Dear affidubyans;
Well I am. For those who haven´t caught the hints (even though dropped on
the group from a considerable height, and attached to a small brick) self
and Xina went to Bourgogne last Saturday, and it was, of course, glorious.
But cold. The cold was by their standards apparently extreme (for late
October), so, it has been, so far, a year cluttered with extremes.
We visited the Poulleau family in Volnay. This time, the old Mr P was out,
so we talked to his son, daughter, and daughter-in-law. They explained that
the harvest this year had been extremely difficult, in that it was very
early and had to be rushed - started at Aug 25th, and was ready on Aug 29th,
which is, apparently, extreme. Also, the ambient temperatures were high
(29-30 centigrade) and they had a hard job controlling the fermentation with
cooling etc. Due to the drought and warmth, yield was reduced, but, all in
all, they thought that 2003 would turn out a very good year. They use a lot
of new oak, and they prefer the Vosges oak to the Allier and Limoges (sp?).
30 % of their village and 61% of their 1:er Cru is on new oak barrels.
We are very fond of the Volnays of Dom Poulleau, both their village and 1:er
cru - they also have some Aloxe-Corton, Chorey, and even Corton Charlemange
GC! These are an inheritance from the mother of the older Mr Poulleau,
apparently - hence, they have two whites - an ALigoté for EU 4.60, and a GC
Corton Charlemange at EU 46. I think that is a bit funny.
Thjis year, for the first time, we visited a grower in Nuit St George,
George Chicotot. The adress was suggested by Pentti Arvela back in 2001,
but, unfortunately, we couldn´t make it that year -we did now, and that was
a great piece of advice. He immediately took us through a barrel tasting of
this year's, and last year's, village and 1:er Cru. He explained that he did
not filter or clear in any way, it was all done in traditional methods -
except that he had used carbon ice to cool the grape juice during
fermentation - apparently, he considered that also a traditional method.
Very generous and exceedingly friendly welcome by him and his wife, Mme
Pascal, and their dog Roxy. Recommended for a visit if you canf ind his
place - as with the DOm Poulleau, it is very discreet, the sign outside
hangs in such a way tthat it is not visible if you come from the Beaune
direction. If you´re lurking out there, Pentti, thank you very much!
We´ve also visited Chartron & Trebuchet. Their tasting room is now presided
over by Pernille Skaarby, a young and very Danish lady who has been in
Bourgogne working for different wine firms since 1999. Outr plans were
originally to just drop in and buy 6 bottles of their entry-level A
Bourgogne C ('Vieilles Vignes') which is a very good buy - Ms Skaarby
convinced us otherwise, she had all these bottles open today because of a
large formal tasting earlier, why didin´t we just let her take us on a
tasting tour around the premises? C´est pas de refus. C&T makes very good
whites, but, I would suspect, at a slightly high price.
E g, their Meursault village cost EU 22 - a small producer in Meursault,
Coche-Bizouard, sold a lieu-dit 'Les Ormeaux' which was rather better (to my
taste) at EU 17. We´ll try to look for smaller producers.
Going home, we dropped by another old favorite of ours in Alsace -
Dirler-Cadé. Cadé is the family name of the older Mr Dirler´s
daughter-in-law, who was this time fairly visible in the tasting room.
Apparently, they are currently converting the vineyards she brought into the
family to biodynamics, which takes some time - they are running everything
according to those slightly esoteric principles, but htey have to have
harvested three times before they can sell the wine as a biodynamic product.
They have also acquired a horse, which is de rigeur in these cricles (they
had a photo of the horse). They make very good Rieslings - this includes
certainly the entry-level wines, which are big, dry, and with prominent
mineral notes. Great concentration and style for small prices. Mr Dirler is
a very generous person - he didn´t stop until he had let us taste about 20
different wines ... including a strange animal, a white wine made from Pinot
Noire in what he called the Burgundian style - made on Allier oak, very dry,
very concentrated, butter scotch, coco nut, smoke ... he recommended it with
smoked fish, which I think may be a good idea, but, it would fit in nicely
as a wild card in a blind tasting. I wonder _why_ he did it - my first
thought was that it was, sort of, a professional joke, but, on the whole, I
doubt Mr Dirler is a man who jokes about his profession (or his family). At
EU 9 and depleted resources, we had to pass it by, unfortunately.
What we _didn´t_ do this year was: visit Domaine Launay in Pommard (the
tasting at C&T took too much time); visit Henry Germain in Meursault (he was
out for the week and his mother wasn´t up to giving a tasting); viist Joliet
Pere et Fils in Fixin (we had one of their 1:er Cru the first night -
excellent) because we spent all our allowances on G Chicotot.
Nor did we manage to meet Jim Tanner, but we´ll try again in the summer.
We also made the observation that, to eat a good meal at a reasonable price
(for a given value of reasonable) in Cote d´Or, you have to leave Beaune.
None of the places in Beaune where we had supper gave a good QPR - all the
places where we enjoyed our meal was in the countryside or villages. These
included La Garaudiere in Levernois (a firm favorite for 6 years now),
Vendanges Bourgignonnes in Gevrey-Chambertin, Bouchon in Meursault, and the
Auberge au Vignes on the N74 between Beaune and Pommard. All of these places
gave good value for money. Please note that I am talking of places with one
or two forks and knives in Guide Rouge, where a menu cost between 15 and 25
EU - the places with stars and thingies we do not go to.

Cheers!

Nils Gustaf

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