Jeff Grossman
Jeff Grossman
attendees: Andrew+Jen, Victor+Elaine, Jay+Arnold, Manuel+Josie+Julian, Jayson, Jeff Connell, Jeff, Don+Melissa, Lisa, .sasha
Here is one of the World's Best Excuses For A Jeebus: this year is the 35th anniversary of the 1989 vintage, one of the most remarkable vintages in the Loire in living memory. Conditions were so good that everyone made extra cuvees and set aside multiple reserve wines.
The usual online sources don't go back to when the vintage was new; I could only find this snippet by Frank Prial: "In the Touraine, the heart of the Loire Valley wine region, the growers organization said, 'If the weather holds, 1989 will be better than 1976 and perhaps not far behind 1959.'"
Brad is big on anniversaries and we are all-in on this one. We scour the dusty corners of our cellars and report our holdings to Brad, who de-dupes and cross-checks and produces a master list to maximize the breadth and depth of the tasting.
Jayson offers us the use of his UWS apartment and before you know it... there is serious jeeb.
To avoid straining WD too hard I have put the event photos in a separate photo site. This link will take you there in 'Thumbnail' view but I find the easiest interface is 'Roll View': click
~~ 1. Dry Whites: ~~
_Muscadet_
Domaine de l'Ébaupin- Muscadet - first, a little history from the CSW website: "...and then there was the 1989 Domaine de L'Ebaupin - a deliberate mis-labeling of the Clos des Briords for us at Garnet Wines...", amazingly youthful, even a little scratchy, not gone 'golden' at all, "like chewing on oyster shells" -Manuel
Domaine du Ventois (Jean Dabin, propriétaire)- Muscadet, St Fiacre - the 'control' muscadet which is fabulously good: buttery, richly textured, full of warm yellow-fruit flavors (what I call 'golden'), this is what an ordinary muscadet is like at age 35???
Luneau-Papin- "Le L d'Or" - even younger and fresher than the Ebaupin, more obviously minerally (rather than seashelly), hints of mint and chamomile
_Touraine_
Pinon- Touraine Brut Rose - the inaugural vintage, still fizzy!, kinda quiet though, maybe more surviving than thriving
_Savennières_
Closel- Cuvée Spéciale Clos du Papillon - weighty, viscous, greengage plums, very long, yum
Nicolas Joly- Clos de la Coulée de Serrant - corked
_Touraine- Azay-le-Rideau_
Robert Denis- Sec - sure is... bone dry, as crisp as it could possibly be, tense and sharp, astounding
~~ 2. Off-dry Whites: ~~
_Touraine- Azay-le-Rideau_
Robert Denis- Demi-Sec - the same but, y'know, it's actually better with a few grams of RS, "it's all about preference" -Don
_Vouvray_
Foreau- Demi-Sec - this is the backup bottle as the first one was corked; comes on really strong and slutty, 'golden', "this is moelleux" -JeffC, lots of discussion about how this shows versus how sweet it really is
Huet- Le Haut-Lieu, Demi-Sec - this is better balanced and shows more obviously like a demi-sec, more pretty than chalky but still rockin' it several days later
~~ 3. Reds: (overall, others are way more impressed than I was) ~~
_Bourgeuil_
Catherine et Pierre Breton- "Les Peirières" - with the original label, tight and acidic and not nice to drink tonight
Pierre-Jacques Druet- "Vaumoreau" - eh
Gérard Lefief- Bourgueil, "Restigné" - the control red; an old red, losing its distinctiveness
Catherine et Pierre Breton- "Grand Monts" - lightweight, tingling mix of acids and tannins, tobacco leaf, "another 20 years on this one" -Jayson
_Chinon_
Olga Raffault- "Les Picasses" - totally firing on all cylinders, powerful bouquet and palate presence, it goes to 11
Domaine de la Noblaie - magnum; this is textbook cab franc... a little citrus, a little dirt, a little leaf, charming and complete
Louis Farou- Clos du Parc de St.-Louans - stony but also skimpy, someone said it might be the best showing he ever tasted for a Farou wine, but meh
_Saumur-Champigny_
Domaine Filliatreau- "Lena" - another powerful wine, lots of fruit and in-your-face with it, also a little shoe polish brett (exactly the level that I used to consider 'spice' but I have grown to resent and avoid)
~~ 4. Sweet Whites: (ordered by Brad, disordered by passersby) ~~
A note about all the corked sweeties: The Closel was grossly corked but the others, at first, showed tame aromatics with a muscular palate presence (these may be flipsides of the same thing). There was also a 'spring pollen' like scent, just barely detectable. It took a half-hour or so before the taint started to show in the mid-palate; the wines' power was still able to overcome it during the attack and the finish.
