Jeff Grossman
Jeff Grossman
attendees: Don+Melissa, Jay, Jayson, Jeff, Lisa, Seth, Victor
Seth and Jeff do the Hanukkah pours!
I include a chocolate Maccabee in every parcel:
My wines up first. I chose five wines from the same general region and having the same general age but from three AOCs and three makers. It's a good check-in and also a good test of the group's palates:
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green: Baudry B 2014 Chinon Rouge "Les Grezeaux"
yellow: Baudry B 2017 Chinon Rouge "Les Grezeaux"
pink: Baudry B 2016 Chinon Rouge "Les Grezeaux"
blue: Filliatreau 2016 Saumur-Champigny "La Grande Vignolle"
orange: Dom. de la Chevalerie 2018 Bourgueil "Busardière"
By the way, I spun the dreidel to determine the order of the Baudry wines.
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In a way, it's crazy. You can drive from Chinon to Bourgueil to Saumur in under an hour, but they are three different AOCs and, politically, Saumur is an Anjou region while the other two are Touraine! All make a preponderance of red wine, unusual for the Loire Valley, and all are entirely cabernet franc (even though the law actually allows 10% cabernet sauvignon).
Chinon, on the south bank of the Loire River, sits on tuffeau with clay further up the slopes. The wines are silky, minerally, and medium-weight, though lighter if grown on alluvial soils near the river itself.
Bourgueil, on the north bank of the Loire, has a rocky, gravelly soil mixed with limestone. The wines tend to be a bit sturdier and tannic than those of Chinon.
Saumur-Champigny, also south of the river but a little to the West, is located on a tuffeau plateau of high limestone. The Saumur soil type has nothing to do with the rest of Anjou, political boundaries notwithstanding. Saumur wines are generally characterized as fruity and flirtatious, with a lighter body.
Some comments about the soils, from the makers' websites:
Baudry:
Soil : Stony gravels over clay-silica subsoil
Vines : The oldest plot of the estate, about 50 years of age.
Vinification / Aging : Manual harvest. Fermentation of 15-20 days in cement vats, then fifteen months aging in unlined ciment. Bottling two winters after harvest. No filtration.
Chevalerie:
Another 7.4-acre block just above the winery that grows in a thin layer of topsoil overlying hard clay (less than one foot thick) which in turn overlies solid limestone. Half of the vineyard was first planted in 1880; half in 1922, and the vines average 55 to 60 years old. This tends to be stonier, leaner and more austere than the above wines, with notable length and finesse coming out in time.
Filliatreau:
The Grande Vignolle vineyard sits on a chalky plateau above a cliff of tuffeau. The vines range in age from 40 to 50 years old. Bottled unfiltered and aged without the use of any oak. The age of the vines gives a striking concentration to this wine which is made entirely from Cabernet Franc. More complex and structured on the palate and surely a wine to age.
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On the pour:
the '14 is beautiful
the '17 is similar but maybe a touch less shapely, tons of sediment on the bottle and in the wine
the '16 is stronger wine, intense, a touch of sweet?, no brett but I can see why someone would say that, sediment stuck on the bottle only
Filliatreau is darker, earthier, cheesier, less fruity
Chevalerie is practically black, but mild flavor, also more minerally than fruity, possibly closed?
At this moment, I prefer '14/'16/Filli to the '17/Cheva.
Later, on the actual Zoom call:
green - this shows really typique so it takes no time to guess the cepage "Cab Franc?" -Jay (yes), "That's good!" -Jayson, guesses start tumbling out... first is "Olga?" (no), then "Chinon?" (yes), then "Baudry?" (yes), and Jayson gets the vineyard right in one "Grezeaux?" (yes), shows a lot like it did when poured last night: pure, clean, good acids, tannins are mild, well-made all the way to the end
yellow - nose is cab franc again but overlaid with funk or cheese, and a dollop of brett (but not too bad), folks place it as Baudry "Grezeaux" but take some time to identify the vintage (they were guessing older at first)
pink - immediate impressions: "definitely bretty" -Melissa, "funky" -Victor, "raw meat" -Jayson, "thyme" -Jeff, "less tannic" -Don, "playful and balanced" -Jay, it's another Baudry but somehow Grezeaux is a second guess for vineyard; despite the mentions of off-putting smells, this actually gets better and better in the glass
blue - "smells like fish" -Victor, "toe jam" -Don (how does he know?), "a lot of substance there but a really weird wine" -Jayson, Jay tropes the cuvee name as "Grand Guignol"; this wine takes a lot of abuse tonight but there is nothing wrong with it: it's just really not at all like the three Chinons, showing saline and iodine strongly and fruit not so much, makes me wonder if this is a known effect of the terroir?
