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March 18, 2006
Tasting notes from the French wineries
French wines are particularly hard to understand. Every little village has its own wines and their own classifications. Grapes are rarely displayed on the bottles, and some age well, while others should be consumed right away. Here are some tasting and degustation notes for the places we visited last week in France. I hope that this will provide a few ideas if you want to buy a few bottles of French wine or visit France.
REGION: CHAMPAGNE
Champagne is a sparkling wine typically made from blending chardonnay, pinot noir, and pinot meunier. It was first produced when wine-making monks found their barrels exploding, since carbon dioxide is a byproduct of fermentation. Today, one in 10,000 bottles of champagne explodes in the cellar, though the dimple in the bottom of the bottle (called “the asshole of the bottle”) prevents the explosion from affecting neighboring bottles. The valleys around Reims (pronounced “RAHngs”), northeast of Paris, have a chalky soil particularly well-suited to producing the three grapes.
Vines are planted as far as the eye can see in Ambonnay, a Grand Cru (i.e. one of the best villages).
MOET et CHANDON
Napoleon’s champagne supplier, Moet is Champagne’s biggest producer by far. Today it is owned by LVMH, whose portfolio includes names like Grand Marnier and Cloudy Bay, perhaps the world's best sauvignon blanc varietal. The Moet cellar, carved into limestone over 200 years, has 18 miles stacked floor to ceiling with upper-end champagnes, including Dom Perignon, Brut Imperial, and Nectar Imperial. (The brand Dom Perignon is named for a monk who contributed substantially to champagne production methodogies.)
The 18 miles of caves at Moet.
The champagnes of Moet are well-crafted but familiar. White Star is a regular at weddings, with a higher dosage of beet sugar added to appease American palates. The rose wines are more interesting, with a bit more structure. Moet’s vintage champagnes (those bearing a year on the bottle) are most interesting, perhaps because they are least familiar.
While many producers like Chateau Canon-La-Gaffielere (see below) are shifting to traditional wine-making methods, Moet pioneers new technology and new ways of enjoying the wine. Particularly noteworthy is a heat-based technology that extracts the color and flavor of pinot noir for the rose wines without the bitterness of traditional methods. Also noteworthy is their recommended way of drinking Nectar Imperial, the highest-sugar of the Moet line. They recommend serving Nectar not in a flute but instead in a very tall, very thin highball glass with two small lime peels in the base. Traditional champagne producers shutter.
Three of Moet's mainstream champagnes.
The tasting session includes a visit to the cellars, which are worth it if only to experience their magnitude. As Moet says, “be fabulous!”
JACQUES BEAUFORT
Going from Moet’s “be fabulous” glitter to Jacques Beaufort’s quiet farm was a study in opposites, even though they both make $100+ Grand Cru champagne. Beaufort greeted our bus and promptly had us driving to his vineyards, schlepping into the muds of Champagne, where he explained his organic farming methods. When he was a young man in the 1970s, working in the grape fields, he developed an allergy to pesticides and decided to go all-organic. Unlike the suits at Moet, Beaufort wore a traditional farmer’s outfit and had the unpolished appearance one associates with a family farmer.
Beaufort’s production facility is a squat concrete building strewn with winemaking paraphernalia including new bottles, presses, corks, and even a taxidermy of a badger. We kept descending through three cobweb-filled underground storeys, all completely disorganized except in Beaufort’s mind.
One of the biggest challenges of producing champagne is to disgorge the yeasts left over from primary fermentation. LVMH uses a now-common high-tech freezing procedure involving liquid nitrogen, while Beaufort does it all by hand the old way, one bottle at a time, in the lowest level of his cellar. He even demonstrated the tricky procedure, which involves popping the bottle at the same time that an air bubble enters the neck.
Jacques Beaufort disgorges the yeasts from a bottle using the traditional method.
As one would expect, Beaufort’s champagnes are packed with character and terroir. A simple non-vintage Grand Cru starts around $30/bottle and provides attractive fruit, mineral, and acid flavors with less sugar than Moet. I particularly enjoyed the 1990 rose champagne ($65), which had mellowed and concentrated into an elegant, long, smooth, softly-effervescent wine during 14 years of aging on the yeasts.
If you visit, call ahead and bring a French speaker to translate. Mr. Beaufort sells bottles at the estate for roughly 1/2 to 1/3 of the price in stores, and they are not available in the US.
REGION: CHABLIS
Chablis is a region in east-central France known for chardonnay. The very best wines are classified as Grand Crus, which will develop more fully if aged for perhaps a decade.
The next tier, the Premier Crus, are relatively inexpensive but provide excellent floral hints. Because Chablis is a cool region, most Chabils chardonnays lack the heavy oak taste, buttery nose, high alcohol, and high sugar that make California chardonnays taste flabby and overdone. As such, a Chablis would pair well with appetizers like light salads, lighter fishes like sea bass, and foie gras (goose or duck liver brutally made by force-feeding the animal, a method illegal in 16 countries but defended by the French).
One result of too much drinking.
