Saturday, November 28, 2009

Thanksgiving Anthills

We went mostly with the Pinot theme for Thanksgiving to pair with the turkey, opening two bottles of Anthill Pinot. The results were interesting, especially with regard to the contrast between the 2006 and 2007 vintage.

2006 Anthill Farms Pinot Noir Tina Marie Vineyard

I had had this wine in the recent past and this bottle showed similarly, with aromas of red raspberry and strawberry interwoven with underbrush and spice. In the mouth the wine initially shows as a touch ripe and almost sweet, but with time in the glass it takes on definition as the underbrush and spice notes emerge on the palate. By the end of the bottle, the wine is nicely detailed, although a bit subdued at all levels—almost a sleeper wine compared to what follows.

2007 Anthill Farms Pinot Noir Demuth Vineyard

I was not quite expecting the contrast here with the preceding wine. Still the signature Anthill style, with plenty of spice and notes of underbrush presumably from the whole cluster fermentation. But everything is at a higher level—the nose is much more powerful, with red raspberry wafting effortlessly from the glass, and on the palate there is another dimension of spiciness and acidity that frames the much deeper and more structured red fruit here. Much brighter, more emphatic than the 2006 Tina Marie, if the 2007 Demuth is any indication, the 2007 has to be Anthill’s finest vintage to date.

Other wines:

2002 Moillard (or Thomas-Moillard) Nuits St Georges Le Richemone

After a very successful bottle of 2002 Thomas-Moillard Pommard Rugiens (drinking beautifully, with dark Pinot floral aromas and underbrush), the NSG was hard as nails—dark fruited, austere, and tannic, this one should wait for at least 5 years.

2005 Albert Mann Riesling Grand Cru Schlossberg

This bottle probably should have been kept for another five years, but somehow it arrived at the Thanksgiving festivities. The nose is subdued here, but literally exuding aromas of dry mineral dust, as if one slipped on a steep slope and found oneself face down in a rubbly pile of metamorphosed shale (AKA slate). The mineral notes actually seem to dominate over the fruit at this point (thus the appropriateness of the “closed” designation), although one senses that the fruit, which shows up mostly as slightly bitter citrus notes, is simply waiting to explode when the time is right. The underlying sense of power, which the mineral dust seems to blanket at this stage, is palpable. This is already an elegant wine, and some additional time in the glass teased out more of its subtlety and finesse, but it should be really beautiful down the road. Better buy some of these...

2002 Fevre Chablis Bougros

Recognizable as the 2002 Fevre Bougros style, with a sappy, almost oily palate, but quite well advanced. The first signs of premature oxidation have arrived here.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Henri Bourgeois in Chavignol


Tasting at Henri Bourgeois, Chavignol, October 24, 2009


We had a chance to make a day long trip to Chavignol and Sancerre immediately after a 4 day short course in Orleans. We walked in to Henri Bourgeois in Chavignol and had to good fortune to be able to attach ourselves to a group of wine makers participating in an Australian-French wine exchange. After a detailed tour of the wine making facilities, a mixture of completely new and older traditional equipment, we tasted a series of Bourgeois wines. The Bourgeois La Bourgeoise Sancerre Blanc, grown on Silex soils, and the Bourgeois Le MD de Bourgeois Sancerre Blanc, grown on Kimmeridgian marls, were the clear standouts, with the different expression of the terroirs emerging clearly on the two wines: the Silex, austere and bracing, with a long mineral finish, while the MD presents a more softer, more floral finish. Samples from 2002 and 2001 of the two wines respectively indicate that 6-7 years in the bottle goes a long way to bringing out the best in these two wines.


2008 Henri Bourgeois Grande Reserve Sancerre Blanc

The terroir here is calcareous clay (argilo-calcaire) in Chavignol. The wine is slightly harsh at this young age, with a brassy Sauvignon Blanc nose that in its austerity does not seem to jive with the tropical pineapple fruit on the palate. Correct Sauvignon Blanc, but this ended up as one of my least favorite of the tasting, not being a fan of tropical fruits unless suitably wrapped (see Riesling…).


Henri Bourgeois La Bourgeoise Sancerre Rouge

Grown on flinty Silex soil, the 2006 Bourgeois La Bourgeoise Sancerre Rouge is lean, austere Pinot Noir, but long on the finish, with real grip making up for its lack of sheer density. An interesting wine that I would have liked to have sampled further, especially with food. The 1999 Bourgeois La Bourgeoise Sancerre Rouge was noticeably softer, with a garnet rim on the wine, but also without the length of the 2006. I could not tell if this is a wine from a lesser vintage, or whether it has lost some of vibrancy with too much age.


