Catalan Landscape

O

Oswaldo Costa

Oswaldo Costa
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Joan Miró, Catalan Landscape (The Hunter), 1923-4

Scott recently raved about Els Jelipins. Chris Barnes concurred. But I was loath to dish out seventy two buckaroos on an elixir made from crushed elven jellybeans, so I waited, with Jovian patience, for the opportunity to taste them gratis, like some blogger on the take. I expected fireworks, given the hullaballoo, but wasn’t prepared for the depth of psycho-sensory satisfaction at last night’s CSW Catalan roundup. From that little country that could, came some of the most fascinating wines I’ve met at a store tasting (if one can call CSW a store). No herds here, perfect for my tender sensitivities.

2009 Mendall (Laureano Serres) Macabeu L’Abeurador
White. No SO2 added. Grape is Macabeu. Citrus peel, honey, apricot, and very mild oxidativeness. Excellent weight and balance, lovely acidity, a beauty. Reminds me of my favorite Radikon, the 04 Jakot.

2009 Vinya San Feliu Costers del Segre Trepat Rosado
Rosé. No SO2 added. Grape is Trepat. Knockout nose of pomegranate, leather and rose hips. Olivia is sure there's also microwaved banana in in the mix. The girl has stars in her eyes. Racy acidity, floral in the mouth, perfect and lovely. Trepat, wtf?

2009 Mendall (Laureano Serres) Guiu Cariñena
Red. No SO2 added. Carbonic carignan. I tend to love carignan. Wish Mike Dashe made carignan. This has leather, roses and graphite. Balanced, astringent, light on its feet but with good substance. Very nice.

These wines feel so fresh, still warm from the udder of the vines.

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Joan Miró, The Farm, 1921-2

2005 Els Jelipins Vi di Taula Sumoll y Garnacha 14.0%
Trumpets blare and searchlights beam. Whole cluster pigeage with five month maceration. Sulphur at bottling. Sensational perfume, with phlegmatic Rolls Royce leather, blackberries and iron rust. Sublime texture and weight. If Catalan elves made enchanted jellybeans in sylvan glades to the light of fireflies, Sumoll is what they'd taste like.

Elven_Jellybeans.jpg
Elven Jellybeans [Joan Miró, Untitled, 1933]

2008 Raventos y Blanc Cava L’Hereu de Nit Reserva Rosado
Nice chalk, cocoa powder and white flowers. Fresh and lovely.

2008 Villadelops Penedès Garnacha SMC 13.5%
Cherry, leather, crème aramel, a bit lactic on the nasal passages.Plush mouthfeel, slightly bitter finish, peppery. Not bad, but appears a bit conventional, dowdy even, in such sensually daring company. And who likes Grenache, anyway?

2006 Villadelops Penedès Crianza
Similar nose, but more attractive. Prefer the mouthfeel too, fresher and racier. Very nice, but I’m still too transfixed by the first quartet to give this much thought.

An exciting tasting, from the heads of Catalan peasants to my middle class lips.

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Joan Miró, Head of a Catalan Peasant, 1925
 
and that was the 05 els jelipins, wait til the 06 gets here, even better imo! thanks for reminding me about this. my mind had moved on and i realize that i must find some for outdoor summer dinners!
 
and i will add two things, the couple behind els jelipins are simply lovely and i am overjoyed to find people who make wine in this style who are not afraid to add a little so2 at bottling.
 
Small attempt to recreate the above, one of my all-time favorite store tastings. Cuisine by better half.

2008 Laureano Serres Montagut Vinyes Arrencades Macabeu Blanc 12.6%
With tuna tartar. Peaches & cream. Viscous texture, almost smoked flavor. Interesting, but lacks acidity, and without that things just can’t click.

2009 Laureano Serres Mendall (Terra Alta) L'Abeurador Macabeu Blanc 13.6%
With gratinated scallops. Very balanced, with slight CO2 and a wee bit of gunpowder (which m'agrada molt). Remainder in the glass became increasingly complex as the night wore on (else it was I who changed). Saved the reputation of Laureano Serres, praise the Maccabees.

2009 Vinya Sanfeliu Vi Natural Costers del Segre Trepat Rosat 12.0%
With salmon vol-au-vent. No brimstone added. Intriguing red fruit and rose water. Excellent balance, interesting personality, liked this a lot.

2010 Vinya Sanfeliu Vi Natural Garnatxa Pelluda 13.0%
With chicken pie. No brimstone added. Rosé-colored red. Gorgeous aroma, one would abdicate the throne of Belgium for such pomegranate. Delightful acidity. WOTN.

2005 Els Jelipins Vi di Taula Sumoll Y Garnacha 14.0%
With osso buco ragú on orzo. The star of the Chambers tasting and the disappointment of this one. Exotic aromas most strangely buried under massive wood caramel, not at all over extracted, but screaming new world, even after a three hour decant. The yuck factor no doubt magnified by deflated expectations.

2005 François Pinon Vouvray Cuvée Botrytis 10.5%
With mascarpone cream and quince jelly. Doing our bit for king & country, we concluded with this, brought back from a memorable visit to Pinon (having recently bought more on the open market). But the wine was strange. No botrytis aroma, nor did it taste much like a dessert wine, more like an uninspiring demi-sec. My trip notes say Licquoreux, but the word appears nowhere on the bottle (Don, does it appear on yours'?), and it certainly didn't come acress as anything like that. Another problem of expectation betrayed. Perhaps this adolescent was closed, but I have little experience of closed dessert wines.

