March is the traditional time for our annual Fine and Rare Bin End Sale with reductions of over 60% on some wines! If you want mature Classified Growth Bordeaux for €30 a bottle, mature Chateauneuf du Pape for €29, Premier Cru Burgundy for €29, or even 10 year old top-rated Riesling from Alsace at €21 a bottle then have a look at the attachment.
Fine & Rare Bin End Sale
Let's be clear - none of these wines are "duds" - the only reason it's a "Bin End" sale is we couldn't think of any other name! They range from Grand Cru Burgundy to Italian Supertuscans to Australian Icons. There are over 50 wines to choose from. Why are they in the List? Well it's a fantastic opportunity to try some outstanding mature wines at knockdown prices - our little bit of annual madness!
Quantities are limited - the offer finishes on St. Patrick's Day - and when they're gone, they're gone......
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Recent Adventures in wine...
I was a little apprehensive about the Domaine du Pegau Chateauneuf du Pape 2001. To be honest, I have found some Rhone wines are almost too over the top for me – high alcohol and no definition. This was a revelation: lovely precise fruit, underlying minerality (!) and very well balanced. It’s in a great place right now and really enjoyable.
I haven’t had much opportunity to try many Californian Pinot Noirs recently, so for some mad reason I decided to order a case of Mount Eden Pinot Noir 2007 from Germany! I think it was the info about the estate - high altitude, no irrigation, mad (yet passionate) owner etc. that intrigued me. I was very pleasantly surprised – it has a bit more strawberry fruit than a typical Burgundian example (more like a NZ Pinot) but it was also restrained, individualistic and very moreish.
The Baudry Chinon Croix Boissee 2003 is absolutely one of my favourite wines right now. Two bottles in the past few weeks have both been stunning. This wine delivers everything – a core of dark, black fruits with a hint of Cabernet Franc green pepper, minerality and amazing precision wrapped around a slightly chalky finish. When you consider what this costs (about €30) it’s one of the best quality/price wines around.
I have been following Fontanabianca wines for a good few years now. We originally purchased a case of the Barbaresco Sori Burdin 1996 over 10 years ago and we’re down to the last few bottles. In my opinion they were one of the first “modernist” Piedmont producers to get the use of barriques right – just the right balance between the perfumed elegance of the Nebbiolo and the sweet tannins of oak. This bottle was delicious, albeit in a slightly rustic way – almost like an old Burgundy, it was light in colour but yet persistent in complexity of fruit flavour.
At the other end of the “modernist” spectrum was the Domenico Clerico Barolo Percristina 1996 – much to our surprise this came across as fresher and more balanced. It had a wonderful core of dark Nebbiolo fruit and great density with an effortless length and wonderful clarify of fruit. It was excellent.
Finally for Italy, we had an outstanding bottle of 1997 Cepparello – again, fresh, forward and lovely ripe, almost with a hint of sweetness, fruit yet backed up by classic Sangiovese acidity. Again, this was elegant but full of supple, rich fruits and equally impressive.
One old Burgundy to finish off – not all in the same night! The few bottles of Drouhin Chambolle Musigny 1er Cru “les Amoureuses” 1987 that I have tried have been variable. I haven’t been able to find any other notes or reviews and 1987 certainly wouldn’t be a standout year. But this was a good bottle! No-one guessed it as a 24 year old wine, with most putting it around 10 years. The acidity was doing a good job at preservation, but there was plenty of elegant Pinot fruit and great length in a restrained, yet persistent way.
With the kids back to school, it was back to samples and porridge…..
Thursday, February 24, 2011
New Zealand Earthquake
Being in the Wine “business” we’re naturally interested in anything wine-related. On Tuesday I was browsing the Decanter website when I came across a piece about the NZ earthquake – actually it was the first I had heard about it.
You can read it here: Decanter News
Looking back on it some 24 hours later, it seems totally inappropriate. I’m all for information about wine, but it needs to be put in context. The fact that vineyards were “spared” is of little comfort given the scale of the tragedy. The fact that mortalities were involved is only mentioned in the last line. And most surprisingly, the story has not been updated since Tuesday to reflect the scale of the disaster.
We may be in a “business” and interested in all things related to that business – but we are human too.
