wine Archives - Page 29 of 34 - Wojciech BońkowskiWojciech Bońkowski

(More) Good Riesling

…including a truly great one

It’s quite some time after the event but I thought I’d blog on the May 21st Riesling tasting here in Warsaw. Co-organised by the German Wine Institute and our WINO Magazine, it’s part of a long-term programme to make Poles more aware of Riesling and how well it matches our Central European foods and brains.

There was an exciting tutored seminar followed by a walk-around tasting. The former showcased top dry wines (chiefly belonging to the Erste Lage / Grosses Gewächs category). Even the Schloss Vollrads Erstes Gewächs 2007 which I usually don’t like (this historical estate is underperforming in my book) showed well, rich but bone-dry, with a spicy, almost brothy mineral presence and very good balance to its weight; a wine that reiterates my adulteration for the 2007 vintage. Another positive surprise was the Domdechant Werner Kirchenstück Erstes Gewächs 2006. I have a lot of sympathy for the Domdechant estate and its owner Franz Michel, one of German wine’s most engaging personalities, but I vastly prefer their sweet Kabinett and Spätlese wines to their trockens. In past vintages, I’ve found the EGs overly soft, often with a strange sunflower oil oxidative character. This 2006 was quite delicious, with surprising acidity for the vintage.

There was also an interesting range from Kesselstatt from the Mosel, including a dry Scharzhofberger Grosses Gewächs 2007, saline and citrusy with a balanced dryness but lacking a bit of depth and dimension, that was overshadowed by the Josephshöfer Erste Lage Spätlese 2006. It’s only in the Mosel that you’ll see Erste Lage wines with a degree of sweetness (they can be labelled as Kabinett, Spätlese and Auslese as in the ‘traditional’ German progression of sweet wines), and in the jungle of German wine classification this is one particularly tricky combination: how to make the grand cru status of the vineyard evident in a sweet wine context where traditionally, the mineral identity of various crus was not a priority? This wine shows how to address the issue: it’s hugely rich with a honeyed, almost oily texture from the late-harvested grapes, but showing a strong acidic backbone and an obvious minerality that will develop over the coming years and make this a really interesting bottle.

There was a producer new to me: Weingut von Racknitz from the small region of Nahe. It’s one of those estates that make Germany such a vibrant and exciting wine country. They have no fancy Erste Lage (they don’t belong to the VDP club) but – judging from the four wines I’ve tasted – very reliable quality and value for money across the range. The wines are organic and the Nahe Riesling trocken 2008 for 7.50€ is a delightfully fresh, greenish, driven rendition of the grape, while the Niederhäuser Klamm Riesling trocken 2007 is really impressive in its mineral definition, lemony poise and perfectly gauged residual sugar. For 11€ each, there’s also the interesting pair of Schieferboden 2007 – an austere and backward dry Riesling from slate, harmoniously dry with good body – and Vulkangestein 2007 – a more peppery but eventually supple and approachable wine from Nahe’s rare volcanic soils.

The Odernheimer Kloster Disibodenberg vineyard in the Nahe.
© Weingut von Racknitz

Finally, there was a stupendous bottle of Riesling on show, one that made me shiver with emotion (and my wallet with panic at the inevitable expense of a case or two). The Georg Breuer Berg Rottland Riesling 2007 is as close to perfection as a young dry Riesling ever gets. With a little help from the vintage, this is a jewel of mineral depth and incisiveness with some essential fruit adorning the crystal-clear definition of slate. The palate is explosive with fantastic natural balance. Truly a wine to buy and try before you die. Funnily, when I visited Breuer last August this Rottland was the least exciting of their cru wines…

The Berg Rottland vineyard photographed from Bingen across the Rhine.

Two decades of freedom

It began in Poland

A famous 1989 poster by Tomasz Sarnecki.

Today’s a big day for Poland. Two decades ago, on Sunday 4th June 1989, the first free elections since World War II were held, resulting in a landmass victory for Solidarity and effectively putting the Communist regime to an end. Other countries of the ‘Eastern bloc’ followed suit. Five months later, the Berlin wall was demolished, and two years later, the USSR ceased to exist.

In this day of pride and satisfaction, we look back at that amazing summer of 1989 and what we’ve been able to achieve since. Among many far more serious things, we can enjoy a boundless diversity of wines, buy tea directly from Taiwan on the internet, develop private breweries and buy the latest music CDs in a range of high-street shops. Many things wouldn’t exist without Poles going to the polls two decades ago, including this blog.

