Tasting at La Table: Wines with Dinner. The fourth and final instalment in this series of Anjou tastings.
Updated: 2012-05-31 18:52:30
: Home Vintages and Regions Loire Tasting at La Table : Wines with Dinner Page 1 of 2 previous 1 2 next Tasting at La Table : Wines with Dinner Tasting at La Table This update relates to wines tasted in February 2012 at La Table de la . Bergerie Pt : 1 Dom . de la Bergerie Pt : 2 Vincent Ogereau Pt : 3 Ch . Pierre-Bise Pt : 4 Wines with Dinner See my relevant Loire profiles for more detailed domaine . profiles Our tastings over , our palates fully familiarised with just about every new cuvée from Vincent Ogereau Claude Papin and Yves Guégniard it was time for us to take a break . But not a long break , I should stress , as the tastings had run through late afternoon and into early evening . In fact , no sooner had we locked up our laptops and notebooks in our car were we being ushered back
And from the broad complexity of St Emilion we now come to a commune both smaller and stylistically, to my mind, somewhat easier to define. And it seems in some way fitting that we come to it now, as we approach the end of my Bordeaux 2011 reports; because sometimes you do have to save the best for last.
Following on from last week's wine fairs in London, the RAW Wine Fair and the Real Wine Fair, surely it's only natural (groan....sorry) that my thoughts and my drinking this weekend should turn to one such wine. And so I'm looking at yet another cuvée from Les Cailloux du Paradis, a domaine that to my mind typifies the natural wine movement, within the context of the Loire at least, and yet it doesn't seem to have a great presence here in the UK. That is despite the fact that a good number of the wine bars in Paris that focus on this particular style of wine devote a lot of space on their lists to the wines of this domaine.
Home Wine of the Week Château du Hureau Saumur Foudre 2010 Château du Hureau Saumur Foudre 2010 Take a straw poll of wine drinkers on what Saumur means to them and you will probably receive , in the main , one of two answers . The first answer , from the Saumur tourist perhaps , will be sparkling wine Indeed , the inattentive traveller visiting Saumur might be forgiven for thinking , on scraping the town's surface , that this particular style of wine is the region's vinous apogee . Giant hoardings advertise wine from the likes of Gratien Meyer Louis de Grenelle or Ackerman with offers of visits and tours . And on the crest of the tuffeau slopes that march alongside the Loire above the troglodytic dwellings and the caves à champignons buildings such as Gratien Meyer's art deco headquarters
: , , Home Vintages and Regions Bordeaux Bordeaux 2011 Médoc Haut-Médoc Page 1 of 2 previous 1 2 next Bordeaux 2011 : Médoc Haut-Médoc Vintage Review Bordeaux 2011 En primeur Pessac-Léognan St Estèphe Pauillac St Julien Margaux Médoc Haut-Médoc St Emilion Pomerol Sauternes Barsac Minor Appellations Primeur Picks This year I headed out to Bordeaux a day earlier than I have done in previous years , in the hope that I could expand my coverage of some of the less exalted communes and appellations . It is increasingly a problem for me , and perhaps for you that wines I once bought and drank without consulting my financial advisor first are now priced well beyond my reach . As such there is a necessity to find wines which are still quintessentially Bordeaux , which clearly show a genetic link to
As my review of the Loire 2006 vintage makes clear, the Loire vignerons - from Muscadet right up to Sancerre - did not have an easy time this year. This was a vintage which saw weather that swung from baking hot drought to tropical deluge, and touching on every possible type of weather in-between. This meant that many vignerons had to deal with significant problems both in the vineyard and winery; vine diseases such as mildew and uneven and questionable ripening of the fruit are just a taster.
