Clos de Bèze by maisonilan

Hello everyone and welcome to Week Two of the Wine Berserkers Weekly Burgundy Appellation Tasting Series. This week, we are in Gevrey-Chambertin (and including any wines from vines planted in Brochon as is allowed). This week, there are many videos to add and tons of photos. So, please be patient as this first post will be edited over and over … over the next few days.

Grands Crus: Chambertin; Chambertin, Clos-de-Bèze; Chapelle-Chambertin; Charmes-Chambertin; Mazoyères; Mazis-Chambertin; Griotte-Chambertin; Latricières-Chambertin; Ruchottes-Chambertin.

26 1er Crus: La Bossière, La Romanée, Poissenot, Estournelles-Saint-Jacques, Clos des Varoilles, Lavaut Saint-Jacques, Les Cazetiers, Clos du Chapitre, Clos Saint-Jacques, Champeaux, Petits Cazetiers, Combe au Moine, Les Goulots, Aux Combottes, Bel Air, Cherbaudes, Petite Chapelle, En Ergot, Clos Prieur, La Perrière, Au Closeau, Issarts, Les Corbeaux, Craipillot, Fonteny, Champonnet.

Gevrey-Chambertin is the first commune we will visit in this series with Grands Crus associated with it. The history here goes back a long way. In fact, just a few years back, an ancient vineyard was discovered in the lower, flatlands of Gevrey-Chambertin dating back the first century AD. This backs up the writings of Pligny the Elder mentioning Gevrey as the first areas of plantation in the region. (Marsannay is thought to have followed suit shortly thereafter). http://translate.google.com/translate?u … =&ie=UTF-8

Gevrey (later Gevrey-Chambertin) was the first village granted permission by King Louis-Philippe to append the name of it’s village (1847) to the most renowned vineyard in its area. Other followed, producing names such as Chambolle-Musigny, Nuits-Saint-Georges and Morey Saint Denis.

Gevrey-Chambertin is the only village appellation which has vines on the East side of the Route Nationale 74 which produce grapes which are allowed to be classified under the same region as an appellation on the West side.

A portion of vines located in the commune of Brochon to the North produce grapes which are allowed to be included in the Gevrey-Chambertin Village AOC.

I will be back shortly with photos, videos, etc

The following are notes translated from Jules Lavalle’s Histoire de la Vigne et des Grands Vins de la Côte d’Or written in 1855

Gevrey-Chambertin (copied from 2010s Series)

-387ha 59a planted to vines in Gevrey, though there are areas in the flatlands which have not been included in this calculation which would surely increase the figure to above 400ha planted.
-The half of the vines (give or take) planted at the base of the slope and in the flatlands are planted exclusively to gamet (gamay) which generally yields between 45 and 50 hl/ha
-The other half, situated on the slope and in the best exposition is planted to pinot noir, though in some locations a bit of pinot blanc without other grape types planted.
-The general distinctive character of the wines of Gevrey is the firmness or the body, and it is this which is searched for in the market.
- When with a wine of Chambertin, it is close to unnecessary to speak since it is one whose fame is the most popular and widespread in the two worlds (Old World and New World), but since the word is more practiced thing and there are many people that know without doubting, that this celebrated cru possesses at the highest degree all the qualities that constitute the perfect wine: body; color; bouquet; finesse. It is comparable in quality the greatest wines of the Côte d’Or. Though, no other has this particular signature that makes it distinguishable even to amateurs, though La Romanée excells in finesse, Le CLos Vougeot by it’s bouquet, Le Chambertin by it’s body and color, yet with all of their qualities together, all three share the prize and all three sell would sell at the same price, if they were owned in totality by one owner. Mnsr Ouvrard owns each, though not each as monopoles
-Between 1651 and 1761, the price of a queue (456 litres – the size of two standard Burgundy barrels) Chambertin went from 30 livres to between 700-800 livres.This is largely credited to the reputation that Mnsr Claude Jobert (later changing his name to Mnsr Claude Jobert-Chambertin.

