Tasting in France 2.2010.4
Dive Bouteille
So the great gatherings of hipster winemakers returned to Angers this year. The Breton/Joly/etc. Renaissance des AOCs and the Ogereau & Co. Dive Bouteille were both held the weekend before the establishment Salon des Vins de la Loire. This was handy, because for the last couple of years the Dive had moved out to Deauville, which is a bit out of the way, and theyd missed the weekend of the Salon by a couple of weeks, timing that made it impossible for me to do both. Hanging around in France for a week or more in a busy time of year is tough enough, and in truth Ive often had to bail early for work. I had to bail this year, but I only missed the Clos Rougeard. I hope Lou or someone else can bring us up to date, but my guess is that the 2009s are great.
I couldnt do both the Renaissance and visit Marc Ollivier this year. This is a pretty easy call. I am not a big Joly fan, and Marc throws the best parties I ever attend, so But the day after Marcs bash, we all packed up and went to the Dive. The Dive was held in the spectacularly beautiful cellars under the quite remarkable Chateau de Breze. Spectacularly beautiful, and spectacularly cold. The countryside shone under a thick coat of frost and was a Hallmark card of winter beauty on the way over. But it was something like -5* C in the morning, and it turned out that the cellars of the Chateau have various quite large openings in them that let in plenty of winter chill. Even in the warmest recesses of the cellar it was still very, very cold and tough to taste. Infelicitously, the Rhone wines were in the coldest section, where cold air poured in the 15 front door and washed down a ramped hall.
There were several Champagne producers present, but they drew limited interest from the hipster crowd. I suppose Champagne is too square, or too spoofed to excite this audience. In NYC, this room would have been mobbed, but I suppose our hearts are not so pure. The recent disgorgements of the whole range of Larmandier-Bernier wines remain a precise match to my tastelean, structured and beautiful. Prevosts 07 Closerie needs time, but is really interestingsaline, a little meaty. Jerome called it fume. I like Vouette et Sorbee partly for fond memories of good bottles, but the 2007 wines are quite strict and severe. They could use a year or two in the bottle. The Saignee de Sorbee rose was a bit odd in the nose. The Blanc des Argilles was the most open of the bottlings, as I usually find it to be, and this would be the one Id buy.
I think my biggest discovery of the Dive was Antoine Foucault. Hes Charlies son, and there is some story of a dispute with Nadi, but I dont really know much about it. Anyhow, hes making fabulous wines that dont come up on wine-searcher in the US, which is too damn bad. I am probably the last to get the news about him, so I apologize if this is old hat to you. His wines are very much in the family traditionripe fruit, long elevage, great balance and intensity. The 06 Saumur blanc is still in barrel, but what a great version of long-aged, slightly woody chenin. Just beautiful. The 07 unsurprisingly is fresher, brighter, but also excellent. Wish I could find these. The 05 Saumur red from Breze was really beautiful. Not heavy, not woody, but a long finish, ideal ripeness, round, with nice acidity and perhaps just a bit of excess tannin in the finish, though it was also awfully cold.
Thanks to David Lillie, Id already had some wines from Ganevat. Actually, I could preface most of the paragraphs in these reports that way, thanks David. But the lineup was quite spectacular, and even more remarkable after tasting across the aisle at Bornard, most of whose wines sucked. Unfortunately, I fear Ganevat doesnt send much to the US, so these may not be easy to find for my US audience.
There was a light and pleasant ex-barrel 08 Chard from a gravel site that seemed possibly to have a tiny bit of rs left, strangely. The 08 Chard from a schist site, Grusse on Billet was odd, pass.
A series of clay/limestone chardonnays were remarkably good, and Im not the biggest chard fan going. In 08, the Cuvee Marguerite was only bottled in magnum, and is from the local melon queue rouge cultivar. Its a small old vines parcel, and maybe someone can remind me why the magnums. Anyhow, it was fine, but didnt rock my soul. The VVs of the Chalasses lieu-dit were planted in 1902, and the 09 wine had much better acid, with real old vines depth, intensity, and length. Delicious. The Grandes Teppes VVs date to 1919, and the 90th anniversary wine was leesy and powerful. Its more Burgundian, but with good acid and a tasty finish.
The 09 Savagnin ouille Marne Bleu perplexed me that morning, Id like to try it again.
There is a Trousseau here known as Plein Sud, and the authorities inform me that this denotes a southern exposure. The fresh young 09 version should be very good. It still has a bit of CO2, but is clean and bright and brings a smile. The 2008 Pinot Cuvee Julien was a step up, with excellent minerality and beautiful balance.
