2007 Clos Roche Blanche Gamay

As with the Gamay the 2007 Cabernet is a big step up from 2006. Bretty on first pour this mostly blew off after 10-15 minutes to reveal rich minerally fruit. Yummy.
 
originally posted by SFJoe:
I don't think that's brett, really. Just cabernet franc goodness.
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Waaah! Some of my cabernet franc goodness blew off. Of course it tasted a lot better after that so I guess I shouldn't complain.
 
I didn't get much joy from a bottle of the 2007 cabernet a month or two ago, very awkward and wound up. Glad you fared better, Jay.
 
don't want to disrupt the love for CRB here, but curious to know if i'm reading these wines correctly, or just had weird bottles. i had the '06 gamay recently as well as the 04 sb and i felt that both wines shared a brett-like aromatic imprint on them nearly overriding their variety differences. maybe it's not brett (in which case it's more of a house imprint?) but it was dominant, and even seemed to penetrate the palate. i was also hoping for a little more vibrancy out of both wines. the gamay had fair dollops of earthy, almost vitamin-y notes, but that was pretty much the total story. it lacked any juicy brightness at all (and we tried several dishes with it, to see how it played out with different flavors). in the end, both wines just seemed hard work to me for being too simple, and not much else remarkable. maybe it's just a producer whose style isn't my cup of tea, or off bottles (2 in a row?)...i dunno...
 
originally posted by Joel Stewart:
don't want to disrupt the love for CRB here, but curious to know if i'm reading these wines correctly, or just had weird bottles. i had the '06 gamay recently as well as the 04 sb and i felt that both wines shared a brett-like aromatic imprint on them nearly overriding their variety differences. maybe it's not brett (in which case it's more of a house imprint?) but it was dominant, and even seemed to penetrate the palate. i was also hoping for a little more vibrancy out of both wines. the gamay had fair dollops of earthy, almost vitamin-y notes, but that was pretty much the total story. it lacked any juicy brightness at all (and we tried several dishes with it, to see how it played out with different flavors). in the end, both wines just seemed hard work to me for being too simple, and not much else remarkable. maybe it's just a producer whose style isn't my cup of tea, or off bottles (2 in a row?)...i dunno...
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Where are you buying the wines?
 
I found the CRB gamay sometimes tough to love until the 2007 vintage. There was sometimes, until the '07, an overriding character that to me didn't seem like brett (or at least brett as I know it) but something more distinctive and a little geraniumy. I gave away some bottles of the '01 and '02s. Heck, maybe it's just the terroir, I don't know.

To me the '07 Gamay has that to only a very slight degree, and I really like the wine. Or maybe the wine hasn't changed but my taste has, I'm not sure.
 
originally posted by Bwood:
I found the CRB gamay sometimes tough to love until the 2007 vintage. There was sometimes, until the '07, an overriding character that to me didn't seem like brett (or at least brett as I know it) but something more distinctive and a little geraniumy. I gave away some bottles of the '01 and '02s. Heck, maybe it's just the terroir, I don't know.

To me the '07 Gamay has that to only a very slight degree, and I really like the wine. Or maybe the wine hasn't changed but my taste has, I'm not sure.
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yes, brett or not, it was an "overriding character"....that i found in both wines. maybe i'll give the 07 a shot when it comes in.
 
Joel,
You are drinking somewhat different wines than we are. Didier bottles with no SO2 for Japan, but adds a bit at bottling for the US. So there is a no-SO2 character, on top of anything else that has happened.

To me, the wines do indeed show a consistency across cepage, but it's a crunchy limestone minerality that I find very appealing. I can see finding the '06 gamay a little big and perhaps alcoholic, but when you don't like the '04 SB, I think we're having different experiences.

ETA: Didier prefers to add a little SO2.
 
originally posted by SFJoe:
Joel,
You are drinking somewhat different wines than we are. Didier bottles with no SO2 for Japan, but adds a bit at bottling for the US. So there is a no-SO2 character, on top of anything else that has happened.

To me, the wines do indeed show a consistency across cepage, but it's a crunchy limestone minerality that I find very appealing. I can see finding the '06 gamay a little big and perhaps alcoholic, but when you don't like the '04 SB, I think we're having different experiences.

