Scenes from a Beaune Imports Champagne tasting . .. .

At Vendrell-Rived in Montsant . . . .

2005Château St. Marie Bordeaux Superior

Nine years under screw cap and it is fresh as a daisy.

2000 Les Héretiers du Comte LAFON Macon

Thrilling. Golden in color. Crèmes brûlée and nuts in the nose with baked apples.  Medium plus acidity, a full mouth.  Rich and round but the finish is endless.  Damn.  This is good. 

Karyn is off at a business dinner so it is just me and the little ones tonight.

Barbecue lemon marinated chicken with carrots and broccoli for us and I think this will go great.

2011 Philippe Alliet Chinon Vielles Vignes . . .

Open for three days already when we had it with a steak the other night and it was amazing.  I love warm vintages of cab franc from the Loire.  They take the herbal edge off of the usually pretty weedy unripe wines and make them lush and softer in the mouth than the normal vintages.  Don't get me wrong.  I will drink those wines, too.  But I just get that something extra from warm vintages like 2011, 2007, 2003.  This wine is just hitting the market now so if you are interested, email me and I will tell you where you can buy it.

Here is some more information on the producer, Philippe Alliet

Chateau La Canorgue Cotes du Luberon 1994 - still going strong after all these years.

Chateau La Canorgue Cotes du Luberon 1994

So as the the two followers of this blog know, along with importing Italian wines, I have the honor of selling the wines from France and Spain of Beaune Imports.  At the end of the year, the owner of Beaune Imports, Michael Sullivan, gives each salesperson a mixed case of older vintages from the portfolio.  It is usually some assortment of twenty year old Burgundy, that you would expect to age well, and some other lesser wines of around the same vintage that you wouldn't expect to age well . . . but strangely, many do.  What a fine surprise is always is to have 20 year old Sancerre that sings like it did in its youth!

Last night for our usual wine group I pulled from my gift case of older Beaune Imports wines and we struck gold!  It was my favorite wine of the tasting and most people loved it.  The 1994 Chateau La Canorgue Cotes du Luberon.

Clear and bright with pale ruby core to an orange rim.  Truffle and licorice and boysenberry in the nose.  A little barnyardy but not distractingly so.  Lots of mint and bloody meat in the mouth.  A nice long finish.  Pure finesse but with a little bit of tannin and spice to keep things lively.  Just great.

Certified Organic for many years, this wine is around 30% Grenache and 70% Syrah and would have retailed back in 1997 for somewhere in the neighborhood of $10 a bottle.  It is a steal for triple the price.

The 2010 vintage is current and drinking really well at 3 years of age, but as we can all attest from our tasting last night, a little more age in the bottle will do it just fine.

In the bag today . . .

A good mix for being on the street today selling wine.  Some summer whites, a rosè, some cru Beaujolais, Italian Pinot(!) And some Barolo . . . as nothing says summertime like Barolo!  ;-)

The Wine Group tasting 06.26.12 . . . epic? Not so sure . . .

Nine wines from around the world (mostly France) all from 2000 and older.
2000 Goisot Sauvignon St. Bris "Fie` Gris"
1993 Domaine Michel Juillot Mercurey Rouge
1994 Domaine Michel Juillot Mercurey Blanc
1996 Paul Chapelle Puligny-Montrachet Champgain
1991 Chante Perdrix Saint Joseph
1999 Domaine de Fauterie Cornas
1995 Canoe Ridge Merlot Columbia Valley
1998 Goisot Cotes d'Auxerre Corps de Garde Bourgogne Blanc
1993 Domaine Hubert de Montille Bourgogne Rouge
19997 Ferreira Vintage Port (375 ml - not pictured)

Had the guys over to the house to taste through some old wines from Beaune Imports and wines that have been hanging around in the garage for years off and on and it was a hit and miss affair.  Two and maybe possibly three of the wines were corked, some more than others and of course no one could agree on which ones were corked but there was some definite effect of the cork on all the wines whether it was the musty cardboard of classic corked wines or if it was just the muted fruit, slightly off of mildly corked wines.  All I know is I am hoping and praying for a time when this can't happen to any wine, but it won't be in my lifetime, that's for sure.  Too many people stuck on tradition.

