Tag Archives: Les Charmes

Playing the Somm Game in Vegas

“Unicorns aren’t real, but the house advantage is.”

I just got back from a weekend in Las Vegas where I lost far more than I care to admit at the casinos.

Growing up in St. Louis with church bingo and riverboat casinos, I will always have soft-spot for the gambler’s heart.

But man does it suck losing.

However, as I’ve gotten older I’ve found one game that I love playing in Vegas where I’m a sure bet to come out a big winner–the Somm Game.

How to Play

It’s a simple game. You go to a nice restaurant with a thick, Bible-size wine list.

Give the sommelier your budget, what food you are ordering, let them know you are open to anything and then let them take it from there.

That’s it. That’s the game and the payoff is almost always better than anything you’ll find at the tables or slots.

Why the Somm Game works

First off, your objective is to have a great dining experience. You know who else shares that same objective? The sommelier. Their entire job is to give you a memorable experience so the house odds are already in your favor.

Just like I’m sure you perform best at your job when your clients let you do your thing, so too do sommeliers really get a chance to shine when you simply trust them to do what they are trained to do—which is far more than only opening bottles and pouring them into decanters.

And *spoiler alert* sometimes they have bottles like this just “lying around”.

Sommeliers are professionals and many have spent years honing their craft, studying, tasting and traveling the world of wine. With certification programs from the Court of Master Sommeliers, Wine & Spirits Education Trust, International Sommelier Guild and the like, the quality of wine education in the industry has never been higher. Why let that advantage go to waste?

And it is an advantage–one that even the most savvy and experienced wine drinkers don’t readily have.

Look I know my fair share about wine. I can open up a wine list and recognize most every name and region on it. I can hold my own rattling off producers, soil types, grapes varieties and facts. But I’ll tell you what I don’t necessarily know—how everything on the list is drinking now and what exactly will pair best with the particular flavors of the chef’s cuisine.

No matter how much a person knows about wine, the odds are that the sommelier team knows their own list and their own food at least a little bit better than you do. Especially at a restaurant with a good wine program that involves frequent tastings and pairing exercises, they’re going to have a leg up on you with what is drinking great right now and is pairing well.

“But Amber, I don’t want to get ripped off by restaurant mark ups!”

Okay, I know restaurant mark ups can be painful to swallow. Believe me, it’s even tougher when you’ve been in the business and know intimately what the typical wholesale and retail prices are of the wines you frequently see on wine lists.

But here’s the beauty of playing the Somm Game and trusting the sommelier to make the wine picks—most likely you’re going to avoid getting the crazy mark up wines and instead get the gems that the sommeliers themselves would pick for their own dinners.

By trusting the sommeliers you are far less likely to get “ripped off” by markups than you would be ordering on your own. They don’t need to sell you the crazy high mark up wines because your fellow diners are already buying those wines and paying the “Ego Tax” on them.

The “Ego Tax”

General rule of thumb–if an average wine drinker would recognize the name on a wine list then you are probably going to pay an “ego tax” ordering it.

Restaurants are businesses and all businesses aim to make a profit. With margins on food being so tight, it naturally falls on the beverage side of the business to earn healthy returns.

In the wine industry, there are certain well known brands that restaurants know will sell off their wine list without any effort. These are your Jordan, Caymus, Rombauer, Veuve Clicquot, Dom Perignon, Opus One and Silver Oak type wines of the world.

There is no need for effort because wine consumers will order these wines on their own as frequently these are the only names on the list they recognize. Often their ego (either hubris or an irrational fear of looking helpless) keeps them from seeking the sommelier’s assistance so they retreat to the comfort of a known quantity.

But these “known quantities” are often the highest marked up wines on the entire list!

That hesitance to relinquish control and trust the sommelier to guide you out of the realm of the “the same ole, same ole” is not limited to just “regular wine drinkers”. It hits folks who “know wine” and have been around the industry. I mean come on! We don’t need help. We know how to order wine and what’s good!