Lavalle’s 1855 Classification of the Vines of Gevrey::

Tête de Cuvée

Chambertin (Clos de Bèze included) 27ha

Première Cuvée
Saint-Jacques and Clos Saint Jacques 6ha 52a
Fouchère 1ha
Chapelle (upper) 3ha 89a
Mazy (upper) 4ha 21a
Ruchotte (above) 2ha
Charmes (upper) 3ha
Grillotte (upper) 2ha 90a
Veroilles (old section) 4ha
Etournelles 1ha 96a
Castiers (upper) 7ha 98a

Deuxième Cuvée

Mazy (low) 4ha 38a
Chapelle (small) 4ha 1a
Ruchotte (lower) 1ha 40a
Gemeaux 2ha
Charmes (low) 9ha
Mazoyères 18ha 36a
Latricières 6ha 93a
Echèzeaux 3ha 31a
Lavaut (upper)

Troisième Cuvée

Meixvelle 1ha 87a
Meix-Des-Ouches 1ha 9a
Craipillot 2ha 86a
Champonet 3ha 16a
Fonteny 3ha 5a
Corbeaux 3ha 60a
Clos-Prieur (upper) 2ha 27a
Cherbaude 2ha 20a
Pallut 3ha 37
Carrougeot 5ha 43a
Combe-Du-Dessus 6ha 43a
Combe-Au-Moine 2ha 20a
Ensonge 3ha 60a
Vellées 1ha 16a
Motrot 3ha 50a
Marchais 5ha 56a
Champs 9ha 67a
Champerrier (upper) 2ha 36a
Champeaux 6ha 48a
Cherreux 5ha 79a
Crais-Du-Dessus 5ha

Lavalle makes it clear that there are sections with similar names producing different levels of quality. He expresses his opinion of quality by specifying whether the subject vines are in an upper, lower or older section while having the same official name.

He adds that some locations are classed lower than what the terroir’s potential suggests, noting that it is clearly understood that younger vines produce wines that are very ordinary, showing no characteristics of great wines. Generally, the average production in the vines of Gevrey are between 20 and 22 hl/ha.

Thank you again for your participation!

Ici Tout Commence by maisonilan

Vines at Chambertin by maisonilan

Mist over Le Chambertin by maisonilan

Le Clos Saint-Jacques by maisonilan

Latricières-Chambertin by maisonilan

Vines at Mazy-Chambertin by maisonilan

Clusters at Le Chambertin by maisonilan

Chambertin Soil by maisonilan

Le Chambertin Slope by maisonilan

Corbeaux by maisonilan

Old Vines at Corbeaux by maisonilan

Les Corbeaux and Mazis Chambertin (to left) by maisonilan

Charmes-Chambertin Grand Cru “Aux Charmes” (Hauts) by maisonilan

Charmes-Chambertin “Aux Charmes” (Hauts) by maisonilan

My first epiphany wine was a strange one with somewhat a somewhat unusual context. I was very young and in late grade school or maybe early middle school and my father and I were driving one day from a visit to Sun Valley Idaho (a ski resort town) to the airport in Boise. There is a big truck stop along that route and we stopped to get some food and drink. My father asked me what I wanted and for a reason I cannot explain I answered “wine and cheese”. Why I said that, I am not really sure but I was very much what would now be called a “foodie” in those early years of my life and I am sure I read somewhere that cheese and wine went well together. Surprisingly, my father actually bought a chunk of cheese along with a single-serving of some plonk red wine for me and let me have a few sips as we continued on our way. To this day I can still remember what that wine tasted like. I was in heaven. I really was in love with the flavor and a switch went off in my head fully impressing upon me how delicious wine was. Also around that time I also had my first taste of white that a friend and I snuck from the box of wine his mom kept in the fridge. Again, I just loved the flavor of wine and it never has left me. These were cheap “bulk” wines but they were enough to ignite a lifelong love of wine.

