2015 Johann Michel Saint-Péray

Gold juice.

My goal was to dress up a meal of diner-style open-faced roast turkey breast sandwich with mashed potatoes and gravy. That’s easy. Pairing is trickier than it seems because you want to avoid overt fruitiness and neutralize the saltiness of the dish while provding enough body richness to stand up to the full, earthy flavors. Fair roll of the dice, here.

• Aroma: deep golden hay
• Nose: beeswax, Bosc pear, lemon, delicate apricot
• Taste: muted apricot and lemon pulp coated with (not-sweet) honey essence
• Mouthfeel: viscous with a bit of mineral prickle cutting through a delicate waxiness

This is a classic Saint-Péray blend of of 50% Marsanne/50% Roussanne and all the requisite flavors and textures are here. On it’s own, many consumers might find this a bit too subtle fruit-wise and that is Marsanne doing its thing, providing the prevalent beeswax muting Roussanne’s fruity components. Paired against some salty food, though, the fruit pops beautifully while the wine retains its richness.

This is a lovely wine made from underrecognized varieties from an uner-the-radar Rhône region. Can be found in Maryland for $25-$30.

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France Travelogue — Day 4/Part 2: Carcassonne

Medieval-Disney-Times

OK. So, there’s not really much in the way of wine made immediately around Carcassonne. But, it is really cool and it’s a nice (if somewhat illogical) place to settle in for a tasting lunch with a winemaker from 140+ miles away.

This was specifically chosen as just a fun place to spend part of the day, and it was that. The site of many a fortress dating back to Roman settlements in the 6th century B.C., Carcassonne (the fortified city) as it stands today dates to the mid 13th century A.D. and was restored in the mid 18th century. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, but is more-or-less a tourist trap now (albeit a very engaging one) filled with souvenir shops, restaurants, and a Best Western (seriously, many of the one-time homes and shops of the city have been converted to hotel rooms). We all had fun exploring the city and I was taken with imagining what the lifestyle of a commoner in a largely self-contained and self-sufficient city must have been like. It all seems pretty idyllic…with the exception of the numerous sieges of the city endured.

Within the fortified city. What must life have been like in the 13th century?

Once convened at Brasserie le Donjon within the city, we settled in (with Jacques Calvel) for lunch and to meet with Raphaël Troullier of caravinsérail. caravinsérail is the umbrella under which Troullier produces three lines of wines from the Southern Rhône and the Côtes de Ventoux: the value-driven Vin de Pays de Méditerranée, “elicio”; the entry-level AOC Ventoux, “in fine.”; and the elegant AOC Ventoux organic terroir expressions, “cascavel”.

The elicio (Vermintino, Grenache/Cinsault rose, Grenache/Merlot) and in fine (Clairette/Bourboulenc, Grenache/Cinsault/Syrah rose, Grenache/Syrah) wines clearly expressed their freshness and immediately satisfying profiles exhibiting fine value. But, it was the cascavel (“Le Cascavel”: Grenache/Carignan/Syrah, and “Léonor”: Grenache/Syrah), the wines that put Troullier on the map, that resonated best, showing a richness, complexity, structure, and (most importantly) sense of place that far exceeded their estimated prices.

Raphaël Troullier prepares to present his wines at Brasserie Donjon in Carcassonne.

So, this ended up being a visit with a winery in the Southern Rhône while in a restaurant in the Western Languedoc. No matter, as Carcassonne was a wonderful site to visit, Mr. Calvel offered a palate-refreshing magnum of crémant, Brasserie Donjon provided near-deadly cassoulet, and Mr. Troullier graciously traveled nearly 300km to present his wines (as well as presenting us each with a gift of a jar of prepared figs—a local Ventoux specialty). But, this would mark only the beginning of a very strange day…

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France Travelogue — Day 2/Part 3: Côtes du Rhône

A good, long drive from the Pierres Dorées to Orange for an after-dark arrival at Domaine de la Berthete marked this leg of the trip. Upon stepping out of the Disco Bus, we were all nearly knocked off of our feet by the bone-chilling Mistral winds. Probably about 35℉ with winds gusting at about 40MPH here this evening (which probably only seems unbearable after an afternoon of napping in a van).

Pascal Maillet explaining his winemaking methods.

