France
Growing Grey in the Sun
Posted by: | CommentsSpring has sprung in the Roussillon, prompting Katie Jones of Domaine Jones to share her enthusiasm for the season of renewal. Hers is a pocket handkerchief estate making three lovely wines. Her white is outstanding and is made from the Grenache gris, locally prized for its ageing capacity but unknown anywhere else.
‘The more I work with this grape variety the more I like it. It is a little frightening though as the grapes are pink and the juice when the grapes are pressed is bright orange, so I am always amazed by the lovely pale colour of the final wine. Grenache Gris makes some of the best white wines from this area of southern France and is often blended with other local grapes. Mine is not blended but exclusively Grenache Gris.
So why are my Grenache Gris special? They are 80 years old, they are planted on black slate soils and therefore they produce a very limited amount of grapes. The low productivity of my vines gives great depth and concentration to the final wine. It also means that the root structure is so well established that they don’t suffer from summer drought.
It still makes me smile that I almost didn’t buy this vineyard. Monsieur Bourrell who sold it to me forgot to mention that half of the vineyard was planted with Grenache Gris and not the red Grenache noir that I was expecting. As he took the grapes to the local cooperative, it didn’t matter to him that half the grapes were white. When I told him that I wasn’t sure that I still wanted to buy his vineyard he told me it wasn’t a problem – I could just mix it all together and make the traditional sweet dessert wine from Maury!
Not on your nelly, Monsieur Bourrell.’
Here at The Society we still need to wait for the 2011 but a small quantity of the 2010 (ref FC22301) is still available to order. To do so, please call Member Services on 01438 740 222.
Marcel Orford-Williams
Society buyer
Why You Should Not Overlook The Languedoc’s Superb 2010s
Posted by: | CommentsThe Languedoc is a big place – the largest single wine region on earth, according to some. It certainly feels like it, with over a thousand miles clocked up in less than a week.
Mont St Baudile with the vines of Montpeyroux in the foreground
I shall take nothing away from the Rhône, which has brilliant wines; but the Languedoc does too, and what was remarkable about this trip was the sheer quality of what was on offer and especially from the 2010 vintage.
The Rhône of course is not that far away and so seems reasonable that vintages should follow. The Languedoc being so large however, this is not always the case. 2008 is a great example: average in the Rhône but actually very good in the Languedoc.
Anyway, this is not about 2008 but rather about 2010: sublime in the Rhône and just as good in the Languedoc.
What makes 2010 special? The answer is that 2010 has everything. The wines are very dark, very fruity – satisfyingly full bodied yet without any of the aggressive tannins that are often present in good vintages. There is nothing baked or raisiny in these 2010s; the relatively cool but dry summer prevented that and indeed allowed the grapes to preserve acidity. The weather was perfect and allowed growers to wait and pick when they liked. The grapes were fully ripe.
There are several 2010s forthcoming in the July List (Montpeyroux la Pinpanella from La Jase Castel is one of many favourites) but otherwise there will be a very full listing in a Languedoc offer which will be published in the autumn.
Marcel Orford-Williams
Society Buyer
Lauding the Loire: A Round-up of Some Recent Press
Posted by: | Comments
There’s a lot of good wine out there. Missing out on a great one is understandable – particularly in the case of the Loire Valley’s wines, boasting as they do an extraordinary array of grapes and styles – but none the less tragic for it.
Society buyer Joanna Locke MW’s latest efforts to bring members the cream of the Loire’s remarkably varied crop can be found in our current offer, and it has been heartening to see the UK wine press giving plaudits to several of the wines therein.
Grapevine readers may already have seen the praise given to Mourat’s wines; to ensure that no other gems slip under your radar, we include below an assortment of other Society Loire offerings to have been given favourable mentions. Please note: our current Loire offer closes on Sunday 20th May.