orange - "a little spice to it" -Jayson, "there's a cinnamon thing" -Jeff, this wine shows more alcoholic than the other wines (indeed, the label offers 14.5% while the Saumur offers 13.5% and the Chinons offer 12.5%!), "definitely '18" -Victor (due to the high alcohol)
Finishing them off on Day 2:
Start with the Filliatreau so as not to get caught up in any Saumur-tastes-funny-after-Chinon infighting... redfruit, iodine, sugar, seashells
Next, Chinon '17... shoe polish brett (noticeable but not repellant), more tactile than the Saumur, darker fruit too, dry, kinda one-dimensional due to the brett
Next, Chinon '14... whoops, no more of that one
Next, Bourgueil... pure, slightly puckery tannins, dry, boysenberry (almost like syrah), "manly" I suppose
Lastly, Chinon '16... also hearty, dry, teeny touch of brett (or something like it), complex palate of bluefruit, chalk, citrus, and hints of green grapes, very good
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Seth's wines up next. He also chose wines from the same general region, plus a ringer. They are not all the same vineyard or era but each wine (not the ringer) shares at least one attribute with the wine that follows it:
red: Martin Woods 2019 Chardonnay, Van Duzer Corridor "Havlin Yineyard", 12.5%, 10-year-old vines, more
orange: Daniel Defaix 2010 Chablis 1er "Vaillon", 45-year-old vines, iron incursions in the limestone toss-up the usual flavors
yellow: Dauvissat 2010 Chablis 1er "Vaillons", reported on Vinous: "[Dauvissat] showed me a barrel in its 52nd year... 'You can smell all the past crus and vintages in them,' he told me.")
green: Dauvissat 2010 Chablis GC "Les Preuses"
blue: Fevre 2000 Chablis GC "Les Preuses"
I just put them all in a blender with a couple strawberries and a dollop of apricot nectar. Yum!
No, wait. That's a cut-and-paste from Tiki Disorder. I'll start again.
On the Zoom call:
red: juicy yellow fruit, some flint and salt, pronounced aroma of face-powder (my dad used talc so I know it well), we start guessing at sauvignon blanc and finally get around to the wine world's chameleon, chardonnay, only as the third or fourth guess; nicely made, clean, obviously not too distinctive though, Don guesses Oregon (yes) and after a few desultory guesses (Goodfellow? -No) we settle for the reveal
orange: much more focus, obvious citrus flavors, licorice and/or resin on the finish, Don calls this out as "Chablis" (yes), this continues to open up in the glass and moves from strength to strength
yellow: we are totally lost as evidenced by the guesses... "Oak", "Fish", "Reduction"... well, except for Don who seems utterly unruffled by the whole thing: "Oh, this is going to be an amazing flight" and "also Chablis!", and so it is
green: my note is illegible so here is Don's: "a bit muted, great cut, tropical" (presumably due to the hot year)
blue: simpler palate but remarkably fresh compared to the previous wine, "mellower, less complex" -Don
A great flight! And, apparently, Defaix makes the most fabulous wine as it made the short list for three tasters: Jay (Defaix and Fevre), Victor (Defaix and Woods), and me (Defaix and Dauvissat Preuses)
Finally, a Day 2 note from Jayson: "I then retasted all of the whites last night. The Oregon wine was definitely in a lower league. And while I still liked all the others, for me the Dauvissat Preuses had come out of its shell and was pure class (and head of the class). Great wine. I detected a slightly vegetal note creeping into the other Chablis, which I attribute to the extra air and is not uncommon IME."
