Noval BLACK on Examiner.com

April 19th, 2010

Lisa Carley of Examiner.com has a great post up looking at how Noval BLACK is changing the world of Port. Says Carley,

“Quinta do Noval BLACK is not your father’s Port. It’s new and modern with bright aromatics; freshness and balance differentiate it from the “vintage-Port” category. You can enjoy it chilled, and have it before dinner, during dinner or after dinner.

“It’s also great in cocktails and with chocolate. I served it at a recent dinner with dark chocolate mousse cake. The pairing sang – guests loved it. Even the “I don’t like Port” group was amazed that this chilled beverage was really Port.“


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To the left bank!

April 19th, 2010

On the left bank,  Cabernet was clearly king, reaching perfect ripeness, with some Merlot getting a bit too ripe for use (or if included, taste).  There were many, many great wines across two let’s call them two “categories”; we’ll call the first category “reserved” and the second “full-throttle”.  ”Reserved” in this vintage means there is still more fruit and everything else than any vintage we’ve tasted, it’s simply a differentiation from the style of the larger wines.

For us, there were two wines that epitomized this “reserved” style, and had the special character of truly great wines;  like Pétrus on the right bank, you immediately knew you were tasting a wine where everything was already together and in harmony, and it was a special moment even in the midst of rushing from property to property.  For us, these wines were Margaux and Lafite.   Pitch-perfect balance, finishes that went on and on, nose and body changing every time you came back to the glass.  Incredible.
There were plenty of other spectacular wines, however, and these included in the “reserved” category:
  • Rounding out the first-growth wine pornography: Haut-Brion was more tannic than many Medoc wines, and had more structure.  It has everything right now and we’re reading that you can mark it down at the level of Lafite and Margaux and don’t doubt it [it's important to realize that evaluating wine six months after the grapes were crushed is a bit crazyy], but everything just seemed to be coming together already for those two wines.  Mouton we only tasted once, and while the nose was exotic and expressive, the palate was not giving much; there was a lot there, but it wasn’t budging, and unfortunately we did not taste it a second time.
  • Montrose: being called one of the wines of the vintage, and we think that’s right.  Powerful but it falls in the “reserved” category because it has a lot of structure, feels effortless, has a sense of restraint, and the fruit profile is transparent – earthy, spicy notes, beautiful fruit, it all unfolds more note-by-note than with larger wines.
  • Grand Puy-Lacoste: one of our favorite wines; this one does not try and burn out or cover up the herbal character of Cabernet, and those notes work so well with the fruit and spice here, and very long.  Really showing how the properties that emphasized fresh Cabernet did better.  Lacoste-Borie was solid for those looking for value.
  • Pichon Baron: powerful but structured, fantastic fruit and concentration.  We think that this will open up beautifully over time and will be a great Pichon.
  • Pichon Lalande: wonderfully complex, long and graceful, really stunning.
  • Léoville-Poyferré: Another one of our favorites from the UGC St. Estpehe/Pauillac/St. Julien tasting (along with Pichon Baron, Pichon Lalande and Lynch Bages), this wine had tremendous complexity and structure, one of our very top St. Juliens.
  • Lynch Bages: rounding out our top five for the UGC tasting, an unexpected surprise – it wasn’t just good, it was really, really good.  Wonderful balance of red and black fruits, spices, earthiness and herbs, nothing sticking out, all working seamlessly, and a long finish.
  • Léoville Barton: pretty open considering the property, you could almost call it supple up front, then powerful and structured through the mid-palate and to the finish.
  • Palmer: so much poise, very balanced red fruits that are so fresh, vibrant and well-defined.  Fantastic, really precise despite being so powerful.  This wine was so impressive while being seductive as well.
  • Malescot: impeccable balance, beautiful, giving everything it has.  Many people argued that one commune or another on the left bank had the best 2009, but at the top level you could find in each commune four or five wines that were truly great.  Tasting Château Margaux, Palmer and Malescot back-to-back-to-back left us incredibly impressed.
  • Many, many more really good wines.  We realize that this very brief overview focuses on some of the larger names, and while we’re hoping that this is a full-on campaign with interest at every level, and we do feel there is great value to be had, as we stated at the start it’s our sense that the top wines will drive this campaign.
On the lusher, more powerful end of the spectrum were the following left-bank wines:
  • Cos d’Estournel: many have pinned it as a wine of controversy due to the incredible concentration and high alcohol level, but we spent a half hour with the wine and will disagree.  It is nearly black, and very concentrated and powerful, but unbelievably complex; if you sit with it  you can’t stop yourself from coming back again and again.  The fruit does not taste over-ripe, and there is no roasted character.  Ultimately it is so complex and there is plenty of structure and enough acidity to build on; as we view it, Cos is a monumental wine in 2009, and we feel that ten years down the road its detractors will come around.
  • Ducru-Beaucaillou: undeniably ripe, but it is so balanced it doesn’t feel weighty.  You could almost put this in the “reserved” category given some of the wines we’ve put there, but it has a lushness that places it in the “full-throttle” category.   Really silky and sensual, very seductive, clearly one of the top Saint-Juliens, and one of the top wines we tasted, impressive given it was literally the first wine we tasted in Bordeaux.  Whether you like tasting in what feels like a night-club is more up for debate!
  • Pontet Canet: supple, lots of red fruits on the nose, goes all over the palate, very concentrated red fruits.  Was more convinced tasting it a second time a few days later, when it showed more freshness.  It fills every crevice in your mouth and is tremendously long.
Some photos and commentary:
Château Margaux
Not only was Château Margaux incredible, but both the Pavillon Rouge and Pavillon Blanc were the best we’ve ever tasted.  All the Margaux wines exhibited the same character; they were not about obvious power, you searched for their best qualities at first, got a hint, and then as you came back again and again it dawned on you how great the wines really are – they simply don’t stop changing or growing, and they are the epitome of a phrase we hate to use but will put out there, “iron fist in a velvet glove.”

