I found some more old notes, here you go:
Loire Vintage Impressions, 2006
Melon, Chenin, and a few other things
I was very tempted not to go to the Loire this year. Aside from the usual competing work and life items, my impression from a distance was that it had been a difficult year. Cold sometimes, hot and humid others. Black rot, grey rot, yellow rot, green rot, locusts, rains of frogs, the whole works. Not a cheerful situation like 2005 where you had to be a real knucklehead to make bad wine. Could I control my expression and make polite dissimulations when a friend showed me disappointing wine? Did I want to spend days doing that? A tough call.
But it was a tough call that was made much easier by the knowledge that Jill Lillie and Denyse Louis would be joining us this year, and that Mark Ellenbogen would be returning after several years absence and driving with me. That, along with wanting at all costs to attend Marc Olliviers oyster bash and Muscadet vertical pushed me over the edge.
Marc and I flew from JFK to CDG, rented the much-envied car (everyone else wanted our model, but they were in short supply and we won the scissors/paper/stone tournament to get it), and drove out through the thick fog for Champagne. The Champagne adventures are written up elsewhere, since they are really a different deal.
Racing out from Champagne, we were guided by the mellifluous but insistent woman in our GPS directly to Restign (not counting the scenic lunch at the cuisinier joint on the Loire in Blois), and I managed to remember how to get to the Bretons spread from town. I had always wanted to visit their vineyards, but had either missed visits that had tours, or visited when the weather was so bad that no one but me wanted to drag out into the mud. It is always illuminating to see directly how people work, and the visit was a striking contrast to Champagne. I will try to figure out how to put in a picture or two, but the sense of trying to preserve vines and land at Breton was so different from the industrial grape production in Champagne you can hardly believe it. As one minor example, Catherine has come to believe that their machine that harrows between vines shakes the vines too hard when its little sensor arm bumps the next vine to steer the blades around it. So they have put in a little stake ahead of each vine to prevent this injury. In most of Champagne, there is no expectation that vines will live past 35 or 40, so if they are damaged you rip them out.
Subsequently, back at the ranch house, we tasted through a range of 2006s. Pierre doesnt like to stabilize his new wines to bring them to the fair, so we tasted them in situ. I would note that as is common for a big tasting Chez Breton, we tasted them out in the yard in a brisk wind at temperatures probably in the high 40s, so it was a little difficult to be too nuanced. At least it wasnt raining.
To generalize about the vintage, there was a good spring in most of the region with good consistent flowering and set. The summer was quite variable, with a very humid July and a cool humid August. Some appellations had a fair bit of black rot. It got hot in September leading to very rapid ripening, and some regions got rain. Some of them got a lot of it, some less, some had their grapes in, and some didnt. These variables made a big difference across producers and appellations. In general, the good producers I tasted coped well. I meant to try some bad producers at the fair for context, but didnt really have time. Catherine and Pierre had to have extra pickers and bring the grapes in ASAP.
The malos were done on the 06s at Breton, but not all of them were finished with their primary fermentations, so this is a very preliminary read on the wines. And it was sometimes hard to smell with an icicle hanging from my nose. The 06 Avis de Vin Fort, a young vines rose, was bretty past the point of pleasure for me. I liked Trinch much better, and it comes with more skin contact, extraction, and color. Galichets was also nice, with nice clean fruit and balanced structure. The aforementioned cuvees were all from stainless, following have seen some wood. Nuits dIvresse was pure and tasty. Clos Senechal was a little hard (its in steel now, but will spend time in oak before bottling, which should relax it some). 2006 Perrieres has not undergone MLF, and still has sugar. It has a deep color, nice harmony and depth, and the combination of rs and wood aging gives the impression of a deep and clean wine. Early days yet here. 05 Nuits dIvresse from bottle was tasty despite brett on the nose. Remains to be seen how this will do once shipped and etc.
We then all packed up and went to the secret storage cellar of the family to pillage their old vintages of Perrieres from magnums and to have their small terrier play fetch with a large rock. The secret cellars are quite coolI last visited at least 5 years ago, so this was pretty interesting. Dinner was a lot of fun, and we drank, not tasted, some great wines, but the misbehavior of some of the party compels me to draw a veil over this event. OK, not a total veil. 89 and 97 Perrieres rock. Nothing wrong with 96 either.
Really? You want to fetch a rock as big as your head?
I guess so:
We then decamped and dodged the DUI patrols to arrive safely at the glamorously renovated Hotel Mercure Angers Lac du Maine for the night. Up late the next morning, and invigorated by intermittently cold showers, we went to taste at Marc Olliviers.