And that is why restaurants make bank off of the “Ego Tax”.

Which is fine, I suppose, if you are living off an expense account and paying with someone else’s dime. But most of us in the real world aren’t expense account dandies so it’s pointless to be paying the “Ego Tax” when all we’ve got to do is trust the somm and have some fun.

The Somm Game in Action

When I play the Somm Game, I start by introducing myself as a wine geek and telling the sommelier that all I want to do this evening is “geek out” a bit. Sometimes in the conversation that follows I will mention my wine industry background but that is rarely brought up. My approach is to present myself as just a geek that trusts and respects the sommelier’s judgement and expertise.

I give them a budget and tell them that I’m open to anything–glass pours, half-bottles, full-bottles. I recommend going a little higher in your budget than you would usually give yourself for ordering a single bottle because the more flexibility you give the somms, the more fun you can have. Trust me, it will pay off dividends.

I share with them what food I’m ordering–again emphasizing my openness in going with whatever the sommelier thinks will work best whether it be glass pours for each course or half/full-bottles, etc.

Then I sit back and have fun.

This weekend I had the opportunity to play the Somm Game at two restaurants–Lago by Julian Serrano at the Bellagio and at Aureole by Charlie Palmer at Mandalay Bay. Both restaurants have tremendous wine programs overseen by Master Sommelier Jason L. Smith, Executive Director of Wine for MGM Resorts International, and Mandalay Bay Director of Wine Harley Carbery.

When playing the Somm Game, it helps to increase your odds by playing with a stack deck.

Lago

At Lago, we were served by head sommelier Jeffrey Bencus, an Advance Sommelier who is on the cusp of achieving his MS. Talking with him, we found out that he has separately passed his theory and tasting exams for the Master Sommelier certification–just not within the same testing cycle.

On my own, when out for a nice dinner I usually aim for a bottle in the $250-300 range so I gave Jeffrey a budget of $350 and laid out the perimeters above. I told him we were geeks and opened to pretty much anything.

The style of cuisine at Lago is small plates so we started off with short rib cannelloni and red wine risotto.

These were red wine heavy dishes but we were delighted when he brought out a half bottle of 2015 Jean-Philippe Fichet Meursault.

Granted, coming from the tremendous 2015 vintage this wine was already playing with a full house.

With plots in the enviable “second crus” of Les Chaumes de Narvaux (upslope from the Premier cru vineyards of Les Bouchères and Les Gouttes d’Or) and Le Limozin (flanked by 1er crus Les Genevrières and Les Charmes) as well as 65 to 75+ year old vine plantings in Les Clous and Les Criots, this village-level Meursault was delivering premier cru quality pleasure.

Textbook Meursault with subtle butteriness, hazelnuts and that liquid-rocks minerality that makes this place so special for Chardonnay. I don’t remember what the restaurant price was, but the Wine Searcher Average for the 2015 was $65. Well worth finding.

The following course was Italian sausage skewers with red pepper sauce and a filet with a Gorgonzola demi-glaze. Originally Jeffrey was thinking a classic 2012 Brunnello di Montalcino but decided to geek it up more for us with a 2012 Mastroberardino Radici Taurasi from the legendary Campanian producer. I was quite familiar with Mastroberardino and their flagship Taurasi but my initial instinct was that a 2012 would be far too young.

But, again, here is where a somm’s expertise and experience with their own wine list pays off.

With nothing more than a splash decant the Radici was absolutely singing with the savory floral and spicy undertones of Aglianico complimenting not only my steak but also my wife’s Italian sausage with its sweet roasted red bell pepper sauce.

Black olives and black fruit with a long savory finish. A masterful wine from Mastroberardino that was drinking surprisingly well for a young Taurasi.

The Wine Searcher Average for this wine is listed at $47 but that is skewed a little by some discount Hong Kong retailers. In the US, it is far more common to find it retailing for $55-60.

For dessert we had a creme brulee and citrus cannoli and boy did we hit the jackpot with the Somm Game!

