Please accept my humble note about Alsace – the ‘zone’ between the French and the Germans, (resentment so deep, an army of New York psychotherapists could never resolve). In Alsace they still speak their own language and the wines reflect such independence. There are 50 Grand Cru sites dotting the foothills of the Vosges Mountains,
mostly around the second city of Colmar (Stasbourg, in the north, being the first). Not far from Colmar is a village of Wettolsheim where you can find the Albert Mann winery – now run by brothers Maurice and Jacky Bartheleme and their wives. Their cave is open to visitors year-round. Wine has been made here since the beginning of the 13th century, as vineyards were first planted by the Abbey of Munster, while Albert Mann dates back to the 17th century and their wines have held the notice of the post-war terroir-obsessed, French wine-enthusiast for a respectable length.
Nowadays, the Bartheleme Brothers go about their work with a particular humanness – with respect for the product they make, for their customers, and also for the nature and the soils with which they work – the estate is operated organically.
The Hengst site is situated on calcareous, marl and sandstone. Maurice told me that the calcare brings mellowness and depth, while the marl preserves acidity. I found that the wine was very open, with a silky rich texture, and that floral and white peachy aromas jumped from the glass – this was certainly my favorite of the lot. Although 07 is the star vintage on everyone’s mind - 06 is drinking at the moment with more user-friendly charm.
The bottles themselves make for lovely gifts, their labels are graced with artwork by François Bruetschy; I loved this explanation: “The label destined for the Grands Crus puts forward the predominance of the soil, its richness and its beauty. It is this soil which is the legacy of the work and the care of several generations of passionate persons. A passion expressed by the red colour which thus keeps the memory of the old labels. The four squares express the diversity of the parcels of land, disseminated and however subtly intertwined, which are the particularity of the domaine. They also underline the creativity and the enthousiasm of the women and men who put their particular talents in the service of a common strength : the strength that gives them the love of the wine, the love of their wines. For me, it was important that the label expresses what expresses the wine when we drink it.”
Occasionally I will quote Michel Bettane, the most famous French critic – he writes a guide called ‘Le Grand Guide des Vins de France’ – I met him at a party and in my classic foot-in-mouth style said, ‘So you are the Robert Parker of France.’ He looked back with a snarl only French critics can acheive (have you seen Rataouille?). Anyhow, Bettane has a bit more nuanced palate than dear old Parker, and he says the Pinot Gris Hengst is the best of 06 Alsace, giving the wine a rare 18 out of 20.
$42 per bottle. No minimum. Compare at $50 +
First-come, first served. Wine is available before the Holidays. Please reply with desired amount, I will reply with account set-up details, if that has not yet been done.
Please refer some friends of you appreciate this service.
If you are new to this list, here is a little background on me:
About a year ago I left New York for Beaune, the wine capital of Burgundy, which has a slightly ostentatious touristic ‘front’ but is very much an industrial town. Working in wine for a decade in New York, I found that while there are many passionate consumers, the wine market is an ocean of false pretense – so often associated with a certain ‘leisure’ lifestyle, marketed in such a way as to alienate the average joe. Here, good wine is appreciated like a good chicken
(poulet de Bresse) – and you don’t need to be wearing soft-leather driving shoes to understand it. Prices are based on vineyard designation (grand cru, premier cru, village wine, vdqs, table wine), reputation of the grower, and market demand, not advertising campaigns. Guys who cut wood for a living do not, by rank, have deaf ears to Grand Cru. Unfortunately with the last year’s dollar/euro exchange, wine has been more painfully expensive for Americans (though, thankfully less so at the moment). My mission is to pinpoint wines that are of particular excellence so that you don’t waste your time, liver and money.
Happy Holidays
Slainte,
Mary Taylor
ThoreauWineSociety.com
Dear Friends,
What a weekend - I'm looking at a concrete sky and feeling like a log - 1100 winemakers were at a huge fair in Paris, where the public could go and taste for 6 euros a glass. There must have been a hundred-thousand people. As my friend said, this could never happen in the US, because too many people would go there to get drunk. These fairs give people an opportunity to buy directly from growers without having to leave Paris. Ah the elegance of the French and their wine!
Thinking back to July, when one could spend the entire evening outside, over dinner in a Montlouis courtyard with the young and funky Jousset couple, we went through their entire philosophy, tasted everything they make, and at one point I put a huge circle around their 07 'Premier Rendez Vous' Montlouis Sec. My notes say: Life in the glass. Clean but golden, the slightest bakery nose. Effortless class. Full of emotion and energy - white gold in color, elegant, graceful, mineral, orange blossom, citrusy cold stone, salinic white peaches, weighty, pure. Not sweet, but lush.
