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Date tasted: March 8, 2009

Krug is in a league of its own. Of all the big boys in Champagne, I have to say that this is my favorite. Always muscular, but feminine at the same time. Everytime I drink Krug, there is just something so Krug about it. If you have tasted Krug, you know what I mean. If you haven’t, then you need to go and find out.

Founded in 1843 by Johann-Joseph, Krug is a Négociant-Manipulant (they source the majority of their grapes rather than growing them) located in Reims in the Montagne de Reims. They own 19ha of their own vineyards, and buy in top quality grapes from around 56ha.  Krug remains one of the few Houses in Champagne to ferment in small oak barrels.  They don’t practice malolactic fermentation (the fermentation that converts the natural occuring, tart tasting malic-acid to a softer tasting lactic-acid), and they utilize extended lees aging of 6-8 years even for their “basic” Grande Cuvée. They don’t filter their wines. Annual production is around 500,000 bottles.

The Clos du Mesnil is an exception to the Krug rule of  blending. This wine is 100% Chardonnay from the renowned Clos du Mesnil vineyard within the village of Mesnil-sur-Oger in the Côtes de Blancs. This historic 1.85ha vineyard has been enclosed by a stone wall since 1698  and is set on a southeast-facing slope and is sheltered from the weather by its wall and surrounding houses.  This vineyard was purchased by the Krug family in 1971 and started to carefully restore the vineyard to its previous glory by replanting the Chardonnay vines one section at a time. By 1979 the vintage had achieved the quality Krug was aiming for and was therefore the first vintage of the Krug Clos du Mesnil. Only about 12,000 bottles of this wine are made in only the top vintages. Even less bottles are produced in the desireable Magnum size.

Tasting this Champagne was a rare and most likely once in a lifetime opportunity for me. One I am very grateful for. Let’s talk vintage for starters. The 1985 vintage in Champagne was considered an excellent vintage. Perhaps the best vintage of the 1980’s.

1985 started with the worst frost the residents of Champagne had seen in over 150 years. In January, the temperature outside reached a low of -25 Celsius (-13 Fahrenheit)! At this point, the vines were still hibernating, so no damage done. However, by the time the vines had awoken it was still -15 Celsius (5 Fahrenheit) outside resulting in around 10% of the vineyards freezing. Even into April, outside temperatures were below freezing.  Thankfully, the weather changed substantially as the vines flowered and temperatures in August and September were hot.  Thanks to the long Indian Summer, harvest was in late September resulting in a small harvest of very concentrated grapes. The wines made from this vintage are still quite youthful and can rest a few more years down in the cellar.

Appearance: Slight development showing. Slightly darkened color, but not much. Fine and elegant stream of bubbles with a delicate mousse.

Nose: Fresh lemons with hints of mushrooms and truffle with overlaying minerality. Hints of toasted wood.

Palate: Very minerally with bright lemon fruit. Awesome acidity and length. Some toasty bread notes and hints of oak, but only hints.

I call this the sleeping giant. I don’t think that this wine fully opened this evening. We were a group of around 10 which meant that the Champagne was drunk up too quickly for it to come around. It was elegant, acidic and fresh, but not what I expected from this great wine. According to a reputable source, the  75cl bottled scored 98 points with a drinking window of between 2007 and 2020. Since Magnums (150cl) bottles are deemed by many to have superior aging potential (they age more slowly), I would imagine that perhaps this bottle was not quite ready and nowhere near its peak. I look forward to the next time we meet then. If there is a next time!

Tasted: 8th of March, 2009

(1997) Egly-Ouriet Cuvée Speciale

First of all, I would like to apologize for the quality of the photo, specifically the glare. I am not a photographer and especially on occasions like this evening where 8 different Champagnes of this caliber were pulled out of the cellar  by our most gracious host, I got so excited that my photography suffered even more!

On to the information which is, after all, why you are reading this! Thanks again to The Wine Doctor, which is where I found the most amount of useful information about Egly-Ouriet to add to my own.