My wife and I were flabbergasted when Jeffrey brought out a tiny 187ml split of 1993 Château Pajzos Tokaji Esszencia.

I don’t think this wine was even on the wine list!

While I’ve had Tokaji several times, this was my first experience trying an Esszencia because of how rare (and expensive) it is. Made from the free-run juice of dried botrytized grapes, residual sugars can go as high as 85% and take over 6 years to ferment because of how sweet and concentrated it is. Tokaji Esszencia is truly one of the wonders of the wine world.

This wine was the #3 ranked wine on Wine Spectator’s Top 100 list in 1998 and was described as “a perfect wine” with 100 pts from Robert Parker.

And it was just….wow!

I think I finally found a wine that broke my mental 94 point barrier. It’s been over four days since I had this wine and I can still taste the amazing concentration of liquid figs, honey, cognac and lingering spice.

Folks….this is a WHITE wine!

Incredibly difficult to find retail due to its limited supply (only 165 cases made), the Wine Searcher Average for a 500ml of the 1993 Pajzos Esszencia is $698.

A stunning treat and life-long memory.

All together, the three wines were well around our $350 budget. As we were finishing up dinner while savoring that amazing Esszencia, I noticed the table next to us had ordered a bottle of 2006 Opus One which was $995 on the Lago’s restaurant list.

While I’m sure they enjoyed that bottle of Opus fine enough, I can’t help but think that we came out WAY ahead in our wine and food pairing experience by paying around a third of what they did.

Heck, all three of the wines we had which included one 375ml half bottle, one 750ml bottle and one 187ml split was less at restaurant mark-up than what one single bottle of 2006 Opus One averages at retail price.

That folks….is winning big with the Somm Game.

Aureole

The next night we visited Aureole at Mandalay Bay where we rolled the dice for the Somm Game with Kyran O’Dwyer, an Advance Sommelier since 2006.

While Kyran didn’t have an extra 187ml bottle of an uber-rare wine lying around, he had his own ace up his sleeve and delivered a remarkable and personalized experience that far exceeded our expectations.

We didn’t finish this bottle till just before dessert and it paired exquisitely with every dish we had.

Giving him the same $350 budget, the first roll came up sevens when he brought out a perfectly geeky Champagne–the Drappier Quattuor Blanc de Blancs featuring some of the rarest grapes in Champagne.

A blend of 25% Arbane, 25% Petit Meslier, 25% Blanc Vrai (Pinot blanc) and 25% Chardonnay to round it out, the wine was aged 3 years on the lees before being bottled with a dosage of 4 g/l. The Wine Searcher Average for it is $61 but most retailers in the US have it closer to the $120 release price noted by Wine Spectator. However it is incredibly difficult to find with most retailers (like K & L) getting less than a couple cases.

But oh is it worth the hunt!

This is a “unicorn Champagne” like the ones I’ve been on the prowl for since I finished reading Robert Walters’ Bursting Bubbles. High intensity aromatics that continually evolved in the glass with a mix of citrus lemon custard and orange blossoms with some creamy creme brulee action. Exceptionally well balanced between the creamy mousse, racy citrus notes and dry dosage, the long finish brought out intriguing salty mineral notes that lasted for several minutes after you swallowed.

For appetizers my wife got a black garlic Cesar salad while I had the foie gras du jour–which was seared foie gras with a balsamic berry reduction paired with a French toast concoction that had the chef’s homemade nutella filling. While we enjoyed the Champagne, he gave us each an additional 2-3 oz “taster pour” of the 2014 Braida Brachetto d’Acqui to go with the foie gras.

The wine was lively and fresh with ample acidity to balance the sweetness.

A seriously good sweet wine worth geeking out over.

The wine tasted like you were eating ripe strawberries picked straight from the bush. In a market flooded with Moscatos, Roscatos and Stella Rosa, sweet wines often get a bad rap as overly simple but tasting a wine like the Giacomo Bologna Braida Brachetto d’Acqui is a great reminder about how joyful and delicious “simple sweet wines” can be. At a retail average of $18 a bottle, it is also a great deal for folks wanting to trade out of the same ole, same ole for something new to try.