Jancis Robinson recommended a further four Loire wines (‘VGV’ and ‘GV’ meaning ‘very good value’ and ‘good value’ respectively):
Robert Sérol, Vieilles Vignes 2011 Côte Roannaise 16.5/20 Drink 2012-2013
Lively and lifted. Rather stylish label. Light but true and savoury. Quintessential French country wine made with great facility. Silky texture, great persistence. Troisgros house wine by the way. VGV 12% £7.95 The Wine Society
Frédéric Mabileau, Les Rouillères Chenin Blanc 2011 Anjou 17/20 Drink 2012-2016
Lovely pure, fresh, appley aromas. Lots of tension and terroir. Finishes dry. This wine has just so much energy and typicity. Great stuff. Whistle clean. GV 13% £10.95 The Wine Society
La Claux Delorme 2011 Valençay 16/20 Drink 2012-2013
Very fragrant and floral. Gentle and off dry. Nice texture. Firm spine. Long. Well constructed. Good value. 13% £8.95 The Wine Society
Huet, Le Haut-Lieu Sec 2010 Vouvray 16+/20 Drink 2014-2018
Deeper flavoured than the Chenin des Rouillères 2011. With more honey and more wet wool. Lots to get your teeth into but awfully young for the moment. 12.5% £14.95 The Wine Society
Antony Rose (The Independent) included a nod for the following wine in his article about The Wine Society:
‘Frédéric Mabileau’s 2011 Chenin des Rouillères Anjou Blanc, £10.95, is a terrific expression of Loire Valley chenin blanc combining vivid appley freshness with a mineral-dry finish.’
Last but not least, The Wine Gang, made up of some of the best palates in the UK wine press, reviewed a ‘budget selection’ of Society wines. The Gang gave a timely reminder of the virtues of Muscadet, recommending a Society favourite in the process, as well as a relative newcomer to our range:
Domaine des Ratelles Muscadet Sèvre et Maine Sur Lie 2010
Muscadet doesn’t get a very good press these days. In fact it doesn’t get much press at all and its grape variety, Melon de Bourgogne, gets even less, but a good Muscadet – the antithesis of a showy wine – is a useful thing for washing down simple fish, seafood and salads. This one, with its delicate salted-nut and zesty citrus flavours, is as brisk as a swim in the Serpentine but much less masochistic. £6.75 at The Wine Society
Domaine de la Semellerie Chinon 2010
Youthful Loire Cabernet Franc with the signature sweet whiff of potato peelings, juicy raspberry and blackberry fruit and touches of spice, leather and liquorice. Light tannins and a nip of acidity complete the medium-bodied picture. £8.50 at The Wine Society
A Second Look at Bordeaux 2011
Posted by: | CommentsThe Society Bordeaux buying team of Sebastian Payne MW, Jo Locke MW and myself has recently spent a second week in Bordeaux, retasting many of the 2011s that we had sampled a fortnight previously during the annual ‘en primeur’ bunfight, and tasting many other 2011s for the first time. It is remarkable how in that short time many of the wines have evolved, and the week proved invaluable in helping us to distil down our selection for the main en primeur offer that we will be sending out next month. Over the course of our two sojourns in Bordeaux we have tasted several wines three, four and occasionally five times, so we feel we are well placed to put together a coherent and considered offer for members.
Week one had been a whirlwind, visiting some of the best-known wine names in the Bordeaux firmament, with one day that involved visits to Châteaux Léoville Las Cases, Lagrange, Pontet Canet, Mouton Rothschild, Lafite Rothschild, Latour and Ducru Beaucaillou – and that was just in one morning…
Our second week was, with one or two exceptions, more modest in terms of the global renown of châteaux visited and wines tasted, but no less interesting or enlightening. The vast majority of châteaux that we have followed for a number of years have made fresh, attractive and classically proportioned red wines that we have no hesitation in recommending subject, of course, to the wines being sensibly priced. Examples include Château Le Conseiller, Château Bouscaut, Château Belgrave, Château d’Angludet, Château Cantemerle and Château Batailley, to name but a few. 2011 was also an excellent Sauternes and Barsac vintage, with consistently high quality across the board, and we will be offering several of our favourites in our main Bordeaux opening offer.
Week two was also an opportunity to taste at the esteemed premises of JP Moueix in Libourne. Having “extinguished” our mobile phones [see above], we were treated to a procession of delicious merlot-dominant right bank wines in the splendid Moueix tasting room – a cavernous but tranquil setting for the Society tasters [right]. We also paid a visit to the strikingly Burgundian-looking cellars [below] of François Mitjavile at Château Tertre Roteboeuf in Saint Emilion, our annual opportunity to shoot the breeze with one of the most cerebral winemakers in Bordeaux, and taste the delicious fruits of his labours.
