hour north, near Koblenz.
Gas stations seem in short supply around villages in the Mosel but I finally found some fuel for the car and myself -- diesel for the Peugeot 5008 and a massive bratwurst in a bread roll for me. Yum.
Cruised along at 180 to Winningen and then caught up on emails and orders till 5pm, then went to see Matthias and his mother Beate at Weingut Knebel. There I tried a few 09s, including two awesome auslese goldcaps and an eiswein. Mmmm, more sugar. Yum again!
Went out for dinner in Koblenz and had a lovely 99 spatlese and a fairly yeasty Burguet Gevrey village 00. I was falling asleep though so it wasn't a late night. In fact I stole a 30-second shutdown and reboot in the toilets to get me through!
My day had started at 5am when I must have heard my phone vibrate and I got up to answer about 30 emails. I never got back to sleep but I had a fun day. I went back to Willi Schaefer to pick up some drinking stocks for a friend, then went to Reinhold Haart, where Johannes guided me through their 09s. Again lots of lovely ripe fruit, burying the minerality somewhat, but good acid and excellent balance. We tried a 01 dry wine that had been open 10 days (and still looked great) and a 1982 auslese -- really smart wine for a weaker vintage, and this wine had also been open 10 days!
Dry and sweet riesling end up in similar shape after 10 or 20 years in bottle -- the fruity styles lose a lot of sweetness and the dry styles put on body and complexity.
From here I went back to Schloss Lieser to pick up some goodies, then set out for Winningen, about an hour north, near Koblenz.
Gas stations seem in short supply around villages in the Mosel but I finally found some fuel for the car and myself -- diesel for the Peugeot 5008 and a massive bratwurst in a bread roll for me. Yum.
Cruised along at 180 to Winningen and then caught up on emails and orders till 5pm, then went to see Matthias and his mother Beate at Weingut Knebel. There I tried a few 09s, including two awesome auslese goldcaps and an eiswein. Mmmm, more sugar. Yum again!
Went out for dinner in Koblenz and had a lovely 99 spatlese and a fairly yeasty Burguet Gevrey village 00. I was falling asleep though so it wasn't a late night. In fact I stole a 30-second shutdown and reboot in the toilets to get me through!
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Day 5: Mosel madness
An overwhelming sugar-hit today.
Spent three hours at Weingut Willi Schaefer, trying all the 09s. A sensational range, with the auslese being pants-wetting material ... then an eiswein and a BA! Gorgeous stuff. Golden delicious all round.
Then lunch in Mulheim with Christoph before making my way to Lieser to meet with Thomas Haag. We moseyed around his vineyards for a while before settling in for a couple of hours of tasting his 09s.
The goldkaps rocked my world and that was just the start. We finished off with a long goldcap and then two TBA goldkaps! One had 470 and the other 530g/l of residual sugar!
Quick dinner with Thomas and then back to the Schmitges guesthouse. Back on the road tomorrow.
Day 4: Ruwer and Mosel
Drove back towards Trier -- loving the 280km/h commute -- and wound my way to Mertesdorf to meet with Dr Carl von Schubert at Maximin Grunhaus.
We tasted through the range of 2009s, ending with a sensational eiswein, then settled in for lunch with his wife and eldest son.
Loving the lamb lettuce here ... weird name though!
Had a 1981 Herrenberg Kabinett and 1988 Herrenberg Jungfeinweine for lunch, then headed back to Erden.
There I ran through the Schmitges lineup, now resplendent in Stelvin Lux closures for every single wine.
Again, an awesome eiswein completed the lineup. Then I wandered down the road for a typical stodgy German mean and a painfully chemical weissbier.
We tasted through the range of 2009s, ending with a sensational eiswein, then settled in for lunch with his wife and eldest son.
Loving the lamb lettuce here ... weird name though!
Had a 1981 Herrenberg Kabinett and 1988 Herrenberg Jungfeinweine for lunch, then headed back to Erden.
There I ran through the Schmitges lineup, now resplendent in Stelvin Lux closures for every single wine.
Again, an awesome eiswein completed the lineup. Then I wandered down the road for a typical stodgy German mean and a painfully chemical weissbier.
Day three: Land of the giants
I'll post briefly now and expand later.
After waking at 4am and pottering around for hours we had breakfast then went to Zilliken to pick up some goodies for Gav and David Clark in Burgundy. Dorothee served us a 1983 Rausch auslese that had been open for days but still looked as fresh as a daisy. And she is comparing 2009 to 1983 ...
Raced along the river past some precarious vineyards to Van Volxem in Wiltingen. Cellarmaster Dominic entertained us while Roman was delayed on a flight. We had a quick look at the bubbling cellars (dry wines on a long slow ferment), then looked at the exposed Scharzhofberger vineyard and some of the other sites overlooking the Saar.
Went back to the house and started tasting some 08s, including fabulous grosse gewaches -- Volz and Gottesfuss. Then Roman arrived, gave us a history lesson about riesling fetching higher prices than top Bordeaux around 1900, and served up three 2009s. Very smart.
I drove on to Erden while Gav and Gen set sail for Burgundy. I arrived at the Schmitges lodging to an empty house but thankfully they turned up, surprised to see me a day early, and we settled in for the evening.
After waking at 4am and pottering around for hours we had breakfast then went to Zilliken to pick up some goodies for Gav and David Clark in Burgundy. Dorothee served us a 1983 Rausch auslese that had been open for days but still looked as fresh as a daisy. And she is comparing 2009 to 1983 ...