Marc had a more biblical summer than some others. Black rot during the season, rain and grey rot at harvest, tough times. He hired 45 pickers rather than his usual 23-30 to move faster and to do a triage in the vineyard. His yields were reduced substantially due to the triage, but he finds the clean grapes that he brought in comparable to 2004, and I dont think hes far off.
He had some pretty scary stories about his neighbors who machine harvested this year. The machines of course cant triage, so rotten grapes come in with the good. Its not totally clear to me why you cant send some workers into the vineyard to drop bad fruit ahead of a machine harvest, but there you are. Once you have the rot in your wine, it is very hard to lose the flavor. Apparently the widely practiced cure is to treat the wine with charcoal to adsorb the rot flavors, and then there is also something done with cream. Anyhow, Marc says that the new sign of a bad vintage is not the flavors of rot, but rather the stripped and vitiated result of having all the good hydrophobic flavor components taken out with the charcoal. I wanted to try some industrial Muscadet but didnt get the chance at the fair. Maybe I can get something from the wine wizard of the Loire or from someone in his coven.
Anyhow, the components that go into the regular estate Pepiere were fresh, clean, lacked the plushness of 2005, and seemed quite fine. I detected no rot, but Im not sure how sensitive I am. The wines ran from 11.2 to 12.5, only one or two tanks chaptalized. Acids 4-5 sulfate!
Mark notes that 9.5* natural is the minimum for the AOC, and that he cant recall but thinks you can chaptalize 1.5 or 2*. Some of the cuvees that will be in the Pepiere had what I think of as a hot vintage roasty/toasty skin note that I recall from 2003 and 1999, but to a lesser degree. I think this is the same thing that some other tasters call high or excessive minerality, but I stress that it was a minor component doubtless reflecting the warm weeks in September.
Interestingly, Marc has an oenologist come in to help him taste and assemble the cuvees that will be shipped as 2 or 3 different tranches of Pepiere. He tries to make the later bottlings approximate the first after their longer time in tank and less in bottling to achieve a consistent flavor profile across the year. He says that he is a very acute judge in his neighbors cellars, but lacks perspective in his own, so he has the guy in to help. He values him more for his palate than his technical ideas, which Marc mostly rejects.
Marc has managed to acquire 4 new hectare in the Clos des Briords. Half of the vines are old, but were not worked as well as his. They are just across the road and 100 meters north up the plateau and appear to be part of the same terroir to me. A little higher quantity of CdB will not be a bad thing in the world. The guy who had the vines sold all the grapes to negoce at a price not very different from his cost of production, so his son didnt want to take them on. The son now works for Marc. Land in the Muscadet sells for1% of the price of land in Champagne for this reason. The 2006 Briords looks set to be a fine vintage, perhaps comparable to 2004. I look forward to trying the wine in bottle.
The non-granite bottlings Eden and Moulin de Gustaie both showed well, although the latter was a mite reduced. Im sure this will be fixable before bottling. The 2005 Granit du Clisson (see last years report) is maturing extremely well and should be a very remarkable bottling of granite-site Muscadet.
But the big, big, big news is that Marc is going unplugged, er, organic. In his usual understated way he has expressed a vague interest in organic cultivation over the years, but gave no preview. He has long been conservative in his treatments, but this is the plunge. He tried 4 ha. in 2006 and will convert the entire estate in 2007, although it will take several years to be certified and he is not permitted to advertise or publish on his change. So ssssssssh. He is plowing and etc. already. I am very excited on his part for this big step, and I hope it goes well for him. My read is that it is in part his increasing financial security and his more developed team of helpers, as well as his more diversified sites that allow him to take the step, but there could easily be other unmentioned factors.
The orgy of old CdB vintages would have been familiar to many of you, but I will mention nonetheless that 2005 may be closing slightly, 2003 is aging in the direction of a more typical vintage but isnt there yet, 02 is a beauty, 96 remains my favorite of the middle-aged vintages, its getting on time to drink 93, that 90 and 88 are showing extremely well. Of the older vintages not made by Marc I will only mention that if you see a well stored Muscadet from 73 on a wine list you should take a shot.
Due to various highly complex maneuvers among the hipster wine machers, I didnt get to try as much new Muscadet this year. A big tasting that used to be over the weekend before the Salon has moved to a week after and far away. Another tasting conflicted with some great parties it was essential that I attend. So, I regret not trying Bossard. But I did get to taste with Luneau-Papin. They had similar conditions to Marc, hiring 70 pickers instead of their usual 30. They also reported high ripeness and relatively low acids. This seems to them to be a theme reflecting climate change over the last decade, and the higher pHs concern the winemakers since they use indigenous yeast (as does Marc) and there are more things (like Brett) that can go awry at higher pH and lower acid. Their acids run 3.6-4.0, a good bit lower than most of Marcs. This may also reflect their different geology and terroir. Cuvees that will likely become Clos des Allees (mostly micaschiste with spots of gneiss) and L dOr showed very well, with good length, minerality, grip and balance.