For dinner I had braised short rib ravioli with a smoked tomato cream sauce while my wife had one of the most delicious vegetarian lasagnas that we had ever tried. It must have had at least 20 layers of fresh pasta, butternut squash, sage, spinach and mascarpone. My ravioli was great but her lasagna was outstanding.

Of course, these dishes were quite different and not necessarily the easiest to pair with the same wine. Truthfully, on my own, I probably would have “wimped out” and took the easy route of ordering a village-level Burgundy with the thinking of acidity for my tomato cream sauce while some earthiness could play well with the lasagna without being too big or tannic. Not a perfect pairing but a serviceable one.

But Advance Sommeliers do not settle for serviceable.

One of the tell-tale signs of a good restaurant wine program is when the wine list has gems like this Portuguese Douro on it. Few people are savvy enough to recognize or order them but the sommeliers know what’s up.

Instead, Kyran surprised me with a 2012 Prats & Symington Post Scriptum de Chryseia from the Douro. I was already very familiar with the Symington family’s stable of Port houses like Cockburn, Dow, Graham, Warre and Quinta do Vesúvio but wasn’t aware of this particular Douro red wine label.

A blend of 53% Touriga Franca, 45% Touriga Nacional and 2% other Portuguese varieties, the wine was remarkably “St. Emilion-like” with a beautiful mix of blue flowers, dark fruit and savory baking spice notes on the nose. Far from being “too big” or “too tannic” for the vegetable lasagna, the wine was beautifully balance with juicy medium-plus acidity and velvety medium-plus tannins.

If this was a blind tasting and I pegged it as a St. Emilion, I would have been expecting it to be in the $45-55 range retail for a bottle. But here is where the savvy of a good sommelier comes into play because this absolute gem of a wine from a very underappreciated region is a total steal at around $26 a bottle retail.

The wine list price for this bottle was $67 which, compared to the usual 3x retail mark up common in the industry, was a great deal in its own right. Frankly, you would be hard-pressed to find a better bottle than this on most restaurant’s wine lists for less than $80.

We would have been more than happy with only this bottle for both our main courses.

But, again, Kyran when above and beyond as he brought my wife out a glass pour of the 2015 Domaine Laroche Vielle Voye Chablis to compliment her vegetarian lasagna. Sourced from 70+ year old vines, this village-level Chablis way over delivered and is another great value at $36 a bottle (and probably a $20-25 glass pour, at least).

The wine….they just kept coming!

Then for dessert my wife went with a blood orange creamsicle parfait while I ordered a maple brown butter creme brulee (my favorite dessert if you haven’t guess yet). Once again Kyran decided to individualize the pairing for us with my wife getting a glass of the 2008 Jackson Triggs Vidal Ice Wine from Niagara that was chock-full of orange blossoms and apricot notes while I got a 2011 Kracher Beerenauslese from Burgenland that had amazing lightness in the mouthfeel despite its rich concentration.

And coming…..
Like a hot slot machine.

With Wine Searcher averages of $93 and $61 respectively, my wife and I rarely buy full bottles of dessert wines because we never finish them. For us, it’s worth paying a little bit of a premium to enjoy them by the glass pour at a restaurant with a nice dessert. Yet, I rarely ever feel like I am paying a premium compared to the amount of pleasure I’m getting with the pairing.

With an end total of 2 bottles, 3 glasses and two taster pours over the course of a fabulous dinner with a personalize touch made this another jackpot win for the Somm Game. There is truly no way that I could have spent my money better that evening than just letting Kyran run the table with his fantastic pairings.

That is the beauty of the Somm Game.

Yes, it’s still gambling

And the house is going to get its share.

Of course, I could have likely bought (assuming I could even find them) bottles of the wines I had at each dinner for less than $350 on the retail market but that’s the same truth when comparing the cost of the food ingredients if you cooked the meal at home versus what you paid at a restaurant for a dish.