Raced along the river past some precarious vineyards to Van Volxem in Wiltingen. Cellarmaster Dominic entertained us while Roman was delayed on a flight. We had a quick look at the bubbling cellars (dry wines on a long slow ferment), then looked at the exposed Scharzhofberger vineyard and some of the other sites overlooking the Saar.
Went back to the house and started tasting some 08s, including fabulous grosse gewaches -- Volz and Gottesfuss. Then Roman arrived, gave us a history lesson about riesling fetching higher prices than top Bordeaux around 1900, and served up three 2009s. Very smart.
I drove on to Erden while Gav and Gen set sail for Burgundy. I arrived at the Schmitges lodging to an empty house but thankfully they turned up, surprised to see me a day early, and we settled in for the evening.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Day two: back on the right side of the road
I love Europe. It was exciting to be back on the continent. I had dozed on the short flight from London to Charles de Gaulle, negotiated the disinterested French immigration control post (no questions, just a stamp of arrival in the passport), was surprised to see both of my bags emerge from the carousel, walked past an empty customs post and then hurried to the rental car counter hoping they still had my car, booked for collection four hours earlier.
My rental booking is great value but I later realised it looks like I have no insurance cover. I hope that's not right as I thought I had just declined the major excess reduction, which is covered by my travel insurance (I have an annual policy, which saves a fair bit of money and hassle). The car is a diesel Peugeot 5008 stationwagon. It's got heaps of room, two vital power outlets, plenty of grunt, and diesel is so much more economical in Europe.
The TomTom fired up and quickly had me on the right roads. I was soon on the A4 doing 135kmh towards Reims and then Strasbourg. I was heading for Germany but I was thrilled to be back in France. I decided Germany was like family -- reliable, secure, constant -- and France was more romantic intrigue. It'll be better when I have time to improve my basic French, but for now I can get by and I love it.
I hit some roadworks and a major traffic jam near Luxembourg, and ended up doing a U-turn to get my exit, but I was on track for a 4pm arrival in Saarburg. Gavin and Gen had driven up from Beaune via Champagne so Gavin could fill his boot with more grower/bio champagnes, and arrived at the Hotel Galerie half an hour or so before me.
I had a shower, changed and we walked about 150m up the road for the first tasting visit of the March-April 2010 tour: Weingut Forstmeister-Geltz Zilliken.
With Hanno and Ruth away, the ever-delightful Dorothee gave us a guided tour of the cellars and then did a tasting of the 2009 range. German wine rules are changing again in a bid to make them simpler and more logical for the customer, and Zilliken have tackled all of the changes in this vintage.
They now have a three-tier range, start with gutsweine, or estate wine, then orstweine, or village level, and finally the Erste Lage range.
The names are also being simplified, and while all VDP members are expected to make a Grosse Gewachs now (a grand cru dry wine), they must no longer name wines kabinett trocken or spatlese trocken. No matter what must weight the grapes are picked at, they will be labelled trocken (max 9g/l r/s) or feinherb, with the terms kabinett, spatlese and auslese reserved for fruity wines.
At Zilliken we started with a trocken from each of the three quality levels: The Zilliken Riesling Trocken was first, and I was really impressed. It's very open and floral on the nose, and has impressive softness in the mouth. The Saarburger Trocken is less expressive on the nose but has a richer, more soil-driven palate. Then the "Rausch GG", which in more confusing times would have been called Saarburger Rausch Spatlese Trocken Grosse Gewachs. I'm not convinced about the pursuit of dry wines from a region that does fruity so well, but dry is where the German market is, so I understand the desire to try.
Zilliken's first is a nice effort -- it has real length and persistence. It's closed on the nose but on the palate it is dense and yet still elegant. Yellow fruit seem to be a hallmark of the vintage here. I often think of Z wines as featuring lime, vanilla essence and slate, but this vintage there is more tropical fruit -- mangoes, peach, apricot and pineapple.
Dorothee opined that Saar's point of difference is the variation in the climate, which she believes gives the wines more character and depth of flavour. 2009 had been wet in August but was perfect in September and October. One day after they finished picking it rained for a month.
Zilliken were able to make wines at every level they wanted, except eiswein as the grapes had lost their sugar and acid by the time the weather was cold enough to snap freeze them.
The process at Zilliken is to handpick grapes, press gently (or not at all for a couple of wines, taking just what juice emerged naturally from the weight in the press), put the juice in tank for one day and then transfer it to old oak fudres in the cellar for fermentation, which they believes improves the mouthfeel. When they feel the wine is balanced at whatever sweetness level they rack the wine off the yeast (twice if necessary), do a large-pore filter and then sulphur to stabilise. The sweeter the wine, the more sulphur is required to ensure there is no refermentation with all that sugar.
Back to the vintage 09: Dorothee says the wines have the elegance of 04 but the intensity of flavour of 05. Then she compares it to 1983. Every vintage has its subtle differences, and although the acids are as high as 08, they are softer, riper, rounder, comprising less malic acid (apple flavours). Minerality shines through, and the devonian slate seems to have imparted a powdery, wet-concrete taste that we'll call slate.
So, back to the glass: I'll go for the estate trocken because it's so expressive and will be the best value (people love dry wines but seem reluctant to pay much for them). The second flight is three off-dry wines: Zilliken Butterfly, Saarburger Feinherb and "Rausch Diabas", a new name in the family. Without kabinett trocken or spatlese trocken to identify a wine picked at a higher must weight, Zilliken convinced the VDP of the need for a new estate name for a top-class feinherb. Diabas is the second most prolific type of rock in their vineyards, a minerally stone.