A Récoltant-Manipulant (RM), Egly-Ouriet is considered by many, and myself,  to be one of the finest growers in Champagne today. Located in Ambonnay in the Montagne de Reims, they farm about 8ha of vines, all of which are Grand Cru.  75% of the vineyards are Pinot Noir, 25% Chardonnay and the average age of the vines is 35 years.  In addition, he also owns a small plot of Pinot Meunier (not Grand Cru) in Vrigny which he bottles separately as the Vignes de Vrigny NV.

In recent years, Egly has reduced the use of chemical fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides and he aggressively green harvests during the summer to control yields.

In the winery, he is one of the few in Champagne to ferment in Oak. His wines are never fined or filter before being bottled for the second fermentation. Sulfur use is minimal.  He practices long lees aging, up to 10 years on the 1996 Magnum. Low dosage is a trait, along with the date of Dégorgement (The process of freezing and removing the end of the bottle to extract sediment after the second fermentation of a sparkling wine) on the back label.

Egly-Ouriet also makes an Ambonnay Rouge. A 100% Pinot Noir still wine. I have had the opportunity to taste the 1998 and I thought that it was an extremely good effort. I tasted this wine in 2008 and although the oak was still dominant, the character of the oak was not offensive and the wine was quite fresh. I remember sweet cherries, minerality and good acidity and balance with a long finish. It was drinking quite well at the time, but could spend a few more years in the cellar for the oak character to soften a bit.

I am quite the Egly-Oriet fan. Due to extended lees ageing for his top wines, you can expect to find a rich style of Champagne with lots of yeast, toast and biscuit. When opened his Champagnes need lots of air

On to the Cuvée Speciale!  According to the Norwegian importer for Egly, this was most likely an experiment for Egly-Ouriet. It was only made in two vintages, 1997 and 1998, and few bottles were made. Although the vintage on this wine is not stated on the label, it is a single vintage.  This was the 1997 vintage. Date of Dégorgement was 2002, so it spent about 48 months on the lees. This wine was aged for approximately 10 months in 100% new french barriques. 100% Pinot Noir.

Appearance: a bit darker than the other Champagnes in it’s company. It appeared to be a bit older than it actually was.

Nose: the first aromas that were present for me were the mushrooms. My initial impression was that it may have been slightly over it’s peek. Aromas of yeast and minerals also showing along with the somewhat muted fruit.

Palate: a very mellow attack and first impression. Quite fresh, at least fresher than the nose would have indicated. Yeasty with mellow with persistent acidity.  Oak still dominant. Mushroom character also on the palate.

Overall, this Champagne did not impress me. I will admit, there was some heavy competition this evening but based on my knowledge and past experience with other Egly-Ouriet’s, this is my least favorite Cuvée. Although it was rich and yeasty, an Egly trademark for me, it lacked the backbone of freshness I have come expect from Egly and I think this Champagne may have been past it’s prime.

Date Tasted:  16th March, 2009

Scholars are fairly convinced of the link between part of  Turkey and the earliest growing of the cultivated vine used for wine making, Vitis vinifera.

Today, the vineyards of Turkey cover about 650,000 ha (1,605,500 acres) making  them the 5th largest in the world.  Only 2% – 3% of the average annual crop from these vineyards is made into wine while about 20% is used for producing raisins.  It has been estimated that between 500 and 1,000 grape varieties are grown in Turkey, although only about 60 of these are used to make wine.

This wine comes from the Southeastern Anatolia region of Turkey. Archeological finds show that vines were cultivated in Anatolia as early as 4000 B.C. This region has Turkey’s largest area of vineyards, but it is ranked 4th in the production of wine.

Southeastern Anatolia

The Doluca winery is one of the better known wine producers in Turkey. It was established in the 1920’s by Nihat Kutman after completing his education at the very reputable Geisenheim Wine Institute’s programme in Enology and Viticulture.

This was their Special Reserve (Kav) wine made with the grape varieties Bogazkere and Öküzgözü. It was stored in french oak barriques for 12 months.