No one should approach the Somm Game or buying wine at restaurants with the perspective of beating retail prices. It’s never going to happen. These restaurants are businesses with overhead and staff that deserve to be paid living wages and benefits.

I’m not advocating the Somm Game as a way of “beating the house” though I do wholeheartedly endorse it as a way of getting the most out your money and having a kick-ass experience.

There is really not a dollar amount that you can put on your own personal pleasure or the joy of trying something new.

You “come out ahead” when you end up getting more than you expected with a tremendous evening of great wine, great food and great memories that happened just because you let the professionals do the very thing that they are really good at doing.

No, there is not guaranteed 100% success each time you play. Sometimes you may be at a restaurant that doesn’t have a serious wine program with trained sommeliers. Sure you can still roll the dice but, as with all forms of gambling, there is always a chance you will crap out.

I recommend checking out the wine list and asking questions of the staff to get a feel if this is the type of place that is worth playing the Somm Game at.

But in Las Vegas, with its high density of outstanding restaurants and sommeliers, I’ve found no surer bet.

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Keeping Up With The Joneses of Burgundy — Coche Edition

Photo by Torsade de Pointes. Released on Wikimedia Commons under CC-Zero

Vineyards in Meursault, home to many of the Coche family’s prime holdings.

Welcome to the latest installment of my on-going series about the winemaking families of Burgundy!

Be sure sure to check out previous editions about the Boillot, Morey and Gros families.

If you have any suggestions for future editions (or know anything I missed!), feel free to leave a comment below.

Along with some internet sleuthing, my tools on this journey will be:

Remington Norman and Charles Taylor’s The Great Domaines of Burgundy
Clive Coates’ The Wines of Burgundy
Matt Kramer’s Making Sense of Burgundy
Bill Nanson’s The Finest Wines of Burgundy
Benjamin Lewin’s Burgundy (Guides to Wines and Top Vineyards)

The Coche Family

Photo by e_calamar. Uploaded to Wikimedia Commons under CC-BY-2.0

Through Léon’s grand daughter, some of the Coche family holdings are now in the hands of Domaine Roulot.

In the 1920s, Léon Coche started his domain after acquiring six parcels in Meursault, Auxey-Duresses and Monthélie. While he did some estate bottling, most of his grapes were sold to négociants. On his passing, the estate was inherited by his 3 children–Julien (who already had founded his own estate in 1940), Georges and Marthe. Georges took over his share of the family estate in 1964 and expanded his holdings with parcels in the Volnay Premier Crus of Clos des Chênes and Les Taillepieds.

Georges’ son, Jean-François Coche, assumed the domain in 1972 and appended the maiden name of his wife, Odile Dury, in 1975. In his nearly 40 years at the helm, Jean-François elevated Domaine Coche-Dury to “cult wine” level. Along with Comtes Lafon, Jancis Robinson describes the estate as one of “Masters of Meursault”. In 2010, Jean-François’ son Raphael took over the family domain as the fourth generation of Coche.

The inheritance of Léon’s daughter, Marthe, eventually passed to her daughter Geneviève who married Guy Roulot of Domaine Roulot. That estate is now ran by their son, Jean-Marc Roulot.

Julien’s Branch

In 1940, Julien Coche founded Domaine Julien Coche-Debord with just a single hectare in Meursault. The estate was expanded with some of his inheritance from his father Léon and was further enlarged when his son, Alain, took over added several notable Meursault premier crus like Les Charmes and La Goutte d’Or. Alain also changed the name to Domaine Coche-Bizouard et Fils.

Alain’s son Fabien joined the family estate in 1991 and started a négociant firm (Maison Coche-Bouillot) in 2001. Up through at least the 2013 vintage, wines have been produced under the label Domaine Alain Coche-Bizouard but now the estate is known as Domaine Fabien Coche à Meursault.

