Touraine Miscellany
I had the chance to taste twice last week with CRB (Pete, that’s a winery in the Touraine called “Clos Roche Blanche.” The “Touraine” is in France, kind of in the middle.) Twice wasn’t enough. CRB is down to 9 ha now, and I should still drink more of their wine. The new wines are spectacular, and I let that word out now, though I should have more sense. 2011 is a particularly good vintage for the SBs (that’s “Sauvignon Blanc,” a wine made from white grapes). The SB #2 comes in at 12.5%, with a ripely pyrazinic nose, splendid minerality, and a lip-smacking finish. It reminds Didier of the 2002, which is high praise indeed. I may still have a bottle of the ’02 SB around, I’ll have to look. Didier further mentions that the summer weather gave unusually high nitrogen in the must, easing fermentation. He did a brief carbonic maceration on the skins with some dry ice, as usual, and the MLF is done.
The SB #5 is also delicious in 2011, a bit riper at 13%, but great richness. You’ll recall that this is a grape selection, not a plot, and is raised in large wood that is fairly neutral these days but which oxygenates this wine more than the #2. But the wine is very long, textured, with brilliant mineral vigor. Curiously, this wine didn’t go through MLF. It should be bottled just before the 2012 harvest. The Pineau d’Aunis is all rose this year. It is more aromatically subtle at this point than in some other years, but has good balance and legth. Victor might even like it, the pepper is not at all extreme. There is a slight bit of underripeness to the phenolics that probably explains the choice to make only rose. The 2011 gamay (devatted with the expert assistance of Eben Lillie) is a winner. Great herbal, mineral, CRB limestone on the nose. Long finish, good crunch, a bit more tannic than some vintages, it will be an interesting opportunity for Kay Bixler to lose a few bottles in the cellar. Continuing the theme of limited extraction, the reds are all in the Pif in 2011. It’s 40% Cot, the rest is mostly CF with a little CS. It’s leafy and refreshing, with a bit of phenolic grip despite the light extraction. Beautiful fruit.
The 2010 SB #2 is less flamboyant than the 2011, a little leaner, but solid rocks on the finish. The 2010 Pif has a composition that is similar to the 2011, and shows a little less puppy fat, with excellent crunch.
The 1962 (sic) Romorantin notes should have gone in the other piece, but I ran out of time. Extremely generous of Catherine and Didier to open this for us. The romo vines are illegal and have been pulled, because after all who needs wine like this in the AOC, anyway? Didier figures there was little chemical application in those days. The wine should probably have been decanted (do this to all your ’62 romo, I suggest), it shows a bit of reductive bottle funk, but also smoky tea, a fond memory of fruit, and big acid on the long, long dry finish. Great development, great structure, a bit of very nice appley oxidation on the finish. My note says, “crazy how long.”
In a triumph of hospitality over any merit of the guests (well, except for Denyse), Didier wanders away and comes back with their 1911 Pinot Gris. Inexplicably, it is from a champagne bottle, and the very short cork has held the seal well:
The wine was demi-sec and retains some rs, along with excellent balancing acidity. It has some caramel. Jules jokes that it was actually made from “pinot marron,” but in truth it is clear and a light mahogany. It’s not as complex as the romo, I’d say, but retains a pretty sweetness of fruit that is quite unexpected. It’s not in the least decrepit, medium-long. I wonder how they got so much acid in that ripe year. I don’t usually love pinot gris, but this one could convert you.
Didier's experiment with leeks to combat esca seems to be working well. The plot he planted with leeks has not developed any esca in the last couple of years, while vines in the adjacent control plot have been succumbing. The couple of rows of the control that abut the leek area have also been spared. Didier is quite excited. Jules has a nice interview with Didier that captures some of his thinking.
After tasting in the cellar, we went up the hill to the goat farm.
Dinner was great, except for the part where I had to go out into the parking lot and take a 45 minute conference call in my car. I took no notes, but if you are living your life right and have 2002 old vines Cot in your cellar, you could do a lot worse than to open a bottle sometime soon. Mine are gone.
A couple of us had a more complicated afternoon that day, and it meant that we reached Noella Morantin’s farm in La Tesniere, across the small valley from CRB, ahead of the others. Her wines have improved quite a bit since her first vintage there, but I have to say that I remain quite partial to Didier’s versions, both stylistically and in absolute terms. Part of the problem in the past has likely been that she has less control over her cellar temperature, since much of it is above ground, and part of it is that she seeks brighter, more hipster flavors. A guy I know thinks they are “hipster-spoofed,” which is a defensible view, I suppose, particularly when you have the control group so close at hand. Anyhow, the wines are cleaner, but it was extremely cold and I won’t give notes. You can see the hand-destemming process she uses for half her cot here.
