Baux Geste

originally posted by Cliff:
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
Mike Berry, the owner of Vins Fins de la Crau, said that the owner of Chateau Simone had died a few years ago and his son had changed things for the worse, and had recently sold it. I'll ask when he thinks the style changed.
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That's too bad on multiple levels. The wines were great and unique; one thing that's changed for sure is price, which has exploded lately.
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i am suprised rosenthal still imports the wines.
 
originally posted by Cliff:
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
Mike Berry, the owner of Vins Fins de la Crau, said that the owner of Chateau Simone had died a few years ago and his son had changed things for the worse, and had recently sold it. I'll ask when he thinks the style changed.
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That's too bad on multiple levels. The wines were great and unique; one thing that's changed for sure is price, which has exploded lately.
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I just checked and, according to Liz Berry, the son and his wife started to interfere more and more c. 2003 and took over completely around 2006. The 05 was indeed overoaked, so they stopped stocking them.
 
originally posted by Cliff:
I wonder about the whites. I hope they don't get the same treatment.
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The 2006 white has a lot of fruit. There might be some minerals in there, too. Hard to say at this stage of the evolution.
 
Overall, I liked the wines quite a bit, but not enough to allay the reticence inspired by the 40 to 55 Euro price range (depending on vintage).[/quote]

Seems odd but the 2007 was priced at about 40 dollars in the Bay Area last year.
 
They consider 2007 perhaps their best recent vintage, and it is now sold out at Vins Fins de la Crau and other local stores. Must be very ripe.
 
Predatory pricing is part of the Provence in summer experience. Rape and pillage of suspecting outsiders is small payback for centuries of being on the receiving end. But ya gotta draw the line somewhere, and that line is New York restaurant markups. Yesterday we had lunch at Bistro Découverte, the most wine savvy joint in St. Remy, and I gave up on my original plan to go for dinner when I saw that they charge 3X retail. The 08 Trévallon that costs 40 Euro at the winery five miles away costs 120 Euro there. Fuck, em.

Quiet dinner at our rental, with delish cheese, ham, sausages and salad. Wine was the 2004 Chateau Vignelaure Coteaux d’Aix en Provence 13.5%. 70% cabernet sauvignon, 25% syrah, 5% grenache. Same blackberry, rosemary and leather I’ve been experiencing everywhere here, but I’m not complaining. Delicious acidity, attractive tannins, unobtrusive oak fully integrated, a lithe pleasure that ended all too soon. And not predatorily priced. Yum.
 
The long-awaited day when we had the pleasure of meeting da Prof and Gail came upon us yesterday. On a lovely Provençal evening, we tasted five quite different wines (the three reds all from the surroundings). Happily, all went down pleasurably and, because of the different natures of their successes, instructively. Didn’t take notes, so just impressions.

2010 Domaine St. Nicolas "Les Clous" Fiefs Vendéens Brem 12.5%
Lovely aromas of grapefruit and clouds of seashore minerality. Would have liked a bit more acid, but still quite pleasurable.

2009 Domaine la Garrigue Gigondas 15.0%
Delicious, and surprising to me that so much alcohol can be so light on its feet and utterly devoid of jamminess. Not acidic, but didn’t miss it, since it had its own kind of perfect balance.

2007 Domaine Henri Milan Le Vallon 13.5%
Same wine that I liked so much at the recent Milan visit. Zingy, with laser like acidity and lively fruit. Could drink this by the steinful.

2000 Domaine Trévallon 12.5%
Lovely and elegant, despite a surprising hint of jamminess, not expected given the 12.5%. Jonathan thinks it’s due to age, but, age aside, I still find it instructive that the 15% was not jammy while the 12.5% was. Still, beauteous.

1989 J.B. Pinon Jasnières 11.5%
The greatest surprise of the evening. In honor of François Pinon, I took a flyer on this possible relative and it was just delovely, with that beautiful chenin waxiness and honey. Amazing, and all from an unknown village chenin. Wot a grape.
 
A lovely evening and one in which I broke my own well-known tendency in DC to like the wine I brought best. I thought the Trevallon was showing beautifully. And the Jasniere was an entrancing way to end the evening.
 
Mike and Liz Berry were responsible for much of my wine education when they still owned (but did not really run) La Vigneronne in South Kensington. 1996 Trevallon (rouge) was our wedding wine. The wines are unfortunately very expensive now, although placing it within the context of the recent 2010 en primeur offers does give me pause.
 
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
Wow, for your 20th anniversary, they still have some 1996 at the store in St. Martin de Crau (for 59 eurobuckaroos).
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Thanks for the kind thoughts; I bought enough for many anniversaries (optimistic me). The '96 is not for long keeping except in large formats.
 
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
Wow, for your 20th anniversary, they still have some 1996 at the store in St. Martin de Crau (for 59 eurobuckaroos).
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But the question now is whether to buy in Euros now or wait a year for the expected denouement and buy then in New Francs or somesuch? (ducking and running)

Mark Lipton
 
The first wine is from a relatively new and quite large biodynamic estate (first vintage 2004), part of the Renaissance des Appelations, headed by the husband and wife team of Guillaume and Karina Levèbre. I was curious to try their stuff for ufanistic reasons, since Karina is Brazilian. Their two whites and one rosé (the latter seems well distributed in the US) were quite nice, but the reds, alas, did not suit me. Among the whites, this one, their top cuvee, is a keeper at 10 Euro.

2010 Domaine de Sulauze Galinette Coteaux d’Aix en Provence 13.0%
Blend of Vermentino, Grenache Blanc, Clairette and Ugni Blanc. Attractive citric and mineral aromas. Excellent balance, fresh and tasty.

Wanted to try a 100% Carignan and sought the one with the lowest alcohol, but it disappointed:

2008 Domaine d’Aupilhac Le Carignan VdP du Mont Baudile 13.5%
New appellation to me. Aromas are ripe and jammy, alcoholic, malbecky. More acidity than your average new world confection, but still unlikeable.
 
originally posted by Levi Dalton:
I had a d'Aupilhac 1996 Reserve wine that was 100% Carignan the other day at it was quite admirable.
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Claude Kolm has also expressed his admiration for that bottling. Maybe that VDP is sourced from less interesting fruit.

Mark Lipton
 
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