Sharon Bowman
Sharon Bowman
This weekend I ate a lot of shellfish. What better pair than the Breton Melon?
2000 Landron Fief du Breil - Not the most auspicious start, I am sad to report. My friend who ordered this was game to try, but I was already on oak-alert. I found this a little imprecise. Bâtonnage, malo, etc.... I don't know. Others' thoughts?
Then [non-Melon break] a crazy 2010 Etienne Courtois Romorantin which pulled out all the funk stops in natural, but was actually pretty lovely with some air.
The next day, more oysters and:
2014 Haut-Planty "Muscadig Breizh" Sans Soufre - This nifty little Fifi import is such an interesting, cloudy, troubled drink. The glacial flour lees were a little startling at first (a 22-y.o. companion was mesmerized), but with air the whole thing came together. Fat and satisfying, though not very typique of basically anything.
Which made the next thing a little odd, and not in the way I'd expected:
2013 Domaine de la Cadette Melon - So, Melon de Bourgogne from around Vézelay in real Bourgogne. I have always liked the lime curd appeal of this wine, but somehow, this didn't really follow the Muscadig Breizh right. Maybe should have been the other way around; maybe should have been en parallèle, because, truth be told, the Muscadig was fantastic with raw clams (little neck and top neck) and pretty wrong with oysters (six different sorts, mostly from estuaries around the Puget Sound). The Cadette flipped that a little. But it was also just in a place it had to fight back from.
Lesson learned; don't set anything up to be the underdog.
2000 Landron Fief du Breil - Not the most auspicious start, I am sad to report. My friend who ordered this was game to try, but I was already on oak-alert. I found this a little imprecise. Bâtonnage, malo, etc.... I don't know. Others' thoughts?
Then [non-Melon break] a crazy 2010 Etienne Courtois Romorantin which pulled out all the funk stops in natural, but was actually pretty lovely with some air.
The next day, more oysters and:
2014 Haut-Planty "Muscadig Breizh" Sans Soufre - This nifty little Fifi import is such an interesting, cloudy, troubled drink. The glacial flour lees were a little startling at first (a 22-y.o. companion was mesmerized), but with air the whole thing came together. Fat and satisfying, though not very typique of basically anything.
Which made the next thing a little odd, and not in the way I'd expected:
2013 Domaine de la Cadette Melon - So, Melon de Bourgogne from around Vézelay in real Bourgogne. I have always liked the lime curd appeal of this wine, but somehow, this didn't really follow the Muscadig Breizh right. Maybe should have been the other way around; maybe should have been en parallèle, because, truth be told, the Muscadig was fantastic with raw clams (little neck and top neck) and pretty wrong with oysters (six different sorts, mostly from estuaries around the Puget Sound). The Cadette flipped that a little. But it was also just in a place it had to fight back from.
Lesson learned; don't set anything up to be the underdog.