05 Clos des Allees showed very well indeed L dOr I described as a pillowy L dOr, although I mention that this was instantly disputed by others in the group. But within the context of L dOr, the acid showed a little low, the texture a bit creamy, but slightly soft and ripe. The flavors are clean and correct, but I find the wine just a little plush. More so in the L dOr series than in the Clos des Briords by my reckoning, but it is a tendency for them both. I like the 04 L dOr better than the 05, and am more torn on that pair of Clos des Briords. 99 L dOr, also from a hot vintage, is showing very well.
Vouvray was interestingthey had quite a bit of rain and a tough harvest. Pinons new fizz replaces the memorable 02/95 blend and is mostly 04 (I dont think there were a lot of grapes to put into fizz in 03). The new fizz was 2 years en triage, and bottled 2 months ago. It has 14 g rs and 3 atm CO2, so it is a typical cramant format. It is 1st rate fresh young fizz, although I will savor my last few bottles of the last batch.
Pinon says they had good ripeness in 06 before the harvest, that hot September again. Much better ripeness, for instance, than in 04. He has a sec in 06, 5g acid, 5 of rs, 12*. Its a good version, bright fruit, zippy acid. The 06 Tradition is riper, with 21g sugar, 12.2*, and 4.95g acid (sulfate!). The wine gives a dry impression despite the sugar, and finishes dry. Its richer and fruitier than 04, nice work. For the numbers hounds, he usually winds up with free SO2 ca. 16-25 in the Tradition and 30-35 in the Moelleux. 2005 Tradition (12.5%, 26rs, 4.8 H+_ is a beauty, clean bright, a slight botrytis note, good balance. Cuvee 2001 has 32g rs, but a striking 5.35 acid with 12% abv. Interesting, tasty, bright wine.
Pinon poured us a mystery wine whose balance he likened to 2001 and asked us to guess the vintage. The wine is a lovely mature demi-sec, quite green, with good texture. Not as intense as say, 62 or 71 LHL demi, but its really delicious. Not a big year like 59, and probably not much older. Your correspondent correctly guessed it as 64 and was rewarded with the moldy cork as a souvenir.
Noel Pinguet also reported a tough, rainy harvest. He said they were foolishly optimistic and didnt respond as quickly as they should have to bring on extra pickers. Tony Hwang arrived lateish in the harvest and stopped it when he saw the low proportion of good grapes that were coming in, leaving perhaps 25% of the grapes in the fields. Another large selection on the way in to the winery left a comparatively short crop. Pinguet said the condition of the grapes changed every day and required a different pressing regime. He tastes the juice as it come from the press and moderates pressures and times. In 2004, he pressed gently and quickly, less than an hour, giving clean juice without bitterness. In 03 he pressed for IIRC 8 hours to get more structure. Pinguet thinks that pressing is one of the most important things he does to adapt to produce good wine in different vintages.
We tried 01 petillant, which has a lovely characteristic CB nose, balance and zip, but Im inclined to hold on for the first release of 02 which should be soon (without having tried it). 2006 LHL sec will be bottled next month, was filtered for the Salon. It has a clean bright CB nose, its savory but slightly lean, with a good long finish, good structure without bitterness. The 06 LM sec has a very pure nose, crystallizing LM on the palate. The nose is a bit muted, but a nice wine with a long finish. Clearly better than 04. I didnt have 05 at this stage so cant compare. 2005 LM sec is tight now, richer than 06, really good wine but for aging not current consumption IMO.
There is a LM demi-sec in 2006, its still fermenting, has good structure, depth and balance. Its very promising, and on my list to consider buying. For comparison, Hwang opened 05 demi-sec (which Ive already bought). Its a bit closed at this point, but gives a distinct impression of being less deep than the 2005, which is quite striking. And the numbers say that its the 05 that has slightly higher alcohol and sugar, so the goods are coming from elsewhere. Dry extract is apparently also lower in 06. Hwang is very proud of the 06s, and this comparison certainly supports that view.