During my high school years my friends and I mostly just drank beer when we were somehow occasionally lucky enough to be able to finagle some (If you want to know what my friends and I were like at that age, think Beavus and Butthead. We were not very cool). But once I went away to college I reawakened my interest in wine. My girlfriend and I were big fans of the Grateful Dead and we would often do the long drive between Humboldt county were we lived in Northern California and the San Francisco Bay area to see shows. Between those two points one drives through a series of wine regions and I was very intrigued to stop and wander around the vineyards. We were not quite of age to drink yet but we still were able to taste at some places and occasionally walk off with a bottle. It was not a “party” thing for me, but rather I was really intrigued by the wines we tasted and had a respectful curiosity-driven approach towards it to it.

When I finally turned 21 I really dove in head first. I read literally everything I could find about wine and visited wineries as often as I could. It was during this time I had what could really be called my first real epiphany wine. The first time I really experienced a “wow” moment was with a bottle of Audubon Society labeled zinfandel that I had procured during a visit to Napa. I am not sure what vintage it was but it would have been perhaps 1992 or 1993 when I tried it. I remember drinking this and being astounded at the depth, power and layers of flavor in that wine. I don’t think it would be an exaggeration to say it blew my mind. I remember excitedly calling my girlfriend at work and telling her how much I loved it. It was probably a “fruit bomb” type wine in retrospect but man did it make an impression.

My next major epiphany also occurred around this time. I was visiting my uncle for dinner at his house and he opened a number of wines for us to try. He was the first person I knew that was a “wine collector” and he had a pretty deep cellar of many older Bordeaux and Napa Cabs. One wine he opened was a 1970 Lynch Bages. It was mostly tertiary in flavors/aromas and it was the first time I saw how amazingly complex an aged wine could be. I just loved it. What was really brought home to me was that wines could have more than just fruit flavors and that this level of complexity could really only be found in wines that have been allowed to mature over time. Ever since that moment I was committed to someday having a cellar to age wine, though due to life circumstances (being in few crazy startup technology businesses) it would be years until I ended having a stable enough lifestyle to do it.

The next step in my palate evolution was the discovery of Pinot Noir to be my favorite red wine graoe. The wine that opened my eyes to how delicious Pinot Noir could be was a 1990 Foxen from Santa Barbra County. I don’t remember if it was a vineyard designate or not but those were not as common back then. Up until time I was mostly into bolder wines like Zinfandel and Cabernet Sauvignon but that wine was definitely a pivot point in getting me interested in the more feminine and pretty side of red wine. The apex of Pinot Noir for me around that time were a couple bottles of Williams Selyem I was able to get my hands on.

I would say my next epiphany (and probably my most important one) was with a 2002 Bouchard Gevery Chambertin. At that time my favorite wines were definitely California Pinot Noirs but I was mostly into the “bigger” styled wines. Since I loved pinot noir so much I naturally was intrigued by Burgundy and every so often I would try one at a restaurant when dinning somewhere nice or perhaps I would pick one up at a wine retailer. To be honest I did not like these burgs at all and for the life of me could not understand why anyone would spend their money on these fruitless and shrill wines. In retrospect, I now realize these wines were likely just “closed” and simply needed some air to “wake up” but the idea that wine needed aeration to show well was a foreign idea to me. But then one day I got lucky and blundered into that 2002 Gevery that was being poured at a wine bar and luckily it was showing well as a “pop and pour”. DING! It was totally open and giving and I instantly intuitively knew that this is what I had been looking for in red wine. The lightness, elegance and beauty of it really spoke to me. It would not be an exaggeration to say it instantly changed what wines I appreciated. From that moment on, I simply could no longer enjoy the bigger styled Pinot Noirs like Kosta Browne anymore. The rapid nature of my palate change is remarkable in retrospect. It was literally one 3 ounce por of a village level wine that reprogrammed my wine preferences.