LA CHABLISIENNE
The Chablisienne is a cooperative producer, meaning they bottle the wines grown by small local producers. The range is very wide, with some unremarkable young, cheap chardonnays, though the more-aged wines of the Grand Crus are a unique experience. Most chardonnay is ready to drink soon, though these have enough acid, structure, and fruit to age a decade or more. The most interesting wines sold at the vineyard are mid-1990s Grand Crus, with prices as low as $18 for a half-bottle.
REGION: BURGUNDY
Bordeaux’s rival, Burgundy is located between Dijon and Lyon and is known for chardonnay (white) and pinot noir (red). Pinot noir is a lighter red grape that gives aromas of strawberry, raspberry, and cherries. It is very “fussy” but grows better in Burgundy than anywhere else in the world. Good pairings include lighter meat dishes.
The Burgundy classification system can be very difficult to understand. The best wines are Grand Crus (about 2% of total), followed by Premier Crus (another 15%), followed by “village” wines, which will have the name of a village with the words “Apellation Origine Controlle.” But the bulk of Burgundy’s production is still generic wine simply labeled with the name “Burgundy.” Our tastings showed that the differences can be enormous, as slightly different plots impart different mineral characteristics and allow the wines to develop different levels of fruitiness. Because Burgundy is cold (and snow-covered when we visited), the best wines come from a few plots that get very good sun and have good drainage.
DOMAINE DU CHATEAU DE PULIGNY-MONTRACHET
We were met at Chateau Puligny-Montrachet by Mr. Etienne de Montille, a famous French winemaker better known for his association with Domaine de Montille, which has been owned by his family for nearly 400 years. After more than a decade as a merchant banker at BNP Paribas in Paris, where he helped buy and sell wineries, Etienne began turning-around Ch Puligny-Montrachet after it was foreclosed upon and retained in a bank’s investment portfolio.
Etienne is quite a character. Like every winemaker we met, his veins have not blood but wine, yet Etienne also recognizes that many people find Burdundy’s complicated labels confusing and has devoted substantial energy to wine education. Of noble origins, he has a title (like Count or Baron) but bucks tradition by refusing to use it. “It depends on what century you want to live in, the 18th or the 21st,” he said—a philosophy that is reflected in his approach to wine. Over dinner, Etienne argued for revisions to France’s rigid 150-year-old appellation origine controlle (AOC) system, which guarantees a wine’s origin and production methods but not its quality. As our wine teacher at Columbia says, “if a producer says at harvest time, ‘Hey Francois, let’s go fishing,’ he can still produce wine under a good appellation.” Etienne had a slightly different perspective: “There are some producers here making terrible wines, but they think they’re making good wine because they have no taste. This is a real problem to ensure the quality of our wines.”
Tasting at Puligny-Montrachet. Click for a larger picture.
Burgundy’s history comes alive with a visit here. There is still buzz about 2003, which was the earliest harvest on record since 1422(?). Apparently record-keeping began around 1154(?), though vines have been planted on Burgundy since pre-Roman times. Over those two millennia, the exact best plots for each grape have been identified and designated the Grand Crus and Premier Crus.
Etienne put together a vertical tasting of his 2001, 2002, and 2004 vintages, as well as a comparison of a generic, village, and Premier Cru wine. The difference was significant, with better fruit, minerality, and balance in the Premier Cru—most of which is due to the subtle differences in the growing conditions. As for the vintages, we all had different favorites, even though they were all different.
Wine is not sold at the chateau, but Beaune has numerous wine shops.
REGION: BORDEAUX
Bordeaux and Burgundy are like the Bears and the Packers: in the same division but fierce rivals. One Bordeaux winemaker asked, “You say you’ve been to Burgundy? Where’s Burgundy?”
While Burgundy produces softer pinot noirs, Bordeaux is known as the best region in the world for big, elegant, finessed blends of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon under names like Chateau Latour, Chateau Haut-Brion, and Chateau Mouton-Rothschild. There is also a dessert wine producing AOC called Sauternes, where bottles of Chateau d’Yquem regularly fetch $600/bottle.
The best Bordeaux wines are made to age, rather than to drink today, unlike most New World wines. These “grand” reds are fermented on the lees, aged in oak barrels, and sold through an ancient system of Bordeax merchants. The producers are all named chateaux, and many actually have a grand old chateau on the property. At Chateau d’Issan, the mansion dates to the 16th century, but wine from the estate was served at the wedding of Eleanor of Aquitaine in 1152.
While many Bordeaux wines will stretch one’s wallet, we also found an excellent little producer whose wines sell for around $12.
The cellar of Chateau d'Issan, a good value producer in Bordeaux. The fresh oak and fermented grape aromas in these cellars are not apparent from the pictures.
Millesima, a Bordeaux-based wholesaler, stocks Eur 32M of wine in its temperature-controlled cellars.