Many people will be familiar with Joyce Austin of New Zealand Boutique wines who is based there. Just to show that people in the wine business aren’t just obsessed with wine, consider her thoughts in contrast to those from Decanter:
"In the city though, it is like looking at a war zone. We never expect that on our home patch. The city was trying to recover/re-build from the earthquake in September, but this is so much worse. The news is unfolding by the minute. 75 people are now dead, and the feeling is that number will significantly rise, possibly into the 100’s. Major rescue operations taking place around the city – some of the main corporate buildings have fallen to the floor, sandwiched. 300 people are missing. Anyone living in the city, and numerous tourists displaced now being fed by the Red Cross in nearby Parks trying to get to grips with what’s happened. There are so many tourists in the city – second largest city in New Zealand and this is prime visitor season. Thousands of people homeless and a hugely stretched support system. Medical and rescue specialist services being offered from all around the world. The country has declared it a National State of Emergency, the first time we have ever seen that in New Zealand.
They estimate the cost of this at $16 billion."
And then:
"Just to keep you in the picture again as things unfolding here so quickly. The very sad news is that the number of dead now is officially 98, with 228 people still missing. The building I mentioned yesterday at which people were holding a vigil (CTV – Canterbury Regional Television) at which there have been meticulous, painstaking efforts to try and rescue people now seems to fear the worst – that most of the people in that building will not have survived. There are 120 people unaccounted for in that building. You can imagine the immense grief everyone is feeling.
There are harrowing scenes of rescuers trying to enter the tiny pocket holes within these buildings that have been crushed to the ground. But no signs or sound of life today – and for the past 30 hours now. No one is giving up hope but every hour that passes the desperate reality starts to set in.
Over 450 people have been seen by medics and 164 admitted to hospital. But its those 228 missing that are the massive concern.
Outside of the city the suburbs look like a giant flood. They have liquification – where the tarmac roads turn to water and silt/sludge holding people hostage in their homes – if they are in those homes. The estimate now is thousands of people will be without their homes for a very long time, and so the welfare need is on a scale no one here has ever before seen.
There are 1000 people – firemen, police and special rescue teams – with specialist teams from all around the world that are doing what they can to find people.
Everyone wants to do something – to try and help in what seems to be an impossible situation. Today we saw the Student Army – led by the university students at Canterbury (the region) University put out a call for help. They orchestrated a huge body of young people to join work helping the elderly in the suburbs, talking with them, giving them hope, delivering them food, and doing what they could to dig our cars and create pathways in the liquification sludge everywhere. So far, 10,000 students have rallied together to try and ease the pain for so many.
There are families camping up on the hills, banding together. No electricity, no water, no sewage systems – and no looking like that will change for a long time.
The worst is obviously to come with the names of those who have died to be released as soon as they are sure of the identification – a meticulous process needed in that. And then the names of the missing. What we have been told is there will be names that people all around New Zealand will no doubt know – again, its that sort of a tiny community, an island nation so it will be horrific time when that news comes out.
What we are seeing in all of this is so many brave acts, so many people just reaching out to help others when the sheer enormity of it must make them feel like crawling into a corner. But its very much the Canterbury region way – they’re such a close knit group, so loyal. Probably moreso than any other part of New Zealand.
New Zealand is such a small community, it’s like Ireland, but even smaller in a way in connections with people because we are such an isolated nation – we all know people in the major cities and have so many friends/contacts there. We can’t reach them now as the phone lines all down. No electricity or water, the essential services stretched to capacity. They ran out of ambulances after the first 3 hours, such was the extent of injury. Laymen all over the place trying to help by loading the injured into their cars to get to makeshift medical centres. So many stories of local folk helping others that would make you cry.
It’s times like this we remember how fragile life is, and to hold those close to us very close. We never know what’s round the corner. Nature is a cruel thing.
I’m not sure how much you’re seeing on the TV there but every day that passes, it looks like an explosion on the worst scale has happened.
No words can describe it."
You can read it here: Decanter News
Looking back on it some 24 hours later, it seems totally inappropriate. I’m all for information about wine, but it needs to be put in context. The fact that vineyards were “spared” is of little comfort given the scale of the tragedy. The fact that mortalities were involved is only mentioned in the last line. And most surprisingly, the story has not been updated since Tuesday to reflect the scale of the disaster.
We may be in a “business” and interested in all things related to that business – but we are human too.