In a remarkable move, Huet has a Clos du Bourg 1er Trie in 2006. I sure didnt see anyone else claiming 1er tries in this rainy vintage. The numbers are not 2003 or any such, but they got 67 g rs, 12.3%, and 4.55 gr acid. The wine is really pretty, with a great nose, and lacks the sometimes furry phenolics from this site in some vintages. Hwang is trying hard for finesse, balance, and minerality over power and overt fruit both here at Huet and in Tokaji at his other property Kiralyudvar, of which more later. It will be interesting to see if the finesse and lighter extraction of these wines affects their ability to age, or the trajectory on which they develop. Im not averse to wines that peak in 20 years instead of 50 given my actuarial situation, but I wonder how theyll do. In any case, this is pretty amazing wine given the vintage. A 2005 CdB 1er has more botrytis, more sugar (81g), but may well not be better wine. Again, the comparison unexpectedly favors 2006. Go figure. For further comparison, an 89 CdB 1er is sacrificed. The wine is pure passerillage, and is utterly delicious. It goes forever, harmony at every point. How brilliant.
2006s at Chidaine were a bit less advanced in their fermentations than the Huet wines and were consequently harder to judge. In general they seemed better than 2004s, but perhaps not superior to 2005s here. Clos Baudoin seemed better to me in 05, and a little dilute in 06. As elsewhere, they took on extra pickers and moved fast to save the ripe grapes from the rain. I dont mean to diss 2004 here. Manuela was kind enough to give me a 2004 Choisilles to try, and I drank it with great pleasure with a quite indifferent room service meal in the CDG airport Hyatt before I flew out to Budapest. It showed extremely well, and ready to go. Chidaine teased us again with a great 96 fizz just recently disgorged, although I hear it will all go to Brown Derby.
No to miss out on the best Chenin in the Anjou, I stopped by Richard Leroy to try 2005 Clos des Rouliers and Noels de Monerault (sp?). I liked but didnt love the winesa little blocky, perhaps slightly overextracted? The wood on the Noels is slightly visible but not prominent. My companion found them a little funky and slightly volatile, but he says that about all the girls. I suspect they will age into wines that will give pleasure and interest, but I wonder if they will be great. I hear a shop in TriBeCa will have them on prearrival closeout, so it may be worth getting some of this vintage which is clearly better than 2004 here. Leroy seemed like a very personable fellow.
I also tasted at Jo Pithon. Hes in bio but not biodynamie. He showed a range of 2005s, all of which undergo a spontaneous MLF despite being pH 3.2. The wines must have had some kind of serious acid before ML here, since they were bright. Im not a huge fan of the NFO/MLF chenin style here, but there is no denying he does it well. He also somehow keeps those sideburns, which would scare me right out of the bathroom in the morning if I had to see them in the mirror.
Closel, or whatever they are calling themselves this week, showed some very good 05s and some good wines in retrospective. 05 Jalousie is dry, balanced, ripe, nice. A qualitative step up and stylistic divergence from the 01 that has more SO2, lower ripeness, and a different profile. I have time for those wines, too, but 05 showed very well. My note on Caillardieres is illegible. 05 Papillon is ripe and powerful and vg. 04 is a big boy and needs to sleep. There is also a new rose in 06 that was quite tasty, although the rs made it a bit filling along the lines of the Angeli wine. They put on a great dinner for us at the Chateau, Isaure cooked to new heights, and the food was complemented by interesting pairs of wines. I dont have my notes from dinner with me, will have to return to that topic. The very good news is that the stiff letter from the CDC seems to have had good effect and that AFAIK no one was ill the next day. Or perhaps they were intimidated by Dressners threat of fines for those who fell sick.
I seem to have had a lot of chenin this trip, but I will try to press on with the notes. I tried Vouvrays from Careme, who is organic but not in biodynamie. He has a nice non-dose brut and a range of wines in 2005 from specific sites that seemed to share good fruit, nice acids, and often a slight bitter note in the finish. That note wasnt really unpleasant, but I wonder where it comes from? A little overpressing? Not sure.
Belleviere continues to make great wine. The 04 Effraie and Eparses are forceful clean lean beautiful things. 05 is a riper vintage, a bit more rs, some toasty/roasty notes in the nose. My companion was a bit put off by wood in the nose of the 05 Calligramme, which spent 18 months in wood, but I was not. All these wines cry out for time in the cellar, with the possible exception of the lower level wines from 05, and even those will benefit. There is a mineral, rich Elixir de Tuf(sp?) in 2005 that was very sweet and rich, 228 g of rs, but somehow it didnt do it for me. 04 Rouge Gorge was emphasizing the herbal side of pineau daunis. Some of my companions related that it had been a hard sell, that some people were bothered by those aromas. The 05 is riper, warmer, and lacks the herbal note. Both wines are somewhat tannic, and I raise again my question from last yearare these wines really meant to be vins de garde, and is that the highest and best use for pineau daunis? I have my doubts, and missed the tasting of older wines that might have persuaded me.
This may be enough for one postI have a spare battery for my new computer, and it doesnt impose the compositional discipline I faced in previous years. Ill resume in another thread.
