Wine News (14)

Jenny Lefcourt and Christian BinnerThe november wine fair in Paris remains a mighty wine event with its 1000 independant vintners, and in spite of the public transport strike this year, many wine lovers came to taste and buy cases of wine, making occasionally a pause with a sandwich after a long flight of wines [pic on left]. For 6 Euro per head, you get a glass and unlimited access to thousands of wines. Even though the place is so big with so many vignerons and guests during these 5 days, you still stumble now and then on familiar faces, like here importer Jenny Lefcourt, who shares her time beween New York and Paris. The Christian Binner stand (Alsace) was my second stop and it was a nice surprise to fall upon her. I tasted 6 wines there while chatting with her and Christian. By coincidence, I had just been contacted by the NY Sun a few days before for one of my pictures of Jenny and François that they wanted to buy from me (still waiting for the payment, btw...) for the paper version of an article by Peter Hellman. Binner wines are beautiful, and I particularly liked his Riesling Grand Cru Wineck-Schlossberg 2003, from a vineyard close to Kaefferkopf, on a poor soil with a southern expostion. Not on the powerful side here and more refined. This unfiltered, lightly turbid wine is very mineral, especially for a 2003 (heat-wave year). The earth is not very deep there and thus has no water reserve, but the vines had enough endurance and the hydric stress did not bring negative results in the grapes. The wine sells for 20,5 Euro.

