Arianna again

During my short trip back home to Paris last May, I got lucky as Les Caves Augé (super wine shop, 116 Boulevard Haussmann) was having an outdoor tasting with some great winemakers pouring their wines.

Among them, Antoine Arena sons from Morta Maio in Corsica. It was cool to taste again their wines which will be the subject of another post pretty soon.

Also among the winemakers, Arianna Occhipinti from Vittoria in the southern part of Sicily. Her uncle is the owner of the famous COS winery and she is now, rightfully, probably as famous as her uncle Giusto.



It was great to talk to this young women, full of energy and passion, just like her wines. The 1st bottle from Arianna I had was a revelation and since then, every bottles have been as great and exciting as the 1st.


While a lot of Sicilian wines are just caricatures, Arianna's wines are models for purity, balance and freshness. How many Sicilian reds are below 13% while offering a perfect ripeness and acidity? Thanks God people such as Arianna, COS and a few more respect and showcase the Sicilian terroirs and native grapes. No new barrel here, only old ones that Arianna buys in Piedmont. Respect of the soil and the grapes is essential for her.


The 1st wine Arianna was pouring was her 2008 Rosso Vittoria SP68, a blend of Frappato and Nero d'Avola, named after the highway by her azienda. Easy to drink, fruit forward with a hint of spices, perfect for lunch under the sun.

Next was the 2007 Il Frappato. I know I already talked about it in a previous post here, but again this showed a beautiful purity and freshness with flagrant flowery and red fruits notes. Surprisingly more evolved than the bottles I had here, it was still a really great wine.

Last was her 2007 Siccagno Nero d'Avola. A little more meaty and more masculine, more stewed fruits (but never jammy), this needs a little more time but showed great potential and is already quite delicious and complex.

Overall a great tasting and opportunity to meet and talk to Arianna. I can not wait to try her wines in the future vintages as her vines get older.
It also was a good surprise to see her wines available in Paris (Lavinia, Caves Augé) and would urge anyone to try them very soon.


Bonne degust' !



PS: check out her website and blog.

A battle of Giants: Hermitage vs Côte-Rôtie

I was really excited for this blind tasting. Everyone was asked to bring a bottle of Hermitage or Côte-Rôtie.
All the wines were tasted blind, on a day not at all favorable on the biodynamic calendar.

A few notes of importance on those majestic 2 AOC.

Hermitage


Vineyards: these are spread over 3 communes in the Drôme: Tain-l’Hermitage, Crozes-Hermitage and Larnage on the right bank of the Rhône.

Soil types: comprised of granitic gravel covered with a layer of micaschist and gniess, with areas of round alluvial stones (this diversity accounts for the named villages within the Appellation: Bessards, Greffieux, Méal, Rocoule, Beaumes etc.).

Area under cultivation (2009 date) : 134 hectares, yearly production: 4363 hl, basic yield: 26 hl/hectare

Grape variety mix: Syrah for the red wines (15% Marsanne and Roussanne content is permitted).

Côte-Rôtie

Vineyards: these are spread over 3 communes on the right bank of the Rhône: Saint-Cyr-sur-Rhône, Ampuis and Tupin-Semons in the French Department of the Rhône.

Soil types: very steep granitic terraces covered with a layer of sand-lime on the "Côte blonde" (pale slopes) and clay and iron oxide on "Côte brune" (brown slopes).

Area under cultivation (2009 data): 253 hectares, yearly production: 10 603 hl, basic yield : 42 hl/hectare.

Grape variety mix: at least 80% Syrah, with an authorised maximum of 20% Viognier

All info taken from the great inter Rhone website.

Now the wines tasted.

1st Flight

2001 Domaine Jasmin Côte-Rôtie

Great nose with sausage, a little mint, smoke. With air, nose becomes even more interesting with tarry and mineral notes. Red fruits with some cassis, it is elegant and somewhat light for an 01.
It showed best the next day but still I would not keep this wine another 20 years. To drink over the next 10.
Very enjoyable.

2006 Gaec-Gallet Henri et Phillippe Côte-Rôtie
Candy like nose: sweet violet.Smoky with nice raspberry notes, it's fresh with a good structure.
Nevertheless, it is a little bit too candy like for me. Certainly not a bad wine but it does not thrill me at all.

2003 Bernard Levet Côte-Rôtie La Chavaroche
Totally opaque. Started very jammy, almost New World like with grippy tannins and a touch of heat.
On the positive side, it constantly evolved with air to become a little more civil with smoky and savory note. Still it definitely showed the vintage with stewed fruit.

2nd flight

1988 Domaine Jasmin Côte-Rôtie

Corked. Too bad.

1996 Bernard Chave Hermitage
Brickish rim, nice nose of smoky bacon, violet. Contrary to the Delas, it plays on the red fruits with a high acidity, typical of the vintage. Very floral, cherry and strawberry notes, it slowly got better with air. Nevertheless I think now is a good time to drink it, may even have been a little more focused a few years ago.
Overall a well made, elegant Hermitage with finesse.