Tasting with Paul Pontallier and Aurélien Valance; they're looking pleased for good reason

Chateau Cos d’Estournel

Everything at Cos is epic: the cellars, the tasting room, the library of old vintages…and the 2009 wines.

The army of small, conical fermenters in Cos d'Estournel's new cellars is other-worldly

Haut-Brion and La Mission Haut-Brion

All four reds and three whites from these properties were tremendous.  It was one of the more impressive sittings we attended.

Unquestionably the best gift bag

Sauternes

The Sauternes (and whites for that matter) in 2009 are superb.  With the heat there was a lot of concentration, and in comparing 2007 many said that to have a truly great vintage in Sauternes you need the heat of a 2009.  2009 is also the vintage for sale, so you can take it with a grain of salt, but the wines had a lot of power and balance.
We spent a fascinating hour at Château Suduiraut on a rainy afternoon.  While Sauternes is the Rodney Dangerfield of Bordeaux, the more you understand the wines the more you pull for the wines, and hope that in a vintage where the reds will get a lot of attention there will be some looks at the sweet wines.


The courtyard at Suduiraut

The courtyard at Château Suduiraut

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Other Right Bank Wines

April 19th, 2010

We tasted a lot of the top 2009 Saint-Emilion area wines, most of them next to each other at an important negociant tasting.  Some of the Saint-Emilion wines – well a lot of them – are massive.  They have just so much ripe fruit and tannin, it’s unbelievable.  Many carry it off without a sense of heat, pretty astonishing.  They will be crowd pleasers, and in the refrain you’ll hear us repeat over and over, the ones that have the most freshness and a defined structure were our favorites.  These included:

  • Perennial favorites and shout-out to the Count: Château d’Aiguilhe (Cotes de Castillon), always a stupendous value, and Château Canon La Gaffelière (truly exceptional in 2009) from Count Stefan von Neipperg.
  • Pavie Macquin, Troplong Mondot, Larcis Ducasse all spectacular, tremendously complex, and with character despite being so concentrated.
  • Angelus, Peby Faugeres (big) and Clos Fourtet (one of the prettier Saint-Emilions tasted, focused and beautiful) also quite delightful.
  • There are a lot of big, complex Saint-Emilions, and we think there will be some high scores.  The Saint Emilions were in some senses the hardest wines to taste, given their size – after going through 30 of them your mouth was overwhelmed by the gushing fruit and tremendous tannin (even if it was so ripe).

Pomerols were a bit trickier, as an ultra-powerful style did not seem to suit the wines; balance was the big issue, but when the wines hit the mark they were spectacular.  We heartily recommend the entire stable of Moueix Pomerols, not just the ones we carry.  And among the other wines, we were particularly impressed by La Conseillante, which is ripe,  dark and powerful but really carries it off so well that the wine is elegant above all.