ETA: Didier prefers to add a little SO2.
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thanks for that info, Joe. so the wines headed for japan are more susceptible to mishandling, it seems. maybe a single warm day somewhere in between france and here caused a bit of brett bloom even....which could have shut the wines down for me. (as i said, i missed vibrancy...these wines seemed just....dull.)

btw, the gamay's abv was 12%....that's bigger than the crb norm?
 
originally posted by SFJoe:
I don't think that's brett, really. Just cabernet franc goodness.
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This bottle of 2007 has no brett to my palate. It has some dark mysterious fruit. But it's not even reduced (fake cork). It has a good balance, light to medium tannins on a moderately long mineral finish with refreshing acidity. It's kind of amazing that they pulled this off in 2007, which as Catherine said, "was their best mildew harvest ever!"

I stand by my remarks.
 
I'm the reverse of some others here - I found the '06 touraine cabernet out of sight but the '07 a little dissappointing, fine but not transformative. Liked the '06 gamay also but not as much as the cab. Of course I drank them only a couple of months apart so the '06 had more time in bottle.

'Crunchy limestone minerality' is right on. Similar quality to tue-boeuf but not as over the top. The CRB wines have better manners, but both are great.
 
seems my bottles could in fact be different....just now having an orval and this puppy's bretty palate is a dread ringer for the notes i was getting from the 06 gamay. don't mind brett in balance with other elements but i feel it took over on the crb. guess i'll wait to try my next one in the US.
 
originally posted by SFJoe:
Joel,
You are drinking somewhat different wines than we are. Didier bottles with no SO2 for Japan, but adds a bit at bottling for the US. So there is a no-SO2 character, on top of anything else that has happened.

To me, the wines do indeed show a consistency across cepage, but it's a crunchy limestone minerality that I find very appealing. I can see finding the '06 gamay a little big and perhaps alcoholic, but when you don't like the '04 SB, I think we're having different experiences.

ETA: Didier prefers to add a little SO2.
Click to expand...

The SO2-free '06 version tasted in Mareuil-Sur-Cher last year was actually a little dull to my taste, the regular version very exciting.

But I thought Japan was getting both bottlings. Perhaps not, need to check.
 
originally posted by Jay Miller:
The 2001 Muller Catoir Haardter Burgergarten Riesling Spatlese 2133 is in a nice place right now, developed beautifully over the course of the evening moving from rich and delicious but a rather closed nose to expansively open nose and a gorgeous melange of pit fruit to eventually showing some grapefruit notes. I'll wait a few years for my next one but if you have a few of them it's a fun check-in.

The 2005 Edmunds St. John Wylie Fenaughty was excellent though I think double decanting in the morning rather than the night before would have had it closer to maximum enjoyment of its current young state. It was starting to show some tobacco notes that intruded ever so slightly onto the beautiful aromatics and lithe fruit.
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I recently had a bottle of 2001 Muller Catoir Haardter Burgergarten Riesling Spatlese, but the 2134 rather than 2133. It was quite delicious, pure and focused, very moderate sweetness, and I thought Just entering its drinking window (stored since release in my rather passive cellar).
Charles
 
originally posted by Ian Fitzsimmons:
Any word on the 2002s?
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I'm leery of the 2002 Muller Catoirs as that was the year they went through what seemed like a dozen wine makers after losing Hans Gunter Schwarz.
 
originally posted by .sasha:
originally posted by SFJoe:
Joel,
You are drinking somewhat different wines than we are. Didier bottles with no SO2 for Japan, but adds a bit at bottling for the US. So there is a no-SO2 character, on top of anything else that has happened.

To me, the wines do indeed show a consistency across cepage, but it's a crunchy limestone minerality that I find very appealing. I can see finding the '06 gamay a little big and perhaps alcoholic, but when you don't like the '04 SB, I think we're having different experiences.

ETA: Didier prefers to add a little SO2.
Click to expand...

The SO2-free '06 version tasted in Mareuil-Sur-Cher last year was actually a little dull to my taste, the regular version very exciting.

But I thought Japan was getting both bottlings. Perhaps not, need to check.
Click to expand...

please check...i do wanna see what all the hoopla is about
 
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