A Trip To The Not So Distant Past - Burgundy 2013 Part 2

In part one I looked at the whites, so I guess we should have a look at the red's. These were much more of a mixed bag, the entry wines had loads of red berry fruit with plenty of fine tannins, these will settle down in a few months and leave you with a very enjoyable glass of wine but not particularly complex.

The mid range again had red berry fruit but much more tannins with hints of spice and smoke coming through, the winemakers of obviously over compensated with lots of oak for the lack of depth from the fruit, again these will take some time to integrate. Some winemakers had done a better job than others so I'd definitely recommend you take care when making your purchases to avoid d

isappointment.

Moving on to the Premier (1er) and Grand cru wines, these showed great depth of flavour, with good use of oak to help add complexity you got some really interesting wines. These however, were not cheap or had been produced in any great quantity, they will also require a couple of years for everything to integrate and the tannins to soften out, which should leave you with some stunning wines, if you can get your hands on any of them.

There were two producers who really stood out for me, they were Domaine Henri Gouge and Domaine Hudelot-Noellat;

Domaine Henri Gouge

Now under stewardship of Gregory Gouge, who took over in 2007 coinciding with the completion of the new state of the art cuverie, this domaine has gone from strength to strength in recent years. There has been a concerted effort to produce more elegant tannins which results in more aromatics in the wines.

His Nuits-St-Georges had some lovely red red fruit combined with some spice and a touch of smoke, it had a touch of acidity with plenty of soft and silky tannins. This over the next couple of years is going to age beautifully. I then moved onto the 1er Cru Clos des Porrets St Georges and the 1er Cru Les Pruliers, these each moved up a notch respectively as you would expect, they showed great depth of flavour and complexity with this lovely perfumed character them, they are not cheap but they were stunning and will only get better with age.

They also produce a white Nuits-St-Georges, the 1er Cru La Perriere which is produced from a mutated Pinot Noir vine that was discovered by Henri before the war, this had some lovely fruit to it with hints of vanilla and a full, rich mouthfeel. I would definitely recommend you try this if you ever get the opportunity it was stunning and will develop over the coming years into an amazing wine.

Domaine Hudelot-Noellat

This was the first time I'd had the chance to taste the wines from this Domaine, Charles Van Canneyt has consistently produced great wines vintage after vintage resulting in them being one of the most sought after domaines, which unfortunately reflects very much in the price of his wines.

He produces a Vosne-Romanee, Vosne-Romanee 1er Cru Les Beaumonts, Nuits-St-Georges 1er Cru Les Murgers and a Charmes-Chambertin Grand Cru. When you pour these wines the first thing you notice is how pale they are, however lacking in colour they may be they certainly are not lacking in flavour, depth and complexity. These wines all have lovely red berry fruit with smoke and spice intertwined in there, a touch of acidity and plenty of beautifully silky tannins, they also have a savoury/meaty character to them which works magnificently. They truly are magnificent wines, which over the coming decade are going to age beautifully

A Trip To The Not So Distant Past - Burgundy 2013 Part 1

I've been involved with Burgundy En Primeur campaigns for the last couple of years now, and have seen the difficulties the vignerons and wine makers have had to face, with poor harvests due to some absolutely devastating weather conditions. With the tiny harvest of 2012 I spoke to several vignerons with regard to 2013 to see what their expectations were, and many said that they were concerned that while the harvest was again going to be small due the hail storms, the large deluge of rain they had had, meant they were also very concerned for the quality, as the grapes were fat with water. Not many people were expecting 2013 to deliver much if anything at all, many were expecting to be putting the vast majority of their fruit into making their most basic village wines, not their Premier or Grand Cru wines.

So for the first tasting of 2015 I headed into central London and dropped into Flint Wines 2013 Burgundy En Primeur tasting at Il Bottaccio, this is the first opportunity that most of the UK trade and press have had to taste these wines, so I was really looking forward to seeing what they had managed to produce from the 2013 vintage.