Chris, note that this and my other writeups this week were done in Microsoft Word on Windows software.
Loire Vintage Impressions, 2006
Melon, Chenin, and a few other things
I was very tempted not to go to the Loire this year. Aside from the usual competing work and life items, my impression from a distance was that it had been a difficult year. Cold sometimes, hot and humid others. Black rot, grey rot, yellow rot, green rot, locusts, rains of frogs, the whole works. Not a cheerful situation like 2005 where you had to be a real knucklehead to make bad wine. Could I control my expression and make polite dissimulations when a friend showed me disappointing wine? Did I want to spend days doing that? A tough call.
But it was a tough call that was made much easier by the knowledge that Jill Lillie and Denyse Louis would be joining us this year, and that Mark Ellenbogen would be returning after several years absence and driving with me. That, along with wanting at all costs to attend Marc Olliviers oyster bash and Muscadet vertical pushed me over the edge.
Marc and I flew from JFK to CDG, rented the much-envied car (everyone else wanted our model, but they were in short supply and we won the scissors/paper/stone tournament to get it), and drove out through the thick fog for Champagne. The Champagne adventures are written up elsewhere, since they are really a different deal.
Racing out from Champagne, we were guided by the mellifluous but insistent woman in our GPS directly to Restign (not counting the scenic lunch at the cuisinier joint on the Loire in Blois), and I managed to remember how to get to the Bretons spread from town. I had always wanted to visit their vineyards, but had either missed visits that had tours, or visited when the weather was so bad that no one but me wanted to drag out into the mud. It is always illuminating to see directly how people work, and the visit was a striking contrast to Champagne. I will try to figure out how to put in a picture or two, but the sense of trying to preserve vines and land at Breton was so different from the industrial grape production in Champagne you can hardly believe it. As one minor example, Catherine has come to believe that their machine that harrows between vines shakes the vines too hard when its little sensor arm bumps the next vine to steer the blades around it. So they have put in a little stake ahead of each vine to prevent this injury. In most of Champagne, there is no expectation that vines will live past 35 or 40, so if they are damaged you rip them out.
Subsequently, back at the ranch house, we tasted through a range of 2006s. Pierre doesnt like to stabilize his new wines to bring them to the fair, so we tasted them in situ. I would note that as is common for a big tasting Chez Breton, we tasted them out in the yard in a brisk wind at temperatures probably in the high 40s, so it was a little difficult to be too nuanced. At least it wasnt raining.
To generalize about the vintage, there was a good spring in most of the region with good consistent flowering and set. The summer was quite variable, with a very humid July and a cool humid August. Some appellations had a fair bit of black rot. It got hot in September leading to very rapid ripening, and some regions got rain. Some of them got a lot of it, some less, some had their grapes in, and some didnt. These variables made a big difference across producers and appellations. In general, the good producers I tasted coped well. I meant to try some bad producers at the fair for context, but didnt really have time. Catherine and Pierre had to have extra pickers and bring the grapes in ASAP.
The malos were done on the 06s at Breton, but not all of them were finished with their primary fermentations, so this is a very preliminary read on the wines. And it was sometimes hard to smell with an icicle hanging from my nose. The 06 Avis de Vin Fort, a young vines rose, was bretty past the point of pleasure for me. I liked Trinch much better, and it comes with more skin contact, extraction, and color. Galichets was also nice, with nice clean fruit and balanced structure. The aforementioned cuvees were all from stainless, following have seen some wood. Nuits dIvresse was pure and tasty. Clos Senechal was a little hard (its in steel now, but will spend time in oak before bottling, which should relax it some). 2006 Perrieres has not undergone MLF, and still has sugar. It has a deep color, nice harmony and depth, and the combination of rs and wood aging gives the impression of a deep and clean wine. Early days yet here. 05 Nuits dIvresse from bottle was tasty despite brett on the nose. Remains to be seen how this will do once shipped and etc.
We then all packed up and went to the secret storage cellar of the family to pillage their old vintages of Perrieres from magnums and to have their small terrier play fetch with a large rock. The secret cellars are quite coolI last visited at least 5 years ago, so this was pretty interesting. Dinner was a lot of fun, and we drank, not tasted, some great wines, but the misbehavior of some of the party compels me to draw a veil over this event. OK, not a total veil. 89 and 97 Perrieres rock. Nothing wrong with 96 either.
Really? You want to fetch a rock as big as your head?
Marc had a more biblical summer than some others. Black rot during the season, rain and grey rot at harvest, tough times. He hired 45 pickers rather than his usual 23-30 to move faster and to do a triage in the vineyard. His yields were reduced substantially due to the triage, but he finds the clean grapes that he brought in comparable to 2004, and I dont think hes far off.