In traditionally oxidized wines, the 2005 Cuvee de Garde is a chard/savagnin blend, and its great stuff. Long and savory, nicely acetaldehydic, and all in balance. Very, very good stuff. The 2002 vin jaune is very young, but its superb. Its in a great spot between being too squeaky clean and too funky. Clean but complex, wish I had some to put in the cellar.
I wish Id liked the wines from Bornard, but they were a mixed bag. Funky, unclean, bacterial, crappy natural winemaking. The 09 poulsard Point Barre was earthy, funiky, with a bacterial meaty finish. The 07 Poulsard Chamade was crisper and more restrained, and the 07 Trousseau Ginglet was quite good, with light body, good acid, and cleaner flavors. The 07 Trousseau Garde Corps was a bit tougher, no doubt due to its clay site. It was also more rustic than the Ginglet, but if it makes it to the US in this state I could drink it. The 07 Pinot Noir Laide memoir was reduced and closed, an odd beast at this point. The 09 Goudrette chard from cask was appley and oxidized, not in a great way. The 07 chard Rouge Queue was dirty and weird. The 06 Savagnin ouiille was 2 years in a big barrel and was weird, reduced and strange. Not the worst thing, but you wouldnt seek it out. There was a sous voile savagnin in 2005 called Les Marnes, its in bottle now. It has a pleasantly oxidative balance, but its not a top version. I didnt love the 00 vin jaune, it wasnt awful, but the funk and dirtiness were just a bit too far for me.
Strangely, Foillard was pouring the 2007 Cte du Py. I said isnt the 2008 in the market? but they said, no, no, they hold it until its ready to drink. I said that I was sure Id seen it in NYC, and they laughed and said, yes, the US importer insists on taking the wine at the same time every year, so its out in the US. So hold your 08s. The 07, as you know, is spectacular. So is the 06 Fleurie, a bit lighter on its feet, but ripe and scrumptious. The 2006 3.14 is totally sick. My notes are CarsonesqueOMG! Wow!
Souhaut was in the coldest part of the Dive, and it was very hard to taste his wines. If my read on them was correct, they will appeal to lovers of this style but not to neatniks. The 09 Viognier/Rousanne blend was very aromatic, but also quite volatile. He has some granite-soiled gamay that is near Hermitage that was pretty interesting in 09, not bad at all. He asserts that these are the southernmost gamay vines in France. The 09 St. Joe had some nice syrah fruit, but my notes say, a little funky. Actually, a lot funky. The same goes for the 09 Ste. Epine, a special site within St. Joe.
I like Plageoles a lot. They were in the deep freeze across from Souhaut, I would note for your attention their 08 Odene blanc, which had a distinctive, expansive nose and a wonderful long finish. Also, the 08 Duras (Gaillac), which was savory, spicy, spectacular, really nice from the nose through the long finish.
I wasnt wild for Thierry Germains 08s. The cold cellar emphasized the 08 tannins. The Insolite was a little overacidic and underfruited. The 08 Terres Chaudes had a nice nose, but was a little lean. I quite liked the argilo-calcaire franc de pied (Levi Dalton/Keith Levenberg alert). Light, less extracted, pretty. But again, all these producers planting franc de pied in claythese have to be considered transient experiments.
The 09 Maupertuis wines were a bit on the volatile side for me.
Jean-Yves Peron was a nice guy, but he had some volatile and bretty wines that didnt much work for me. The 07 Mondeuse was an exception, but the 08 rose of mondeuse, the 06 mondeuse, the 08 mondeuse, and the 08 parcels in goblet were all too bretty for me.
Arnaud Combier in St. Veran needs to buy better barrels. He has some good material, but there was a raw dill thing that spoiled the wines for me.
Antoine Jolys wines were also too hip for me. Volatile, funky, feh.
Emile Heredias wines are not squeaky clean, but Im very fond of them. The Verre des Poetes is VdT since its just outside the border of the Coteaux du Vendomois. He had no crop in 07, lost the whole thing to frost. The 06 is really fun. He also has a Cinsault from the Heaurault near Montpellier (hows that for something completely different?). You can taste the chalky soil in the finish. He said, its really a winemaking soil, in implied contrast to some other sites in the region.
Antoine Arenas wines were mostly pretty young, still with rs in 09, but I liked the Gentile. Nice mix of nuts and flowers, and the phenolics in the finish help compensate for the slightly low acid.
I very much liked the Domaine Ste. Anne Cotes de Provence despite the bit of brett, and the 07 Bandol was fab. Fresh, ripe, and very tannic. You can keep the 03, it was too tannic and pruny, the stereotypical faults of 03 reds.
If Im going to keep going to the Dive, Im going to have to get some fingerless gloves to take notes.
