Buller Wines

 

I had blogged about these two RP100 stickies from RL Buller & Son previously. For any winery to produce a wine of that calibre is no mean feat, but here we have a winery here who have built up reserve wines to be able to produce a couple of truly remarkable fortified wines year after year is definitely something special. Buller Wines was founded in 1921 by Reginald Buller and the company has stayed in the family through to the fourth generation now, though recent financial difficulties has led to the winery being put up for sale. Famous for its fortified wines, Buller also produces a wide range of still wines.

Alexakis Winery

Recently I had blogged about a number of wines from Crete, which I had tasted at the Alexakis booth at last year's Wine Fair. It turns out that Alexakis is the largest privately owned winery in Crete and thus an important ambassador for Cretan wines throughtout the world. Founded in 1977 by a chemical engineer turned vigneron, the winery is family owned and operated, intially by the founder and his wife and now handing over to their two children who studied oenology in Florence and California. They have also collaborated with almost all the winegrowers on the island, drawing upon their extensive knowledge of Cretan varieties, and this results in the high quality of its production.

The knight, the virgins and the crying illegitimate child

This may sound like the sort of juicy headlines that might appear in the tabloid, but this is actually about the legend of the Grand Cru vineyards of Chevalier-, Batard-, and Criots-Batard- Montrachet as well as the 1er Cru vineyard of Les Pucelles in Puligny-Montrachet. There was once a knight (Chevalier) who became a local lord, who had an illegtimate son (Batard) after having a fling with local virgins (pucelles). There must also have been an area where the illegitimate baby's cries were often heard (Criots), though one wonders whether the word might have been Criottes the diminutive of crai (or the clay soil) as the Griottes (of Griottes-Chambertin) was suggested to be be another corruption of the same word. The Bienvenue bit of Bienvenue-Batard-Montrachet is surprisingly straight - it is the most common entry point to the vineyards from the village of Puligny hence Bienvenue (Welcome!)

Kotsifali

Kotsifali is another indigenous grape variety from Crete. The above wine should actually be labelled Kotsifali-Syrah, having the more abundant variety going first on the label, but I suppose the small print does make that clear. When Kotsifali is vinified alone, it gives moderately red wine with rich plummy fragrances, which some find mellow. However due to low acidity and colour instability, it is often blended with other varieties, such as Mandilaria or Syrah as above. I tasted the above wine in last year's Wine Fair. Deep ruby with a sweet berry nose, it has slightly sweet berry palate, supported by a tannic backbone that unfortunately has hints of cardboard. The two grapes were vinified and aged separately before assemblage, with the Syrah aged in American oak and the Kotsifali in French oak.

The Champagne Aria

Finch’han dal vino calda la testa,
una gran festa fa preparar!
Se trovi in piazza qualche ragazza,
teco ancor quella cerca menar.
Senza alcun ordine la danza sia,
ch’il minuetto, chi la follia,
chi l’alemanna farai ballar, ecc.
Ed io frattanto dall’altro canto,
con questa e quella vo’ amoreggiar!
Ah, la mia lista doman mattina
d’una decina devi aumentar!

The above quote is from Act 1 Scene 2 of Mozart's opera Don Giovanni. Although widely known as the Champagne aria, the Don never mentions the bubbly (or indeed any wine) by name here, unlike later (in the final Act) when he praises a good Marzemino (see earlier blog). The action at this point concerns his instruction to his servant Leporello to go and bring out the wine and start a good party, so that everyone gets tipsy. He also asks Leporello to invite all the young ladies he meets, so that with the aid of alcohol and his crafty seduction he can add ten more conquests that night. All this against the backdrop of trying to seduce Zerlina, who was getting married to Masseto that day, and for which celebration the party was thrown. I suppose Champagne would be as appropriate a choice as any other wine, and by this time, champagne has started to evolve from a pale pink still wine to a white bubbly, though the production of the former still accounted for the vast majority of the wine production in Champagne. But however hard I look, there is still no proper account of why the above aria is named the Champagne aria.

BAVA

The BAVA winery had been making wine in Coconata in Monferrato Astigiano since the 1600s, concentrating on Barbera, for which they have been renowned. But the estate grows more than just Barbera, there is the usual complement of local Piedmontese grapes such as Nebbiolo, Dolcetto, Grignolino, Albarossa, Ruche, Cortese, Moscato and Malvasia. They have also grown white international varieties as Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc. They have a series of wines named after musical instruments: a Barbera named Stradivario (the famous violin maker), a Barbaresco Cello, a Gavi di Gavi Cor de Chasses (French for the hunting horn) and a Moscata called Tuba. Apart from the wine above, I have had their Barolo, Moscato and their sparkling Malvasia; all reasonable and good!

