on the run in the Cote d'Or

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originally posted by fatboy:
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
originally posted by Bill Lundstrom:
Never had a Sancerre rouge that wowed me. Except maybe old Vatan Pinot.
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Try Fournier or S. Laloue. Maybe not wow but good.
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love me a french wine with a nice big steak.

fb.
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they have to get that french wine into my TV dinner, somehow

for the game, you know, for the game!
 
originally posted by Bill Lundstrom:
Never had a Sancerre rouge that wowed me. Except maybe old Vatan Pinot.
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I wish I could go around and knock on every door in every village of the Sancerre appellation, hoping that someone would make something resembling Vatan's red. I expect to find anything ranging from unfortunate to horrific imitations of red burgundy in 19 out of 20 cases, at best. Funny thing is, I suspect a very good red Sancerre could make itself from decent grapes, if they would just leave it alone. Simplicity and a certain austerity seems to be the key, as it was in Vatan's versions I've tried.

There are of course reasonably decent attempts to imitate Burgundy, e.g. at Hippolyte Reverdy, but the general idea is lost on me. Labaille served us something more along the lines of Vatan once, if not as successful.
 
originally posted by georg lauer:
originally posted by .sasha:
originally posted by georg lauer:
originally posted by .sasha:
originally posted by georg lauer:
That is so true. But it is also so unique. And of all the German red wines I have been forcing on my friends recently this was the only one that absolutely everybody loved (most others no easy sell).
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Lemberger!
(is that related to Blaufränkisch?)
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Well, the Lembergers were a more difficult story. 2010 S and 2009 R was what I had already brought back with me, and the 2010 had that super intense berry note that somehow came out in that vintage and 2009 had seen some oak that was still a bit dominant. With the more recent vintages I think it will be a different thing.
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The 12s were balanced in March. Or so I tell myself. Has the regimen changed? Here the G was 70% from 2000L fuder, R was from barrel, not sure about S.
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The 12s are super. 2010 was just a weird vintage for that wine. And the R regimen has changed quite a bit as far as I understand. Pretty much no new wood anymore and much more fun to drink.
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riesling G 2012 just rocked last night. Superior showing to one I put down on paper last March, mostly due to someone having fixed aromatic ignition timing in this bottle :)
 
originally posted by .sasha:

riesling G 2012 just rocked last night. Superior showing to one I put down on paper last March, mostly due to someone having fixed aromatic ignition timing in this bottle :)
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the dregs are most satisfying just now. thx for teh heads up.

fb.
 
originally posted by .sasha:
originally posted by Bill Lundstrom:
Never had a Sancerre rouge that wowed me. Except maybe old Vatan Pinot.
Click to expand...

I wish I could go around and knock on every door in every village of the Sancerre appellation, hoping that someone would make something resembling Vatan's red. I expect to find anything ranging from unfortunate to horrific imitations of red burgundy in 19 out of 20 cases, at best. Funny thing is, I suspect a very good red Sancerre could make itself from decent grapes, if they would just leave it alone. Simplicity and a certain austerity seems to be the key, as it was in Vatan's versions I've tried.

There are of course reasonably decent attempts to imitate Burgundy, e.g. at Hippolyte Reverdy, but the general idea is lost on me. Labaille served us something more along the lines of Vatan once, if not as successful.
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I import Vincent Gaudry. You probably want Vincengétorix (and from magnum) rather than Le Sang des Serfs. I don't know who the US importer is, but you have a good chance of finding his wines in Paris.
 
Was hoping to provide updates for this year's edition of national lampoon's european vacation, which was 10 days long and is coming to a close tomorrow, but due to unprecedented insanity of our schedule, I could barely get online. Not sure I will ever catch up on all my impressions and thoughts electronically, but here is a fun one.

Friday night in Saarbrucken, a single blind tasting of dry Riesling from the 2004 vintage. I had done 2001 with the same group 3 years ago, and knew just how well the events were organized and how the wines were sources, with an overwhelming majority removed from the wineries on release.

What's a blind tasting without a chance for tasters to do away with any prejudice, so favourites were collected from each, with 3, 2 and 1 points awarded respectively to your top three.

Top group scorers were
1. Keller G-Max
2. Keller Morstein
3. Koehler-Ruprecht Saumagen
4. Emrich-Schoenleber Halenberg GG Lay

My top three turned out to be
1. Emrich-Schoenleber Halenberg GG Lay
2. Keller Kirchspiel
3. Trimbach Frederic Emile

Interestingly the Lay did extremely well among the guys I hang with (including Peter Ruhrberg, FMH, John Gilman, and two others), who had all awarded the wine third place.

Major honorable mention to a Franken wine from J. Ruck which outperformed beyond the wildest dreams, getting into many people's top 5.

the complete list:
Heyman-Lowenstein Uhlen R
T. Haart Goldtropfchen GG
Van Voxlem Scharzhofberger Pergentsknopp P
Emrich-Schoenleber Halenberg GG Lay Auktion
Donnhoff Hermannshohle GG
Koehler-Ruprecht Kallstadter Saumagen Auslese trocken
Burklin-Wolf Pechstein GG
Mosbacher Forster Ungeheuer GG
Keller: Von der Fels, G-Max, Kirchspiel GG, Hubacker GG, Morstein GG
Wittmann Morstein GG
Kunstler Hoelle Auslese GK trocken
Breuer Nonnenberg
J. Ruck Julius-Echter-Berg GG
Alzinger Loibenberg Smaragd
Prager Wachstum Bodenstein Smaragd
R Pichler Achleiten Smaragd
F.X. Pichler Kellerberg Smaragd
Nikolaihoff Steiner Hund
Trimbach: Frederic Emile , Clos Ste. Hune
 
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
What, no Knoll?
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It refused to participate after the low marks in the 2001 edition of the event.

But I thought you would find lack of representation from an entire dry Riesling region more offensive.
 
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
That did create fodder for several sessions of therapy, after which my therapist concluded that I only care for the pinnacles.
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what did you therapist say about Frankenwein almost taking the honours, and how you would have dealt with this?
 
I did promise Georg that I would write up Chablis Grands Jours in some high level form, and I have failed most miserably - through multiple countries, wine regions, three cars, several hotels and friends' houses, I have managed to misplace the little booklet which had all the producer names and their corresponding table numbers at the Grands Jours, the booklet that I had also used for my shorthand notes.

yes, I suck, but I will try to reconstruct some of this from memory, soon.

However, there was an overwhelming theme that developed after the first 3-4 tables I tasted at, and only picked up in significance as I navigated my way through a maze of 120 producers (not sure how many I actually tasted from).

Do not bother with inoculated Chablis. It's a freaking joke. There are some very successful wines made with cultured yeasts elsewhere, but not here. The difference is about as drastic as it is in Muscadet, but perhaps even more alarming here because the faceless, sterile juice fermented with "neutral" (to quote the winemakers - they really should have used "neutered") yeasts often shows very solid underlying material, if totally stripped of Chablis personality, especially in the aromatic department, with none of the chalky marine fragrance or the more developed cookie/coffee cake scents whatsoever.

Machine harvesting is nothing to this.
 
a poster turn lurker in his/her spare time informs me that one of my favourite producers, MIA at this year's grands jours, has been known to use cultured yeasts.

perhaps it's yet another thing in wine, along with many others that have been outlawed in 37 states, that one can get away with as long as it's done with great skill
 
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