Please note that this was my first time tasting a Turkish wine and had no clue what to look for or what to expect.

Appearance: Quite an intense, glowing light red color. About as light a red as you might expect from the Pinot Noir grape – see through. But with a more intense glow.  Very very slight browning around the edges, matching what I would expect from a wine of this age.

Nose: The first aromas that emerged were those of spices. In particular Cinnamon, cardamon and clove. There were hints of oak, but at this time, they weren’t dominant.  Slight smokey hints, blackberries, cherries and some interesting aromas that I can only compare to the smell you get when you carve a pumpkin and scoop out the seeds. Very interesting indeed.

Palate: Quite spicy. The same sorts of spices that were evident on the nose were now showing themselves on the palate. Sour cherries.

This wine had a good general mouth feel, well-balanced acidity and a good finish with a very slight bitterness. Tannins were mild and my opinion were most likely coming from the oak that the wine had been stored in and not from the fruit itself. The alcohol was also very well integrated.

After the wine had been opened a half hour or so, the fruit began to soften and the oak dominate. At a certain point, I actually stopped drinking it. I put what was left of the wine in the refrigerator overnight. To my surprise, the next night the wine was again drinking very well, the fruit again showing its sour cherry self and the oak no longer dominant.

An interesting wine – I was pleasantly surprised.

I would love to have the opportunity to try other Turkish wines.

Detail of front label

Detail of back label

Date tasted: 8th March, 2009

This has always been my favorite Cuvée from the well-known Champagne house Billecart-Salmon. They also produce a benchmark Rosé (many think that the name Salmon is the name given due to its color) that is a favorite among many Rosé Champagne lovers. Located in Mareuil-sur-Aÿ in the Valée de la Marne, this house was founded in 1818 by Nicolas Francois Billecart and Elisabeth Salmon.

This is cuvée was created in 1964 as a tribute to the House’s founder. It results from the blending of Grand Crus from the classified Côte des Blancs vineyards (Chardonnay – 40%) and the Montagne de Reims (Pinot Noir – 60%).  Alcoholic fermentation is carried out in steel at a very low temperature of 12C (about 54F).  After the malolactic fermentation, this wine is left to age on the lees in the bottle for at least 6 years (this was the amount of time for the 1/2 bottle, so the magnum could have been on the lees longer) before dégorgement (the process of freezing and removing the end of the bottle to extract sediment after the second fermentation of a sparkling wine).

On the nose: Fresh white toast, in other words, lots of autolysis (yeast). Fresh red apples and some minerals also appeared on the nose.  After some time being opened, I got the sensation of roasted duck breast on the nose as well. On the palate, this wine was extremely well balanced and extremely young and well-balanced. Excellent concentration of red apples, yeast and minerals.

This Champagne is extremely drinkable now, but in my opinion has huge cellaring potential. Keep in mind that this was a Magnum (150cl) and the 1996 vintage is considered by many to be one of the finest vintages of the century. Magnums tend to age more slowly and are referred to by many as the bottle size of choice for Champagne’s and other wines.

Date tasted: 8th March, 2009

Champagne Claude Cazals is  located in Mesnil-Sur-Oger in the Côtes des Blancs, the home of the Chardonnay grape in the Champagne region.  This wine is 100% Chardonnay and is without dosage (the sugar in the form of grape must that is added after the second fermentation). Malolactic fermentation is not encouraged, but can occur spontaneously.  The number of months on the lees is not known.

Claude Cazals is a Récoltant  Manipulant (a grower that also makes wine from its own grapes (a maximum of 5% of purchased grapes is permitted)). You will find the intials RM at the bottom of the label in small letters. Typically, these houses produce smaller quantities of wine than the “Big Houses” do and very often these Champagnes are more affordable as well. These are the Champagne’s I prefer to drink.

