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No, not the song (even though my wheels are spinning now). I just can’t get enough.. of Brignot. The wine maker who now lives in Japan but in a previous life made grapes ferment into masterpieces in the Jura (and in other places in France, although his Jura wines are the (best) shit). He’s not a dinosaur, but his wines are legendary, rare and gigantic on an emotional level. I have a handful of favorite producers, as anybody does, and still when I taste the wines of Jean-Marc I feel immortal…sort of the way his wines taste.
I am not going to give you a lot of factual bullshit. Google the grape and the region if you want, but here is what’s important – what this wine tastes like. Once again my only regret.. it was only a damn half magnum..
Nose: walnuts, flowers, yellow roses, limes, underlying minerals, lemon peel, pomelo, pansy
Palate: Taste is ducking good. Juicy. Character of Vin Jaune. This 2004 Savagnin is balanced like hell. Still in place with acid, fruit and structure after 8 years and no “preservatives” like sulfur You think that sulfur preserves a wine? bullshit. You know what preserves a wine? Good grapes preserve a wine, that’s it.
Dear Jean-Marc,
Please please please don’t stop bottling fermented grapes. Your fermented grapes are why I am what I am and do what I do.
Hugs,
Me
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This being said folks, it’s time to move on and say “I’m not drinking any fucking Pinot Noir!” It’s time to give other (red) grapes a chance. Other grapes that I often look to to seduce me and make me smile! Even getting me to jump out of my chair! So what grapes am I talking about? Which grapes am I drinking most often these days?? Read ON!!
What about Gamay? Gamay finds it’s home in a few areas (mostly) in France and in the hands of the right grower, can seduce. Clos Roche Blanche in the Loire. Jean-Marc Brignot , Jean Foillard, Clos des Vignes du Maynes & Jean-Paul Brun (to name only a few) in Burgundy. I’m told that Edmunds St. John also makes an interesting Gamay in California, though I have not yet tasted it. The Gamay-based wines are incredibly fresh, dominated by red fruits and hints of spice. Thanks to the low(er) alcohol often found in these wines, their drinkablility is beyond compare!
What about Pinau d’Aunis? Found in the western parts of the Loire Valley, this once noble grape is slowly making a comeback thanks to Domaine Griottes, Clos Roche Blanche (try their Rosé!) & Jean-Pierre Robinot to name a few. With it’s truly seductive (and unmistakable) aromas of pencil lead, grapefruit and incense-like aromas, these incredibly fresh and light wines seduce me every time and this grape is quickly climbing to the top of my favorite (red) grapes list.
What about Schioppettino? Found in the far reaches of Friuli (near the Slovenian border), and until more recently, an unheard of grape for me. Then along came Fulvio Bressan with his “little firecracker”, the Schioppettino. Dominated by black pepper, minerals and black fruit while remaining fresh, this certainly is a grape to put on your top list of grapes to try!
What about Poulsard? Mainly found around the town of Pupillin in the Jura (just east of Burgundy), this thin-skinned red grape produces light colored wines which can be a bit reductive at first. Once open, brilliant, high-acidity and red fruit mark these delicate wines. These wines are a great fit for the local charcuterie & smoked sausage. Try the wines of Jean-Marc Brignot, Tissot and Overnoy to get a good taste for what this red grape can produce!
And let’s not forget the Nerello Mascalese! This Sicilian (Mt.Etna) grape is responsible for making wines like Frank Cornelissen’s Magma and Munjebel Rosso. Aroma’s that fit nicely between the Pinot Noir and Nebbiolo grapes. Aromatic wines with loads of freshness and solid tannins. Certainly not a grape to pass up if you have the opportunity to taste it. Great potential for aging – if you’re into that.
So, it time to starts saying “If anybody orders Pinot Noir, I’m leaving!” and time to start tasting some new grapes! Tell me about your favorite red grape(s)?
]]>THE FOOD:
Slow cooked pork neck Tomato salad, capers and onion Pork juice and fresh herbsWhat? Serving a Beaujolais Nouveau in June?! I’ve done stranger things, but I have to tell you that this Nouveau needed some time in bottle after release (released in Norway in March of this year). Gorgeous, healthy fruit give this wine an incredible structure that stands up nicely with this course. Ripe acidity keeps up with the pork fat and the mild tannins clean up nicely. A really surprisingly good pairing, and just right for Spring!
]]>* (I noted the 2008 vintage here because this is the first and only vintage of this wine I have ever tasted.)
Of course I have many more favorites and could have made this list quite long… but these are my favorite 9 for now!
