2000 Overnoy Poulsard And Other Reasons to Visit France

K

kirk wallace

kirk wallace
Despite indifferent service in many cafes, and even some comic service flaws at a 3*, and the near impossibility of getting a decent snack on a Sunday, there are so many positive reasons to visit France: in our recent case, lunch at both Racines and Racines (2), as always the flawless service and food at Troisgros, the cassoulet at Au Trou Gascon (and their very gently priced deep wine list), but above all else, from this weekend's trip, was the 2000 Overnoy rouge at the relatively new Agape Substance. Never mind that the food there is at 2 or maybe even 3* level, in a totally fun, east-village like setting (one long common table which continues into the kitchen as prep space and 3 tiny deuces at counter height) with near impeccable service (casual, smart, caring, etc.), but for me, never having had the red Overnoy with any age on it, this bottle was all angels singing. Yes, of course the expected perfect clarity and purity of fruit and earth, but there was an added level (many levels to be fair) of complexity -- subtle spice, a touch of something darker, and a complexity that kept shifting. Genuinely a kaleidoscope of sheer gustatory pleasure. Not surprisingly, no signs of age or fatigue; as vibrant as a bottle of the '07 this summer. Just a lot more going on too. If you own this, good for you. If you have more than 1 or 2 bottles and haven't tasted it lately, I'd say open it for the sheer pleasure it offers and then please report back in 2 or 3 or 10 years on how the others are doing.

I take the '07 Foillard 3,14 as another reason. A great bottle at Racines(2). Perfectly accessible now. I have no clue whether it might shut down in the future, but it seemed to me more "ready" than the exceptionally good '05 3,14 I had back in the summer of 2010 in Chaintre. While not in the same league as the '00 Overnoy, it was grippy and minerally, yet with plenty of plushness. It was really perfect with the exceptional rack of baby pig and potato puree. (IMHO, the puree here is better than the excellent (and well-publicized) puree at l'Atelier Robuchon, b/c here one can really taste the potatoes, over and through the butter.)

Not a reason to travel, but I was suprised to find the 2004 Jamet Cote Rotie totally open for business; delightful. Still a touch tight, but, especially with air, great purity of fruit and spice with just a touch of the animale . A nice call from the sommelier at Pic.
 
Just had the '07 Pi a couple a couple weeks ago. While I agree that it is imminently drinkable now, I do think it can (and may be better to) be held onto for a while. The one we had was decanted for quite a while, I believe (multiple hours). As it happens, a couple weeks before the '07, I had the '06 version. Now that is ready to go. Much lighter and 'fun' than the deeper, darker, brooding '07. But, hell, I'd drink both right now in a heartbeat.
 
originally posted by Ian Fitzsimmons:
Thanks. I just bought some of the 07 3.14 and am surprised to read that it's open. May have to try one now.
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I had it blind about 2 months ago and fell in love with it all over again. Couldn't identify it as Beaujolais for the life of me though (I guessed Jura).
 
k

all three wines sound like perfect reasons for being in france.

but seriously, out of respect to all that is disorderly (and even some that have recently been), can't we acknowledge somewhere that what you report on and what your fellow inmates might encounter should they purchase same once it has brutally traversed the globe (or has been prepared for inuction into that kind of society), just ain't the same fucking shit?

i say this not to be teh controversialist, but rather, to maybe prompt the special brand of navel gazing that makes us folks special.

fb. (picking teh zits of som-el-yays everywhere)
 
originally posted by fatboy:
k

but seriously, out of respect to all that is disorderly (and even some that have recently been), can't we acknowledge somewhere that what you report on and what your fellow inmates might encounter should they purchase same once it has brutally traversed the globe (or has been prepared for inuction into that kind of society), just ain't the same fucking shit?
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Fair warning, that. But if you can't go to the source (and indeed Paris (or in the case of the Jamet, Valence, is not; just a lot closer and hence the wine is less likely to be left in the sun on a loanding dock -- BUT NOT guaranteed not to have been), then it doesn't strike me as crazy to take the chance that the bottles one gets elsewehere might not be too fucked up. The bottle of the '07 that i mentioned in my post was a case in point. Robert might have hand carried it from France, but whatever the case, in a lovely (if a tad warm) evening in a lovely back garden in Red Hook that wine rocked, and it was much faster getting home afterwards than had we all been in the Arbois. No doubt not the same shit, but good shit nonetheless.
 
