Wine News (41)

Nice Cabernet-Franc rosé A very nice Cabernet Franc rosé wine from someone I didn't know : Laurent Herlin makes wine in the Loire both from a tiny surface of his and from contracted grapes, all of them farmed in biodynamy. As I visited Chistophe Guitar's artisan-wine shop in Paris the other day, he opened this charming and vivid rosé named Cintré, it's a Vin de Table by Laurent's négoce Vinotropie. It was not at the usual cool temperature but still passed the test beautifully. Many Cabernet d'Anjou (a Loire rosé) need to be had cold to be drunkable. Here is an unfiltered rosé wine which is well balanced, easy to swallow and just delicious. On the nose, candy aromas. The wine is a bit perly in the mouth. 12 ° in alcohol, has a light residual sugar and costs 8 € at the shop. Long in the mouth. The paradox, Christophe says is that this wine is both fresh and yet has a bit of residual sugar. 800 bottles have been made of this cuvée altogether.

Bourgueil Illuminations Another fairly nice wine by Laurent Herlin, spotted in Christophe Guitar's wine shop la Contre Etiquette ( on rue Sainte Marthe in Paris - I'm going to be suspected of commercial interest here) : Illuminations, Bourgueil 2009. Laurent is a former computer engineer in his mid_thirties and he is friend to Sébastien David, an outstanding winemaker of the Loire who also works in biodynamy.
The Bourgueil here is balanced and supple with a light sugary feel, a genuine pleasure drink. What is amazing is that 2009 was his first vintage. Christophe is well inspired, he has been selling his wines since a year and a half. On this Bourgueil, the filtration was either very light or was non-existent. Costs 15 € at the shop. Xavier Benier I actually went to Christophe's wine shop to taste the Beaujolais wines of Xavier Benier. My friend Marise Sargis had unexpectedly discovered his wines in a restaurant, she wrote a post about him and contacted him to ask to taste his other wines when he would be in Paris. She was looking for a convenient place to do that with knowledgeable tasters (I'm making this up) and she settled her choice on Christophe's wine shop as he was OK for it and eager himself to taste these wines.
We tasted 3 wines, all red, and I liked particularly two of them :
__Pur Jus, Beaujolais Villages. a 11,5 ° Gamay which went through a 20-day carbonic maceration and was racked and bottled in december. We hear a small noise at the opening of the bottle probably because of gaz. The nose is peppery and fresh. made from 70-year old vines, he says. Nice fruit feel, morello cherries. Nice chewy substance in the mouth. Xavier vinifies without additives since 2003 and he doesn't play with the temperatures. This Pur Jus cuvée didn't get any SO2 even at bottling. Even after 30 minutes or more, the nose keeps fresh and alive. Costs about 7 € at the winery.
__Beaujolais Villages Vieilles Vignes 2001. The vines are very healthy and regular, he says, they make their 30 hectoliters/hectare in good and bad years alike. This is a 1,1 hectare of Gamay that he got from his parents. Very beautiful nose with an earthy side I would say. Hearty mouth, fresh too. The color here is more concentrated than for the previous wine. The substance is nice, there is minerality in there it seems to me. Christophe who discovers the wine like me says that this is very elegant. And it's a 2010, give it one or two years and it should be further up.
Christophe made an order for his wines right away.
Frederic Ballario holding the Ojai Pinot Noir I was surprised to receive an email from Frédéric Ballario the other day, saying he was in town for a tasting. Frédéric used to work as an intendant for the Krug Champagne house and he helped me make a visit at Krug. But he left Krug after then and went back to California where he had lived several years to join Ojai, a winery based near Santa Barbara. Adam Tolmach is at the head of this winery, he co-founded Au Bon Climat with Jim Clendenen with whom he worked 10 years before founding his own thing in 1991 (they're still good friends). The vineyards of Ojai are split in several well oriented valleys north-west of Santa Barbara with the cool maritime air having a positive influence on the grapes. The estate makes 6000 cases per year, a small estate in terms of volumes.
