The week that was

So many great stories to catch up on and share. Here's what's been happening:

Thursday: Visited JF Hillebrand in Beaune to talk about my shipments they handle
Friday: Camille Giroud and David Croix for tastings of 08s and 09s, and Fabienne Bony in Nuits St Georges, which only confirmed my opinion on how difficult it is to sell wines from that appellation. Dinner at Cave Madeleine.
Saturday: Spent a long time at an Orange store to buy a SIM for my phone. Wasn't thrilled when it ran out of the 35e credit in one day. Turns out the assistant had forgotten to turn off the roaming 3G. Caught the tail end of the farmers' market, and went to the Athenaeum. Dinner at Comptoir des TonTons.
Sunday: Visited Stephane Aladame in Montagny les Buxy to taste the 2008s and 2009s. I added some half bottles to my order they had just packed (2008s). Then went to Domaine Dublere in Savigny les Beaune (American Blair Pethel). Finally caught up with David Clark in Morey St Denis. It was meant to be for a coffee, but he didn't have any, so we tried the 2010s out of barrel and a bottle of 08 and 09. Looking fantastic. Dinner at Picq Boeuf.
Monday: Late decision to say in Burgundy for the Trilogie en Cotes de Nuits, a biennial tasting in Vosne, Chambolle and Morey St Denis. Lots of 08s and 09s on taste. Many surprises -- on how insipid and dirty some domaine's wines are -- and a couple of discoveries. I'll be trying to import at least one. Then drove to Roanne for dinner at three-starred Troisgros. Was interviewed on French TV to coincide with the local translation of Aur Revoir and All That, a book by an American on the decline of French cuisine. We protested ... but spent the last part of the evening and the rest of the night in the bathroom. It must have been something I ate at the tastings ... PS, if you go, save some money and stay at the Grand Hotel next door.
Tuesday: No breakfast, no lunch, cramps all day ... Drove to Beaujolais for tastings with JM Burgaud (2010s and some 2009s), tried to confirm my final order of 09s (but I'm still not sure as he doesn't seem to like emailing); tasted with Stephane Aviron of Potel-Aviron, who has bought fruit from several crus; visited Paul-Henri Thillardon and Alain Coudert, who I will import from (Chenas, Fleurie and Brouilly, although the Fleurie is on the border of Moulin a Vent). Worst dinner ever at the Atelier near the town hall in Villie-Morgon. Rude waiter told people we were English and therefore couldn't handle meat being rosé (pink), when in fact the meat was like an old boot and I couldn't even cut it!
Wednesday: Visits to Faury and Barou in northern Rhone, the latter a run-down 200-year-old farmhouse but intense wines made by passionate no-nonsense people. Organic since 1971. The whites were incredible, and there's a St Joseph that goes into new oak for two years. Then on to Espiers near Vacqueyras. Great visit. Checked out a few vineyards and tasted some wines. Ordered a pallet of the 2010 white, and will get even more of the reds (200 cases of the CdR already on the way to Aus). Stayed just up the road, but had to drive about 15km to find a restaurant, and again it was awful.
Thursday: Driving day ... did some work in the morning and then drove 500km to Pau in southwest France. I've been using booking.com to choose hotels. Stayed in Montpensier for two nights. Pretty good, and only 67e a night. Found an amazing bistro and couldn't get in, two nights in a row. Will post the details later. Ate at a pub called Le Bureau (The Office). Nice burger and beer.
Friday: Another great tasting day and two more new producers. Will be buying from two stars of Jurancon. Third visit to Madiran was not so successful. The winemaker, a smoker who said he was an alcoholic, was lovely but I couldn't get my head around his wines, a tannat, a tannat-cab franc, a petit manseng and a special cuvee blended with the sixth barrel from three producers and hence labelled 666. Drove back to Pau (an hour) and ate at a little crepe restaurant facing the chateau.
Saturday: About to drive to San Sebastien in Spain (maybe for lunch) and then to Santander on the coast. On Sunday we will drive on to Vigo to be handy to Pontevedra for Albarino tastings on Monday.