2002 Henri Bourgeois Le Chêne Saint-Etienne Sancerre Blanc

Grown on Kimmeridgian marls, this wine is distinguished by a heavy dose of sulfur on the nose, while the palate is sappy, with no of that nervosité that one typically associates with classical Loire Sauvignon Blanc. Way too much oak treatment for my taste.


2005 Henri Bourgeois Etienne Henri Sancerre Blanc

Grown on Silex soils, this one struck me as another somewhat atypical Sauvignon Blanc, although the raw materials seemed good. The length was impressive, and some acidity was present to frame the fruit, but the Sauvignon Blanc character seems to have been stripped by the time in new oak barrels. Too bad given the raw materials…


2001 Henri Bourgeois Sancerre d’Antan Sancerre Blanc

Grown on Silex soil and made apparently with more traditional methods, the wine shows a faint green asparagus note on the nose, while the palate is bracing in its nervy acidity. Excellent length, the wine finishes with a beguiling green floral note.


2008 Henri Bourgeois La Bourgeoise Sancerre Blanc

Grown on Silex soil, this wine makes a very interesting contrast with the Mont Damnés (MD) wines grown on Kimmeridgian soil. The 2008 shows a classical Sauvignon Blanc profile of freshly mown hay, with a surprising roundness in the mouth, even if a hint of aggressivity remains in this young, bracing wine. The 2002 Henri Bourgeois La Bourgeoise Sancerre Blanc is even rounder, almost fat by Sancerre standards, with almond notes dominating the long finish. OK, 6-7 years seems to do it on this fine wine…


2008 Henri Bourgeois Le MD de Bourgeois Sancerre Blanc

My notes indicate that the 2008 was much better than the preceding wine (the 2006 or 2007??), with a softer, rounder palate dominated by citrus and an excellent finish. Wish I had some better notes on the 2006 or 2007, or whatever it was. But we did go on to taste the 2001 Henri Bourgeois Le MD de Bourgeois Sancerre Blanc, which showed white flower aromas and a round, sappy palate of almonds and walnuts. Fine length on this wine, the Silex La Bourgeoise really has nothing over the Kimmeridgian MD, with both developing a sappier mouthfeel and a more floral character with some bottle age.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Chablis and Chateauneuf at A Cote

Six of us went to dinner at A Cote in Oakland after a Distinguished Scientist lecture by James Davis at Berkeley Lab. I did my best to organize some quick wines, even though A Cote has a nice list of their own. We had thought of going to Chez Panisse, but the $25 cancellation fee (X 6) discouraged me, not to mention the $25 corkage fee.

Anyway, first up was one of my perennial favorites that I am posting on again, at the risk of sounding like a broken record: a 2004 Fevre Chablis Montee de Tonnerre. I had purchased the 2004 Fevre les Clos after tasting a couple of brilliant bottles, but somehow had neglected to buy any more from this excellent vintage. Well, I grabbed 4 of these at Premier Cru for a bargain price, and we were not disappointed. The wine shows a bit less power than its Grand Cru neighbors, but conveys quite successfully the complex, weightless style of the best Montee de Tonnnerre. Delicate, almost feminine, with distinct saline tidal pool aromas and flavors and sharply delineated mineral-infused citrus notes, this is thoroughly enjoyable now, even if maturity is some way off. I would save the rest of my bottles to see some further evolution here, but this really is classic Chablis in its delineation and precision and complexity, even it cannot measure up to the sheer power of the Grand Cru, or to the heftier Dauvissat Premier Cru...

Next up was a 2001 Vieux Donjon Chateauneuf du Pape, which previously had shown a bit of a hard edge when young. Well, this one seems to have turned the corner quite nicely, taking on a creamier, softer almost Burgundian character with eight years in the bottle. The firm, tightly wound character of the wine has given way to a more open and expressive style on the nose and palate, with ripe kirsch and garrigue notes emerging on the long finish. Excellent, and evidently much appreciated by the troops...

