New content! Now with more Clos Rougeard!

Good friends Noel and Marie, with out of town guests Ben and Brian, joined me and a couple of others for an al fresco bacchanal at Vin Rouge. We supplemented bottles we brought with selections off of the excellent list.

We started with a plateau d’huitres. The perfect foil?

2010 Domaine de la Pépière Clos des Briords

From magnum. Piquant, vibrant and lithe, just as we’ve all come to love and expect from Marc Ollivier. I hope that we all appreciate the excellence that Marc provides at such a reasonable price. You could drink your bodyweight in this and still want more.

With assorted salads and appetizers.

2010 Jean Manciat Mâcon Charnay Franclieu

I have been drinking a ton of Manciat lately. It’s an interesting producer that often gets lost in the LDM portfolio behind Roally and Thevenet. The wines are different in style and from a different area than those wines, so liking one isn’t at the expense of the other. The Manciat wines rarely seem to be botrytis marked. They are balanced, refined and utterly delicious expressions of chardonnay. This magnum was a perfect complement to a warm, but not hot, southern evening. Yellow and pitted fruits with some notes of honeysuckle and flowers. Nice sense of grip from acidity. If you have the willpower, and I don’t, you could certainly cellar this for a few years and be rewarded.

Ben had never had a Rougeard Le Bourg outside of a trade tasting; that is, with some bottle age. 

1997 Clos Rougeard Saumur-Champigny Le Bourg

This is more than an ordinary bottle for me. This wine, I purchased from David Lillie when he was still at Garnet. David had introduced me to the excellence of Baudry, Breton and others and also Rougeard. I was a graduate student at the time so it was hard to buy wines like this. David would always hold me a bottle or two of Bourg and Poyeaux for me to purchase when I could. Obviously, he didn’t have to do that, but it shows the kind of guy that we all know and respect. This was my last bottle of 1997 and it was a pleasure to drink. The palate is resolved, more or less. There are a bit of tannins that add grit and bite, but the tactile experience is mostly silky. There are tertiary aromas of tobacco, cocoa, earth interwoven with spice, cocoa and dried red fruits. I think it is a bit of a tweener at 15 years old. It isn’t quite a mature wine with nothing but savory aromas and bottle sweetness, but it isn’t in that first great peak of a wine where it still has fruit but its structure has basically found its adult form. Still, this is picking nits from a great wine from a great terroir.

2003 Clos Rougeard Saumur-Champigny Le Bourg

To keep going with the #RougeardMania, we ordered this off of the list and had it decanted. I’ve had great experiences with the 2003 Le Bourg, but this was the best yet. Almost terrifying in its magnificence. 

1998 Thierry Allemand Cornas Reynard

Fantastic bottle. Aromatically complex, fleshy, grippy and seamless on the palate. Fruit, earth, and minerals dancing with cohesion. Really triumphant syrah. If it doesn't have the wildness of Verset, it reeks of class and breed. I think this still has some development to go, but it is in a lovely spot now.

2004 Baudry Chinon La Croix Boissée

This was really hard to get my head around as it seemed shut down and a bit reduced. I get hints of the pure sour cherry mashed with herbs, tobacco and rocks, but it really is not expressive. The structure is still dominant with the tannin squaring off like the Maginot line, impressively engineered, but bound to give at some point. Croix Boissée can be such a tricky wine to catch in the right place and I haven't yet mastered that art, despite all my efforts. Since we've had enough wine and I am not really able to understand it, I returned the wine to its bottle and re-corked to try later.

Terrible (with a Sherry exception)

Terrible

One of those nights where nothing tastes good. Well, nothing but sherry that is. Must have been a root out of your ass night on the Bio calendar.

2008 A Coroa Godello Valdeorras
I liked the nose. Seemed driving, yellow, and mineral. Palate was too flabby for me.

La Cigarrera Manzanilla
El Maestro Sierra Fino
Gutierrez Colosia Fino Elcano
These three were the highlight for me. The Cigarrera Manzanilla was its normal, briney, delicious self and was gone almost as fast as it appears. The Maestro Sierra is the more complicated and complex wine. There is a real vinous drive here. The Colosia Fino Elcano gets lost a bit in the middle of these two, but it is still a fine Fino. Sherry is delicious, especially with fresh NC shrimp.

2003 Château Rayas Châteauneuf-du-Pape Pignan
Disgusting. No redeeming qualities whatsoever.

1998 Eric & Joel Durand Cornas
Hollowed out and done. Poor.

2007 Isole e Olena Chianti Classico
This was fine, I guess. But I expected more from this producer. The merlot was really showing which took away from the enjoyment.

2005 G.D. Vajra Barolo Albe
I had been really keen on trying this bargain Barolo and I have loved other Vajra wines in the past. Tonight it seemed blocky, and not in a Barolo way. Sort of all mushy whereas blocky Barolo will be stern and unyielding. Given how I feel about the producer, I’ll probably give this another try.

Dinner with the old man

1999 Thierry Allemand Cornas Chaillot
Dad loves Cornas and probably hasn’t had tons of Allemand. This bottle had a capsule that didn’t spin, so I thought it would be a good bottle to experiment with. The cork was soaked through and some had leaked under the capsule. Happened in transport by the local distributor because I bought this on release and have cellared it since. Despite the less that pristine nature of the bottle, the wine was still fantastic. Nuanced in all the ways you expect from Allemand. Decanted, it starts out very syrah and then picks up steam as it unfolds becoming more and more Cornas as the evening progresses. As usual, Allemand manages the trick of taming the coarser qualities of Cornas without entirely eradicating them. I still have no idea how he manages such a fantastic balancing act, but as I’ve been saying for about 8-10 years now, this is the archetype for Northern Rhône syrah to my mind.

2005 Viña Sastre Ribera del Duero Crianza
This wine started off surrounded by a vanilla cloud of oak. However, there was something going on underneath, some dark earth and minerals but most of all a sense of cut. The bottle really developed over the course of the evening. The oak moved towards the background, integrating more with the wine which became more fragrant and red fruited as the evening progressed. It was a wine of power and nuance by the end, a cool combination, and seemed distinctly tempranillo in character. It showed really well with the crazy ass, 21 day dry aged Côte-du-Boeuf that Matt pulled out of his ass. Easily the best Ribera del Duero I’ve had in a good long while. I might have to buy some of this to see what happens.

Fortuitous evening

I enjoyed a wonderful dinner at Rue Cler with some very dear friends. It was one of those evenings where all the wines showed really well and the food was first rate.

1996 Vincent Dauvissat Chablis 1er Vaillons
This showed very well, especially given the soaked cork. That didn’t knock the structure out. The fruit had gone a little creamy, but it was still mostly lemon and stones with hints of secondary stuff sneaking in. It was the palate where it really had evolved. If you tried the 1996s when they were young, you remember the face crushing, eye searing intensity of the wines. Frankly, I was worried they wouldn’t evolve in a proper way. This certainly has. This was my last bottle, but I’m not that sad, I caught it at a wonderful time for me. If you have some, they can hold for 5+ easily.

2004 Thierry Allemand Cornas Chaillot
Young and strapping, but not brooding and backwards, which is the beauty of Allemand. The wines can both drink well young and show their potential at the same time. A nice trick if you can pull it off. Still very primary, but if you have a good bit it is not uninteresting to try now. I won’t be getting into mine for at least 5 years.

1995 Thierry Allemand Cornas Reynard
This more than made up for the crappy 1995 Chaillot from Blackwood’s trip. You can taste the differences between the two wines, even through the difference in age. Really beautifully complex and seamless with dark fruit, earth and animal notes framed nicely by both acidity and balancing tannins. Superb with food. In case you haven’t noticed, I tend to like my wines when they have started to stretch out and show secondary and tertiary aromas and flavors, but haven’t gone all fruitless and still maintain some structure. For that reason, I think that 20 years might be the upper limit of Cornas aging for me, so these will be gone by 2015. You can start drinking any time you want.

Blackwood Day 2

Well, this was the BIG EVENT of the weekend. Lots of food, lots of wine and lots of great conversation and general conviviality.

My brother put out a great spread at Rue Cler. Always a pleasure to have him cook for us.

2004 Pépière Clos des Briords 1.5L
2005 Pépière Clos des Briords 1.5L
I don’t know. What do you say about Briords and huge plates of oysters? Life is worth living again? I’m honing in on the fact that this is THE great Muscadet. I thought the 2004 showed a bit better to my tastes, more precise, but they are both excellent. The 2005 will probably age better.