Bertrand's philosophy is to make wine with life, which is why he believes in short elevages (ageing in barrel). "If you push the elevage you lose some vitality and you hide the terroir." Everything is vinified separately, meaning seperate parcels in the vineyards. Montlouis is known for it's special terroir of Silex, Sand and limestone, there is no Clay (like in Vouvray) which adds to its lifted mineral, flintyness - nuances that weren't as appreciated a generation ago. (The velveeta generation, I like to chide my family). The Jousset's get into the vineyards year-round and 'move the soil' so
that the soil has life. They started with no money, but their passion was infectious and money came. Talk about a groovy couple.
I spent part of the summer in Montlouis; this wine making village just faces Vouvray across the Loire, not far from the city of Tours, where they speak the clearest French. Like in my hometown of Concord, the center of the transcendental movement, there is an intellectual wine revolution happening in here -The Emerson figure would be Francois Chidaine, (if you are in NY, do yourself a favor and have a Chidaine Les Tuffeaux' 05 with the Boudin Noir at Bar Boulud). Yet in the trenches a new generation has awakened, bringing Montlouis out of the shadows - they've grown into this terroir and into their passion for hand-made, vibrational, chemical free, balanced wines.
100% Chenin Blanc, Single Parcel
07 is an excellent vintage - the wine is Just fantastic, you will be very very happy. Drink now or hold - will cellar for 20 years.
$29 per bottle
Price does not include applicable sales tax and/or shipping
As usual, there's not much of this, so please order accordingly
Email with desired quantity and I will reply with account set-up info, if you haven't done that yet.
Please refer some friends - I live the dream.
All the best, I hope you have peace in your heart, thanks for reading,
Mary Taylor
ThoreauWineSociety.com
Dear Friends,
My apologies for sending 2 emails in a row - I recognize I was a little ambitious in my last email, offering $60-100 wines isn't seemingly what people need just at the moment. As a 31 year-old, I'm batting my head over my over-active tendency to go in a thousand different directions, often leading me to wonder what on earth am I doing with my life. My dad says I was smart to study literature because in the desert of France, you will always have a creative interior dialogue.' Hmmm (as he replied to my use of the word 'ruttish' yesterday). Honestly I started working in wine 10 or so
years ago, because, for survival reasons, I took whatever opportunity presented itself (you would be surprised at how many philosophy PhD's work in wine). Though being here, in France, where wine is a true part of daily nourishment, not a luxury product, and is thereby a real (and sometimes tough) industry, toiled by families - reminds me of my younger years I spent working on a farm, driving a snow-plow and working the dirt with my hands. And the best part is that most wine-makers deeply love wine, and unlike us, they don't think the grand cru belongs to the aristocracy, but as something any family can enjoy on a special occasion, as long as they know to appreciate it. But I digress, and to make up for my foible I've pulled out something gorgeous, racy, red-berry, mineral and pure, and very interesting, in
the French sense of the word.
Michel Gendrier Cheverny Rouge 'Le Pressoir''2006
My friend Emily and I were camping in August in the woods above Lake Geveva and we stopped at wine barn along the road, realizing as we saw their cold passages of cinder blocks loaded with recognizeable labels that we had stumbled upon a serious caviste. As we were not far from the Jura, the shop keeper and I got to talking about our favorite winemakers there, Tissot and Queniard and then we got into great Loire wines. Knowing that we were camping, he reached for a low-priced Cheverney (a gorgeous little flower-laden village in the Touraine that became a recognized appellation in 93) that we ultimately had to drink out of plastic. At dusk that evening, tent already pitched, an early
fall breeze, a walk along the cattle pastures, we shared this bottle like 2 kids hiding in the dry grass. I kept the bottle, meaning to source some, because we both agreed it was superbly delicious - really plump fruit, a nice dry backbone - elegantly balanced - aromas jumping out of our wrinkly old cups, up in the woods we ached for having not more.
Hand made from 80% Pinot Noir, and 20% Gamay - partially aged in oak, grown on clay and chalk terroir - the Gendrier's have been making this wine for ages and are one of the best representatives of the appelation. This fleshy flirty pure red has a spicy touch to its light cool low-alcohol elegance.
$17.95
Available at the top of next week, just in time
There's not much of this, so please order accordingly
Email with desired quantity and I will reply with account set-up info, if you haven't done that yet.
Please refer some friends - I live the dream.
Many Thanks
Mary Taylor
ThoreauWineSociety.com
Chers Amis,
As revenge for an internment by this complex lexicon I take particular joy in forcing my rampant Americana onto the French (5 daily hours of classroom French, I’m not sure anymore what language I’m writing). Over the Hospices de Beaune weekend, our Rhodanian house-guests were tortured by my Cole Porter songs and they tortured back with their militant answer to Pinot Noir – Syrah, the more reliable, more tenable of the cepages, the best coming from the Andes-like cliffs that hang over the Rhone river in the climactic Cote Rotie.
