TN: Home Front

J

Jayson Cohen

Jayson Cohen
A few from the home front over the last few weeks. All are in need of cellaring.

2016 Francois Mikulski Bourgogne Aligote. 70+ year old vines from Meursault produced a structured nascently spicy Aligote that desperately needs cellar time. I like aging Aligote and think this wine will get to another level with a decade in the cellar. Still you will not be disappointed to drink this with dinner now.

2014 Daniel and Julien Barraud Pouilly Fuisse La Verchere Vielles Vignes. A stony stone-fruited tense tactile Chardonnay that is starting to shut down. Compelling but not as easy and forgiving as the slightly more forward Sur La Roche a few months ago. I like Barraud’s wines even if they don’t have the sheer grin-inducing likeability of favorites from Thevenet.

2014 Camus-Bruchon et Fils Savigny Les Beaune Lavieres. Another one that is laying down to sleep. Purple-fruited earthiness with streaks of cranberry and zesty zing. Deceptively dense and structured. I want to try this again in five years.

2015 Eric and Joel Durand St. Joseph Coteaux. My second go-round from a three pack that was an irresistible buy, initially meant for early drinking, but I underestimated this bottling based on the first bottle. Only by the third, fifth, seventh day open does it start to click in my brain that this wine from granite vineyards planted in the 80s and 90s can gain some complexity if laid down. Brambley blackberry fruit and typical violet aromatics. Air brings surprising but welcome vibrancy to the midpalate. This has grown on me, and its low key subtlety and humility compared to say a big gun like the 2015 Gonon are appreciated.
 
IME, five years from when it first shuts down is like the worst possible time to try a good 1er cru Savigny. But I haven't really tried that often, so maybe I'm missing out. Have you had good experiences with that sort of thing?
 
originally posted by Lee Short:
IME, five years from when it first shuts down is like the worst possible time to try a good 1er cru Savigny. But I haven't really tried that often, so maybe I'm missing out. Have you had good experiences with that sort of thing?
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Ten? Fifteen? I don’t know if there is a right answer. It’s wine to wine, and this one is not a fiercely tannic wine, and someone who likes Burg that is teen-aged or on the younger adult side might miss something if waiting too long. I was surprised 2010 Clair Dominode was open last year when Jeff brought it to dinner, but it was youthfully singing.

My reality is that I don’t typically open my 1er Cru Savignys until 15+ years from vintage. I don’t personally expect to open a bottle of this in 5 years, but if I remember, I will.
 
Have you had other, longer-aged Camus-Buchon wines? Thoughts? Somehow I've never gotten around to trying them, though I've seen pretty attractive pricing from time to time.
 
originally posted by Lee Short:
IME, five years from when it first shuts down is like the worst possible time to try a good 1er cru Savigny. But I haven't really tried that often, so maybe I'm missing out. Have you had good experiences with that sort of thing?
Click to expand...

Lee, I’ve been thinking about this some more. Now I think maybe my thought to try again in (only) 5 years is dumb. Maybe folks with experience aging this wine will jump in. On Ian’s questions too.

Pavel?
 
I had one the other day that did not need more cellaring (though it could have used a longer aeration than I gave it): Lungarotti 1974 Rubesco Riserva "Vigna Monticchio" - cork a little pushed but came out in one piece, very closed at first but started to open with a half hour of air, showing mostly like a generic old red wine but there are occasional sips that show a surge of red fruit and a firmer (glyceral?) texture. Four hours later, the last glass is the best.
 
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
I had one the other day that did not need more cellaring (though it could have used a longer aeration than I gave it): Lungarotti 1974 Rubesco Riserva "Vigna Monticchio" - cork a little pushed but came out in one piece, very closed at first but started to open with a half hour of air, showing mostly like a generic old red wine but there are occasional sips that show a surge of red fruit and a firmer (glyceral?) texture. Four hours later, the last glass is the best.
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This is a wine you used to see all over the place in the 80's-90's, and now you don't. They obviously didn't disappear from everyone's cellars, because here you have a note on it.
 
originally posted by Jayson Cohen:
originally posted by Lee Short:
IME, five years from when it first shuts down is like the worst possible time to try a good 1er cru Savigny. But I haven't really tried that often, so maybe I'm missing out. Have you had good experiences with that sort of thing?
Click to expand...

Lee, I’ve been thinking about this some more. Now I think maybe my thought to try again in (only) 5 years is dumb. Maybe folks with experience aging this wine will jump in. On Ian’s questions too.

Pavel?
Click to expand...

1978 Camus-Bruchon Savigny Les Lavieres tasted one month ago was the second best bottle of Savigny I've ever tried.

The best was the same wine in July of 2007.
 
originally posted by Pavel Tchichikov:
originally posted by Jayson Cohen:
originally posted by Lee Short:
IME, five years from when it first shuts down is like the worst possible time to try a good 1er cru Savigny. But I haven't really tried that often, so maybe I'm missing out. Have you had good experiences with that sort of thing?
Click to expand...

Lee, I’ve been thinking about this some more. Now I think maybe my thought to try again in (only) 5 years is dumb. Maybe folks with experience aging this wine will jump in. On Ian’s questions too.

Pavel?
Click to expand...

1978 Camus-Bruchon Savigny Les Lavieres tasted one month ago was the second best bottle of Savigny I've ever tried.

The best was the same wine in July of 2007.
Click to expand...

How are the current Camus-Bruchon wines?
 
