I’m still digging out the notes from the trip, and I may never get to some of them, but I thought I’d pile up a few that might not fit neatly elsewhere here. The theme is “no theme.”
Jean-Michel Stephan has vines in Cote Rotie. What possesses the guy to do a carbonic maceration? The 2010 is anonymous hipster syrah. It’s short, it doesn’t have much structure, it’s bizarre. I am not someone who insists that Cote Rotie needs to be Napa-in-the-Rhone, all ripeness and wood, at all, but this seems a waste of great terroir. I don’t really know the wines, can someone give a bit of background?
2009 is a very marked vintage in Champagne. Normally lean and steely wines like those from Vouette & Sorbee, Larmandier-Bernier, or Jerome Prevost are very rich, almost plush, while often retaining their usual minerality. I wish Peter or Sharon had been there to explain them to me.
The new wines from Ganevat remain at a very high level. The guy is doing great work, I just wish he had a little more wine. His 2009 J’en Veux has a totally pornographic label:
Somehow I don’t think the USG will be approving that one
Etienne Theibaud is a young guy, but he has some serious dreadlocks. They come to mid-thigh, he must never have cut his hair. He’s doing some good work. Fanfan doesn’t need to look too hard over his shoulder just yet, but Cory and Guilhaume have a good guy.
Christine Saahs poured some great stuff at the Renaissance des AOCs. Like her wines, she is somewhat reserved, but good company. The 2010 GV (Pete, GV is short for “Gruner Veltliner”, an Austrian grape. Also, I have annoyingly not yet mentioned that Frau Saahs is from Nikolaihof, in Mautern an der Donau, in the Wachau. The Wachau is in Austria, on the eastern end.) Federspiel ‘Im Weingebirge’ had crisp pea veltliner fruit and a bit more weight than I’m used to from this wine. Might it have had a trace of botrytis? Anyhow, it had good acidity but by no means too much. Frau Saahs commented that 2010 for them had full, ripe acidity, but they didn’t have the crazy situation they had in Germany. There was also a 2009 Veltliner from ‘Im Weingebirge’, but this one was a Smaragd. It’s a bit plush for me in ’09, ripe and round. The acid is OK, but this isn’t one for me. She also showed a 2008 Riesling from Vom Stein (also Smaragd). It’s got a bit more botrytis, but a sneakily long finish with a touch of rs (but with the ‘smaragd’ label, it is perforce below 9 grams. It needs some time to settle down. I’m a big fan of Steiner Hund, and zounds, the 2007 is a great one. I so need a case. F. Saahs told me that in the late ‘80s, they felt that the neighbors were selling their wines earlier and earlier, and that they decided to keep more of their wines. So when you taste with her, she comes out with these little oddities (some of them not in the public lineup). This time, she had a Vom Stein Riesling Federspiel from 2002. And very cool it was. Open, beautifully maturing aromatics, thrilling zippy acidity. I wouldn’t keep it forever, but I would definitely drink it with pleasure now. Some of these library wines are priced high enough that they would appear not to be blowing out the doors despite their quality. Viz, the 1993 Vinothek GV, which has been for sale for several years at a price that has held me back. It’s great stuff, 15 years in fuder, from Im Weingebirge. The subtle oxidative notes complicate the nose, there is good acidity, this remains a real treat. But do be aware that it is lean in the house style.
She also poured an old friend, the ’99 Jungfernwein. It’s a Riesling from the first crop from newly replanted vines, and it has always been scrumptious. It was always fun to taste it against, say, the ’99 Steiner Hund, but it’s long been delicious. And so it was even couple of years later. It is a beguiling wine today, with its 10.5% alcohol, still fresh, still young, with its old touch of rs. It only gets better with a second taste. I enjoyed this wine so much when it was young that I did the vlm thing and just sucked it down, bottle after bottle. Imagine my embarrassment when Mme Saahs says that she thinks it’s a 50 year wine. Whoops, I only have one or two left. Cripes.
She pours another crazy ’99, one I don’t remember having had before. It’s a GV auslese Suβenberg, from entirely botrytized grapes. Massive apricot nose, very powerful, but almost dry. Totally crazy stuff. Not really my thing, but very interesting. Then she brings out the big gun in the little bottle—a 2005 TBA, mostly Riesling but with other stuff too. It fermented to 10.5%, leaving more than 250 g rs. I puzzle a bit about how wines this sweet can taste balanced, and Riesling doesn’t accumulate the phenolics that chenin does, so that’s harder to understand. But this is fine stuff.
All the wines share the Nikolaihof family resemblance—moderate alcohols, vigorous lively complexity, fine structure and acidity. They will certainly tell you that it is their longstanding and careful practice of biodynamics that makes it happen, and I will reply that, whatever they’re doing, they need to keep it up.