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The Moueix Wines

April 19th, 2010

The Moueix wines stood out for their incredible elegance and balance.   On the right bank, as some have commented, there were some real monsters (in St. Emilion especially) and there were some Pomerols that seemed a bit disjointed, but the whole range of Moueix wines were absolutely some of the very best 2009s we tasted, really extraordinary.  Christian Moueix has been saying for some time that he feels 2009 is an exceptional vintage, and characterized it to us as somewhere between 1982 and 1990.  His 2009s are magnificent.  The following are a few of the wines we tasted either produced by Christian Moueix or exclusively represented by his firm, Jean-Pierre Moueix.

Château La Fleur-Petrus 2009 (VINTUS US Exclusive)

Three days into the tasting, and after tasting a lot of wines on the right bank, we finally got to taste our right-bank babies.  Wow.  Château La Fleur-Pétrus 2009 is truly something special.  There is so much going on in the nose, beautiful red fruits and spices, totally complete throughout the palate but a sense that the wine creeps up and starts building and building, and stays so long through the palate.  Every year we fall in love with this wine all over again becaussine of its character – so elegant, almost Burgundian in some years; not about power but about nuance, beautiful structure and length. This 2009 is getting universally great press and for good reason.




Ch La Fleur-Pétrus as viewed from its famous neighbor

Ch La Fleur-Pétrus as viewed from its famous neighbor, Pétrus





Château Providence 2009 (VINTUS US Exclusive)

Terroir has real meaning in Christian Moueix’ Bordeaux.  The restoration of Château Providence (acquired in 2005) and construction of its cellar was painstakingly carried out for just a 10 acre vineyard, and a minute production of 1,250 cases a year.   Starting with the inaugural 2005 vintage, the first after Christian Moueix purchased the property, Providence has become one of the most exciting properties in all of Bordeaux.  The vineyard is picture-perfect, and had always been well-managed even before Christian Moueix purchased it.  The changes Christian made were, as in all his vineyards, the elimination of herbicides and chemicals, and a specific system of single guyot pruning that best allows easy circulation of sap within the vine.  There is no formula for pruning, each vine is pruned differently, treated as an individual.  At harvest time, there are an extraordinary 300 pickers covering the Moueix vineyard patches that ultimately total only around 200 acres.  That is the definition of making wine in the vineyard, and not in the winery.

As since its first release, Providence has a darker fruit profile and is more powerful than La Fleur-Pétrus.  It’s a power that is apparent right away and stays right on through the long, long finish.  An extremely impressive wine, and utterly fascinating in how different it is from La Fleur-Pétrus, just down the road; come to think of it, Providence is perhaps more like Pétrus in character than La Fleur-Pétrus.




A perfect gem, the restored Château Providence








Providence is a tiny vineyard. The barrel room you see actually contains the entire 2009 production of both Providence and Hosanna.





Château La Serre 2009, Saint-Emilion (VINTUS US Exclusive)

This property is an absolute joy for us to represent.  Just below you can see Luc d’Arfeuille, whose family has owned the property for 100 years.  He and his wife are just wonderful people, with huge hearts, and their wine is one of the undiscovered treasures of the right bank.   Their 17 acre vineyard is at the very top of St. Emilion, just outside the village, running onto southern slopes; “La Serre” means greenhouse, and references the fact that the vineyards see sun all day long.  The vines sit on shallow clay soils above limestone – the road dividing two major vineyard parcels on Château La Serre is in fact blocked off, since there is an old limestone quarry below the vineyard and it’s dangerous for cars to drive over it.

La Serre’s neighbors include Pavie Macquin, Ausone, Trottevielle, and some vineyards used for Valandraud.  La Serre is in other words in an incredible location, and is noteworthy for several reasons: the grapes achieve fantastic ripeness and as a result they see no need to green harvest and increase concentration; consequently the style is one of elegance over weight.  Secondly, the wine offers tremendous quality for the money, it is one of the absolute little gems of Saint-Emilion.

The 2009 is just so pretty.  Lovely red fruit and freshness, powerful and persistent.  I also had a bottle of 2004 over the weekend in honor of this wonderful couple, and it was spot-on.  La Serre is among the most serious QPR we’ve found on the right bank.  It is getting very strong initial press for the 2009 vintage, as well.




Monsieur et Madame d'Arfeuille








La Serre Vineyard Plot right in front of the house





l’Hospitalet de Gazin 2009, Pomerol (VINTUS US Exclusive)

This is the second wine of Château Gazin, which as a property has been reclaiming its position as one of the top sites in Pomerol.   Beautifully fresh, balanced – a pleasure to drink.  Many of the 2009s across Bordeaux had tannins that, because they achieved such high levels of ripeness, were another universe from the barrel samples we are used to; as a number of people have pointed out, you could drink the wines.  With Pomerol, however, we found that our favorite wines, including the entire range Christian Moueix represents, had tannins that gave the wine structure, and was not just part of mass of “a lot of everything” – i.e. fruit and alcohol.  This style of wine we found had more freshness, balance and complexity.  Certainly the case here, and none the less drinkable.

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Bordeaux 2009!

April 19th, 2010

We’re back!  Many things happening, including an update of our website, but we digress…this email is about Bordeaux 2009.  The first wines are being released, and we thought it would be a good time to send out a few thoughts on the vintage.

Many of you have heard the hum building around the 2009 vintage, but a lot of variables are still to fall in place – namely, pricing for the classified growths and the thoughts of Robert Parker.  Plenty of press and trade have made their pronouncements; we’ll try and stick to some nice stories and pictures, with softly worded opinions.

Many people are saying something along the lines of, “while there are exceptional wines, they are not as consistent as 2005”; “some wines were too big”; etc.  Objectively, 2009 is a vintage marked by record or near-record levels of concentration, tannin and alcohol.  As stated previously, we’re not going to make overly authoritative statements, and have no desire to contribute in encouraging higher prices in a still very difficult environment.  After two weeks at home, however, and looking back at our notes, we think there are so many spectacular wines among the top hundred properties.  It will be hard not to view 2009 as a great vintage.   We’re happy at this point in time to lay out the same “ifs” and “buts” as everyone else, but the fruit in these wines is so pure, powerful, complex and long, it’s astounding.  And as everyone has been saying, the producers that made wines of freshness and balance made truly extraordinary wines.  That’s our generalization, take it as you will.

It may come as a surprise to some, but among the very first producers to commit to VINTUS back in 2004 were Christian Moueix, Chateau Margaux and Chateau Cos d’Estournel, and we have been heavily involved in Bordeaux with every vintage campaign since 2003.  Michael has spent a quarter century visiting Bordeaux, returning at least once a year for en-primeur and various other occasions.  We are the exclusive US importer for two of Christian Moueix’ jewels, Chateau La Fleur-Pétrus and Chateau Providence, and work with any number of classified growths as well as properties that offer great value.  In a great vintage, we’ll purchase on futures up to 100 of the properties we feel most confident about in terms of quality and trade and consumer interest.

In subsequent posts you’ll see some more specific commentary, as well as photos from our recent trip to Bordeaux.

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Château Margaux in Neal Martin’s Wine Journal

April 16th, 2010

The Wine Advocate‘s Neal Martin is on the ground in Bordeaux for En Primeur 2009, and has some high praise for Château Margaux. He also has a lengthy interview with Paul Pontellier. According to Pontellier:

“The 2009 is a special combination of power and softness, the most concentrated and densest Chateau Margaux that we have ever made…even more than 2005…much softer than 2005. There were no excesses in 2009, yes, a drought but not a severe one. The temperatures were average with just a couple of hot days and a couple of cool nights. The density of the 2009 reminds me of 2005, but the texture reminds me of something supple and sweeter. The best lots of Cabernet Sauvignon remind me of the 1990, but that wine does not have the same concentration. Perhaps one can think of the 2009 as having the density of 2005 with the softness of 1990?”

And the wines? At the top of their game, and the best from the appellation.

Château Margaux 2009
“A blend of 87% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Merlot, 2% Petit Verdot and 2% Cabernet Franc, close to the average proportions of the last 10 years. The final alcohol comes in at 13.2-13.3%. An extremely alluring bouquet: blackberry, cassis and violets, your quintessential Margaux really, but cloaked in a sense of sensuality and sumptuousness that is rarely seen. Very fine definition with touches of cold limestone coming through. The palate is brilliantly poised with filigree tannins, breathtaking delineation and focus. There is immense intensity here, the energy of the channel with a crisp, taut finish. Wonderful length.” 96-98 Neal Martin, Wine Advocate

Pavillon Rouge de Château Margaux 2009
“This has a lucid purple colour. A plush, sensuous nose with black cherry, cassis and violets: very pure, in some ways reminding me of a combination of the 1996 and 2006 but with more panache and vigour. The palate is medium-bodied with very fine tannins, quite edgy on the entry, very good acidity here, a certain symmetry that perhaps has been missing in recent vintages. The finish is very natural, showing very fine minerality and poise. This is superb.” 92-94 Neal Martin, Wine Advocate

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Mounir Saouma on Winophilia.com

April 15th, 2010

Steven Tanzer has a great video up of Mounir Saouma, the man behind Lucien Le Moine, posted on his blog, Winophilia. Mounir discusses the 2008 vintage (still in barrel) methods, including extensive lees stirring (even topping his barrels off with lees!), late malolactic fermentation, and one of the longest barrel aging regimes in all of Burgundy. The result, says Mounir, is an extremely principled one; to not simply make wines that have pleasant fruit, but wines that have real character, both of their vintage and their vineyard.

“I am against this point where people say, ‘I bottle early to capture the fruit.” We saw it in the last years, we finished bottling the 2007′s in September 2009,  and we have a lot of fruit, we just tasted a lot of fruit, out of 2007. So these years, these ‘classic’ years like ’06, ’07, ’08, there is a lot of fruit, and I think it is a mistake to make weak body. The fruit is there, but are you going to buy a bottle of Première Cru or Grand Cru for $150 or $200 to have just the fruit, or do you want that depth and aftertaste and something that stays for a long time in your palette.”

We couldn’t agree more. The full video as follows:

Mounir Saouma interview from Stephen Tanzer on Vimeo.

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Bruno Paillard Blanc de Blancs 1996

April 14th, 2010

Bibendum.com has a great post up on the Bruno Paillard Blanc de Blancs Millésime 1996, one of the ultimate Champagnes for the cellar.

“It was clear this was a vintage to cellar. Time was needed to soften and mellow the wines, to round out the acidity with the richness and complexity that bottle ageing can give.

“And cellaring the 1996 vintage of his Blanc de Blancs was exactly what Bruno Paillard did – for eleven years on the lees before disgorgement and for another eighteen months in bottle after that. It is an extraordinary commitment to the wine and the sort of decision that can only be made in a house where the owner is in day to day control. Ageing a wine for over a decade before release is expensive and the bigger Grandes Marques, with their cashflow demands and shareholders to appease, are rarely able to do it. It is a luxury made easier by total independence.”

Bibendum makes exactly the right point; Bruno Paillard’s independence as a house allows them to utilize the expensive, capital-intensive methods, like extensive lees aging, that the finest Champagne deserves, yielding truly profound wines. This is true top-to-bottom at the house, from the N.P.U. to the Brut Première Cuvée, and is one of the many ways Bruno Paillard is pushing the envelope on quality in Champagne.

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Montelena’s Napa Cabernet on DenverPost.com

April 13th, 2010

The Denver Post‘s Douglas Brown is generally a beer kind of guy, but a recent run-in with Montelena’s Napa Cabernet has him changing his tune.

“I took a whiff and smelled anise. Sip. Savor. Mmm.

“Actually, beyond mmm. It was one of the best tasting … things … I’d enjoyed in a long time. One of the first adjectives that came to mind was “velvety.” It felt like some essence of velvet coating my tongue and flowing down my throat.”

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Wine Enthusiast on Bordeaux 2009

April 12th, 2010

Wine Entusiast‘s Roger Voss was on the ground in Bordeaux for Primeur Week, and has posted his initial reviews of the vintage. The wines are excellent across the board, he reports, with some châteaux producing their finest efforts ever, at least in the initial tastes. As others have reported, this is a ripe year that has found impeccable balance, with rich flavors and smooth tannins. Says Voss:

Across the region, there are great wines. Comparisons are being made to 2005, 1982 and, even, for those with long-enough memories, to 1947. There are also some references made to records from the 1893 vintage. Although the summer was long and hot, the daytime temperatures never reached the excessive levels of 2003. Nor were summer nights as warm as those in 2003. That means that 2009 wines are balanced, even with all their richness.

Any way you slice it, 2009 was a great year, with many stellar wines. Roger’s reviews are below the jump. Enjoy!

Read the rest of this entry »

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