A semi-sweet Graves

Now Graves is famous for white Bordeaux, but usually the dry variety. Well Graves Superieures is an AC for sweet wines and this is a semi-sweet version made of 60% Semillon and 40% Muscadelle. That is the highest proportion of Muscadelle I have tasted in any blends (Ozzie Liqueur Tokay doesn't count as it is a varietal!) This is a wine made from clean (ie not botryitis affected) fruit. Actually Sauternes, Barsac and Cerons are all within the Graves sub-region, but Graves Superieures is a much simpler wine than the first two and a notch below even the third. This wine was a nice golden tea, with a sweet acid nose enlivened with a piquant note. The palate was semi-sweet and slightly fruity, well supported by an acid backbone. The vendor has another trick with the wine, by making a wine cocktail with grapefruit juice, but I think that it could be good enough on its own as an accompaniment to a meal with hidden sweetness (Chinese perhaps?!) 

Auxerrois Blanc

Auxerrois is not a grape often seen on wine labels, so I was delighted to spot this varietal Auxerrois from Alsace at a Club wine promotion event. A major grape in Alsace though not one of the 4 noble varieties, it is a full sibling of Chardonnay being a cross between Gouais Blanc and Pinot Noir (which may explain why Auxerrois is also a synonym of Chardonnay in the Moselle region of France, as well as the longer name of Auxerrois Blanc de Laquenexy).

Auxerrois may be found in Cremant d'Alsace, Pinot Klevner and Edelzwicker (and Gentil). As for the above wine, it was a lemon straw with green tints and a sweet slightly honeyed nose. The palate was slightly sweet with fruit and acid, with a lemony acid backbone for support. Interesting! 

Carmenere

Although this is a bottle of Chilean wine, neither of the grapes it contains originated there,; they both come from Bordeaux. Whilst most people are camiliar with Petit Verdot as a minor component in many clarets, Carmenere was part of the original six grapes of red Bordeaux wines; even now it forms 1% of the plantings in the fifth growth Chateau Clerc-Milon. Nowadays Carmenere is more associated with Chile, where it produces a deep red medium bodied wine with red berry fruit and softer tannins than Cabernet Sauvignon, with which it shares Cabernet Franc as a parent (the other is Gros Cabernet for Carmenere, and Sauvignon Blanc for Cabernet Sauvignon).

Vidiano

I tried this bottle of varietal Vidiano during last year's Wine Fair. This is however a rather obscure white grape being planted in low acreage in Crete where the grape originates. Producing lemony green wines with complex aromas of apricots and peach, backed up with full body, good alcoholic strength and minerality acidity, some have compared the grape to Viognier. Due to the small quantities grown, it is not widely known or appreciated. The true aging potential of the wine is untested though some reckon that it can be aged for a few years. As for this wine, it was pale lemon in colour with a hint of grapefruit on the nose. It was slightly sweet then acid on the palate, continuing onto a sturdy acid backbone.

Revisiting Chablis 1er Cru Beauroy from M&S

I'm sure I had previously mentioned that the first dry white wine I liked was a Chablis 1er Cru Beauroy bought from Marks and Spencer in London over 20 years ago. Prior to that encounter, my experience of white wines was limited to fruity German ones and it was my first taste of a dry white wine. Of course Chablis is a good introduction French white wines and I loved it and made a point of remembering the name. So seeing it again at Marks and Spencer was a trip down memory lane. I tasted it the other day.; lemon yellow with a crisp acid nose, the palate was nice acid and dry, with plenty of minerally acid as backbone. Nice.

Freisa d'Asti

This is Freisa d'Asti, a varietal wine from the province of Asti in Piedmont. I met this wine at yet another roadshow booth in the shopping mall beneath my flats, and took a picture for this blog, intending to write about Freisa, which I had separately encountered earlier, but it also seems that this wine is also quite interesting in its own right as well.

Freisa probably originated around this area and DNA profiling had recently shown that Freisa has a parent-offspring relationship with Nebbiolo. A vigorous grape, it produces rich tannic wines especially when vinified in the traditional style. With that style, a small amount of residual sweetness was deliberately left to counter the bitterness from its tannins as well as its lees aging. Modern methods keep tannins in check enabling a full dry ferment. Apparently although it is not considered an important grape now, it used to be the premier grape of Piedmont, with a lot grown in other parts of Northern Italy such as Lombardy and Veneto.

Tasting RP100 Esszencia

I had previously blogged about this wine, and finally got to taste the wine. I had read somewhere that a certain merchant provided a crystal spoon with their bottle of Esszencia to indicate how people take that precious sweet wine, by the spoon, rather like medicine! So I decided to explore spoons rather than appropriate glasses. I obtained some medicine spoons for me to have an idea how much the different spoons (teaspoon, soup spoon, dessert spoon etc) can contain. But it was the captain at the Grill Room who solved my problem. The solution was the Chinese soup spoon, often nowadays used by chefs as a convenient vessel for various canapes and amuse-bouches.