The whites were difficult, many of the entry wines had plenty of green apple fruit but not much else flavour wise, they did have a real steely minerality to them that made them very austere, most had quite a soft acidity which helped to soften out the minerality a little, but not much. In the middle you had a lot of good wine with a little more depth of fruit, the wines that had spent some time in oak were starting show small signs of development and complexity in them, but their was nothing that really bowled you over, of course many of them need a little more time before they will fulfil their potential, but from what I tasted this is going to a small window and I don't think you'd be particularly bowled over by them.

Moving on to the Premier and Grand Cru wines, these were pleasantly surprising, there was some lovely green fruit that was starting to signs of development and going towards more baked than fresh in character. The oak was starting to integrate beautifully with one or two showing a real toasty side, with this you also got hints of the sweet spice Vanilla, combine these with a bountiful but soft acidity, due to the Malolactic fermentation they had gone through, and you were starting to see the signs of where these wines were going.

There was one producer who really stood out for me on the whites, and that was Domaine Ballot-Millot, this is a family estate based just outside the village of Meursault,they were showing 4 wines, a Bourgogne Blanc, a single vineyard and two Premier Cru Meursault. It was these three Meursault's that really stood out from the rest for me. The 'Les Narvaux' had a lovely yellow/gold colour to it, with some lovely fruit to it that was starting to head towards baked, it had a lovely minerality to it with hints of vanilla coming through very gently and a wonderfully soft acidity just brought it all together. The two Premier Cru, 'Charmes' and 'Perrieres' both really took this up a notch with much greater depth and richness, while they were lovely today they are only going to get better and better with age, for me there wasn't much between these, but I did prefer the 'Charmes' though.

Red's to follow next week....

A Dinner with TerraVin from New Zealand

A few weeks ago I had an invite to meet several of the investors in TerraVin, a boutique New Zealand winery from Marlborough, for dinner at the newly opened Four to Eight restaurant in Covent Garden. I remember meeting Mike Eaton the former wine maker and tasting their wines a few years back at a Jascot's tasting, there was one particular wine that really stuck in mind, and that was the Te Ahu an oaked Sauvignon, which shouldn't be, but was stunning. Since the last time I encountered there wines, they have handed the wine making reigns over to Gordon Ritchie, who had previously been a winemaker at Seresin.

On arrival we were served a glass of the 2013 Sauvignon Blanc, which had all those typical New Zealand characteristics of Gooseberry, Green Pepper and Citrus, but with a much more rounded/softer acidity to it. We then moved on to the 2011 Chardonnay, now this wine is wild fermented and then aged in oak for 18 months, it is then all blended together and spends another three months in tank before being bottled. It had a lovely creamy texture with touches of butterscotch and vanilla, there was a hint of baked apple in the background, combining with a soft but plentiful acidity.

Next came the wine that I really wanted to taste again, the Te Ahu, it was also served with a cream of celeriac soup, which was just beautiful, and had an earthy character that worked so well with the flavours of this wine. You had apricots with some citrus, you also had in there some kind of almond/nuttiness which worked with the fruit perfectly and you had this soft and silky acidity which just brought it all together perfectly. The wine has this earthy character to it that worked with the soup perfectly.

With the main course we were served two of there Pinot Noir's, the 2011 and the Eaton Family Vineyard 2010. The 2011 was delicious, very typical New Zealand Pinot, lovely red cherry fruit, with a touch of smoke and spice mingled in with it, and a lovely acidity that's not to tart, but just enough. The 2010 Eaton Family however was another notch up, more depth in each of the flavours wonderfully soft and silky tannins, I have to say this was my second favourite wine of the night behind the Te Ahu.

And finally for desert we had the 2012 Late Harvest Pinot Gris, which the 3 bottles apparently had been flown over especially just for this dinner as it's not available in the UK. This was lusciously sweet as you would expect, but it had this wonderful acidity that just cut through the sweetness perfectly to show flavours of white peach, citrus and honeysuckle which were just stunning, only a shame that we won't be able to get it over here!