We drank this Champagne as an aperitif. It had a very fresh nose which included aromas of green apples, autolysis (yeast) and minerals. On the palate, again green apples, minerals and autolysis. This wine was very fresh and concentrated and due the high level of acidity, could benefit from a year or two in the cellar. I felt that at times, the acidity seemed to be the most notable attribute of this wine and it slightly overpowered the fruit and overall balance of the wine. The finish was very long and had some bitter notes not unlike the bitterness you find when chewing apple seeds.

A very well made Champagne indeed. One I wouldn’t mind storing for a few years to see if it improves.

Price in Norwegian Kroner = NOK 294,-  ($45)

Date tasted: 3rd March, 2009

Wow!

I surprised my small group of friends (and myself!) on one of our “gourmet pizza” evenings by pulling this wine out of my cellar.  I didn’t tell the small group of 5 what it was I was surprising them with to see if they could identify the country of origin, variety and “guesstimate” the vintage… I was not surprised when they had difficulties with this blind tasting as I was a bit surprised by the vitality of the wine considering the age. Also unexpected was the bouquet which emerged from the glass.

The first thing that I have to reiterate is that I not only pulled the wine from my cellar, but I also opened and served the wine at cellar temperature. A perfect 13 degrees Celsius (55.5 degrees Fahrenheit). After pulling the cork, which was in excellent shape, and some wine was poured into the glasses, what emerged from the glass was a massive herbal bouquet!
Anyway, back to the color for a moment. Yellow, but quite light in color actually. Surprised all of us that the wine was 20 years old. Looked more like a 10-year old wine in the glass. (Flash was used for this photo – which doesn’t really reflect the true hue of the wine, sorry!)

Ok, now back to the bouquet! Slight petrol/sulfur hints which burnt off after some time in the glass, but always present were these amazing aromas of spearmint and Thai basil with hints of “minerality”!! We all agreed that the Thai basil was dominant along with other herbs. Very interesting.
ON the palate, this Auslese wine with an 8.5% alcohol content, was almost completely dry after 20 years as you might imagine, but there was a mild sweetness at the front end when the wine first hit the tongue, but it quickly gave way to a very elegant but high level of acidity. Much more elegant in fact that many of the Karthaüser’s I have tasted in the past. Oh, of course, on the palate there were plenty of ripe lemons and a splash of kumkwat.. The wine was very concentrated and the finish very long.

A very nice wine for drinking today. If you own this wine, I would enjoy it now even though I feel it still had some cellar life left.. But why wait, drink it! This wine is exactly the reason that I am in love with the Riesling!!

Date tasted: 28th February, 2009

Last night I had the great opportunity to taste an unusual wine. A wine that I had personally purchased for the wine list of the wine bar I used to manage. I remember buying 4 bottles of this wine around 3 years ago after discovering how unusual it was. It was a great opportunity that I couldn’t pass up!
The Robert Chevillon Domaine farms around 13HA, most of which are in Nuits-Saint-Georges. The vineyards include 8 Premier Crus. Most of his vines are 25-40 years old, and some are almost 80 years old.

Robert makes around 1,000 bottles of this rare Nuits-Saint-Georges Vieilles Vignes Blanc, the subject of this tasting. The wine is made from  a mutated white Pinot Noir grape known locally as ‘pinot gouges’.  Here’s a brief paragraph borrowed from The Burgundy Report:

“Pinot & Mutation – Growers have known for generations that planting the same stock (clone) in different vineyards often ends up with vines that are somehow different, we’re not talking about micro-climate specifics such as ripening and how vigorous the vines might be, but also about the shape and growing habits of the vines. The growers feel that the vine somehow adapts itself to the location. There is also a more spontaneous change that can happen, just one branch of a vine may suddenly produce only ‘white’ grapes. This mutation is believed to have been the source of pinot blanc and pinot beurot (gris): A perfect example of this was the similar mutation of vine in Nuits St.Georges in the 1930’s from which cuttings were separated and planted in their own right. These white grapes are now known locally as ‘pinot gouges’, after the domain that found, planted and still exploits them – other sources call it pinot musigny. From a DNA perspective, beurot, blanc and gouges are to all intents and purposes the same as pinot noir.”