Between 8 and 8:20pm today, all across Poland people raised a toast to our happy past and, hopefully, auspicious future. Chez Bońkowski, it seemed suitable to do so with a wine from our Slovenian brothers-in-freedom. The Dveri-Pax Eisenthür 2005 is a wine that couldn’t have happened two decades ago. Slovenia was still part of a country called Yugoslavia, where wine could only be bottled and sold by state-controlled cooperatives. Now this historical estate in Slovenian Styria (it was founded in the 12th century as a Benedictine abbey) has been reprivatised and with a large investment, vineyards have been renewed and a new state-of-the-art cellar established. The first wines were released in 2002 and Dveri-Pax quickly confirmed its rank as one of the leading wineries in Slovenia.
This 2005 Eisenthür single vineyard wine is a blend of 70% Sivi Pinot (local name for Pinot Gris) and 30% Šipon (local name for the Hungarian Furmint), and weighs in at 12.5%. A little capricious at first, it really gains from some airing, showing a very clean minerality from the strong volcanic terroir. It is quite Austrian in style (back in 2005 the winery’s consultant was Erich Krutzler from the famous red wine estate in Burgenland, now making wine at Weingut Pichler-Krutzler) with ripe green fruit and a clean, zesty style. It’s not a great wine, showing a bit of dilution and underripe greenness – but bear in mind 2005 was a fairly difficult vintage in this part of Europe, and the wine is fairly balanced with a good sense of place. Even its imperfections seemed to fit in today’s mood of Central European celebration.

A vertical of Roda I

Question marks

I attended an exciting vertical tasting the other night. Courtesy of Robert Mielżyński, all vintages ever produced of Roda I were opened (1992–2004; no 1993 was bottled; we didn’t try the 2005 and 2006, both recently released).

Bodegas Roda is a leading estate in the Spanish region of Rioja. For some, the leading estate. While it’s always risky to attribute such exclusive titles, Roda surely epitomises the quality revolution in Spanish winemaking, and sums up the modern style of Rioja: stringent vineyard grape selection, lots of concentration, high ripeness, ageing in new French oak (with its softening, creaming action). The wines are spectacular: very rich with luxurious fruit, masterly balance, and considerable ageing potential.

The latter element was certainly confirmed by our vertical tasting. None of the wines showed even remotely tired, and even the 1992 (hardly a great vintage in Rioja) held tremendously well for four hours from opening, staying deliciously fruity and fresh. Among the older wines 1996 was very bretty and a little blunt but otherwise showed the customary Roda concentration and balance; 1997 was a little lighter than its siblings with notes of red fruits, and while a little simple it too retained power throughout the evening, showing well with food. All were towered by the outstanding 1994, staggeringly young and tonic, with lots of extract and austerity and no hint of maturing. It just lacked a bit of finesse and allure to be perfect but it was a very big bottle indeed.

But there were problems, also. Two bottles of the 1995 were corked (a pity; I’ve enjoyed this vintage in Rioja), and two of the 2000 were oxidised. The 1998 scored very highly upon opening for its ‘Burgundian’ (my colleagues’ term; I disagreed) architecture but the obvious lack of structure made for a less than convincing evolution in the glass; it was massacred by a beef steak. The 1999 didn’t quite convince, so modern and creamy-oaky it still was after seven years in bottle; perhaps just a problem of middle age.

And then the latest vintages continued along very controversial lines. 2002 was predictably lighter but not light enough; a rainy vintage that was a good occasion to tune down the extract was in the end made a replica of 2001. 2003 was simply port-like in its extravagant alcohol and notes of stewed fruit – unsurprisingly so for 2003 but that’s hardly a consolation. The 2001, once described by a Roda representative as ‘the very best since 1964’, was heavy, chocolatey, alcoholic and unremarkable (though to its credit, it evolved well in the glass). Eventually I preferred the very balanced 2004, although there was no escaping the 14.5% alcohol and the creamy milkshake textural feel to the overvatted tannins.