I’d mentioned how nice the Puzelat/Mosse/etc. fest was. I neglected to mention that each winemaker brought a cheese to represent their home town, and that this may have been the best cheese plate of my life. But before I got to cheese, I had a chance to taste and to see some old friends (including a woman who was once a guest at my dinner table who smiled broadly and greeted me as “M. Morille!”).
I often find Thierry Puzelat’s wines a little hard to judge at this time of the year. His fermentations are slow and are frequently incomplete at the end of January. I’ve tasted wines from his latest vintage that were in a weird spot and then were great from bottle, and others that were to my taste similarly odd in January and that remained odd later. So I won’t be too definitive here.
First, we tried the Tue-Boeuf wines, their home estate. A cask sample of ’11 Brin de Chevre is estery and still working, but there is good material and structure to it. The young SB vines are in the ’11 Petit Buisson, and the wine is farther along, and it’s unserious but good. The ’10 Frileuse is AOC Cheverny, and thus a blend in this case of SB and chard. It’s light, chewy, mobile, has a hint of VA and is the kind of natural wine I can drink with good cheer. The ’10 Buisson Pouilleux (VV SB) is a mite estery still, but quite mineral otherwise. The Pinot Gris vines that Jeff Connell mentioned elsewhere made a crazy rose in 2010. He did a 2 ½ week maceration and put it in barrel for a year. It tastes like pinot noir without the noir, and I hope I catch it again to consider it further. The ‘11 Cheverny rouge actually is pinot with the noir, about 70%, along with gamay for the rest. It’s pretty today. A little spritz, still, and it’s not long, but you could slurp this down as long as the vlm wasn’t watching. The Touraine Butte 2011 is gamay from old wood. It’s darker, and morer, with savory gamay flavors and good balance. The Cheverny Rouillon is often my favorite, or at least the easiest to try at this time of year, and I find the 2011 so here. Tasty stuff, and also closer to a complete wine. Still some youthful structure that should moderate pretty quickly in bottle. 2010 Caillere is mostly, or all PN, but when I taste the wine it smells more like armpit. Wait, that really was armpit. When I turn my back, the wine is a fine medium-weight pinot noir, not terribly ripe in this vintage, with a grippy finish. Not bad, and really no armpit. The B.O. thing became a bit of a theme, but I learned not to stand too close to the genial Touraine vigneron, and also to put some distance between my nose and the prominent natural wine caviste from Paris as I navigated the tasting. The 2010 La Gravotte is also pinot noir, with a pleasing but slightly underripe herbal nose, and a bit of greenness on the palate, slightly green tannins in the finish.
We also tasted Thierry’s negoce stuff. His 2011 Touraine SB has just been bottled, and I like it. A bright pyrazinic fun nose, good mobility and minerality, good acid, moderate length, it’s a good package. The 2010 Touraine La Tesniere is 2:1 Menu Pineau to Chenin Blanc, from the hillside up the hill behind Noella’s winery. It’s some tasty stuff, if just a hint estery. Might be interesting to lose a bottle or two of this for a while, but I might not. The 2010 Thésée is a little funky and rather ripe, with more richness than the aforementioned. He also unexpectedly shows some ’09 Cheverny blanc. It’s got more acid than I would have expected in the vintage, with a long and crunchy finish, and a small bit of funk for cheerful complexity. The ’09 Pouilly-Fume has zero SO2 and isn’t my thing. P-F is often too much for my taste, from whatever grower, and this ’09 is in that category. Heck, Sancerre is frequently too big for me in 2009, ditto some Touraine SB. This one shows a bit of the alcohol of its vintage, a bit of ethyl acetate, and very ripe SB flavors. I bet there is a big market for this, but it ain’t with me. The ’11 Telquel squeaks in here like a skinny dog, it was just bottled. It’s PN/gamay/groslot, and it shows a bit green, the light tannins aren’t totally ripe, but I bet they moderate fast leaving good acid for structure. It’s fun. The 2011 La Tesniere is AOC Touraine pineau d’aunis and it’s got a lovely Pd’A nose, again a mite green on the palate, but the package is refreshing and good and will probably show better by the time it gets to market. The ’10 Cheverny is ca. 60/40 PN/gamay, and it’s very nice stuff. Pretty nose, bright and clean, yum. The ’10 KO is dark and showing just a hint reductive today, but it is very tasty. The tannins are only medium, but it is very true cot, and I quite like it.
