Joel Stewart
Joel Stewart
Kyoto: the place is called Deux Cochons ("Two little Pigs"??), a short bike + subway ride away from home, to see our vin naturel seller buddy Masanobu san and his blues band play last night. Well, that's only partially true, because Deux Cochons was celebrating both the nation-wide official B. Nouveau release date as well as the release of several other vin natural producers' latest wines, and Masanobu san's band is always the official band for the event. Y3800 for tabehodai/nomihodai (all you can eat/drink) and I hear the place holds about 20 people. I figured we'd probably get smashed and then crushed.
Sachiko arrived at 10:30 after work (the time I figured we'd leave)... I arrived at 7, so, uhm, I know all of these wines very well now.
Big Bass DrumMasanobu is a gifted guitarist. He plays by the seat of his pants, which is unusual for a Japanese musician. He could cut it in Chicago. Fave of the night was Mercy, Mercy, Mercy!!
The best of the best and anudder good un.I actually went thru the wines in order, 1-7, and that was a good idea....but here, we start with da best. The Pacalet was a serious wine (and most of these Vins de Primeur from these makers were as well. That was the biggest surprise of the night, in fact). What this had over the others was umami and an extra depth dimension. All the rest (excepting, strangely, the Puzelat) were in the ballpark, but the Pacalet was a cut above all. #6 Ch du Montceau was good, similar to the Guy Breton (#3, see below).
Good, and perplexingPUR was more stoic than the Puzelat, fruitier than the Breton. Good but lost in the herd. The Puzelat, I'm afraid to say, tasted like all the reasons I don't like BN. Easily, (and I realize this might raise questions about what B Nouveau should be) the least favorite wine of the night. I wish he'd trade a little fruit from here to his normal reds.
Different, and solidBottle on the left is a Rhone vin de primeur from St. Peray (La Grande Colline, if I got that right)...13% blend of syrah and gamay. VA in a pickle-y way on the nose, but not off puttingly so. Salty on the palate. Stiff, bright, perky, good. Gamay and syrah make good bedfellows. Repeat glasses consumed. No pic, but they also made the one and only white for the night...apparently the Puzelat primeur blanc bottles busted along the way. The blanc here was a viognier/chard blend...slightly turbid in glass, rich, earthy and floral nose; spritzy, dry and light, but lengthy as well as crisp. I could easily have a few of these around. Word has it that La Grande Colline wines are made by a Japanese vintner.
#3 is the Guy Breton (sp?) BN...bojo gamay nose, plus a hefty dose of rising dough yeast. Full on in the mouth, this wine typified the style of the night....fresh though they may be, solid they were.
These wines all showed as great food wines (we had several dishes to enjoy with) and had I not known the theme, with the exception of the Puzelat, I never would have guessed they were nouveaus. Is that a good thing? Shit if I know, but a damn fine schoolnight out.