A Middle Eastern Delight - Chateau Musar

I had another boutique New Zealand winery for this post, which will now be my next post, but I had the opportunity to taste the 2001 Chateau Musar, which was just absolutely stunning and had to get it on here.

Chateau Musar are based in the Bekaa Valley in the Lebanon, the first vines were planted in 1930 by Gaston Hocheron on his return from a trip to Bordeaux. In 1959 Gaston's son Serge became winemaker after completing his winemaking studies at the University of Oenology in Bordeaux. Throughout the conflict that ravaged the region, they only failed to produce a vintage only a hand full of times, which when you consider it is pretty amazing.

Chateau Musar Red is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cinsault and Carignan from vineyard sites near the villages of Aana and Kefraya, the vines are an average age of 40 years old with low yields and planted in gravelly soil over limestone. Each individual component is fermented separately in concrete vats, then after 6 months they are transferred in French oak for a further year. They are then blended together to create the iconic taste that is Musar and placed for another 12 months in the concrete vats, when it is then bottled. After bottling it is then paced in there cellars for a further 4 maturation before they release it for sale, so by the time it hits our shelves it's already seven years old!

The 2001 had this lovely, mature brick red colour in the glass, with wonderfully pronounced aromas of dark fruit, leather, spice and cigar box. On the palate the fruit came over as much more mature, with figs and prunes, then all that lovely spice and cigar box combined together beautifully, there was a little touch of acidity and soft silky tannins. I've tasted quite a few vintages over the years even going back to one from the 60's, but this has to be one of my favourite vintages, Musar is definitely a wine that I would recommend, but make sure it's nice and mature, as it gets so much better with age.

A Little Beauty from New Zealand - A range of Single Vineyard Wines

The other week I called into the SITT (Specialist Importers Trade Tasting) at the Royal Horticultural Society, and I had the pleasure of meeting Fleur McCree who is the owner of the boutique New Zealand winery Little Beauty. They are based down in the Waihopai Valley, Marlborough, and produce a range of single vineyard varietal wines from Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Gris, Gewurztraminer, Reisling And Pinot Noir.

Fleur has bought in Eveline Fraser, who used to be head winemaker at Cloudy Bay to make her wine, and she really has done a fantastic job with them. Throughout the vineyard they employ sustainable growing techniques, have installed a sophisticated irrigation system and an advanced climate monitoring system to ensure they get the very best fruit possible. In the wine making process they use wild ferments and mature there wines using French oak from Fleur's favourite Burgundian coopers, all of these wines are produced in very limited quantities

Now for the wines;

2010 Single Vineyard Dry Reisling - had some lovely aromas of citrus, lemon and lime with a touch of floral honey suckle, a nice and refreshing acidity which just combined stunningly.

2013 Single Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc - grapefruit with a touch of gooseberry coming through and a hint of basil which surprised me, plenty of acidity but not overly tart and very enjoyable.

2012 Single Vineyard Pinot Gris - this was light and delicate with some lovely floral characters and a touch of citrus, a hint a vanilla spice and again a perfectly balanced acidity.

2010 Single Vineyard Gewurztraminer - this wine had aromas of sweet oranges, rose and clove, a soft elegant acidity which all worked together beautifully.

2013 Single Vineyard Pinot Noir - lashings of dark berry fruit, raspberry, and smoke, it had a savoury character to it as well with soft and silky tannin, only one word that can describe it, stunning.

Picture Courtesy of Little Beauty

They also produce a small range under the Black Edition label from Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Gris and Pinot Noir which are produced in even smaller quantities and are really a notch above there Single Vineyard range and are absolutely glorious, but think I'll save these for another post.

These wines really do match up to there name of Little Beauty, if you get the chance to buy or order a bottle in a restaurant then I would definitely recommend that you do, I really was bowled over by how good they all were.