Olivier Leflaive at the Grand TastingThe "Grand Tasting" is a landmark tasting event in Paris which took place in the basement of the Louvre on nov 30th and dec 1st.. This year was the 2nd edition, it is organized by Michel Bettane & Thierry Dessauve and features many of the best french wineries, plus up-and-coming ones, and also a nice list of italian wines. There were also special conferences/tastings with limited seats for a fee of 5 Euro each, like the one with Olivier Leflaive. Olivier Leflaive is a vintner who makes 100% of his wine (a very wide range of whites and reds) from purchased grapes or even purchased juice when he can trust the vigneron. We tasted 5 wines under his direction and we had a great time. The 1st was Chablis "les deux rives" 2005 (the 2 banks of the serin river), a lemon-nose wine with a Côte D'Or elevage (in casks) rather than a Chablis one. The 2nd was a Rully 2006 (Cote Chalonnaise, white), very nice, easy to drink. The 2005 is sold out. Some one asks for the price. He says that with 65 Appellations at Leflaive it's hard to remember, but it is probably 12 Euro. the 3rd was a Puligny-Montrachet 2005. That's beautiful indeed...Clay/limestone soil, with less limestone and more clay he says, so it makes a refined and elegant wine. Nose : white pepper, much longer mouth. The 4th, another white, was a Corton Charlemagne 2005. He says we are spoiled because he has very few bottles of this wine, but Bettane insisted and he brought 5 bottles...Northern wine, generous mouth. That's when he shows us the new italian synthetic corks that he begins to use : These new corks, he says have solved the problem of the lack of breathing for the wine with the artificial closures. The Italians at Guala invented here a composite closure with a 2/10 micro-ox which replicates the natural cork without the TCA risk.
We finished with a red, a Santenay 2004, a Pinot Noir which went out fine in spite of a difficult millesime. Tastes well, and still will for another 4-5 years, he says. Geneviève and François BarmèsThis was my first stop at the Paris wine fair and I made the right choice : This first day of the fair being a weekday, it was not to crowded and you could quietly listen to the vintners and understand the way they work. I tasted 9 wines from Barmès-Buecher, an Alsacian estate with biodynamic farming, and learned so many things that it could make a post by itself, but I'll reserve the material for a visit that I'll hopefully do at the estate in Alsace.
_Rieslin Herrenweg 2004. Warm sand soil here. Fir tree resin aroma. He says that wines from biodynamicly-farmed vineyards are more subtle are more mineral too. 11,3 Euro.
_Riesling Rosenberg 2005. More spicy & less mineral. Heavier soil. Richness. 13,6 Euro. His wines ferment 2-3 months with the natural yeasts on the grape skin. 11 months elevage on fine lees and bottled in september of the following year or later. Only a bit of SO2 at bottling, not during the fermentation and elevage. He uses only natural sulphur. The industrial sulphur has potassium in it and it renders the wines pomaded, he says.
_Riesling Hengst 2004. Marn-clay soil. Spicy. This wine needs time to open up. He says that 2007 should be an exceptional millesime, the equivalent of 1989 for Alsace. August was cloudy but not rainy and for dry wines the conditions were fabulous, especially with the sun in september. But no noble rot, and he says jokingly, call me if you speak to a vigneron who says he had some noble rot...
_Pinot Blanc Rosenberg 2004. Variety that resembles Chardonnay. Raised in big-capacity foudres. White flowers, hazelnuts, toasted bread. Harmony between the nose and the mouth. 10,6 Euro.
_Pinot Gris Herrenweg 2004. He says that the light smoked-bacon aroma is typical of Pinot Gris. Very nice nose on the empty glass too. 12,1 Euro.
_Pinot Gris Rosenberg Calcarius 2005. Demi-sec (half seet). Clear gold with greenish tones. Good acidity.
_Gewürztraminer Rosenberg 2005. Semi-sweet. Very, very nice nose with complex aromas. Outstanding. Lots of freshness. He says that this wine really took its time : more than one year for the fermentation ! 13,1 Euro, really a bargain.
_Gewurztraminer Steingrubler 2004, semi-sweet. Soil : complex undersoil with granite & limestone. exotic aromas, cherry. higher sucrosity but also higher spicy feel. Very nice viscosity in the mouth. Very nice indeed. 18,6 Euro.
_Pinot Noir Reserve 2005. 100% destemmed, 18-year old massal-selection vines. Baked fruits aromas. 13,6 Euro. A sake anecdote.
This inocuous-looking empty container took my attention as B. and I were leaving after dining with friends in Montparnasse. It was late in the night, the trash containers were ready for the early morning garbage collection and someone from the Japanese restaurant nearby had left this 19-liter (5 gallons) sake box near the trash cans. You can read on the box "Ozeki Sake Inc. Hollister, Ca 95803 USA". We already knew that many japanese restaurants in Paris were actually managed by Chinese owners whose staff are regarded by the Japanese as having lower culinary standards, which prompted by the way some Japanese to try to set up a "sushi police" and make a list of the "real japanese restaurants", like they did on this page. But here is another thing : American Sake served in a (Chinese?) Japanese restaurant...American companies making Sake (and lots of it), that's one of things few people know, like the fact that Japan is one of the biggest Whisky producers, and if I can judge from the bottle of Suntory, Single Malt Whisky, Yamazaki 12 years that we finished recently, it can be of very, very good quality. I can't tell about the American Sake, because if I ever had some in a Japanese restaurant, it was not presented as such (and also because I'm not an expert in Sake), but Ozeki seems to be known for its quality, plus it is backed by Ozeki Japan. Opinions vary about the quality of American Sake and John Gautner (sake-world.com), an American living in Japan and who wrote 3 books on Sake does not view them favorably, and says in an article : "American sake makers, he adds, seem content to make cheap, standard sakes, for which a typical table rice is adequate. If they were to upgrade their sakes, they'd have to plant strains of specialty rice three times as expensive as table rice." We have here another terroir issue, I guess...Marie-Laurence and Elisabeth SaladinI met the Saladin sisters and tasted their wines! This was one of the very few stands that I visited in the Paris wine fair and a good choice. Marie-Laurence and Elisabeth have 20 generations of farmers/vignerons behind them and they have taken the reins of the Rhone family winery after working and learning from Marcel Guigal, Marcel Richaud in the Rhone, Randall Grahm in California, Michel Rolland in Argentina and Philippe Debrus in Chile. I remembered reading a page on them some time ago and wanted to taste their wines and hear what they had to say. Their philosophy is to let the vines express the personnality of the variety and the estate never used any pesticide or weed-killer. Their make small-batch cuvées, plot by plot without industrial yeasts, no-fining and no filtration, and 10-month elevage in oak foudres. When I said they took the reins, well, their father still oversees his two daughters, but with the energy they radiated I'm sure they do what they want...