The highlights of the night:

1998 Goisot Cotes d'Auxerre Corps de Garde Bourgogne Blanc (100% Chardonnay): Clean with pale gold core out to a watery rim, clean in the nose with fresh granny smith apples and custard and lemon zest with flavors to match.  Creamy and textured in the mouth but no overt wood flavors and it finishes really long and persistent with tangy acidity.  Excellent

1991 Chante Perdrix Saint Joseph: Clear and bright with a medium ruby core out to an orange rim.  Spicy white pepper and smoked meat in the nose with hints of cranberry sauce.  Smoked meat and blueberry/boysenberry balsamic vinegar reduction in the mouth with super fine tannins.  Long, long finish with medium plus acidity, definitely what has kept this lovely wine alive.  Excellent.

Others in the group loved the 1999 Domaine de Fauterie Cornas and the Goisot Fie` Gris.  The Michel Juillot wines were over the hill be still interesting wines for what I am sure back then (and probably now) some really inexpensive off the beaten path Burgundy.  The Canoe Ridge was disjointed and not fun.  The Hubert de Montille 1993 Bourgogne opened up with time but was showing a definite cork issue.  The 19997 Ferreira had maybe stayed too long in the garage . . . . and the Paul Chapelle was corked.

A fun night.  The cheeses from the Cheese Store of Beverly Hills were delicious.  Five guys must have eaten about 3 lbs of  Selles sur Cher, Comte`, Ossau-Iraty and more thanks to Erik Kelley.

So the question: is it worth it to cellar wines for 15 to 25 years before drinking?  Obviously, there needs to be a good place to keep the wine (cool, dry, dark, slightly humid but not too much) and the quality of the wine needs to stand up to the test of time (lots of acidity is needed to last 20 years, folks, lots and lots of acidity), and lots of luck that you don't have crappy cork that effects the taste of the wine and lets in just the right amount of oxygen so the aging process can percolate along.  So I am not sure . . . after all these years in the business, if the rewards of long term cellaring outweigh the risks.

Enjoy.

2007 Bergerie de L'Hortus Pic St. Loup Classique

Made from 60% Syrah, 20% Grenache and 10%, Mourvedre, this stainless steel fermented and aged wine definitely performs above its price point. You can smell and taste the "garrigue" in the wine, (the wild herbs that are everywhere on the Languedoc hillsides). Wild thyme, rosemary and the ever elusive black truffles make their way from your nose into your mouth but at the same time, the wild blueberry fruit from the Syrah shines through. There is a touch of smoky bacon fat and a dash of white pepper as well.

The 2007 vintage was ripe for the most part but not overly so and this wine shows a fine acidity that keeps your mouth watering for more.

With the Lentil and Proscuitto soup from tonight it seemed the perfect match as the acidity cut the fat of the prosciutto and the herbs in the soup, mostly basil and oregano went well with the aroma of wild herbs and black truffles in the wine.

Truly a match made in heaven.

See here, http://www.beauneimports.com/retail/producer_detail.php?producer_id=32&from=producers , for some more info on the producer and some great photos of the valley. It is truly one of the most beautiful places I have been in France and I would love to go back and spend some more time.

J

1997 Goisot Corps de Garde Gourmand Sauvignon de Saint Bris "Fie` Gris"

This was the mystery wine of the night as even I thought it was Sauvignon Blanc instead of the Fie` Gris that it actually turned out to be (see the fine print below everything else.

Turns out that Fie` Gris or Sauvignon Rose` as it is also called is an ancestor of Sauvignon Blanc. An ancestor that was of a slightly different color. Almost all grapes the have Gris or "Gray" in their name are slightly red colored when they are ripe, think Pinot Gris/Grigio et al., and thus seem to have a little more body and texture in the resulting wines than the wines that have Blanc in them. Don't know why this is, but it seems to hold true.

This particular Fie` Gris is from the Cotes d'Auxerre region of France that used to be part of Chablis, and shares much of the same soil and climate as Chablis, but somehow after phylloxera was determined to be on its own. Probably not a good idea from a monetary standpoint but certainly good for us as Fie` Gris is allowed to be planted (as well as Pinot Noir) in the Cotes d'Auxerre whereas they are not allowed in Chablis (or at least to be called Chablis proper).

The 1997 was definitely one for the weird wine file. Deep gold core out to a water-white rim, the wine certainly had the aroma of an older wine, all lanolin and honey in the nose with a touch of backed pears and surprisingly a little bit of fresh heirloom tomato stem, just off the vine.

In the mouth was where the wine really came alive with also sorts of flavors dancing on my tongue from baked pears to wildflower honey with a little pine resin as well (in a good way). The acidity must have been overwhelming in its youth but has now calmed down with time although it was still pretty racy. The mouthfeel was round and juicy.

Overall, for a 13 year old white from an obscure grape variety, pretty damn good.

We have the new vintage, the 2007, but I haven't tasted it yet. Maybe I should to make a comparison?