Singing Burgs

A few of us took advantage of the opportunity to sample the fare at the new Five Restaurant in downtown Berkeley. The free corkage on Monday nights was another incentive. We started with another bottle of 2002 Fevre Chablis Bougros, a Grand Cru from low on the GC slope close to the river. Normally this wine is not quite up to the standards of the other Grand Cru, and in particular the Preuses higher on the slope and the Bougros Cotes des Bouguerots from a much steeper section of the vineyard. The Friday before I had checked in on a bottle after reading all the reports of premox in the Fevre, especially the 2002. That bottle, while not really exceedingly complex or nuanced, still showed a very energetic palate with the citrus core rounding and smoothing out, although full maturity is still down the road. The bottle on Monday was recognizably in the same style, but much more muted and reserved, with a touch of what I thought was TCA, although other experienced tasters did not initially agree. With time, my glass showed these aromas much more strongly, while strangely the glasses of the other tasters did not--perhaps there were some fairly rapid reactions with chlorine in the glass left over from dishwashing. Anyway, too bad, I have to label this one as corked...

Next up was a red Burgundy, a 1996 Denis Mortet Gevrey-Chambertin Lavaut St. Jacques. This one showed well from the first pour, but kept getting stronger and better in the glass over time. This wine is closer to an end member in the spectrum of Burgundy styles, emphasizing concentration and ripe fruit over minerality and precision. So whether this is going to be somebody's favorite Burg style is a matter of personal taste, but within its style it performed brilliantly. Ripe cascades of red Pinot fruit were modulated by underbrush and spicy floral aromas, which became more expressive and nuanced with time. By the end of the bottle the wine was singing, as we said to our neophyte colleague who accompanied us, with waves of wild, decadent Gevrey-Chambertin fruit sweeping from mid-palate to nose. Our neophyte claims now he is irreversibly corrupted by this wine, his first aged Burgundy. There is no going back now...

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Premox Fevre?

The number of reports of prematurely oxidized (premox) Fevre Chablis is becoming worrisome considering how many I have in the cellar. It seems difficult to completely discount all of the reports of premox Fevre coming in given the wide range of wine tasters/geeks reporting it. Still, one's own experience has to be the most reliable, given that one can compare results of wines stored under the same conditions and then sampled with the same palate.

My own first indication that something was going on was this past summer when I drank one of my stash of 2002 Fevre Vaillons, a Premier Cru that in the past had performed quite well, even if not at maturity. The wine is marked by a viscous oily palate expression that shows distinct aromas of petrol, almost like a Riesling transplanted to Kimmeridgian soil. When immature, the wine is characterized by a bracing citrus core, that while fatter than many a classical Chablis, still represents accurately the terroir. This past summer, however, the Vaillons seemed to have taken a significant leap forward on the aging curve, with floral and tropical fruit aromas appearing along with nutty flavors and a marked softening of the palate. Actually drinking quite well in its style, but one would have to conclude that it was either at peak, or slightly past it.

Another bottle of 2002 Fevre Vaillons this fall showed a similar character, although it was not so far along the aging curve. The petrol notes on the nose seem to have given way to honeysuckle floral aromas, and the sharp citrus edge is rounding out. Again a nice bottle, maybe losing a little bit of its nervosite, but drinking well nontheless. But the accelerated aging here is hard not to notice.

Then a bottle of 2002 Fevre Preuses (Grand Cru Chablis) at Lou Rittenhouse's place. I thought the initial nose showed the slightest touch of premox, but since the signal did not strengthen with time in the glass, I wouldn't hold to that opinion. But the wine was soft and accessible, maybe just this side of maturity, without any of that hard citrus/mineral edge that the purists always look for in their Chablis. In fact, the wine was quite reserved and subdued, a real sleeper wine with submerged complexity, that some might have called dilute or watery. In fact, it reminded me a bit of a 2002 Fevre les Clos tasted at our Rubicon offline a few years back, which was missing the power and the emphatic signature one usually finds in bottles of les Clos. The conclusion there was that the wine was just sleeping, but it was interesting to see something of that same signature in the Preuses. Rather than sounding negative on this wine, I should point out that the Grand Cru complexity was lurking there--I was glad to see those signature Preuses tidal pool aromas and that saline bite had survived the aging process. But I don't know long-lived this wine is going to be. ...