: , Home Vintages and Regions Bordeaux Bordeaux 2011 St Emilion Page 1 of 4 previous 1 2 3 4 next Bordeaux 2011 : St Emilion Vintage Review Bordeaux 2011 En primeur Pessac-Léognan St Estèphe Pauillac St Julien Margaux Médoc Haut-Médoc St Emilion Pomerol Sauternes Barsac Minor Appellations Primeur Picks Knowing just where to start with St Emilion can be something of a challenge . The appellation itself is huge , with thousands of hectares eligible , dwarfing the classic left-bank communes . Hand-in-hand with this we have several distinct terroirs here , giving us a variety of styles of wine the largest and least exciting are the sandy soils these alone account for 3200 hectares whereas centrally we have the clay and limestone around St Emilion itself . And at the very far western end on the
Home Producer Profiles Bordeaux Profiles Château Haut-Beauséjour Château Haut-Beauséjour Located just to the south-west of the town of St Estèphe itself , the Haut-Beauséjour estate is one of the lesser known properties of the St Estèphe appellation It has no grand château about which to boast which explains why the label displays only a coat of arms and you are unlikely to ever be invited to visit . Nevertheless , despite this , critics and visitors to Bordeaux are often afforded a taste of the wine . This is thanks to the estate's owners , Champagne Louis Roederer who also own Pichon-Lalande along with a handful of other estates , including Château de Pez and Château Bernadotte A visit to Château Pichon-Lalande never a hardship is likely to yield a taste of all of these . wines The
Home Wine of the Week Vale da Mata Reserva 2008 Vale da Mata Reserva 2008 I find keeping abreast of what is going on in Bordeaux and the Loire is hard enough . Trying to keep a broad overview of the entire world of wine is near-enough impossible , and it is countries like Portugal that really rub salt in the wound in this respect . Twenty years ago any keen student of wine could , once he or she , of course , please take that as read had managed to become acquainted with the principal styles of Port and of course Madeira too we mustn't forget this sub-tropical island remains under Portuguese jurisdiction today have peremptorily ticked Portugal off his to do' list . Now , what's next , our student would mutter under his breath . Hmm , South Africa Not much there except rubbery Pinotage and
, Home Vintages and Regions Loire Loire 2010 Tasting , January 2012 Page 1 of 2 previous 1 2 next Loire 2010 Revisited , January 2012 Loire 2010 Loire 2010 First Taste , 2011 Nantais Anjou Touraine Centre Second Taste , 2012 Tasting , January 2012 Having not long completed several days of judging the Loire category in the Decanter World Wine Awards during which more than a few wines from the 2010 vintage cropped up , I was reminded of these notes which I made at the Charles Sydney portfolio tasting in January this year . Although the focus at Charles' tasting was undoubtedly Loire 2011 as indeed it was at the Decanter event I've never seen so many Sancerres , Pouilly-Fumés and Muscadets from a single vintage gathered together in one place before there was also quite a handsome showing of
Following on from my review of Pauillac 2011, we come to the other great commune of the left bank, St Julien. And there is no doubt in my mind that it is here, in St Julien, closely matched by Pauillac, that the true left-bank successes of this vintage are to be found.
: , Home Vintages and Regions Bordeaux Bordeaux 2011 Pauillac Page 1 of 3 previous 1 2 3 next Bordeaux 2011 : Pauillac Vintage Review Bordeaux 2011 En primeur Pessac-Léognan St Estèphe Pauillac St Julien Margaux Médoc Haut-Médoc St Emilion Pomerol Sauternes Barsac Minor Appellations Primeur Picks It is about three years since I ditched my notebook and pen in favour of a laptop when making tasting notes . I found few activities to be as tedious as typing up handwritten notes just deciphering what I scribbled was a challenge , the process of typing up itself very time consuming , and by the time I finished I had no energy to write anything original . The effect of typing as I tasted was nothing short of . miraculous It was at Pichon-Lalande that the inevitable happened . I drew up a seat ,
This week I will be continuing my focus on 2011 Bordeaux. Carrying on from my 2011 Pessac-Léognan and 2011 St Estèphe reports posted last week, next up are Pauillac, St Julien and Margaux. I like to provide something as a complete contrast as my Wine of the Week, and with the Loire being my other passion that isn't always that difficult. A stalwart in this respect is Claude Courtois of La Cailloux de Paradis; he's given me plenty of interesting bottles to consider in the past, including his Romorantin and Racines cuvées. This week another of his better known wines, Quartz.
Yves Guégniard, Jim Budd, Tom King and myself were taking a look at some of Bergerie's oldest vines, trying to shake off their blanket of snow, when Vincent Ogereau drew up in his little blue combi-van. Perhaps sensing there was just as much gossiping going on here, about the latest vintages, wine and the world in general, it was not long before Vincent had left the secure warmth of his vehicle to join us among the vines.
My notes on Bordeaux 2011 come to an end this week; as far as my communal reports go I only have my 'mopping up' to do, a rather fractured report which serves as a home for my opinions on everything from Castillon and Fronsac down to Entre-Deux-Mers and generic Bordeaux. As a consequence I didn't think it would be overkill to stick with Bordeaux this week, with a look back one year to Bordeaux 2010, especially as it brings our focus to bear on one of the more niche aspects of Bordeaux; the dry whites.