Current Coche Estates

Domaine Fabien Coche à Meursault/Maison Coche-Bouillot (Meursault) The estate formerly known as Domaine Coche-Bizouard et Fil and the négociant firm of Alain’s son Fabien. In addition to their holdings in Meursault, the estate also owns parcels in Auxey-Duresses, Monthélie and Pommard. The entire estate produces around 50,000 bottles.

Prime holdings: Batard-Montrachet Grand Cru, Meursault Premier Cru Les Charmes (0.28 ha), Pommard Premier Cru La Platière (0.20 ha)

Domaine Coche-Dury (Meursault) Ran today by Raphael Coche, son of the legendary winemaker Jean-François Coche. The estate bottles more than 70% of its holding.  Négociants like Louis Latour and Louis Jadot often purchase the rest. The winery farms the estate’s holdings sustainably with an annual production of around 50,000 bottles.

Prime holdings: Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru (0.34 ha), Meursault Premier Cru Les Perriéres (0.23 ha and 0.37 ha in Les Perriéres-Dessus), Meursault Premier Cru Les Genevriéres (0.20 ha)

Additional Keeping up with the Joneses in Burgundy

The Boillot Familly
The Morey Family
The Gros Family
The Leflaive Family

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Getting Geeky with Henri Gouges La Perrière White Pinot

Going to need more than 60 Seconds to geek out about the 2014 Domaine Henri Gouges Nuits-St.-Georges 1er Cru La Perrière–a white wine made from a unique mutation of Pinot noir.

The Background

Remington Norman and Charles Taylor notes in The Great Domaines of Burgundy that Henri Gouges started his domain in the early 1920s with the purchase of around 22 acres in Nuits-St.-Georges. During the economic slump of the 1920s and 1930s, Gouges continued to take advantage of depressed vineyard prices. He was able to greatly expand the domaine choice parcels from several esteemed premier crus.

In the early 1930s, when concerns about rampant fraud and mislabeling was taking a toll on Burgundy prices, Gouges joined the Marquis d’Angerville and Armand Rousseau to rebel against the négociant houses by estate bottling all his domain wines.

Clive Coates described Henri Gouges, in The Wines of Burgundy, as the “Doyen of Nuits-St.-Georges” whose lasting influence in the commune has been far reaching. He was elected mayor several times.  In the 1930s when the Institut National d’Appellation d’Origine (INAO) was establishing the classification of Burgundy’s vineyard, Gouges represented the interests of Nuits-St.-Georges on the regulatory committee.

It is believed that because Gouges was a major owner of the famed Les St-Georges vineyard, and would have benefited greatly if that vineyard was classified as a Grand Cru, he wanted to avoid any potential conflicts of interest by advocating against any Nuits-St.-Georges vineyard being singled out as a Grand Cru. Instead, the committee awarded the commune 41 premier crus.  After Beaune’s 42 premier crus, this was the highest concentration of premier crus in the Côte d’Or .

Domaine Style
Photo by Leroy remy. Released on Wikimedia Commons under CC-BY-SA-3.0

The village of Nuits-Saint-Georges in winter.

The domaine has long been a proponent of “traditional” and “natural viticulture” techniques–eschewing the use of chemicals when possible. In the vineyard, they prefer massale selection of vine cuttings instead of clonal propagation. Gouges’ grandson, Pierre, pioneered the use of ryegrass cover crop in the commune to curb erosion and encourage competition for the vine roots to find resources. Since 2008, all the domain’s vineyards have been farmed organically.

The Grape

The story goes that Henri Gouges was inspecting his Pinot noir vines in Nuits-St.-Georges 1er Cru La Perrière in late summer in the 1940s when he came across a vine that had all white clusters post-veraison. Intrigued, he cut off a branch of the vine and propagated to see if the new “Pinot noir” vine would also produce white clusters. It did so Gouges and his descendants continued to propagate the variety now known as “Pinot Gouges” in not only La Perrière but also in the premier cru vineyard (and Gouges monopole) of Clos de Porrets-Saint-Georges.

