Loire trip through a handful of tweets

I like Twitter. Twitter forces me to summarize whatever special or noteworthy I experience, in 140 characters. I don't tweet about dull daily stuff, only about things I like. And those likeable things then need to be summarized to its essence. It makes Twitter a sort of diary also. I can look back for example at the few remarks I made when visiting Angers and Champagne last week.

Tweet #1 on 6 Feb 2012 « Tasting with @chris_kissack & @burgoholic at Carême #salonvinsloire True discovery y'day in Chez Rémi - details later http://pic.twitter.com/ijxD7iL1 »



Jan and I tasted some exciting young wines again at the Salon des Vins de Loire. But this is the last time we will be going. The organization decided to thwart the organizers of small 'bio' fairs like Dive Bouteille and Greniers St-Jean and choose a different weekend for their Salon. Great to see my contacts, but it's not the place for the most exciting new discoveries. So next year we will make a short tour along the alternative fairs.

But of course it was good to taste the new vintages of the producers that I work with. Next year I will taste these somewhere else. Perhaps at a smaller fair, perhaps at the domain, perhaps in Amsterdam, we'll see.

At the stand of Vincent Carême (who wasn't there because he was so unfortunate to break his foot) we ran into Chris Kissack (again), whose Winedoctor is one of my favourite resources on the web. I have always wondered how somebody can have such a complete website with so much information and tasting notes. But now I understand: Chris and his laptop are virtually glued together.

The Chinon producer that I've been working with for a few years presented a good new vintage but decided to raise his price by 40%. Perhaps something the Bordelais can get away with, but we felt it was time so look for an alternative. Some time. To our own surprise we ran into something great the same day. More about that later.

I mentioned another discovery that we made in Restaurant Chez Remi. Will also get back to that later. You have to be careful these days. Just heard that one of my 'colleagues' is hunting my Orléans...

Tweet #2 on 6 Feb 2012 « À Chartres Bistrot à Vins: Andouillette "AAAA" sauce moutarde http://pic.twitter.com/Y2lxyv9H »



Yes another event, that evening, in Chartres! A lovely smelly sausage to make followers back in Holland jealous (or not at all). It was an okay andouillette by the way, I have tasted better stuff.

The organic Cheverny that accompanied the food was just okay, actually a bit disappointing. Jan and I did not finish the bottle, and that's quite a bad sign.

Tweet #3 on 7 Feb 2012 « Dégorgement manuel par Emmanuel Brochet. Millésime '06. Exciting organic Champagne. Very refined and ongoing finish... http://pic.twitter.com/Ry84BKmK »



Perhaps the best part of this short trip was our (second) visit to Emmanuel Brochet. We tasted his 2009 Extra Brut plus the millésime 2006. I love his approach. Brochet releases (dégorges) purely based on what he tastes. So after the 2007 now follows the quite accessible 2009. The 2008 isn't ready yet.

And the early batches usually receive a modest dosage, like this 2009 that we tasted (Extra Brut). For later batches of the same vintage the dosage gets smaller and smaller, and might eventually be omitted at all. I'm currently selling the 2007 Non Dosé. A pure beauty!

"Ça sent bon!!"

A while ago I stumbled upon a Canadian website that clearly deserves attention. It would have made sense if not me, but Dwayne, the Canadian, would have come up with it, but he hasn't.

This is what I have seen on the web: Bu sur le web. Aurélia Filion tells about wine, in a contagious manner, mostly about natural wines from France. She does that in very intelligible, articulated French (because it is Québécois I guess), and in a few cases also in English.

As an example I show you the French and English version of Mme Filion sharing with us the biodynamic Anjou blanc 2009 from René and Agnès Mosse. As the Dutch importer I am inclined to say that it is good wine (which is an understatement), but I rather have Aurélia say it. Because she says it very clear, and besides that she's nice to look at.

My favourite part is in the French clip, when Aurélia smells the Anjou and shouts out: "ET ÇA SENT BON!!" (while doing a sort of disco thing with her arm). It totally makes you want to smell the wine yourself. The bad news: the 2009 is sold out (a/o bought by Holland's famous wine writer Nicolaas Klei). But the good news: the 2010 has just arrived!

This is the French video. For those who are time-pressured: the ça-sent-bon exclamation happens at 45 seconds:



And here's the English video:



There's more good news: with Mosse's Anjou's (blanc and rouge) and their Savennières a new wine traveled along with this shipment: the Bois-Rouge 2010, a Vin de Table made from 75% cabernet franc plus cabernet sauvignon, both from young vines. This pure vin de plaisir et de soif can only become a hit, there's no doubt. I will keep you posted on that.

Perhaps one day we will see the Bois-Rouge on Bu sur le web...

Winemaking Apprenticeship, Mas des Dames 2011, part 2

Dwayne Perreault – To continue from my last posting, which had more to do with the viticulturalist aspect of winemaking, I will now turn to the actual making of wine, which begins with the process of adding yeast to the grape juice, the basis for the wine. Mas des Dames, being an organic estate, wishes to avoid using yeasts which impart flavours, so "levures naturelles," or natural yeasts are used. These actually come from Syrah vines from Guigal in the Rhône.



The question might be asked: why not just use natural yeasts which exist in the vineyard, but oenologist Xavier Billet explains that this at all costs is to be avoided. Some of these yeasts may be from the Saccharomyces cerevisiae family, but others (Brettanomyces, etc.) not. These are unpredictable yeasts which can rapidly turn wine into vinegar, or not. But one chooses for certainty.

The adding of yeast is a delicate process. One kg of dried yeast (for 50 hl, or 20 gm/hl) is added to a 10 litre bucket of water at 35° Celsius and left for an hour. Before adding the yeast solution to the vat of grape juice, special care must be taken that the temperature of the yeast solution and that of the grape juice do not differ by more than 10° Celsius, otherwise thermal shock could ensue, which can hinder or even stop fermentation. Since the yeast is alive and writhing and foaming in the bucket, it does not lose its temperature quickly. To help matters, after an hour we add gradual portions of the cooler grape juice to the bucket, to bring down the temperature. Once the yeast solution has been added to the vat, fermentation begins.