Proceeding from the older vintages through to the latest ones, this was a puzzling tasting. Normally when I look at new Roda releases (usually at least once per year), I really like the wines and don’t mind the style all that much, although 1) I have always preferred the lighter, juicier, less ‘ambitious’ Roda II (now called Roda Reserva), and 2) the Cirsión supercuvée, which is made along the same lines as the Roda I but multiplied by two, I have usually found an excessive and unsympathetic wine. Yet this vertical tasting magnified the stylistic problem of the latest vintages. Instead of the former 13.5% alcohol we now have 14–14.5%, and while Roda has never been a high-acid wine, significantly I used the word ‘fresh’ in my tasting notes for all vintages through 1997 but ‘soft’, ‘creamy’ and ‘blunt’ for all since 2001. This is arguable but in my book Tempranillo really doesn’t take late harvest very well, and I actually prefer it a bit on the green side, especially when it has many years to mature to integrate that greenness.

In the end Roda I is a prestigious bottling that deserves the benefit of a doubt, and you might say the successful recent vintages like 2001 and 2004 are likely to evolve along the same lines as the 1994 or 1996. But noticing this subtle stylistic change, I doubt they will.

Patrícius Furmint 2006

Cherish the moment

You’ll inevitably read more about wines from Tokaj on this blog in the coming weeks, as I digest the grand Tokaj tasting described here. This is my second-last bottle of the 2006 dry Furmint from Patrícius. I was prompted to open it by the lack of the new vintage at the Warsaw tasting (Patrícius showed a dry Muscat instead), and by feedback from a friend who recently tasted this 2006 and found it excellent.

He was right. I’ve had some family for lunch yesterday and as we sat in the garden with some green asparagus vinaigrette, the first glass of this wine was explosively delicious. Especially after my early tasting of it in December 2007, when it was showing malic and sharp and a little charmless. This has now put on some plump weight, and resembles a Viognier perhaps – but with a powerful volcanic extract that Viognier never shows. Consistent with the 2006 in Tokaj in being rich and big (alcohol the only problem) but also showing quite a bit of terroir dimension. Really good, and showing this bottling can even fly higher in more structured vintages like 2007. It’s also really inexpensive, selling for around 7€.

Brennfleck Maustal Silvaner 2005

Spargelzeit!

As the asparagus season is in full swing, there’s probably more talk about this vegetable in the blogosphere than about FC Barcelona or world peace. While Poland cannot compete with the Spargel obsession of our German neighbours, asparagus is on every conceivable restaurant menu and green market stand countrywide. I am not lagging behind. It’s asparagus twice a day, while they last.

With this enthusiastic consumption comes a vinous riddle: what wine do you serve with? While classic French food & wine matching considered asparagus a tricky ingredient that is best avoided, in fact it is fairly versatile. Green asparagus keeps things simple: just stick to a crisp unoaked white wine – whether Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling or something more local like Albariño or Welschriesling – and you can’t go wrong. I’ve also had lucky spells with bone-dry rosé (especially when I serve grilled green asparagus with one of my favourite sauces: romesco).

White asparagus is a little more capricious, being often served with heavy egg-based sauces such as sabayon or hollandaise (these were, in all probability, at the origin of the French reluctance towards serving wine with asparagus). A sturdier type of white wine with a bit of oak – such as Mâcon – is usually OK, as long as it keeps acidity. But a ‘perfect match’ (however controversial the concept) is more difficult to find. Trustworthy sources list a variety of bottles ranging from fino sherry through Chasselas (try to find this on way home tonight…) up to oaked white Pessac.

I have a soft spot for the classic German combination: steamed white asparagus, a light sauce, and Silvaner from Franconia. Franken is a wine region that enjoys a unique combination of high profile among connoisseurs and total obscurity among the wider public. It produces little wine, selling it at rather high prices to a predominantly local market. It also boasts a long historical tradition (Steinwein was a very reputed wine in the 17th century), some fine terroirs (mostly shell limestone and Keuper, a kind of marl), and an excellent track record with its two leading varieties: Riesling and Silvaner. The latter – which you’ll find all around Central Europe from Alsace to Austria and Bohemia – is a local speciality, yielding dense, well-construed wines with spicy fruit, minerality and good ageing potential. With its profile of green apple, white pepper and good crispness, it is also a natural match for white asparagus.

Never did it show more convincing than today with this Sulzfelder Maustal Silvaner Spätlese trocken 2005 from the Brennfleck winery. This up-and-coming estate was relatively unknown back in 2006 when I visited them (and purchased this bottle), but now is very much on the way up. They are still not members of the prestigious VDP association, though, meaning they cannot join the latter’s vineyard classification. Why do I say this? Because this Maustal Silvaner is effectively a Grosses Gewächs, a grand cru of Franconia. A brilliant wine with depth and character.