Dive Bouteille
So the great gatherings of hipster winemakers returned to Angers this year. The Breton/Joly/etc. Renaissance des AOCs and the Ogereau & Co. Dive Bouteille were both held the weekend before the establishment Salon des Vins de la Loire. This was handy, because for the last couple of years the Dive had moved out to Deauville, which is a bit out of the way, and theyd missed the weekend of the Salon by a couple of weeks, timing that made it impossible for me to do both. Hanging around in France for a week or more in a busy time of year is tough enough, and in truth Ive often had to bail early for work. I had to bail this year, but I only missed the Clos Rougeard. I hope Lou or someone else can bring us up to date, but my guess is that the 2009s are great.
I couldnt do both the Renaissance and visit Marc Ollivier this year. This is a pretty easy call. I am not a big Joly fan, and Marc throws the best parties I ever attend, so But the day after Marcs bash, we all packed up and went to the Dive. The Dive was held in the spectacularly beautiful cellars under the quite remarkable Chateau de Breze. Spectacularly beautiful, and spectacularly cold. The countryside shone under a thick coat of frost and was a Hallmark card of winter beauty on the way over. But it was something like -5* C in the morning, and it turned out that the cellars of the Chateau have various quite large openings in them that let in plenty of winter chill. Even in the warmest recesses of the cellar it was still very, very cold and tough to taste. Infelicitously, the Rhone wines were in the coldest section, where cold air poured in the 15 front door and washed down a ramped hall.
There were several Champagne producers present, but they drew limited interest from the hipster crowd. I suppose Champagne is too square, or too spoofed to excite this audience. In NYC, this room would have been mobbed, but I suppose our hearts are not so pure. The recent disgorgements of the whole range of Larmandier-Bernier wines remain a precise match to my tastelean, structured and beautiful. Prevosts 07 Closerie needs time, but is really interestingsaline, a little meaty. Jerome called it fume. I like Vouette et Sorbee partly for fond memories of good bottles, but the 2007 wines are quite strict and severe. They could use a year or two in the bottle. The Saignee de Sorbee rose was a bit odd in the nose. The Blanc des Argilles was the most open of the bottlings, as I usually find it to be, and this would be the one Id buy.
I think my biggest discovery of the Dive was Antoine Foucault. Hes Charlies son, and there is some story of a dispute with Nadi, but I dont really know much about it. Anyhow, hes making fabulous wines that dont come up on wine-searcher in the US, which is too damn bad. I am probably the last to get the news about him, so I apologize if this is old hat to you. His wines are very much in the family traditionripe fruit, long elevage, great balance and intensity. The 06 Saumur blanc is still in barrel, but what a great version of long-aged, slightly woody chenin. Just beautiful. The 07 unsurprisingly is fresher, brighter, but also excellent. Wish I could find these. The 05 Saumur red from Breze was really beautiful. Not heavy, not woody, but a long finish, ideal ripeness, round, with nice acidity and perhaps just a bit of excess tannin in the finish, though it was also awfully cold.
Thanks to David Lillie, Id already had some wines from Ganevat. Actually, I could preface most of the paragraphs in these reports that way, thanks David. But the lineup was quite spectacular, and even more remarkable after tasting across the aisle at Bornard, most of whose wines sucked. Unfortunately, I fear Ganevat doesnt send much to the US, so these may not be easy to find for my US audience.
There was a light and pleasant ex-barrel 08 Chard from a gravel site that seemed possibly to have a tiny bit of rs left, strangely. The 08 Chard from a schist site, Grusse on Billet was odd, pass.
A series of clay/limestone chardonnays were remarkably good, and Im not the biggest chard fan going. In 08, the Cuvee Marguerite was only bottled in magnum, and is from the local melon queue rouge cultivar. Its a small old vines parcel, and maybe someone can remind me why the magnums. Anyhow, it was fine, but didnt rock my soul. The VVs of the Chalasses lieu-dit were planted in 1902, and the 09 wine had much better acid, with real old vines depth, intensity, and length. Delicious. The Grandes Teppes VVs date to 1919, and the 90th anniversary wine was leesy and powerful. Its more Burgundian, but with good acid and a tasty finish.
The 09 Savagnin ouille Marne Bleu perplexed me that morning, Id like to try it again.
There is a Trousseau here known as Plein Sud, and the authorities inform me that this denotes a southern exposure. The fresh young 09 version should be very good. It still has a bit of CO2, but is clean and bright and brings a smile. The 2008 Pinot Cuvee Julien was a step up, with excellent minerality and beautiful balance.