The Butterfly is pretty, fresh, limey, talcy, just lovely. With 17g/l r/s, a screwcap and a label that was inspired by a wine writer's description of Zilliken wines as being as delicate as a butterfly, this is certain to be a big seller. I like it more than the 07 and 08, from memory.
The Saarburger Feinherb has a pale yellow colour, nice intensity, 22g/l r/s but finishes even drier than the Butterfly. It's very good.
The Diabas was picked at auslese level of ripeness -- 108 oechsle -- and fermented to about 24g/l r/s. It has delicate flavours but they are intense, clean and long, and the wine again finishes virtually dry.
Up a grade in sweetness now to kabinett and a chance to compare Zilliken's 8ha of Saarburger Rausch and 1ha of Ockfener Bockstein. Ockfen is the next village along the river.
The Zilliken Riesling is the estate kabinett and shows lots of ripe yellow fruit. It's clean, fresh, fruity and carries the 50g/l of sugar with ease.
The Saarburger Kabinett is richer on the palate and has hints of passionfruit. It's full in tatse but light on the alcohol, one of the reasons I love German riesling.
The Bockstein Kabinett comes from a vineyard that is not as steep as the Rausch but is still south-facing. It has devonian slate but it's more gravelly. The wines tend to be more open and powerful, and this one, even with just 45g/l r/s, tastes quite dense, with grapefruit, passionfruit and powdery slate on the palate. The alcohol is about 8.5 to 9% (the final analysis is not made until the wines are submitted for approval for their AP numbers).
The Rausch Kabinett leaps up to 65g/l r/s and is more floral and delicate. This site delivers more elegance and tropical fruit flavours of apricot, peach and pineapple.
The next wine grabs me too -- the Rausch Spatlese, which will be AP #6, and here comes a revelation about the grade of quality at Zilliken. They assign AP#1 to their best wine and move down the order from there. So if there are three spatleses in the vintage, the lowest number is what Zilliken consider to the best of them.
This spatlese is intense, with lots of peach, apricot, mango ... lots of acid too to keep it clean and in check on the finish. It leaves the palate thirsting for more. Dorothee likes to call it "animating, elegant acidity". This wine has about 80g/l r/s and alcohol of 7.5 to 8%.
Even the next wine, the Rausch Auslese (AP#5), doesn't taste sweet at 95g/l r/s. You can see it's a dense and ripe vintage but it's still bright and lively on the palate.
A quick palate cleanser and then we have a look at the 1993 Saarburger Rausch Auslese which I'll be importing later in the year (I've also got the last 10 cases of the '93 spatlese). The sugar has subsided (and was probably spatlese level to start with), and waxy, lanolin flavours have begun to develop, but it's still so fresh on the palate -- lemon curd, quince, a hint of licehn -- and then we learn that this bottle has been open for six days!
Next up is the Rausch Auslese #8 from 2005. This was the vintage of a lifetime for Zilliken and one they consoled themselves with when they cracked their last bottle of 1959 last year. They made six auslese that vintage -- two standard, two goldcap and two longcap! The best of them was AP#5, so this goldcap was fourth in the queue. The flavours are concentrated and in the lemon curd spectrum, but the acid is fresh and energises the palate rather than overwhelming it.
I'm exhausted and distracted so Dorothee decides to perk me up with their best two wines of the 2009 vintage. Both will be available only at the VDP auction in Trier in September, so I'll have to go to that!
The Rausch Auslese Goldcap #2 was picked at 130 oechsle, with 100% botrytis, but it is so clean and light on the palate. Energy and intensity rather than lushness. The 180g/l r/s is easily carried by acidity of 12g/l.
The big daddy is the most intense TBA Zilliken has made, with more must weight than their gauge could measure, and it goes to 230 oechsle! The raw figures are approximately 400g/l r/s, 15g/l acid and a surprisingly high 6.5% alcohol. "We've never had a wine with such concentration," Dorothee says. There is just 80 litres of it and I'll be trying to get my share. It's noticeably viscous in the glass but still not overpowering in the mouth. It's all about balance.
Looks like 2009 is a cracker, and yet different to the great string of vintages preceding it. And that's got to be a good thing.
Today's schedule: Van Volxem. Owner Roman Niewodniczanski is leading the charge for classication clarification at the VDP and will surely have plenty to say. And with his 2007 and 2008 wines grabbing people so quickly on arrival in Australia, I'll be paying close attention to the stars of his 09 lineup.
My rental booking is great value but I later realised it looks like I have no insurance cover. I hope that's not right as I thought I had just declined the major excess reduction, which is covered by my travel insurance (I have an annual policy, which saves a fair bit of money and hassle). The car is a diesel Peugeot 5008 stationwagon. It's got heaps of room, two vital power outlets, plenty of grunt, and diesel is so much more economical in Europe.
The TomTom fired up and quickly had me on the right roads. I was soon on the A4 doing 135kmh towards Reims and then Strasbourg. I was heading for Germany but I was thrilled to be back in France. I decided Germany was like family -- reliable, secure, constant -- and France was more romantic intrigue. It'll be better when I have time to improve my basic French, but for now I can get by and I love it.
I hit some roadworks and a major traffic jam near Luxembourg, and ended up doing a U-turn to get my exit, but I was on track for a 4pm arrival in Saarburg. Gavin and Gen had driven up from Beaune via Champagne so Gavin could fill his boot with more grower/bio champagnes, and arrived at the Hotel Galerie half an hour or so before me.