The wine itself has changed somewhat since my two tastings in May 2006 and August 2007, and today is showing better than expected. No sign of ageing. This has lost its Franken exotic fruit exuberance of youth (which can sometimes be funky when top cru wines smell of canned papaya), and we are left with a much clearer limestone minerality. Not a complex wine but really deep and pure, this is very enticing, and more refined than many a Silvaner. Palate is quite rich and broad but retains respectable acidity and cut; finishes greener, almost lettucey. The only criticism is about the slightly high alcohol (13.5% alc.), but it is nothing outrageous. In a word, don’t serve too warm, but otherwise this is a stellar wine for a lovely price – Brennfleck are offering the current vintage of this for a ridiculous 12€.

Hugo Brennfleck: an over-performer from Franconia.

Huba Szeremley Rajnai Rizling 1998

Black rock wine

Badacsony wine (right) and black basalt rock (left).

I needed a very mature dryish Riesling to serve with food today, but couldn’t find anything from Germany in the cellar. Opened this instead. We are on Lake Balaton in central Hungary, where five million years ago huge volcanoes were fuming and lava was everywhere. Years later, the solidified volcanic matter is creating a unique terroir of pure basalt rock. Add the Balaton’s mitigating climate and you have one of the potentially most exciting white wine-producing zones in Europe. Its potential is rarely realised, though, as the local minds are still suffering from the shattering effect of Communism.

One guy who has more than anybody worked for the revival of Badacsony (as this volcanic area on the north-western shore of the Balaton is called) is Huba Szeremley. His 100-hectare estate is a model of the 1990s Hungarian investment. Apart from grapes – ranging from traditional Riesling and Pinot Gris through modern blocks of Merlot and Syrah up to experimental parcels of the rare autochthon varieties of Kéknyelű and Bakator – there is also a herd of historic Hungarian cattle and mangalica pigs, a good restaurant, an open mind, and a lot of projects for the future.

I have followed the wines of Szeremley closely for many years and the most exciting have consistently been the traditional Kéknyelű (a fantastically rich, extractive grape with outstanding minerality) and Szürkebarát (Pinot Gris), but their success has too often eclipsed the fine results that can be obtained on the Balaton with Riesling (called Rajnai Rizling locally). A solid acidic base coupled with long even ripening and a clear peppery minerality for the basalt does sound like a winning Riesling combination.

Szeremley has chiefly used his Riesling vineyards for the inexpensive blended Rizling Selection (where ‘Rajnai’ is coupled with a majority of Olaszrizling, or Welschriesling) but has occasionally bottled a varietal version. The 2005 is a little light but finely poised with a good mineral signature of the Badacsony terroir, while the 1997 félédes [semi-sweet] is an opulent take on a German Auslese style with plenty of richness balanced by age, lemony acidity, and basalt.

This 1998 Badacsonyi Rajnai Rizling félszáraz [semi-dry], now fully mature with a deep colour, is a successful dryish interpretation. With a bit of Firne aged Riesling character, complimented by honey, sweet peach and spice, this is not terribly complex but surely interesting. Palate is rather on the dry side, with good fruit but also a bit of underripe green tartness; on the other hand also some obvious Badacsony basaltic minerality. This has aged well and is not declining yet (courtesy of the green acids clearly), and perhaps showing marginally better than at my previous tasting of this very wine in June 2006. While this is far from perfect and lacking a bit in depth and dimension, it shows the great potential of the Badacsony vineyards for top white wine production.

Kéknyelű vines under the basalt outcrops at the top of the Badacsony mountain.

Tokaj Day in Warsaw

The wine of kings – no doubts

Last Monday was the second edition of the Tokaj Day in Warsaw. Co-organised by the WINO Magazine (where I’m one of the editors) and the Tokaj Renaissance association, it’s a major consumer event aimed at presenting the new vintage of sweet aszú wines to the public. (It mirrors a similar event that takes place every May in Budapest).

For the Polish wine writer and wine lover, Hungary is a major wine-producing country, and Tokaj is the prime region of Hungary. For reasons of tradition, geographic vicinity, and let me say, spiritual affinity, the red wines of Eger and Villány, the white wines of the Balaton, and the sweet ones of Tokaj have always held a special place in our hearts and cellars. There might currently be more romance associated with Brunello or more bottom-shelf reliability with Colchagua but when an emotional bottle is to be opened, you’re almost guaranteed to see a bottle of Tokaji on a Polish table.