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Thanks again to everyone for a great way to end another Zoomin' year.
Seth and Jeff do the Hanukkah pours!
I include a chocolate Maccabee in every parcel:
green: Baudry B 2014 Chinon Rouge "Les Grezeaux"
yellow: Baudry B 2017 Chinon Rouge "Les Grezeaux"
pink: Baudry B 2016 Chinon Rouge "Les Grezeaux"
blue: Filliatreau 2016 Saumur-Champigny "La Grande Vignolle"
orange: Dom. de la Chevalerie 2018 Bourgueil "Busardière"
By the way, I spun the dreidel to determine the order of the Baudry wines.
---
In a way, it's crazy. You can drive from Chinon to Bourgueil to Saumur in under an hour, but they are three different AOCs and, politically, Saumur is an Anjou region while the other two are Touraine! All make a preponderance of red wine, unusual for the Loire Valley, and all are entirely cabernet franc (even though the law actually allows 10% cabernet sauvignon).
Chinon, on the south bank of the Loire River, sits on tuffeau with clay further up the slopes. The wines are silky, minerally, and medium-weight, though lighter if grown on alluvial soils near the river itself.
Bourgueil, on the north bank of the Loire, has a rocky, gravelly soil mixed with limestone. The wines tend to be a bit sturdier and tannic than those of Chinon.
Saumur-Champigny, also south of the river but a little to the West, is located on a tuffeau plateau of high limestone. The Saumur soil type has nothing to do with the rest of Anjou, political boundaries notwithstanding. Saumur wines are generally characterized as fruity and flirtatious, with a lighter body.
Some comments about the soils, from the makers' websites:
Baudry:
Soil : Stony gravels over clay-silica subsoil
Vines : The oldest plot of the estate, about 50 years of age.
Vinification / Aging : Manual harvest. Fermentation of 15-20 days in cement vats, then fifteen months aging in unlined ciment. Bottling two winters after harvest. No filtration.
Chevalerie:
Another 7.4-acre block just above the winery that grows in a thin layer of topsoil overlying hard clay (less than one foot thick) which in turn overlies solid limestone. Half of the vineyard was first planted in 1880; half in 1922, and the vines average 55 to 60 years old. This tends to be stonier, leaner and more austere than the above wines, with notable length and finesse coming out in time.
Filliatreau:
The Grande Vignolle vineyard sits on a chalky plateau above a cliff of tuffeau. The vines range in age from 40 to 50 years old. Bottled unfiltered and aged without the use of any oak. The age of the vines gives a striking concentration to this wine which is made entirely from Cabernet Franc. More complex and structured on the palate and surely a wine to age.
---
On the pour:
the '14 is beautiful
the '17 is similar but maybe a touch less shapely, tons of sediment on the bottle and in the wine
the '16 is stronger wine, intense, a touch of sweet?, no brett but I can see why someone would say that, sediment stuck on the bottle only
Filliatreau is darker, earthier, cheesier, less fruity
Chevalerie is practically black, but mild flavor, also more minerally than fruity, possibly closed?
At this moment, I prefer '14/'16/Filli to the '17/Cheva.
Later, on the actual Zoom call:
green - this shows really typique so it takes no time to guess the cepage "Cab Franc?" -Jay (yes), "That's good!" -Jayson, guesses start tumbling out... first is "Olga?" (no), then "Chinon?" (yes), then "Baudry?" (yes), and Jayson gets the vineyard right in one "Grezeaux?" (yes), shows a lot like it did when poured last night: pure, clean, good acids, tannins are mild, well-made all the way to the end
yellow - nose is cab franc again but overlaid with funk or cheese, and a dollop of brett (but not too bad), folks place it as Baudry "Grezeaux" but take some time to identify the vintage (they were guessing older at first)
pink - immediate impressions: "definitely bretty" -Melissa, "funky" -Victor, "raw meat" -Jayson, "thyme" -Jeff, "less tannic" -Don, "playful and balanced" -Jay, it's another Baudry but somehow Grezeaux is a second guess for vineyard; despite the mentions of off-putting smells, this actually gets better and better in the glass
blue - "smells like fish" -Victor, "toe jam" -Don (how does he know?), "a lot of substance there but a really weird wine" -Jayson, Jay tropes the cuvee name as "Grand Guignol"; this wine takes a lot of abuse tonight but there is nothing wrong with it: it's just really not at all like the three Chinons, showing saline and iodine strongly and fruit not so much, makes me wonder if this is a known effect of the terroir?