They are very spritzy as is the trend these days. Sometimes they can be a bit monolithic and hard to get a read on, but when they are expressive they are really good rockhead Burgundies. I'm a regular buyer of the Grands Liards and Pimentiers village lieux-dits - super-old vines which is another one of my hobby horses, give them some time and I think that old-vine sap will pay dividends.
 
originally posted by Keith Levenberg:
They are very spritzy as is the trend these days. Sometimes they can be a bit monolithic and hard to get a read on, but when they are expressive they are really good rockhead Burgundies. I'm a regular buyer of the Grands Liards and Pimentiers village lieux-dits - super-old vines which is another one of my hobby horses, give them some time and I think that old-vine sap will pay dividends.
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Spritzy? That sounds alarming. Do you mean spritzy as in tiny prickle of dissolved CO2, the kind that quite a few producers deliberately leave in light white wines (e.g. Pinot Grigio) for liveliness? Or spritz as in unresolved fermentation?
 
originally posted by Keith Levenberg:
They are very spritzy as is the trend these days.
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Spritzy as in fizzy does not sound good at all, and has not been the experience of any C-B wines I've had in the past. Is this the trend to au naturale?
 
originally posted by Keith Levenberg:
They are very spritzy as is the trend these days. Sometimes they can be a bit monolithic and hard to get a read on, but when they are expressive they are really good rockhead Burgundies. I'm a regular buyer of the Grands Liards and Pimentiers village lieux-dits - super-old vines which is another one of my hobby horses, give them some time and I think that old-vine sap will pay dividends.
Click to expand...

No comment on the spritzy thing one way or the other, as I think I am less sensitive unless we are talking egregious cases such as Fourrier.

Love Liards and Pimentiers; with all due respect to their 1er that age very well, these are a couple of jewels and are great values. I am now able to track these lieux-dits bottlings with more than a decade of cellar tenure, and pronounce myself a happy customer.

I like what Guillaume is doing and what he is aiming for, even though, as Keith has astutely pointed out, they've gotten more monolithic in their youth - for me, starting with the 2010 vintage. Not entirely unexpected as C-B's are traditionally made burgs (make what you will of the terminology, but you won't find disorderly among the synonyms in a thesaurus, regardless), and some discontinuity was to be expected when he took over from Lucien. But I tasted the 17s with him last month, and I thought the wines were terrific and well-suited in ambition to the vintage.
 
Spritzy as in CO2. They are bottled that way, not refermenting in the bottle. This is the case with about 90% of the young red Burgundies I open these days. Fourrier is a prominent example and was doing it earlier than most. Some are heavier than others. CB I'd put on the heavy side.

Sometimes it is difficult to detect. The wine will taste shrill in a way you might chalk up to acidity or just being generally out of sorts - you won't necessarily notice that it is literally carbonic. But put your thumb over the lip and give it a heavy shake - the pop-and-hiss doesn't lie. And once you do that a few times and get the gas out you'll be amazed how quickly and magically it gets into form!
 
Dunno, I seem to have been lax getting down my notes on Louis bottles but I will pay attention to the next one. I have CO2 noted in the Lucien wines though. Barthod I don't buy, just too damn expensive.
 
I just opened a 2014 Camus-Bruchon Bourgogne tonight with dinner ( a glass still sits at hand, matter of fact). I didn’t notice any overt spritziness, but it did have a lively palate presence (though a thin mid-palate presence). Nice showing, all in all, though a few more years won’t hurt.

Mark Lipton
 
originally posted by Keith Levenberg:
Spritzy as in CO2. They are bottled that way, not refermenting in the bottle. This is the case with about 90% of the young red Burgundies I open these days. Fourrier is a prominent example and was doing it earlier than most. Some are heavier than others. CB I'd put on the heavy side.

Sometimes it is difficult to detect. The wine will taste shrill in a way you might chalk up to acidity or just being generally out of sorts - you won't necessarily notice that it is literally carbonic. But put your thumb over the lip and give it a heavy shake - the pop-and-hiss doesn't lie. And once you do that a few times and get the gas out you'll be amazed how quickly and magically it gets into form!
Click to expand...

Why, meaning why the recent change? Is it a deliberate style or taste decision, or the byproduct of some cellar decision done for other reasons. E.G. colder storage when aging, or much less movement and air exposure after fermentation?
 
Since it acts as natural preservative, the most important utility of leaving, in the wine, some of the CO2 resulting from fermentation, is to allow the use of less SO2 at bottling. Unlike the latter, the former can be boogied loose if the drinker is averse.
 
originally posted by Christian Miller (CMM):
originally posted by Keith Levenberg:
Spritzy as in CO2. They are bottled that way, not refermenting in the bottle. This is the case with about 90% of the young red Burgundies I open these days. Fourrier is a prominent example and was doing it earlier than most. Some are heavier than others. CB I'd put on the heavy side.

Sometimes it is difficult to detect. The wine will taste shrill in a way you might chalk up to acidity or just being generally out of sorts - you won't necessarily notice that it is literally carbonic. But put your thumb over the lip and give it a heavy shake - the pop-and-hiss doesn't lie. And once you do that a few times and get the gas out you'll be amazed how quickly and magically it gets into form!
Click to expand...

Why, meaning why the recent change? Is it a deliberate style or taste decision, or the byproduct of some cellar decision done for other reasons. E.G. colder storage when aging, or much less movement and air exposure after fermentation?
Click to expand...

As vignerons move away from filtration and, to a lesser extent, pumping , there are fewer operations that degas the wine.

Mark Lipton
 
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