Tokaj Renaissance is a private association of wineries that has consistently represented the region’s best since 1995 (although there are some controversial moves in and out of the club, including the recent secession of Királyudvar and István Szepsy). 12 of Renaissance’s members made the trip to Warsaw this year, and there were a very amiable bunch of winemakers and sales reps, massively contributing to this event having an easy-going, almost family feel to it.

So what about the 2005 vintage? Based on this tasting (where each winery presented just one sweet aszú wine), it is not easy to assess. Tokaj producers are very positive about it, and I couldn’t help feeling they’re being a bit overenthusiastic when they compare it to the wondrous 1999 (perhaps the best vintage since the Wende of 1989). 2005, in fact, started rather grim with an uninspiringly cloudy summer, and was only saved by a prolonged Indian summer that allowed a good development of noble rot – a great Tokaji’s sine qua non.

The wines are of course showing very young, but with any degree of certainty they can be said to lack the steely acidic structure of 1999. 2005 is a rich vintage with a fair bit of botrytis in the aromatic spectrum – in fact if I had to compare it to other recent vintages it tastes like a slightly better, more consistent version of 2004 and 2001 (two rather light but fairly classic and attractive vintages). And it is also showing very heterogeneous. From the very light, almost semi-sweet Aszú 5 Puttonyos of Béres to the ultra-rich 6P of Bodvin, from the fairly traditional, spicy-oxidative style of Samuel Tinon to the diamond-clean one of Disznókő, the vintage is a faithful reflection of modern Tokaj’s diversity – but this doesn’t make the task of fully assessing a vintage any easier.

The above-mentioned Disznókő presented what was perhaps the most convincing 2005 6P, still a little shy but excitingly driven and spicy with a structure that guarantees imminent improvement. Royal Tokaji’s 6P Szt. Tamás is brooding, tense and devilishly long on the palate but showing masses of oak on the nose for now; this will be for the most patient among you. Dobogó made a complex, sweet-savoury 6P with lovely freshness but perhaps not among the very best Tokajis. To Samuel Tinon’s credit, his 5P 2005 showed the clearest minerality and structure but also a certain green, leafy character that somehow shows the limits of the vintage. All these wines must be retasted in six months or so to really make sure.

Not surprisingly, therefore, the most exciting bottles of this exciting day were not 2005 aszús. There were some outstanding older sweet wines, including the fantastically poised 2003 Betsek 6P from Royal Tokaji (probably the best acidity in a 2003 Tokaj I can remember), though even this was overshadowed by Royal’s mindblowing 2003 Mézesmály 6P which is a 99-point wine if there ever was one: decadently rich but with an incredible lemony drive. From Sauska Tokaj (formerly Árvay & Co.) came an utterly delicious 1999 6P, slowly maturing, deep, complex, heather honey-infused – and fairly approachable for a 1999, with a subdued acidity. These are all bottles to die for.

From lighter sweet wines, I really liked the Dobogó Mylitta 2007, a wine of impeccable balance where I’d challenge you to guess even half of the actual 127g of residual sugar; kudos to winemaker Attila Domokos. Another excellent bottle is the 2007 Furmint édes [sweet] from Pendits, mineral-fruity, balanced and joyful.

Samuel Tinon and his ground-breaking Dry Szamorodni.

Lots of interest in the dry wine department, too. A dozen aperitif bottles of Patrícius’ 2008 Dry Muscat were deliciously varietal while Royal’s 2007 Dry Furmint, simple but reliable and nicely rounded by a bit of oak, was head and shoulders above past vintages of this wine, and a really good surprise. On a more serious level, Dobogó showed a nicely mineral 2007 Furmint while the 2006 tasted at dinner was richer, rounder and more approachable today; this very reliable bottling is best enjoyed at 4 or 5 years of age, in my experience. And then there was the fascinating oddity of Tinon’s 2003 Dry Szamorodni. Made from botrytised grapes but fermented dry and then aged six years in unfilled barrels under a veil of yeast (like fino sherry or vin jaune from the Jura), this historical style has pretty much fallen into oblivion in Tokaj, where there are just a few commercial interpretations available from the large producers. Tinon’s tenacity, dedication and insight have shown what can be achieved. I followed this Szamorodni through a number of barrel samplings and was skeptical, but a few months after bottling this 2003 is really showing sheer class and unexpected elegance. With a spicy vin jaune nose of curry and nuts, it ravished with some lovely evolved fruit on the palate and a soft, unaggressive, perfectly ripe acidity. More on Tinon’s project when I visit him again in the autumn; meanwhile, watch this space in the coming weeks as I review more Tokaj wines for you.

