Putnam Weekley
putnam
Thanks Joe and Brad for the welcome. Here's some pictures:
To me it's garbage, but to Anne it is recycling, so to curry favor I lugged a car full of empty wine bottles to the monthly mobile recycling trailer in front of Michigan Central Station .
Zeph, Gary and Maggie are volunteers who basically unloaded my car while I took pictures. They wanted to know what the pictures were for. "My blog," I said adding, "which no one reads." I didn't want them to feel like their privacy was going to be trampled upon.
Another recycling client showed up with wine bottles too. For him, a month's worth of wine bottles fit into one wire basket which Zeph dumped into the giant bin. I saw a bottle of Trader Joe's Prosecco in it.
My contribution nearly filled up the container.
I guess I skipped a month or two.
Someone's been telling Phillip Cooley about Jenny & Francois Selections. He wanted to learn more so he bought some bottles at Slope Cellars in New York and brought them over to my house. Other people have mentioned Jenny and Francois to me too. I drink loads of Louis/Dressner wines and supposedly this is a collection that shares something with that iconic grouping.
What does it share, philosophy? Philosophy is nice. But what about practice?
A quick flashback:
Back in October after the LDM tasting I stopped at Astor where I found a bottle of Sancerre that Bertrand Celce had written about . It turned out to be quite delicious. Really tasty. Maybe there had been a little malolactic fermentation in the bottle. It tasted nutty and there was a healthy portion of fine sediment. It grew on me. I'd buy more.
But who, if not Louis/Dressner, would import such a thing?
Just for fun lately I've been trying to guess as many wine identities as I can without seeing the label. It's a test for me, but mostly its a test for the wine. If something tastes like everything else, then who needs it? I guessed the wine above to be ancestral method sparkling Loire, maybe Menu Pineau. Only, it didn't have the emphatic flavors of Puzelat's Petillant, which is the only thing like that I'm familiar with. Turns out its Melon, as I learned on Celce's blog after the fact. It was my favorite wine of the night. Lowish alcohol. Incredibly easy to drink. More please!
Without seeing what it was, this was obviously 2004 Chablis. 100 points for authenticity! It had the weight I expected and that soft anise taste that cool climate Chardonnays get when they age a bit. Is it a symptom of heavier yields too? I mean, there was very little in the way of tart acid. The wine was just soft and breezy and light. It was decent, but I might rather drink it fresher.
Google tells me Jean-Marie Rimbert has not yet been mentioned on Mr. Celce's blog. I stupidly guessed this to be some kind of Cabernet Franc, possibly from Washington or Friuli, even though I knew I had to be drinking something French. But it was just a little too warm or sweet or something for the Loire ... As a Saint-Chinian it was decidedly cool and tannic, even a little green. Maybe it's the Carignan that does that. Les Heretiques has been tasting like mint to me lately too (in a good way.) I might like this wine more if I had more than one glass one time, but then, the tannins sort of piled up toward the end in a way that I thought defeated drinkability.
This was a nice wine. Fully austere. I was not able to discern an obvious difference between this and the dozens of vintages of Clos la Coutale I've tasted and drunk. Maybe someone can enlighten me ...
I am glad Jenny and Francois are doing this. Someday all wines will be natural!
I am also glad I conned my reactionary LDM dealer into getting a half dozen cases of the wine pictured above. I had a hunch 2006 would be good. I told him Carlyle Xarlisle Carlisle bottles a Mondeuse, and only in special vintages, and only for the mailing list, and they sell it for more than Peillot's would sell for. I've never tasted the Carlisle. Maybe it's going into a blend these days. The 2006 vintage made Peillot's grapes very ripe and perfect I think. There's a velvety cocoa character to the tannins this time, and the fruit seems to give support to the possibility of a parental relationship with whatever grows in Cornas. Otherwise it's a charming, easy drinker, that happens to be purple and opaque.
There's a southeast Asian relish called XO sauce . It's made of fermented crill and fish and such. It's salty, blackish brown and intensely flavored. Toss it with string beans, and maybe a scallop or two, and drink 2005 Cuvee Renaissance. The wine was fat, with honey dripped green stone flavors. Words. Broken. Drink.
Foillard's Morgon is in the rotation not because it has aged sufficiently, but rather because I'm trying to eliminate my cellar, and it is easy enough to drink young. 2006 was a ripe year. This is pretty dense stuff, almost sweet, but still clean. (Sometimes it goes through a murky phase)
You'll never believe it. This Michigan wine tasted like it could have been made by Mr. Puzelat, if he used lab yeast. At least that's what I think I tasted in it. The fruit was delicious though, with all the size, layers and proportions of a Loire Gamay. It tasted more like a Loire Gamay than any Beaujolais I've ever known. Thanks to Jarred of Ferndale's Western Market for sharing.
2005 Clos des Allees from Luneau-Papin. What a wine! I mean really. Perfection. Nudging maturity with golden sights and scents. It presses detailed lasting flavors. I had my last bottle with Dearborn's Annam's consomme with enoki mushrooms and lobster/shrimp wontons.
I picked this up at Elie's in Royal Oak and drank it with Evan Hansen. It's getting old and golden; I'd say half of the wine is now a generic maderized thing that doesn't taste bad in its own right. The other half is still talking about lemons on trees with a nerve of chalky minerals. So, it's complicated. There are many treasures at Elie's, including sensational 1995 Marechal Pommards and Savigny les Beaunes.
Mouches. Ont. Pied. The best wine ever made, and while it is sluffing away in a transparent tissue of mineral meats and grass fruit, it is still special. I believe this was the last bottle in Michigan ...
That's just some of what went in to the recycling bin this morning. As I drove away I took this picture of the building we were recycling under:
Can that be recycled? It's owned by Matty Maroun, who also owns the Ambassador Bridge, the busiest international border crossing in world history. The bridge is getting a new road. Construction has been underway for over a year. Here's one of the cranes:
BONUS NOTES:
The Fine Wine Source in Livonia still has some of these 1997 Marcel Lapierre Morgons. I found the bottle I opened to be quite delicious. I bought another. Like the Cotat Sancerre, there is a split between infirm age and vigorous youth, only in this case it's mostly vigorous youth. Whole strawberry patch, cinnamon and preserved orange peels with capable tannins. If they charged what it was worth, they'd still have it, and they do!
Domaine de la Tourade Cotes du Rhone. Mary at Everyday Wine in Ann Arbor noted the heavier proportion of Syrah (versus the Vieux Chene which I was considering instead.) But I wonder if that incrediby delicious taste can be attributed to Syrah? It's the iron and blood flavors of Sang des Cailloux and certain wines from Gigondas, only without the fire and bulk. Anne and I drank this with beef stew after our 1000th bottle of Heretiques was finished...
A quick flashback:
But who, if not Louis/Dressner, would import such a thing?
I am glad Jenny and Francois are doing this. Someday all wines will be natural!