Some quick notes on the Chaussard wines. I’m a little vague on where exactly the Touraine border is, but if I’ve misfiled these it isn’t by too many km. They are very nice folks, but I don’t love the “You are so XX” shtick on their negoce labels. The ’11 Fizz shows a mite of reduction, but isn’t bad. The ’10 CB/SB ‘Happy’ is simple but good. The ’10 ‘cool’ (SB/Chard) is leaner, with a good SB nose, it’s OK. ’11 ‘Fine’ is hard to judge, it’s in the middle of malo. ’09 Vouvray seems volatile to me and I don’t love it. The ’11 Kharakter (all CB, from 50 y.o. vines on clay in Jasnieres) is a bit furry, but in a way that works well for me. In the reds, the ’10 ‘Beautiful’ (is this PN?) shows a bit of brett, balance at moderate intensity, and is good in this style. ’11 Patapon (Pd’A, Coteaux-du-Loir) says, “Pow!” a big P d’A nose, some fur, good acid, I like it. 2009 Cote d’Alerte (cot, Coteaux-du-Loir) is naturally riper, just a bit of reductive funk, some cot tannins; it’s not bad but doesn’t move me. The Mortiers (p d’a, cot, gamay; Coteaux-du-Loir) is often my favorite wine from them, but today the ’09 shows its alcohol and less aromatics than one might wish, it’s not my favorite vintage of these.
Emile Heredia has some really interesting old vines of pineau d’aunis and often makes some very cool wines, though they can also jump the rails into funky town for me. I tasted with him at the Dive. His rose pet nat is all pineau d’aunis (or so his friend tells me, I have a memory that this has gamay in other vintages, at least) and has the peppery nose to prove it, a bit of rs, and there’s your picnic. The 2010 Coteaux de Vendomois is chenin on clay and quartz. The wine has a curious spicy note that I can’t place, but nice structure, good minerality. It has 20 g of rs and no SO2, so I guess he must filter it. The 2010 Domaine de Montrieux pineau d’aunis is from old but not ancient vines, lightly extracted, with just enough structure, it’s quite tasty. The 2010 Vin des Poetes is from his centenarian, prephylloxera, own-rooted pineau d’aunis. It shows just a bit yeasty right now, but it has great length and fine structure, yum. Good vintage of this.
So, I think that’s it.
I had the chance to taste twice last week with CRB (Pete, that’s a winery in the Touraine called “Clos Roche Blanche.” The “Touraine” is in France, kind of in the middle.) Twice wasn’t enough. CRB is down to 9 ha now, and I should still drink more of their wine. The new wines are spectacular, and I let that word out now, though I should have more sense. 2011 is a particularly good vintage for the SBs (that’s “Sauvignon Blanc,” a wine made from white grapes). The SB #2 comes in at 12.5%, with a ripely pyrazinic nose, splendid minerality, and a lip-smacking finish. It reminds Didier of the 2002, which is high praise indeed. I may still have a bottle of the ’02 SB around, I’ll have to look. Didier further mentions that the summer weather gave unusually high nitrogen in the must, easing fermentation. He did a brief carbonic maceration on the skins with some dry ice, as usual, and the MLF is done.
The SB #5 is also delicious in 2011, a bit riper at 13%, but great richness. You’ll recall that this is a grape selection, not a plot, and is raised in large wood that is fairly neutral these days but which oxygenates this wine more than the #2. But the wine is very long, textured, with brilliant mineral vigor. Curiously, this wine didn’t go through MLF. It should be bottled just before the 2012 harvest. The Pineau d’Aunis is all rose this year. It is more aromatically subtle at this point than in some other years, but has good balance and legth. Victor might even like it, the pepper is not at all extreme. There is a slight bit of underripeness to the phenolics that probably explains the choice to make only rose. The 2011 gamay (devatted with the expert assistance of Eben Lillie) is a winner. Great herbal, mineral, CRB limestone on the nose. Long finish, good crunch, a bit more tannic than some vintages, it will be an interesting opportunity for Kay Bixler to lose a few bottles in the cellar. Continuing the theme of limited extraction, the reds are all in the Pif in 2011. It’s 40% Cot, the rest is mostly CF with a little CS. It’s leafy and refreshing, with a bit of phenolic grip despite the light extraction. Beautiful fruit.