Interestingly, the next wine I had that I would classify as an epiphany experience was a domestic Pinot and it occurred after my almost instantaneous palate switch away from bigger styled pinot noir and towards red Burgundy. My wife and had visited the Russian River Valley a year or two earlier on a quest to try different Pinot Noirs. That trip was still when I was in my “ripe pinot noir” phase and I enjoyed a lot of what I tasted. One winery we visited was Joseph Swan. Frankly, I did not really enjoy the Pinot Noirs they were pouring. I am sure that the cold room was not helping but they seemed tight and acidic. The people serving us wine there were nice though so I felt compelled to at least buy something and picked up a single bottle the 2002 Trenton Estate Pinot Noir. That wine sat around in my wine rack for a while before I got around to drinking it. I hadn’t been impressed with it at the winery and I had already had by Burgundy epiphany so I wasn’t too enthused to open it and it was almost with a sense of annoyance that I twisted the cork when eventually got around to opening it. You know what? I was blown away by it. Maybe it was my palate change or maybe it just needed it sit around for a while but the wine showed amazing for me. It was so powerful and complex yet not over done or over ripe. It was a reminder to me to not ignore the potential of domestic Pinot Noir despite my new found fascination with red Burgundy.

The last red wine I’ve had I would mark as an epiphany wine for me would have been a 2002 Fourrier Clos St Jacques that I purchased after seeing it sitting in the temperature controlled section of a local wine shop. I had never heard of the producer but it kind of called out to me. Maybe it was the heavy bottle or the majestic label (yes, I am shallow). At $100 or so, I think at the time it was the most I had ever paid for a wine outside of a restaurant wine list. To say the least, I was not disappointed. It really rocked my world. While the2002 Bouchard village wine was enough to make me realize I loved the genre of red Burgundy this was the first Burgundy to really make me weak kneed and feel a sense of awe. For the first time I understood sayings like “power without weight” and “iron fist in a velvet glove”. What I experienced with that wine seemed to defy the laws if physics. How could something so powerful at the same time be so nuanced and delicate? This bottle was also the catalyst for me to realize that there were major stylistic differences between different producers and that perhaps producer is as important as vineyard when buying burgundy. I quickly sought out other bottlings from Fourrier and fell in love with the sophisticated yet almost understated purity of the style.

The last wine of any sort I would mark as an epiphany was a 2004 Donnhoff Spatelese. Unfortunately, I don’t remember the vineyard but I think the note still exists somewhere on Robert Parkers message board. Maybe it’s not totally fair to say this was my first epiphany Riesling as a couple years before I was dinning at a restaurant called Gary Danko in San Francisco and ordered a half bottle of some random German Riesling off the list and really loved the intense tropical fruit of it. I had no idea that Riesling could be so delicious and powerful. I had bought other Rieslings after that hoping to recreate that experience but none of them came close. But then one day I saw a bottle of the above mentioned Donnhoff and opened it at home. Aha! Here is that Riesling experience I was looking for again. Actually it was even better; much better really. It wasn’t tropical but rather more stone-fruit in nature. But what really caught me was the interplay between the fruit and the acid. And what acid! The wine seemed luminous in its energy, almost otherworldly so. I was also struck at the complexity. I had tasted aged wines with complexity but this is the first time I had seen it in a young wine. It was a delightful treat and a huge eye opener to how good German Riesling could be.

What has struck me as most interesting while voyaging down my vinous memory lane is that it has been a really long time since I have had a wine epiphany of any sort.  Am I jaded? I have had some remarkable wines in the five or six years since the last of those experiences but nothing that has jolted me to a new realization or been the catalyst for a shift in palate preference. Perhaps I have simply reached my metaphorical enological home so new wines can’t point me in this direction since I am already here. The closest I have come to calling a wine experience an epiphany has been with Champagne but those awakenings didn’t have the earth shattering implications that the early ones did. I love and understand wine more than ever but part of me misses those moments of discovery and excitement.