Had the 07 3.14, courtesy a friend last week, and I'm keeping my hands of off mine for at least a couple more years.
 
originally posted by SFJoe:
I had the most amazingly cooked bottle of Occhipinti once in Paris.
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And that just adds more fuel to FB's fire. On the other hand, in my 10 days in Sicily a few years ago, I didn't know where to find her wines, but they sure were not in the old school, mom & pop trattorie where we ate magnificently.
 
originally posted by kirk wallace:
On the other hand, in my 10 days in Sicily a few years ago, I didn't know where to find her wines, but they sure were not in the old school, mom & pop trattoriae where we ate magnificently.
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Do you remember what wine was there?
 
Glad to hear you had your own older Overnoy epiphany in Paris. We had a 99 there two years ago that was equally cherubic. To add more cracklin' blubber to the fb party-poopin' bonfire, our source (Michel Moulherat of Cave l'Insolite) said it wouldn't survive the plane ride, so we'd better consume while in town.
 
Every time I come back from Europe I generally lament the small percentage of clarity that is missing from imported wines and cheeses in the US. Then I soon get acclimated and continue living my life.
 
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
originally posted by kirk wallace:
On the other hand, in my 10 days in Sicily a few years ago, I didn't know where to find her wines, but they sure were not in the old school, mom & pop trattoriae where we ate magnificently.
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Do you remember what wine was there?
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Not too clearly: a lot of Planeta -- and their cerosuolo di vittoria I remember as being very pleasing; others of their wines too oaky; Cosumano's as well. And at fancier places a couple nights actually perfectly good, if expensive, Mille et Una Notte (if I am getting that bottling's name right from memory). And whatever zibbibo's I could get. Generaly, I just asked to see whatever whites they had that weren't Chardonnay, in my fractured Italian.

You going soon?
 
originally posted by Brian C:
Had the 07 3.14, courtesy a friend last week, and I'm keeping my hands of off mine for at least a couple more years.
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I haven't had a bottle of the 07 in a couple of years. Then it was still as it was on release--showing more electric brightness than the earthy notes of the 02. I was tempted to drink all of it in that stage. I will be interested to see if I was right to keep my hands off. The development of the 02 does encourage me.

With regard to Fatboy's spelling of the word "the," I am reminded of what Talluleh Bankhead ostensibly said to Norman Mailer when the first met. Mailer rendered the word "fuck" as "fug" in Naked and the Dead, in deference to the state of censorship laws at the time. So Bankhead, upon being introduced, said, "Ah, yes, you're the young man who does not know how to spell "fuck."
 
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
Glad to hear you had your own older Overnoy epiphany in Paris. We had a 99 there two years ago that was equally cherubic. To add more cracklin' blubber to the fb party-poopin' bonfire, our source (Michel Moulherat of Cave l'Insolite) said it wouldn't survive the plane ride, so we'd better consume while in town.
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I once heard that as soon as an Overnoy is carried upstairs from the cellar, it's only half the wine it used to be. There's also a school of thought that says the mere act of removing a bottle from the rack ruins the wine forever.
 
originally posted by Keith Levenberg:
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
Glad to hear you had your own older Overnoy epiphany in Paris. We had a 99 there two years ago that was equally cherubic. To add more cracklin' blubber to the fb party-poopin' bonfire, our source (Michel Moulherat of Cave l'Insolite) said it wouldn't survive the plane ride, so we'd better consume while in town.
Click to expand...
I once heard that as soon as an Overnoy is carried upstairs from the cellar, it's only half the wine it used to be. There's also a school of thought that says the mere act of removing a bottle from the rack ruins the wine forever.
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Not to mention the whole purity issue.
 
originally posted by Keith Levenberg:

I once heard that as soon as an Overnoy is carried upstairs from the cellar, it's only half the wine it used to be. There's also a school of thought that says the mere act of removing a bottle from the rack ruins the wine forever.
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So between all the travel and moving, your Overnoys are pretty much shot. When's the cellar cull at your place?
 
originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:

With regard to Fatboy's spelling of the word "the," I am reminded of what Talluleh Bankhead ostensibly said to Norman Mailer when the first met. Mailer rendered the word "fuck" as "fug" in Naked and the Dead, in deference to the state of censorship laws at the time. So Bankhead, upon being introduced, said, "Ah, yes, you're the young man who does not know how to spell "fuck."
Click to expand...

were it not for the dead hand of orthographic convention, english would make far less use of articles than it does (their functional role went along with the family silver when the vikings made off with the gender system; indeed, and at one point, the verbal gesture we render as "the" had all but vanished from much of the english spoken in the north). as far as i can see, the only reasons for writing "the" in many contexts are habit and the satisfaction of pedants, and so i've been trying in my own small way to breath life where there was none. i'm glad you approve.

"summulyey," otoh, i struggle with.

fb.
 
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