Côte de Nuits Podcast

Continuing my educational podcast series, this episode looks at the Côte de Nuits in Burgundy where some of the world's greatest Pinot Noir is produced. Check out all the episodes on SoundCloud or iTunes.


Music by Bensounds.

Chablis Podcast

Continuing my educational podcast series, we focus on Chablis, the first of four episodes on Burgundy. Follow the podcast on SoundCloud or on iTunes.


The episode features a defintion of "minerality" by Chablis winemaker Lyne Marchive of Domaine des Malandes. You can watch the video of the full interview on YouTube , taken from the Vins de Bourgogne website.

Music by Bensounds.

Loire Valley Podcast

This blog takes a new track as it's now going to feature a series of educational podcasts. These are designed to help WSET students, particularly for Levels 3 and 4, as well as those taking other wine courses.

They can be found on my SoundCloud page and iTunes, as well as here on the blog.

The first episode is on the Loire Valley. Enjoy!



music by Bensound

Cru Beaujolais

Beaujolais may be the second most misunderstood wine in the world, after sherry. It's known, often to its detriment, for inexpensive, fruity wine that's designed to be drunk young. There's certainly a lot of that, but it also produces complex, sometimes challenging wines that demand ageing. These wines come from the ten crus, based around spectacularly situated hilltop villages. Vines abound here, crawling up the slopes in incredibly densely planted vineyards. The grape is Gamay, a high-yielding, early-ripening grape that often produces fruity and simple wines. Control those yields, however, and subject the juice to serious vinification and suddenly the grape produces high-quality wine - kind of what happens with any other grape variety in the world.

Fleurie

The problem that Beaujolais has, of course, is Beaujolais Nouveau, a style of wine that's marketed as one to be drunk young rather than to be aged. Beaujolais Nouveau grew out of a series of crises that afflicted the region - phylloxera, subsequent overproduction, and two world wars - and it in effect performed a rescue act that allows us to enjoy the wines of Beaujolais today. There's a place for Beaujolais Nouveau, as after all most people like to drink young, fresh fruity wines for immediate consumption, but it dogs the image of Beaujolais and prevents people understanding that the best wines of the region get better and better with time.

Basic Beaujolais comes from the flat plains to the south of the region, the grapes grown on clay and limestone soils that do little to limit yields. The plains rise to the north, where 38 villages contribute to Beaujolais-Villages, a higher-quality appellation. At the top of the slopes are the ten crus, where the granite-based soils, mixed with quartz, schist, and sand, limit yields and create much more intense wines.

I attended a tasting in San Francisco which featured wines from each cru. There were some fantastic wines on display, demonstrating how the ten crus differ in style and taste. Neighbouring Burgundy successfully markets such intra-regional differences as terroir, causing the wines to command very high prices. Cru Beaujolais is much cheaper, just as varied, and in my opinion just as good: the discerning consumer is in the advantageous position of being able to afford wines of such quality.

The problem that Cru Beaujolais has is not just one of image, but that it's very hard to categorise. Each cru has its own distinct character, and each producer have their own distinct style. Some producers make their wines with a form of carbonic maceration, making their wines softer and fruitier. Others destem and ferment the wines 'normally,' allowing the tannins to express themselves. Few, however, use new oak - and this is a wonderful aspect to Beaujolais as you get to taste the wine rather than the oak.

the ten crus

So, how to make sense of Beaujolais and its varied crus? The simple fact is that each cru and their producers make fantastic wine: it's hard to go wrong. These are very food-friendly wines that go well with salmon, chicken, pork, beef, or game dishes. They can be drunk young because of the natural fruitiness of Gamay, but they can age extremely well too - if you spot an older cru Beaujolais snap it up.

The highlight of the tasting was Domaine Marcel Lapierre's 2015 Morgon. Marcel Lapierre, who died in 2010, was one of the icons of Beaujolais, with a focus on quality and minimal intervention in the winery. The wine was simply incredible: fruity, chewy, ripe, crunchy, and spicy, with a long, warm finish. 2015 was a hot vintage, so the wine is probably bigger than usual, but there's still an elegance and balance to it. If you can get hold of a bottle, it retails for $48. ✪✪✪✪✪✪✪

the ten crus from north to south

Saint-Amour

sales apparently shoot up around Valentine's Day. Yes, that's the culture we live in. The wines are bigger and spicier than most Beaujolais.

Juliénas 

the cru that's in the middle of all Beaujolais's styles, and therefore my favourite: fruity, with some tannins and ageability.

Moulin-à-Vent 

one of the more famous of the crus and one of the more ageable.

Fleurie 

floral and pretty wines that can still age: Clos de la Roilette's Marque Déposée is a great example.

Chiroubles 

we tried Domaine Damien Coquelet, a producer who made his first wine in 2007 when he was twenty. He's trying to revive Chiroubles's reputation and doing a very good job.

Morgon 

there is a verb in French, though I don't know if anyone still uses it: morgonner - to Morgon, which means when a wine becomes like Pinot Noir as it ages. Morgon, like many of the crus, can certainly taste like Pinot Noir as the wine gets older.

Régnié 

the youngest of the crus (it became an appellation in 1988) and high up, the wines are aromatic and best drunk young.

Brouilly 

fruitier and designed for earlier drinking. This is the furthest south of the crus and more like Beaujolais-Villages wines.

Côte de Brouilly 

from the mountain above Brouilly, the wines are much more intense and tannic. For either Brouilly or Côte de Brouilly, try Château Thivin.
 