The first two bottles seemed to be corked (unfortunately), but the third seemed just fine. The wine was decanted immediately and consumed at around 14-15 degrees Celsius (57-60 Fahrenheit). This is a perfect temperature to begin consuming most white wine, not at the 8-10 (48-50 Fahrenheit) degrees most people drink their white wine!  In fact, the wine only improved as it warmed, as do many white wines and Champagnes.

Here are my tasting notes:

The color was quite a dark golden yellow with maturity evident.

The nose initially reminded me of some of the wines I had experienced from the Jura. In other words, immediately evident were aromas of oak and what reminded me of yeast or flor. It was rather difficult at this point to pickup on the fruit. Now I know that there have been issues with the premature oxidation of (white) Burgundies in the mid to late 90’s and perhaps this was another example of a Burgundy with premature oxidation, but that aroma that I can only describe as flor seemed to burn off a bit after some time in the glass so perhaps this is the way the wine was supposed to be.

The wine’s aroma was not not very complex initially, but eventually the aromas of flor and oak gave way to red apples, like one might find in a Blanc de Noirs from the Champagne region, and hints of orange peel and citrus. There were also mineral hints laying in the background. That smell of flor never fully subsided, but did soften over time.

On the palate, the wine was very concentrated and mineral with yellow apples, not red as was present on the nose. Medium weight with very good acidity for a wine of this age. I would rate the acidity at medium plus. The wine reminded me a bit of a Chardonnay, but with less weight and not as oily or fat. At first the 13% alcohol was quite evident, but began to integrate itself about 30 minutes after the bottle was decanted. The finish was very long at around 30-40 seconds.

My overall impression was that this was most likely a good bottle and was displaying the characteristics that it should. The wine was well made and could have even been stored for another 4-7 years in my opinion. To sum up, this was an interesting wine to taste, but not one that will keep me up at night thinking as many red Burgundies do.

If you have had the opportunity to taste this wine or a similar wine, it would be interesting to hear your feedback.

Before I get to the the tasting note, I just want to start off by asking you to bare with me. I haven’t been posting as often as I would like because  I am still trying to figure out this WordPress thing. The posts on my site don’t show up the way I’d like them to. So, until I figure this out, please be patient with the placement of photos within my posts. Thank you. And without further delay:

Detail from the back label:
“….Barolo will naturally produce a sediment as it matures. Before Borgogno will export any of their mature wines, each bottle is decanted from this sediment, checked, and then topped up from the same vintage and recorked. For this reason the corks in the olders wines will be new, but the quality has been guaranteed by the producer before shipment. DECANTED: JULY 2007”

Opened and NOT decanted. Poured into large Burgundy glasses.

The wine was a light rusty red with rusty brown edges – color still quite “intense” considering the 47 year age of this wine

Sniffed immediately:

INITIAL IMPRESSION ON THE NOSE
slight farmyard scents with some crushed rose pedals
eucalyptus leaves
sour cherries
forest floor
some spice in the background
a little burn on the nostrils from the alcohol.

Tar and roast meat emerging on the nose after some time in the glass. Also
some licorice emerging – more perfumed and more intense fruit

INTITIAL IMPRESSION ON THE PALATE
sour cherries and dried sour fruit
gripping tannins (still after all these years) and
high acidity (still after all these years)
finish persisting for 15 to 20 seconds

15-30 minutes after the bottle was opened, the wine started really opening up – fruit was more intense on the nose and on the palate. Acidity more pronounced and tannins a bit softer, but still quite firm. The wine remained well-balance throughout.

A typical aged nebbiolo with classic nebbiolo nose and palate with well defined and firm tannins. Well made, good concentration and balance, but not very complex. I believe that this bottle still hade some life ahead of it – enjoy now or for another 5-10 years.

Although it’s always interesting to taste a mature wine, this wine didn’t leave me desiring more..

And now, the photos: