A Burgundy (mainly 1er Cru) dinner

There was a PWC dinner the other day, featuring mainly Burgundy 1er Cru wine. Of the 10 wine, three were not Burgundy Premier Cru - first the welcoming Champagne; I could have tried to dig out a Cremant de Bourgogne, but then that still would not be 1er Cru. There was a white and a red from de Villaine and neither of them were 1er Cru. The Bouzeron was as always interesting and quite an eye-opener for many as was the Cote Challonais le Digoine, which I had blogged about some time ago. This was as much an introduction to the lesser known wine from de Villaine (the better known ones are from his half share of DRC).

I covered a lot of different villages in Burgundy with this tasting, but had to change from Chambolle-Musigny les Amoureuses to a Volnay Santenot because I had misplaced the former and could not locate it in time for the dinner.The latter however was an organic wine from an organic/biodynamic specialist. Others include Pommard Grand Clos des Epenots, Morey-St-Denis Clos Sorbe, Beaune Greve, Gevrey-Chambertin Bel Air, Vosne-Romanee les Beaux Monts and Nuits-St-Georges les Pruliers. An enjoyable evening overall.

Domaine Lucien Muzard et Fils

I failed to locate one of my bottles for tonight's Burgundy dinner so I went and got a bottle from the shop specializing in organic wines and the bottle chosen was this Volnay 1er Cru Santenots from Domaine Lucien Muzard et Fils. The domaine can trace its history back to 1645 in Santenay, and the family had been selling off their wines to negociants until Lucien's two son took over in 1995, when they started domaine bottling.

Based in Santenay, with tiny holdings in Chassagne and Pommard, they went organic in 2005 and started conversion to biodynamic in 2008, completing the process in 2011. Unfortunately, due to bad weather and the subsequent necessity of systemic fungicide, they had to abandon biodynamic certification the next year.

The two brothers farmed 13.15 ha of their own vines (which are labelled mise en bouteille a la propriete) as well as another 3 ha of rented vines (labelled mise en bouteille dans nos caves). The Volnay was from rented vines. Now I am looking for their Santenay to try wines from their own properties.

Ruche

Ruche is a Piedmontese red grape which makes a varietal wine - Ruche di Castignole Monferrato, originally a DOC wine since 1987 and becoming DOCG in 2010. Although some have pointed out Ruche's similarity to Nebbiolo in producing light coloured, tannic wines with pronounced aromas, Ruche di Castignole Monferrato is supposed to be of medium body, moderate acidity, soft tannins and with spicy and floral aromas.

As I pointed out in a previous post, I had tasted a couple of wines made from Ruche by Luca Ferraris in the HKIWSF 2011, and looking up my notes from 2011, the Bric d'Bianc was ruby with a sweet orangey nose, and the same sweet orangey fruity notes on the palate. Structure was provided by a slightly acid and slightly tannic backbone. The Ruche DOCG was even lighter in colour - a limpid ruby. The nose was similar with slightly less forward orangey notes whilst it was less sweet on the palate than the DOC wine. Tannin was less obvious in this latter wine too.

Chantereves Bourgogne Pinot Noir 2011

I blogged about the Maison de Vin Chantereves last week, as I had tried the above wine a few days before. The confusion about the name of the winery and its labels can be attributed to the company having changed its name somewhere along the line. So what of this wine hailing from the collaboration between a Japanese and a Burgundian winemaker? The Bourgogne Pinot Noir 2011 was a limpid deep pink ruby colour, with a sweet berry acid nose, slightly marred by a touch of alcohol heat. The palate was of strawberry and acid, with just a hint of sweetness and a touch more tannins. An acid slightly tannic backbone gives sterling support. There is certainly enough in this wine to make me want to try some more of their range.

Ruche wines from Luca Ferraris

I mentioned that I saw some Ruche wines as I went into this newly opened wine shop in my neighbourhood. I have now looked back at my pictures of wines that I have tried in the Wine Fairs in the past few years and confirm that not only have I tasted two wines made from Ruche in the 2011 HKIWSF, those wines I have tasted are from the same maker Luca Ferraris as was being sold in this new shop as well. I will also admit that the two wines of the 2010 vintage I tasted, sported the same mosaic picture as the wine I recognized in the new shop. As for how those two wines tasted, including them here will make this entry far too long so I will write about them in another blog next week.

A Chinese ice wine features in the Greater China Wine Book

I blogged that I had bought another Greater China Wine Book last week and I had a chance to flick through it now. I was quite surprised to find that our great motherland had 3 wines featured in it, the same as some other countries with a much more illustrious reputation such as South Africa (whose Vin de Constance I would agree is worthy of mention in any book) and even 1 more entry than Hungary!

One of these wines is a Chinese ice wine, but the one I had previous blogged about, and not even in a similar geographic location either. This is also made from Vidal, like the Changyu ice wine, but instead of being from Liaoning, this wine hails from Changbai Mountain of Jilin Province. The author felt that the quality of this wine is no less than those from Germany or Canada. Since I would not speak of German (and Austrian) Eisweins in the same breath as Canadian ones, this remark does somewhat colour my assessment of the wine.

