Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Bad to the Beaune

The rate at which we have been acquiring kilometres in our poor rental car has slowed dramatically in recent days. After a leisurely week through Germany and a week in Champagne we quickly visited some top estates in Chablis and then scurried back to Beaune to recharge our batteries and our stock of clean laundry. Plus of course taste at our existing estates and two or three potential new ones.

Anyway, we've hit 10,000km in the Silver Bullet. So glad we didn't hire that Sixt rental car with its limit of 4900 free kilometres!

Since we visited our larger Champagne producers last Thursday, we've had some interesting stops. Our final night in Champagne was spent at Hotel Jeanson in Ay, which is a lovely boutique hotel about 100m from Rene Geoffroy. It has an indoor pool, double beds (crikey, the number of double rooms we've had with two single beds pushed together!) and a decent shower (room to turn around without getting wrapped in a clammy shower curtain or turning the water off or, worse, up to melting point), but the wifi was pretty poor. They say this is soon to be rectified.

We went out for dinner with Jean-Baptiste Geoffroy and were joined by his wife late in the piece. Lovely dinner at a classy establishment not too far away, and despite the Champenoise addiction to drinking champagne ("Well, we are in Champagne", they say), I ordered a 2009 Lapierre Morgon off the list. I'm even spreading the Beaujolais gospel in France! I've had this wine once or twice before, perhaps a year ago. My first reaction is to think that it's bretty from the nose, but I don't believe it is. It has that kind of cooked-grass aroma that is common in cabernet franc from the Loire, but the palate was plush and satisfying. It's not the best 09 I've had by a fair way, but JB was impressed and it went well with the food.

Next day we drove to the southern region of Champagne, the Aube. I'd forgotten it was more than one and a half hours away from Ay! It turned out to be a day to stretch my limited French, but we got by. First up was Cedric Bouchard. I'm not going to go into tasting notes here, but this guy certainly can make champagne of character. He grabbed four wines, two from the Inflorescence range and two from the Roses de Jeanne lineup that everyone fights over. Interestingly he says the Inflorescence vineyards are improving faster than the RdJ lieux dits, and he believes they will eventually catch up.

Eurocentric's first shipment from CB is a chunk of Val Vilaine Blanc de Noirs from the lovely 2008 vintage, and some Les Parcelles BdB that spent 80 months on lees. We'll find out in less than two weeks how much of our 2011 request has been granted.

In the same village of Celles-sur-Ource is the down-to-earth Pascal Gerbais and his incredibly inexpensive range of Champagne Pierre Gerbais. I hope people don't think these wines aren't that good just because Pascal underprices them! He even has a wine called Originale, made from 107-year-old pinot blanc vines. I hope to have these wines into Australia just after mid-year.

After lunch in the baking sun (Europe has skipped spring and gone straight to summer) we went to one of our faves, Bertrand Gautherot at Vouette et Sorbee. We started on a sad note when discussing the weather as we found out the Blanc d'Argile vineyard had taken a hit from frosts early in the morning on April 13. No one had predicted the overnight low of -4 or -5C, and with the warm weather having promoted bud break about a month earlier than average, the vines were exposed and defenceless.

A second snap on April 18 was countered by a sprinkler system but the damage had been done. Pinot noir can sprout again but chardonnay is a one-shot wonder, and the damage might extend into the 2012 vintage as well. There have been a succession of setbacks for Gautherot in recent years, with a large number of vines dying in the harsh winter of 2009-10 as well.

Demand is far outstripping supply, and a new vineyard couldn't come on stream fast enough. Thankfully there is ample 2009 Fidele, but the Saignee de Sorbee and Blanc d'Argile were made in minuscule quantities.

Having taken so long to collect my 2006 allocation I missed out on 2007, and my 2008 reservation was cut almost in half in response to bigger requests from every market on Bertrand's books, but we pulled one back on this visit by scoring almost half of an unclaimed allocation for Brazil: another 120 bottles of Fidele and 30 Blanc d'Argile.

