more harvest delerium drinking

J

Josh Beck

Josh Beck
Not just the beer!

08 Ramonet Ruchottes was pretty splendid and utterly gulpable, assuming you're not put off by the weight of Ruchottes or the Ramonet house style. Neither scares me and I loved this.

08 Carillon Perrieres was equally splendid in a more floral and precise package with less raw power. Hard to say which was better but bother were incredibly satisfying.

09 Bouchard Clos des Chenes was somewhat unfocused, sweetfruited and had what I would call an offensive level of sweet, ashy oak. Kind of boner oak atop what isn't terrible but isn't my favorite vintage. Meh.

00 Bouchard Clos de Beze was very good. Awesomely complex and great power on a midweight frame, but suffered from a clenched, tangy finish. I would be dollars to donuts this wine was acidulated and it shows. Still very good but...

06 Tempier Miguoa came out of nowhere and blew me away. I'm a Tempier fan, and a big one, but this is one of the best bottles I've had, youth and all. I think the modern-day-Tempier haters are off their rockers, this was splendidly fresh, detailed and precise with great complexity and explosive aromatics, a silken palate and a prolonged earthy, flowery finish. Great natural acidity, splendidly silky, ripe tannin. Wonderful.
 
Hard to predict these things with certainty but it struck me as free of faults and beautifully proportioned and I would be surprised if it wasn't awesome in 15-20 years. I picked up 3 bottles a while back and this was the first, drunk on a lark, but convincing enough that I'm mulling over buying another 3-6. FWIW, Miguoa is typically my favorite bottling chez Tempier.
 
Daniel Ravier, who has been making the wines at Tempier for a dozen years or so now, quite candidly says that he doesn't know if the wines he's producing today will last as long as the old Tempiers. I'm inclined to think they will, or at least will go for a couple of decades, although I'm less inclined to believe that they will improve beyond their fifth or sixth year.
 
originally posted by Josh Beck:
00 Bouchard Clos de Beze was very good. Awesomely complex and great power on a midweight frame, but suffered from a clenched, tangy finish. I would be dollars to donuts this wine was acidulated and it shows. Still very good but...
Click to expand...

I'm always interested in acidulation clues (mine seem to be limited to a sensation of separateness); was it the finish, or something else you didn't mention?
 
That seems like a very short period for a good Bandol to develop, doesn't it? I don't recall the last young vintage I had. What kind of changes have they made to get the wines to develop so fast?
 
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
originally posted by Josh Beck:
00 Bouchard Clos de Beze was very good. Awesomely complex and great power on a midweight frame, but suffered from a clenched, tangy finish. I would be dollars to donuts this wine was acidulated and it shows. Still very good but...
Click to expand...

I'm always interested in acidulation clues (mine seem to be limited to a sensation of separateness); was it the finish, or something else you didn't mention?
Click to expand...

Acidity that sticks out at the backend, particularly if it has a citric tang like koolaid / fruit punch. And particularly when you get this on an otherwise decently to fully ripe wine in a warm year. 97 and 00 Burgs were widely acidulated, in my understanding. I'm not saying it always shows or is always bad, but in this case the wine was less for a tangy finish, and I am GUESSING it was acidulated but I have zero proof.
 
originally posted by Claude Kolm:
Daniel Ravier, who has been making the wines at Tempier for a dozen years or so now, quite candidly says that he doesn't know if the wines he's producing today will last as long as the old Tempiers. I'm inclined to think they will, or at least will go for a couple of decades, although I'm less inclined to believe that they will improve beyond their fifth or sixth year.
Click to expand...

We shall see. In the case of the 06 Miguoa, I have a hard time imagining the wine not improving further and I will be curious to find out. I will, I admit, be disappointed if they don't age and develop further. It is nice not having a large portion of the bottles ending up undrinkably bretty.
 
originally posted by Josh Beck:
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
originally posted by Josh Beck:
00 Bouchard Clos de Beze was very good. Awesomely complex and great power on a midweight frame, but suffered from a clenched, tangy finish. I would be dollars to donuts this wine was acidulated and it shows. Still very good but...
Click to expand...

I'm always interested in acidulation clues (mine seem to be limited to a sensation of separateness); was it the finish, or something else you didn't mention?
Click to expand...

Acidity that sticks out at the backend, particularly if it has a citric tang like koolaid / fruit punch. And particularly when you get this on an otherwise decently to fully ripe wine in a warm year. 97 and 00 Burgs were widely acidulated, in my understanding. I'm not saying it always shows or is always bad, but in this case the wine was less for a tangy finish, and I am GUESSING it was acidulated but I have zero proof.
Click to expand...

2003, of course, was king, particularly the whites.
 
originally posted by Cliff:
That seems like a very short period for a good Bandol to develop, doesn't it? I don't recall the last young vintage I had. What kind of changes have they made to get the wines to develop so fast?
Click to expand...
The major changes are that (1) each parcel is not harvested at optimal ripeness instead of just going straight through once the harvest begins (hence the higher alcohols -- in part, anyway, global warming doing its part, too), and (2) renewal of the casks (which meant that some vintages had somewhat more new oak on them than is normally the case). If the name Stockinger means anything to you (amazing cooper in Austria), they had a cask or two that they were trying out from Stockinger last time I visited, and although both Daniel and I loved the results, apparently François and Jean-Marie Peyraud were less enthusiastic.
 
I can see how picking riper fruit, if pushed to an extreme, could compromise long term development, but these changes seem pretty moderate. I'm still surprised by the suggestion that they will show what they have to give after five or six years.
 
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