uncorked 2 Comments June 28th, 2016 France Tour Visit Post, General, Rhone, Syrah

Rhone: syrah or shiraz

The red syrah grape dominates the north Rhone Valley, where Uncorked’s travellers often visit for a first occasion.

In Australia the same grape, known as shiraz, is the country’s most widely planted.

Well let’s not worry about that too much because Northern Rhone drinkers are enjoying syrah and styles completely apart from the domestic Australian drop. The reason is called terroir.

There is a clear definition of where to look for it.

Just drive south on the crowded A7 autoroute until reaching Ampuis, then turn your head right. There you’ll view the steep stone-terraced, single stake vines, growing in granite and clay across the river on the slopes of Cote Rotie (translated as hot hillside).

Large billboards displaying brands such as Guigal or Chapoutier or Vidal-Fleury are very stark advertisements.

The geography tells it all, yet the Rotie’s are on the elegant end for Rhone syrah.

There is much talk about Rotie reds containing viognier. They do, but that’s only the old vineyards where this white is interplanted with its red counterpart. Modern re-planted vineyards, say under 40 years, are now all staked with syrah vines.

Further down the A4, about 100 km at Tain l’Hermitage, this time on the near river side is the Hill of Hermitage, again terraced but planted to syrah with white marsanne, and a little, though rarely found, white roussanne.

Jaboulet Aine Le Chevalier de Sterimberg Blanc 2011 (marsanne)

Sitting up on the Hermitage Hill (just 132 ha of green) is the Chapel of Chevalier de Sterimberg, a knight who led Holy Land crusades, now owned by Paul Jaboulet Aine (tasting Hermitage Blanc and La Petite Chapelle 2011).

Alongside are most extensive holdings of M Chapoutier, who once made just two wines by blending, but now since 1997 keeps each vineyard separate, white and red. It is a memorable Selections Parcellaires now renamed Fac & Spera collection (tasting Sizeranne 2012).

Across the river Delas Freres at Tournon who are situated in the larger Saint Joseph Appellation, draw grapes from Domaine des Tourettes (tasting Hermitage 2012). The more northern-based Guigal have plantings also. The M Chapoutier range are diverse, exciting, mouth-smacking and very collectible.

Delas single vineyard Hermitage 2013 (syrah)

Delas single vineyard Domaine des Tourettes Hermitage 2013 (syrah)

At Sizeranne which is biodynamic, the syrah is meaty, yet drawn on tannin, though svelte on the finish. Aussie warm area shiraz is punchy, syrupy, sweeter-alcohol; these Hermitage wines are more linear, lighter body, 13% alcohol, taut and gently rich, though flavoured and subtle. Opposites to the domestic Oz palate shape and different.

Chapoutier Monier de la Sizeranne vineyard Hermitage 2012 (syrah)

Now for Cote-Rotie; the spiritual home of the Guigal family and the many wines produced, varying vine age, selectivity, rarity, price escalation and taste diversity.

The culmination being the three LaLaLa’s (Turque, Landonne, Mouline), which host Stephane Crozet says with a wry smile “sell out each year within the week”.

He served the white Cote-Rotie; (tasted ExVoto Blanc 2012), a swirling marsanne 95% roussanne 5% tied up with a defining long oak treatment, Cote-Rotie Brune and Blonde, two vineyards combined (tasted Cote Rotie 2010), the special Chateau Ampuis where the family oak factory is housed (tasted Chateau Ampuis 2011) then one of the revered single vineyards which can contain up to 12% viognier, depending on the season (tasted La Mouline 2012).

Guigal Cote-Rotie Brune and Blonde vineyards 2011 (syrah)

Apart from Guigal’s dominance, for an absent owner, Chateauneuf-du-Pape maker Brunel de la Gardine makes excellent Rotie (tasted Cote Rotie 2013). And Jaboulet provided a neat Domaine des Picuelles (tasted Cote-Rotie 2012), all elegance. The Delas single vineyard Seigneur de Maugiron was excellent in silkiness, never confusing, just delicious in its line (tasted Cote-Rotie 2013).

And the only old and funky (looking like old Barossa also) was a Delas single vineyard, a rarer Cote-Rotie (tasting La Landonne 2006).

Why is Cote Rotie an amazingly elegant wine? I guess you can resolve to attend a visit such as this to see for yourselves; compare wine by wine, Hermitage versus Cote Rotie; the elegant and concentrated syrah versus equally concentrated yet silky finish.

Still syrah, still shiraz but never Aussie. The latter is far more butch than the Frenchmen. See for yourself some time, step outside the world of sweet fruit to that of the savoury. Voila.

Uncorked and Cultivated’s wine tourists visited the Northern Rhone makers Guigal, Chapoutier, Jaboulet and Delas during June 2016.

