A few Extra-Bruts

For some reasons, the last 3 champagnes I had were all Extra-Brut. Very interesting as all 3 managed to have very different styles and texture.


Ulysse Collin Extra Brut Blanc de Blancs
Very light bubbles, this is more a wine than a Champagne. Very mineral, a touch of wood, not a lot of fruit (hint of green apple/lemon). I really like the austerity and focus of this Champagne. Long finish. Very subtle.
Olivier Collin, is located in Congy in the Sézannais, south of the Côte des Blancs. While waiting to get some of his family's land back, he did an internship at Selosse in 2001 and this had a huge influence on the way he works now. Carefully taking care of his vines, using no chemicals, it seems Olivier is ready to try new directions such as organic or biodynamic certification (maybe?). As his master, Olivier makes his fermentation and malo in barrels.


Marie-Noelle Ledru Grand Cru Extra Brut
I really enjoyed this one. 85% pinot and 15% Chardonnay. This is very elegant and very steely. You can definitely tell there is no dosage. A little bit austere with lively mousse, there's a hint of red fruits with lemony notes. With air, more yeasty/brioche notes.

Marie-Noelle, in Ambonnay, does everything in her cellar but also in the office: multi-tasking for sure ! Trying to work as natural as possible, no chemicals in the vineyards and no sulfur added after disgorgement. All her Champagnes are really showing the beautiful terrroir they come from. Unlike the other 2 producers here, she does not use any wood.

Vouette et Sorbée Extra Brut Fidèle
Based on 2007 vintage and disgorged in December 2009. 100% pinot noir.
Not easy to approach, it is nevertheless a fascinating Champagne. Wonderful nose with some wood notes and spices. There's also a nice chalkiness. Not a lot of bubbles, mineral on the palate with again some light oak notes. Not a ton of fruit even though this is 100% pinot. This is quite elegant and not very exuberant but rich as the same time. It's an experience hard to describe.
I'd like to try one with a little more age but this is really good.

Certified organic since 1998, Bertrand and Hélène Gautherot are trying to work with a minimalist intervention and let the terroir speaks. All champagnes are vinified and raised in barrels and once in the glass, need time.
No acidification, no collage or cold stabilisation. Some SO2 is used only during the harvest and nothing afterwards. Of course indigenous yeast is used.

Magic with no tricks

After our blind tasting on sauvignon blancs from all over the world, we all agreed that this grape became uninspiring and a commercial caricature with no depth, elegance or class. Only a handful winemakers can work with this grape and do magic (Cotat, Boulay etc..).
I was lucky enough to recently try one sauvignon blanc who gave me back some hope. When I drunk this bottle, I asked myself what is the trick behind to do such an amazing wine. Well, thing is there's no trick at all: no chemicals as the domain is organic, no sulfur at all (neither during fermentation and bottling), no additives. I told you: no tricks.
The wine is from Les Cailloux du Paradis and its winemaker Claude Courtois who has been working naturally for a very long time. He is located in Soings en Sologne, 150km east of Saumur.

This 2008 cuvée is called Quartz, a vin de France, made from old sauvignon blanc vines and most of them are franc de pied i.e. pre-phylloxera. The very obvious thing is that this does not taste like any other sauvignon blanc. The terroir and winemaker managed to sublime the grape here. This is ripe but has a tremendous acidity and showed pear and spices (the wine is vinified and raised in barrels) and finally the minerality takes over while it keeps evolving in your glass. Only 11.8% (!!!), this is a wine with no sulfur added, and needs time to blossom. Much, much better on day 2. The way the power, acidity and minerality are managed remind me of Francois Cotat.

Do yourself a favor, get out and grab a bottle and let the wine takes you away.

At school with Anselme Selosse

Rendez-vous was given: Caves Legrand, October 19th. For the second time this year, I was going to spend some time with one of the most interesting winemakers you can find: Anselme Selosse.

Anselme started with a quick introduction on his domain. Located in Avize, he took over his father after his studies in Burgundy which he says had an impact on the way he's working. He conducted a biodynamic agriculture from 1995 to 2001 and quit because he wanted more freedom while still respecting the vines.