He had some pretty scary stories about his neighbors who machine harvested this year. The machines of course cant triage, so rotten grapes come in with the good. Its not totally clear to me why you cant send some workers into the vineyard to drop bad fruit ahead of a machine harvest, but there you are. Once you have the rot in your wine, it is very hard to lose the flavor. Apparently the widely practiced cure is to treat the wine with charcoal to adsorb the rot flavors, and then there is also something done with cream. Anyhow, Marc says that the new sign of a bad vintage is not the flavors of rot, but rather the stripped and vitiated result of having all the good hydrophobic flavor components taken out with the charcoal. I wanted to try some industrial Muscadet but didnt get the chance at the fair. Maybe I can get something from the wine wizard of the Loire or from someone in his coven.
Anyhow, the components that go into the regular estate Pepiere were fresh, clean, lacked the plushness of 2005, and seemed quite fine. I detected no rot, but Im not sure how sensitive I am. The wines ran from 11.2 to 12.5, only one or two tanks chaptalized. Acids 4-5 sulfate!
Mark notes that 9.5* natural is the minimum for the AOC, and that he cant recall but thinks you can chaptalize 1.5 or 2*. Some of the cuvees that will be in the Pepiere had what I think of as a hot vintage roasty/toasty skin note that I recall from 2003 and 1999, but to a lesser degree. I think this is the same thing that some other tasters call high or excessive minerality, but I stress that it was a minor component doubtless reflecting the warm weeks in September.
Interestingly, Marc has an oenologist come in to help him taste and assemble the cuvees that will be shipped as 2 or 3 different tranches of Pepiere. He tries to make the later bottlings approximate the first after their longer time in tank and less in bottling to achieve a consistent flavor profile across the year. He says that he is a very acute judge in his neighbors cellars, but lacks perspective in his own, so he has the guy in to help. He values him more for his palate than his technical ideas, which Marc mostly rejects.
Marc has managed to acquire 4 new hectare in the Clos des Briords. Half of the vines are old, but were not worked as well as his. They are just across the road and 100 meters north up the plateau and appear to be part of the same terroir to me. A little higher quantity of CdB will not be a bad thing in the world. The guy who had the vines sold all the grapes to negoce at a price not very different from his cost of production, so his son didnt want to take them on. The son now works for Marc. Land in the Muscadet sells for1% of the price of land in Champagne for this reason. The 2006 Briords looks set to be a fine vintage, perhaps comparable to 2004. I look forward to trying the wine in bottle.
The non-granite bottlings Eden and Moulin de Gustaie both showed well, although the latter was a mite reduced. Im sure this will be fixable before bottling. The 2005 Granit du Clisson (see last years report) is maturing extremely well and should be a very remarkable bottling of granite-site Muscadet.
But the big, big, big news is that Marc is going unplugged, er, organic. In his usual understated way he has expressed a vague interest in organic cultivation over the years, but gave no preview. He has long been conservative in his treatments, but this is the plunge. He tried 4 ha. in 2006 and will convert the entire estate in 2007, although it will take several years to be certified and he is not permitted to advertise or publish on his change. So ssssssssh. He is plowing and etc. already. I am very excited on his part for this big step, and I hope it goes well for him. My read is that it is in part his increasing financial security and his more developed team of helpers, as well as his more diversified sites that allow him to take the step, but there could easily be other unmentioned factors.
The orgy of old CdB vintages would have been familiar to many of you, but I will mention nonetheless that 2005 may be closing slightly, 2003 is aging in the direction of a more typical vintage but isnt there yet, 02 is a beauty, 96 remains my favorite of the middle-aged vintages, its getting on time to drink 93, that 90 and 88 are showing extremely well. Of the older vintages not made by Marc I will only mention that if you see a well stored Muscadet from 73 on a wine list you should take a shot.
Due to various highly complex maneuvers among the hipster wine machers, I didnt get to try as much new Muscadet this year. A big tasting that used to be over the weekend before the Salon has moved to a week after and far away. Another tasting conflicted with some great parties it was essential that I attend. So, I regret not trying Bossard. But I did get to taste with Luneau-Papin. They had similar conditions to Marc, hiring 70 pickers instead of their usual 30. They also reported high ripeness and relatively low acids. This seems to them to be a theme reflecting climate change over the last decade, and the higher pHs concern the winemakers since they use indigenous yeast (as does Marc) and there are more things (like Brett) that can go awry at higher pH and lower acid. Their acids run 3.6-4.0, a good bit lower than most of Marcs. This may also reflect their different geology and terroir. Cuvees that will likely become Clos des Allees (mostly micaschiste with spots of gneiss) and L dOr showed very well, with good length, minerality, grip and balance.
