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Last Mays' trip to France with Bruce Neyers of Kermit Lynch Wine Merchants was without doubt full of fantastic winery visits, exquisite dinners and great wines, but one of the stops on the trip that truly stood out was the visit to Pierre and Anne Breton in Bourgueil in the heart of the Loire Valley. A bonne degustation of the current releases is the norm here, and this years line-up of beautiful, soulful wines that truly capture the essence of their northern Loire climate and geology was no exception.

After tasting in the cellar we moved out into a sparklingly beautiful sunny spring day for one of those impromptu little lunches that the French seem to throw together with such ease and grace: dried meats and saucisson of various types, crusty breads, piquant country mustards, pates, cornichons, a little roast Pork, roasted potatoes and vegetables, and of course an abundant selection of frommages.

On this lucky day, Pierre treated us to a tasting of some of the gems he has carefully cellared and stored in their cool cellars, including the 1995, an excellent year - ripe, full and solid, the 1992, a bit lighter (my wedding year!) but so pure, delicate and fresh still, and finally the 1986, Pierre's second vintage, mature and full of earthy gravely tones underpinned by leather and sous bois - a French term for underbrush aromas, think forest floor and autumn leaves.The only thing better than tasting them in this incredible setting was the offer Pierre made to make some of these available to our clients back home, which I am happy to present today. To order visit us online by clicking here! Cheers!

Burgundy Rules!

Once again I was happy to be included at an impromptu dinner with JVE and friends, held on short notice due to a visit from afar of one of our esteemed members. JVE suggested Burgundy as the theme, putting up a bottle of DRC La Tache 1993 as incentive - needless to say there were not many no shows! In any case the crew dug deep and we tasted a great assortment of top notch wines that led to the dinner concluding with a call for a trip to Burgundy ASAP - I'm in!! Thanks to all for their generosity and camaraderie and especially to JVE for hosting yet another superb evening! Here are my rough notes, quickly taken and only slightly edited:

Paul Pernot 2007 Batard Montrachet - lovely! just opening and showing some complex tones of acacia, linden and apple. Softer and plusher than expected. Lovely core of solid fruit. Still young and primary but delicious! A few bottles available at 56 Degree wine.

Lamy Pillot 1993 Le Montrachet - Wow! Lush and complex and beautiful. Mouth filling, super-long. This was great out of the gate and just got better and better as it opened - improved significantly throughout the evening. Full, lush yet with great detail and underlying acidity. Acacia, linden, nutty caramel tones with good solid fruit. Outstanding wine!

Aubert Ritchie 09. Black spice. Ripe. New world saturated. Hint of petrol. Sweet. Alchy. Spiced black cherry liqueur. Some vanilla notes. Very saturated and dense. This opened nicely with an hour or so in the glass. Drink now, better in year or two and over 3-4 years thereafter.

Williams Seylem 04 Farrington vineyard. Earth. Mint. Some maturity. Touch rustic even. More mature. Leather and dried fruits. At its peak. Might have guessed it Burgundy if tasted blind. Starkly different from Aubert.

Volnay 2007 Cuvee Blondeau Simon Bize. Hospice de Beaune. Wow. Beautiful elegant red cherry, supple, Very detailed and fine. Drinking beautifully, will improve for 3-4 at least. Silky and pure, sexy Volnay on the lithesome side. Lovely wine.

Corton Bressandes 2005 Vincent Girardin. tight. touch reductive. Closed. Mineral notes, firm. Well proportioned and solid. Tight deep solid core of red cherry fruit. Opened and relaxed with some time in the glass. Great future ahead, 5 -10+ years. vg++

Vosne Romanee 1995 Latour dried leathery, a bit past prime.

Gevrey Chambertin 2004 Claude Dugat - Fresh turned earth. (merde was uttered, with some questioning the exact type) With time deeper cherry dark fruit emerged. Still earthy, a hint of green. Needs more time, 3-5 years minimum, to shed its youthful, compact attributes and whiff of 2004 greenness and for at least that long after.

Trapet Chambertin 2008 - Coolish. Tight. A touch greenish and herbal, with darker tones underneath. Med ruby. good. Young. Still closed and angular and young. Needs time! Drink in 10-15 years. Very Good+, just a bit young and tight right now.