Many people will be familiar with Joyce Austin of New Zealand Boutique wines who is based there. Just to show that people in the wine business aren’t just obsessed with wine, consider her thoughts in contrast to those from Decanter:
"In the city though, it is like looking at a war zone. We never expect that on our home patch. The city was trying to recover/re-build from the earthquake in September, but this is so much worse. The news is unfolding by the minute. 75 people are now dead, and the feeling is that number will significantly rise, possibly into the 100’s. Major rescue operations taking place around the city – some of the main corporate buildings have fallen to the floor, sandwiched. 300 people are missing. Anyone living in the city, and numerous tourists displaced now being fed by the Red Cross in nearby Parks trying to get to grips with what’s happened. There are so many tourists in the city – second largest city in New Zealand and this is prime visitor season. Thousands of people homeless and a hugely stretched support system. Medical and rescue specialist services being offered from all around the world. The country has declared it a National State of Emergency, the first time we have ever seen that in New Zealand.
They estimate the cost of this at $16 billion."
And then:
"Just to keep you in the picture again as things unfolding here so quickly. The very sad news is that the number of dead now is officially 98, with 228 people still missing. The building I mentioned yesterday at which people were holding a vigil (CTV – Canterbury Regional Television) at which there have been meticulous, painstaking efforts to try and rescue people now seems to fear the worst – that most of the people in that building will not have survived. There are 120 people unaccounted for in that building. You can imagine the immense grief everyone is feeling.
There are harrowing scenes of rescuers trying to enter the tiny pocket holes within these buildings that have been crushed to the ground. But no signs or sound of life today – and for the past 30 hours now. No one is giving up hope but every hour that passes the desperate reality starts to set in.
Over 450 people have been seen by medics and 164 admitted to hospital. But its those 228 missing that are the massive concern.
Outside of the city the suburbs look like a giant flood. They have liquification – where the tarmac roads turn to water and silt/sludge holding people hostage in their homes – if they are in those homes. The estimate now is thousands of people will be without their homes for a very long time, and so the welfare need is on a scale no one here has ever before seen.
There are 1000 people – firemen, police and special rescue teams – with specialist teams from all around the world that are doing what they can to find people.
Everyone wants to do something – to try and help in what seems to be an impossible situation. Today we saw the Student Army – led by the university students at Canterbury (the region) University put out a call for help. They orchestrated a huge body of young people to join work helping the elderly in the suburbs, talking with them, giving them hope, delivering them food, and doing what they could to dig our cars and create pathways in the liquification sludge everywhere. So far, 10,000 students have rallied together to try and ease the pain for so many.
There are families camping up on the hills, banding together. No electricity, no water, no sewage systems – and no looking like that will change for a long time.
The worst is obviously to come with the names of those who have died to be released as soon as they are sure of the identification – a meticulous process needed in that. And then the names of the missing. What we have been told is there will be names that people all around New Zealand will no doubt know – again, its that sort of a tiny community, an island nation so it will be horrific time when that news comes out.
What we are seeing in all of this is so many brave acts, so many people just reaching out to help others when the sheer enormity of it must make them feel like crawling into a corner. But its very much the Canterbury region way – they’re such a close knit group, so loyal. Probably moreso than any other part of New Zealand.
New Zealand is such a small community, it’s like Ireland, but even smaller in a way in connections with people because we are such an isolated nation – we all know people in the major cities and have so many friends/contacts there. We can’t reach them now as the phone lines all down. No electricity or water, the essential services stretched to capacity. They ran out of ambulances after the first 3 hours, such was the extent of injury. Laymen all over the place trying to help by loading the injured into their cars to get to makeshift medical centres. So many stories of local folk helping others that would make you cry.
It’s times like this we remember how fragile life is, and to hold those close to us very close. We never know what’s round the corner. Nature is a cruel thing.
I’m not sure how much you’re seeing on the TV there but every day that passes, it looks like an explosion on the worst scale has happened.
No words can describe it."
Friday, February 11, 2011
Wine from the Dead?
http://www.gaelic-cemeterywines.com/
d'Arenberg's iconic Dead Arm Shiraz is obviously one of Australia's top wines. However, call me old fashioned, but I'm not sure if a whole winery dedicated to a Graveyard is the best idea in terms of marketing..............Irish and Dead - now that's a novel idea!
And yes, the image is from their website!