I have some great stories among all that and hope to come back to them at various points. Better I at least recorded some thoughts than let them pile up though! Feel free to ask for more detail about anything.

An "old" favourite

Second visit of the tour was to Dupont-Tisserandot in Gevrey Chambertin. This was the first estate I approached for export to Australia in 2008, and that was on the basis of a sensational 1964 Mazi Chambertin that I had enjoyed thanks to the generosity of a friend. The wine and the old label inspired me, and I wanted to know more about a producer that could pump out such a wine and remain unknown.

Didier's wife and her sister are actually the co-owners of the estate, having inherited it from their father. Didier is the driving force here and the person I always deal with. We have rugby in common, and I sealed our partnership on my second visit with a Wallaby jumper, although I'm not sure he wears it in his role as chairman of Gevrey Olympic Rugby Club.

Our visit coincided with the local oenologist coming to test the premiers crus and grands crus in preparation for bottling. Having recently been racked and sulphured they weren't showing much fruit or finesse, but having tried them in barrel a year ago I know how sensational they will be. The bunches were so ripe that for the first time Didier decided to use 25-30% whole bunches for the first time, to add complexity.

We also ran through the excellent value range: passetoutgrains (half Morey St Denis old-vine gamay, half Gevrey Chambertin pinot), bourgogne, Marsannay, Fixin, Ladoix, Gevrey Chambertin and Savigny les Beaune. The 2009 is already in Australia alongside the full range of 2008s.

I told Didier the 2008 Marsannay Les Echezeaux and Ladoix, and the crunchy, almost tart passetoutgrains had been well received by restaurants and wine bars. He agreed they were all looking good but said the Fixin had shut down and might stay that way for six more months. The Gevrey was still open, however.

It was a quick but satisfying visit, and I'll probably return to have a look at the vineyards and maybe try a couple more wines in late April. As it was, Didier had to get ready for a business trip to Brussels, so I let him go. Another piece of good news for those who had bought the 2007 Mazis Chambertin and wanted more -- Didier still has 60 bottles in the cellar so I'm going to buy another two dozen.

Birth of a new star

From Charles de Gaulle Airport north of Paris to Chablis is about two hours' drive down the A6. Having gone the wrong way around the Paris Peripherique (ring road) in the past, I pulled over just outside the airport to let the GPS get its bearings before setting out. The traffic wasn't too bad but I wouldn't like to be trying to read a map to take the various exits and links before hitting the A6. We didn't put a foot wrong (for the first time) and lobbed in the village of Courgis just after midday for a catch-up with Thomas Pico of Domaine Pattes Loup.

I imported 25 cases of Thomas's 2008 AC Chablis last year and they were snapped up by some top restaurants in Sydney and Brisbane. I'd been out of stock of Chablis (stupidly) for quite a while, but on Friday a healthy 112 cases of 2009 Pattes Loup landed at the warehouse in Sydney. Many of the 08 buyers already had reservations in for the new wine.

I tried the 09 from bottle for the first time, and it's a cracker. The best villages wine he's made, Thomas confidently declared. He works his vines organically and handpicks the grapes. They are then fermented in stainless steel and 700-litre concrete biodynamic eggs, which enable lots of lees contact for texture and extra body.

The result is a wine of intrigue. It's chardonnay with palate weight despite the absence of oak in the vinification. We also tried the three premier cru 09s. The Cote du Jouan was bottled in January and was looking sensational: fruit sweet (ripe grapefruit) and minerally, and a persistent finish. The Beauregard and Montmains (from the Butteaux section of the vineyard) might turn out even better but just a week after bottling they were reluctant to show their best.

