France '08

[scottreiner]

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I'm not hearing such dire predictions. I have heard some decent things out of Burgundy. Especially I have heard great things about late ripening regions, specifically Champagne and Jura.

And why the hate on the organic and bio producers!?!?

What have my fellow patients been hearing?

 

[MarkS]

And why the hate on the organic and bio producers!?!?

Didn't you hear? They are soo yesterday. The hipsters on this board have
moved on to grenache and zinfandel. Who knew they secretly loved high-alcohol wines while pretending elsewise?

 

[JasonA]

I spoke with Emmanuel Guillot, Domaine Guillot-Broux, on Halloween in NYC and asked him that question. His domaine is in the Maconnais, up high on a hill, and he told me that all of the hail, spring and fall, missed him. The rainy summer meant rot and mildew problems with lots of time in the vineyard pulling leaves to encourage drying out of the fruit. Fall was perfect (for him) as the rains went away and everything had a chance to warm up and better still, dry up. When I asked about other producers he told me hail horror stories of entire crops wiped out in Beaujolais and roads running red with juice in Chateauneuf du Pape.

Looks like a producer by producer issue. The good news for us consumers in the US is that if importers are making their purchases now and this winter for the 2008 vintage the euro is down about 25% from it's all time high.

 

[Unknown]

I've tasted some very concentrated and vibrant 08 juice from barrels in Cote d'Or in the past few days. Too early to make any calls, but so far so good, for sure.

 

[Claude Kolm]

Burgundy -- producers are very optimistic for whites (especially Chablis); reds will be producer-by-producer and probably hugely irregular, even by Burgundy standards. Bad hail in parts of Meursault and southern Volnay. Overall, quantities will be small (read: prices are going to be high unless the dollar soars). There's a lot of malic in the wines, so very dangerous to judge before the malolactics are done.

No. Rhne: at least for Cte-Rtie and Crozes-Hermitage, the reports sound disastrous.

Alsace: everyone is saying it will be great. Now if only we had more producers there producing wines in a style that I like.

 

[Claude Kolm]

originally posted by scottreiner:

And why the hate on the organic and bio producers!?!?

It was very difficult for them. Some, such as Nol Pinguet at Hut, decided that principles had to be sacrificed in the name of having a crop.

 

[Rahsaan]

originally posted by Claude Kolm:
Some, such as Nol Pinguet at Hut, decided that principles had to be sacrificed in the name of having a crop.

Meaning more aggressive treatments during the growing season to prevent rot?

 

[Claude Kolm]

originally posted by Rahsaan:

originally posted by Claude Kolm:
Some, such as Nol Pinguet at Hut, decided that principles had to be sacrificed in the name of having a crop.

Meaning more aggressive treatments during the growing season to prevent rot?

Yes. Biodynamie be damned.

 

[Ben Sherwin]

La rvolution est morte. Vive la rvolution!

 

[Sharon Bowman]

originally posted by MarkS:
The hipsters on this board have moved on to grenache and zinfandel. Who knew they secretly loved high-alcohol wines while pretending elsewise?

Come on, any drunkard with any good sense to match his or her good taste will immediately gravitate toward the grenache and zinfandel. Two of my favorite grapes.

 

[David M. Bueker]

Every night my wife prays for a lousy vintage.

 

[Dan McQ]

originally posted by David M. Bueker:
Every night my wife prays for a lousy vintage.

I thought you were on probation. Vintage shmintage!

 

[David M. Bueker]

A bad vintage will make it easier for me to not violate the terms. It's really more like wine parole.

 

[SFJoe]

originally posted by Claude Kolm:

originally posted by scottreiner:

And why the hate on the organic and bio producers!?!?

It was very difficult for them. Some, such as Nol Pinguet at Hut, decided that principles had to be sacrificed in the name of having a crop.

I had heard that it was a suicide pact among everyone who is anyone--Pinguet, Chidaine, Foreau, Pinon, and so on, but I heard none of this directly.

 

[Claude Kolm]

The source of my information is also second-hand, although I consider it reliable as it is someone with a long professional relationship with Pinguet.

 

[Unknown]

originally posted by Claude Kolm:
Burgundy -- producers are very optimistic for whites (especially Chablis); reds will be producer-by-producer and probably hugely irregular, even by Burgundy standards. Bad hail in parts of Meursault and southern Volnay. Overall, quantities will be small (read: prices are going to be high unless the dollar soars). There's a lot of malic in the wines, so very dangerous to judge before the malolactics are done.

which is why we need Pacalet - you can already taste a nice post-malo red :-)

 

[Claude Kolm]

originally posted by .sasha:

originally posted by Claude Kolm:
Burgundy -- producers are very optimistic for whites (especially Chablis); reds will be producer-by-producer and probably hugely irregular, even by Burgundy standards. Bad hail in parts of Meursault and southern Volnay. Overall, quantities will be small (read: prices are going to be high unless the dollar soars). There's a lot of malic in the wines, so very dangerous to judge before the malolactics are done.

which is why we need Pacalet - you can already taste a nice post-malo red :-)

Malos done this early are generally not regarded as a positive sign. Had the alcoholic fermentation even finished?

 

[Unknown]

originally posted by Claude Kolm:

originally posted by .sasha:

originally posted by Claude Kolm:
Burgundy -- producers are very optimistic for whites (especially Chablis); reds will be producer-by-producer and probably hugely irregular, even by Burgundy standards. Bad hail in parts of Meursault and southern Volnay. Overall, quantities will be small (read: prices are going to be high unless the dollar soars). There's a lot of malic in the wines, so very dangerous to judge before the malolactics are done.

which is why we need Pacalet - you can already taste a nice post-malo red :-)

Malos done this early are generally not regarded as a positive sign. Had the alcoholic fermentation even finished?

Yes. No sulfur, and the place did not strike me as the coldest cellar either.

Having said that, I would not call the wines "alcoholic" by today's standards :)

 

[SFJoe]

.sasha, did you like the Pacalet wines? I know you've wrestled with them.

 

[Unknown]

yeah, I liked them. Some of my companions were less convinced. But they are different, for sure. And if you think that the term "different" is overloaded, worry not, because just about every meaning will apply here. In some ways, different as in "better", e.g. if you were to consider most civilized alcohol levels we miss so much these days; in some ways different as in "an alternative lifestyle". You name it. But I used to think the non-dosage champagnes were bizarre, and look at me now.

He also makes some lovely Chablis. Did not taste Corton-Charlemagne.

Speaking of his whites, a couple of days later I was blinded on his 04 Puligny in a restaurant. After guessing the vintage in about a microsecond, I was stumped - there was an overwhelming style which I thought was immediately recognizable, that of Lalou's whites. Just a touch bitter, with that slightly detached limy acidity, uncharacteristically focused for the grape/region. Have never tasted anyone else's white burg in this style, until now.