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uncorked No Comments March 5th, 2016 Champagne Makers, France, France Tour Visit Post, General

Krug: the only one

A visit to Krug. Maybe this is a wine travellers’ idea of Champagne heaven. Close. The wines will mesmerise and history rarely paralleled after Joseph Krug’s family efforts at Krug and Co since 1847.

The wine of the company – Krug Grande Cuvee contains a lattice of many wines. Sitting around a table festooned on persian rugs we spy a bottle, the minimum age range inside is 20 years but this one spans from numerous village wines from 1990 through 2006 (25 yo).

So the blend was tiraged (yeast added) in 2006 and lees aged until a 2013 disgorging-7 years dead yeast time.

And many vintages are stored in the chalk to make these Grande Cuvees – at present there are 400.

Storage -Krug’s Julie Murez explains

Back vintages were once held in magnums (as Bollinger still do); but from the 1960’s that stopped and stainless steel is preferred.

What varieties? The three main ones grown in the champagne appellation – pinot noir, chardonnay and pinot meunier are here; this bottle’s proportions were 44/33/21 in that order.

Krug Grande Cuvee- 2013 disgorging

Krug Grande Cuvee NV AUD 250, 12%; always has bold colour (but so would any contributing white wine stored over 20 years); nose of power, scents of delicacy, broiche, not buttery but veins of sweets and roasted nuts, elegance from oak presence.

That’s just the aromas which will dictate a huge taste expectation. Creaming bubbles because the aged wines are so nut-like, power in the palate, dryness from oak-space and age accumulation. What a mix. A venerable powerhouse of flavour. Wine in a mouthful.

We tasted a second Krug Grande Cuvee NV, disgorged in 2012 but composed in 2003. This wine is chardonnay dominant from 120 wines, the oldest being 1988. From this tasting I am deducing that Krug do not make an annual cuvee blend but have another cycle of blending which is a house habit.

What is it in the anatomy of making Krug? Not one aspect but several; some very old base wines, strong use of pinot meunier, old barrel use and more.

Since 1964 at vintage ferments are in 4000 old barrels, and these are maintained in a fresh but old state year on year. So the base wines have that unmistakable Krug stamp of conditioned oak character, more subtle than obvious.

While Krug focuses on its spotless non vintage for the majority of its drinkers, equally memorable are its vintage bottlings.

The 2014 had just been bottled around our visit. Tasted were 2000 and 2003; with 2003 being released before 2002 as there was general discussion all over the region about how the hot year of 2003 should be regarded. Some makers did not release 2003, others did.

The Krug 2003 AUD 350, 12% is a heavenly wine; vintage Krug has little resemblance to is blended non-vintage; so the year is on show as are the various parcels (46/29/25) selected to be an ambassador for the year (after 8-9 years in bottle). Has probably 30-40 village components, quite a masterpiece, the fermentation in barrels decidedly give it “Krug” character from oak seasoning aromas and taste. Lovely wine; full-bodied vintage, though never as full as Grande Cuvee.

Krug Brut 2003

And if you like music to contemplate while the Grande Cuvee is penetrating your mind and palate, try this:

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Uncorked and Cultivated France Food and Wine Tours visit Krug’s cellars in Reims. Joseph Krug was originally born in Mainz, Germany.

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uncorked No Comments February 24th, 2016 France, France Tour Visit Post, General, Wine Region Review, Wine Review

Mont-Redon :Chateauneuf

There is an instant impulse to grab the big rocks as we drive into Chateau Mont-Redon or better still be photographed with these big gibbers. I did.

We are travelling into the southern Rhone to visit the land of mouth-embracing warm area reds in Chateauneuf du Pape (CNDP).

And our host is a jovial fellow, Pierre Fabre who travels the world to discuss the family business at Chateau Mont-Redon.

Now these gibbers; well this is the soil these guys are dealt. Walk up closer and I am relieved to say there is sand between the rocks where these old vines (no trellis) grow as bushes. There is no water supply save a deep root system to survive the blistering summer.

Big gibbers-old bush vines

Some vineyards have these big pebbles, others are chalky known as calcare here for limestone. The mother rock comes from ancient sea deposits going down up to 200 m in parts, it depended on the sea depth, adding more clay; the pebbles were the river bed; once wider and of European Alps origin; now only the big rocks are left.

Old sea bed vines- Rhone Alps backdrop

There are three large appellations in France: Saint Emilion with 5000 hectares, Chablis with 4000 ha, then Chateauneuf du Pape with 3200 ha. It tracks one side of the Rhone River for 200 km and at a maximum only 20 km wide. Thirteen grapes are grown.

Mont-Redon started life in 1923 with 2 ha, and now has grown to 150 ha, including a 1997 purchase in Lirac nearby. This is the home of grenache, a special yet thin skinned grape which needs hanging late to ripen, and any late summer rain is disastrous though rare.

