Chardonnay can convey nuances of soil and site!
Chardonnay can convey nuances of soil and site!
Ver mensaje de Juan SuchNice and intriguing words from Tanzer in his last IWC newsletter:
";For wine lovers who enjoy chardonnay for its minerality and its ability to convey nuances of soil and site - rather than simply for its capacity to carry new oak past the blood-brain barrier - there is no better source of wine today than the Maconnais, especially if price is an issue. Although the most expensive Pouilly-Fuisse bottlings have recently sneaked up to the $40 to $50 range, an amazing number of brisk, precise and satisfying Maconnais wines are still available for under $20. These wines are far more flexible at the dinner table than just about any chardonnay you can find from California, at a fraction of the price of white Burgundies from the Cote de Beaune.";
It seems very interesting, isn’t it?
I confess that I know very few about Mâconnais white wines. The name of the Pouilly-Fuissé appellation (which has long been the source of the Mâconnais region’s best white wines) sounds a little familiar to me, but I don’t remember having drunk any wine from there.
Have you tried any of them? Ah, chardonnay without new oak flavours! I continue searching for it in Spanish wines...
Getting sufficient natural acidity...
Ver mensaje de Juan SuchAnother interesting quote from Tanzer on that Mâconnais article:
";As a rule, and especially in recent years, getting sufficient natural acidity has been more of a challenge for growers in the Mâconnais than getting fruit with enough sugar.";
Oh yes, that is too familiar for me in Spanish white wine producers!
Re: Chardonnay can convey nuances of soil and site!
Ver mensaje de Juan SuchOkay, so I finally make my debut on the English side of Verema. Let’s just see if we can get this to catch on with some new folks and we can get a real English-speaking audience. For my part, I shall engage in some heavy publicity.
As far as Mâcon goes, I used to drink quite a lot, but don’t anymore. For no particular reason...
With the Chardonnays of the Mâconnais you have to consider an important factor: Upwards of 65% of the areas production is vinified by coops or négociants. Artisanal producers are a relatively new thing,
The area has calcareous and clayey soils that are ideal for making eloquent Chardonnay. Ripeness levels, considering that the place is on the borderline with the Midi, are rarely a problem, with many wines easily attaining 13.5% alcohol. Residual sugar happens regularly, too. The wines of Jean Thevenet’s Domaine du Bon Gran can be quite sweet and The ";Cuvée 54-H"; Henri Goyard used to make at his Domaine de Roailly was a hard wine to place if you wanted to serve it during a meal (incredibly complex and beautifully structured, with quite a bit of rs, but not enough to make it fit into the dessert wine category).
It’s true that a lot of Chardonnay from the various Mâcon AOCs does not see any oak, though a number of small producers have been experimenting with new oak for years.
(Continued)
Part 2
Ver mensaje de MCamblorProducers whose wines I enjoy regularly:
Domaine de Roailly (which used to be run by Henri Goyard, who retired recently, to be replaced by Florent Thevenet, son of the great Jean Thevenet of Bon Gran): Rich Chardonnays that see no oak, but that, with age, develop delicious honeyed,brioche-like, almondy and hazelnutty nuances. The ’96s are drinking beautifully now. Since 2000 (if I recall correctly), the domaine is not allowed to use the AOC Mâcon-Viré on its label (ironic, since Goyard was a pioneer in bucking the dictatorship of the coops and basically gave the AOC a lot of prestige, but politics are that way...).
A recent tasting note of mine on the 2001 Domaine de Roally goes like this: ";Domaine de Roailly (Florent Thévenet), Tradition, Mâcon Villages, 2001 : On opening, this is a decidedly uncomfortable wine to be with. Funky and with its 13.5% alcohol on frank display… Clunky and disjointed in the mouth. After 48 hours, things get remarkably better, with the nose showing honey, acacias, stones, quince, pear and beeswax. In the mouth, the wine seems more integrated, though it’s still rather clumsy. I expected heat somewhere, but, much to my surprise, it’s almost not there at all. Fleshily awkward, with decent length, lots of minerality and very promising acidity on the finish. The duckling’s butt-ugly right now. May it turn into a swan…";
Domaine du Bon Gran/Jean Thevenet: Also opulent wines, which can be too sweet for my own healthy consumption. They need quite a bit of time.
Domaine Saint Denis: Very pure and focused wines that drink very nicely young, but age well.
Domaine Emilian Gillet: Another star whose wines can be a bit uncomfortable on release, but get very complex with a few years in bottle.
A lot of very nice $12-$20 bottles from the various Mâcon sup-appellations. Best to shop around and drink your way through to learn what you like. The Thevenet’s wines are generally about $5 to $15 above the average, but worth the sacrifice.
Don’t ask me about the--to me--unjustly hoity-toity Pouilly-Fuissés one sees out there for between $30 and $50 a pop. In my experience, the quality almost never justifies the price. In my memory, P-F was what yuppie chippies ordered when you took them on a date to a restaurant in the ’80s...
A curious point in your post is your wish for more unoaked Chardonnay. Let me make it very clear that I don’t believe oak, when judiciously used, obscures the expression of great Chardonnay. From Chablis to Montrachet you can see wines where the wood doesn’t detract one bit from the way terroir sings through. But wines made from Chardonnay, with the word ";unoaked"; on the label as a major selling point, are appearing at a very quick rate. Perhaps you should try Kim Crawford’s unoaked New Zealander, or the one made by Castillo de Monjardín in Navarra. Very decent little wines...
M.
Mâconnais whites: missing in Spain
Ver mensaje de MCamblorManuel, welcome to this English version of the Verema.com forum and thanks for your comments and tasting notes (I have seen you have just published ten in the TNs section).
Regarding Mâconnais whites the main problem for me is to found these wines in Spain. According to Tanzer, ";an amazing number of brisk, precise and satisfying Maconnais wines are still available for under $20."; Well, not at all in Spain. I have seen online Lavinia and Vilaviniteca an it seems to be very little in offer.
What about the Latour Pouilly-Fuisse 2001?
Regarding your final point, I am not calling for unoaked Chardonnay per se. What I am looking for is well-balanced and fine Spanish chardonnays with some oak aging, no Chard-oak-nays where the oak is THE predominant note in the nose and aftertaste.
Re: Mâconnais whites: missing in Spain
Ver mensaje de Juan SuchSad, if the only thing you find is that Latour. The big problem with the Mâconnais before the advent of a few adventurous artisanal producers like Goyard, Thevenet, et al, was that you were a prisoner of négociants or coops making stuff that, at least by my book, wasn’t up to snuff in terms of expressing the region’s best qualities (i.e., ripeness and purity of fruit, good minerality and the tell-tale richness). Any Saint-Véran at Lavinia? That’s another option...
In Spain, the problem could perhaps be that--much like in California--too many producers decided that Chardonnay was the ";money"; grape to plant, without regard to the variety’s soil, climate and viticulture needs and the enological actions such needs entail. In many cases, by virtue of lacking certain crucial elements, it’s been clear to me that the Chardonnay juice of certain producers simply can not stand a full Grand-Cru-Burgundy wood treatment, and so, what those producers end up with is impotable wood tea. They ignore, in that process, that the main Chardonnay-producing regions of France acknowledge many gradations of quality and differences of character in Chardonnay from one vineyard or another, necessitating that each be given a particular treatment in accordance with its characteristics.
M.