I had a shower, changed and we walked about 150m up the road for the first tasting visit of the March-April 2010 tour: Weingut Forstmeister-Geltz Zilliken.
With Hanno and Ruth away, the ever-delightful Dorothee gave us a guided tour of the cellars and then did a tasting of the 2009 range. German wine rules are changing again in a bid to make them simpler and more logical for the customer, and Zilliken have tackled all of the changes in this vintage.
They now have a three-tier range, start with gutsweine, or estate wine, then orstweine, or village level, and finally the Erste Lage range.
The names are also being simplified, and while all VDP members are expected to make a Grosse Gewachs now (a grand cru dry wine), they must no longer name wines kabinett trocken or spatlese trocken. No matter what must weight the grapes are picked at, they will be labelled trocken (max 9g/l r/s) or feinherb, with the terms kabinett, spatlese and auslese reserved for fruity wines.
At Zilliken we started with a trocken from each of the three quality levels: The Zilliken Riesling Trocken was first, and I was really impressed. It's very open and floral on the nose, and has impressive softness in the mouth. The Saarburger Trocken is less expressive on the nose but has a richer, more soil-driven palate. Then the "Rausch GG", which in more confusing times would have been called Saarburger Rausch Spatlese Trocken Grosse Gewachs. I'm not convinced about the pursuit of dry wines from a region that does fruity so well, but dry is where the German market is, so I understand the desire to try.
Zilliken's first is a nice effort -- it has real length and persistence. It's closed on the nose but on the palate it is dense and yet still elegant. Yellow fruit seem to be a hallmark of the vintage here. I often think of Z wines as featuring lime, vanilla essence and slate, but this vintage there is more tropical fruit -- mangoes, peach, apricot and pineapple.
Dorothee opined that Saar's point of difference is the variation in the climate, which she believes gives the wines more character and depth of flavour. 2009 had been wet in August but was perfect in September and October. One day after they finished picking it rained for a month.
Zilliken were able to make wines at every level they wanted, except eiswein as the grapes had lost their sugar and acid by the time the weather was cold enough to snap freeze them.
The process at Zilliken is to handpick grapes, press gently (or not at all for a couple of wines, taking just what juice emerged naturally from the weight in the press), put the juice in tank for one day and then transfer it to old oak fudres in the cellar for fermentation, which they believes improves the mouthfeel. When they feel the wine is balanced at whatever sweetness level they rack the wine off the yeast (twice if necessary), do a large-pore filter and then sulphur to stabilise. The sweeter the wine, the more sulphur is required to ensure there is no refermentation with all that sugar.
Back to the vintage 09: Dorothee says the wines have the elegance of 04 but the intensity of flavour of 05. Then she compares it to 1983. Every vintage has its subtle differences, and although the acids are as high as 08, they are softer, riper, rounder, comprising less malic acid (apple flavours). Minerality shines through, and the devonian slate seems to have imparted a powdery, wet-concrete taste that we'll call slate.
So, back to the glass: I'll go for the estate trocken because it's so expressive and will be the best value (people love dry wines but seem reluctant to pay much for them). The second flight is three off-dry wines: Zilliken Butterfly, Saarburger Feinherb and "Rausch Diabas", a new name in the family. Without kabinett trocken or spatlese trocken to identify a wine picked at a higher must weight, Zilliken convinced the VDP of the need for a new estate name for a top-class feinherb. Diabas is the second most prolific type of rock in their vineyards, a minerally stone.
The Butterfly is pretty, fresh, limey, talcy, just lovely. With 17g/l r/s, a screwcap and a label that was inspired by a wine writer's description of Zilliken wines as being as delicate as a butterfly, this is certain to be a big seller. I like it more than the 07 and 08, from memory.
The Saarburger Feinherb has a pale yellow colour, nice intensity, 22g/l r/s but finishes even drier than the Butterfly. It's very good.
The Diabas was picked at auslese level of ripeness -- 108 oechsle -- and fermented to about 24g/l r/s. It has delicate flavours but they are intense, clean and long, and the wine again finishes virtually dry.
Up a grade in sweetness now to kabinett and a chance to compare Zilliken's 8ha of Saarburger Rausch and 1ha of Ockfener Bockstein. Ockfen is the next village along the river.
The Zilliken Riesling is the estate kabinett and shows lots of ripe yellow fruit. It's clean, fresh, fruity and carries the 50g/l of sugar with ease.
The Saarburger Kabinett is richer on the palate and has hints of passionfruit. It's full in tatse but light on the alcohol, one of the reasons I love German riesling.
The Bockstein Kabinett comes from a vineyard that is not as steep as the Rausch but is still south-facing. It has devonian slate but it's more gravelly. The wines tend to be more open and powerful, and this one, even with just 45g/l r/s, tastes quite dense, with grapefruit, passionfruit and powdery slate on the palate. The alcohol is about 8.5 to 9% (the final analysis is not made until the wines are submitted for approval for their AP numbers).
The Rausch Kabinett leaps up to 65g/l r/s and is more floral and delicate. This site delivers more elegance and tropical fruit flavours of apricot, peach and pineapple.
The next wine grabs me too -- the Rausch Spatlese, which will be AP #6, and here comes a revelation about the grade of quality at Zilliken. They assign AP#1 to their best wine and move down the order from there. So if there are three spatleses in the vintage, the lowest number is what Zilliken consider to the best of them.
This spatlese is intense, with lots of peach, apricot, mango ... lots of acid too to keep it clean and in check on the finish. It leaves the palate thirsting for more. Dorothee likes to call it "animating, elegant acidity". This wine has about 80g/l r/s and alcohol of 7.5 to 8%.