_Savennières_
Closel- Moelleux "Cuvée Isa" - corked
_Bonnezeaux_
Domaine des Petit Quarts- Bonnezeaux "Le Malabé" - delicate and delicately sweet, built on a small frame compared to its heavyweight competition nearby
_Quarts de Chaume_
Baumard - robust with a long marmalade-like finish, this is a really good bottle of this, "Slightly anesthetizing" -Manuel, others say "slutty", "botrytized", and "walnuts"
_Vouvray_
Champalou- Cuvée CC - corked
Pinon- "Réserve Passerillée" - good balance, shapely acids, apricot/yellow-fruit flavors, yum, not overwhelmingly sweet
Bourillon Dorléans- Moelleux Tris de Nobles Grains, La Coulée d'Or - lemon and verveine, this is atypical and does not resemble the other chenin wines, good if lightweight
Pinon- "Reserve Botrytisee" - corked
Huet- Moelleux 1ere Trie, Le Haut-Lieu - OMG, the third Little Piggie built his house of LHL, soaring structure, a splash of face-powder in the spaces not taken up with fruit and chalk and more fruit and more chalk
Huet- Moelleux 1ere Trie, Le Mont - akin to the LHL but more obvious citrus tones, and a little less god-like
Huet- Moelleux 1ere Trie, Le Clos du Bourg - corked
Pinon- Moelleux "La Goutte d'Or" - corked
Huet- Moelleux, Clos du Bourg, "Témoin" - the Savage Sid on the table: swarthy, sky-high brown sugar that drowns out the terroir, others admired its power but I found it kinda unpleasant; however, I had a chance to revisit this bottle five days later and it had calmed down a lot, much nicer to drink, even suave as the sugar deftly integrated with the fruit and the terroir
Foreau- Moelleux Reserve - another totally buffed-out wine, full, chalky, the fruit is a little overripe but just dayum
Foreau- Moelleux 1ere Trie - nearly identical to the Reserve; however, I took this bottle home and followed it for a few days and it, too, slowly came down off the ledge and gave me what it should: apricots, a hint of pink/red fruit, acids and chalk commingled and long, a little chamomile and mint
Huet- Moelleux, "Cuvée Constance" - we were worried that this was corked, too, but The Collective declared it 'just chenin funk'; a fine lesson here: this is just as sweet at the Témoin but so much more stylish, dancing across the palate (whereas the other plodded)
Huet- Moelleux, Le Mont, "Début Pressée" - there's a little funk here, some Juicy-Fruit gum, dark yellow (think: dates, Calimyrna, red apricots), and an incredibly long finish, for many this is the best special cuvee made in 1989
One footnote to this battery of sweet chenin: I cannot remember when last I gave out so many superlatives. Everyone tasted again and again (ahem!) and Brad sat for an hour taking notes. For me, the greatest of them was the Huet LHL 1ere Trie, followed by the Début Pressée, and then the Pinon Passerillée. (No offense intended to Foreau or Constance.)
--
The wines of 1989, millésime sans égal, are not just holding up, they are subtly improving and show enough life to go another 35 years...which is, I suspect, more than the span allotted most of us drinking them tonight. So it goes.
Many, many thanks to Jayson for hosting us. It is no small thing to have moved into an apartment just a few months ago and then invite over 17 wine geeks and all their equipment and their wine and food (and spills and stumbles). Prodigious thanks also go to Brad for the weeks he spent organizing the throng and for the wine pix.
