Tempier Special Cuvees

S

Steven Spielmann

Steven Spielmann
Last night had the '98 Migoua and Tourtine. Both were nice wines. They were somewhat lighter-bodied than some more recent vintage Tempier I've had, and also less marked by the character of Mourvedre IMO. The Migoua was heavily perfumed and very pretty; the Tourtine was deeper, darker, more structured, and in general the more profound of the pair, the one you thought about more and wish you had more time to get to know. Seemed like a good pair of vineyards to blend together, actually. Good beef wines.
 
'98 was good for Tempier and those two vineyards. I typically prefer Migoua on the nose and Tourtine on the palate -- Tourtine always seems to have the most complexity to me.

It's too bad Daniel doesn't quite make the same wines anymore...you know it's bad when they start getting big scores in the WA.

-mark
 
originally posted by Mark Davis:
Tempier'98 was good for Tempier and those two vineyards. I typically prefer Migoua on the nose and Tourtine on the palate -- Tourtine always seems to have the most complexity to me.

It's too bad Daniel doesn't quite make the same wines anymore...you know it's bad when they start getting big scores in the WA.

-mark
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The nose on that Migoua was really something - like Mourvedre Beaujolais, lovely and expressive with cherry and red fruit. The palate was nice and had some good subtleties but was fairly straightforward. Both wines were lighter-bodied with plenty of acid left over to carry them into the future - I think both will be fine in 10 more years and the Tourtine may even continue to improve. The nose considered in isolation on the Tourtine might not have been 'as good' but the way it led into that richly elegant, balanced, and structured palate was quite the package and I think it was substantially the better wine overall, though that's not to slight the considerable charms of the Migoua. Beauty > loveliness or something like that.

There are good bottles that get good scores in the WA but I do think these wines were a very different approach than I got in the regular Tempier Bandols from 2004 and 2005, which were much beefier and had a character more like many Spanish Monastrells, although still with more complexity and more interesting tannins than most. I liked the more recent ones as well, but they were different.
 
Weren't the 98s the last (or close to the last) vintage made by Jean-Marie Peyraud? I remember him being very excited about 1998, comparing it to 1982.
 
originally posted by The Wine Mule:
Where I live, none of these wines are available. Am I a fucking idiot for leaving Boston for North Carolina? Possibly so.
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Bite your tongue son. Wrong part of NC.

You put ketchup in your bbq out there for god's sake. Not to mention Eric Murdoch.
 
originally posted by VLM:
originally posted by The Wine Mule:
Where I live, none of these wines are available. Am I a fucking idiot for leaving Boston for North Carolina? Possibly so.
Click to expand...

Bite your tongue son. Wrong part of NC.

You put ketchup in your bbq out there for god's sake. Not to mention Eric Murdoch.
Click to expand...

Busy day at the campus?

I was expecting this reply a lot earlier in the afternoon.
 
It seems...that Daniel is also changing the style of the wines a bit...When I was there in 2005, he had a lot of new barrique...Not sure if he was making a conscious decision to change them or what...I really enjoyed tasting various barrels of the same wines...and it was clear, to my palate, that I preferred the wines in the old barrique...there was one barrel of tourtine that was just dominated by the oak. Anyway...I don't think it is Daniels objective to oak the hell out of the wines, but even the little that has been added is impacting the wines...and, as mentioned, I think there were probably other stylistic changes since Peyraud.
 
Oh, and the idea of a merged wine of Migoua and Toutine is not new...It is something Daniel himself has considered, but there are market forces who are against the idea.

It also seems so wrong in the context of sense of place and terroir...
 
Hi Mark! Thanks for those comments.

I have an '05 Tourtine in my cellar and if it's going to be an oak monster I'll put some Beaucastel, or maybe some cool new naturally made Mourvedre-based wine (any suggestions on one good for mid term aging?), in its place. Sigh.

Isn't Cabassou often a mixture of top fruit from both those vineyards? I've never visited but I had the idea that those two vineyards comprised their domaine and that all their wines were made from one or the other. Sounds like I was wrong though.
 