_Saladin Per El 2006, Côtes du Rhone Villages (Viognier Marsanne Clairette Grenache Bourboulenc). A rare white of the southern Rhone. Elegant and aromatic. 10 Euro.
_Saladin Rosé Tralala 2006 C.d R. 7 Euro. Mostly old-Cinsault bled wine, coming from a bit of each cuvée. The wine was intially named Ouh La La because when they stayed with Bonny Doon in 2000-2001, they were joked over for saying Ouh LaLa all the time, but the name being already registered they chose TraLaLa instead.
_Saladin Loï Côtes du Rhone 2005. Red. Grenache, Carignan, Clairette Rosé. Carbonic maceration. Tannins are not too hard. No cap punching. Harvest at a good maturity. 7 Euro.
_Saladin Fan dé Lune 2006, C. du R. Villages. Mourvèdre majority. Very very nice nose here. 10 Euro. She says that they don't touch or move their wines in winter, they just make their life. Not filtered, but not turbid.
_Saladin Chaveyron 1422 C.d R. V. 2005. 1422 is the year indicated by some documents they found, tracing the family as already farming here. Super wine. Syrah-Viognier. 100% Destemmed, long maceration. They made only 50 hectoliter for a 1,5-hecatre surface, or one foudre. 15 Euro.
_Saladin Haut-Brissan C.d.R.V. 2005. Vineyard on a plateau. Very nice nose, complex aromas. Very classy. 100% Grenache. The southern-most cuvée.The Hospices de Beaune being covered with plasticthis was back in november, the very day a huge printed tarpaulin was being hanged on the Hospices de Beaune for the 25-month-long complete renovation of the 2300-square-meter colored roof. The worker on the picture did it all alone with the miniature mobile crane on the right. So if you plan to visit Beaune soon, don't expect to have even a glimpse of the famous colored tiles.
Now, there is a new place in Beaune which is a bit different from the somehow pretentious wine places targeting tourists: "Les Mille et Une Vignes" [picture on left] is an easy going wine bar/shop managed by a 25-year young woman, and where you can have a glass and eat a plate if you want to. The wine shop has a huge wine list, some 1500 wines spread on 150 millesimes (!), the oldest wine being a Sauternes Chateau Rayne Vigneau 1904, and the oldest non-wine being a 1795 Madeire. They have also many 18th and 19th century Cognacs and Armagnacs. Staying with the wine, they have basicly every year of the 20th century, even if with a single bottle sometimes. About the "normal" recent wines, they have a wide selection of bottles to go or to drink in the bar (no cork fee!!). For wines by the glass, they have 10 or 15 wines, all at 4 euro, plus a couple of 1er Crus and Grands Crus at 6 Euro. They aren't Burgundy exclusive and have a few surprises from other regions. One of the burgundy wines by the glass : A Maranges 1er Cru Clos Roussots from Domaine Charleux. The Maranges wines offer some of the best deals of Burgundy. You can also taste here the wine of Domaine Masse in Givry, the son having just been nominated as the best young vintner of Burgundy this year.Les Mille et Une Vignes61 rue de Lorraine21200 BeaunePhone 01 80 22 03 02 Chinese Buyers in a paris Professionnal TastingThey're coming... The first Chinese sommeliers and buyers have been showing up in the professional wine tastings. For years, we've been used to see the Japanese around in the french wine world and their discreet but very expert ways in the field gained our respect. In just a few years, this asian country with such a different cuisine and tastes has become a massive buyer of fine wines with a keen interest for artisan wines. Will China follow suit and How will its rapid economic and cultural changes translate for their wine consumption ? The growing wealth of the Chinese middle class and the related opening on the outside world have already brought an increase in wine consumption. Right now, while the Japanese drink 2 liters a year on average the Chinese down a mere 0,9 liter. Let's not consider the rest of the world where the wine consumption per capita [Pdf] is much higher. Be sure that to have a huge impact on the world demand, the Chinese don't need to come anywhere near the French (55 liters), the British (19 liters) or the Americans (9 liters). With the size of China's population, just reaching two-liter/year per capita would probably bring big returns on the major wine regions of the world and could send shock waves similar to what we see today on the oil market. And I can't even imagine the consequences of per-capita numbers like 5, or, shall I dare it, 10 liters....I can't produce my own gas but I think I'll make my own wine by then...Wine transport in Rural France in the Early 1940s'No, This is not a city bobo (bourgeois bohemian) expiating his sins through a special greenhouse gas offset project. Neither is it a fair-trade transport scheme designed to reduce gas emissions in the wine business, and you were samely misleaded if you thought of a new agit-prop to promote ecological integrity, to shortcut the powerful wine distributors and offer a fraternal hand to the indigenous farmers and the oppressed proletariat of the wine world...