Having solved the problem of service, I decided not even to think about a dessert to accompany it, as that would be doomed to fail. So we had this instead of dessert. A rich mahogany brown (not unlike Pu-er tea), it was sweet on the nose with a dominating scent of dried apricots. The palate was very sweet but filled with raisin and dried apricot notes. The dried apricot notes formed a solid backbone hiding the supporting acidity very well from the senses. Brilliant!

Prosecco

Prosecco used to be both a geographic denomination as well as the grape used to make the famous sparkling wine of that denomination. However, rather like champagne, producers of Prosecco are fed up with how their DOC name came to mean an Italian sparkling wine. Unlike champagne they have an additional problem - the name of the grape. Since there is no grape called champagne, no one can grow the grape and make it into a sparkling and call it champagne, naming it after the grape. However with there being a grape called prosecco, anyone can make a sparkling wine out of the grape and still legally call it prosecco, as they can claim to be labeling after the grape. The only solution is to change the name of the grape, which is now called Glera. 

Champagne Moutard's Burgundy wines

I had previously blogged about the special champagnes (those containing rare grapes) of Champagne Moutard as well as of their spirits and related products (such as ratafias). The same time as I found a roadshow booth with their special champagne, I found their Chablis in the chain supermarket in the shopping mall underneath my block of flats. The Champagne House is situated in the southern most part of Champagne in the Cotes des Bar. They are actually only some 40 km from the northern most part of Burgundy, Chablis and they produce a range of Chablis wines from Petit Chablis to Premier Cru. They also produce a range of other Bourgogne reds, whites, roses and even Cremant! Notable amongst these are the less familiar wines made from Aligote and Sauvignon Blanc (St Bris).

Domaine des Perdrix

Domaine des Perdrix is a small 12 hectare wine estate based in Nuits-St-Georges. Bought in 1996 by Bernard Devillard, the director of the negociants Antonin Rodet in Mercurey, the estate has undergone modernization in the Cuverie to enable the fruit from their prestigious vineyard holdings to benefit from the advances in modern wine-making technology. Owning 99% of the Premier Cru climat of "Aux Perdrix" (making it a quasi monopole) as well as holdings in "Echezeaux du desus" right in the middle of Echezeaux Grand Cru, more than half of the estate's vineyards are in either Premier or Grand Cru designated areas.

Weingut von Hovel

Based in Oberemmel, Weingut von Hovel is an old family owned estate dating back to the 12th century, when it was a monastic property and the monks constructed the property and the cellar. The current owner, the von Kunow family acquired the estate back in 1806 from Napoleon, and the seventh generation max has taken over the reins from his father Eberhard when the latter had a major stroke in 2010.

The estate is famous for wines from their solely owned vineyard Oberemmeler Hutte, but I had just discovered their Scharzhofberg (above), which is a fine wine. Golden straw with a sweet acid peachy minerally nose, the palate was full of sweet stone notes,well support by a sweet acid backbone.

R de Rieussec

R de Rieussec is a dry wine produced from the plots in the vineyards of Chateau Rieussec (a 1st Growth Sauternes owned by Lafite-Rothschild) which do not have the requisite amount of noble rot and from the healthy (ie not rotten) grapes from the other plots in the vineyards. As Sauternes is a sweet wine only appellation, such dry wines (see also previous blog on Y d'Yquem) are only accorded the basic appellation of Bordeaux Blanc Sec. The wine above was a golden straw colour, with a crisp acid slightly mineral nose. The palate was dry with oaky overtones and hints of peach, amply supported by an acid backbone. 

In praise of roadshow booths

Last week a net based wine retailer had a roadshow booth in the shopping centre where I live, and I found that they carried some very interesting wines indeed. I had also previously blogged that I bought some very interesting wine in some temporary booths in a shopping mall in Chaing Mai, such as a dry Lambrusco di Sorbara and a Feteasca Neagra from Dealul Mare in Romania. So I have a soft spot for the better temporary booths selling wines in malls.

Back to this one last week, two wines caught my attention immediately, the von Hovel Scharzhofberg I had already blogged about, as well as the Champagne Moutard Cuvee de 6 Cepages that I tried a year ago and blogged about a little while afterwards. This latter is a unique wine in that it must be the only champagne in the world containing all the six grapes allowed in Champagne, Not bad for a temporary booth in a shopping centre in a strictly residential district, eh? 

Athiri

Athiri is an ancient Greek variety originating from the island of Santorini (which was once called Thira). On Santorini, it can be blended with Assyrtiko and Aidani for AOC Santorini wines, including Vinsanto. Athiri is grown all over the Greek islands, eg it is used to make Retsina in Rhodes. But apart from raisin wines and pine resin infused wines, Athiri as a varietal makes medium bodied wines with white fruits and lemony flavours, a soft acidity that is nevertheless fresh and lively. The wine above was tasted in last year's wine fair. A pale straw with a crisp acid lemony nose, it was off-dry and fruity on the palate with a lemony acid backbone extending right to the finish.