Even the next wine, the Rausch Auslese (AP#5), doesn't taste sweet at 95g/l r/s. You can see it's a dense and ripe vintage but it's still bright and lively on the palate.
A quick palate cleanser and then we have a look at the 1993 Saarburger Rausch Auslese which I'll be importing later in the year (I've also got the last 10 cases of the '93 spatlese). The sugar has subsided (and was probably spatlese level to start with), and waxy, lanolin flavours have begun to develop, but it's still so fresh on the palate -- lemon curd, quince, a hint of licehn -- and then we learn that this bottle has been open for six days!
Next up is the Rausch Auslese #8 from 2005. This was the vintage of a lifetime for Zilliken and one they consoled themselves with when they cracked their last bottle of 1959 last year. They made six auslese that vintage -- two standard, two goldcap and two longcap! The best of them was AP#5, so this goldcap was fourth in the queue. The flavours are concentrated and in the lemon curd spectrum, but the acid is fresh and energises the palate rather than overwhelming it.
I'm exhausted and distracted so Dorothee decides to perk me up with their best two wines of the 2009 vintage. Both will be available only at the VDP auction in Trier in September, so I'll have to go to that!
The Rausch Auslese Goldcap #2 was picked at 130 oechsle, with 100% botrytis, but it is so clean and light on the palate. Energy and intensity rather than lushness. The 180g/l r/s is easily carried by acidity of 12g/l.
The big daddy is the most intense TBA Zilliken has made, with more must weight than their gauge could measure, and it goes to 230 oechsle! The raw figures are approximately 400g/l r/s, 15g/l acid and a surprisingly high 6.5% alcohol. "We've never had a wine with such concentration," Dorothee says. There is just 80 litres of it and I'll be trying to get my share. It's noticeably viscous in the glass but still not overpowering in the mouth. It's all about balance.
Looks like 2009 is a cracker, and yet different to the great string of vintages preceding it. And that's got to be a good thing.
Today's schedule: Van Volxem. Owner Roman Niewodniczanski is leading the charge for classication clarification at the VDP and will surely have plenty to say. And with his 2007 and 2008 wines grabbing people so quickly on arrival in Australia, I'll be paying close attention to the stars of his 09 lineup.
Back in Europe: daily updates (I hope)!
Hello anyone out there.
I figure it's time I attempted a daily blog to keep any interested parties up to date with what's going on during this extended buying trip in Europe.
Friday, March 12, 2010:
My usual chaotic preparation for a trip overseas. I'm always a fairly good chance of missing flights because I attempt to do so much before I fly. This day was no exception. I had a 9am appointment with a dermatologist because of an inflamed mole on my lower back that had been bothering me, and with two previous skin cancer incidents I had decided to play it safe. The doctor felt that the two moles I referred her to were fine but she removed them both anyway and they will be tested for nasties.
I went home and packed and worked through a list of jobs, primarily being frustrated by TomTom ... I'd almost missed flights 18 months earlier after stuffing around trying to download maps of France and Germany to my mobile phone, and this time my GPS was giving me just as much grief. The maps I had bought for my unit at $180 downloaded to my computer but wouldn't fit on the GPS. I got a snotty support guy at TomTom who eventually hung up on me and went to lunch. The next guy was much better but I eventually had to give up on making it work. Instead I had deleted everything off the unit and was going to try to figure it out on the plane.
I had intended to catch a cab at 2pm so I could beat the driver changeover and be at the airport in plenty of time for a 5.40pm flight. Too easy, so instead I drove around town to do three jobs: I left home at 1.45pm and booked the cab for 3pm, then set off to drop off two bottles of chablis at the warehouse to add to an order and one bottle of champagne to be posted to a restaurant that is looking for 50 cases. Then I drove to News Limited to leave three bottles to be photographed for an article James Halliday is writing on Schloss Lieser for The Australian weekend magazine. The final task was to get 2kg of Campos Superior coffee beans from Newtown for a mate in Burgundy. I pushed the cab booking to 3.15pm and then 3.30pm as I raced home.
Scrapping plans to have another shower, I quickly changed, grabbed all my things and headed outside. The cab turned up almost on time and although it took longer than I would have liked, by checking in the night before I only had to arrive 60 minutes early to check in bags.
Qantas were unmoved by a letter from my doctor asking me to be given a more comfortable seat (that would have been business!) so I settled in at the back of the plane on a new A380. New but not reliable apparently as it had "engineering" issues and we left about an hour late. My connection time in Singapore was only one hour for th flight to Paris and I was given conflicting information about whether that flight would be held.
Despite the constant farting of the old man in the aisle seat, or maybe because of it, I slept a couple of hours and caught up on a couple of movies. There was no hope of making a quick getaway because although the crew offered to take me upstairs through business, the old farter didn't want to let me out.
Ground staff told me the flight was going to be held for 70 minutes but then when I checked at the transfer desk they told me it had already left. They were going to put me back on the 380 for London, with a connection to Paris and an arrival time about five and a half hours later than planned.
I changed clothes, got back on the plane and this time had 13 or so hours to look forward to sandwiched between two big guys -- one a nice British businessman based in Hungary, and the other a giant Mormon who smelled bad, slept with his mouth open and also turned out to be a chronic farter. Why do people do this in enclosed places? Can't they go to the bathroom and spare the rest of us the nasal torture?