I better not go into too much detail for the next few visits: two in the village down the road from Bertrand, one of which might be an exclusive for a retailer in Australia and the other a tiny allocation for us from a couple on the cutting edge of champagne production; Marie-Courtin in Polisot, whose first shipment is just weeks away from landing in Australia; and another bargain bubbly from a tiny village in the middle of nowhere.

After this we stayed a night in Troyes for a visit to one of my favourite wine bars-cum-retailer-cum-restaurant for some delicious food and a bottle of Selosse La Cote Faron (the Ay lieux dit formerly known as Contraste). At the end of meal we were treated to a tour of the centuries-old two-level cave beneath the floorboards. Amazing!

Easter Sunday and still will push on, starting with a lovely 10am tasting with the picture-perfect Gautheron family in Fleys (this will be the new backbone of a greatly expanded Chablis range).

We took to the famous Sunday markets in the centre of Chablis to gather supplies for lunch (roast pork, ham cut from the bone, a wild tomato, cheeses, a kilo or two of Spanish strawberries, an apple tartelet, some gougeres) and went cross-country to the top of Les Clos grand cru vineyard, where we found a spot in the shade to gorge ourselves and kill some time before our second appointment in another cute village. Good solid wines here but I'll wait to see the prices before deciding whether it's worthwhile adding them.

We've used www.booking.com for a lot of our hotel finds on this trip and rather than stay at my regular in the heart of Chablis (the Bergerac, which has had dodgy wifi in the past), I took a punt on a chambre d'hote 25km away. The drive was amazing. At one point I stopped to take a photo of a field of canola (bright yellow against the deep green of the grain fields) only to lower the camera just as a huge crack of lightning split the sky. The thunder immediately followed and we enjoyed a light show and some heavy rain for the next couple of hours.

Fortunately it didn't appear to contain any hail, but the storm knocked out the power at the "hotel" from time to time, and the internet was non-existent. Lucky it was the quietest weekend of the year I guess. Dinner was a strange four-course affair at a table of strangers (with several bottles of the local wine), which combined to knock me out early in the piece.

The next day we had a quick breakfast to make a 9am appointment, only to be told we'd have to wait half an hour till the boss arrived to take our payment! Lucky for me (since I'm always late), it doesn't seem to bother the winemakers, and we enjoyed another cracking tasting in the cellars at Moreau-Naudet. These are brilliant Chablis, as good as I've tasted, but also priced higher than others in our collection. Due early second half of 2011 too (2007s and 2008, after spending two years on lees).

Then it was off back to Beaune, a nice chance to catch up on chores and prepare for the last two legs of our marathon journey.

Crikey, why didn't I stick to the diary entries!

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Saturday, April 23, 2011

Where did that month go?

Uh-oh, I couldn't even keep up with an abbreviated record of events :-(

So here's a diary for me to come back to and fill in.

Saturday, March 26: Drove from Pau (France) to Santander (Spain). Surprised at the speed limit and number of speed cameras in Spain, plus how they build villages around industrial areas (an oil refinery!) and apartments in the middle of the countryside.

Sunday, March 27: Drove to Vigo on the west coast. Didn't plan on doing 600km a day.

Monday, March 28: Raining heavily. Went to a groovy wine bar in Albarino country and picked the locals' brains about good wines. Bought three glasses for benchmarking. Visited one estate (couldn't get an answer from others) and fortunately it was a goodie.

Tuesday, March 29: Drove to Ribera del Duero for a tasting. Stayed in a hotel opposite a bull-fighting stadium!

Wednesday, March 30: Another Ribera del Duero tasting, then drove to Rioja. Popped in to Artadi, then spent a while with a radical winemaker called Gonzalo Gonzalo. Drove to Calatayud.

Thursday, March 31: Tasting with a foreign local, then drove to Barcelona for a tasting of a range of bargain wines I'll be importing: a grenache-shiraz and cava to start, and a tempranillo to follow.

Friday, April 1: Two tastings in Priorat, one fantastic and one miserable. Great fun driving around the windy roads and up into the hills with Dominik Huber of Terroir al Limit (the fantastic one), but hayfever struck hard!

Saturday, April 2: Drove from south of Barcelona to La Ciotat on the south coast of France.