Interestingly, when asked about the people who influence him he mentions 4 names:

-Didier Barral from Faugeres because of the way he brought an entire ecosystem in his vineyards

-Sylvain Pitiot from Clos de Tart

-Claude Bourguignon (soil expert)

-Jean Marie Pelt, French botanist who founded the European Institute of Ecology

When the date of this dinner was set up, Anselme disgorged (last March) 6 bottles of his 2003 vintage. Because he wanted to show us the impact of the dosage, after disgorging those 6 bottles he used a different dosage for each of those: no dosage, 0.06 cl, 0.12 cl, 0.18 cl, 0.24 cl and .30cl.

One important thing to realise is that even for the highest dosage here, we are still in the Extra-Brut category and Selosse Champagnes are always very low in dosage.

So here we go on this dosage class, just like Anselme did when he choosed what he was going to do with his 2003 vintage: try different combinations and see the one(s) with the most balance.

For my part, I really enjoyed the 1st one (no dosage) and the 4th one (0.18cl). The last 2 I thought we too heavy and were almost sticking to your palate (even though once again it is still a very low dosage). The 2nd and 3rd were not bad but you could sense something was missing.

Anselme eventually picked the 4th one for his 2003 vintage (o.18cl).

It was really interesting to see the impact of the dosage. To me a few things stood out:

-It seems like he has an impact on the oxidative character: the more dosage you have, the less oxidative character you feel (white chocolate, quince) and the less dosage you have, the more oxidative character you sense (curry notes).

-Also, it looks like it has a light impact on the effervescence: it is less bubbly with low dosage.

Again those are my impressions on those very particular bottles. It would be interesting to check this out on other producers.

Then, we were treated with 5 different Selosse vintages: 2005, 2003, 2002, 1999 and 1998.

His vintage always sees 50% of new wood and comes from 2 parcelles in Avize (100% Chardonnay): Chanterelle (oriented East) and Maladri (Coteau, oriented South). All the champagnes were disgorged the day before the dinner and were not dosed.

The 2005 showed some butter and light vanilla. Very Burgundian, got better with air gaining balance. Needs time.

The 2002 showed honey and spices along exotic fruits.

The 1999, wine that I've been lucky to have a few times now, is a very solar champagne (14.5%!). It is quite opulent, quince but again some minerality appears with air and give freshness to the wine.

The 1998 starts to show truffle notes with a hint of exotic fruits.

There's also in every wines a light and refreshing bitterness on the finish. Anselme mentioned that this is partly due because of the slow pressurage he's doing. Overall I believe, but this is personal, that his vintage Champagnes need time to acquire the perfect balance and to allow the mineral spine, so precious to Anselme and true to Avize, to reveal itself.

Another unforgettable moment with Anselme.

2005 Thierry Allemand Cornas Chaillots

After looking for the non sulfur version without any success(and it seems like he stopped doing it after 2005), I picked this 2005 Thierry Allemand Cornas Chaillots. This was a spectacular wine with violets exploding with black olives and red fruits. This is expressing so much its Northern Rhone roots, it's just great. Super long finish.
As always very elegant, almost Burgundian, this wine will probably be a gem for a good 10-12 years.
This wine does not see any new wood and Allemand is certified Organic.
Man, this is good.

Laundry list

A short post to talk about a few wines, tasted double blind, just before our white Burgundy tasting.




2004 Domaine de Montbourgeau L'Etoile (Jura): Very well made and balanced Etoile. Mostly Chardonnay with a little dash of Savagnin.
Unmistakably Jura, elegant oxidation, some light curry and spicy notes with yellow apple. Nice even though this is a little simple.

2009 Michel Delhommeau Muscadet, Cuvée St. Vincent
Spicy mineral pear with citrus. Hint of orange and some exotic fruit. A touch of yeast. With air, the minerality fades and the exotic fruits become more apparent. Floral as well.
It's enjoyable but definitely ripe, especially for Muscadet.
None of the blind tasters recognised muscadet and some even went to Languedoc or CdP.....



2005 Domaine Anne Gros Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Nuits Cuvée Marine: Upon opening, nose was all lemon butter milk. More energy on the palate with again lots of lemon. Round, showing a little bit of heat (although only 12.5%) and nutmeg.
The finish is a little flat.

1999 Fred Magnien, Chassagne Montrachet Les Morgeots (Rouge): well this is definitely ripe. The oak is still lingering, not totally integrated yet. It is definitely Burgundy but quite modern and I'm not a big fan of this ripeness and texture.

