Puzelamirault

Oswaldo Costa

Oswaldo Costa
2005 Thierry Puzelat Touraine La Tesnière 13.5%
75% Menu Pineau, 25% Chenin Blanc, from vines belonging to Puzelat and Michel Augé, farmed biodynamically. Vibrant, exotic, pungent. Grapefruit citrus, talcum powder, cloves and delicate jasmine, bathed in battery acid and mild oxidativeness. Mouth: piquant menu pineau acidity recedes to reveal substantial body (chenin?). Tastes oxidative too, but at a level that is pure condiment. Quite the thing, but perhaps only for the inured, through sans-soufre sufferance, to certain oddball palate rites. Won't do lap dances, but sure tastes like adult entertainment.

2008 Yannick Amirault St. Nicolas de Bourgueil "Les Malgagnes" 13.0%
From the oldest vines in St. Nick. At the winery, this was "reduced, with berry and grilled meat aromas," but "exploded in the mouth," where it was "dark, brooding, complex, and mouth-coating." On this strength, bought me a bottle of the 09 earlier in the year, but found it oaky and overripe. Back to 08: the last two nights we jugged one of the two 08s that we lugged, and it's a completely different animale. Didn’t have the superlative mouth feel of the winery sample but, after the reduction poop & rubber subsided, was super juicy, with bright acidity, lovely dark fruit, ideal ripeness, and no discernible oak. We could have downed a magnum between us. So, fortune cookie wisdom of the day: wines ideal in lesser vintages may suckotash in riper vintages.
 
Nice notes on the Puzelat. I have one last bottle (out of four) of the 2007. The first time I had it back in April this year I thought it was really great. A bit more upbeat and lively than it seems your '05 showed. Other bottles weren't as electric; about to see the pole dancing days in the rearview mirror. Maybe not meant for quite a long haul. I'll have to save this lone bottle and try again later.
 
I'll second lars' compliments on those notes, Mr. O. I often get those same tingles from the Puzelat white line up. One question: what color is this wine?

originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
"reduced, with berry and grilled meat aromas," but "exploded in the mouth," where it was "dark, brooding, complex, and mouth-coating."
When did RP start writing tn's for St. Nick wines?
 
Lars, I think Puzelat is the bee's knees, and everyday have to live with the fact that Jeff doesn't appreciate him. Joel, it looked like one of those high fallutin' skin contact whites, very pale bronze, though not quite pushing on orange. But didn't you know that RP is just another Coad alias, and Coad, in turn, is just a Mariko Mori performance? Irom Okiram means Salvatore Coad in Japanese.
 
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
Lars, I think Puzelat is the bee's knees, and everyday have to live with the fact that Jeff doesn't appreciate him. Joel, it looked like one of those high fallutin' skin contact whites, very pale bronze, though not quite pushing on orange. But didn't you know that RP is just another Coad alias, and Coad, in turn, is just a Mariko Mori performance? Irom Okiram means Salvatore Coad in Japanese.

But of course....how did I miss that?

That Puzelat sounds great...I wonder if this wine is still being produced? TP really impresses me with the variety of cuvees he's able to produce, and the range of his imagination. I've had several of his whites, gamay roses, rose petillants (forget the grape) and enjoyed every single one of them. This is the first I've heard of the p.a.+c.b. cuvee. Sounds right in my wheelhouse.
 
For what it's worth, when we visited Christian Chaussard last year, he said that being a négociant as well as a grower allows him to make wines that he couldn't otherwise make, but being a négociant requires a special talent for evaluating the optimal destination for each parcel of grapes. He said he had a special talent for this, and Puzelat was the only person he knew who was more gifted.
 
Indeed, that talent is very impressive to me...then there's all that winemaking to do after that. I mean, just to begin with, where does T (or CC) have all the space, let alone manpower, to make all these cuvees? The orchestration of all the picking times, elevages, etc. boggles the mind.
 
originally posted by Morgan Harris:
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
...and everyday have to live with the fact that Jeff doesn't appreciate him.

Wasn't there something here about a donkey?

I thought it was a horse you could lead to Puzelat. Or maybe it was a scallop? I always got those confused.
 
Back
Top