05 Clos des Allees showed very well indeed L dOr I described as a pillowy L dOr, although I mention that this was instantly disputed by others in the group. But within the context of L dOr, the acid showed a little low, the texture a bit creamy, but slightly soft and ripe. The flavors are clean and correct, but I find the wine just a little plush. More so in the L dOr series than in the Clos des Briords by my reckoning, but it is a tendency for them both. I like the 04 L dOr better than the 05, and am more torn on that pair of Clos des Briords. 99 L dOr, also from a hot vintage, is showing very well.
Vouvray was interestingthey had quite a bit of rain and a tough harvest. Pinons new fizz replaces the memorable 02/95 blend and is mostly 04 (I dont think there were a lot of grapes to put into fizz in 03). The new fizz was 2 years en triage, and bottled 2 months ago. It has 14 g rs and 3 atm CO2, so it is a typical cramant format. It is 1st rate fresh young fizz, although I will savor my last few bottles of the last batch.
Pinon says they had good ripeness in 06 before the harvest, that hot September again. Much better ripeness, for instance, than in 04. He has a sec in 06, 5g acid, 5 of rs, 12*. Its a good version, bright fruit, zippy acid. The 06 Tradition is riper, with 21g sugar, 12.2*, and 4.95g acid (sulfate!). The wine gives a dry impression despite the sugar, and finishes dry. Its richer and fruitier than 04, nice work. For the numbers hounds, he usually winds up with free SO2 ca. 16-25 in the Tradition and 30-35 in the Moelleux. 2005 Tradition (12.5%, 26rs, 4.8 H+_ is a beauty, clean bright, a slight botrytis note, good balance. Cuvee 2001 has 32g rs, but a striking 5.35 acid with 12% abv. Interesting, tasty, bright wine.
Pinon poured us a mystery wine whose balance he likened to 2001 and asked us to guess the vintage. The wine is a lovely mature demi-sec, quite green, with good texture. Not as intense as say, 62 or 71 LHL demi, but its really delicious. Not a big year like 59, and probably not much older. Your correspondent correctly guessed it as 64 and was rewarded with the moldy cork as a souvenir.
Noel Pinguet also reported a tough, rainy harvest. He said they were foolishly optimistic and didnt respond as quickly as they should have to bring on extra pickers. Tony Hwang arrived lateish in the harvest and stopped it when he saw the low proportion of good grapes that were coming in, leaving perhaps 25% of the grapes in the fields. Another large selection on the way in to the winery left a comparatively short crop. Pinguet said the condition of the grapes changed every day and required a different pressing regime. He tastes the juice as it come from the press and moderates pressures and times. In 2004, he pressed gently and quickly, less than an hour, giving clean juice without bitterness. In 03 he pressed for IIRC 8 hours to get more structure. Pinguet thinks that pressing is one of the most important things he does to adapt to produce good wine in different vintages.
We tried 01 petillant, which has a lovely characteristic CB nose, balance and zip, but Im inclined to hold on for the first release of 02 which should be soon (without having tried it). 2006 LHL sec will be bottled next month, was filtered for the Salon. It has a clean bright CB nose, its savory but slightly lean, with a good long finish, good structure without bitterness. The 06 LM sec has a very pure nose, crystallizing LM on the palate. The nose is a bit muted, but a nice wine with a long finish. Clearly better than 04. I didnt have 05 at this stage so cant compare. 2005 LM sec is tight now, richer than 06, really good wine but for aging not current consumption IMO.
There is a LM demi-sec in 2006, its still fermenting, has good structure, depth and balance. Its very promising, and on my list to consider buying. For comparison, Hwang opened 05 demi-sec (which Ive already bought). Its a bit closed at this point, but gives a distinct impression of being less deep than the 2005, which is quite striking. And the numbers say that its the 05 that has slightly higher alcohol and sugar, so the goods are coming from elsewhere. Dry extract is apparently also lower in 06. Hwang is very proud of the 06s, and this comparison certainly supports that view.
In a remarkable move, Huet has a Clos du Bourg 1er Trie in 2006. I sure didnt see anyone else claiming 1er tries in this rainy vintage. The numbers are not 2003 or any such, but they got 67 g rs, 12.3%, and 4.55 gr acid. The wine is really pretty, with a great nose, and lacks the sometimes furry phenolics from this site in some vintages. Hwang is trying hard for finesse, balance, and minerality over power and overt fruit both here at Huet and in Tokaji at his other property Kiralyudvar, of which more later. It will be interesting to see if the finesse and lighter extraction of these wines affects their ability to age, or the trajectory on which they develop. Im not averse to wines that peak in 20 years instead of 50 given my actuarial situation, but I wonder how theyll do. In any case, this is pretty amazing wine given the vintage. A 2005 CdB 1er has more botrytis, more sugar (81g), but may well not be better wine. Again, the comparison unexpectedly favors 2006. Go figure. For further comparison, an 89 CdB 1er is sacrificed. The wine is pure passerillage, and is utterly delicious. It goes forever, harmony at every point. How brilliant.
