The Bret Brothers are part of a new wave of young winemakers in the Macon who are making wine of top quality by means of hand-harvesting, meticulous sorting, and excellent terroir. Justifiably they are represented by Becky Wasserman, who's punctilious selection going back to the 1970's has driven a rise in winemaking standards throughout the region. About the Bret boys, Becky writes "They have the unmistakable, and highly contagious, spark of people who are trying, against difficult odds to raise the standards of an appellation." This is a winery I've been very excited about, and when I found out we could get the last to be had of this particular wine, I jumped - the 2005 will be practically impossible to source.
Brothers Jean-Phillipe and Jean-Guillaume Bret run the property located in Vinzelles which was bought by their Grandfather in 1947. Two focused and gentle young guys who apprenticed at Ridge and Lafon, are doing strictly biodynamic work in the South part of Burgundy and they take advantage of the best terroir in the Macon appelation. Situated on the lower part of the Fuisse slope, The Clos Reyssie is a climat of 70 year-old Chardonnay vines. The Bret's use oak to a minimum, in order to emphasize nuance and balance.
90-92 points from Allen Meadows is quite an impressive score for any wine and he certainly recognized the superb quality of their Pouilly Fuisse: "This too is beautifully elegant, fresh and refined aromatically, with rich, full, sweet, and precise flavors that culminate in a textured, sappy, and powerful finish, replete with an intense citrus character. This is sleeky, muscular with a taut, pure and vibrant character. Terrific."
Clive Coates recently wrote in Decanter: "The southern Maconnais enjoys a more auspicious climate than the Cote d'Or. In Pouilly-Fuisse itself, the danger in the very warmest vintages used to be that the wines were a bit too heavy and alcoholic. Such is the improvement in winemaking techniques, however, that this sort of over-muscular Pouilly-Fuisse is less prevalent than in the past."
The Bret's recently highlighted this wine at an En Primeur Berry Brothers tasting in London - and I believe it sold through immediately, however it seems to be less popular in the US (lucky for us!). It's drinking gorgeously now but will be even more wonderful after 2009.
Bret Brothers Pouilly-Fuisse Clos Reyssie 2005
$36.65 - compare to $44 and up (although there's hardly any left in the market). We will allocate fairly.
While you've hopefully been merrily depleting your stock all weekend - we chose our first offering in mind of the season - a rich, deep Umbrian red perfect for wintery evenings:
The agricultural estate of Tenuta Vitalonga sits on the Tuscan border - its hillside vineyards and olive groves are surrounded by the Ciminos and Appenines mountain ranges. Under foot is Pliocene* clay soils typical to Tuscany in the hills 1200 feet above sea level (meaning excellent minerality in the wine due to deep-reaching roots) - Umbria is the land-locked heart of Italy with warm Mediterranean currents coming in via the Tiber River as well as cool mountain breezes - an ideal climate for making wines of both power and finesse.
The Terra di Confine (trans: 'land border') is a blend of Merlot and Montepulciano and comes from an area on the Umbrian border of both Lazio and Tuscany. For those of you are wary of drinking French varietals grown in Italy, you should know that in Umbria, for instance, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon have been grown for centuries, which means that much is already known about clonal selection and specific vineyard sites. Neal Empson recently told me that he invented the term 'Super-Tuscan,' has the term 'Super-Umbrian' been coined yet?
Tasting Note: On first tasting we found abundant aromas of brooding dark berries and grilled meats - Kris said he thought though the acid was somewhat low, but that it was a surprisingly layered and compensated. The big tannins led us to the decision to leave the bottle open for a day and return to it. Well, schedules as they are, we didn't get back to it for three days. Upon which we found it in near-pristine condition (this is a wine to decant and let soften).
Upon revisiting, I thought the wine was luscious in a spiced and deep way typical to Italy – with a little road-tar complexity and a fruit-driven middle. Kris disagreed about road-tar and said it had a very earthy and truffley quality to it. I think we have different names for the same aroma - though we both agreed that it tasted like a mouthful of dried black cherries with a touch of black licorice. Although it was a bit extracted in style for Kris, we both agreed that it could stand cellaring but would be an intelligent choice for a wintery meal - especially satisfying for those that desire richness and a touch of sex in their wine.
*pli-o-cene: pertaining to an epoch of the Tertiary Period, occurring from 10 to 2 million years ago, and characterized by increased size and numbers of mammals, by the growth of mountains, and by global climatic cooling.
This wine is $24.85 per bottle / 6 bottle maximum.
We have a 1 bottle minimum for order - We will do our best to allocate wines between customers. I will calculate shipping or delivery costs and let you know by email.
Dear Friends,
You might have noticed that I’ve been missing from my wine
jobs. Well, lucky for both of us, I’m writing to tell you of my decision to
devote myself to the much anticipated Thoreau Wine Society.
