Lapierre Morgon '09 sans soufre

J

Joel Stewart

Joel Stewart
2009 Lapierre Morgon, Sans Soufre - 13%. I wanted to test something. I went thru a few of the 07's in the past and always preferred the balance and structure of the sulfured versions to the SS versions, which seemed angrily acidic, green and closed. I don't know if there is a correlation between sans soufre and the green-ness and fierce acidity, but the difference between the two '07 versions was consistent and clear in the few bottles of each that I had.

Given the unusual ripeness of the '09's, I thought I'd give a bottle of the '09 non-S02 version a shot, just to see if at least some of that vintage's fruit would carry thru such a framework of acidity. Now that it's open, I wish I had a sulfured version to compare it with. Nose on the ss is full, and with air, settles into a nice bouquet of recognizably Lapierre Morgon traits. Red berries, a bit of sandalwood, some forest notes, a touch of volatility. Smells good to me. Palate is bright and open; fresh red berry ripeness without being heavy or overwhelming, vibrant acidity and far more in balance than what I recall that last couple of sulfured bottles of the '09 were like late last year. Decent grip on the finish and fairly long. Delightful really, and a surprisingly good foil for the broiled "blue" fish sanma, a last minute lunch addition. I think the last time I read about the SS versions on this bored, the majority seemed to be rather non-plussed with it's varied performances. A provenance issue perhaps? In any case, this bottle was singing just fine.
 
IME variation is typical with wines that aren't sulfured sufficiently to protect them from oxidation. I imagine if you drink unsulfured wines over here that's part of the experience. It would be less obvious with reds than with whites, though.
 
I'm just done with sans souffre wines in general. The variability makes the real per bottle price about 2-3x the list and I don't drink in that price category. When they're on, they're on, but just not often enough.

And I think if you age them that's just a huge crap shoot.

This is all magnified by wine coming to the West Coast. There's just too much time, handling, transfers, etc. between there and here. Did the ship's mate remember to top off the diesel in the fridge unit while the ship was in the Caribbean? Dunno.
 
originally posted by Oliver McCrum:
IME variation is typical with wines that aren't sulfured sufficiently to protect them from oxidation.
Click to expand...

A lot of the wines that are designed to be sans souffre are very often highly reductive sui generis (highly reductive wine making and elevage, CO2 and lees in bottle,... )
And unless very badly made, they very often need air and don't fear oxydation at all, at least for one or two days after opening. In my experience that is...
 
The shipping does get to them, in my experience. My airflown bottles were fine, but shipped ones were all over the place. Too bad.
 
originally posted by Brézème:
originally posted by Oliver McCrum:
IME variation is typical with wines that aren't sulfured sufficiently to protect them from oxidation.
Click to expand...

A lot of the wines that are designed to be sans souffre are very often highly reductive sui generis (highly reductive wine making and elevage, CO2 and lees in bottle,... )
And unless very badly made, they very often need air and don't fear oxydation at all, at least for one or two days after opening. In my experience that is...
Click to expand...

Thank you for the correction, I've drunk one or two but have never dealt with the wines commercially.
 
Eric, thanks for the education, as always. Does this mean that the ss version of Lapierre's Morgon could be essentially a different wine (with different winemaking, elevage, etc.) than the sulfured Morgon? (Somehow, I just imagined one wine being made and sulfur added -or not- at the bottling of the two.)

Brad, I think most of the complaints I read here before were coming from the west coast actually, so if distribution lines are as you describe, I don't blame you for steering clear. I might have gotten lucky with this one bottle, but Japanese importers (of these kinds of wines at least) have a pretty good rep. for reliable temp controlled shipments and distribution. Given how nice the last bottle was, and the source, I think I'd risk picking up another bottle...just wish I had the sulfured version to open at the same time.
 
I should add that it wasn't oxidation that killed my SS bottles, although a couple did seem to oxidise faster.
 
originally posted by Joel Stewart:
Eric, thanks for the education, as always. Does this mean that the ss version of Lapierre's Morgon could be essentially a different wine (with different winemaking, elevage, etc.) than the sulfured Morgon? (Somehow, I just imagined one wine being made and sulfur added -or not- at the bottling of the two.)
Click to expand...

No, supposed to be exactly the same wine. But made in a very reductive way for all of it, since a part of it will be bottled SS. Hence the strong "carbonic" style of Marcel's wines.
Again, I doubt oxydation is an issue on most of the off SS bottles. Except if the cork is bad. The wine itself is usualy very oxygen resistant at least over here.
Then bacterias and al., it is an other story...

Most of the SS white wines that are very sensitive to oxydation are made from fungus affected grapes. Mainly oïdium and botytris. Plus approximative elevage procedures, which are part of the Sans Souffre attitude if you listen to the cool kids.
Doing the same thing than your great grand father did is not a sexy posture in the revolutionary wine circles.
 
Yeah, oxidation didn't seem to be an issue for the less enjoyed bottles of the '07 I had and, just as you mentioned, the '09 ss was fine the next day as well...no signs of oxidation there.

Back to the '07 and the ss and s versions I described above, what do you think would account for such differences in those two (and/or have you ever sat down and tried any cuvee in sulfured and non-sulfured versions side by side?)

In the end, I wouldn't say that the ss '07's were "off" bottles at all, just much more bitter and a noticeable absence of fruit, especially compared to the sulfured '07's. This caused me to wonder the causes.
 
In fact, it is written (in french) on the label that the temperature of the bottle (sans soufre) does not have to exceed 14 degrees celcius (57° F)
 
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