2006s at Chidaine were a bit less advanced in their fermentations than the Huet wines and were consequently harder to judge. In general they seemed better than 2004s, but perhaps not superior to 2005s here. Clos Baudoin seemed better to me in 05, and a little dilute in 06. As elsewhere, they took on extra pickers and moved fast to save the ripe grapes from the rain. I dont mean to diss 2004 here. Manuela was kind enough to give me a 2004 Choisilles to try, and I drank it with great pleasure with a quite indifferent room service meal in the CDG airport Hyatt before I flew out to Budapest. It showed extremely well, and ready to go. Chidaine teased us again with a great 96 fizz just recently disgorged, although I hear it will all go to Brown Derby.
No to miss out on the best Chenin in the Anjou, I stopped by Richard Leroy to try 2005 Clos des Rouliers and Noels de Monerault (sp?). I liked but didnt love the winesa little blocky, perhaps slightly overextracted? The wood on the Noels is slightly visible but not prominent. My companion found them a little funky and slightly volatile, but he says that about all the girls. I suspect they will age into wines that will give pleasure and interest, but I wonder if they will be great. I hear a shop in TriBeCa will have them on prearrival closeout, so it may be worth getting some of this vintage which is clearly better than 2004 here. Leroy seemed like a very personable fellow.
I also tasted at Jo Pithon. Hes in bio but not biodynamie. He showed a range of 2005s, all of which undergo a spontaneous MLF despite being pH 3.2. The wines must have had some kind of serious acid before ML here, since they were bright. Im not a huge fan of the NFO/MLF chenin style here, but there is no denying he does it well. He also somehow keeps those sideburns, which would scare me right out of the bathroom in the morning if I had to see them in the mirror.
Closel, or whatever they are calling themselves this week, showed some very good 05s and some good wines in retrospective. 05 Jalousie is dry, balanced, ripe, nice. A qualitative step up and stylistic divergence from the 01 that has more SO2, lower ripeness, and a different profile. I have time for those wines, too, but 05 showed very well. My note on Caillardieres is illegible. 05 Papillon is ripe and powerful and vg. 04 is a big boy and needs to sleep. There is also a new rose in 06 that was quite tasty, although the rs made it a bit filling along the lines of the Angeli wine. They put on a great dinner for us at the Chateau, Isaure cooked to new heights, and the food was complemented by interesting pairs of wines. I dont have my notes from dinner with me, will have to return to that topic. The very good news is that the stiff letter from the CDC seems to have had good effect and that AFAIK no one was ill the next day. Or perhaps they were intimidated by Dressners threat of fines for those who fell sick.
I seem to have had a lot of chenin this trip, but I will try to press on with the notes. I tried Vouvrays from Careme, who is organic but not in biodynamie. He has a nice non-dose brut and a range of wines in 2005 from specific sites that seemed to share good fruit, nice acids, and often a slight bitter note in the finish. That note wasnt really unpleasant, but I wonder where it comes from? A little overpressing? Not sure.
Belleviere continues to make great wine. The 04 Effraie and Eparses are forceful clean lean beautiful things. 05 is a riper vintage, a bit more rs, some toasty/roasty notes in the nose. My companion was a bit put off by wood in the nose of the 05 Calligramme, which spent 18 months in wood, but I was not. All these wines cry out for time in the cellar, with the possible exception of the lower level wines from 05, and even those will benefit. There is a mineral, rich Elixir de Tuf(sp?) in 2005 that was very sweet and rich, 228 g of rs, but somehow it didnt do it for me. 04 Rouge Gorge was emphasizing the herbal side of pineau daunis. Some of my companions related that it had been a hard sell, that some people were bothered by those aromas. The 05 is riper, warmer, and lacks the herbal note. Both wines are somewhat tannic, and I raise again my question from last yearare these wines really meant to be vins de garde, and is that the highest and best use for pineau daunis? I have my doubts, and missed the tasting of older wines that might have persuaded me.
This may be enough for one postI have a spare battery for my new computer, and it doesnt impose the compositional discipline I faced in previous years. Ill resume in another thread.
Chris, note that this and my other writeups this week were done in Microsoft Word on Windows software.