: Home Vintages and Regions Bordeaux Bordeaux 2011 Primeur Picks Bordeaux 2011 : Primeur Picks Vintage Review Bordeaux 2011 En primeur Pessac-Léognan St Estèphe Pauillac St Julien Margaux Médoc Haut-Médoc St Emilion Pomerol Sauternes Barsac Minor Appellations Primeur Picks Every tasting episode is unique , and each experience can be shaped as much by the surroundings as it can by the wine itself . Some tasting rooms are bold and brash , seemingly channelling the confidence and showmanship of their managers or proprietors , while others are more serene . Each time I am admitted into the dimly-lit tasting arena yes , I think arena' is a fairly apt choice of word at Cos d'Estournel I get the feeling I have just stepped into the warped offspring of a seedy private members' club and a Shanghai
Having some knowledge of the vintage, by which I really mean having some knowledge of the weather during the growing season, is key to understanding the wines. In case reading this statement induces a feeling of déjà vu, please rest easy; you have not fallen into a Matrix-style time slip. This is something you have read before; it was a statement I made in my introduction to Bordeaux 2011.
Texsom 2012 “Be There or Be Square”: August 11-13, 2012 You may remember the line “Be there, or be square” from The Wiz, the modern-day version of the Wizard of Oz. Well, this line could not be more appropriate for the up coming Texas Sommelier Conference – TEXSOM 2012. It will be held August 11-13, [...]
June 5th TXwine Twitter Tuesday: Share Your Favorite Texas Winery Stories & Pics Denise Fraser Clarke (@DeniseFraser), Jeff Cope (@TXwineLover) and I (@VintageTexas) hope you can join us for the next TXwine Twitter Tuesday at 7 p.m. Central Time on Tuesday, June 5th. This month we’d like you to share your tales from your Texas [...]
, Another Wine Blog Because Another Wine , Food , Beer and Travel Blog would have been way too ing long Skip to content Home Best of AWB Reviews Food Cooking Recipes Contact Us Contact AWB Contact Amy Contact Joe Media PR Inquiries Links About About This Site About Amy About Joe RSS Feed Twitter StumbleUpon FaceBook An alcoholic is someone you dont like who drinks as much as you . do Dylan Thomas AWB Home » Lima Beans , Wine and Jane’s Addiction May 23, 2012 Lima Beans , Wine and Jane’s Addiction By Amy Corron Power Leave a comment Tweet Share W hen you were a little kid , you probably hated peas . I not only hated peas , but loathed lima beans . It was not so much the flavor , as the consistency . Lima beans , especially when prepared hastily , or from a can with little or no enhancers
Another Wine Blog Because Another Wine , Food , Beer and Travel Blog would have been way too ing long Skip to content Home Best of AWB Reviews Food Cooking Recipes Contact Us Contact AWB Contact Amy Contact Joe Media PR Inquiries Links About About This Site About Amy About Joe RSS Feed Twitter StumbleUpon FaceBook Too much of a good thing is wonderful . Mae West AWB Home » Amy rides the short bus May 20, 2012 Amy rides the short bus By Joe Power 2 Comments Tweet Share O ops , that should read Amy makes the short LIST I have absolutely no idea how that headline could have gotten up there , but when I find the responsible party , heads will roll Since my wife isn’t blowing her own horn over this , I will proudly do it for her . We had a few of our posts accepted into the competition for the
What I’m Drinking Tonight: Dotson ~ Cervantes, 2010 Gotas de Oro Fixed a pretty nice Mother’s Day dinner for my wife tonight, but the best was at the finish. We ended the meal with a piece of cake, Italian cream cake, just like the wedding cake we shared over 28 years ago. This cake was [...]
Tasting Among Old Friends: 4.0 Cellars and a New Texas Wine Experience As I left my Texas Hill Country cottage, there was a recently unfamiliar sight: patches of sky reflected up from puddles on the pockmarked country road. The wet coolness of the afternoon reminded me of driving another wine road through California’s Sonoma County [...]
May TXwine Twitter Tuesday Stats, Photostream and a Surprise This past Tuesday sipping and savoring was in order, the online variety. TXwine Twitter Tuesday had a great turnout as it featured 4.0 Cellars, likely the newest wineries in the Texas Hill Country along with its partner wineries: Brennan Vineyards in Comanche TX @BrennanWines; Lost Oak [...]
A Bit of Texas High Plains Wine Legacy: Staked Plains Winery Text from: Llano Estacado Website (click here). Photograph of bottle taken in the McPherson Cellars tasting room (May 2012). 1975: Llano Estacado Winery charted in Lubbock, Texas. 1976: Llano Estacado officially opens in January. First bottle of wine placed underneath cornerstone, taken from Lubbock’s [...]