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Emmanuel Rouget 2009
Emmanuel is blessed – or cursed – by being the nephew of the late, great Henri Jayer. In the 1990’s, due to the byzantine structure of French pension laws, Jayer rented out his vineyards to his nephew Emmanuel. In reality, Jayer kept making his revered wines until 2001, alongside bottlings from Rouget. Many would say that they shared great similarities in style and texture – but unfortunately I don’t have the experience with Jayer to make that comparison. Sadly, Jayer passed away in 2006.
Today, Emmanuel crafts the wines on his own, with thought and natural skill. He has become a bit of an enigma in public-relations terms, shying away from not only media exposure, but also the majority of tasting requests. Hence we ended up outside the gates of his modest house in Flagey Echezeaux in the dwindling light, along with our friends from Justerini and Brooks and also Roy Richards of Richards-Walford (Rouget’s UK agent). Roy knows Rouget well, yet it soon became clear that Emmanuel wasn’t going to come out easily. Possibly he had spotted the dodgy looking group of stragglers at his gate and decided he couldn’t be bothered with a bunch of Irish, English and Slovenes! Phone calls were made – by now it was dark and cold and hanging round gates in Burgundy suddenly seemed to lose all appeal, no matter who was inside. Eventually someone spotted Emmanuel moving shiftily around in the shadows in the yard and almost magically the gates were opened. To say that Emmanuel was disappointed we hadn’t all given up and gone away would be an understatement. He looked positively terrified as we wandered over – plus it became clear very quickly that he hadn’t expected an Irish/Slovene contingent. Roy helpfully suggested to me that we introduce ourselves whilst he mysteriously waited outside on the road and re-tied his shoelaces a number of times. Hew Blair suddenly seemed to be busy on a phone-call to the Queen……
And to all our surprise, Emmanuel smiled and welcomed us graciously! True, there was a little harrumphing and long sighs, but that was just us all trying to squeeze into his tiny cellar. Once ensconced, and with the certainly no-one else was arriving, Emmanuel visibly relaxed and began to take us through the wines. He also seemed to take a particular interest in Sinead, but (for once!) I didn’t mind as the wines were truly great and he was happy to keep going!
He harvested relatively early in 2009, but still sorted the grapes both in the vineyard and back at the cellar. He automatically rejected anything overripe – he said there was fruit coming in with a potential alcohol of 18 degrees! Anything over a potential of 14 degrees alcohol was rejected and then 100% of the remaining grapes are de-stemmed. They are given a 7 day cold soak at 10 degrees Celsius. He also favours using CO2 and allows this to filter through the cold soak to enhance freshness and extract purity from the fruit. Alcoholic fermentations are as short as possible to preserve freshness and he prefers pumping-over the juices, rather than punching down the cap during fermentation. Above all, he makes wine in the style he wants (makes sense I suppose!) with the ultimate objective being wines of freshness, equilibrium and puissance.
The first thing that struck us about the samples was this elegance. Sure, there was ripe fruit and tingling vibrancy – but the elegance was wonderful. The “basic” Bourgogne was fresh and plump, with a hint of chalkiness in the background. Yummy! The Savigny les Beaune also had similar savoury fruits and a great lightness in the refined fruit. The Nuits St. Georges was tighter with black fruits and vibrant fruit. Again the vibrancy of the fruit struck us and Emmanuel explained he doesn’t generally rack the wines – if he can start with clean lees, then there should be no need for racking. The Vosne Romanee 2009, aged in 100 new oak, had an amazing nose of violets and spices, fresh “minerally” fruit with lush, graceful finish. The Vosne Romanee 1er Cru “Beaux Monts” was more reserved, more cherry fruit and creamy palate, but also crisp acidity making it very pretty and almost velvety. The Echezeaux was difficult in comparison to the “lifted” style of the previous wines – it was brooding with dense fruit and some white pepper and spices on the palate. The Vosne Romanee 1er Cru "Cros Parantoux" was back to the more feminine style (what an over-used descriptor!) – lots of wild flowers and herbs on the nose and then clean, fine minerality with fine, edgy tannins to give the whole thing backbone.
There are only two producers of Vosne Romanee 1er Cru Cros Parantoux – and we had tasted the other with Jean-Nicolas earlier. Emmanuel’s sample had more density – but multi-layered density and a luxurious core of bright fruit. It really was delicious.
Monday, January 17, 2011
Meo-Camuzet 2009
Jean Nicolas now oversees 25 different wines – a combination of Domaine cuvees and those produced under a Negociant operation called Meo-Camuzet Frere et Soeur. By any standards, having your finger in 25 pies (or vats) is enough to keep anyone busy and Jean-Nicolas is certainly prolific. Annual production is now up to 120,000 bottles, which must bring in a handy few quid each year. Interestingly, the law states (or used to state) that Domaine and Negociant operations by the same producer had to be kept in separate cellars, presumably so that, heaven forbid, the two couldn’t accidentally be mixed together. Jean-Nicolas has both in his one cellar, but the barrels of Negociant wines are clearly marked by bright orange stickers.
I do believe there are general “house styles” at certain producers, although great terroir can often usurp even the most botched attempt to impose a house style. In 2008 the terroir shone through magnificently in some great wines, whereas in 2009, overall ripeness and homogeneity have made very flattering wines, but occasionally at the expense of terroir individuality in some instances. The Meo house style is for wines with very polished fruits mixed with a smooth sheen of oak. They tend (to me anyway) to be slightly less expressive at a young age, and if there was any mild critique, it would be that they are not as “wild” or “adventurous” as some others. But they are pure, focussed and consistently well produced.
A large part of this style profile is obviously generated by the handling of the wines in the cellar. Jean-Nicolas prefers to sulphur the wines regularly during elevage in order to keep the volatile acidity down. As someone who likes really old Beaucastel Chateauneuf du Papes, I’m obviously not put off by a bit of VA. So maybe the wines seem “over clean” to me – and just me. The sulphur would also account for the slightly muted state of the wines at this point – it will be absorbed into the wine over time and the fruit should come through.
Initially Jean-Nicolas was a little worried about the acidity levels in the 2009’s, but he is happier now. Although analytically they show low acids, he says the reds have come together nicely now following malolactic fermentation.
After a morning of reds, the crisp, fresh white Haut Cotes de Nuits Clos St. Philibert 2009 was delicious. This Monopole is often overlooked by those is search of the more heavy-hitting wines, but in my opinion this small volume cuvee gets better and better each year. It had plenty of supple, ripe Chardonnay fruit – easily a match for the oak and lovely structure.
The Fixin 2009 had a good chunky nose of dark cherries with firm acidity – a good balance between the two. Again, this is one of the cuvees that I think often over-delivers in terms of price/quality. The Morey St. Denis 2009 was more muted, but with richer, darker fruits hidden behind a wall of chewy tannins. A little more awkward at this stage – but ultimately probably more complex. The Vosne Romanee 2009 is very different to the Mugneret sample – here it is more closed, dense and reserved – although in fairness it was racked much later than the other wines in the Meo portfolio. The Gevrey Chambertin had more savoury fruits and more appellation typicity – with a hint of chewiness.
Of the various and plentiful 1er Crus, the Nuits St. Georges 1er Cru “Boudots” really stood out – here we were back to “softer” fruits (ironic for a NSG) more characteristic of the vintage. A much richer and more expressive nose, with lots of wild violets and a subtle creamy texture from the well-used oak. Very good indeed. The Clos Vougeot “Pres le Chateau” was also delicious – relatively open-knit with rich fruits that initially hid a nice complex undertow of fine tannins and great length.
We skipped the 2007 and 2008 vintages with Meo-Camuzet, largely as a consequence of the economic situation in Ireland and having to pick and choose a smaller group of producers to work with. As a result, we slipped down the pecking order on allocations, and whilst we are their sole Irish importer, we haven’t been allocated any of the other “big guns”. As pricey as they are, they were also a pleasure to taste! I have pages and pages of notes, but standouts (hopefully not too predictably) included the Vosne 1er Cru “Aux Brulees” (almost dark chocolate with very black fruits – quite primary), the Vosne 1er Cru “Cros Parantoux” (almost nutmeg (!!), surprisingly lifted in mid-palate and quite like parma violet sweets!) and the pinnacle of them all, Richebourg (wonderfully complex – lots of new oak wrapped around a complex mix of coffee/chocolate/spices and a wonderfully silky finish).
It was a great tasting – 27 samples from 2009 – but I would have loved to leave each one in an individual glass and go back to them one-by-one after an hour. I wonder if Neal Martin got to do that….
Meanwhile, more baguettes were beckoning….
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