Before long, the vat of grape juice begins to change, with a fine mousse growing on top and becoming thicker by the day. After 48 hours of fermenting we perform our first débourbage, or removal of the lees, the dead yeast cells which collect at the bottom of the vat as sediment. This is done by climbing up a ladder to the top of the vat and inserting a large hose into the tank, thus pumping the clear juice into another vat which has been sealed with CO2.

One could of course choose to vinify sur lie, or with the lees, possibly even pumping over twice a day, the macération sur bourbes, which provides thicker wines, but Lidewij chooses for pure fruit expression and freshness.

Samples are regularly taken from the fermenting vat to measure the density and temperature of the must, the now fermenting grape juice. The sweet pure grape juice contained a lot of natural sugars, which have a higher density than water, precisely 1100 at the beginning of fermentation. These sugars are the food for the yeast required to make alcohol, and as the sugars are converted into alcohol the density of the must will decrease, while its temperature will increase.

Samples of the fermenting must are also taken by Xavier Billet to a laboratory in Béziers to receive a total analysis. Xavier is one of six oenologists for the entire Départment de l’Hérault and all indications point to the Mas des Dames Blanc being a healthy, fermenting wine. But the wine is not only fermented in the vat, it is also fermented en barrique, so after several days it is pumped over into oak barrels, after which it is fined with bentonite. The use of new oak is eschewed, which leads to a more subtle oak influence in the wine, round but with freshness.

Our work in the vineyard was in the meantime interrupted twice by heavy rains, on August 31st and September 4th. This inopportune rain puts harvesting behind schedule, as the grapes become gorged with water (and predisposed to rot). A delay in work means the pickers don’t get payed, and this can become troublesome in trying to keep a team together. Many pickers are itinerant workers, and they know that by driving to the Médoc they could work for two weeks without stopping. But on September 7th we harvested some choice plots of Syrah to make the rosé. In total we had 21 hl of delicious juice, 19 hl after débourbage. Once again, with the rosé we are only vinifying the dark pink juice, which has had only a short maceration with the grape skins. In other regards, vinification is the same as the white wine, although only 10% of the rosé receives oak ageing.

And at this point, on September 12th, my apprenticeship at Mas des Dames came to an abrupt end, as I had to leave. The work was not yet done, as the vinification of the reds was about to begin. I hope to return another time to finish what I had started. My thanks to Lidewij van Wilgen for giving me this opportunity, for her instruction and answering my many questions. Special thanks to Xavier Billet for the same and for giving me a guided tour of his laboratory. It has been a great experience and I look forward to coming back. I also look forward to tasting the 2011 Mas des Dames when they are released! In the meantime, the 2010 white and rosé are still available at Wijnhuis Zuid, as well as the 2009 La Dame and the 2007 La Diva.

Two tastings in weekend 27-29 January

Friday afternoon 27 January there will be a wine and oyster tasting in downtown Amsterdam, in the red light district. Famous Oesterman Marcus van den Noord will present his oysters, while you can taste the wines from laVieleVin and Bolomey Wijnimport. French wines only!

This tasting will start around 17h so you could consider having dinner afterwards in one of the many restaurants in this part of town (for example Lastage, Blauw aan de Wal or good old Nam Kee).

Location: Oudezijds Voorburgwal 59 Amsterdam
Date and time: Friday 27 January from 17h00 - 20h00
Admission: presumably around € 20 per person


Grotere kaart weergeven

This last weekend of January not only has a good start, it also has a good finish! Because: Sunday 29/1 the second Amsterdamse Wijnmarkt will take place. Seven specialized and Amsterdam-based importers will then present their wines. Specialized means that these importers do not cover a wide range of wines, instead they all focus on one specific country:

France: Vleck, Pomme d'Or and Bolomey Wijnimport
Germany: Markvandewijn
Hungary: Miranda Beems Wine Import
Italy: Monega
South Africa: Coza Wijnimport

In addition, Chocolaterie Atelier Alexandre will present its traditional, handmade chocolates.

Location: Café Schiller, Rembrandtplein 24 Amsterdam
Date/time: Sunday 29 January from 14h00 - 17h30 (press from 13h)
Admission: € 10 per person


Grotere kaart weergeven

It would be great to see you at one of these tastings!

Some last thoughts, and Bruno Clavelier

I say goodbye to 2011 with fifteen random personal thoughts & remarks.

1. Being a wine merchant and a wine blogger is a difficult combination in December (hence the 20 days of silence).
2. Beaujolais Nouveau in general is not very popular these days. But Natural Bojo Nouveau of raving beauty appears to have a (small) group of very devoted followers!
3. The pivotal role of scent in wine is comparable with its role in sex.
4. My favourite website on wine is Chris Kissack's winedoctor.
5. This year's most popular posting on this blog is the Bordeaux 2010 recommendations posting of 2 May.
6. Bordeaux 2010 was, other than expected in the first place, a success: customers were again willing to buy at high prices.
7. If Bordeaux 2011 is going to be a bargain vintage like 2008 sales will be good, otherwise it will be very quiet.
8. Unfortunately raising prices in Bordeaux is easier than lowering prices; it's always 2 steps up and 1 step back. Sort of cheating.
9a. For a truly interesting read about Bordeaux check out Filip Verheyden's Bordeaux special of Tong Magazine.
b. One of the authors is Benjamin Lewin MW, author of What Price Bordeaux?, a highly recommended page-turner full of interesting Facts (and figures, and not myths) about Bordeaux.
10. Another fact: I drink more Burgundy than Bordeaux.
11. Then an opinion: a wine from a hot climate will never match the quality of its peers from cooler climates.
12. Wine is made for drinking, not for sipping (which doesn't mean that you have to drink a lot).
13. Fresh milk is an underestimated drink in most countries outside the Netherlands.
14. The high excise tariff on sparkling wine (3,4 times as high as on still wine!) are rubbish, they simply don't make sense.
15. Since I work with wine, my appreciation for beer has grown.