Is it a “White” Pinot noir or Pinot blanc?
Photo collage created by self as User:agne27 from photos released under creative commons licenses. Uploaded to Wikimedia Commons under CC-BY-SA-3.0

Pinot noir, Pinot gris and Pinot blanc are genetically the same grape.

An interesting question and one that I couldn’t find a definitive answer for.

Throughout history, Pinot vines have been observed having clusters with different colored berries on them. Sometimes even different colors on the same berry!

The Pinot grape is notorious for its genetic instability with Jancis Robinson’s Wine Grapes noting that there are more than a 1000 registered clones. That’s just the number of clones we know of. However, ampelographers believe that the mutation rate for Pinot is actually on par with other varieties and instead attribute the vast number of known mutations and genetic variations to the grape’s longevity and 2000+ year history.

Even with the many mutations, genetically all the various Pinot varieties (noir, blanc, gris, Meunier, Teinturier, etc) are the same–which to some degree makes the argument of what “Pinot Gouges” is moot.

But the concept of “White Pinot noir” does exist with producers pressing the red Pinot noir grapes quickly to produce a white wine. Used in Champagne for centuries, this method is a popular way to make white sparkling wines from red Pinot noir and Pinot Meunier grapes. When made as still wine, these White Pinot noirs often have a fuller-bodied, weighty fruit with just a tinge of color—traits that bore out in my tasting of the Gouges La Perrière.

Pinot blanc wines tend to be more moderate weight with medium to medium-minus acidity with brilliant clarity and no color–especially when young. While it can often be confused for Chardonnay (like the Gouges wine in my notes below), my experiences with true varietal Pinot blanc vines are just too different from tasting this Pinot Gouges which leads me to considering this a “White Pinot”.

The Vineyard

Photo derived from map provided for public use by Bourgone Wines.org

The Les Perrières vineyard located south of the village of Nuits-Saint-Georges.

La Perrière is a climat within the Premier Cru vineyard of Les Perrières located south of the village of Nuits-St.-Georges on the slope above the 1er Cru of Les Poirets (Les Porrets). The vineyard used to be a quarry with the name “Perrière” referencing the French term for quarry-workers. The soil is accordingly stony and pebbly.

Several producers have bottlings from this vineyard (all of them red) including Meo-Camuzet (Wine Searcher Ave $148), Louis Jadot (Wine Searcher Ave $134) and Domaine Robert Chevillon (Wine Searcher Ave $95)

The Wine

Medium-plus intensity nose. In a blind tasting, I would be thinking Chardonnay with the tree fruits of apples and pears but there is a lot of spice here–not oak spice but rather exotic spices. I can’t quite pinpoint them but it smells like you walked into an Indian restaurant. There is also a white floral element that has me thinking of apple blossoms.

Photo by Joe mon bkk. Released on Wikimedia Commons under CC-BY-SA-4.0

Lots of exotic spices and layers in this White Burgundy.

On the palate, there is a lot of weight and texture–things that would indicate new oak except for the complete absence of oak flavors. I also get some roasted hazelnuts which would make me think of an older Burg (like a 5 to 7 year old Meursault) rather than something that is only a little over 3 years old. Medium-plus acidity balances the weight of the fruit well but could be a tad higher. Moderate length finishes ends on the pear and spice notes.

The Verdict

Priced in line with upper-tier Premier Cru white Burgundies, the wine holds it own at the $90-110 range. It’s hard not to compare it to a well-made Meursault Premier Cru like Les Charmes and Les Perrières though I think what ultimately separates this Nuits-St.-Georges White Pinot from those crème de la crème Chardonnays is precision and longevity.

While there are lots of layers in this wine, they don’t have the crystal clarity and precision of flavors that truly highlight great white Burgs. You could say that develops with bottle age but this relatively young wine already tastes far older than what you would expect with its age. While it is giving considerable pleasure now, I can’t see it getting anywhere near the levels of a great Meursault wine from the same vintage 3 years down the road, much less 5 or 15.