Here is one of the World's Best Excuses For A Jeebus: this year is the 35th anniversary of the 1989 vintage, one of the most remarkable vintages in the Loire in living memory. Conditions were so good that everyone made extra cuvees and set aside multiple reserve wines.
The usual online sources don't go back to when the vintage was new; I could only find this snippet by Frank Prial: "In the Touraine, the heart of the Loire Valley wine region, the growers organization said, 'If the weather holds, 1989 will be better than 1976 and perhaps not far behind 1959.'"
Brad is big on anniversaries and we are all-in on this one. We scour the dusty corners of our cellars and report our holdings to Brad, who de-dupes and cross-checks and produces a master list to maximize the breadth and depth of the tasting.
Jayson offers us the use of his UWS apartment and before you know it... there is serious jeeb.
To avoid straining WD too hard I have put the event photos in a separate photo site. This link will take you there in 'Thumbnail' view but I find the easiest interface is 'Roll View': click
~~ 1. Dry Whites: ~~
_Muscadet_
Domaine de l'Ébaupin- Muscadet - first, a little history from the CSW website: "...and then there was the 1989 Domaine de L'Ebaupin - a deliberate mis-labeling of the Clos des Briords for us at Garnet Wines...", amazingly youthful, even a little scratchy, not gone 'golden' at all, "like chewing on oyster shells" -Manuel
Domaine du Ventois (Jean Dabin, propriétaire)- Muscadet, St Fiacre - the 'control' muscadet which is fabulously good: buttery, richly textured, full of warm yellow-fruit flavors (what I call 'golden'), this is what an ordinary muscadet is like at age 35???
Luneau-Papin- "Le L d'Or" - even younger and fresher than the Ebaupin, more obviously minerally (rather than seashelly), hints of mint and chamomile
_Touraine_
Pinon- Touraine Brut Rose - the inaugural vintage, still fizzy!, kinda quiet though, maybe more surviving than thriving
_Savennières_
Closel- Cuvée Spéciale Clos du Papillon - weighty, viscous, greengage plums, very long, yum
Nicolas Joly- Clos de la Coulée de Serrant - corked
_Touraine- Azay-le-Rideau_
Robert Denis- Sec - sure is... bone dry, as crisp as it could possibly be, tense and sharp, astounding
~~ 2. Off-dry Whites: ~~
_Touraine- Azay-le-Rideau_
Robert Denis- Demi-Sec - the same but, y'know, it's actually better with a few grams of RS, "it's all about preference" -Don
_Vouvray_
Foreau- Demi-Sec - this is the backup bottle as the first one was corked; comes on really strong and slutty, 'golden', "this is moelleux" -JeffC, lots of discussion about how this shows versus how sweet it really is
Huet- Le Haut-Lieu, Demi-Sec - this is better balanced and shows more obviously like a demi-sec, more pretty than chalky but still rockin' it several days later
~~ 3. Reds: (overall, others are way more impressed than I was) ~~
_Bourgeuil_
Catherine et Pierre Breton- "Les Peirières" - with the original label, tight and acidic and not nice to drink tonight
Pierre-Jacques Druet- "Vaumoreau" - eh
Gérard Lefief- Bourgueil, "Restigné" - the control red; an old red, losing its distinctiveness
Catherine et Pierre Breton- "Grand Monts" - lightweight, tingling mix of acids and tannins, tobacco leaf, "another 20 years on this one" -Jayson
_Chinon_
Olga Raffault- "Les Picasses" - totally firing on all cylinders, powerful bouquet and palate presence, it goes to 11
Domaine de la Noblaie - magnum; this is textbook cab franc... a little citrus, a little dirt, a little leaf, charming and complete
Louis Farou- Clos du Parc de St.-Louans - stony but also skimpy, someone said it might be the best showing he ever tasted for a Farou wine, but meh
_Saumur-Champigny_
Domaine Filliatreau- "Lena" - another powerful wine, lots of fruit and in-your-face with it, also a little shoe polish brett (exactly the level that I used to consider 'spice' but I have grown to resent and avoid)
~~ 4. Sweet Whites: (ordered by Brad, disordered by passersby) ~~
A note about all the corked sweeties: The Closel was grossly corked but the others, at first, showed tame aromatics with a muscular palate presence (these may be flipsides of the same thing). There was also a 'spring pollen' like scent, just barely detectable. It took a half-hour or so before the taint started to show in the mid-palate; the wines' power was still able to overcome it during the attack and the finish.