The 2010 SB #2 is less flamboyant than the 2011, a little leaner, but solid rocks on the finish. The 2010 Pif has a composition that is similar to the 2011, and shows a little less puppy fat, with excellent crunch.
The 1962 (sic) Romorantin notes should have gone in the other piece, but I ran out of time. Extremely generous of Catherine and Didier to open this for us. The romo vines are illegal and have been pulled, because after all who needs wine like this in the AOC, anyway? Didier figures there was little chemical application in those days. The wine should probably have been decanted (do this to all your ’62 romo, I suggest), it shows a bit of reductive bottle funk, but also smoky tea, a fond memory of fruit, and big acid on the long, long dry finish. Great development, great structure, a bit of very nice appley oxidation on the finish. My note says, “crazy how long.”
In a triumph of hospitality over any merit of the guests (well, except for Denyse), Didier wanders away and comes back with their 1911 Pinot Gris. Inexplicably, it is from a champagne bottle, and the very short cork has held the seal well:
Didier's experiment with leeks to combat esca seems to be working well. The plot he planted with leeks has not developed any esca in the last couple of years, while vines in the adjacent control plot have been succumbing. The couple of rows of the control that abut the leek area have also been spared. Didier is quite excited. Jules has a nice interview with Didier that captures some of his thinking.
After tasting in the cellar, we went up the hill to the goat farm.
A couple of us had a more complicated afternoon that day, and it meant that we reached Noella Morantin’s farm in La Tesniere, across the small valley from CRB, ahead of the others. Her wines have improved quite a bit since her first vintage there, but I have to say that I remain quite partial to Didier’s versions, both stylistically and in absolute terms. Part of the problem in the past has likely been that she has less control over her cellar temperature, since much of it is above ground, and part of it is that she seeks brighter, more hipster flavors. A guy I know thinks they are “hipster-spoofed,” which is a defensible view, I suppose, particularly when you have the control group so close at hand. Anyhow, the wines are cleaner, but it was extremely cold and I won’t give notes. You can see the hand-destemming process she uses for half her cot here.
I’d mentioned how nice the Puzelat/Mosse/etc. fest was. I neglected to mention that each winemaker brought a cheese to represent their home town, and that this may have been the best cheese plate of my life. But before I got to cheese, I had a chance to taste and to see some old friends (including a woman who was once a guest at my dinner table who smiled broadly and greeted me as “M. Morille!”).
I often find Thierry Puzelat’s wines a little hard to judge at this time of the year. His fermentations are slow and are frequently incomplete at the end of January. I’ve tasted wines from his latest vintage that were in a weird spot and then were great from bottle, and others that were to my taste similarly odd in January and that remained odd later. So I won’t be too definitive here.
First, we tried the Tue-Boeuf wines, their home estate. A cask sample of ’11 Brin de Chevre is estery and still working, but there is good material and structure to it. The young SB vines are in the ’11 Petit Buisson, and the wine is farther along, and it’s unserious but good. The ’10 Frileuse is AOC Cheverny, and thus a blend in this case of SB and chard. It’s light, chewy, mobile, has a hint of VA and is the kind of natural wine I can drink with good cheer. The ’10 Buisson Pouilleux (VV SB) is a mite estery still, but quite mineral otherwise. The Pinot Gris vines that Jeff Connell mentioned elsewhere made a crazy rose in 2010. He did a 2 ½ week maceration and put it in barrel for a year. It tastes like pinot noir without the noir, and I hope I catch it again to consider it further. The ‘11 Cheverny rouge actually is pinot with the noir, about 70%, along with gamay for the rest. It’s pretty today. A little spritz, still, and it’s not long, but you could slurp this down as long as the vlm wasn’t watching. The Touraine Butte 2011 is gamay from old wood. It’s darker, and morer, with savory gamay flavors and good balance. The Cheverny Rouillon is often my favorite, or at least the easiest to try at this time of year, and I find the 2011 so here. Tasty stuff, and also closer to a complete wine. Still some youthful structure that should moderate pretty quickly in bottle. 2010 Caillere is mostly, or all PN, but when I taste the wine it smells more like armpit. Wait, that really was armpit. When I turn my back, the wine is a fine medium-weight pinot noir, not terribly ripe in this vintage, with a grippy finish. Not bad, and really no armpit. The B.O. thing became a bit of a theme, but I learned not to stand too close to the genial Touraine vigneron, and also to put some distance between my nose and the prominent natural wine caviste from Paris as I navigated the tasting. The 2010 La Gravotte is also pinot noir, with a pleasing but slightly underripe herbal nose, and a bit of greenness on the palate, slightly green tannins in the finish.