CHATEAU CANON LA GAFFELIERE
Chateau Canon-La-Gaffeliere is one of the highest-regarded producers in St. Emilion. The Chateau’s owner is a colourful Count named Stephan von Neipperg. Count Stephan is Etienne de Montille’s opposite in his approach to dress, speech, and marketing. If Etienne lives in the 21st century, Count Stephan proudly lives somewhere in the 12th century, when his family first started making wine. His favorite phrase is “completely stupid,” said with a confident Austrian accent to describe winemaking techniques he disagrees with. The winery’s marketing centers around his eccentric character, which blends a nobleman’s confidence and unapologetic old-fashionedness with a hint of giddiness for showing-off his product.
We met Count Stephan with him wearing a blue graph paper, French-cuffed shirt with a red ascot. Taking preppy dress to a whole new level, he had a baby-blue cashmere sweater tied around his green plaid jacket. His pants were bright red, possibly velvet. I wondered if Count Stephan ever took his brown suede lace-ups into the muddy vineyards, but we were soon bending over a low vine as Count Stephan explained how his team prunes the vines to produce very low yields but intense fruit, acid, and tannin. The winery recently reverted to oak-vat fermentation because “it is the traditional way.” Unlike most of the world’s wineries, Canon-La-Gafielere does not crush the grapes, but instead dumps them whole into the vat for alcoholic fermentation. Count Stephan believes that this produces better intensity, tannin, and fruit as the skins break down.
The wines are indeed powerful, intense, and tannic, but also display excellent finesse and delicacy that will allow them to develop fully in 10 to 30 years, although they appeared to still be a bit harsh now. In fact, Count Stephan’s cellars feature bottles dating to the 1920s, including many from the 1982 vintage, one of the best in decades for Bordeaux. “I send some of the 1982 to the police station at Christmas every year,” Count Stephan explained. “It wasn’t that good of a vintage for our wines, but they are happy to get ‘some of the really good stuff.’” Count Stephan recommends his 2001 as a particularly good value. In France, it will run about $80/bottle, though it’s actually much cheaper in the States, where I got it for $60 at Sherry Lehman.
CHATEAU LAGRANGE
This was the favorite visit of most members of the trip. It was at >Chateau LaGrange, located on the Medoc Peninsula in the St. Julien AOC, that we learned how well Bordeaux wines age, and how much they change if left in a dank cellar for 20 years. The Chateau promised our tour leader that they’d prepare a light lunch for us with some pairings. It turned into a full-blown four-course lunch, with appetizers including a local white ocean fish paired with a medium-bodied and fruity white Bordeaux blend of Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc. The Semillon provided a bit of structure, while the Sauvignon Blanc contributed its usual fruit-salad taste. Lovers of white wine need not write-off Bordeaux completely with wines like this available (but good luck finding it in the States).
The main course was a local beef prepared the French way—seared outside and bloody, bleeding, rare inside. But the big surprise that knocked-over everyone was when a double-magnum of the 1988 vintage arrived in decanters. After two decades in the cellar, the wine had lost the harshness, astringency, and peppery notes that characterize a young cabernet sauvignon, replaced with a smoothness, roundness, complexity, and balance with hints of nuts, cedar, and mushroom. Unlike a lousy wine that ages poorly, Lagrange’s wines didn’t have an overwhelming musty, undergrowth nose.
That 1988 wasn’t all. Midway through, the tide was going out (meaning glasses were getting empty), and a double-magnum of 1985 arrived! It’s hard to even find that sort of wine, and my guess is that the double-magnums might have been $600 to $800 a piece. Again, we may have quibbled over whether the ’85 or ’88 was better, but we agreed that this was some amazing wine.
The head winemaker at Chateau Lagrange.
Fortunately, the head winemaker and other top execs of the winery joined us for lunch where we discussed how great wines are made. Among the discussion comments: “I got into winemaking when I was at agricultural school and my choice was to specialize in animals, grains, or wines. It was an easy choice.”
CHATEAU HAUT-LAGRANGE
Not related to any winery with a similar name, Ch Haut-Lagrange was founded less than 20 years ago, when Francis Boutemy left his job at another chateau and planted the vineyards on Haut-Lagrange. His dedication to quality was almost as apparent as Count Stephan’s, including all-organic farming methods, removing excess grapes when still green, French barrel aging, and hand-sorting. However, Francis was willing to use concrete fermentation vats, which are inelegant but do have benefits during fermentation.
The resulting wines won’t age quite as long, but they are very drinkable after just a few years, and at $12/bottle, it’s hard to go wrong. I particularly liked the whites, which lacked the oakiness of a California white (as these are stainless steel aged) but had excellent fruit and were smooth on the palette. They also lack the high alcohol content of many new world reds.
The chateau’s owner wasn’t the colourful character of Count Stephan, but he was incredibly friendly, even autographing a wooden case. A visit here is highly recommended to see the contrast against some of the bigger producers.
Stainless steel vats (for white wine) and new French oak barrels at Ch Haut-Lagrange. A new French oak barrel costs $720 and adds about $2.50 to the final cost of a bottle.
Posted by adrianjo at March 18, 2006 11:20 AM