Rhône Rangers

In the 1980s, a small band of Californian producers teamed together to form the Rhône Rangers to promote wines made from varieties, such as Syrah, Grenache, and Viognier, grown in that great French region. Then in 1989, the Perrin family, who own Château de Beaucastel in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, bought property in Paso Robles, together with their US importer Robert Haas. While waiting to establish the Tablas Creek winery, they imported cuttings directly from their property in the southern Rhône, making available for the first time other quality Rhône varieties such as Mourvèdre and Counoise as well as whites like Grenache Blanc.

The popularity of these wines is still small, but production and quality is rising. Paso Robles, with its warm climate and limestone soils, has emerged as the epicentre of Rhône styles of wine. It's not the only region though: Santa Ynez Valley further south makes peppery Syrah; the Sierra Foothills, hotter and higher, have great potential for wines from Mourvèdre; and, beyond California, Washington, with its more continental climate, also makes great wine from Rhône varieties.

At a Rhône Rangers event in San Francisco, I tasted a number of wines, some blends, some from famous varieties, and some from little-known varieties. Here are some of the highlights.

wines and their makers

Tablas Creek Terret Noir 2015 ($35)

There are 18 different varieties allowed in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, some of them rarely used and if so only for blending. As Tablas Creek have access to cuttings of all the Châteauneuf grapes, they have the chance to experiment with them and learn what the wines from the more obscure varieties actually taste like. They have just 0.2ha of Terret Noir, which they plan to use for blending but they've also made a varietal bottling to share the taste of this obscure variety. The grape has big berries and dark skins, yet, conversely, it produces a very pale coloured wine reminsicent of Nebbiolo. The wine is floral, herbal, and spicy, with red fruits and really dry tannins (again not dissimilar to Nebbiolo). It would make a fantastic pairing with a wide range of food (duck, game, meat, roast veg) and I hope Tablas Creek continue to make wine from the variety. ✪✪✪✪✪

On a side note, two people at the tasting described the tannins of the Terret Noir as "tacky." I've never heard this word used to describe tannins and it was equally confusing to Tablas Creek winemaker Neil Collins who said "that doesn't sound very pleasant." A dictionary has the following definition: "(of glue, paint, or other substances) not fully dry and retaining a slightly sticky feel: the paint was still tacky." So I suppose describing the dry tannins of the Terret Noir as tacky was accurate, but, given it usually refers to something that's cheap and low-quality, it's still not a word I'll be using.

Adelaida Vineyards Picpoul Blanc 2015 ($35)

Picpoul is allowed in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, although most white wines from there are blends of other varieties. Further west, Picpoul is the grape variety for Picpoul de Pinet on the Languedoc coast, one of the few French appellations that contains the name of the grape (other areas now technically have to spell it Piquepoul). The wines there are light, fresh, and acidic - Picpoul literally means "lip-stinger." Picpoul wines being made in Paso Robles are quite different, heavier and fuller-bodied, but still with a refreshing acidity - Adelaida's winemaker, Jeremy Weintraub, said the wine had over 9g/L of total acidity, which is remarkable in such a warm wine region. Adelaida's Picpoul Blanc was a great example of a balance between the rich ripeness coming from the warm climate of Paso Robles and the natural acidity of the grape. ✪✪✪✪✪

Qupé Roussanne 2012 ($30)

Under Bob Lindqvist, Qupé were one of the original Rhône Rangers. They're based in Santa Maria, making wines from Syrah, Grenache, Viognier, and, most notably, Roussanne and Marsanne. These are two of the great white grapes of the Rhône, but it's rare to see them elsewhere. Marsanne, which has a waxy, oily texture, is the base of white Hermitage in the northern Rhône, while Roussanne, which has more aromas and acidity, is at the heart of white Châteauneuf-du-Pape. Roussanne is my favourite because of the rich aromatics, acidity, and the easy way it takes to oak ageing. Both these grapes also age wonderfully well in bottle, maintaining their structure while developing mature, complex aromas: this wine was from 2012 and still felt young and fresh. ✪✪✪✪

Mourvèdre geek: where are the accents?

Seven Oxen Mourvèdre 2014 ($42)

In contrast to Qupé, Seven Oxen is a new project and I tasted three of their wines from the 2014 vintage, just their second. Their winemaker is Bastien Leduc from south-west France, so he's used to working in the warm climate of Paso Robles. Because of the climate, late-ripening Mourvèdre works perfectly in Paso, the hot summer and warm autumn getting the grape gradually ripe. There were plenty of good examples at the Rhône Rangers tasting; Seven Oxen's Mourvèdre stood out with rich, ripe black fruit, warm mouthfeel, and dry (not tacky) tannins. ✪✪✪✪✪

Wrath Ex Anima Syrah ($25)

Oak abounds in California, so it's always refreshing to taste wines that have seen no new oak. There were quite a few wineries emphasising the lack of oak in the wines, so maybe the tide is turning. Wrath are based in Monterey, an area that has history with Rhône varieties (mainly because of Bonny Doon, another of the original Rhône Rangers). This Syrah is only aged in old oak, so the purity of the fruit really shines through. It also makes it easier to drink young, but there are plenty of complex black fruit and spice aromas. Even better, the lack of oak cuts down on the price. ✪✪✪✪

A lot of these Rhône Rangers are beginning to produce single-varietal wines (which is what I've focused on here) as a means of attracting consumer interest. Don't forget the blends, because that's what the Rhône itself excels in, but if these single-varietal wines can get people drinking wines from the wonderful range of varieties it can only be a good thing. And the love for these styles of wines is definitely spreading: I got to taste for the first time wines from Arizona! Grown at 1,700m altitude just an hour from the Mexican border, the Viognier and two Grenache wines I tasted were pretty good. If there's a future in Arizona for winemaking, maybe it will come from the Rhône...

Rune wines from Arizona, with labels by a local graphic artist