Another 2002 sampled last week was the 2002 Fevre Bougros, a Grand Cru from low on the slope below Preuses. I think of this as a second tier Grand Cru--in 2006, for example, it did not show quite as well as the 2006 Fevre Fourchaume Vaulorent, although that may be partly because the Bougros will take longer to come around. But it does not normally have quite the complexity of the top Grand Cru (e.g. Preuses, Clos, Bougros Cotes des Bouguerots,...), even if the power is there. However, on this Friday the 2002 Fevre Bougros was showing very well, replete with vibrant energy conveyed by the citrus core, which is now softened and rounded slightly relative to how it showed when young. The round palate here is viscous, almost sappy, and a distinct petroleum note emerges on the nose, very similar in style to the Vaillons when younger. So not a great Grand Cru, but still performing quite well at its level--a bit more power and structure than the Premier Cru Vaillons from across the river, and another step up in viscosity. We had another bottle on Monday at Five Restaurant that was slightly corked, and the fruit was clearly muted compared to the Friday bottle.

So while I don't think it is time to drink all of your Fevre Chablis, one would do well to keep closer track of them. In particular, the 2002 seem to be aging fast, which is perhaps in keeping with their ripe, somewhat more accessible style (as compared, for example, to a Dauvissat).

Cult California Cabs

The usual suspects and then some convened for a tasting of California Cabs from a couple of different eras: Flight 1 2005-2006, Flight 2 2001-2002, and then in Flight 3 1994-1995. An impressive lineup, and maybe a few too many wines compared to my usual tasting approach, but we hunkered down to see where things stood. I should comment that I am not normally a big California Cab fan, and the alert reader will of course detect this in what follows. Still…

White Wines to Start

We started with 3 white wines, clearly Chardonnay, but served single blind (the ringer was double blind).

2005 Aubert Chardonnay Ritchie Vineyard
I had previously had the 2004 Aubert Ritchie and loved it, and this one showed many of the same characteristics: big, rich, and yeasty, with crispy orchard fruits. Unlike the 2004, however, the finish is a little harder and more bitter, leading Taster Lou to downgrade this one, but this was still a crowd pleaser with its emphatic flavors and almost swashbuckling palate expression. While this is a big wine, I still find the delineation to be good, perhaps in part due to the healthy dose of acidity. Still a fantastic wine in my book and clearly one of the top Chardonnays out there in California these days.

2005 Bouchard Meursault Perrières
I should have guessed this one double blind, since I have had it in the past. On the nose, perfumed, even floral, with delicate citrus flavors that are almost weightless on the palate. Good precision, even better in this department than the Aubert Ritchie, and a finish that builds slowly without losing any resolution. Excellent!

2005 Pride Chardonnay
This wine would have fared better in different company, but sandwiched between the powerful, personality-rich Aubert and the elegant, perfumed Bouchard Meursault Perrieres, it came across as a bit workaday, although clearly a good bottle of wine. The acidity and ripe fruit flavors are nicely balanced here, just needs a bit more character to shed its anonymity.

2005-2006 Cabernets (plus ringers)

2005 Araujo Estate Cabernet Sauvignon Eisele Vineyard
Dusty nose with some faint oak aromas merging with bright cassis. On the palate this is dense and sappy, with just a touch of heat, but overall showing impeccable balance from initial entry to finish. The wine is showing some significant tannins, paling only in comparison with a couple that follow, along with some sweet caramel notes on the finish. This is some impressive and classy juice.

2005 Pride Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon
Here a faint green note shows up on the nose along with heady dark fruit aromas. On the palate the wine shows excellent density, but also a very firm structure along with perhaps the fiercest tannins of the evening. Great length on the finish, but this needs some time to come around, since this is not presently for the faint of heart.

2005 Schrader Cabernet Sauvignon CCS Beckstoffer to Kalon
A faint green cedar note makes it first appearance here, with lemon thyme (which I don’t normally associate with Cabernet Sauvignon) and green olive aromas on the nose. Similarly distinctive on the palate, with green almost asparagus-like flavors that are still successfully buffered by the abundance of ripe cassis flavors. Not quite the length of the Araujo and Pride in this flight, but a wine with character.

2006 Quilceda Creek Cabernet Sauvignon (Washington)
That this was a ringer was pretty clear, although I cannot say that anybody had an inkling that they were drinking a Washington wine. The nose is subdued and dusty, with ripe red berry dominating the round, sappy palate. A good dose of heat, along with those telltale sweet (to me) glycerol notes that come with elevated alcohol, shows up on the finish. Perhaps because it was a ringer in this lineup of structured and tannic California Cabs, I found this wine to be less and less interesting as it spent time in the glass, to the point where it came across as almost simple by the end of the flight. In any case, nothing to me like the wine that Tanzer described recently—certainly not much like a California Cab, given our ease in identifying it blind.