A vinous quad

Cellar damage

A family gathering resulted in what wine lovers (half-)jokingly refer to as ‘cellar damage’. It was on occasion to look at some wines I was curious to try, alongside some I just genuinely like. Selbach-Oster Zeltinger Schlossberg
Riesling Spätlese trocken* 2007
I stocked up heavily on German 2007s in general (my favourite vintage of the last decade, with fantastic poise) and Selbach-Oster in particular, whose unadulterated style (and ridiculously affordable prices) I cherish. Having been in no rush to empty the bin, I am slowly discovering the various cuvées here. This wine (AP no. #18-08, 12.5% alc.) is described by Johannes Selbach as fruity and elegant. No doubt about it, but somewhat surprisingly it doesn’t taste trocken at all. With a good deep colour and a powerful ripe peachy nose with subsidiary notes of honey, flowers, and jammy stone fruits, it is really suggestive of a sweet Spätlese. However, there is also lots of mineral tension, making it assertive and interesting. Likewise on palate this is much into halbtrocken category, although also has a fusel whisky-like presence of alcohol (not too high though) of real trocken. Not unenjoyable, there’s plenty of fruit and more substance than often for Selbach-Oster (the concentration is noteworthy for the Middle Mosel), but I just find this mislabelled as it really tastes like a Spätlese feinherb. On its own merits, recommended for sure. Királyudvar Tokaji Furmint száraz [dry] 2005
This wine is from a prime estate in the Hungarian region of Tokaj, where there’s a dynamic development of the dry wine offerings at the moment. Made primarily from Furmint, a powerful, high-acid, ageworthy grape variety, these wines can range from the light and zesty to the extractive and botrytis-spiced. Here we have an intermediate style with a fair bit of weight (a moderate 13% in the context of Furmint) but good drinkability. A rich nose with some notes of botrytis, also mildly oxidative (or just ageing), this is showing a bit of residual sugar and less acidic drive than I expected (especially for the crisp 2005 vintage). But there is also that basaltic-dusty expression of the volcanic terroir of Tokaj that is so recognisable. Palate is semi-dry, with some slightly off oak notes, not very long finish in this essentially simple wine. (To its credit it’s also inexpensive, and positioned clearly below Királyudvar’s cru Furmint bottlings such as Lapis, Henye or Úrágya). Better with airing when the dusty oak notes integrate. At its peak now, drink by 2010.
Clos Lapeyre Jurançon Sec 1998
The south-western French region of Jurançon shares a single characteristic with Tokaj: mouth-puckering acidity. No wonder both regions have historically been known for sweet wines, where high levels of sugar contribute to balancing that aggressive citric tang on the palate. Making a good dry Jurançon is therefore as much of a challenge as a dry Tokaj. This wine has had ten years to digest its acidity (it’s spent them chiefly in the cellars of the excellent Wiesbaden Weincontor which I’ve already mentioned here). The bouquet is surely very mature, with burnt milk, honey, butterscotch, and a tertiary damp-cellary character the Germans aptly term Firne. There is also some underlying minerality. Then on the palate (perhaps expectedly so) there a streak of tart acidity that has preserved the wine in an almost unchanged, green-grapey stage. (The 12.5% alcohol also tells you these grapes weren’t picked overripe). All in all this is well-preserved, fun and interesting to drink wine, but not a lot of dimension and showing the limitation of many dry Jurançons, sadly. Not all though – try something like the Sève d’Automne from Domaine Cauhapé for quite a different, untart take on the appellation.
Le Vieux Donjon Châteauneuf-du-Pape 2000
This small estate is among the most traditional in Châteauneuf, though unlike other exponents of the style such as Clos des Papes it rarely makes it to the headlines. A lowish-alcohol (only 13.5% here!) Grenache-dominated blend aged exclusively in large oak foudres with only one red cuvée being produced sum up this producer’s approach. This is another Weincontor purchase that I expected to be ready to drink. It roughly is. This wine is really showing Châteauneuf at both its most typical and most elegant. There’s not a hint of late-harvest jamminess, and remarkable freshness for the appellation (though it’s obviously a low-acid red). Lots of fruits rouges finesse on the nose, this has not so much substance or power but a haunting depth and airiness. Palate has that quintessential Grenache note of Agen prunes. The low alcohol (in context) is almost 50% of the success here. No great depth or poise, rather shows a conservative well-gauged and well-aged character (and perhaps all the more precious for that). I’ve really enjoyed it, also for its deliberate reluctance to beat any records of concentration or richness. I’ll surely buy some more next time I’m in Wiesbaden.