In traditionally oxidized wines, the 2005 Cuvee de Garde is a chard/savagnin blend, and its great stuff. Long and savory, nicely acetaldehydic, and all in balance. Very, very good stuff. The 2002 vin jaune is very young, but its superb. Its in a great spot between being too squeaky clean and too funky. Clean but complex, wish I had some to put in the cellar.
I wish Id liked the wines from Bornard, but they were a mixed bag. Funky, unclean, bacterial, crappy natural winemaking. The 09 poulsard Point Barre was earthy, funiky, with a bacterial meaty finish. The 07 Poulsard Chamade was crisper and more restrained, and the 07 Trousseau Ginglet was quite good, with light body, good acid, and cleaner flavors. The 07 Trousseau Garde Corps was a bit tougher, no doubt due to its clay site. It was also more rustic than the Ginglet, but if it makes it to the US in this state I could drink it. The 07 Pinot Noir Laide memoir was reduced and closed, an odd beast at this point. The 09 Goudrette chard from cask was appley and oxidized, not in a great way. The 07 chard Rouge Queue was dirty and weird. The 06 Savagnin ouiille was 2 years in a big barrel and was weird, reduced and strange. Not the worst thing, but you wouldnt seek it out. There was a sous voile savagnin in 2005 called Les Marnes, its in bottle now. It has a pleasantly oxidative balance, but its not a top version. I didnt love the 00 vin jaune, it wasnt awful, but the funk and dirtiness were just a bit too far for me.
Strangely, Foillard was pouring the 2007 Cte du Py. I said isnt the 2008 in the market? but they said, no, no, they hold it until its ready to drink. I said that I was sure Id seen it in NYC, and they laughed and said, yes, the US importer insists on taking the wine at the same time every year, so its out in the US. So hold your 08s. The 07, as you know, is spectacular. So is the 06 Fleurie, a bit lighter on its feet, but ripe and scrumptious. The 2006 3.14 is totally sick. My notes are CarsonesqueOMG! Wow!
Souhaut was in the coldest part of the Dive, and it was very hard to taste his wines. If my read on them was correct, they will appeal to lovers of this style but not to neatniks. The 09 Viognier/Rousanne blend was very aromatic, but also quite volatile. He has some granite-soiled gamay that is near Hermitage that was pretty interesting in 09, not bad at all. He asserts that these are the southernmost gamay vines in France. The 09 St. Joe had some nice syrah fruit, but my notes say, a little funky. Actually, a lot funky. The same goes for the 09 Ste. Epine, a special site within St. Joe.
I like Plageoles a lot. They were in the deep freeze across from Souhaut, I would note for your attention their 08 Odene blanc, which had a distinctive, expansive nose and a wonderful long finish. Also, the 08 Duras (Gaillac), which was savory, spicy, spectacular, really nice from the nose through the long finish.
I wasnt wild for Thierry Germains 08s. The cold cellar emphasized the 08 tannins. The Insolite was a little overacidic and underfruited. The 08 Terres Chaudes had a nice nose, but was a little lean. I quite liked the argilo-calcaire franc de pied (Levi Dalton/Keith Levenberg alert). Light, less extracted, pretty. But again, all these producers planting franc de pied in claythese have to be considered transient experiments.
The 09 Maupertuis wines were a bit on the volatile side for me.
Jean-Yves Peron was a nice guy, but he had some volatile and bretty wines that didnt much work for me. The 07 Mondeuse was an exception, but the 08 rose of mondeuse, the 06 mondeuse, the 08 mondeuse, and the 08 parcels in goblet were all too bretty for me.
Arnaud Combier in St. Veran needs to buy better barrels. He has some good material, but there was a raw dill thing that spoiled the wines for me.
Antoine Jolys wines were also too hip for me. Volatile, funky, feh.
Emile Heredias wines are not squeaky clean, but Im very fond of them. The Verre des Poetes is VdT since its just outside the border of the Coteaux du Vendomois. He had no crop in 07, lost the whole thing to frost. The 06 is really fun. He also has a Cinsault from the Heaurault near Montpellier (hows that for something completely different?). You can taste the chalky soil in the finish. He said, its really a winemaking soil, in implied contrast to some other sites in the region.
Antoine Arenas wines were mostly pretty young, still with rs in 09, but I liked the Gentile. Nice mix of nuts and flowers, and the phenolics in the finish help compensate for the slightly low acid.
I very much liked the Domaine Ste. Anne Cotes de Provence despite the bit of brett, and the 07 Bandol was fab. Fresh, ripe, and very tannic. You can keep the 03, it was too tannic and pruny, the stereotypical faults of 03 reds.
If Im going to keep going to the Dive, Im going to have to get some fingerless gloves to take notes.