Our week ended with a visit to Château Reynon in the Premières Côtes de Bordeaux to see our old friend Denis Dubourdieu, wine guru, lecturer and oenologist to some of France’s most famous names; and a tasting at Château Climens in Barsac with owner Bérénice Lurton. Bérénice took us through no fewer than nine different barrels of 2011 Barsac, each cask containing the production of a single-day’s picking last autumn – the later the harvest day the sweeter, more lush and complex the wines tasted. The 2011 Climens is a true labour of love.
All that we are waiting for now is for the châteaux to release their prices, and we are hoping that the owners and decision makers will take a pragmatic view this year and release the wines at sensible prices. We are expecting a flurry of activity from the Bordeaux négociants in the coming days, although the profusion of public holidays in France this month may hamper the process somewhat.
Tim Sykes
Head of Buying
The Society has put in place new procedures for ordering Bordeaux 2011 this year. The first of our two 2011 Bordeaux Opening Offers, containing 30 of the most sought after wines of the vintage, requires members to pre-order the wines before the prices are confirmed by the chateaux. The remaining, generally less expensive, wines will be offered as normal, in print and online, in June or July.
High hopes, low barometer?
Posted by: | CommentsEwan Murray wasn’t the only Society taster putting his palate through its paces recently. Last week others were judging too. Here’s what happened on one of those days.
Tim Sykes
Some of the wine trade’s finest palates, including those of four of The Society’s buyers, were out in force last week as judging took place at the annual Decanter World Wine Awards. Thousands of wines from hundreds of viticultural regions were sniffed, swilled and spat over the five gruelling days of assessment and analysis. Judges were faced with the olympian task of sorting out the top wines into the customary Gold, Silver, Bronze and Commended categories, with the best of the best being put forward for regional trophies.
Michael Schuster
Having been invited to judge on the Friday session at this year’s event I was delighted to learn that not only had I drawn one of the longest straws possible, tasting on the Burgundy panel, but also that I would be sitting next to Michael Schuster, Society Committee member and stalwart of the Decanter Burgundy panel for many years.
Michael assured me that he and the various Burgundy judges had, earlier in the week, awarded several Gold medals, so I sat down at 9.30 on Friday morning almost salivating at the prospect of blind tasting over 80 white and red Burgundies.
Come 4.30 in the afternoon, my enthusiasm had completely evaporated. Of the many wines we had tasted, from Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Beaune to Premier Cru Meursault and from Bourgogne Pinot Noir to Premier Cru Morey St Denis, just two wines had, in the judges’ view, merited a Bronze medal. No Silvers, and certainly no Golds. “The most disappointing day’s tasting I have had in the ten years I have been judging at Decanter” was Michael’s bleak assessment.
My fellow judges and I were baffled as to the reasons for this lacklustre showing from one of the greatest wine regions of the world. We were tasting Burgundies mainly from the excellent 2009 and 2010 vintages, so how come the wines didn’t shine? One reason could be that barometric pressure was very low on Friday and that wines often fail to shine in such conditions. Our only other explanation was that few of the top producers in Burgundy enter their wines in competitions because demand for their wines outstrips supply several times over, particularly in a small harvest such as 2010. The great and the good of Burgundy will have sold out of their wines some time ago. However, as we had no idea whose wines we were tasting we could not verify this assertion. What remains clear is that earlier in the week many Burgundies were awarded Gold and Silver medals, so our day’s tasting was not representative of the week’s overall quality. 
Thankfully, at the end of the final session our faith was restored when we were treated to six Gold medal winning wines from previous days’ judging, all of which merited their award and indeed two of which we selected for regional trophies.
I retired to a local hostelry at the end of the day with some of my fellow judges for a well earned pint of ale. The general consensus was that a good pint of beer was infinitely more appealing than an average glass of Burgundy.
Tim Sykes
Head of Buying
Sacré Blanc for breakfast
Posted by: | Comments
Sacré Blanc for breakfast
Sacré bleu it’s Sacré Blanc! Our new brilliant chenin blanc from Mourat, Sacré Blanc, Chenin, Vin de Pays de Loire, 2011 (J Mourat Père et Fils), is put through its paces by David Whelehan on Ireland: AM, the popular Irish breakfast show. The wine is featured after 2 minutes 30 seconds.
The wine is available for £8.50 per bottle (£102 the case) in The Society’s current Loire offer, which closes on Sunday, 20th May.