Cabassaou is a small section of Tourtine. The regular bottling is made up of (mostly) the flat areas around the Domaine. Both Tourtine and Migoua are removed from the main house, although you can see Tourtine in the distance from the cellar.
 
originally posted by Mark Davis:
OakIt seems...that Daniel is also changing the style of the wines a bit...When I was there in 2005, he had a lot of new barrique...Not sure if he was making a conscious decision to change them or what...I really enjoyed tasting various barrels of the same wines...and it was clear, to my palate, that I preferred the wines in the old barrique...there was one barrel of tourtine that was just dominated by the oak. Anyway...I don't think it is Daniels objective to oak the hell out of the wines, but even the little that has been added is impacting the wines...and, as mentioned, I think there were probably other stylistic changes since Peyraud.
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He determined that the old barrels (not just barriques but the fourdres) had to go because they were so old. So for a while in the mid-2000s, there's going to be some new oak on the wines (although not all that noticeable and I think it will fade with time). But the long term age is to use older casks, just of better quality than had existed.
 
originally posted by Levi Dalton:
originally posted by VLM:
originally posted by The Wine Mule:
Where I live, none of these wines are available. Am I a fucking idiot for leaving Boston for North Carolina? Possibly so.
Click to expand...

Bite your tongue son. Wrong part of NC.

You put ketchup in your bbq out there for god's sake. Not to mention Eric Murdoch.
Click to expand...

Busy day at the campus?

I was expecting this reply a lot earlier in the afternoon.
Click to expand...

Still in Paris.

But glad to oblige, even if it was a bit tardy.
 
originally posted by Claude Kolm:
He determined that the old barrels (not just barriques but the fourdres) had to go because they were so old. So for a while in the mid-2000s, there's going to be some new oak on the wines (although not all that noticeable and I think it will fade with time). But the long term age is to use older casks, just of better quality than had existed.
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Claude,
Why couldn't they do what others do and buy used barrels from another producer? It seems odd that, if they want neutral oak barrels, they can't buy them on the open market for less than new barrels cost.

Mark Lipton
 
originally posted by MLipton:
originally posted by Claude Kolm:
He determined that the old barrels (not just barriques but the fourdres) had to go because they were so old. So for a while in the mid-2000s, there's going to be some new oak on the wines (although not all that noticeable and I think it will fade with time). But the long term age is to use older casks, just of better quality than had existed.
Click to expand...

Claude,
Why couldn't they do what others do and buy used barrels from another producer? It seems odd that, if they want neutral oak barrels, they can't buy them on the open market for less than new barrels cost.

Mark Lipton
Click to expand...
We're talking mostly large ovals (foudres), not barriques, so there isn't much of a market.
 
originally posted by Claude Kolm:

We're talking mostly large ovals (foudres), not barriques, so there isn't much of a market.
Click to expand...

Ah, of course. Yeah, I guess that those Grand Cru Mdoc chateaux and Cte d'Or producers aren't going through foudres at quite the same rate that they do barriques.

Mark Lipton
 
originally posted by MLipton:
originally posted by Claude Kolm:

We're talking mostly large ovals (foudres), not barriques, so there isn't much of a market.
Click to expand...

Ah, of course. Yeah, I guess that those Grand Cru Mdoc chateaux and Cte d'Or producers aren't going through foudres at quite the same rate that they do barriques.

Mark Lipton
Click to expand...
Don't give Michel Rolland any ideas.
 
originally posted by Claude Kolm:
originally posted by MLipton:
originally posted by Claude Kolm:
He determined that the old barrels (not just barriques but the fourdres) had to go because they were so old. So for a while in the mid-2000s, there's going to be some new oak on the wines (although not all that noticeable and I think it will fade with time). But the long term age is to use older casks, just of better quality than had existed.
Click to expand...

Claude,
Why couldn't they do what others do and buy used barrels from another producer? It seems odd that, if they want neutral oak barrels, they can't buy them on the open market for less than new barrels cost.

Mark Lipton
Click to expand...
We're talking mostly large ovals (foudres), not barriques, so there isn't much of a market.
Click to expand...

Yes, I misspoke...Almost all Foudres...but at least one of them was so influenced by oak I had barriques on my mind :-)
 
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