1989 Bernard Burgaud Côte-Rôtie
Very nice nose with a herbal note (thyme), olives and ink. Complex.
On the palate it shows young and ripe fruit. What a surprise when the wine was revealed and the vintage.
We all went guessed a young CR or even Hermitage.
This is a wine far from being ready.

3rd flight

1999 Domaine de Bonserine Côte-Rôtie Côte Brune

Very dark and almost opaque. Weird nose of cheese cracker. Dark fruits with coffee and showing some oak.
Palate shows a similar profile. On the modern side of the appellation. Probably my least favorite.

2006 Domaine Auguste Clape Cornas Renaissance
The pirate in our tasting.
On the 1st night, it showed anything but like a syrah. Definitely more grenache like.
Raisins, dark fruits with dry fruits and figs. Big and ripe but never alcoholic, it's round and soft, velvety but with grippy tannins on the finish.
A big disappointment.
The next day, this was a totally different wine. Still full bodied with ripe fruits, it offered deep floral notes with brighter fruit.
Really an interesting wine but that needs a few years to calm down. I'm really glad I got the chance to try it the next day.

1998 Delas Frères Hermitage Marquise de la Tourette

The nose is polished. Dark fruits, prunes, a light touch of oak. Some typical smoke and olives (very light though) notes. Med body with a good structure, round, you can sense everything is there to make this wine a great one but it needs more time. A little reticent on the mid palate and more simple than the nose. Well balanced with good acidity, the long finish is promising.

Overall a great tasting. All the wines showed an obvious sense of place and terroir. There is still, especially in Hermitage, a respect for classic wines without over extraction and oak. Amazingly, all the wines, except the 2003 Levet, were either 12.5 or 13%.

Classic flavors such as smoke, olives and bacon were often present and the wines showed nice complexity.

Prices, even if they are not as stupid as in other regions, are high but production is quite low, harvest is done by hand because of the steep slopes so I can not really protest against the prices.

Francois Mikulski in Meursault

Since the very 1st bottle I've been a fan of Francois. The 2001 Genevrières we had was spectacular and the 1997 with Clive was also showing very well.


Francois Mikulski is located in Meursault (right on the RN74) and is producing pure, fresh, elegant and long wines. I had the pleasure to visit him last January and it was great to see all the nuances among the different terroirs.

I think that you can judge the quality of a producer by its level entry wines, meaning here Francois' Bourgogne blanc. I have to admit while we were drinking the 2005 Bourgogne, I was already ready to love the wine. Well, I did not have to force myself cause this was a beauty!

This 2005 was drinking like a baby Meursault (I think some declassified Meursault grapes are in the blend). The wine was balanced, showing a nice minerality with an elegant nuttiness along refreshing lemon notes. The finish is lively.

A 2001 Volnay Santenots is to follow very soon...

Not perfect? Not a problem !

What's a perfect wine? I don't know as I have not had one yet. But I wonder: is a perfect wine will give me the most pleasure ever? Or will it be so perfect that, because of that perfection, I'll have the impression of something missing, that little imperfection which would make the wine...well perfect.


One thing for sure is that this 2003 Domaine Léon Barral Jadis was not perfect, far from it. But it managed to thrill me in many different ways.



2003, as everybody know, was terribly hot all over Europe and the Languedoc region suffered from it like any other regions. Making balanced and fresh wines was certainly not easy. Sure, you can always acidify, modify, manipulate your wine but at the end is it really your wine? Enter, Didier Barral, winemaker with his brother for the Domaine Leon Barral (Leon was their grandfather). No manipulation is allowed here, what you have is the direct result of the vintage. To see how they treat their vineyards is really spectacular. Pigs and bees have been introduced. They consider the surrounding forest, just like Selosse, as very important and crucial for the balance. As little as possible sulfur is used. If you want a "natural" wine (even though I dislike that term), there you go.




For all this reasons, and more, it seems that there are a lot of bottle variations. Some with a lot of VA, some where it refermented, some dead before being opened...I actually don't care, I accept and am ready to take this risk because I know Barral's wines are special and always tell me something.

This 2003, Cuvée Jadis, had many reports of bad bottles. Just after pulling out the cork, I decanted the wine. Surprisingly, it made a thick foam and it started smelling like in a fermentation vat. The very 1st sip had a "cider" aspect. Well after an hour it settled down. Was there some VA? Yes, for sure. The acidity was surprisingly high but seemed not totally integrated with the wine. But despite all this, the nose was complex and enticing: cocoa powder, very floral, strawberry and leather. Yeah sure, throw some VA in the mix. On the palate, it's big but not overwhelming. Save for that weird acidity, it is also complex with again plenty of leathery and floral notes along chocolate and ripe strawberry. Far from a perfect wine but it managed to give me so many different emotions and showed different faces.



This is 2003, this is the vintage. The vines have suffered, the winemaker as well. The wine is showing it. But this is what I want. I want to understand the vintage when I taste the wine. More and more, wine (especially Bordeaux) is becoming like a NV Champagne: the same year after year when everybody try to erase the particularities of the vintage.

I remember Jean-Marc Roulot, saying he wants his wines to be different every vintages. Well, Mr Roulot, Bravo !