2008 Vincent Prunier Bourgogne rouge: Light cherry core. There's a caramel, nutty tone on the nose. Nice floral notes and red currant. Round with med- acidity. It's a little sweet on the palate with ripe strawberry. My guess was Oregon pinot. It's ok but a little overdone for my taste. People liked it much better than I did. Surely well made.


2000 Edmond Duclaux Côte-Rôtie: Very tight on the 1st night showing absolutely no Northern Rhone character. Then on the 2nd day, the nose was great: plenty of olives and floral notes with bell pepper and ham. The palate is slightly stewed though and the wine lacks finesse. With a little more freshness, this would have been much more enjoyable.
2005 Damien Laureau Anjou Clos Frémur: Almost opaque and viscous in the glass. A lot of violets and cassis with a touch of bell pepper. There's also a beam of raspberry fruit in this dark mix. Firm tannins. This is a massive wine. Almost like a raspberry liquor on the palate wrapping licorice an charcoal. Ripe. I liked it much more the 1st time I tried it. This time, it was too powerful. A big steak would help here for sure. But I think I like his Savennieres (which are awesome) much more.

A battle in the heart of Burgundy: Puligny vs Meursault vs Chassagne

Cool temperatures and the very beginning of fall was perfect for our blind tasting of the night: the 3 most prestigious communes for whites in the Cote de Beaune: Puligny-Montrachet / Meursault / Chassagne Montrachet.

Driving from Beaune, you are going to hit Meursault first then Puligny to finish with Chassagne, the southernmost communes of the 3.

With the fear of having many oxidized bottles, we started the tasting (all blind).

1st Flight


2008 Chartron et Trébuchet Puligny-Montrachet
Very lemony with a hint of oak and minerality. Austere. It lacks energy on the palate.
Simple. Not bad but at $50, ouch !

2001 Coche-Dury Meursault 1er Cru Caillerets
More powerful than the previous wine. Nutty and smoky with a hint of mango. Round, spicy and apple. While well made and with decent complexity, it lacks depth.
Disappointing. And I thought it was a Chassagne...

2001 Domaine Ramonet Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru Les
Premox. What should have been a gem was showing signs of premox....and was pretty much undrinkable.

2nd Flight

2000 Domaine Rémi Jobard Meursault 1er Cru Le Poruzot
Some exotic fruit on the nose (pineapple), pear and citrus. Nice grillé. Palate is a little soft and almost lactic.
Not bad but quite straight forward. This specific bottle will not last very long.


2006 Domaine Fontaine-Gagnard Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru La Boudriotte
Grillé noble with a hint of minerality. Well balanced. This is quite Meursault like in character.
Round and orchard fruits. Powerful. The finish is not totally focused but this wine was my favorite of the tasting.
Nice.

1998 Henri Boillot Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières
Corked. 2nd flawed bottle of the night.




This rather small sample was interesting to taste even though there were, in my opinion, no really outstanding wines. The fact that the Ramonet and Boillot were flawed surely did not help.

Funny to see that the Fontaine-Gagnard wine was among the favorite of the night even though the Boudriotte terroir is more famous for the red Chassagne. Nevertheless this was a nice wine. I would love to do another round with more wines, especially Puligny which is my favorite of the 3.

Nice to see that all the wines were showing a sense of place and were definitely Burgundian.

Delicious times

The 2009 vintage in Beaujolais is hailed as the very best vintage in recent memories. It will be interesting to see if like in the Loire Valley, wines have maintained a decent acidity level to balance the high sugar content.

This 2009 Damien Coquelet Chiroubles is only my second 2009 Beaujolais (after a Clos de la Roilette) and this was a beautiful and delicious one. Damien's father in law in the great Georges Descombes. No chemical and indigenous yeasts are used by Damien.
The nose is pure and inviting. Nice minerality with bright fruit (cherry, cranberry and plum) with a hint of licorice. Earthy and floral, this is quite complex. Balanced, delicious with good acidity. There's also a slight green touch ( reminded me of green peas). Definitely Beaujolais, the bottle was gone really fast....














Also, after drinking his Patrimonio recently, the 2008 Antoine Arena Muscat du Cap Corse was another delicious wine. Very floral and with some lytchee on the nose, sweet but with enough acidity, this is another wine quite easy to drink. It was, in my opinion, a marvelous pairing with my wife Tres Leche (thanks Mary for the recipe!).



Two nice examples of winemakers working consciously and the result is showing in their wines.