While being immersed in the culture of wine for these many years, I’ve made it a goal to promote a more civilized and genteel approach to wine, in that wine should be treated intellectually and viscerally as any other great form of art - and therefore with the counsel of my dear friend Kris Prasad (an earnest collector and fellow oenophile) we will use our studied experience to weed through the thousands of wines out there to offer only what we find as the best quality to value ratio.
We seek to find wines made by talented viticulturists that reflect the best expression of the vintage and vineyard from which they come. Wines that are sublime and unique, those that are produced scrupulously and in limited quantities, and that offer good value; that we believe our friends will benefit from enjoying.
Upon sourcing such wines, we will send you an email detailing our offering: who made it, what it tastes like, what its potential is for cellaring – or drinking, and what makes it outstanding. The wine will be shipped to our tempered storage location in Manhattan, at which point we will arrange delivery / shipping / pick-up, with proper handling being of crucial importance. Please see further details of how this works following our first offering, or on our site at thoreauwinesociety.com
I hope you will welcome these informed missives, musings and offers which I will send to you as frequently as they come up. Please expect to hear from me again shortly, and feel free to email with questions about why Thoreau Wine Society and otherwise. However, if you do not wish to receive our email please unsubscribe.
Yours Kindly,
Mary Taylor
Thoreau Wine Society
Brooklyn, Manhattan, Beaune
thoreauwinesociety.com
Chavanay is a village where Yves lives, but the winery is up the road – From the highway one has to pass through Ampuis and Condrieu – and then before Chavanay – I saw 4 or so Bonnes Seours (nuns) exiting a door just beside a church, and as my directions said to look for a church I stropped and sure enough, I saw the sign for Caves Yves Cuilleron. I knocked and an older woman, bearing a striking resemblance to Yves – and a great big kind welcoming smile let me in and offered me to her daughter Odette with whom I had been corresponding in regards to the stage.
Odette lead me on a tour of the winery. It was
seemingly chaotic – there is a large building under construction and quite a
few ropes and fences, and a lot of action in the cuverie where women were
labeling and boxing wines. We passed through giant rooms with empty
barrels and then to where the tanks were and lots of people with hoses and
rubber boots – my limited French came in quite handy. She introduced me to everyone,
and showed my tiny almost monastic quarters situated just above the horizontal pneumatic press that reminded me of it's presence all night as it was never off. Lionelle, the guy seemingly in charge under Yves, showed me around
more and I offered to help but he said it was already 5 and we would start
tomorrow. So I went on a spin in the little golf I had borrowed and poked around the surrounding area - the towns of Ampuis and Chavanay and Condrieu are full of restaurants and shops in a vertical line situated dramatically against the steep hills in the background. From the outside (only the elite get in) Guigal looks like the local corporation. It's big fenced-up presence looming as you drive by - they have this other sort-of glass techno-club looking place, but I think it's just their offices (or maybe their secret techno club)..
Yves had invited us for dinner and I came down to the main room at 730 and the other stagieres were tasting some of his whites from half bottle: Saint Joseph 2006, which is made from 100% Marsanne – I found it fat, tight and slight bitter oak, which is the style of choice I think, I don’t want to knock white Rhone wine, but coming from Burgundy where the wines tend to have a sweeter center and are less heavy, it is a notably difficult transition. Then I tasted his St. Joseph ‘St. Pierre’ 2006, made from 100% Roussanne which I liked much more – a lacier wine, with gunpowder aromas, softer honeyed fruit. And then onto the Condrieu for which he is so famous, the Condrieu Les Chaillets 2006, this time 100% Viognier – which I found less intense than many of the 2005 Condrieu’s I’ve tasted of late – light sweet stone fruit aromas, some alpine pinot gris qualities, a nice acidic undertone, a very precise Condrieu.
Who walks in, but Francois Villard, who was present for the
dinner in New York
when I asked Yves if I could come for harvest. He was his usual smirking
sarcastic sweet self and we piled into their fancy cars and went to a nearby
restaurant – which had the atmosphere of a Denny’s with, of course, much better food, although I ordered pesto
pasta and realized that when in France eat French, Italian food is better left
for home or in Italy. At the restaurant we enjoyed no less than 5 bottles of
wine for 6 people. My co-stagieres are: Charlenne, who is studying at the Lycee Viticole in
Beaune. And then Fred who is an Australian winemaker in Victoria, and then
Louis, a lovely lad from South
Africa. Two Americans are slated to arrive
this coming Monday. At the resto we drank Francois’ St Joseph, 2005 which I love, especially the 2003 and then Yves newish
project with Morgan Clendennan – Les Deux C’s – a blend of Condrieu and Cali
Viognier – he sends 2 barrels each year, so the production is very small. He
said if he were to blend and bottle such a blend here in France, he
would be put in jail. I liked it’s texture and aroma, I later tasted it at a trade event in NYC and found it really elegant and aromatic, as did my terroiriste friend Kris.
