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Cliff

Cliff Rosenberg
2000 Clos de Gamot Cahors - France, Southwest France, Cahors (4/23/2011)

In a great place. There is still some fruit; it has opened up. No doubt it will hold for quite awhile.

2007 Jeannine Boutin St. Joseph Parcelle de Jean - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, St. Joseph (4/23/2011)

Opens more intense than the last bottle, showing more structure tonight, and very powerful without much weight. With air, it settles down. Brilliant stuff. Probably the best bottle I've gotten from Garagiste so far, this and the Husar Marzemino.

2002 Catherine et Pierre Breton Chinon Les Picasses - France, Loire Valley, Touraine, Chinon (4/22/2011)

Slow ox'd for 3-4hrs, then decanted maybe 1/2hr before service. There was some very fine sludge at the bottom of the bottle, so it helped to have it standing for a couple of weeks. This bottle had a bit of brett, but not too much for me (I'm pretty tolerant). It showed quite a bit broader than the bottle I had last year, more advanced and less focused than I would have thought. There is still fruit there; there's no rush, by any stretch. It's just moving faster than I would have thought.

1986 Ch“teau Gruaud Larose - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Julien (4/22/2011)

Pulled the cork around noon, decanted around 7pm, started in on it an hour or two later. This is finally getting somewhere. When first opened, and then when decanted, it showed brett and VA, but they both blew off to show a lithe, dense, deep old school St. Julien, with tobacco and earth. Nothing flamboyant or obvious -- it really hit the spot. Miles to go with this one.

2008 Sebastien Riffault Sancerre Akmenine - France, Loire Valley, Upper Loire, Sancerre (4/21/2011)

OK, I violated the Rimmerman rule and opened one of these. Yes, it is oxidized. I'll give it the benefit of the doubt and hold off on trying another one for a few months. If it wasn't travel shock, this is just way too hip for me. This had none of the depth or mineral complexity jurassic whites routinely show and had more of an apple-cider note that put me off. Here's to hoping it transforms itself.

2006 Franck Peillot Roussette du Bugey Altesse de Montagnieu - France, Savoie, Roussette du Bugey (4/21/2011)

In a perfect spot. It has fleshed out and is just started to show some precursor hints of oxidation without having made it there yet.

2009 Frank Cornelissen Etna Contadino 7 - Italy, Sicily, Etna DOC (4/18/2011)

Couldn't resist trying one. It only made the cross-country trip ten days ago or so. But one bottle looked reasonably clear, and it was calling our name. It opened fiercely acidic. Time in the decanter helped, to a point. Judgement reserved. It had a little VA, well within bounds. None of the other flaws others have encountered.
 
originally posted by Cliff:
2008 Sebastien Riffault Sancerre Akmenine - France, Loire Valley, Upper Loire, Sancerre (4/21/2011)
OK, I violated the Rimmerman rule and opened one of these. Yes, it is oxidized. I'll give it the benefit of the doubt and hold off on trying another one for a few months. If it wasn't travel shock, this is just way too hip for me. This had none of the depth or mineral complexity jurassic whites routinely show and had more of an apple-cider note that put me off. Here's to hoping it transforms itself.
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Since when is oxidised apple cider hip?

Sounds like annoying wine. But another bottle may show differently.

I thought a previous vintage (forget which one) of this was fun in a ripe flavored/not what you expect from Sancerre way. But I wasn't motivated to buy.
 
I think it's hip to experiment with oxidative elevage for white wines in places without the tradition -- along the lines of carbonic Grenache from hot climes. I had a Chablis from an ideologically pure négoce the last time I was in Paris. We shall see if the wine settles down into something more compelling in a couple of months.
 
There's a lot of bottle variation with Seb Riffault, even in France, so you can imagine after travelling to the US...
I also bought a few from Garagiste and hopefully they will show well.
 
Thanks for the TNs.

I only know the Gruaud and the Sancerre and only the former in the same vintage and my bottle, some years ago, was still pretty tight but, despite that, very enjoyable with plenty of air.

The Riffault Sancerre was decidedly dodgy although not actually oxidised. I was reminded of certain Coulée de Serrants I have had in the past although not so much in taste as in uncertainty although I didn't think that time was going to help me with that. Anyone who makes wine that way will probably have some wine as you described it.

To be fair it was very much a one-off to taste a wine from a winemaker pushing most of the 'natural' boundaries.

Can I suggest that the Gruaud-Larose might just have been suffering from classic Cordier bottle stink rather than Brett and VA since, unlike the former, those are not likely to blow off. OTOH G-L can be Bretty and any wine can have some VA so perhaps they were just not very prominent and were submerged when the the wine breathed enough to 'flower'.
 
I always thought Cordier stink was just a euphemism for brett. Whatever it was, it wasn't too off-putting even at first and had pretty well blown off by the time I served it. I do think the airing helped.
 
I always thought [because it did blow off] that 'Cordier stink' was most probably thiol/mercaptan related rather than Brett or VA neither of which I find blow off. However it seemed possible that Brett and/or VA at low levels might be submerged in fruit-based aromas in a wine like Gruaud-Larose as they emerged with air i.e. to be covered rather than blow off.

Cordier stink of course applied to more wines than Gruaud-Larose e.g Meyney and Talbot etc and of course any red wine can be bretty either through the winemaking or from a winery source imported through used barrels or indigenous. For example Montrose in certain vintages like 90 can be bretty and in such cases I have never had it blow off and usually it gets worse. The same with VA to any marked extent.

OTOH certain sulphur-based odours can disappear with air and those were what I believe were what generally constituted 'Cordier stink'. OTOH I may just be wrong.
 
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