Still, I slept for a few hours, watched a couple more movies and made it to London and my new connection. Also, on about the fifth attempt, I got the TomTom map to fit on the GPS. I then went in and deleted a bunch of voice files (as instructed) to free up more memory, and then tried to add one voice. It wouldn't work until I emptied the trash, but even after downloading the voice the unit said it didn't have any matched to the maps and I would be guided by arrows instead of voice commands.
Still, I thought I could live with that -- at least I had the maps. Let's call that the end of the first day and the end of a ridiculously long post. I'm not going to be able to do this much every day!
I figure it's time I attempted a daily blog to keep any interested parties up to date with what's going on during this extended buying trip in Europe.
Friday, March 12, 2010:
My usual chaotic preparation for a trip overseas. I'm always a fairly good chance of missing flights because I attempt to do so much before I fly. This day was no exception. I had a 9am appointment with a dermatologist because of an inflamed mole on my lower back that had been bothering me, and with two previous skin cancer incidents I had decided to play it safe. The doctor felt that the two moles I referred her to were fine but she removed them both anyway and they will be tested for nasties.
I went home and packed and worked through a list of jobs, primarily being frustrated by TomTom ... I'd almost missed flights 18 months earlier after stuffing around trying to download maps of France and Germany to my mobile phone, and this time my GPS was giving me just as much grief. The maps I had bought for my unit at $180 downloaded to my computer but wouldn't fit on the GPS. I got a snotty support guy at TomTom who eventually hung up on me and went to lunch. The next guy was much better but I eventually had to give up on making it work. Instead I had deleted everything off the unit and was going to try to figure it out on the plane.
I had intended to catch a cab at 2pm so I could beat the driver changeover and be at the airport in plenty of time for a 5.40pm flight. Too easy, so instead I drove around town to do three jobs: I left home at 1.45pm and booked the cab for 3pm, then set off to drop off two bottles of chablis at the warehouse to add to an order and one bottle of champagne to be posted to a restaurant that is looking for 50 cases. Then I drove to News Limited to leave three bottles to be photographed for an article James Halliday is writing on Schloss Lieser for The Australian weekend magazine. The final task was to get 2kg of Campos Superior coffee beans from Newtown for a mate in Burgundy. I pushed the cab booking to 3.15pm and then 3.30pm as I raced home.
Scrapping plans to have another shower, I quickly changed, grabbed all my things and headed outside. The cab turned up almost on time and although it took longer than I would have liked, by checking in the night before I only had to arrive 60 minutes early to check in bags.
Qantas were unmoved by a letter from my doctor asking me to be given a more comfortable seat (that would have been business!) so I settled in at the back of the plane on a new A380. New but not reliable apparently as it had "engineering" issues and we left about an hour late. My connection time in Singapore was only one hour for th flight to Paris and I was given conflicting information about whether that flight would be held.
Despite the constant farting of the old man in the aisle seat, or maybe because of it, I slept a couple of hours and caught up on a couple of movies. There was no hope of making a quick getaway because although the crew offered to take me upstairs through business, the old farter didn't want to let me out.
Ground staff told me the flight was going to be held for 70 minutes but then when I checked at the transfer desk they told me it had already left. They were going to put me back on the 380 for London, with a connection to Paris and an arrival time about five and a half hours later than planned.
I changed clothes, got back on the plane and this time had 13 or so hours to look forward to sandwiched between two big guys -- one a nice British businessman based in Hungary, and the other a giant Mormon who smelled bad, slept with his mouth open and also turned out to be a chronic farter. Why do people do this in enclosed places? Can't they go to the bathroom and spare the rest of us the nasal torture?
Still, I slept for a few hours, watched a couple more movies and made it to London and my new connection. Also, on about the fifth attempt, I got the TomTom map to fit on the GPS. I then went in and deleted a bunch of voice files (as instructed) to free up more memory, and then tried to add one voice. It wouldn't work until I emptied the trash, but even after downloading the voice the unit said it didn't have any matched to the maps and I would be guided by arrows instead of voice commands.
Still, I thought I could live with that -- at least I had the maps. Let's call that the end of the first day and the end of a ridiculously long post. I'm not going to be able to do this much every day!
Friday, January 22, 2010
New arrivals
The boats are lining up over the next few weeks.
First in to port is the 2007 Unison Syrah from the Gimblett Gravels in Hawke's Bay. I somehow missed the release of this and could only snare 56 cases ... I've got 50 here now, just in time for a 95-point review in Gourmet Traveller Wine by Andrew Caillard MW. Apparently it was one of the highlights of a recent NZ visit. The 06 was very popular and this is by all accounts better. There are just five cases of the 06 left if anyone is keen. $39.95 retail, but you can get it on www.eurocentricwine.com.au for 10% if you read the instructions. Amazing how many people don't!
Next up is the overflow of an ambitious containerload that arrived last December. These three producers had to sit in the coldstore (which was really a warm store at 12C since it was sub-zero outside) until I managed to get space in a new shared-reefer scheme through one of the freight forwarding companies.
So, hopefully by the end of next week I will see the debut of Domaine des Croix (two 06 red Burgundies), Camille Giroud (red Burgundy from 02, 03 and 06, but maximum of five cases of each wine, including the Decanter Trophy-winning 06 Chambertin!), and Domaine des Chenevieres from Chablis (awesome juice!)
"Finally", a container full of 2008 German rieslings ... including, just in time, the full range of Willi Schaefers and Schloss Liesers. Thomas Haag of Schloss Lieser will be in Sydney and Melbourne at the end of Feb/early March, and his wines should go through the roof, they are so good. The Schaefers have been sold out bar one wine, and I expect these to go quickly too. I'll put out a pre-arrival offer on this duo next week (sign up for the newsletter at www.eurocentricwine.com.au to be in the front of the queue).
