An Unfortunate Coincidence and a Liquid Symphony

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2006, Blanc Fumé de Pouilly, Didier Dagueneau, France, Loire, REAL wine, Sauvignon Blanc, Tasting Notes, wine

An unfortunate coincidence: my birthday (31 today), is the anniversary of Didier Daueneau’s death.

Good things, bad things…thus is life.

If this wine was a symphony…

I cannot read music, but I love this label, it’s simplicity. It makes me wonder what music most inspired this mad genius on his journey…

It was composed by Francois Cristin, a musician friend of Didier’s. It was written for trumpet (b flat major) and french horn (f major).  The first line is the theme, which is taken from a famous song by Georges Brassens, and the next four lines are Cristin’s personal interpretation of that theme.

Does anyone know the song?

2006 Didier Dagueneau Blanc Fumé de Pouilly

Pale golden.

The sheer intensity, resonance and cadence of this wine begins with staccato aromatics of minerals and flint, builds with vibrato of peach skin, honeysuckle, lemon verbenna and ends with legato of dried pineapple brulee, wet stone, ancho, baking spice and treacle.

Dry and bracing tension with vigorous attack and rich intensity, quite mineral and spiced with good persistence. Concentrated stone fruit flavors with cucumber, caraway seed, pine sap, wet mineral richness and lithe structure. Lovely and complex. So mineral and saline, it draws you in with freshness and precision and becomes weighty with judicious barrel spice and herbal tones.

With a couple hours in the glass, the wine develops into notes of grapefruit syrup, chamomille, sage iced tea, ginger. Limed stone and wet rock, ginger lemonade…Volatile and a bit of heat, though I welcome the richness and weight to balance the acidity.

RIP Didier.

On the bright side of things, today we begin vendange at Domaine de Montille. We will process Volnay Champans and more. I am humbled and excited for this journey.

Bonne Vendange!

A label I’d ask out on a date…

Tags

2004, Beauty, earth and stone, Italy, Le Pergole Torte, orange pith, wine, wine labels

Beautiful wine labels…

2004 Le Pergole Torte

Tasted blind.

Plum, platinum rim.

Blossoming bouquet of dust, earth and stone fruit. Dried morello cherry, dust, chalk, camphor, espresso, dried orange pith, leather and black tea. Tinny and clay, earthen, floral and dark, some graphite. Precise and elegant, quite expressive and dense.

Lovely texture and weight, spiced and aged leather, black tea, dried red flowers, orange pith, savory herbal tones, cedarbox and cherry pit. Plum coulis and walnut skin finish. Intense and coiled nature with beautiful acid spine, dense dry woody structure and hefty vinous character.

Such a baby, but we just had to…

Cheval, Bambi & Pigeon

Tags

#lepigeonisboss, Cheval Blanc, Epicurean adventures, Foie, james beard, Le Pigeon, Tasting Notes, Vevi Dorado 1954

This weekend, I had the pleasure of experiencing two firsts:

1:Cheval Blanc

2:white wine vinegar and horseradish pickled baby deer heart

I also remembered why Le Pigeon is one of my favorite places to eat…

My girlfriend and I spent Friday evening at the chefs counter at Le Pigeon, in Portland, OR. Le Pigeon is certainly one of the most exciting places to eat in Portland. Chef Gabriel Rucker won the 2011 James Beard Rising Star Chef of the Year award and Andrew Fortgang, the GM and Sommelier, has a wine program that is top notch. I brought a bottle that had been burning a hole in my storage locker: 1986 Cheval Blanc.

While the Cheval was breathing in a decanter, we enjoyed a half bottle of Dorado 1954, from Vevi and two starters:

Cream of Porcini & Parsnip Soup with barbecue eel toast

&

Foie Gras Ramen noodle cake, seaweed salad, cured yolk and broth

The dishes were beautiful. The foie was rich and decadent balanced by the light crunch of ramen cake and the miso-tart broth flavors. The porcini and parsnip soup was spectacular and earthy, but the barbecued eel toast stole the show for me. Both dishes were highlighted and heightened by the non-vintage Rueda.

The Dorado is traditional, oxidized, sherry-like, produced from Verdejo and Viura fermented underneath a layer of flor and then aged in a solera system. Quite dark and nutty, almost like amontillado, it is still delicate on the palate as it is not fortified. Smells sweet and full of glycerol at 15%, but is quite dry, fresh and balanced with bright acidity and aromas and flavors of plasticine, sweet almond, brine and dried flowers. Beautiful marriage of cuisine and wine.

We order a couple entrees to enjoy with the bottle of Cheval:

Beef Duo: New york & braised shortrib with celery root and hedgehogs

&

Venison Meatballs with polenta, horseradish, balsamic onions

The entrees were delicious, especially the New York. I love how well seasoned the food at Le Pigeon is. What I found most spectacular about the entrees was a small component, but more importantly, a first for me: white wine vinegar and horseradish pickled baby deer heart that garnished the meatballs. Almost like pastrami, it was thinly sliced, tangy, earthen. Just lovely.

Now, onto the second first…

Cheval Blanc needs no introduction. A wine of storied history and unarguable superlative quality, it is somewhat of an outlier of the right bank of Bordeaux due to the high ratio of Cabernet Franc.

Pale brick garnet hue.