I was particularly impressed by Ojai's Pinot Noir 2008, Bien Nacido, Santa Maria Valley. They have several cuvées of Pinot Noir (4 or 5 if I remember) and this vineyard was one of the first Pinot Noir vineyards planted in this Santa Barbara area, it was in 1973. The wine has a lovely pale color, an elegant and refined nose and is a beautiful drink in spite of the 14 ° on the label. Vinified & raised in casks during 1,5 to 2 years, 20 % new casks. Racked only once, with a non-interventionist style. Each cuvée at Ojai makes about 10 or 12 casks maximum. They take one cask (often a new cask) from all the Pinot-Noir cuvées to make a cheaper "generic" Santa Barbara cuvée so that people can begin with a more affordable wine, as this one costs for example 40 to 45 USD (it's priced 43 € in France, public price). The estate buys the grapes to growers, not by volume (which encourages disastrous yields) but by surface, and then the grower follows the farming rules set by the estate. The empty glass displayed such beautiful aromas. I came back later during the tasting event to have another pour of this nice Pinot. Yiannis Paraskevopulos I had heard of Gaia before, but that the first time that I tasted the wines of Yiannis Paraskevopulos. This may not be original as this wine seems to have a big following but I must add mine here. The white Assyrtiko 2009 is outstanding from any point of view you look at it, the weird variety growing in circles, the vinification art and the exceptional taste of this rarity wine. The vine grows in basket shape as if it tried to protect itself from the heat and dessication. Yiannis says that the roots are four century old ! Amazing. The nose is impressively aromatic with things like white flowers. In the mouth, it feels very mineral and resolutely dry with a nice length. Yanynis says that the grapes are not packed in the clusters and that the skin is relatively thick (to protect from the sun I guess). He cools the grapes prior the pressing and uses a pneumatic press on slow mode. This white wine can go with meat dishes and behaves like a red wine, carafing is good for it too. On getting drunk with your boss http://thisjapaneselife.org/2011/04/20/japan-enkai-drinking-party/ Ricardo Palacios I tasted a few Spanish wines, poured by the young winemaker Ricardo Palacios, the nephew of Alvaro Palacios. They manage their vineyards on the biodynamy principles, using no additives for the winemaking except some SO2. Ricardo was presenting both his own wines and Alvaro's, beginning with a Petalos del Bierza, Mencia 2008. A tannic wine with a light bitterness and good length in the mouth. 14 ° The vineyard benefits from a marine and humid influence.
Then, another red, les Terrasses Priorat 2008. The nose was outstanding here, the wine is made out old vines stretched between 70, 80 and 90 years. In the mouth, the wine is powerful, elegant and well structured. Goes down somptuously down the throat. Varieties are Carignan & Grenache. One critic could be that the extraction is a bit too high.
Then, Finca Dofi Priorat 2008. Young vines (35 years). Intensity on the nose with a rather concentated mouth and a saline feel. Twice the price for this one and I prefer the previous wine. Zoltan Demeter with his wife Zoltan Demeter and his wife were present at this tasting and I couldn't miss the opportunity to taste several of his wines, here are the ones that took my attention :
__ Föbor, Fürmint blend 2007. In small bottles. Golden color with green reflections. What a gorgeous mouth, and such a length. Honey candy notes.
Aszu 6 Puttonyos, Fürmint 2002. Similar golden color with some green. A honeyed milk in the mouth, a concentration of refineness and onctuosity, the whole thing being dressed in a coat of freshness... I come across such wines only in places like that, otherwise out of my reach. An Israeli wine for dinner I took this bottle the other day from the batch of bottles that I brought back from Israel 2 years ago. Galilee Aviv Cabernet Sauvignon 2007 by Saslove. The wine had a nice fruity expression and I wanted to see how B. would judge it as I remembered that it had been made using wood chips. Back in Israel when I tasted it it hadn't shocked me but believe it or not, B. said almost immediately that there were wood chips in there. She is good, I tell you. Looking twice there might be some imbalance here although the wine was enjoyable and relatively fresh for a Cabernet grown in those latitudes (Galilee is on high altitude). an 11-year old Cöt Cuvée Princière, Touraine Côt 2000 by Jacky Preys. We had this 11-year old Côt from the Loire the other day. The first impression was good, with the length, the fruit, things like jellified small red fruits, the whole thing wrapped in rather well integrated tannins. The acidity was maybe a bit high. Good performance overall for a wine that must cost some 5 € at the winery. A nice affordable Pinot Noir from the Loire I admit it : when I'm alone in the Loire and nobody looks, I'm buying junk food like these industrial chicken legs and I grill them on a barbecue. Nobody's perfect but this was a perfect day for a bbq and I thought the smoke would hide the bad vibes of the meat. The good vibes came from the wine that I opened that evening : a Pinot Noir 2009 by Rousseau Frères, a Touraine estate located not far from Tours and which makes several nice wines including a rare gastronomy rosé, the Noble Joué. Rousseau Frères is one of these estates which while still being conventional in terms of vineyard management, have yet a honest and uncompromising winemaking ethic (in terms of additives). If they just stopped using weedkillers in the vineyard that would be even better.
I had stocked a 12-bottle case of his Pinot last year because we had experienced a very good one from him after a few years keep. One year after the purchase, I wanted to try and the result was quite good already. A bottle cost about 5 € at the winery if I remember. On getting drunk with your boss in Japan... Japan is a surprising country when it comes to socializing around drinks. Colleagues, from simple office clerks to executives gather in izakayas for endless evenings where steam is let off. That seems very healthy to me and the sight of these otherwise serious people having fun without self-consciousness is refreshing. The two guys on the left seemed to have gone already through a good line of drinks and their wives at home probably knew that they wouldn't see them early that day...
I read recently a very thoughful and well-written article on the subject by a New-England expat whose blog I read regularly. Titled "On Getting Drunk with your Boss in Japan", it describes many facets of this tradition which may evade a non-initiate. Reading this prose made me travel by thought, imagining the parties and after-parties and all the quasi ritualized and institutionalized binge drinking which doesn't seem to leave bad aftertaste when these people are back together at work the following day. I am sure that you will enjoy the read.
The picture above was shot in a Tokyo izakaya in 2008.
If you want to feel the pulse of Tokyo and Japan, follow this other Japan-expat blog with great photos, and it has also posted some time ago incredible pictures shot in the region of Sendai after the tsunami.