No-sulphur wine

Paradise lost

I’ve been quite overloaded with samples lately, many unsolicited, which meant having to make my way through a stash of partly unexciting commercial staff. More or less belonging to this category, some bottles by Piedmontese producer Teo Costa. It’s a largish estate with a confusing dual-branded range of too many wines (although some are quite fine – I was pleasantly surprised with the Barolo Monroj 2004, classic, elegant and very good value).

Two wines that caught my attention, though, are a white and a red made fully without the addition of sulphur. There is currently a (justified) fashion towards organic and biodynamic wines, but even biodynamics is not necessarily synonymous with no sulphur addition. Sulphur (usually in the form of sulphur dioxide; hence the Contains sulphites mention on wine bottles now obligatory in the EU) is considered a ‘traditional’ additive to wine, and has been used for centuries to protect from bacteria and oxidation. These two factors make no-sulphur-added wines (there is always a bit of sulphur naturally produced during fermentation) a challenge. With low SO2, your wine is prone to all sorts of bacteria including acetic bacteria that change wine into vinegar (with no SO2, this is handled by extreme hygiene in the cellar, and keeping wine at low temperatures throughout – not always easy for shops and consumers) and is likely to oxidise if exposed to air for too long (which is why you are usually advised to drink a no-sulphur wine in one session and avoid decanting, though there are some exceptions).

You will find a growing range of interesting low- or no-sulphur wines from Alsace, Beaujolais, the Loire, but very few from Italy, where the concept has been establishing itself more slowly. That’s the background of my interest in trying these wines. Both are from 2008 and are classified in the umbrella DOC Langhe.

The white Di Vin Natura 2008, a blend of Sauvignon Blanc with local Arneis, is forgettable: showing a good saline intensity of terroir in mouth, it just lacks fruit, and the nose is fairly chaotic, reminiscent of of home-made ‘wine’ with all sorts of yeasty, microbial aromas. The red Di Vin Natura 2008 (blended from Nebbiolo, Barbera, Cabernet and Melot), on the other hand, is really interesting. It too displays a rustic just-finished-fermentation nose (aroma is rarely a biodynamic wine’s strength) but on the palate there is a moment of blissful fruit intensity of the kind you almost never encounter in a ‘normal’ wine.

Sulphur puts a wine in order: it is like packing a porcelain vase for shipping. It stabilises, immobilises, and to an extent, standardises. But it does so by putting a layer of matt varnish over the fruit. We get a lot from sulphur – a vast majority of our wines would be undrinkable without – but need to give up something in exchange: this unadulterated, tangible, pulsating presence of fruit flesh. If you’re feeling nostalgic about this loss, no-sulphur wines are for you.

A day of burgundies

Virtual luxury

It’s been an engaging day of tasting here in Warsaw. Robert Mielżyński, one of our leading importers, organised a mini-fair of 6 estates from Burgundy, three of which are new agencies. It was an occasion to taste through some wines I rarely drink, and they were universally good.

Hélène Jaeger-Defaix opens another Chablis.

The Domaine Bernard Defaix makes very good Chablis. The winery lies at the foot of the Côte de Lechet vineyard (a premier cru) where its best holdings are located. From over 50-year-old vines, the special Côte de Lechet Réserve 2006 bottling has a brilliant fruity-mineral nose and an excitingly structured palate with big potential. It also shows excellent freshness and acidity in this warm low-acid vintage (of which Defaix has been one of the very best interpreters IMHO). This Réserve is obviously better than the Fourchaume 2007, still dominated by oak. The simple Chablis 2007, on the other hand, is really mouth-puckeringly acidic and greenish (as befits the vintage); it needs more time.

Continuing the white wines with Jean Chartron, this was a lesson on how to use oak. Even the simplest Bourgogne Clos de la Combe 2006 shows plenty of wood, but it is masterly balanced with plenty of acidity and minerality, and will still improve. There was a mild oxidative doubt about the Saint-Aubin Murgers des Dents de Chien 2006 (which in the end I liked), and the Chassagne-Montrachet Les Benoites 2007 was very tight and acidic. But the Puligny-Montrachet 2007 hit all the right notes: oak was but a discrete support, and there was an airy, almost flowery-perfumed exuberance to this otherwise solidly mineral piece of work. An impressive wine and actually good value (not a frequent thing on this tasting). Jean-René Chartron is also a great character to speak to.