2006 Pride Reserve Claret
Dusty green tobacco nose, with a sweet and slightly hot palate that is at present still well buffered by the intense flavors of dark fruit. If I had to guess, I would say this had the highest alcohol of the flight.

Flight 2: 2001-2002

Despite the high quality of the wines that follow in this flight, I don’t seem to find these nearly as pleasurable as many tasters do. The alcohol is bit high in all of them for my taste, and the extraction so powerful here that they come across as slightly monolithic in my view, even though their fundamental structure is apparent. Maybe in a few years these will show a bit more of the complexity that they are capable of…

2001 Pride Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon
I have had this wine a couple of times before and the profile was recognizable. Some heat emerging on the nose, but also a hefty wallop of dark fruit that seems to be taking on a floral character with the passing of time. On the palate this is extraordinarily dense and sweet, with excellent length and minerality, but still a bit overwhelming. Still, I don’t have too much trouble seeing why people are impressed with this wine.

2001 Shafer Hillside Select Cabernet Sauvignon
My favorite of the flight, this showed even higher tannins and more structure than the 2001 Pride, which is saying a lot. Again, dusty dark fruit with some heat on the finish, but also an abundance of dry extract and minerality that provide the impressive length here. As with the 2001 Pride, one can only shake one’s head at the way in which the winemakers have made a wine with such density and depth while maintaining a very firm structure. I could see giving this one 96 points…

2002 Shafer Hillside Select Cabernet Sauvignon
My initial notes on this wine were not complimentary, but perhaps they were swayed by the mineral monsters that preceded this and the next wine. This came across as a high alcohol, almost port-like wine despite the good structure and underlying minerality that were apparent. I found my impressions of the wine, however, improved as the wine spent time in the glass (we spent a good 20 minutes on this flight of wines). Eventually, the overall balance of the wine asserted itself, as did the depth of fruit and seamlessly merged structure. Perhaps this improves on the 2001 Shafer HSS for its more modest and integrated tannins, although I still miss the minerality and length here that one finds on the 2001. No doubt a very well made wine, but one would have to particularly like this style of wine (big, dense, port-like) to give it 100 points. Again, one can hope that a few more years in the bottle will bring out more of the complexity that the wine is capable of.

2002 Pride Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon
I have also had this wine before and I think overall that my impressions here were consistent with the previous tasting. Rich dark fruit, with a sappy super-ripe palate that does not improve with time in the glass (or in my mouth). I found the finish on the wine to be alcoholic and cloyingly sweet. Again, a well made wine in its style, but this one crossed over my alcohol threshold.

Flight 3: 1994-1995

Some interesting wines here showing more aromatic complexity and less heat than the 2001 and 2002 wines. The 1995 Pride Reserve in particular is almost austere in its presentation.

1994 Abreu Cabernet Sauvignon Madrona Ranch
This wine kept improving with time as I and several other tasters came back to it over the 30 minutes we tasted the flight. On the nose there is a powerful fragrance of cedar with perhaps a note of green olive that seemed to dance around in the glass. On the palate the wine is strikingly less dense and sappy than those 2001 and 2002 monsters, but also perhaps easier to appreciate for its shape-shifting nuances as the complex notes reverberated between the palate and the nose.

1994 Pride Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon
It seems that Pride did not quite hit its stride with this wine, which shows modest length on the finish and a soft palate without that hallmark almost searing tannins, structure, and minerality of the later Reserve Cabs. Maybe this wine has faded a bit, hard to say without trying another bottle.

1994 Latour Pauillac
Well, not much trouble spotting that we had a ringer here. The faint Brett on the nose, along with the sharper tobacco aromas, gave this away as a Bordeaux. The nose was probably the best part of this wine—funky, super-ripe, with decadent jammy aromas. The palate was a different story, however—almost watery after all those dense Cabernets, but also distinctly short on the finish. What can you say? It’s the 1994 vintage in Bordeaux…

1995 Colgin Cabernet Sauvignon Herb Lamb Vineyard
An interesting wine that showed olive, camphor, and a touch of bell pepper on the nose. The palate is medium bodied and slightly sweet, and the finish a tad short, but the wine held its own over the course of the flight. I think that I came back to this one and the Abreu more than the others because of their aromatic complexity.

1995 Pride Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon
A fragrant dark berry nose tips us off that this is a Pride, much more in the style of the later Pride Reserves than the 1994. The wine has good density (even if not up to the 2001 and 2002) and a fair measure of tannins, with absolutely zero fat on the palate to the point where it comes across as a bit austere. Impressive nonetheless…