_Savennières_
Closel- Moelleux "Cuvée Isa" - corked
_Bonnezeaux_
Domaine des Petit Quarts- Bonnezeaux "Le Malabé" - delicate and delicately sweet, built on a small frame compared to its heavyweight competition nearby
_Quarts de Chaume_
Baumard - robust with a long marmalade-like finish, this is a really good bottle of this, "Slightly anesthetizing" -Manuel, others say "slutty", "botrytized", and "walnuts"
_Vouvray_
Champalou- Cuvée CC - corked
Pinon- "Réserve Passerillée" - good balance, shapely acids, apricot/yellow-fruit flavors, yum, not overwhelmingly sweet
Bourillon Dorléans- Moelleux Tris de Nobles Grains, La Coulée d'Or - lemon and verveine, this is atypical and does not resemble the other chenin wines, good if lightweight
Pinon- "Reserve Botrytisee" - corked
Huet- Moelleux 1ere Trie, Le Haut-Lieu - OMG, the third Little Piggie built his house of LHL, soaring structure, a splash of face-powder in the spaces not taken up with fruit and chalk and more fruit and more chalk
Huet- Moelleux 1ere Trie, Le Mont - akin to the LHL but more obvious citrus tones, and a little less god-like
Huet- Moelleux 1ere Trie, Le Clos du Bourg - corked
Pinon- Moelleux "La Goutte d'Or" - corked
Huet- Moelleux, Clos du Bourg, "Témoin" - the Savage Sid on the table: swarthy, sky-high brown sugar that drowns out the terroir, others admired its power but I found it kinda unpleasant; however, I had a chance to revisit this bottle five days later and it had calmed down a lot, much nicer to drink, even suave as the sugar deftly integrated with the fruit and the terroir
Foreau- Moelleux Reserve - another totally buffed-out wine, full, chalky, the fruit is a little overripe but just dayum
Foreau- Moelleux 1ere Trie - nearly identical to the Reserve; however, I took this bottle home and followed it for a few days and it, too, slowly came down off the ledge and gave me what it should: apricots, a hint of pink/red fruit, acids and chalk commingled and long, a little chamomile and mint
Huet- Moelleux, "Cuvée Constance" - we were worried that this was corked, too, but The Collective declared it 'just chenin funk'; a fine lesson here: this is just as sweet at the Témoin but so much more stylish, dancing across the palate (whereas the other plodded)
Huet- Moelleux, Le Mont, "Début Pressée" - there's a little funk here, some Juicy-Fruit gum, dark yellow (think: dates, Calimyrna, red apricots), and an incredibly long finish, for many this is the best special cuvee made in 1989
One footnote to this battery of sweet chenin: I cannot remember when last I gave out so many superlatives. Everyone tasted again and again (ahem!) and Brad sat for an hour taking notes. For me, the greatest of them was the Huet LHL 1ere Trie, followed by the Début Pressée, and then the Pinon Passerillée. (No offense intended to Foreau or Constance.)
--
The wines of 1989, millésime sans égal, are not just holding up, they are subtly improving and show enough life to go another 35 years...which is, I suspect, more than the span allotted most of us drinking them tonight. So it goes.
Many, many thanks to Jayson for hosting us. It is no small thing to have moved into an apartment just a few months ago and then invite over 17 wine geeks and all their equipment and their wine and food (and spills and stumbles). Prodigious thanks also go to Brad for the weeks he spent organizing the throng and for the wine pix.