Another new wine shop opens in the neighbourhood

I just noticed the other day that a new wine shop had opened round the corner but at the time it was closed. From the talk tasting wines at the more familiar neighbourhood wine shop, it seemed that this new shop "specializes" in carrying organic and biodynamic wines. When I git around to visiting it, sure enough there were quite a few biodynamic wines from a large variety of locations. Prominent on the shelves was a Ruche DOCG, a wine I had tried some time ago at the HKIWSF but frankly do not expect to see on the shelves. There was a whole range of biodynamic and special Muscadet de Sevre et de Maine from Domaine de L'Ecu (the name was memorable because the ECU was the forerunner of the Euro). Bordeaux on contrast was not prominent. This could be a very interesting wine shop but given Hongkongers' preferences, also one that could quickly go out of business!!

Chateau Cap de Faugeres

There are a number of Bordeaux wines with Faugeres in their name, and like others in the same situation, they form part of a large continuous estate. However, although Ch Faugeres, Ch Peby-Faugeres and Haut-Faugeres are from St Emilion, Ch Cap de Faugeres spills over to the next AOC, Cotes de Castillion and they are all under the ownership of Vignoble Silvio Denz. I think I have tasted a vintage of Peby-Faugeres and I certainly have a couple of bottles of that somewhere.

Ch Cap de Faugere is situated in the village of Sainte-Colombe and is planted with 85% Merlot, 10% Cab Franc and the rest Cab Sauvignon. The estate produces 100,000 of the Grand Vin and 200 cases of the La Mouleyre cuvee (from older vines and all matured in new oak).

Maison de Vin Chantereves

I just came across this interesting wine-making concern over the weekend. The first bit of confusion is that although the "winery" is called Chantereves, the name on the label across their whole range says Chanterives. (For those who may not remember things exactly, the added confusion comes from the Graves estate Chateau de Chantegrive). Chantereves is a micro-negoce formed by the collaboration of Tomoko Kuriyama and Guillaume Bott. Kuriyama was chief winemaker for Weingut Altenkirch between 2007-2011, whilst Bott worked for Etienne Sauzet from 1995 to 2002, after which he was appointed chief winemaker of Domaine Simon Bize. With this pedigree, it is no wonder that this micro-negoce is catching everyone's attention ever since they released their first vintage in 2010. There are four wines available in Hong Kong: two vintages of Bourgogne Chardonnay, one of Bourgogne Pinot Noir and a Meursault Crotots.

Hail damage to French vineyards

I mentioned hail damage to Chablis vineyards in the post about wine and weather a couple of months ago, but hailstorms were not only in the news in Hong Kong a few months ago, decimating a wine growing concern in the New Territories, it is also making news by wreaking havoc in some well known (and not so well known regions) in the best known wine country of the world, France. A news item few days ago listed the hail damage to that country's famous wine regions. A hailstorm last Sunday devastated 15,000 ha of vineyards in Languedoc-Roussillon around Corbieres and Minervois. A week earlier some 3000ha of vineyards in Burgundy were devastated (especially around Pommard and Volnay), whilst northern Medoc also sustained damage in mid June. This led Andrew Jefford to comment on his column last Monday on hail and its relationship to global warming etc.

100 + 101

I was just passing by and I went into a branch of this major Chinese bookstore chain for a browse and emerged buying two Chinese books on wine, in my continuing attempt to read and hopefully learn to write about wine and related matters in Chinese. One was another offering collated by the Greater China Association of Wine Critics (own translation) just like the 2013 wine book I blogged about previously. This book gathers a total of 100 wines from 13 countries, introduced by various members of the Association. 

The other book is from Taiwan, written by a well known wine critic, who attempts to introduce some of the various characteristics of the various main stream wine grapes, usual methods of production, etc via the tasting and appreciation of 101 wines which she guides the reader to taste.All in all, a couple of interesting books.

Trendy Aligote?

Aligote, the "second" white grape of Burgundy was not well known in Hong Kong until recently. Initially the easiest way to find a bottle would be through one of the big wine retailer chains, where they initially carried a Bourgogne Aligote as well as the de Villaine Bouzeron, but both rather intermittently. So it was quite a surprise first to see a local branch of a Japanese wine retailer stocking one such wine from Olivier Leflaive, and then finding another one on someone else's Bin End Clearance.

Why this sudden interest? I have no idea. Of course, the Bin End Clearance meant that the retailer had already been selling this for some while. I also wonder whether, as the Hong Kong wine lovers get to expand their horizons from the classical grape varieties and appellations, they take an interest in the lesser known grapes. It may also be that there are a few producers whose products are of a high enough quality to make the buyers take note and want to try it on their clientelle. How else would you explain, say a Rose d'Anjou made with the obscure Grolleau grape in one of the big two supermarket chains?