Still, this is fascinating and exceedingly character driven wine that is worth seeking out just to experience. From a commune that is 97% red wine (with the entire Côte de Nuits being 95% red), it is truly a unicorn with only around 2000-2500 bottles produced each year.

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Wine Geek Notes 2/28/18 — Interesting Tweets & Burg Vintages

Photo by William Lawrence. Uploaded to Wikimedia Commons under CC-BY-SA-2.0

Here’s what I’ve been reading today in the world of wine.

Odds & Ends from Twitter

Some interesting weblinks from Twitter that are worth the read.

Smelling Terroir: A New Study Suggests People Can Smell the Difference Between Wines Solely Based on Terroir (but can we, really?) from the Academic Wino (@TheAcademicWino)
Very cool read about a 2016 study that showed that both experts and non-experts were able to smell the difference between wines grown in two different terroirs. Becca looks a little more in-depth at the study to question if it’s really the terroir differences they are smelling or something else.

new maps & saturday afternoon in the meursault sunshine from Bill Nanson (@billnanson) at the Burgundy Report with the tweet coming across my dash via @RealWineGuru
I’m a bit of a map geek (as evidence by my geek out over this Clos Vougeout map) so I absolutely squealed at the discovery of these incredibly detailed Beaujolais cru maps. Also some lovely pictures of Meursault that had me daydreaming about sipping on a Les Charmes.

So you want to be a wine judge by Master of Wine Sarah Jane Evans (@SJEvansMW) courtesy of @WSETglobal
As noted in yesterday’s Wine Geek Notes, I’ve been doing a lot of research on Wine Competitions and this article from Sarah Jane Evans added another perspective. One of the questions that I’ve been debating in my head is “Who benefits from Wine Competitions–the winery or the consumer?” which Evans answers rather bluntly “Remember that ultimately you are doing the judging for the winemaker and brandowner.”

Photo by Marianne Casamance. Released on Wikimedia Commons under  CC-BY-SA-4.0

Plant more Chenin!!!! The author screams into the void.


Wine of the Week: Lang & Reed, 2016 Napa Valley Chenin Blanc from Peg Melnik (@pegmelnik) at The Press Democrat with the tweet coming across my dash via @jncorcoran1
The subheader is what hooked me: “What happened to chenin blanc in California?” I have a soft spot for Chenin and have bemoaned the lack of interest of it in Washington State so I was similarly disheartened to read the staggering stat of how 3000 acres of Chenin blanc in Napa in 1980 has shrank down to just 14 acres today.

Burg’in Around

For my 60 Second Review of the 2013 Domaine Coquard Loison Fleurot Chambolle-Musigny I did some background research on the estate and 2013 vintage that had me stumbling across a few nifty links.

Pearl of Burgundy YouTube Channel
Features well produced short 2-4 minute videos from several Burgundian producers. While the Domaine Coquard Loison Fleurot vid is what initially caught me, I also enjoyed the videos from Domaine Henri Gouges, Domaine Lamarche and Domaine Grivot. By this point I was hitting the subscribe button for the channel.

2013 burgundy – the fairy-tale vintage? from Master of Wine Jancis Robinson (@JancisRobinson)
Always some of my favorite vintage write-ups. Great summary at the bottom of the article about the big issues facing 2013 but I also like how she explores the potential similarities (and differences) between 2013 and 1996 that also segue into comparing 2012 to 1998/1988.

The 2013 Red Burgundies: Fascinating and Challenging (Paywall) by Stephen Tanzer (@StephenTanzer1) on Vinous.
Tanzer takes a slightly more pessimistic outlook on 2013 and goes into more details about the challenges that the Côte de Beaune, in particular, had.

A Vintage Viewpoint…(2013, 2012, 2011…) from Bill Nanson at the Burgundy Report.
A nice little one page summary of the 2013 vintage in comparison to the 2012 and 2011 vintages.

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