Charmes Chambertin 1996 Perrot Minot. Med deep ruby/purple. A bit angular and high toned at first, closed a bit on the nose and palate, highish acids. Meaty leathery, dark cherry tones - seemed a bit awkward at first, opened with time. Very good+, but needs 4-5 years more at least.

Chambertin Clos de Beze Groffier 2002. Beautiful crushed cherry, spice. Still fresh and youthful but just out of its shell. Supple, harmonious. Balanced long, complex and intriguing. Silky. Beautiful. still young and somewhat primary, lovely mouth feel, ripe tannins, long, lingering persistent finish. Great wine! As good as it is tonight is still a baby, love to revisit this in 10+ years!

La Tache DRC 1993. Dark cool spiced. Intense. Porcini mushroom, black cherry, tight, structured and firm. Dark concentrated with tart black cherry fruit core. Wound tightly and while focused and firm not showing its stuff tonight. Highish acidity, went back to it after being opened for a bit not much change. This should have been rockin' and just couldn't figure it out tonight.

I looked this up when I got home as it was so perplexing, Burghound reports the following:

"Tasting note: (As noted in Issue 4, I have experienced a fair amount of bottle variation with the '93 but both this bottle and a second bottle that I had in early May were outstanding). ("severe, closed and understated but I am convinced it will be a great La Tâche" - AdV). This too evidences a slight floral quality, and a fascinating mix of earth, leather, tea and spice notes plus an interesting green bark component. The slightly austere, tannic, wonderfully rich flavors are dense, in fact extremely dense with excellent depth and terrific complexity and a finish that seems to go on forever. Though there are now hints of secondary aromas, this remains very young, structured and remarkably intense. When you get the right bottle, the '93 can be a real stunner. Note: the inconsistency of this wine continues unabated as a bottle opened at the Domaine recently was almost aggressively vegetal and awkward. In short, when it's good it's very good but I've now had too many disappointing bottles not to be wary." Not encouraging for a wine that trade well over the $1,000 mark!!

Clair Dau Clos de Beze 1962. another "WOW!" Hazy and a hint of brick. Nose mature yet vibrant and still fresh. Incredible! Earth. Sous bois, marmite. Magnificent from first whiff to last, lovely, lingering sip, with a finish lasted til the Jersey side of the Tunnel!

Thanks again JVE and everyone for a great night!

Tour de France - Le Sudouest de France

On Tuesday and Wednesday Stages 10 and 11 take a relatively gentle route with just a few small category 3 and 4 climbs as the riders travel through the heart of southwest France before the first real test in the mountains on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The  route passes near Marcillac on Tuesday and includes a sprint through the village of Gaillac on Wednesday - villages that are home to two of my favorite country French red wines. Well off the beaten track and definately off the radar of most wine drinkers, I absolutely love the wines from this region for their unabashed individualistic character. Located along the river Tarn (a tributary of the Garonne, the river that eventually winds its way through the Graves and Sauternes and combines with the Dordogne at the Gironde estuary in Bordeaux), they are both some of the oldest wine regions in France. 

Marcillac is located about an hour drive north and east of Gaillac along the Tarn River. It is made mainly from Mansois, the local name for Fers Servadou, and the grape accounts for about 90% of all plantings. My favorites here are Domaine Laurens, whose red and lovely crisp rose we have stocked, and Domaine du Cros, a beautiful, juicy if slightly rustic red with crushed red fruits and hints of game and earth. This small grower had only one hectare in 1982 and made a mere 4,000 bottles per year. Today they have expanded by buying and renting vineyards with 22 hectares in production out of a total of 25ha.  

Gaillac claims to be the oldest wine region in France, with origins dating to the first century and records of Romans shipping wine down the Tarn to Bordeaux and northern Europe. The white wines are made from Mauzac, Sauvignon Blanc, Loin de L'Oeil, Muscadet and Ondenc, and are crisp, light and refreshing with floral notes. The reds are made from  local grapes Duras and Fers Servadou, but can also have Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. Domaine Sarrabella is a producer seeking out both for their delicious, floral and fresh white and their deliciously rustic red.

The reds from both of these regions are the perfect "Bistro Wines" in my opinion - mid weight, slightly old world and earthy, with moderate grip and sour cherry fruit tones. They are perfect with light meat - pork, roasted chicken, duck breast "magret de canard" or classic steak and frites. Tomorrow and over the next three days the Tour heads to the mountains of the Pyrenees and some of the toughest climbs in the world - don't miss it!