WTN: Dancing in the garden of spring

M

MarkS

Mark Svereika
Luckily the heat came and went, thus prolonging beloved springtime in the New York piedmont. Good time to try a couple of new wines for me and revisit some old ones.

Caves Cooperatives de Donnas, Donnas, Vallee d'Aoste, 2005
A springtime nebbiolo, showing shitake mushroom, forest fruits and parmesan cheese aromatics. Definate alpine nebbiolo character, with bright acidity and red fruits and a fresh, lively body. Delicious now, for my tastes if I had another bottle I would wait another year. 13% B+/A-

Marcel Lapiere, Morgon, 2005
Floral nose with a slight raspberry-damson plum note. Very floral with a penetrating balsamic-raspberry finish, with fir or spruce needles floatign on top. Like drinking violet & rose essence. Lovely and pure, but not very gamay-like to me (e.g., no 'iodine' or 'medicine chest'), which is fine, but just...different. 13% A-
Question: does anybody know if Marcel uses little-to-no sulfur? Because this tasted about as sulfur-free a wine as there is outside of Allemand. I've heard something about the "Lapiere style" and wonder what that might be?

Vie di Romans, Friuli Isonzo, 'Flor di Uis', 2006
This is from the Gallo family. No, not that one, but the one in Gorizia. A blend of Malvasia Istriana, Rhein Riesling, Tocai Friulano, the color is a bright lemon gold. Aromas of lemon mint and an herbal garden. Rather thick and unctuous, with a bit of plodding dullness, this is well-made, but a bit heady with 14% alcohol. Has an interesting lemon-mint and jalapeno skin finish, along with slight bitter almond. Interesting, but a bit pricy (upper-$20's, and that's on sale) and unsure whether I would buy again. Perhaps in a less ripe year. B+/A-

Chateau Lagrange, Saint Julien, 2000
I'm beginning to consume my 2000's because I see this vintage nearly across Europe as an early maturing one, and I have multiple bottles to sample and gauge their progress. The color is a deep dark cherry-red. Has a dullish, heavy nose of black raspberry and blackcurrants. Rather soft and blocky, somewhat one-dimensional, with the same black raspberry and blackcurrant that was on the nose. A touch of sage on the finish. Bottle shows a little improvement (fuller and better integrated) on the 2nd day. Coates is pretty spot on in his review of this. B+

Saint Cosme, Cote Rotie, 2001
Fecal stink covers anything else you'll get out of this, which is hard to get past, but if you can this is actually showing better than a bottle I opened about a year ago, which would have garnered an "F" on my scale and was extremely disjointed and undrinkable. this is merely extremely unpleasant. D+/C

Poliziano, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, 'Asinone', 2000
The eternal bottle of youth: does this thing ever AGE? My 3rd bottle, still showing quite primary. Blackberry, Italian plum, camphor, licorice/fennel throughout, amazingly dense and rich. Sweet tactile tannic grip on the end, like a strong man's handshake but from a gentleman wearing gloves to soften the grip, but the power's there. Heavy sediment. 14% A- [note: this will be too ripe for some of you, but it is very well made]
 
I don't know if it helps, but from a while back:

Vie di Romans 2000 Isonzo Bianco Flors di Uis (Friuli) Theres presence here. Dense without being heavy, showing concentrated citrus rind and peat. The acidity is decent enough, but this wines true quality is a strength of character, exemplified by its fantastic persistence on the finish. Really striking. Probably fully mature, but thats just a guess, as Im no Isonzo expert. (11/07)
 
originally posted by Thor:
I don't know if it helps, but from a while back:

... Theres presence here. Dense without being heavy, showing concentrated citrus rind and peat. The acidity is decent enough, but this wines true quality is a strength of character, exemplified by its fantastic persistence on the finish. Really striking. Probably fully mature, but thats just a guess, as Im no Isonzo expert. (11/07)
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Oh, there was prescence, alright, and the acidity kept things in check, but there was a dull heaviness there as well, that sometimes I don't care for-other times I do ("sometimes you feel like a nut..."). In general, I like the NE Italian white blends because they can be interesting alternatives to what's out there, but sometimes they have muted aromatics and take on a character of a person wearing podiatric shoes.
 