Australia's allocation of these three wines is a miserly 34 cases in total, and they should be available in mid-May. Thomas's 2010s were in an awkward phase of development, the cold winter delaying malolactic fermentation, so we grabbed two bottles and headed off for lunch. Thomas was feeling worse for wear, his partner and newborn second child having come home just the night before to ensure he didn't get much sleep. It was a big week all round, his 30th birthday due just two days after our visit.

He drove us to the quaint old village Noyers-sur-Sereine, where many of the buildings were constructed with a combination of mud and straw between wooden beams. It's a gorgeous little place of narrow cobblestone streets, crooked houses and an imposing church, plus our destination -- Maison Paillot, a cute two-storey restaurant and store.

We scoffed down one of the local delicacies, gougeres (cheese-puff rolls), then Miriam and I launched into a salad containing rabbit liver and neck. Sensational. Miriam went for the Coq au Vin main while I scarfed the veal. Delicious and we probably didn't eat as much as we were allowed for the E19.60 lunch special.

We had the 09 Chablis and Cote du Jouan with the meal, plus a typically funky cabernet franc from the Loire. I thought the nose was a bit dirty but the palate pleasant, while Thomas thought the palate didn't deliver what the nose promised!

We drove back to Courgis to get our car, then virtually backtracked to get to the A6 and onwards to Gevrey Chambertin for our second appointment, with Didier Chevillon at Dupont-Tisserandot.

Chaotic start to trip

For once I didn't try to deliver 50 cases of wine the day of an international departure. I did go to the warehouse and the cellar, but I was home on schedule, packed and into a taxi on time so we arrived at the airport 2hrs before the flight. What a miracle.

I then proceeded to spend every spare second on the phone, up until the plane started down the runway! I booked a truck to pick up two new pallets of Clos Marguerite Sauvignon Blanc that had just landed in the country, and I attended to a couple of simple matters. But I wasted ages on the phone (and on hold) trying to get some sense out of Telstra. I am distraught that I switched carriers to someone that appears even worse than 3. Philippine call centres have no idea ... can't get a phone number ported five days after we got two numbers connected instantly. Of course that was going to be the number my mobile would be diverted to ...

Flew Virgin Atlantic to Hong Kong (beware, they weighed our carry-on luggage and have a 6kg limit), which was fine. The seating was a 2-4-2 configuration, and even though the plane was fairly empty we stayed in our window-aisle combo. I think I watched one movie and did a bunch of work on the laptop. Carlsberg was the beer on offer but the wine looked awful.

In Hong Kong we found the very crowded Cathay business lounge and had a snack and recharged laptop batteries. Couldn't get a shower, which was a drag. We had some cheap business class seats on Swiss for the next sector to Zurich, and enjoyed the lay-flat seats and ample food and drink. Had a couple of glasses of lovely 07 Rioja. Slept a bit, clear immigration without a word, then somehow took a wrong turn looking for the business lounge, got processed as leaving the EU, then walked down the corridor and entered again past the same bemused border control cop! Three stamps in the passport in five minutes!

A quick flight to Paris (long enough for breakfast), collected our bags and rental car (Peugeot 3008) and then set off for Chablis.

On the road again

OK, six months, no posts. I'll use this as my notebook on the next big roadtrip, starting on Tuesday! I'm flying to Paris with Mrs Eurocentric and taking a rental car straight to Beaune. I'll do a few tastings there, then head through Montagny, Beaujolais, the northern and southern Rhone, Jurancon, Spain, across to Italy via the Languedoc, then up to Germany via Alsace, into Champagne for some special treats (I mean really special), then Chablis and back to Burgundy, plus a lightning trip to the Loire. Then we go to New York for a week as Mrs E is presenting at a conference.

It's a massive trip (massively unplanned) and I hope to be able to announce our new Spanish and Italian labels as we go, plus some of the new French producers. There won't be any new German producers! Twelve is more than enough ... Fritz Haag completes the team, although I am going to get some Knipser and Huber for a sommelier friend.

Right, the plan is to post briefly and often. Give feedback if you want to know about anything in particular!