This is just an old postcard that I found in a flea market, the date on the back reads june 13th 1943 and the stamp bears the image of Maréchal Pétain who headed the Vichy regime under the German occupation. The fine print says "Haut-Vivarais; transport of goods in the Boutières region", the Haut-Vivarais is a mountainous area west of the Rhone valley. Boutières is the most arduous and mountainous part of the Vivarais and at that time, according to this page, the "caravanniers viticulteurs" (caravan vintners) were travelling across it to go sell their wine in the Forez area and then came back with wood to make their casks. Boutières, the name of the region, comes from "Boute", which means "outre à vin" or wine skin. The wine was routinely transported on mules to remote villages during these times in this part of France, especially because glass bottles were still an expensive item in these remote and destitute parts of rural France. A very rare manuscript, named Deschomets from the farmers family who wrote it along 150 years beginning in the mid 18th century, relates plenty of details about the daily life of this region, and it gives insightful informations (page 30 of the manuscript's summary-Pdf), like the maximum wine load that a mule could carry, a 10-bucket volume or 162 liters. The measures and units varied from a village to the next and in Tence, in the Vivarais, a bucket had a 16,2551-liter capacity.
These echos from the mid-1940s' seem light years away from our modern world...Patrick Piuze holding the Chablis 1er Cru Monmains 1995One of the conferences at the Grand tasting at the Louvre was held by the Domaine Brocard, and our host was Patrick Piuze, a 34-year old Canadian from Montréal who seems to be doing a great job there. He had been working in other estates in Burgundy when the owners at Brocard offered him a job. As the Chai Master of this Chablis estate, he presented several wines. Brocard has a 180-hectare surface, of which 50 biodynamicly farmed. They also purchase grapes, for an equivalent of 200 hectares. This is one of the biggest wineries in Chablis. In the cellar, they use only indigenous yeasts and don't use additives for the vinification.
_Jean-Marc Brocard, Chablis, Domaine de la Boissoneuse 2006.Low acidity on this millesime, there was no overmaturation. No fining. A wine to drink without delay. Patrick Piuze says that he does not want to put on the market wines that can't be drunk now and that you need to wait 20 years. Boissoneuse is a separate estate owned by Brocard and it is also organicly farmed.
_Jean-Marc Brocard Chablis Grand Cru, Les Clos 2006. That's different. Minerality, neat nose.He points to the good balance between the fruit and the minerality. Nice wine. I was just saying to B. that the wine temperature was a bit too high when he said that he chose deliberately to serve it at this 16°-17°, because he wanted to show that even at this temperature, you couldn't find a flaw. And it will begin to reach its best time soon, like 5 years from now. He says that in the Chablis region, there are things to improve, the prestige of the region is such that when a bottle of Chablis is on the table, people see the Appellation (and maybe the millesime) and not much beyond that, there is not enough work from the estates to shed some light on the vigneron's work and on the terroir.
_Jean-Marc Brocard Chablis 1er Cru Fourchaumes 2002. Magnum. From 5 different climats. Even more fruity, and less minerality. To drink soon.2002 is a good year, he says, and nature made great things that year. The color of the wine is a darker gold. Aromas of ripe grapes, plus underwood, mushrooms, mosses. Good for fat cheese. This wine is 5 years old and is already delicious, but he says that it will stay for long. Length in the mouth too.
_Jean-Marc Brocard Chablis 1er Cru Montée de tonnerre. Clear gold with greenish reflections. Bottle opened 1/2 hour ago. He also asked it not to be served too cold because otherwise the wine doesn't tell his story. Very nice and smooth feeling inside the mouth. Acidity.
_Jean-Marc Brocard Chablis 1er Cru Montmains 1995. Magnum. Also gold with green reflections. Raised in vats, never got any oxygen (no wood), which may be why their wines age so well. 1st note on the nose very pure. Anise, eucalyptus notes. In the mouth : what a beautiful wine, and it is 12 years old...well-structured, length, everything. Asked about the estate's production, he says some 3 million bottles. In the place where he worked before, he was producing 250 000 bottles, that's quite a jump. He says that at Brocard, the staff is atypical, a Canadian Chai Master, and only women in the vathouse. He says that they are very rigorous (more than men) and they bring their own thoughts about how they feel the wine. He says that he wants to make refined wines, even though he knows they may not come out first in blind tastings : his wines are not high in alcohol. He says that there are two schools of thought in Chablis : the wood school and the no-wood. Wood makes big mighty wines and he is convinced that Chablis is good for refined wines, so he'll keep with his vat-only philosophy. He says that he loves his job, especially that at Brocard he is free to try many different things, sometimes even working with mathematicians... and he enjoys looking his two young daughters grow.

Comments

[hikalu]

I didn't know that there were many Japanese restaurants managed by Chinese. Japanese foods are really hot in Paris? and Sushi police? wow... I also didn't know that the US brew Sake. I knew that there some farmers making Japanese rice in the US and the others. but I didn't even think about sake. Did you know that there are a few (I think) non-Japanese working in sake breweries? I've seen it on TV before.
and about this winenews, I kinda like Barmès-Buecher, sounds tasty.
I went to Suntory whiskey brewery once. It's located near Kyoto. and It was fun actually.
I'm little worry that It can happens to increase in wine consumption in China and I can't drink nice wines of France and the other countries...

[Greg]

Great post. I was in Alsace in May and had a wonderful time tasting some wonderful wines. I've just discovered your blog and have promptly linked it up on my blog. Thanks. Very interesting posts. I'll definitely be a regular reader.

[Brooklynguy]

Hi Bert - my wife and I were in Beaune a little over a year ago and we must have walked by Les Mille et Une Vignes about a dozen times. It looked really nice through the window, but it wasn't open on Sunday or Monday or something and we couldn't go in. They were renovating. We were sorry to miss it because it looked like such a great place. next time. we did, though, get to spend some time wandering around the hospices and looking at the tiles, happy holidays to you and B