There are some lovely quirky wines in this shipment, including a gorgeous red called Cuvee X, weissburgunder (pinot blanc), chardonnay, spatburgunder (pinot noir), grauburgunder (pinot gris), sparkling riesling, sparkling pinot-chardonnay, and various expressions of gewurztraminer.
That'll be all for a little while, although the orders are banking up in Europe, if only I could sell some of this to free up some money and space! Spend, my friends, spend up large!
First in to port is the 2007 Unison Syrah from the Gimblett Gravels in Hawke's Bay. I somehow missed the release of this and could only snare 56 cases ... I've got 50 here now, just in time for a 95-point review in Gourmet Traveller Wine by Andrew Caillard MW. Apparently it was one of the highlights of a recent NZ visit. The 06 was very popular and this is by all accounts better. There are just five cases of the 06 left if anyone is keen. $39.95 retail, but you can get it on www.eurocentricwine.com.au for 10% if you read the instructions. Amazing how many people don't!
Next up is the overflow of an ambitious containerload that arrived last December. These three producers had to sit in the coldstore (which was really a warm store at 12C since it was sub-zero outside) until I managed to get space in a new shared-reefer scheme through one of the freight forwarding companies.
So, hopefully by the end of next week I will see the debut of Domaine des Croix (two 06 red Burgundies), Camille Giroud (red Burgundy from 02, 03 and 06, but maximum of five cases of each wine, including the Decanter Trophy-winning 06 Chambertin!), and Domaine des Chenevieres from Chablis (awesome juice!)
"Finally", a container full of 2008 German rieslings ... including, just in time, the full range of Willi Schaefers and Schloss Liesers. Thomas Haag of Schloss Lieser will be in Sydney and Melbourne at the end of Feb/early March, and his wines should go through the roof, they are so good. The Schaefers have been sold out bar one wine, and I expect these to go quickly too. I'll put out a pre-arrival offer on this duo next week (sign up for the newsletter at www.eurocentricwine.com.au to be in the front of the queue).
There are some lovely quirky wines in this shipment, including a gorgeous red called Cuvee X, weissburgunder (pinot blanc), chardonnay, spatburgunder (pinot noir), grauburgunder (pinot gris), sparkling riesling, sparkling pinot-chardonnay, and various expressions of gewurztraminer.
That'll be all for a little while, although the orders are banking up in Europe, if only I could sell some of this to free up some money and space! Spend, my friends, spend up large!
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Comings and goings
Happy new year!
There's a lot happening in the first half of this year with Eurocentric Wine Imports and if you love your wine you might like to be involved.
There's an overflow shipment of wine arriving later this month, including the debut of Domaine des Croix and Camille Giroud from Burgundy and Domaine des Chenevieres from Chablis, following by a container of mostly 2008 German rieslings. Actually that shipment includes some quirky obscurity of the kind that top restaurants love.
Take Cuvee X from Schmitges in the Mosel -- it's 10% pinot noir, 90% dornfelder and 100% delicious, like the classic lunchtime claret. Other small parcels include dry and sweet gewurztraminers, pinot blanc (weissburgunder), pinot gris (grauburgunder), pinot noir (spatburgunder), sparkling riesling, methode champenoise, chardonnay and of course rieslings, from dry to TBA goldkapsel!
Three of our winemakers will be in Sydney and/or Melbourne in the next couple of months and are available to meet sommeliers and retailers. The schedule is:
Feb 2-5, Sydney & Melbourne: Unison's Philip Horn, launching the 2007 Syrah (look for a glowing review in Gourmet Traveller Wine in the Feb-March issue).
Feb 6-8, Sydney: Redoubt Hill winemaker Leslie Jackson to promote the 2009 pinot gris and 2009 sauvignon blanc.
Feb 28-Mar 3, Melbourne & Sydney: Schloss Lieser winemaker Thomas Haag, with trade tastings on Feb 28 and March 1 in Melbourne, including a dinner for punters with 15 wines from the 2007 and 08 vintages, and then the same in Sydney, with dinner at Galileo at the Observatory Hotel on March 3.
And the goings?
I'm finally off to Europe to meet potential new producers and to try the 2008 and 2009 vintages in Germany, Alsace, Burgundy, Beaujolais, the Rhone, Chablis and Champagne.
I've had friends come along for all or part of the journey before and I'm open to up to three people coming along this time. It's a fairly hectic schedule at times, but you'd get to taste a huge range of wines at many fantastic domaines. It's a little more relaxed in Germany, where I usually taste at just two houses a day.
Here's the plan:
March 12: Sydney-Paris
March 13: Drive Paris to Wiltingen/Saarburg to taste with Zilliken and Van Volxem.
March 15: Maximin Grunhaus, Schmitges (staying @ Schmitges, in Erden).
March 16: Willi Schaefer, Schloss Lieser
March 17: Reinhold Haart, Knebel (night out in Koblenz)
March 18: Emrich-Schonleber, Schafer-Frohlich
March 19: Rebholz, dinner at a German restaurant with an amazing wine list
March 20: Alsace tastings, dinner at a little restaurant with an amazing wine list (think Faiveley Musigny and Coche Dury Corton Charlemagne)
March 21: Lunch at a cute restaurant with an amazing wine list (it's the toughest three-day stretch!) Then struggle towards Beaune.
March 22: Grands Jours de Bourgogne in and around Beaune. A six-day wine fair at various venues with great regional tastings.
March 27/28: Dinner somewhere fab. Drive south.