Aubert de Villaine was in New York two weeks ago to a host tasting of the 2009 vintage from Domaine de la Romanée-Conti. It’s an annual event organized by DRC’s longtime U.S. importer, Wilson Daniels, and I’ve now had the pleasure of attending it twice. Truth be told, I would have traveled the two hours that it took me to get to New York even if there’d been no wines to taste; merely having the pleasure of de Villaine’s company would have sufficed. He is a remarkable man, whose wisdom about Burgundy, wine, and much else is immense. Back in 2009, I had the opportunity to spend a few days with him in Burgundy, and of all the experiences I’ve had as a wine writer, it’s the one I most cherish.

Click here to read the whole post.

Lovers of Brunello di Montalcino would benefit if the appellation were to be split into subzones – but it’s politically highly unlikely, Italian experts argue in this month’s Decanter.

The terroir varies significantly across the 2000ha of the Montalcino appellation, O’Keefe says.

‘Summertime temperatures can vary by as much as 7C between Montalcino’s northern and southern extremes’, and altitudes can range from just above sea level to 500m.

Follow this link to read the rest.

The dinner party started smoothly and we all seemed to be enjoying ourselves. But when the first wine, which our hosts were quite proud of, appeared at the table it was unmistakably (to me, anyway) corked. But nobody said anything.

Here lies the dilemma: In such a situation, do you say something? Or, even though you are sure you’re correct, do you keep your gob shut? (As you might imagine, I often have a problem keeping me gob shut.)

California’s grapegrowers finally have something to cheer about—grape prices are going up. But does that mean higher prices for consumers? Winery owners are trying to cut costs so they can keep prices low at a time when drinkers still want value.

After nearly three years of sluggish sales and an oversupply of wine, vintners have cleared their cellars of older vintages and are looking to increase their grape purchases. But two small harvests and an absence of new plantings mean they are competing for a smaller amount of fruit. That demand is pushing up grape prices and bulk wine prices. “If you are buying wine on the bulk market, or you’re a négociant, your costs are going to go up,” said Adam Lee of Siduri and Novy Family wines. Larger producers like E. & J. Gallo are actively signing long-term contracts with vineyard owners to guarantee grape supplies at a set price.

When California vintners wanted know the history of their property or cellar, they often turned to William F. Heintz. A historian who lived most of his adult life in Sonoma, Heintz wrote two detailed books on Napa, Wine Country: A History of Napa Valley, The Early Years 1838-1920 and California’s Napa Valley, One Hundred Sixty Years of Winemaking. He died Feb. 10, one day after his 79th birthday

The rest of the article is here.

In a wine career that spanned more than five decades, Ernest “Ernie” Van Asperen blazed his own trail. He was involved in all aspects of the industry, and his résumé read vintner, retailer, négociant and restaurateur. Van Asperen was an avid flyer and a World War II veteran who commanded a B-24 bomber flying sorties over Germany and Italy. But it was wine that captured his imagination, and he spent much of his adult life in Napa Valley as a vintner. He died Feb. 11 at the age of 96.

Click here to read the article.

Did you happen to notice the announcements a few weeks ago about how Starbucks and Peet’s are now offering lighter-roast coffees? This was no small thing, and I confess that it took me by surprise. Now, I do not consider myself any sort of coffee connoisseur. Oh sure, I buy whole beans and grind them before making a double espresso in the morning. But compared with the obsessive coffee geeks out there (and if you think wine geeks are nutty take a look at the blogs of the coffee crowd), I hardly count as anything other than an amateur.

Still, I was struck by the report from Starbucks, a company that hardly makes a move without intensive market research. “It took eight months and more than 80 different recipe and roast iterations before we landed on the exact flavor profile our customers told us they were looking for,” said Brad Anderson, master roaster for Starbucks. “They told us they wanted a flavorful, lighter-bodied coffee that offers a milder taste and a gentle finish.”