 

Here, winemaker/owner of Domaine de la Berthete, Pascal Maillet, graciously gave us a tour of the vinification area adjacent to his home. Maillet practices as close to organic (technically “sustainable”) as possible in his vineyards planted to Grenache, Syrah, Carignan, Cinsault, Grenache Blanc, and Bourboulenc. His vines are planted in Côtes du Rhône, Côtes du Rhône Villages, and Principauté d’Orange and average over 30 years of age. Red wines are fermented in the large (60hL) stainless steel tanks seen above and whites in stainless steel and fiberglass tanks. Some of the reds then see up to a year in new French oak barrels. 

 

A cute display of the wines in the tiny tasting room at Domaine de la Berthete.

From here, we escaped the chill stepping into the tasting room adjacent to the winery offices. The tasting included three 2012 barrel samples (including Maillet’s first Châteauneuf du Pape bottling from a friend’s one-acre parcel) as well as a makeshift approximation of the 2012 “Sensation” red blend.

The rosé is a blend of, predominately, Cinsault, with Grenache and Carignan making up the balance. It is made in the Saignée method, which is, essentially, a bleed of the first gentle press of the grapes that will become red wine. However, this wine is a carefully constructed blend of the juice from those pressings rather than the afterthought that is frequently the case with such wines. The resultant wine is gentle, Provençal-style, pale salmon-colored with a a faint violet cast showing strawberry and peach on the palate with a soft, mouth-filling texture.

The Côtes du Rhône (normale) shows rich, dark wildberry fruit and licorice more or less belies the simple stainless steel vinification and aging. This will be a great little everyday wine when ready.

The Côtes du Rhône Villages (Plan de Dieu) will be a lovely wee beastie when bottled. Deep red with violet edges, this wine is carried by very ripe blackberry, a lively acid streak cutting through a velvet-soft mouthfeel, and a long licorice-tinged finish.

The 200 case-production Châteauneuf du Pape bottling will be a fine showing after about six more months in barrel and some time to settle in bottle. Translucent garnet with blueish edges; currently a very closed nose; palate of rich, floral wildberries.

 

The “Sensation” blend is a proprietary label for Bouurgeois Family Selections. It is comprised of all of the red varieties planted by Maillet in the Côtes du Rhône Villages region, aged up to 12 months in new French oak barrels, and then blended with up to 15% of the prior vintage’s wine. This makes for a rich, soft and ready-to-drink wine. Our tasting sample of this wine was approximated on the fly by Mr. Maillet in a graduated flask. Ultimately, this should end up a well-structured wine with a richness and oak-spice influence built for the American palate. I currently carry the 2011 in the store and it is one of our best-selling Rhône wines.

Upon conclusion of the tasting our group was invited into the Maillet’s beautiful home for a lovingly prepared home-cooked meal (highlighted by lentil soup with foie gras, and a ridiculous cheese plate). The welcoming nature and generosity of the family will not be forgotten. These are lovely people making wonderfully approachable wines priced for all to enjoy. 

We made our way back to the hotel in Orange with a quick stop to see the Arc de Triomphe d’Orange. Regrettably, I was too exhausted to make a trek to the brilliant-looking Roman amphitheater in Orange the following morning. Next time . 

 

 

 

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Quick Wine Review: Domaine A. Clape Cornas 2001

Little by little, I’ve been burning through my meager wine collection. I popped this bottle just before Halloween and took notes, but never posted anything about it until now. Having been disappointed with so many aged Southern Rhône wines lately (Châteauneuf du Pape—you’re on notice!) it was nice to switch from soft, plump Grenache to edgier Syrah. It still sticks with me, too.

Sexy, no?

Origin: Cornas, Northern Rhône Valley, France

Composition: 100% Syrah

Appearance: translucent red-black

Nose: smoke, wildberries, wintergreen, leather

Palate: ripe blackberry, liquid smoke, leather, thyme, rosemary

Mouthfeel: medium-bodied and silky with fresh acidity and fine tannins

Really, just shockingly good. This wine has held up beautifully over the last decade-plus. Still vibrant and shows another decade of drinkability as its acidity and firmness on the back palate were long to soften in the glass. This was paired with a hearty beef stew with various root veggies (carrots, parsnips, turnips, and potatoes) and was just right to cut through the richness and fat. The likelihood of finding this vintage now is slim and it surely wasn’t cheap (I think in the neighborhood of $90 a few years back when I added it to the collection), but, based on what I’ve read, I would feel confident with any Clape bottling of the last decade.