Special wines

I've only purchased them in restaurants, so I really don't know. But given that they're Kermit wines down here, it's usually sensible to presume that they're cheaper elsewhere.
 
Meanwhile...

The '07 Chamonard Morgon was excellent. It didn't have the high-toned fruit note that I typically see in young Beaujolais. Steve thought that there was just the slightest hint of brett and that's the reason why. It had great purity. As the wine opened, it became earthier and a tannic underpinning started to show. Really nice stuff.

Steve brought '09 Bone Jolly Rose. Could this be the best BJ rose yet? Quite possibly. I'm looking forward to quaffing more of this when the weather gets warmer.

It had been quite a few years since I ate at Cafe Rouge. Definitely an oversight on my part. Terrific brown rice salad with shaved artichokes, black olives, Manchego cheese and sun dried tomato vinaigrette as well as braised lamb shoulder, fresh chickpeas, lemon, mint, spinach and wheat berries. Split a dozen oysters with a glass of '08 Bregeon Muscadet (vibrant and precise, just what one wants as a match with oysters).

--"Show Off" Stein
 
the slightest hint of brett and that's the reason why. It had great purity.

Shouldn't the brett have detracted from the purity?

Either way, sounds like an interesting wine and a nice meal.
 
I couldn't detect the brett at all. It very much tasted like Gamay. What the brett did was mute the high-toned note just a tad, but I don't think it had an effect on the Gamay fruit notes.
 
originally posted by Nicolas Mestre:
originally posted by VS:
Speaking of Morgon, last night we compared two 2008s at Terroirs in London - a Lapierre and a Foillard (the basic cuve). Teacher and pupil. The Foillard was funkier, wilder, but definitely more complex and better than the Lapierre.

Better? Perhaps more appropriate to say "different"?

Is there a significant price difference between the two in the UK? In these parts the Lapierre is usually about $25 and the Foillard is around $40.

I am in the 'different rather than better camp' and in the UK the prices are not so far apart with Foillard perhaps 5$ more at 30$ [at 1.5$/] for the 2007 delivered.

I need to qualify my opinion to the 2005s and priors of both and although I have had the 2007 Foillard [good - but I'm keeping the rest of the half case for a while] I haven't opened the 2007 Lapierres yet. I also haven't bought the 2008s yet.

I like Thevenet's wines too but, of the Gang of Five, usually prefer and therefore cellar Lapierre and Foillard.
 
I couldn't detect the brett at all.
Well, you know, Steve has a reputation as one of those ultra-technical, flaw-fearing Davis types, so we've come to expect this sort of thing from him. (where are my damned emoticons?)
 
originally posted by Nicolas Mestre:

Better? Perhaps more appropriate to say "different"?
In 2008, Foillard is head and shoulders above Lapierre at the basic level, IMHO of course - and that was the general opinion around a table of high-falutin but jolly International Wine Challenge judges out on the town to celebrate the end of two grueling weeks.
 
originally posted by Larry Stein:
How many times have I told you to clean out your pants' pockets before I do the laundry?
I recently found a Hershey's Kiss in a shirt pocket that had been through the dry cleaner's....
 
originally posted by fatboy:
originally posted by SFJoe:


I am not informed, but there might be a question of yields among other issues.

yields and other issue even...

i'd say we've both oiled our generous girths with a fair amount of this shit through the years, and looking back, my piggy memory banks suggest that up til 8-10 years ago, i preferred the style of lapierre in most vintages i'd tried. (87, 91 and 98 are all porn in my mind.) as things have gotten generally warmer, the foillard method has checked my boxes more and more often.

This very thing came up last night in a conversation over 2 bottles of 2008 Foillard.

Those of us in that conversation concur, more or less.
 
originally posted by VS:
BTW, in a rather large tasting of 'real wine'-type Beaujolais in Madrid two weeks ago (yes, sometimes even us Philistines are allowed in such events), we thought that one guy stood out very clearly with his Morgon Vieilles Vignes 2008, even ahead of Foillard: Jean-Paul Thvenet. From the still youthful aromatic palette to the unexpected depth, a very impressive wine. And a good drink too ('impressive' doesn't always equate to fun drinking, but here it does.)

We had the same thing happen in my group's 2002 Beaujolais dinner. For the 2005 version, the wine was devastatingly brett marked.
 
originally posted by VLM:
originally posted by fatboy:
originally posted by SFJoe:


I am not informed, but there might be a question of yields among other issues.

yields and other issue even...

i'd say we've both oiled our generous girths with a fair amount of this shit through the years, and looking back, my piggy memory banks suggest that up til 8-10 years ago, i preferred the style of lapierre in most vintages i'd tried. (87, 91 and 98 are all porn in my mind.) as things have gotten generally warmer, the foillard method has checked my boxes more and more often.

This very thing came up last night in a conversation over 2 bottles of 2008 Foillard.

Those of us in that conversation concur, more or less.

So, for someone who's come to these wines only since the 06 bottling, what is the stylistic gap?
 
Back
Top