More when I have a moment.
Jean-Michel Stephan has vines in Cote Rotie. What possesses the guy to do a carbonic maceration? The 2010 is anonymous hipster syrah. It’s short, it doesn’t have much structure, it’s bizarre. I am not someone who insists that Cote Rotie needs to be Napa-in-the-Rhone, all ripeness and wood, at all, but this seems a waste of great terroir. I don’t really know the wines, can someone give a bit of background?
2009 is a very marked vintage in Champagne. Normally lean and steely wines like those from Vouette & Sorbee, Larmandier-Bernier, or Jerome Prevost are very rich, almost plush, while often retaining their usual minerality. I wish Peter or Sharon had been there to explain them to me.
The new wines from Ganevat remain at a very high level. The guy is doing great work, I just wish he had a little more wine. His 2009 J’en Veux has a totally pornographic label:
Etienne Theibaud is a young guy, but he has some serious dreadlocks. They come to mid-thigh, he must never have cut his hair. He’s doing some good work. Fanfan doesn’t need to look too hard over his shoulder just yet, but Cory and Guilhaume have a good guy.
Christine Saahs poured some great stuff at the Renaissance des AOCs. Like her wines, she is somewhat reserved, but good company. The 2010 GV (Pete, GV is short for “Gruner Veltliner”, an Austrian grape. Also, I have annoyingly not yet mentioned that Frau Saahs is from Nikolaihof, in Mautern an der Donau, in the Wachau. The Wachau is in Austria, on the eastern end.) Federspiel ‘Im Weingebirge’ had crisp pea veltliner fruit and a bit more weight than I’m used to from this wine. Might it have had a trace of botrytis? Anyhow, it had good acidity but by no means too much. Frau Saahs commented that 2010 for them had full, ripe acidity, but they didn’t have the crazy situation they had in Germany. There was also a 2009 Veltliner from ‘Im Weingebirge’, but this one was a Smaragd. It’s a bit plush for me in ’09, ripe and round. The acid is OK, but this isn’t one for me. She also showed a 2008 Riesling from Vom Stein (also Smaragd). It’s got a bit more botrytis, but a sneakily long finish with a touch of rs (but with the ‘smaragd’ label, it is perforce below 9 grams. It needs some time to settle down. I’m a big fan of Steiner Hund, and zounds, the 2007 is a great one. I so need a case. F. Saahs told me that in the late ‘80s, they felt that the neighbors were selling their wines earlier and earlier, and that they decided to keep more of their wines. So when you taste with her, she comes out with these little oddities (some of them not in the public lineup). This time, she had a Vom Stein Riesling Federspiel from 2002. And very cool it was. Open, beautifully maturing aromatics, thrilling zippy acidity. I wouldn’t keep it forever, but I would definitely drink it with pleasure now. Some of these library wines are priced high enough that they would appear not to be blowing out the doors despite their quality. Viz, the 1993 Vinothek GV, which has been for sale for several years at a price that has held me back. It’s great stuff, 15 years in fuder, from Im Weingebirge. The subtle oxidative notes complicate the nose, there is good acidity, this remains a real treat. But do be aware that it is lean in the house style.
She also poured an old friend, the ’99 Jungfernwein. It’s a Riesling from the first crop from newly replanted vines, and it has always been scrumptious. It was always fun to taste it against, say, the ’99 Steiner Hund, but it’s long been delicious. And so it was even couple of years later. It is a beguiling wine today, with its 10.5% alcohol, still fresh, still young, with its old touch of rs. It only gets better with a second taste. I enjoyed this wine so much when it was young that I did the vlm thing and just sucked it down, bottle after bottle. Imagine my embarrassment when Mme Saahs says that she thinks it’s a 50 year wine. Whoops, I only have one or two left. Cripes.
She pours another crazy ’99, one I don’t remember having had before. It’s a GV auslese Suβenberg, from entirely botrytized grapes. Massive apricot nose, very powerful, but almost dry. Totally crazy stuff. Not really my thing, but very interesting. Then she brings out the big gun in the little bottle—a 2005 TBA, mostly Riesling but with other stuff too. It fermented to 10.5%, leaving more than 250 g rs. I puzzle a bit about how wines this sweet can taste balanced, and Riesling doesn’t accumulate the phenolics that chenin does, so that’s harder to understand. But this is fine stuff.
All the wines share the Nikolaihof family resemblance—moderate alcohols, vigorous lively complexity, fine structure and acidity. They will certainly tell you that it is their longstanding and careful practice of biodynamics that makes it happen, and I will reply that, whatever they’re doing, they need to keep it up.
More when I have a moment.