Sunday, April 3: Drove to Treiso in Piedmont, Italy.

Monday, April 4: Tastings around Piedmont. Some really bad wines ... still find it difficult to get my head around young nebbiolo, but being in the region really accelerated my understanding. Found an excellent producer of Dolcetto, Barbera and Barbaresco. Add one to the list: Giuseppe Cortese.

Tuesday, April 5: Another goal: Francesco Scanavino will supply us with spumante (I couldn't believe how good this vintage methode champenoise was!), moscato d'asti, arneis and barbera. Then drove via Pisa to Montalcino for a Tuscan tasting.

Wednesday, April 6: Several tastings around Tuscany, none satisfying. Then drove north of Verona to a great view, terrible location for our needs!

Thursday, April 7: Day 1 of Vinitaly. Got in thanks to a friend and made several tasting visits. Should do this to start my Italian trips, then follow up those who show well. Found a great source of pinot noir and budget reds from Sicily, plus a couple of quirkly varietals.

Friday, April 8: Another long drive -- to Alsace via Switzerland. Gee, the Swiss make like they don't want visitors. Will try to avoid in future.

Saturday, April 9: Three tasting appointments around Alsace, from one extreme to the other (and over an 80km span). Might take two of them.

Sunday, April 10: Fabulous lunch and then drove to Silz in the Pfalz area of Germany.

Monday, April 11: Tasting at Rebholz in Siebeldingen. Fantastic range of 2010s. Wondered why they told me they didn't deacidify. Was soon to find out -- it is the hot topic (or should be) of the German vintage. Followed this with tastings at Schafer-Frohlich and Emrich-Schonleber. Lots of great wine.

Tuesday, April 12: Quick tasting at Knebel in Winningen (09s mostly sold out, 2010s not finished fermentation), then a leisurely drive along the Mosel to Schmitges in Erden.

Wednesday, April 13: Carl von Schubert in the Ruwer, then Reinhold Haart in Piesport and Willi Schaefer in Graach. Have to be quick with my orders as yields were down by up to 50%!

Thursday, April 14: Fritz Haag and Schloss Lieser, what a double! Brothers with contrasting approaches and results. Queueing up! Had to skip Van Volxem cos they have no 09s left, and 2010s are sold out before they have even finished fermenting!

Friday, April 15: Zilliken looking lovely, and a great opportunity to try some back vintages and see the vines.

Saturday, April 16: Driving back into France and straight to Bouzy for a tasting and chat with Benoit Lahaye. Awesome bio champagne.

Sunday, April 17: A crazy five-hour walk and talk and vertical tasting with Vincent Laval in Cumieres. We drank the last bottles of several vintages, back to 1988. Looking forward to finally landing these in Australia. Then an interesting dinner in Ay, with 18 rare and older champagnes matched to tapas dishes prepared by two three-star chefs. Great night!

Monday, April 18: The Terres et Vins event. I tasted pre-release champagnes and the 2010 vins clairs of my four producers there -- Lahaye, Rene Geoffroy, David Leclapart and Chartogne-Taillet. Then tried those not represented in Australia and was keen on a couple. Mouth almost numb from two days of high acid, I raced off to Sillery for a tasting with an Italian importer friend, then went south to Congy for an incredible afternoon and evening, chatting with the livewire Olivier Collin of Champagne Ulysse Collin. Take the tip, the Wine Advocate is calling his 2008s the Coche Durys of Champagne!

Tuesday, April 19: Another trade tasting, this time Artisans du Champagne, in Reims. I have my eye on a few here, but Pierre Gerbais and Lancelot-Pienne are definites. Then off to the legend, Fallet (or Fallet-Prevostat) in Avize. Two dozen bottles safely in tow, I popped in to see if I could get some Selosse. Sucess there too!

Wednesday, April 20: A day to be sick and do paperwork :-(

Thursday, April 21: Tastings at Ployez-Jacquemart, Henri Billiot and Rene Geoffroy. Wow, the latter collection is screaming hot. So glad to have a restock shipment on the water now.

Almost up to date! That'll do for now. Will add a pic or two when I have better internet signal.

Cheers
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