orange - "a little spice to it" -Jayson, "there's a cinnamon thing" -Jeff, this wine shows more alcoholic than the other wines (indeed, the label offers 14.5% while the Saumur offers 13.5% and the Chinons offer 12.5%!), "definitely '18" -Victor (due to the high alcohol)
Finishing them off on Day 2:
Start with the Filliatreau so as not to get caught up in any Saumur-tastes-funny-after-Chinon infighting... redfruit, iodine, sugar, seashells
Next, Chinon '17... shoe polish brett (noticeable but not repellant), more tactile than the Saumur, darker fruit too, dry, kinda one-dimensional due to the brett
Next, Chinon '14... whoops, no more of that one
Next, Bourgueil... pure, slightly puckery tannins, dry, boysenberry (almost like syrah), "manly" I suppose
Lastly, Chinon '16... also hearty, dry, teeny touch of brett (or something like it), complex palate of bluefruit, chalk, citrus, and hints of green grapes, very good
Seth's wines up next. He also chose wines from the same general region, plus a ringer. They are not all the same vineyard or era but each wine (not the ringer) shares at least one attribute with the wine that follows it:
red: Martin Woods 2019 Chardonnay, Van Duzer Corridor "Havlin Yineyard", 12.5%, 10-year-old vines, more
orange: Daniel Defaix 2010 Chablis 1er "Vaillon", 45-year-old vines, iron incursions in the limestone toss-up the usual flavors
yellow: Dauvissat 2010 Chablis 1er "Vaillons", reported on Vinous: "[Dauvissat] showed me a barrel in its 52nd year... 'You can smell all the past crus and vintages in them,' he told me.")
green: Dauvissat 2010 Chablis GC "Les Preuses"
blue: Fevre 2000 Chablis GC "Les Preuses"
I just put them all in a blender with a couple strawberries and a dollop of apricot nectar. Yum!
No, wait. That's a cut-and-paste from Tiki Disorder. I'll start again.
On the Zoom call:
red: juicy yellow fruit, some flint and salt, pronounced aroma of face-powder (my dad used talc so I know it well), we start guessing at sauvignon blanc and finally get around to the wine world's chameleon, chardonnay, only as the third or fourth guess; nicely made, clean, obviously not too distinctive though, Don guesses Oregon (yes) and after a few desultory guesses (Goodfellow? -No) we settle for the reveal
orange: much more focus, obvious citrus flavors, licorice and/or resin on the finish, Don calls this out as "Chablis" (yes), this continues to open up in the glass and moves from strength to strength
yellow: we are totally lost as evidenced by the guesses... "Oak", "Fish", "Reduction"... well, except for Don who seems utterly unruffled by the whole thing: "Oh, this is going to be an amazing flight" and "also Chablis!", and so it is
green: my note is illegible so here is Don's: "a bit muted, great cut, tropical" (presumably due to the hot year)
blue: simpler palate but remarkably fresh compared to the previous wine, "mellower, less complex" -Don
A great flight! And, apparently, Defaix makes the most fabulous wine as it made the short list for three tasters: Jay (Defaix and Fevre), Victor (Defaix and Woods), and me (Defaix and Dauvissat Preuses)
Finally, a Day 2 note from Jayson: "I then retasted all of the whites last night. The Oregon wine was definitely in a lower league. And while I still liked all the others, for me the Dauvissat Preuses had come out of its shell and was pure class (and head of the class). Great wine. I detected a slightly vegetal note creeping into the other Chablis, which I attribute to the extra air and is not uncommon IME."
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Thanks again to everyone for a great way to end another Zoomin' year.