]]>And along came natural wines. Pure, fermented “grape juice”. I find it difficult these days to drink wines that I can see through. I’m not saying I want to have a glass of super-dark, jammy, inky wine. In fact, I like wines that are lighter in color and fresher in taste. What I am actually saying is, I prefer my wines to be totally unfined and unfiltered. I love cloudy wines, wines with bits and pieces of “deconstructed grapes” floating around freely. A glass of wine that I can’t see through because of the living particles afloat in the glass. I believe that fining and filtering a wine is partly to blame for the “death” of a wine, along with over-sulfuring.
I also love wines of all colors – from light red to off-red, light white to light orange, even some brown wines I have tasted have intrigued me.
Often times, these light, fresh, unfiltered wines are easier to drink and very often pair well with a wide range of different foods.
As lovers of wine, we should give all wines a chance. Let’s dispel our beliefs that a red wine should be dark red and a white wine should be yellow and totally clear. Let’s dispel our belief that a white wine should be sparkling and a red should be still. Let’s give all wines a chance – light, cloudy reds; orange-hued whites; sparkling reds and sparkling orange-hued wines. They all want the chance to be understood, so give them a try, with an open mind and remember….the next time you feel turned-off because there is sediment left in your glass after drinking your natural wine, it’s simply from deconstructed grapes, and they won’t hurt you.
Too see more photos, click here:
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Monday, November 2nd 2009
After having lunch with Jean-Marc Brignot (Jura) at Racines in Paris, where we consumed a 2002 skin-macerated Riesling from Alsace produced by Gérard Schueller with a gorgeous plate of pork, we headed for the Loire Valley. Our destination was Domaine Griottes, an approximate 5 hour drive south and West of Paris. Since their wine “P’tite Gâterie” (here’s a tasting note for this wine) had been on my wine list for the past 6 months, this was a visit I was looking forward to.
Domaine Griottes is located in the small village of Saint Lambert du Lattay. Located in the Loire Valley (within the Anjou appellation) about 26km south of Angers, 175km from the West Coast. Patrick Desplats & Sébastien Dervieux are growing and making delicious wines from an almost unheard of local variety called Pineau d’Aunis. A grape that made wines consumed by the nobility between the 13th and 15th centuries, it has almost completely disappeared from the Loire Valley save for some brave & passionate wine makers like Patrick and Sébastien. The grape produces some of the most exciting spicy red wines with aromas of grapefruit and pencil shavings. In my opinion, Domaine Griottes make some of the best examples in the Loire Valley from this grape. (Griottes also produces whites from the Chenin Blanc grape). All work in the vineyards and harvesting is done by hand with the help of Patrick’s ageing horse, Caroline. Grapes are subsequently fermented in fiberglass. The P’tite Gâterie is then bottled, while the rest of the red cuvée’s and the whites spend some time in oak after fermentation. Although the use of oak is moderate and these wines are great, the oak is detectable and not entirely to my palate.
We arrived around 2100 (9pm) and were quickly greeted by a very outgoing Patrick Desplats, a table full of things to eat
and of course wine by the magnum pouring.
We tasted all of the wines from previous vintages. Stunning wines all the way through the gamma, even the oak-influenced wines had stunning fruit qualities that could have only come from extremely healthy grapes that were subsequently spontaneously fermented, aged and bottled without even a milligram of sulfur! My kind of wines.
Tuesday, November 3rd 2009
After a good night’s rest at Patrick’s house, we came down for a nice breakfast where we got to sample some of his home-dried natural teas made from various flowers and herbs growing in his yard. Very inspirational! We then headed over to the vineyards to see where his Pinea d’Aunis and Chenin Blanc was growing. In some of their vineyards, the two grapes were growing together, side by side. We shared a glass of wine with Patrick as we looked over the Loire Valley and talked about the nature and how passionate he was about what he was doing and the nature around him. He and Sébastien had actually purchased a piece of forest separating his vineyards from the vineyards on the other side of the river. He wanted to keep the conventionally farmed vineyards as far away from his as possible.
As the sun began to set, we headed over to his winery and sampled his 2009’s directly from the fiberglass tanks. The fermentation was just finished. At this time, his 2009’s seem to be stunning. Fantastically concentrated wines with incredible amounts of structure while they were still light and fresh. His P’tite Gâterie (which is a blend of Pinea d’Aunis, Gamay and Grouillot, the amounts, and grapes, varying from vintage to vintage) will be bottled directly from the fiberglass tank it was fermented in. His other cuvées like La Griotte, will spend some time in oak before being bottled. After tasting the current vintage and as we headed towards the door to leave, we noticed a tank of SO2 hanging from the ceiling where Patrick had placed it to express his dislike of sulfur!
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