La Combe d'Orveaux, the little corner in the Musigny vineyard that did not become Grand Cru: Clavelier's grandfather never applied for that status, it would have meant higher taxes...

Last but not least: an announcement. A new top Burgundy producer has just entered the Bolomey Wijnimport selection: Bruno CLAVELIER from Vosne-Romanée. Clavelier makes pure, meaty, deep-dark pinots, convincing and seducing. Impressive stuff - organic wines made according to the principles of biodynamics.

I created a Primeur 2009 offer (pdf, in Dutch) in November already, but never found the chance to send it out. So let the blog - in the end - have the scoop. Early January this offer will be sent to a selection of Dutch Burgundy lovers; note that the available quantities are tiny for these sought-after reds.

A happy 2012 to all of you!

Winemaking Apprenticeship, Mas des Dames 2011, part 1

Dwayne Perreault - It seems only natural to me that anyone seriously involved with wine would want to do a winemaking apprenticeship. It’s an idea I’ve had for some years now. Since I work in wine, I spend most of my waking hours with it. It is my profession and in the evening it is my joy and solace, a continually changing mystery: originating from all over the world, constantly differing and charming in so many ways.

Yet what is it, really? Fermented grape juice would be the most prosaic answer, yet in many cases I feel that good wine, like food, is art, the personal expression of the winemaker using grapes as material. It is the divine act of the alcoholic fermentation, the ancient alchemical transformation of grapes into a Bacchanalian elixir which has been a part of our history for 8,000 years, that interests me.

Lidewij van Wilgen at the sorting table

I’ve already written about Lidewij van Wilgen, owner/winemaker of Mas des Dames, who I met this past spring, while vacationing in the Languedoc. I received a tip that a Dutch woman produces great wines nearby and was about to publish a book about her experiences. Intrigued, I drove to her estate and met her briefly. She invited me the next day to a tasting for 13 sommeliers from top restaurants in London. After tasting the wines, I was thoroughly convinced. I contacted the importer, purchased the wines and invited her to do a tasting/launching for her book Het Domein, which took place in Wijnhuis Zuid on May 15th.

I thought Mas des Dames looked like a great place to do an apprenticeship: small yet not too small, and fully committed to producing the best possible biological wines from a domain with a great terroir and a broad variety of grape varieties, including 90 year old Alicante Bouschet vines. Not only that, it was a 15 minute drive from where I was staying, and Lidewij seemed to be just the kind of earnest and enthusiastic soul I was looking for as a teacher. So on a lark, I proposed the idea and she agreed.

I showed up on August 30th early in the morning and was able to stay until September 12th, too short a time really, as I just missed the vinification of the reds, except for a few choice plots of Syrah for the rosé. But as it were, I helped and learned with the vinification of two wines, the Mas des Dames Blanc and Rosé: 2011 was a particularly good and abundant year, especially for the Grenache Blanc, in Lidewij’s words “maybe the best year ever.”

Unmistakably Syrah

One of the most single important decisions a viticulturist/winemaker has to make is when each parcel of grapes should be harvested, in respect to ripeness and climatic conditions. This is also one of the most difficult aspects of winemaking, as the weather and managing a group of pickers can complicate things. But our day begins by collecting a random sample of 200 grapes in a particular plot, one of many such samples we will be collecting. These will be taken by the oenologist Xavier Billet to a laboratory in Béziers to have their sugar ripeness (potential alcohol), total acidity and Ph measured.

More often we simply walk through the vines, sometimes with a spectrometer in hand to measure the potential alcohol in the grape juice, but even more important, we taste the grapes, biting through their skins, sucking their juices, examining the pips to check for phenolic ripeness. This is still the most trusted way among farmers in France.

Healthy Grenache Blanc grapes at Mas des Dames

The challenge with the thin skinned but succulent Grenache Blanc is that it is prone to rot and is oxidative, so care must be taken that it enters the cave as rapidly and as intact as possible. The real work begins in the fields with the pickers and the freshly harvested grapes arrive stacked in crates on a flatbed trailer pulled by a tractor to the cave, where we wait at the sorting table. We work with tempo as the grapes are coming in by bunches: dessicated grapes are fine, as they are particularly sweet. Grapes with grey rot are removed, along with leaves, weeds, snails and insects like earwigs, spiders, ladybugs, and beetles. Yes, biodiversity does come with a biological vineyard.

From the sorting table the grapes go in whole bunches into the egrappoir, a machine which removes the grapes from the stem. The grapes are lightly crushed, then pumped through a large hose directly into a modern, horizontal air bag press. This ensures that the grapes are pressed gently and evenly, avoiding the crushing of pips which leads to astringent wines.

With white wine, we are only vinifying the juice, so this is directly pumped into a 80 hl vat which is sealed with CO2 to prevent oxidation. In total, we harvested 50 hl from 1.5 ha of land on two plots. Our first sample registered a densimeter/mustimeter reading for 12.5% potential alcohol, and the second lot, harvested later in the morning under the hot sun, showed 14.5%. For this reason, all work stops in the vineyard in the early afternoon. Fortunately, the juice had a measure of 3.8 acidity, which Xavier Billet says is very good for Grenache Blanc, and I agree: my experience with the Mas des Dames Blanc is that it has surprisingly good acidity and freshness for Grenache Blanc.

The quality of the juice is paramount: you can only work with the juice, it is the basis for everything. And it tastes simply delicious, unlike any juice I’ve tasted before, sweeter but also fresher, more alive. This is the basis for the wine, and now I understand the expression “winemaking is done in the vineyard,” as it is possible to make bad wine from good grapes, but it is impossible to make good wine from bad grapes.

[next week part 2]

Today's RVF ranking of the 1855 classification

I can imagine that most non-French readers of this blog don't have La Revue du Vin de France, France's most well-known and probably most influential wine magazine. The latest edition (No. 557, Décembre 2011) presents in bold big letters the following question on its cover: Que vaut aujourd'hui le classement de 1855? Translated that is: What is today's ranking of the 1855 classification?

My guess is that the readers of this blog would be interested to know which crus are hot - and which not - according to RVF, or at least according to Olivier Poels who put together this overview. Poels' judgment is largely based on the tasting of the following 5 vintages: 1990, 1996, 2005, 2008 and 2009.

For every wine RVF also presents the percentage price increase from 1990 to 2010, an interesting number. For more stats, and for Olivier Poels' story behind the ratings you should find a copy of the magazine yourself.

Apart from the usual suspects there are surprises too. Some nice surprises, but a few of Poels' views made me frown, and foremost for 4 wines that are all mentioned in the category 15,5/20. I think Brane-Cantenac, Giscours, Talbot and Haut-Batailley should all have ended higher in this hierarchy, and perhaps d'Armailhac also. You can simply comment on this posting to share your (dis)agreements, and you are invited to do so.

19,5/20
Latour (Pauillac, 1er cru classé) +1980%
Léoville Las Cases (St-Julien, 2e cru classé) +1479%

19/20
Haut-Brion, (Pessac-Léognan, 1er cru classé) +2013%
Lafite Rothschild (Pauillac, 1er cru classé) +1838%

18,5/20
Margaux (Margaux, 1er cru classé) +1838%
Mouton Rothschild (Pauillac, 1er cru classé) +1838%
Ducru-Beaucaillou (St-Julien, 2e cru classé) +1083%
Léoville Barton (St-Julien, 2e cru classé) +535%
Montrose (St-Estèphe, 2e cru classé) +611%
Lynch-Bages (Pauillac, 5e cru classé) +509%
Pontet-Canet (Pauillac, 5e cru classé) +820%

18/20
Cos d'Estournel (St-Estèphe, 2e cru classé) +1444%
Léoville Poyferré (St-Julien, 2e cru classé) +618%
Pichon-Longueville Baron (Pauillac, 2e cru classé) +680%
Palmer (Margaux, 3e cru classé) +155%*

17,5/20
Gruaud Larose (St-Julien, 2e cru classé) +295%
Rauzan-Ségla (Margaux, 2e cru classé) +997%
Branaire-Ducru (St-Julien, 4e cru classé) + 374%
Grand-Puy-Lacoste (Pauillac, 5e cru classé) +427%

17/20
Pichon Longueville Comtesse (Pauillac, 2e cru classé) +717%
Calon Ségur (St-Estèphe, 3e cru classé) +403%
La Lagune (Haut-Médoc, 3e cru classé) +345%
Malescot Saint-Éxupéry (Margaux, 3e cru classé) +164%*

16,5/20
Lascombes (Margaux, 2e cru classé) +628%
Boyd-Cantenac (Margaux, 3e cru classé) +242%
Cantenac Brown (Margaux, 3e cru classé) +227%
Lagrange (St-Julien, 3e cru classé) +311%
Langoa-Barton (St-Julien, 3e cru classé)
Beychevelle (St-Julien, 4e cru classé) +442%
Duhart-Milon (Pauillac, 4e cru classé) +228%
Lafon-Rochet (St-Estèphe, 4e cru classé) +277%
Marquis de Terme (Margaux, 4e cru classé) +253%
Saint-Pierre (St-Julien, 4e cru classé) +380%
Batailley (Pauillac, 5e cru classé)
Belgrave (Haut-Médoc, 5e cru classé)

16/20
Rauzan-Gassies (Margaux, 2e cru classé) +240%
Issan (Margaux, 3e cru classé) +286%
La Tour Carnet (Haut-Médoc, 4e cru classé) +198%
Cantemerle (Haut-Médoc, 5e cru classé) +70%*
Clerc Milon (Pauillac, 5e cru classé) + 245%
Cos Labory (St-Estèphe, 5e cru classé) +207%
Dauzac (Margaux, 5e cru classé) +192%
Du Tertre (Margaux, 5e cru classé) +156%

15,5/20
Brane-Cantenac (Margaux, 2e cru classé) +345%
Giscours (Margaux, 3e cru classé) +224%
Kirwan (Margaux, 3e cru classé) +115%*
Pouget (Margaux, 4e cru classé)
Talbot (St-Julien, 4e cru classé) +304%
Armailhac (Pauillac, 5e cru classé) + 261%
Haut-Batailley (Pauillac, 5e cru classé) +217%

15/20
Prieuré-Lichine (Margaux, 4e cru classé) +281%
Haut Bages Libéral (Pauillac, 5e cru classé) +278%

14,5/20
Camensac (Haut-Médoc, 5e cru classé) +205%
Lynch-Moussas (Pauillac, 5e cru classé) +202%

14/20
Ferrière (Margaux, 3e cru classé) +40%*
Croizet-Bages (Pauillac, 5e cru classé) +168%

13/20
Durfort-Vivens (Margaux, 2e cru classé) +207%
Marquis d'Alesme (Margaux, 3e cru classé)
Grand-Puy Ducasse (Pauillac, 5e cru classé) +300%
Pédesclaux (Pauillac, 5e cru classé) +83%*

12/20
Desmirail (Margaux, 3e cru classé) +116%

An asterisk (*) means that the price raise is not for the period 1990-2010 but for the period 2000-2010. For some wines the price raise is unknown.

Bordeaux 2009 UGC tasting Brussels

Last week Jan van Roekel and I drove up to Brussels to attend the annual Union des Grands Crus Bordeaux 2009 tasting with a line-up of 110 crus. These traveling UGC tastings are always very interesting, as you get to try the recently bottled Bordeaux vintage about 1,5 years after having tasted them at the UGC primeur tastings in Bordeaux.



It's also an extensive tasting and you need the full opening hours if you want to taste most of the wines. To try them all is nearly impossible, unless you are a red-toothed speed freak who doesn't care what people around you will think.

There's no doubt that you're attending a tasting of the Union des Grands Crus Bordeaux: there are many people in suits. Mostly dark suits. And some fancy suits but that usually doesn't make things better. Well let's not get into that.

The best thing about the tasting is that you get a good impression of the vintage. It is not the place to taste all your favorites top-down. Not because you won't have the time (you could descend as far as you could), but because there are many omissions. There are no premier crus, and hardly any Super Seconds. And there are many other omissions, for example there are only 7 Pauillacs and 7 Pomerols. And just 4 Saint-Estèphes: Cos Labory, De Pez, Lafon-Rochet and Phélan-Ségur.

So what did we think about red Bordeaux 2009? One striking - but known - vintage feature is the absence of hard, astringent tannins. Good! And another good thing is that only very few wines smell of freshly cut oak, perhaps just one or two go off the rails here.

The vast majority of the wines displays generous, ripe and fleshy fruit. Wines range from juicy to powerful-and-structured, depending also on the style. Acidity generally is good but not predominant, and that makes the wines all the more accessible.

Red Bordeaux 2009 makes a healthy, attractive impression altogether. These are wines with... a sort of natural beauty. As opposed to something that's put together by a winemaker. But this might come across a bit vague, so let's go to the whites.

White Bordeaux 2009. We have tasted some very beautiful, elegant examples, but also some fatter exponents that are sometimes a bit rustic, and sometimes worse than that. More than once the Riedel tasting glass vapored armpit sweat. Hurray Sauvignon! Sometimes I also missed acidity and - thus - freshness.

But I do not want to jump to final conclusions about these animal whites. These in-your-face features are possibly just an age-thing. Many 2009 whites might be true adolescents now, pimpled and blushing, and I'm keen to taste these 'extravagant' whites again!

There were only a handful of 2009 Sauternes to taste, and from these I thought the Guiraud (8++) was the most attractive, with its lovely freshness and purity. I also liked De Fargues (8+), Rayne-Vigneau (8) and Lafaurie-Peyraguey (8-).

I give a Dutch rating, up to a 10 for the best posible. Everything ranging from 8 and up is good to very good, and everything below 7 is not good. In between I shrug and walk on.

PESSAC-LÉOGNAN ROUGE
- Domaine de Chevalier 2009 (8,5+) mineral and juicy, pure and fresh, quite broad base, lovely ripe fruit
- Haut-Bailly 2009 (8,5) bit closed now, but after some time in the glas the wine starts to fan out from an intense and powerful core
- Smith-Haut-Lafitte 2009 (8+) very round, seducing, modern and warm, broad; if this is your style, this is an interesting wine
- De Fieuzal 2009 (8) lovely pure wine, dark depth combined with freshness
- Malartic-Lagravière 2009 (8-) a bit sweet with a medicinal touch, yet a pleasant wine

The rest: Larrivet Haut-Brion 2009 (7,5), Latour-Martillac 2009 (7), Carmes Haut-Brion 2009 (7-), La Louvière 2009 (7-), Pape Clément 2009 (7-), Picque-Caillou 2009 (6,5), Haut-Bergey 2009 (6,5), Olivier 2009 (6,5)

PESSAC-LÉOGNAN BLANC
- Domaine de Chevalier 2009 (8,5) modest breeze of butterscotch and delicate acidity, then concentration, quite tight also, a shapely & elegant wine
- Carbonnieux 2009 (8+)  more pointed, fresh, citric, and gentle in the mouth; good concentration
- De Fieuzal 2009 (8) more straightforward, quite tight, hint of oak, but simply good
- Haut-Bergey 2009 (8-) bit sweaty (at this age) but nice round total with also a good acidity

The rest from what I tasted: Smith-Haut-Lafitte 2009 (7,5), La Louvière 2009 (7,5), Pape Clément 2009 (7+), Malartic-Lagravière 2009 (7+), Larrivet Haut-Brion 2009 (7+), Latour-Martillac 2009 (7), Bouscout 2009 (7), De France 2009 (7), Picque-Caillou 2009 (7-), Olivier 2009 (6,5)

SAINT-EMILION & POMEROL
- La Conseillante 2009 (8,5-9) striking minerality, exciting wine, and lovely, intense juice, great!
- Figeac 2009 (8,5-9) very special, quite lean (not an insult), refined and elegant, super!
- Larcis Ducasse 2009 (8,5+) strikingly fresh fruit, slender, subtile, juicy and intense
- Pavie Macquin 2009 (8,5) close to the Larcis but a bit more ripeness, a bit sweeter
- Canon 2009 (8,5) quite light, purple sweetness and attraction, fine texture, ripe tannins
- La Tour Figeac 2009 (8,5) slender, juicy and pure, very nice wine, refined
- Canon-la-Gaffelière 2009 (8++) distinct style, also rather slender, special, animal features
- Clos Fourtet 2009 (8+) sweet and modern yet elegant
- Clinet 2009 (8) more 'rough', full and powerful, ripe, dark

The rest from what I tasted: Beauregard (7+), Franc-Mayne 2009 (6), La Dominique (6,5)

MÉDOC, HAUT-MÉDOC & MOULIS
- Poujeaux 2009 (8+) quite impressive, round & seductive, rather powerful, slightly tannic, hearty fat juice, broad and good
- Chasse-Spleen 2009 (8) a bit leaner, open, seducing as well but in a different manner; character, some medicinal touch that is either slightly awkward, or exciting
- La Lagune 2009 (8-) dairy-freshness, attractive solid fruit, good, pure
- Cantemerle 2009 (7,5) bit closed at the start, but a good middle-of-the-road Médoc, and that's not an insult, classic and what-you-see-is-what-you-get

MARGAUX
- Rauzan-Ségla 2009 (8,5+) exuberance and ripeness, powerful yet quite smooth, attractive acidity, good all the way!
- Du Tertre 2009 (8,5) expressive and somewhat animal, in the good sense of the word, firm acidity, hearty juice, well-structured
- Giscours 2009 (8+) quite ripe, some sweetness in balance with good classic acidic backbone, complete and refined
- Brane-Cantenac 2009 (8-) very closed at this moment and hard to judge, not sure here

The rest from what I tasted: Dauzac 2009 (7,5), Monbrison 2009 (7,5), Siran 2009 (7,5), Prieuré-Lichine 2009 (7), Desmirail 2009 (7)

SAINT-JULIEN, PAUILLAC & SAINT-ESTÈPHE
- Langoa-Barton 2009 (8,5-9) electrifying wine, snappy, lively, pure and masculin
- Grand-Puy-Lacoste 2009 (8,5+) modest start, then ripeness, roundness and a touch of oak; good acidity with an attractive mineral quality, ripe tannins, well-structured, quite lovely
- Léoville-Barton 2009 (8,5) noble, powerful, bit tannic, very complete but way too young to taste
- Lafon-Rochet 2009 (8+) classic Médoc with attractive acidity and freshness; well-structured
- Phélan-Ségur 2009 (8+) fresh, powerful, spicy & peppery, hearty, good
- Pichon-Longueville Comtesse de Lalande 2009 (8+) elegance with a medicinal touch, modest and stylish, good structure and acidity; quietly developing
- Gloria 2009 (8+) expressive, whiff of oak, acidic (positive) and lively; yes I like this one!
- Talbot 2009 (8+) very complete and classic Médoc, nice and expressive, good
- Branaire-Ducru 2009 (8) expressive, sturdy, good acidity and harmony, spicy
- De Pez 2009 (8) round-full, bit oaky, bon matière, classic and complete; nice surprise!
- Lagrange 2009 (8-) elegant, classic and attractive
- Beychevelle 2009 (8-) bit sweet and seducing, juicy, also quite attractive, already
- Saint-Pierre 2009 (8-) difficult phase? not very expressive (now), bit oaky, and some sharpness; should be better than this, or will get better

The rest from what I tasted: Gruaud-Larose 2009 (7,5), Léoville-Poyferré 2009 (7+)

Again, this is definitely not a complete list, but it gives an impression of this beautiful Bordeaux vintage.

Summary of annual tasting. And coming up: Beaujolais Nouveau evening in Le Garage!

The 23th of October was one of the highlights of 2011 for Bolomey Wijnimport. Six producers from France visited Amsterdam to present their wines, and over 200 people came over to taste. Shall I be honest? It was a great day!


David Butterfield presenting his Meursault

I don't have a lot of pictures - at least I didn't have the time to shoot any - but these three will give an impression of the tasting. In this first picture David Butterfield is telling about his lovely Meursault, or about his Beaune 1er cru that was presented in Amsterdam for the first time. David is a rising star in Amsterdam, and you might find his wine in one of the restaurants here.


Eddy Oosterlinck presenting his Coteaux du Layon Faye

As you can see we had the luck of having a beautiful sunny day, with a great view from the tasting penthouse over the IJ, the water bordering the old harbor of Amsterdam. In the above picture the Belgian Coteaux du Layon producer Eddy Oosterlinck probably explains why his wines possess such a mouth-watering freshness along with the seducing sweetness characteristically for these sweet Loires.


David Clark presenting his red Bourgogne and Côtes de Nuits Villages rouge

On this third picture it's a bit hard to see but you've got to believe me that this is David Clark - bending over the table - who explains something about his red Burgundies. Probably people are wondering how a 'simple' Bourgogne rouge can taste like a lovely premier cru. As David is a very modest Brit, I wonder how he did this.

Not on these pictures: Damien Delecheneau, Hubert Piel-Montigny and Vincent Carême. A big thanks to all vignerons and tasters to have attended this day! The event will be repeated, so if you missed it there's a new chance next year.

Oh and I forgot to tell that we had a splendid dinner afterwards in Restaurant Le Garage. Thanks to Erwin Walthaus also for a lovely evening!

And this automatically leads me to the announcement of yet another great wine event. Friday 25 November there will be a Beaujolais Nouveau evening in Le Garage featuring the organic and un-sulfured (and dramatically pure) wines from Isabelle and Bruno PERRAUD from Domaine des Côtes de la Molière.

Isabelle Perraud herself will be in Amsterdam that evening. We will be drinking her Nouveau 2011 with an honest French dish. Drinking with us will be Nicolaas KLEI, Dutch wine writer and self-appointed lover of natural Beaujolais. I hope we will have enough bottles that evening (no worries, we will).

If you're into great natural wines you shouldn't miss this evening. More information (in Dutch) can be found on the Bolomey Wijnimport website. If you make your reservation in time, you can be there too.

Château Rauzan-Ségla 2009

I have been neglecting this blog for 20 days, one the longest periods since October 2007. But the reason is good: the import of fine French wines is taking more and more of my time. A week ago 6 winemakers visited Amsterdam for the grand annual tasting, and over 200 customers came to explore the Bolomey Wijnimport selection. You can imagine that this resulted in some extra work, to put it mildly.

I will put up some pictures of the tasting later on.

This month Bordoverview blog has been around for 4 years. But we're not the only one celebrating. Château Rauzan-Ségla was founded in 1661 and has been producing wines for 350 years now. To celebrate that, the 2009 vintage of this wine has a special, very different label, drawn by Karl Lagerfeld.



Rauzan-Ségla even made a video presentation about the release of the 2009 vintage.

In November I will taste this 2009 - along with many other cru classés from this famous Bordeaux vintage - at the UGC tasting in Bruxelles. I am looking forward to explore all these 2009s, about 1,5 years after having tasted them at the UGC primeur tastings in Bordeaux. Anyway, I will post my findings on this blog.

Back to Rauzan-Ségla. It's an interesting wine, but not an easy one to taste en primeur. It's a Margaux that needs serious cellaring, it doesn't show its charm as a baby. In its youth you can sense that there truly is a lot to this wine, but it's all nicely wrapped up into a powerful core. When you look at the wine, you look at a bud. A beautiful, healthy and promising bud. Nothing more and nothing less. Perhaps I get a first glimpse of the flower next month.

There's one aspect that I like less about the recent Rauzan-Ségla vintages, and that's the price. The release price for the 2009 was high, and for the 2010 was very high. On 16 June 2010 the 2009 was released at an average consumer price of €83,50 (66,7% above the 2008 vintage), and exactly one year later (16 June 2011), another 40% was added, resulting in an average consumer price of €116,50. At the time this led to negative reactions, and demand was slow.

In comparison the 2008 is very good value, and there are still some cases available in the Bolomey Wijnimport cellar. My brief tasting note at the UGC tasting from November last year: "dark and quite supple, matière, blackberries, energy and power, long". A wine to be enjoyed between, say, 2015 and 2030. That is: almost one bottle every year.

I think I will keep at least one case to myself.

Winefield's 20th auction in Amsterdam

Dwayne Perreault — Winefield’s Auctioneers completed their twentieth wine auction in Amsterdam on Sunday, October 2nd at a new location, the Diamantslijperij. It was once again a very successful day, with over 88% in value being sold.

This is an encouraging result, considering that auctions in 2011 have been challenged to repeat their record setting performances of 2010. Last weekend, Sotheby’s held their worst auction ever in Hong Kong. They have also closed their Amsterdam office, except for sourcing.

A couple trends seem apparent: the crazy prices for Lafite Rothschild have seemed to plateau, but Mouton Rothschild has come on strong, a shift of Chinese allegiance perhaps? Could it be the decision to use a Chinese artist for the 2008 label is helping promote interest in China, whether Mouton intended it or not?

The top 5 selling lots were as follows:

1. Château Lafite Rothschild 2000 (12 bottles), €20,880
2. Château Le Pin 2000 (6 bottles), €15,360
3. Château Pétrus 2003 (8 bottles), €10,800
4. Château Mouton Rothschild 2000 (12 bottles), €9,882
5. Château Latour 2003 (12 bottles), €9,760

You get a different perspective, however, if you rate the lots by prices payed per bottle. This is perhaps more the perspective of the connoisseur instead of the merchant. When I last did this, on Winefield’s Five Year Anniversary auction, Lafite and Mouton dominated the list. They’ve since had to make way for other treats, such as Domaine de la Romanée Conti, Château Le Pin and Château Pétrus.

Here is a top ten list of the top selling wines, rated by price per bottle:

1. Romanée Conti, Dom de la Romanée Conti 2003 (1 bottle), €6,405
2. Château Le Pin 2000 (6 bottles), €15,360
3. Le Montrachet, Dom de la Romanée Conti 2003 (1 bottle), €2,074
4. Château Lafite Rothschild 2000 (12 bottles), €20,880
5. Château Pétrus 2003 (8 bottles), €10,800
6. La Tâche, Dom de la Romanée Conti 2002 (6 bottles), €6,832
7. Château Pétrus 1953 (1 bottle), €1,037
8. Château Pétrus 1975 (2 bottles), €1,769
9. Château Pétrus 1992 (1 bottle), €829.60
10. Château Mouton Rothschild 2000 (12 bottles), €9,882

Obviously, the turnout was good on what was actually one of the hottest days of one of the coldest summers, on October 2nd! There were also many successful online bids made. The next Winefield’s auction is in Singapore on October 23rd, and then again in Amsterdam on Sunday, December 11th.

Sunday 23 October: meet the winemakers

Some people will only know me through this blog. But in real life I'm a wine importer in the first place. Bolomey Wijnimport is the Amsterdam-based company, and we import wines from France (only), from the classic regions Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne and Loire Valley. The focus: natural, typical wines with lots of of energy and freshness. The majority is from small-scale production.

This October will mark the start of a new tradition: once a year, in October, I invite the winemakers to Amsterdam. This year will be the second time, hence the start of a tradition. Te winemakers that I work with come from different regions, and make different wines. But they share the same spirit, they share certain ideas about viticulture (say, natural) and winemaking (that is: don't intervene too much).

I am excited to tell you the following six winemakers will be coming to Amsterdam in October:

- Damien DELECHENEAU (Amboise)
- Vincent CARÊME (Vouvray)
- Hubert MONTIGNY-PIEL (Orléans)
- David CLARK (Morey-St-Denis)
- David BUTTERFIELD (Meursault)
- Olivier COLLIN (Champagne)

To get an idea about the event, here's the summary of the 2010 tasting. It's a small-scale event, most of what is imported is open to be tasted, and foremost, it's lots of fun.

If you would be interested to be there, subscribe on the Bolomey Wijnimport website. There will be two tasting days: Sunday 23 October for the private customers, and Monday 24 October for sommeliers and press. Perhaps we meet there!

"We will sell no wine before its time"

Dwayne Perreault — If you are old enough and from North America, you may remember the wines of Paul Masson, and the TV commercials from the 1970s featuring Orson Welles. These were some of the first wines I remember drinking, but strangely the memory was half buried and the name was forgotten. I thought the wines were from Paul Mas, but as Brigitte Barreiro, Paul Mas’ marketing manager wrote to me, “Paul Mas wines were not yet available then, but you were already dreaming of them!”

No, it was Paul Masson, who moved from Burgundy to California in 1878 and released his first “champagne” in 1892. Masson eventually became known as “the Champagne king of California.” The commercials featuring Orson Welles are priceless. At this point in his life, Welles was eating and drinking far too much, and the results were sometimes comical. Here is an actual commercial from that time:



If you looked closely, you noticed that Welles was not actually talking but the audio was dubbed over the footage. This is because Welles was completely drunk on the day of the shooting. The following are some actual, unedited takes of the same commercial:



What was Welles drinking that day? We don’t know, but it wasn’t Paul Masson wine. Despite having a lucrative contract which included large amounts of free wine, Welles was fired in the early 1980s after admitting on a US talk show that he never drank a Paul Masson wine in his life. As for the commercial, it has become something of a cult classic by now. As Welles himself might have said, the following parody is eminently worth watching. My favourite part is when he gesticulates to the bottle with an entire chicken in his hand…

Harvest 2011 at David Clark, a summary in pictures and 2 movies

Last weekend Jan van Roekel and I paid a flying visit to our beloved Burgundy to participate in the two-days harvest of David Clark. This posting is a summary, focusing more on image than text.


Friday morning we started with David's most prestigious, and ripe, vineyard, the Vosne-Romanée. Harvesting is not just picking, so we got some explanations.

We picked with a small but very international team: the pickers had flown in from Canada, the US, Scotland, Holland (ourselves) and of course France. Besides picking we exercised in drinking great wines. The blast of the weekend was the Echezeaux 1966 from Domaine Leroy, a fascinating wine of unbelievable beauty. Thanks Gavin (an Australian living in Beaune) for sharing!


The smallest vineyard of Domaine David Clark (based in Morey Saint Denis) is the Morey Saint Denis vineyard: just the three northern rows of Les Porroux, a villages vineyard close to Chambolle. The production: one barrel.



In this first video you see the sorting and then I walk outside. My friend Jan van Roekel was appointed Chef Container Cleaning (not for the whole time, don't worry). When I walk outside the domain you see the Morey vineyards in the background: part of the grand cru Clos de Tart.



In the second video you see the line-up of instruments. The grapes travel from the selection belt to the destemmer (about one third is not destemmed but processed (fermented) as "whole cluster". The grapes end up in the fermentation vat in this movie.


Or in kilograms: 339 kilograms, including the pallet and the plastic containers.


After weighing a lid is placed on top of the containers, the blackboard saying "Morey" and the amount of kg's. Sorting is next.


During the sorting local god and BBR buyer Jasper Morris stops by to taste the grapes. He seems satisfied with the results. After 10 minutes he's off again.


This picture I tweeted, but it was removed after a few minutes as it apparently violated the terms and conditions. Besides sex and nudity blood apparently isn't allowed. And that while I'm just warning that picking grapes can be dangerous.


Here is a happy David Clark in front of his Côtes de Nuits Villages vineyard in Brochon. We're done picking. These were two great days. We drove home happily, but not after having stopped in Champagne to briefly visit Georges Laval and taste his breathtaking Brut Natures. More about that later, perhaps.

Elk Run Vineyards, Maryland

Dwayne Perreault — It’s a simple fact, most people here equate American wine with Californian wine. There’s California, and then there’s Oregon and Washington state. Some quality wines are also made in New York state, in the Finger Lakes region (where Château de St. Cosme recently entered in a partnership with Forge Cellars) and on Long Island, but these wines are mostly consumed locally and never make their way overseas.


But the U.S.A. is a big country. Eastern U.S. wines are not limited to New York, as Virginia has over 120 wineries, and there are another 44 in Maryland. A recent trip there brought me to Elk Run Vineyards on Mount Airy, in Frederick County.

Fred Wilson (photo) began the first all vinifera winery in Maryland in 1980, after studying under Dr. Konstantine Frank in the Finger Lakes region for serveral seasons. Chardonnay, Riesling, Gewürztraminer and Pinot Gris were planted, along with Pinot Noir, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah.


Elk Run produces 5,000 cases of wine per year from 9.7 ha of vines from two different sites: Liberty Tavern Vineyard, planted in 1980 and Cold Friday Vineyard, planted in 1995. Soils are mainly shale and schistes on top of sand, with good drainage. Grapes are destemmed, with whole berry pressing for the Chardonnay. Reds are fermented in open top bins, getting a malo in the spring.

The winery itself is a very modest structure, though the site has historic significance, as Liberty Tavern, which is now the house where the Wilsons live, was a meeting place for the Sons of Liberty prior to the Revolution.

Upon seeing the vineyard, I remember thinking something like “I can’t see the forest from the trees,” as for my European eye, the vines looked wild and crowded together, almost forming bushes. At first, I wondered if the vines simply weren’t being overcropped, but Fred assured me that isn’t the case. Average yields are 300 gallons per acre, which is 33.6 hl/ha, which would be the norm for a quality vineyard in the Languedoc.


Elk Run Vineyard’s own website has the following information: “Recent research has convinced Elk Run to more densely plant their vineyards. This permits a lower crop load per vine, which has shown to produce better quality and color in the wine.”
The proof of a wine is, of course, in its tasting. We started with a couple Chardonnays which receive French oak ageing. The Cold Friday Vineyard Chardonnay 2010 ($14.15) has a silky texture with smokey, nutty flavours. Straightforward and pleasing with medium low acidity, but still remains quite fresh. The Liberty Tavern Vineyard Chardonnay 2010 ($24.53) has much more oak, almost Burgundian in nature, very smooth and mellow with a solid finish. Barrel fermented and aged in Allier oak, this is very well done.

The Gypsy Rosé 2010 ($15.09), made from Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir has a light salmon pink colour and light cherry fruit with peppery tones. Nice!

Gewurtztraminer does well in Maryland and finishes in early-mid season. The Cold Friday Vineyard Gewurtztraminer 2010 ($24.53) had a pale gold colour with a sultry nose, thick in the mouth, more off dry than sweet with medium low acidity. Very Gewurtztraminer with spicey notes, but this one did not work with an Indian curry very well.

As for reds, the Cold Friday Vineyard Cabernet Franc 2009 ($28.30) has strawberry jam and chocolate in the nose, dark cherry fruit and medium tannins. Quite an honest expression of Cabernet Franc.

The Liberty Tavern Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon 2007 ($49.95) might be considered the flagship wine. Very dark fruit with some residual sweetness and cacao, soft in texture and not overy tannic. 13.5% alcohol.

Finally, the Vin de Jus Glacé 2008 ($27.36/half bottle), made from Riesling, is one of those examples of cryoextraction wines American vintners are fond of making. Randall Grahm introduced the vin de glaciere on the public with his Bonny Doone wines, but here not the grapes but the actual juice is frozen! I wish I had spent more time asking Fred how this actually works but it does smell like icewine, with a slight Riesling petrol. Not overly sweet, but lacks the acidity, sweetness and thickness of real icewine. There’s still nothing like the real thing, it would seem.

But overall, I’d have to say I was very impressed by my first tasting of wines from an area still unmentioned in most contemporary wine guides, and in Robert Parker’s backyard as it were.