The first day of harvest. We were up with the sun, waiting in the mess until the director Lionelle came for us. He seemed frantic. We piled into his truck and he whisked us to a nearby pick up location. There were all of these motley looking folks standing around mostly smoking. We embarked on a medieval gypsie convoy voyage to the vineyards.
Turns out the motley gypsies were actually a lovely bunch of locals who really enjoyed our foreign accents – les anglais,’ we were called. “Seaux!’ you would hear as we broke our backs picking the gorgeously ripe and colorful viognier for condrieu – just like the people – the colors were gold and grayish purple and violet and lavender and green. This really lovely guy called ‘Pipette’ with a bright smile was directing us. At first the vines were trained on sticks - ‘piquet’ it’s called. And so it made it confusing as to where our individual rows were – people took quite a proprietary stance toward their row, which I could understand, because it’s nice to have a ‘job’ and not be constantly asking where to go/what to do. It was steep and rocky and hot and before I knew it we were on ‘break’ – which consisted of ham and cheese and coffee and wine wine wine and everyone smokes (but not me!) and then we picked more and it was fun and one of the elders ‘Robert’ in the close-up, took a liking to me and I butchered my way through French and then lunch which was a huge affair – 25 of us, 4 courses ‘but of course’ and after I was a little tired, how do they do it? and we returned to the steep scary terrain and worked for a few more hours and had several more breaks and at one point they pulled out cakes and pastries and I thought to myself (didn’t we just have a 5 course lunch?) but ah well. Dinner at Yves’ turned
out to be a bit wine and cigar heavy. Francois came with a million bottles of
open wines, I loved his St. Peray 05 – it was singing. I bought a great bottle
of Larmandier Bernier champagne and after a Chateau Grillet 04 which had
nothing to it, and a great 97 vin jaune, we smoked a cigar, for which I felt
horrific the next day, spent most of it hiding in my bed, while I could hear
the team saying ‘ou est marie?’ I stayed very still until their query passed. Next
day in the vineyards they served foie gras for breakfast – I laughed. And then we
picked the Condrieu ‘Les Vertiges’ – one takes one's life in one's hand in that vineyard.
Just a quick aside about Dave Anderson, who was my boss and mentor for 9 years and who showed me how to really work - he also introduced me to steel guitar music and old country classics. Here's the note I wrote when he died at the age of 80 this past summer:
Dave was not only ‘the boss’ but a dear friend who taught me a work ethic that I will always carry with me. He was so proud of his family, so kind to strangers, such an open and giving man. He would put on a stern front at the catering shop, we couldn’t help tease him by calling him ‘Mr. Sunshine’ when he would take the mop out of one of our hands, showing us how to use it properly and grumbling “I’ve been mopping floors for forty years” – that was his famous quote. I remember our special trips to Durgin Park after going to Costco to pick up goods for the catering shop. Wherever he went, he knew everyone and all of their stories. People loved seeing Dave. He showed me a part of Concord that I would have never known; the Elks Club, the history (he always pointed out the changes), the real townspeople that had been there throughout. In mosquito-filled nights we sweated over 8 foot charcoal grills serving people on round tables with plastic covering. With Becky, Linda, Man, Anna and anyone who needed work loading the truck, or cleaning the ‘walk-in,’ and with Dave’s 50 year-old checklist, it seemed we achieved feats of super-human capacity. Snow-plowing all night until noon, serving lobster-rolls to tourists on bicycles, working until 3am, Dave would drive the snow plow while singing a sweet country tune on the cassette player. I remember he was so proud of Janice’s talent and hard work, the hundreds of Concord homes we worked in, all of those weddings and funerals. These were my formative years; Dave and his overflowing love, he was like a second father.
So here it is - the much anticipated Thoreau Wine Society - I've schlepped enough boxes of montepulciano and worked at enough cash-cow wine companies - this time it's about people, not money, not product. people and nature - there are way too many smart hip people out there for mass-market juice. My home town is Concord, Mass - where there is this little culture of townies - ancestors of the pre-industrial folk who are silently upholding a tradition there - they keep the magic of the place alive, in their refusal to change their ethics and lifestyle - they still cut wood in the yard and maintain their old creaky houses and know their neighbors - and don't hang on to some financial self definition.. Without them this world would be flat. The old European wine-making families, who have refused to sell out, and have maintained their family tradition for generations - there's something special there - you can find it in their wines.
I'm looking forward to having this wine discussion with as many people as care. I'm not here to lament the loss of old world values - instead I want to celebrate what remains. On our Grand Central Hikers group walks, Camille and I and the other wine-folk often have the discussion - "what would you drink with this view." Last night as we were getting off the trail at the Mohonk Preserve, Andrea said she would have Lagrein with that moment -
please email me as often as you wish - for a recommendation, if you are looking for an wine in particular.. you know
mary