We also tasted Thierry’s negoce stuff. His 2011 Touraine SB has just been bottled, and I like it. A bright pyrazinic fun nose, good mobility and minerality, good acid, moderate length, it’s a good package. The 2010 Touraine La Tesniere is 2:1 Menu Pineau to Chenin Blanc, from the hillside up the hill behind Noella’s winery. It’s some tasty stuff, if just a hint estery. Might be interesting to lose a bottle or two of this for a while, but I might not. The 2010 Thésée is a little funky and rather ripe, with more richness than the aforementioned. He also unexpectedly shows some ’09 Cheverny blanc. It’s got more acid than I would have expected in the vintage, with a long and crunchy finish, and a small bit of funk for cheerful complexity. The ’09 Pouilly-Fume has zero SO2 and isn’t my thing. P-F is often too much for my taste, from whatever grower, and this ’09 is in that category. Heck, Sancerre is frequently too big for me in 2009, ditto some Touraine SB. This one shows a bit of the alcohol of its vintage, a bit of ethyl acetate, and very ripe SB flavors. I bet there is a big market for this, but it ain’t with me. The ’11 Telquel squeaks in here like a skinny dog, it was just bottled. It’s PN/gamay/groslot, and it shows a bit green, the light tannins aren’t totally ripe, but I bet they moderate fast leaving good acid for structure. It’s fun. The 2011 La Tesniere is AOC Touraine pineau d’aunis and it’s got a lovely Pd’A nose, again a mite green on the palate, but the package is refreshing and good and will probably show better by the time it gets to market. The ’10 Cheverny is ca. 60/40 PN/gamay, and it’s very nice stuff. Pretty nose, bright and clean, yum. The ’10 KO is dark and showing just a hint reductive today, but it is very tasty. The tannins are only medium, but it is very true cot, and I quite like it.
Some quick notes on the Chaussard wines. I’m a little vague on where exactly the Touraine border is, but if I’ve misfiled these it isn’t by too many km. They are very nice folks, but I don’t love the “You are so XX” shtick on their negoce labels. The ’11 Fizz shows a mite of reduction, but isn’t bad. The ’10 CB/SB ‘Happy’ is simple but good. The ’10 ‘cool’ (SB/Chard) is leaner, with a good SB nose, it’s OK. ’11 ‘Fine’ is hard to judge, it’s in the middle of malo. ’09 Vouvray seems volatile to me and I don’t love it. The ’11 Kharakter (all CB, from 50 y.o. vines on clay in Jasnieres) is a bit furry, but in a way that works well for me. In the reds, the ’10 ‘Beautiful’ (is this PN?) shows a bit of brett, balance at moderate intensity, and is good in this style. ’11 Patapon (Pd’A, Coteaux-du-Loir) says, “Pow!” a big P d’A nose, some fur, good acid, I like it. 2009 Cote d’Alerte (cot, Coteaux-du-Loir) is naturally riper, just a bit of reductive funk, some cot tannins; it’s not bad but doesn’t move me. The Mortiers (p d’a, cot, gamay; Coteaux-du-Loir) is often my favorite wine from them, but today the ’09 shows its alcohol and less aromatics than one might wish, it’s not my favorite vintage of these.
Emile Heredia has some really interesting old vines of pineau d’aunis and often makes some very cool wines, though they can also jump the rails into funky town for me. I tasted with him at the Dive. His rose pet nat is all pineau d’aunis (or so his friend tells me, I have a memory that this has gamay in other vintages, at least) and has the peppery nose to prove it, a bit of rs, and there’s your picnic. The 2010 Coteaux de Vendomois is chenin on clay and quartz. The wine has a curious spicy note that I can’t place, but nice structure, good minerality. It has 20 g of rs and no SO2, so I guess he must filter it. The 2010 Domaine de Montrieux pineau d’aunis is from old but not ancient vines, lightly extracted, with just enough structure, it’s quite tasty. The 2010 Vin des Poetes is from his centenarian, prephylloxera, own-rooted pineau d’aunis. It shows just a bit yeasty right now, but it has great length and fine structure, yum. Good vintage of this.
So, I think that’s it.