Quite ‘wet’ bouquet of earthen pine plank, leather, black tea, dry cassis, peppercorn with hints of dusty bramble, nutmeg, sandalwood and a clear mint, camphor and menthol note. There was discussion of brett as the wine was a bit compact and tinny at first, but in the end it seemed as though the wine was clean, fully mature and expressive.
On the palate, the wine was on the lean side, soft and gentle with high toned cedar box, sandalwood, dusted dry black cherry, menthol, espresso. The was a nice brush of acidity with nice midpalate depth and a black tea and leathery finish. There is a flurry of character with each fresh pour, medicinal and camphor freshness inter fingered with quite grippy and bitter espresso tannins. Lovely bottle that has reached full maturity and should be consumed now.

To finish, we had to order the Foie Gras Profiteroles with caramel sauce, sea salt and enjoyed a glass of 2005 Castelnau de Suduiraut, which was lovely. I love Sauternes, maybe as much as I love Foie ice cream…We also enjoyed the German Chocolate Bread Pudding with dulce de leche, coconut ice cream and a glass of Boston Bual. This outshone the profiteroles, though the Boston Bual did not have the strength or sweetness I desired. No matter, the experience was not lessened.

Moral of the story: go eat at Le Pigeon if you want an truly wonderful epicurean adventure. Don’t fret about bringing your own wine, the list is a veritable garden of vinous delights with a great selection of REAL wines and one of the best half bottle lists anywhere in PDX. Beyond the slew of great values from little known regions from around the Old World, the list is studded with young and fully mature jewels from the likes of Chandon de Briailles, Raveneau, Bourdy, Pichler, Chevillon, Groffier, Roulot, Occhipinti and more.

And when you go, style yourself out.

#lepigeonisboss

2008 Domaine André & Mireille (Bénédicte & Stéphane) Tissot Arbois Sélection

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2008, Arbois Sélection, Chardonnay, Domaine André & Mireille (Bénédicte & Stéphane) Tissot, Oxidative, REAL wine, Savagnin, Sense of place

 

“A wine made with love and passion produces an emotion…You can find in a wine the personality and the character of those who made it because each gesture, each operation, each decision has its importance.”

Tasted blind.

Pale straw.

Quite intense aromas of waxy lemon preserve, plasticine, dry white flowers, celery leaf, salty brine, sweet nuts and bruised apple. Crushed seashell, wood glue and a bit of laquer come through as well. Complex and nuanced, but not for everybody.

Palate is less obtuse and has nice waxy texture, bright acidity, balanced alcohol and decent persistence that is savory and distinct. Flavors follow the nose with nutty and brine notes, crushed rock, more bruised apple, wood glue and plasticine. Salty, tangy and waxy, quite invigorating and challenging to taste, I nailed this wine blind. The oxidative and aldehydic nature of the vinification is the signature stamped on this wine and once you tasted it, you’ll never forget it.

Somewhat similar to a light Fino, this is a delicate and wonderful food wine and really shines with funky, soft cheese like comté, mushroom cream sauces, quiche or heavily spiced Asian cuisine.

70% Chardonnay and 30% Savagnin from vines planted between 1976 and 2000.

The grapes for this wine are harvested, sorted and pressed with 1-3 grams of sulfur per hectoliter before being fermented separately in old foudre for 9 months and topped regularly. Then the lots are blended together and aged for a further 15 months without topping and lightly filtered before bottling (though I’ve read that these wines are not filtered, and I have yet to find out if the wine goes through malolactic…).

Domaine Tissot, located in Montigny-Les-Arsures, holds 35 hectares of Demeter certified vineyards in Arbois, Côtes du Jura and Château-Chalon. Yields are kept rigorously low, grapes are harvested by hand in small baskets, indigenous yeasts are utilized for fermentation and sulfur addition is minimal. Tissot is one of my go to producers in the Jura because of the quality, availability and pricing. Their philosophy is beautiful, simple and clear and I think it shows in their wines:

“A wine made with love and passion produces an emotion…You can find in a wine the personality and the character of those who made it because each gesture, each operation, each decision has its importance.

The “life force” is so well constructed that if we speak of natural wines, you will not find two wines that are the same anywhere in the world, as opposed to industrial wines which are all similar.

The industrialization of wine is the end of its identities, its nuances, its characteristics which are part of the magic of a bottle.

The work we do at our domaine, it is, in a way, the summary of all that.”

 

It is interesting to think about sense of place in the context of Jura. Does the oxidative nature of Jura wine (not all of the Tissot wine is oxidative) minimize or enhance a sense of place?

 

Regardless, this is REAL wine.

2007 Conterno Barolo Cascina Francia

Tags

2007, baked earth, Barolo, Cascina Francia, Conterno, REAL wine, rustic elegance, Serralunga d'Alba

A glimpse into 2007 Conterno.

'07 Conterno Cascina Francia

Decanted and tasted blind.

Pale garnet.

Baked earth and amarena cherry open into hay, dried rose, coffee bean and espresso, dried raspberry, sand, camphor and moss. Sweet rubber and light tar, grapefruit pith. So understated. Not so much a whisp of ripeness or extract, this is quite fresh, linear, vibrant and feminine. If the letter ‘J’ had a smell, this would be it. Maybe the slightest hint of reduction…

The palate is conceived by and strung around the oh-so-fine tannin. The structure something fierce. Rich though restrained, the epitome of rustic elegance, delicate structure and humble pedigree. The acid is etched into the background and pervades throughout, highlighting the balance of power and spine. Creamy anise seed, baked earth, amarena cherry, dried raspberry, mocha, sawdust, brine, before a grapefruit pith and walnut skin finish. Earthen, deep, bitter and focused.

If this is going to be drunk now, goddamn, is it good. We probably should’ve waited, but who knows when I could die. It could carefully watched over the next twenty or thirty years, though it might prove itself over the next forty or fifty years.

Time will tell.

This is cerebral wine. This is REAL wine. This is a wine that should not be missed.