1996 Trimbach Riesling Cuvée Frédéric Emile
Started a bit musty, but shook that off. It was all oyster shell and dirt, without much of that petrol emotion. Some yellowish fruit started peaking out after a bit. It wasn’t as aggressive as this wine can be, but I was mostly just drinking it, not studying it.

1996 Vincent Dauvissat Chablis 1er La Fôret
A couple of us found this wine outstanding. It had that lemon drop crusted stone quality that I love so much from this particular wine. Still very well structured, but anyone who remembers how intense these wines were in their youth will be happy with how they are coming around. I was worried by the crazy intensity of the wine and also the potential of premature oxidation, but neither seemed to be a problem.

1995 Rémi Rollin Corton-Charlemagne
At first, I was really disappointed. It seemed sort of watery and washed out. Most folks at the table dismissed it, but Sophie brought me back to it with a particular dish, and the wine had really come around. What was previously washed out had firmed up. There were notes of pretty fruit and some flowers and spices. It also seemed to stretch out a bit and pick up some structure. I think part of this was my expectation for Corton-Charlemagne to be so big and minerally and intense. Sometimes you have to just let a wine be itself. I don’t think there is anything to be gained by aging this, but please give it some time and quite attention when you open it.

2005 Edmond Vatan Sancerre Chavignol Clos la Néore
Seemed to be closed in on itself. Kinda strange since I had a bottle not too long ago that was more open, but also much more mineral. You can always see the makings of a legend in this wine, though, and I’m always happy to be around it.

2004 Edmond Vatan Sancerre Chavignol Clos la Néore
Although it isn’t in the same class as the 2005, I felt this showed better. The lightness and linearity of it made it much more enjoyable on the night.

2006 Bernard Baudry Chinon Blanc La Croix Boissée
Went so well with the rabbit. While it isn’t defined the way the 2004 was, it has enough structure to hold itself together and to ensure that the fruit and limestone are delivered. A really pleasurable wine to drink. I don’t think it will make old bones, but over the next 5 years, and maybe more, it is a great drink.

2001 Pierre Amiot et Fils Clos de la Roche
Didn’t make much of an impression. Pretty woody and blocky to me. Susannah took it home, I’d be curious to see how it was the next day.

2004 Robert Arnoux Vosne 1er Les Suchots
One of the folks at the table really liked this, for me, it was another 2004. It isn’t the greenness that I dislike so much, although that can be annoying, it is the sort of glommy quality to the fruit. It was a vintage that had pretty high natural sugar but is watery at the same time resulting in very odd textures.

1996 Ghislaine Barthod Chambolle 1er Beaux Bruns
This was actually drinking pretty well. I was worried about this showing the sternness mixed with hollowness that can be the bugbear of this vintage. While not fair to compare it to a wine from a superior vineyard and vintage, it is impossible not to. Beaux Bruns is always a richer, earthier expression of Chambolle, with darker fruits. My hope is that the best 1996s will turn into 1988s. This bottle gives me a bit of hope.

2001 Ghislaine Barthod Chambolle 1er Fuées
Beautiful. Barthod made great wines in 2001, unfortunately for me, my source got theirs with heat damage, so I took them all back, so I only have a couple of bottles. What I love about Fuees, and Barthod’s in particular, is that there is a strong mineral spine with a coating of crunchy red fruit. Red currants and cranberry mostly. It is a driving wine, not a necessarily gentle one, but when the parts come together it is a wonderful expression of the best of Chambolle.

1995 Thierry Allemand Cornas Chaillot
Very reduced/bretty. This is the first time I’ve experienced this with an Allemand wine, although others have reported more frequent instances.

1995 Auguste Clape Cornas
A very elegant and social wine especially in comparison to the Verset. There was nothing wrong with it, but it seemed boring next to the Verset. I always seem to drink these two wines together, which is maybe not fair. Next time I’ll drink this by itself.

1995 Noël Verset Cornas
Absolutely wild and gorgeous. This certainly has some volatile acidity, but it serves to lift the wine, not to push it outside of the lines. What was amazing was how snappy and floral this was, in conjunction with some deep, animal, blackstrap Cornas-ness. If you have this, you can start drinking now. BTW, this reminds me of my Cornas aging theory. Medium term, not long term. I think 20 years is at the outer edge.