Jean-René Chartron is usually merrier than this.

Frédéric Magnien makes a bewildering array of wines, but only the reds are represented in Poland. Their style is fairly easy to appreciate, fruity, generous, without pretentions to greatness. On show was the reliable and serious Bourgogne Pinot Noir 2006 and two 2005s, showing simpler and more mature than expected: the Chambolle-Musigny Vieilles Vignes a bit better than the Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru Coeur de Roches.

Among Mielżyński’s latest agencies, Domaine Lucien Muzard & Fils from Santenay was new to me. This is red burgundy at its elemental, raw-fruity, croquant best, with healthy tannins and proud acidity. Thumbs up for the Bourgogne 2007 (good value) and the rustic Maranges 2007 which imperatively needs a grilled meat. More smoothness and elegance in the Santenay PC Clos de Tavannes 2007 and even more in the Volnay PC Chanlins 2007. The latter showed why Santenay will never be Volnay: quite fuller, with naturally ripe tannins and a sense of weight; another positive wine.

With Roger Belland we climb to another level. These are serious, concentrated, structured wines with a clear sense of minerality, in a style I’d define as intermediate: traditional elegance and airiness is coupled with very precise fruit, courtesy of the long cool fermentations. The Maranges PC La Fussière 2007 (another Maranges; more than I’ve tasted in many years) is peppery and tart-cherryish but the tannins are really nicely gauged. The Santenay PC Gravières 2007 showed a little simple and unexciting today, but the Pommard Les Cras 2007 (vines at 75 years) was really singing: dense and brooding, so sensual you almost forget about the underlying structure here. A rare example of a 2007 red that’s good to drink today. There was also the white Meursault PC Santenots 2007: grape-driven yet very structured and tight. Impressive but the price (60€ retail here in Poland) is really frightful.

The highlight of the tasting, for me, was Domaine Taupenot-Merme. Not only because of the very articulate and amiable Romain Taupenot, with whom I delighted in discussing the difference between pigeage and touillage (really geeky…), but also because of the more traditional, wonderfully elegant style of the wines. Pinot Noir allying power and finesse is an old cliché but these are really very complete wines. The Morey Saint-Denis 2007 (still a bit oaky) was brilliantly tannic, natural, effortless, with typicity and personality to spare. Corton Rognet 2006 is a big but unaggressive wine with that extra 2006 ripeness and warmth, though the finish is almost painfully dry today. For drinking soon, the Nuits-Saint-Georges PC Les Pruliers 2002 is almost perfect, with a lovely complex bouquet and that minor bit of greenness on the palate adding interest rather than upset; another very complete wine. Meanwhile, both the Mazoyères-Chambertin 2006 and Charmes-Chambertin 1998 should still wait. Both are statuesque, a little intellectual even, as befits a grand cru perhaps; both have a lot of tight earthy tannins on the end. But there were good surprises down the ladder too, with a vastly overperforming Saint-Romain 2006.

Romain Taupenot introducing his wine at lunch.

Robert Mielżyński was industrious enough to organise the lunch together with the Norwegian Seafood Export Council (see institutional website here) who brought chef Endre Gabrielsen along from Norway. I’ll leave you to read the complete menu below while only saying this was absolutely lovely fish, and there were some nice wine pairings too with the Jean Chartron Puligny 2007 nicely balancing the olive oil & dill cod with its structure, and the Taupenot-Merme Saint-Romain 2006 an adventurous but satisfying match with the pan-fried halibut.

This tasting was a very welcome change of pace. I almost never buy burgundy, and consequently rarely drink it. It is a very complex region, requiring pretty much a full-time specialisation to properly apprehend. This tasting showed how much I’m missing, but also how challenging it can be to fully reset your mind and palate to this style of wine. Especially in the reds, there is something about the cool acidic taste of crunchy tannins on the front of the palate that’s quite a distinctive physical experience, unlike any ‘other’ wine out there.

And then (I have to mention this) there is the issue of prices. The cheapest wine on tasting was 12€ (Polish retail), and over half were above 25€. While I delighted in the premiers and grands crus here, I won’t be able to afford them any more frequently than before. So this tasting was pretty much a virtual exercise, and now it’s time to step down to earth to my usual fare of Riesling and Chianti.

Norwegian cod poached in olive oil;
dill, apples, cucumber and cream of egg yolks.