One of Mourat’s reds featured in the offer also received a favourable writeup from Jancis Robinson MW (jancisrobinson.com). She wrote:
J Mourat, Collection 2010 Fiefs Vendéens Mareuil 16 Drink 2012-2014 Very unusual stumpy flask-like bottle. Racy and bone dry on, according to the back label, volcanic rhyolite soils. Bags of character. Dry finish. Great balance and interest. Just the sort of wine the Wine Society does so well. Long. Uncompromising in its dryness. Don’t serve too cool – nor too warm!
Champagne in Whitehall
Posted by: | Comments
No saucy farce this but the annual Champagne tasting put on by the CIVC in the splendid Banqueting House, a remnant of the lost Palace of Whitehall.
The event is an opportunity to taste very widely and gives a snapshot of who is doing what in Champagne.
Nearly 70 Houses were present and each showed three wines: non vintage, vintage plus one other.
This is not a blind tasting so there is the potential to be thoroughly biased. Having said that, with so many wines to taste and given the constraints of time, many wines fall by the wayside. One also assumes that all the wines on show come from running stock. But disgorgement dates are bound to vary and these can radically influence how a wine tastes. Very recently disgorged wines often taste out of kilter. The storing of Champagne leaves no room for error and anything badly stored can easily taste oxidized.
And to conclude? Well not really much different from last year: a few outstanding wines with everything that one might wish for in a bottle of Champagne. The majority are decent enough and in the right context, perfectly acceptable, and then there are the howlers, to be avoided. As last year I’ve given comments for each House and I’ve included last year’s verdict as well.
Champagne is an extraordinary product with over 300m bottles produced every year and all under just the one appellation. It comes in umpteen styles. Some are best for parties; others need a more gastronomic approach. I’ve given an indication where appropriate. My notes are a quick appraisal of how the wines tasted on the day, they are not intended as full-blown tasting notes but I show them here for your interest.
Here goes…
Marcel Orford-Williams
Champagne buyer
The Week The World Came To Bordeaux
Posted by: | CommentsPrimeurs week in Bordeaux is a marathon of tastings of inky young red (and a few dry and sweet white) wines, a whirlwind of meeting and greeting, top and tailed by fine food and wines. You may be thinking that we wine buyers are spoiled – and you’d be right (we’ll spare you the detail, but these experiences re-affirm why Bordeaux remains unrivaled in the world for its potential finesse and keeping potential) but the pleasure is greater, and the debate all the more stimulating in the good company of buyers and sellers from all over the world.
At Château Haut-Bailly this year our tasting group included contingents from the UK, Canada, Switzerland, Germany, Chicago, and Texas (featured). The debate was open, friendly, and lively thanks to General Manager Véronique Sanders’ invitation to all of us to give her our views on the prospects for the Bordeaux Primeurs campaign this year. Irrespective of national and personal preferences, all nationalities were of one voice in asking for Bordeaux to reduce its prices significantly this year.
Generous hospitality is not unusual in Bordeaux, but this relaxed and open discussion was as refreshing as the very fine range of wines we enjoyed. Wines that could not come from anywhere else.
Please remember that we will be offering the 30 or so most sought-after wines from the vintage in a different way this year, requiring members to pre-order them. For more information, please refer to our website.
Joanna Locke MW
Buyer, Bordeaux
Video: Marcel Orford-Williams on Alsace
Posted by: | CommentsYou can watch our own Marcel Orford-Williams (buyer for Alsace) discussing and tasting Alsace wines with Joanna Simon in the latest in a series of videos made for Wines of Alsace.
Society members can order the 2010 vintage of the sylvaner now, while the muscat will be available soon.
Look out for our offer of 2010 Alsace next month!
A Few Words From Bordeaux
Posted by: | Comments
Shiny new (and rather Dalek-like) tanks, waiting to go into their new home at Château Palmer’s cellar.
It’s the producer – more precisely the vigneron – that counts this year; far more than location, appellation, or classification. It is no surprise that those who walked their vineyards and acted early on the vagaries of the growing season, and who could then afford to wait for ripeness, have made the best wines.
It looks unlikely to be much of an investors’ vintage; it could be a good ‘drinkers’ vintage, if – and it remains a big if – prices are correct. Our purchases will be a tight selection this year, and we’ll taste a lot more wines, including several numerous times, in order to finalise our Opening Offer which is due to be published in June.
As mentioned, we will be offering the 30 or so most sought-after wines from this vintage in a different way this year, requiring members to pre-order the wines. For more information, please refer to our website.
Joanna Locke MW
Buyer, Bordeaux