Dim sum, Laureano Serres interesting but not convincing. Vinya Sanfeliu scored two lovely goals, merits augmented investigation. Els Jelipins and Pinon disappointments. Just hate it when the night ends on down notes from a duo of out-of-tune trombones.
 
05 cuvee botrytis closed? On one hand, a wine like that being closed is always surprising, on the other hand if I were to plot the points since release, this does follow.
 
originally posted by .sasha:
05 cuvee botrytis closed? On one hand, a wine like that being closed is always surprising, on the other hand if I were to plot the points since release, this does follow.
Click to expand...

Don just bought a bunch, maybe he can weigh in. All in all a strange experience.
 
It started shutting down about a year after release, though I still found it enjoyable. I don't intend to touch mine for a while given what a beauty the 1997 turned into.
 
Hi Oswaldo,
Going to toss in a few thoughts. I agree w Jay btw.

I was planning to hold my 05cb for about 5 more yrs more before starting to open more. It's nearly eight years after vintage - many bottles would be in their chrysalis now. Since you tasted the wine at the winery (enjoyed rereading your notes btw) the wine has started shedding its baby fat.

I don't have decades of experience with the cuvee (obviously) but I've been tracking the 97 cb since release, and at age 15 it blossomed spectacularly, as others will report. Happy I bought enough to continue enjoying the wine's trajectory. The 05 isn't as sweet as the 97, but these wines have lots of acidity to cut their apparent sweetness - Pinon's 95 cb has higher acidity levels than his 95 sec!

Here are some stats on the recent vintages of cuvee botrytis:

1995: 9.3%, 144g/l rs, acid 6.5 gr (from my winery visit notes).

1997: 9.5%, 195g/l rs, (rs from Rovani in WA 124)

2005 11.6%, 103g/l rs, acid 4gr (from Bowler site http://www.bowlerwine.com/site/wines/4011.html )

there are some other reports:
SFJoe reports 152 gr for the 05, at

Loading…

winedisorder.com
(this is more in line with the other vintages)

and:
the alc level listed on the 05 label is 10.5% rather than the 11.6% listed on the Bowler site

As a checkpoint, my notes give 70-80 g/l rs for the Huet 89 1er Trie CdB. The 1990 Le Mont 1er trie is about 140-150 g/l, more in line with the cuvee botrytis. So these wines, including the 05, are very sweet, perhaps just not perceptibly so.

05 and 97 are compared here

Loading…

winedisorder.com

Hopefully all of this jumble of info is helpful.

Oh, and happy 4th everyone. Did anyone see the handwritten Jefferson draft of the Declaration of Independence at NYPL earlier in the week?
 
originally posted by Don Rice:
Hi Oswaldo,
Going to toss in a few thoughts. I agree w Jay btw.

I was planning to hold my 05cb for about 5 more yrs more before starting to open more. It's nearly eight years after vintage - many bottles would be in their chrysalis now. Since you tasted the wine at the winery (enjoyed rereading your notes btw) the wine has started shedding its baby fat.

I don't have decades of experience with the cuvee (obviously) but I've been tracking the 97 cb since release, and at age 15 it blossomed spectacularly, as others will report. Happy I bought enough to continue enjoying the wine's trajectory. The 05 isn't as sweet as the 97, but these wines have lots of acidity to cut their apparent sweetness - Pinon's 95 cb has higher acidity levels than his 95 sec!

Here are some stats on the recent vintages of cuvee botrytis:

1995: 9.3%, 144g/l rs, acid 6.5 gr (from my winery visit notes).

1997: 9.5%, 195g/l rs, (rs from Rovani in WA 124)

2005 11.6%, 103g/l rs, acid 4gr (from Bowler site http://www.bowlerwine.com/site/wines/4011.html )

there are some other reports:
SFJoe reports 152 gr for the 05, at

Loading…

winedisorder.com
(this is more in line with the other vintages)

and:
the alc level listed on the 05 label is 10.5% rather than the 11.6% listed on the Bowler site

As a checkpoint, my notes give 70-80 g/l rs for the Huet 89 1er Trie CdB. The 1990 Le Mont 1er trie is about 140-150 g/l, more in line with the cuvee botrytis. So these wines, including the 05, are very sweet, perhaps just not perceptibly so.

05 and 97 are compared here

Loading…

winedisorder.com

Hopefully all of this jumble of info is helpful.

Oh, and happy 4th everyone. Did anyone see the handwritten Jefferson draft of the Declaration of Independence at NYPL earlier in the week?
Click to expand...
How long at NYPL? Getting there Oct 15th leave 22nd.
 
Thank you, Don, that's extremely helfpul. It's news to this relative stickie-newb that these guys can shut down like this. I thought they remained alert and obedient throughout, gradually converting the si jeunesse savait baby fat for the si vieilesse pouvait Eastwoodian creases with the passing of the years.

The 2008, btw, I rcall as having totally off-the-charts acidity.
 
If anyone here is a fan, it seems that, after five fallow years, Jordi Sanfeliù has produced a white and a red. Don't know if he has US distribution.

IMG_4109.jpg
 
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
Wish Mike Dashe made carignan.
Click to expand...

I thought you knew he did. Part of the "les enfants terribles" series from Evangelho Vineyard in Contra Costa County.
 
originally posted by mark e:
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
Wish Mike Dashe made carignan.
Click to expand...

I thought you knew he did. Part of the "les enfants terribles" series from Evangelho Vineyard in Contra Costa County.
Click to expand...

The post is from 2011! But thanks for letting me know, I'll seek it out.
 
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