Apostoles - a special VORS Palo Cortado

I had written about this product line from Gonzalez Byass very early on in this blog when I dealt with VORS sherry. That was Matusalem, a sweet oloroso in a product lineup which includes not only this Aposotles, but also del Duque Amontillado and Noe PX, all 30 year old VORS sherries. Unlike normal Palo Cortado sherries, it is not pure Palomino (which the del Duque is), but contains some 13% PX in the blend for added complexity.

I must have tasted all but Noe at some time or another, but I reacquainted myself with Apostoles in the Gonzalez Byass dinner in May. It was a nice mahogany brown, with a sweet rich vine fruit nose. It was sweet on entry with a smoky vine fruit palate, and an acid nutty backbone for sturdy support.

Palinda Frizzante Shiraz 2008

This was the wine I bought from the shop I mentioned in a previous blog. Now Palinda as I have already mentioned is a Chinese owned Margaret River winery and I don't know if this particular wine is on sale elsewhere (it was not on their website), but the description is certainly inaccurate to say the least. Frizzante means semi-sparkling in Italian and should have bubbles (these probably need to be come from grape fermentation) but its pressure is lower than full sparkling wines. This wine contains no bubbles at all! Maybe some marketing person drank a frizzante sweet wine and thought that it would be nice to use the term on this sweetie, but ....

This half bottle suggests sweet wine and the label does have something to this effect on it. Unable to find anything in its website about it, I am at a loss to find out how this wine is made. As for the wine, it was a nice limpid ruby, with a sweet (initially mildly so) berry nose with a hint of meatiness, unfortunately marred by an initial hot alcoholic whiff. The palate was sweet and luscious with berry notes. Tannins emerge mid palate and accompanied the sweetness to give structure. What is surprising on reviewing my notes was that there is no overt acidity ( not for me to note down anyway), but as it was not cloying, it must have been there in the balance. It went quite well with the remnants of the Roquefort.

Chateau Lynch Moussas

When a number of estates in Bordeaux share part of their name, the inevitable questions present themselves: are the estates related; were they once part of a bigger estate; and how did they get where they are today? Lynch-Bages and Lynch-Moussas were once one big estate, but how the estate got divided was not really clear. But divided it was and with the old estate buildings falling to the Moussas portion, that portion got acquired by the Casteja family who started modernizing it in 1969.

The estate now plants 55 ha of vines, average 35 years old with a quarter Merlot and the rest Cabernet Sauvignon. It produces some 220 thousand bottles of Grand Vin as well as a second wine, Les Haut de Lynch-Moussas.

Keeping up with Langtons

I needed to look up Langtons Classification for Australian wines to be able to comment properly on the Palinda wines, and when I did, I got a surprise. I had missed out on the last one (V) and this newest one (VI) had only 3 categories, which cause me no end of confusion. The 5th classification came out sometime in 2010, but somehow I wasn't looking in this direction.

The latest version was published earlier this year. The newest classification basically amalgamated the lowest two categories "because the margin of difference between Excellent and Distinguished was increasingly difficult to define." This latest one included 139 wines, 16 more than the last one and a long way from the original 34 in the first version of 1990. As it says on its Website, this is a market barometer and I'm sure it will continue to evolve and change.

Slightly corked?

When the wines were opened at the Silver Oak 6 vintage dinner, a couple of corks disintegrated. The 2000 wine tasted fine, but there was a hint of cork taint in the 2002, which seem to dissipate  in the glass. Now cork taint is due to fungal infection and the subsequent production of compounds like 2,4,6 trichloroanisole (TCA) which then get dissolved into the wine. I warned my fellow tasters and it was obvious their ability to detect it was variable. The problem was that the taint also seems to wax and wane and that makes things confusing for the 2002, which though slightly corked was nevertheless abounding in fruit balanced by acid and wood. (That is also confusing because corked wines should be depleted in fruit and other desirable aromas).

The problem with the 2000 is that the merest hint of cork would occasionally and fleeting appear in the glass, whilst the wine had stayed "pretty" all along. As the bottle was consumed, there seemed more and more glimpses of the cork gremlin. Nevertheless, the 2000 was at its worst never up to the level of the 2002.

The added complication was that when we tasted the leftovers the next day, neither wines showed any hint of cork taint at all. Was it a rapidly dissipating cork taint, or were we too hasty to call the two wines corked?

Taylor's 1863 Single Harvest Port

This wine was tasted in the in its pre-launch event just before Vinexpo Asia Pacific 2014 at the end of May, at which the Taylor Scion Port (from 1855) was also tasted. The wine was magnificent - a deep mahogany with acid and vine fruits aplenty on the nose (accompanied by a whiff of spirit) it was sweet on the palate accompanied by the same acid and vine fruit notes. A smokiness emerged to accompany the acidity to form a good backbone to the wine.

As with the Scion port, let's examine this year of 1863 to give context to the wine. (Having done this here, I might skip it altogether with my 1863 Madeira, though I could offer different insights the next time). The first underground train, now London's Metropolitan line, opened in January of that year, whereas the Red Cross was founded in October. Hong Kong also has its first coins minted that year, and for motoring fans, Henry Royce and Henry Ford were both born in that year.