Chateauneuf is known mainly for blended red production from grenache, syrah and mourvedre though white is 5% of the surface. Mont-Redon make 15% of their production white, from blends of grenache blanc (main variety), clairette, roussanne, picpoul and the latter bourboulenc for acidity.

Significant exporters like this company receives a greater demand for white wine styles as countries like Australia and USA are big white wine consumers. They are a fullsome drink.

I just loved the Chateau Mont-Redon Chateauneuf-du-Pape 2012 (AUD ); lots of lovely bits to enjoy, sniff the aroma, it smells of the earth of the region, little flowers, spicy-black pepper grenache notes, all yummy and not a sip taken! Has lots of depth, velvet tannins that slip around the mouth, a great spice warmth; 95% is the grenache-syrah-mourvedre mix with 5% of old school varieties left in the older vineyard which are inter-planted.

Mont-Redon 2012

Pierre could not resist being a good host so he opened some older bottles of the famous wine; 2007 and 2005 CNDP, both nice and rounded harvests to really enjoy.

Chateau Mont-Redon Chateauneuf-du-Pape 2007 looks classic; more reds than purples, wine in harmony with itself; this bottle has not left the property, nose sweetened from an improvement in the bottle; nice brioche, honey-raisin, then an expanding palate of puckering spice, jam notes and the pleasant experience. Served unlabelled but easily identified.

Mont-Redon 2007

Uncorked’s travel guests visit Chateau Mont-Redon winery and vineyard in the Southern Rhone on the France Wine and Food Tour, and get to have their pic taken amongst the gibbers.

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uncorked No Comments February 21st, 2016 General, Italy, Sicily Tour Visit Post

Benanti: now Etna drinks

Uncorked guests just love the Etna grape story. How the Benanti family with roots in Lombardy migrated to Sicily by royal decree, to Catania really, assisting the economic output of eastern Sicily.

By the 1800s native red vines were well established, named in Sicilian dialect but with no relatives in Piedmont to nebbiolo, barbera or dolcetto which inhabit the homeland slopes there. But the wines have similarities.

Travellers come in contact, in a warming manner, with the major variety, nerello mascalese, Etna hero and gem of a variety. It is lithe, with some pinot noir textures, having pale and some browning colours as with the varieties in Piedmont, then a broadening mouth appeal.

Nerello mascalese

I asked about the origins of nerello mascalese. Host Antonio Benanti says “it has origins in the old town of Mascali nearby, nerello means pale black in Sicilian dialect, and as it is trained by the albarello system introduced by the Greeks, it is an ancient Etna native. We really never know its exact origin”.

Albarello is a form of bush or free standing vine, where the vine supports itself. In old times the vines were randomly planted looking like unkept bushes while today the albarello vine is a tall, upright, row-planted and cleverly-grown shrub whose growing shoots are renewed annually.

Our guests stroll between Benanti’s 100 year-old bush nerello on the 470 m hillside Monte Serra vigneti or vineyards, venturing into the 30 year-old single staked modern section at Viagrande, the company’s now historic wine home.

Monte Serra- 100 yo bush vines

And of course a smoking Mount Etna supervises the annual growing crop with a periodic black spray of lava ash. And the rain washes it off. The soil is very mineralised.

The original winery or palmento, is one of numerous ancient designer facilities scattered over Sicily. Lava stone wineries became as a cultural and business interest since the late 1700s.

The rejuvenation of the Mount Etna vineyard sites has seen a purchasing of these derelect palmentos for incorporation in the new wineries as historic parts, with use for wine making illegal (unsanitary) or uneconomic to re-build. But they make great aging cellars or show pieces.

I have visited similar wineries at Passopisciaro and Tenuta de Fessina.

The old vineyards were mixed in plantings and now on trend as a “field blend”. The locals say that their grandfathers must have known what is best for the final wine as nerello mascalese dominated though 20 per cent is nerello cappuccio, and 1-2 per cent the local white variety minnella. Minnella is no longer used.

Here is the lovely lithe general blend Benanti Nerello Mascalese 2012 Etna Rosso DOC, AUD 65, pale-medium colour, Etna terroir nose, volcanic origin, supple and enjoying, long flavour and oak well covered.

Benanti Nerello Mascalese 2012

Second wine in the pair is Benanti Nerello Cappuccio 2012 Etna Rosso DOC, AUD 65, very pale, usually unoaked to keep the softness, and very much akin to the light or soft reds of other regions; or also allowed to be blended with nerello mascalese in the field blend.

Benanti Nerello Cappuccio 2012

Uncorked guests taste the magnificence of the volcanic nerellos under the puffs of Etna’s occasional smoke. And view the vista of Etna up closer below!