March 29: Tastings in the Rhone, inc Domaine des Espiers in Vacqueras.
March 30: Tastings in Beaune, inc JM Burgaud, Roland Pignard, possibly others.
March 31-April 9: Burgundy tastings, including Camille Giroud, Domaine des Croix, David Clark, Drouhin Laroze, Benoit Ente, Jean-Philippe Fichet, Dupont-Tisserandot, Amiot-Servelle, Paul Pernot, Thierry Matrot, Stephane Aladame, Alex Gambal, Aurelien Verdet, Humbert Freres, Auguste et Lucie Lignier, Livera and other rising stars.
April 10: Chablis @ Chenevieres and JC Bessin
April 11: Bertrand Gautherot (Vouette et Sorbee)
April 12-16: Henri Billiot, Rene Geoffroy, Chartogne-Taillet, Ployez-Jacquemart, Ulysse Collin, Georges Laval, David Leclapart and other growers.
April 17: Return to Paris, Eurostar to London for R&R
April 24: Fly to Frankfurt for two-day Weinborse German wine fair in Mainz
April 26: Frankfurt-Sydney
April 28: Arrive home.
If you'd like to join in for part of the trip, drop me a line. I'll try to blog every day or so, otherwise it just doesn't happen!
There's a lot happening in the first half of this year with Eurocentric Wine Imports and if you love your wine you might like to be involved.
There's an overflow shipment of wine arriving later this month, including the debut of Domaine des Croix and Camille Giroud from Burgundy and Domaine des Chenevieres from Chablis, following by a container of mostly 2008 German rieslings. Actually that shipment includes some quirky obscurity of the kind that top restaurants love.
Take Cuvee X from Schmitges in the Mosel -- it's 10% pinot noir, 90% dornfelder and 100% delicious, like the classic lunchtime claret. Other small parcels include dry and sweet gewurztraminers, pinot blanc (weissburgunder), pinot gris (grauburgunder), pinot noir (spatburgunder), sparkling riesling, methode champenoise, chardonnay and of course rieslings, from dry to TBA goldkapsel!
Three of our winemakers will be in Sydney and/or Melbourne in the next couple of months and are available to meet sommeliers and retailers. The schedule is:
Feb 2-5, Sydney & Melbourne: Unison's Philip Horn, launching the 2007 Syrah (look for a glowing review in Gourmet Traveller Wine in the Feb-March issue).
Feb 6-8, Sydney: Redoubt Hill winemaker Leslie Jackson to promote the 2009 pinot gris and 2009 sauvignon blanc.
Feb 28-Mar 3, Melbourne & Sydney: Schloss Lieser winemaker Thomas Haag, with trade tastings on Feb 28 and March 1 in Melbourne, including a dinner for punters with 15 wines from the 2007 and 08 vintages, and then the same in Sydney, with dinner at Galileo at the Observatory Hotel on March 3.
And the goings?
I'm finally off to Europe to meet potential new producers and to try the 2008 and 2009 vintages in Germany, Alsace, Burgundy, Beaujolais, the Rhone, Chablis and Champagne.
I've had friends come along for all or part of the journey before and I'm open to up to three people coming along this time. It's a fairly hectic schedule at times, but you'd get to taste a huge range of wines at many fantastic domaines. It's a little more relaxed in Germany, where I usually taste at just two houses a day.
Here's the plan:
March 12: Sydney-Paris
March 13: Drive Paris to Wiltingen/Saarburg to taste with Zilliken and Van Volxem.
March 15: Maximin Grunhaus, Schmitges (staying @ Schmitges, in Erden).
March 16: Willi Schaefer, Schloss Lieser
March 17: Reinhold Haart, Knebel (night out in Koblenz)
March 18: Emrich-Schonleber, Schafer-Frohlich
March 19: Rebholz, dinner at a German restaurant with an amazing wine list
March 20: Alsace tastings, dinner at a little restaurant with an amazing wine list (think Faiveley Musigny and Coche Dury Corton Charlemagne)
March 21: Lunch at a cute restaurant with an amazing wine list (it's the toughest three-day stretch!) Then struggle towards Beaune.
March 22: Grands Jours de Bourgogne in and around Beaune. A six-day wine fair at various venues with great regional tastings.
March 27/28: Dinner somewhere fab. Drive south.
March 29: Tastings in the Rhone, inc Domaine des Espiers in Vacqueras.
March 30: Tastings in Beaune, inc JM Burgaud, Roland Pignard, possibly others.
March 31-April 9: Burgundy tastings, including Camille Giroud, Domaine des Croix, David Clark, Drouhin Laroze, Benoit Ente, Jean-Philippe Fichet, Dupont-Tisserandot, Amiot-Servelle, Paul Pernot, Thierry Matrot, Stephane Aladame, Alex Gambal, Aurelien Verdet, Humbert Freres, Auguste et Lucie Lignier, Livera and other rising stars.
April 10: Chablis @ Chenevieres and JC Bessin
April 11: Bertrand Gautherot (Vouette et Sorbee)
April 12-16: Henri Billiot, Rene Geoffroy, Chartogne-Taillet, Ployez-Jacquemart, Ulysse Collin, Georges Laval, David Leclapart and other growers.
April 17: Return to Paris, Eurostar to London for R&R
April 24: Fly to Frankfurt for two-day Weinborse German wine fair in Mainz
April 26: Frankfurt-Sydney
April 28: Arrive home.
If you'd like to join in for part of the trip, drop me a line. I'll try to blog every day or so, otherwise it just doesn't happen!
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