originally posted by MarkS:Marcel Lapiere, Morgon, 2005 Lovely and pure, but not very gamay-like to me (e.g., no 'iodine' or 'medicine chest'), which is fine, but just...different.
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Interesting that you would pick iodine and medicine chest as core gamay characteristics. To me, I would point to juicy fruit, but then that is not always true either depending on the terroir elevage. All part of the fun!
 
originally posted by Rahsaan:
originally posted by MarkS:Marcel Lapiere, Morgon, 2005 Lovely and pure, but not very gamay-like to me (e.g., no 'iodine' or 'medicine chest'), which is fine, but just...different.
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Interesting that you would pick iodine and medicine chest as core gamay characteristics. To me, I would point to juicy fruit, but then that is not always true either depending on the terroir elevage. All part of the fun!
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Rahsaan - I get the fruit as well, but in looking for a characteristic that calls out "Beaujolais!" or "gamay", I almost always seem to find that iodine component, or maybe I am more sensitive to it. It's funny that wines made from mencia have (to me, again) the similar fruit characteristics of Beaujolais: the charming fruit, fresh and light-bodied, immediately accessible and without tough tannins.
 
MarkS, i'm no Bordeaux freak by any stretch, but i have a few 2000's lying around. reading your notes, we popped a smith-haut lafitte last night and i coulda sworn it was made by grapes sourced from mclaren vale.....the most disgusting bord experience i've had. how do you say chocolately purple fruit bomb in french? i'm hoping my lagrange will behave a little better. (btw, stylistic points aside, the shl was still primary.....i could see it starting to turn a bit in 5 yrs or so, but i'm no expert...)

ps - i haven't had any isonzo bianco's yet, but a recent refosko/merl/cab franc blend was both quite tasty and thought-provoking.
 
Sounds like despite the assurances of the various Bordeaux chteaux that the oakiness and imprecision from fermenting in barrel would burn off and that it was just to make the wines easier to taste when young (hmmm, easier for whom?), the effects of malo in barrel do linger -- just as I figured all along.
 
originally posted by Joel Stewart:
MarkS, i'm no Bordeaux freak by any stretch, but i have a few 2000's lying around. reading your notes, we popped a smith-haut lafitte last night and i coulda sworn it was made by grapes sourced from mclaren vale.....the most disgusting bord experience i've had. how do you say chocolately purple fruit bomb in french? i'm hoping my lagrange will behave a little better. (btw, stylistic points aside, the shl was still primary.....i could see it starting to turn a bit in 5 yrs or so, but i'm no expert...)
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Perhaps I should have clarified my position a bit. Many of the 2000's I personally purchased (which in most cases were mid-weight wines) are showing well. The SHL would have had more stuffing, so I'm sorry for inducing you into opening up yours a bit prematurely. Your Lagrange will definately show better than the SHL, which I've stayed away from since last trying it in 1999 which was disgusting-from-a-lesser-vintage than yours (all I remember from that was extreme wood, and copy that from the white as well).

And Claude appears on the money with his insights. Sometimes wish people would stop messin' with their wines and give us that old fashion religion again.
 
indeed. i myself made the generalization when i didn't ask for clarification before popping that SHL....but seems that no amount of additional age would correct the style, so it's my own fault for making the purchase in the first place. i did not realize that allowing malo in barrel brings on the chocolate thing....is it mainly this factor of winemaking that is responsible for the inky thing we tasted?

btw, thanks for the headsup on the lagrange.....
 
Thank you Mark for the notes.
The styles of Lapierre and Guy Breton primarily derive from their winemaking. Jules Chauvet taught them a long cold fermentation with no sulfur dioxide. This allows the wild yeasts to do their work -- resulting in fruit-driven wines (like you describe).
 
originally posted by Joel Stewart:
indeed. i myself made the generalization when i didn't ask for clarification before popping that SHL....but seems that no amount of additional age would correct the style, so it's my own fault for making the purchase in the first place. i did not realize that allowing malo in barrel brings on the chocolate thing....is it mainly this factor of winemaking that is responsible for the inky thing we tasted?

btw, thanks for the headsup on the lagrange.....
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Okay, I feel better now. I had that reaction to both the '98 and '00 SHL way back when and was therefore surprised when the latest View from the Cellar listed them as an older styled traditional producer in discussing the '06s. Anyone know what vintage they might have switched back? Or was that one of John's very few wrong calls?
 
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