On the way back from a trip in Chateauneauf, we drove up the Kyhber-pass-like road to taste with Christophe Bonnefond at his winery in Mornas. We left with our 6 bottles and I wouldn’t have guessed that I could get my hands on a few cases of these untenable 06’s – since the winery is so small and celebrated, but voila -
Christophe, another hot-tamale (the dudes down there remind me of the seniors who drove around in their broncos looking all serious when I was a ruttish sophomore), is the co-president of the Syndicate of the Cote Rotie appellation. Brother Patrick, who I have never had the pleasure – works the vineyards – their vines are kept strictly in top form – they do 2 green harvests to plug lots of vibration into the grapes they select to go into their seductively layered wines, in which the perfume meets you, but is somehow ethereal and then not, because, heck, you can actually consume it, a lovely lavender lilac aromas with silhouettes of burning embers, something phantasmagorical, one can feel the energy of the juice, the mild warmth, pleasure rising and descending, the chatter drowning out your mind, the juicy delicious tannins linger – La La wines are not the only ones that can have this effect.
Patrick et Christophe Bonnefond Cote Rotie 2006, coming from 30% new oak (the oak is a diverse mélange). 100% syrah – maybe a small % of viognier. 35-40 year old vines coming from 3.5 hectares, low yields (35 hl.ha), Spends 12-14 months in barrel, reaches 13 % alcohol. No fining on either wine, no filtration, almost no sulphur. 91-93 points parker. 15,5 / 20 Bettane. $64.50 per bottle. First come, first served.
Patrick et Christophe Bonnefond Cote Rotie 'Cuvee Rochains' 2006 from even smaller yields (25-30 hl/ha). Syrah from 2 plots – 55 years old and 25 yrs - 1 hectare in total. Wine spends16-20 months in 100% new oak, 13% alcohol. Sumptuous. $95 per bottle - (attn bargain shoppers, I'm serious)
Parker: The medium-bodied 2006 Cote Rotie Les Rochains boasts a dense purple color followed by aromas of licorice, smoked meats, cassis, tapenade, and cherries. Like so many wines in this vintage, it has that 1991 northern Rhone personality of charm, suppleness, fresh acidity, and impressive concentration, making it forward enough to drink early on, but capable of lasting 12-15 years. 92-94 points
Tanzer: Inky purple. Explosively perfumed bouquet of ripe blackberry and boysenberry, with sexy floral and mineral qualities deepened by exotic oak spices. Pliant, strikingly sweet, highly concentrated cherry and dark fruit preserve flavors pick up velvety tannins on the close. "This always has the most tannins of my wines, but they aren't typically hard," Christophe Bonnefond commented. 91-94 points
Attn: Wines will be available December 10.
Slainte - thanks for reading,
Mary
ThoreauWineSociety.com
Dear Friends,
Just a quickie – not my usual social diatribe, am up to my ears in homework tonight (although it has been a day off in France, spent reading Zola, walking in the vineyards), however it would be shameful to bypass this excellent price on such a prize wine, as progressively tenuous as these are.
A.F. Gros Vosne Romanee 'Aux Reas' 05 - which is the parcel that lays just beyond Michel Gros’ monopole. If you take interest, it’s likely that you already know Vosne as the greatest pinot noir producing commune in the history if mankind and that every wine aficionado leaves behind their young lusts when they discover her inexplicably haunting beauty. Ever since I was seduced by Anne-Francoise's 98 Richebourg (after being disappointed by many 98's) I've been captivated, although it’s the other Gros families that bask in the glory of the press.
Here's the Burghound review:
Producer note: François Parent (see below for reviews of Domaine François Parent), who is married to Anne-Françoise Gros and directs both his domaine and that of his wife's, describes 2005 as a "dream vintage. There was excellent maturity and perfect balance between the fruit, tannin and acidity. Yields were terrific because there were no sorting losses, coming in around 40 hl/ha across all our appellations with the exception of Echézeaux where we lost about 30% of a normal crop due to early season hail. We also lost a bit in several parcels of Vosne and Richebourg but those were pretty minor losses. Sugars were strong but not really high at between 12.8 and 13%. I did a 14 to 15 day cuvaison with a traditional vinification. It's always hard to compare vintages but for me it's rounder and deeper than 2002 but not as structured as 1990. Still, I believe the balance is so good that 2005 will last for decades." Tasting note: A classic Vosne nose (save for a discreet bit of wood) with abundant spice notes adding nuance to the refined and pure black fruit aromas that give way to punchy middle weight flavors that are finer and more sophisticated if not more powerful. The tannins are not ultra sophisticated, though neither are they rustic and overall, this is certainly a seductive and altogether lovely effort, especially for a villages level wine. Recommended.
PS: Allen Meadows, aka The Burghound, has an excellent database of tasting notes, but you probably already know that.
What is a classic Vosne nose? Cigar box, exotic spices, perfume that brings you back to a moment in time, the softness of a lover’s cheek, a hillside ablaze in autumn, I couldn't begin to do it justice.
Do not drink until 2012. Available within the next 12 days.
$76.75 per bottle
Miniscule quantities - first come, first served.
If you are feeling strapped, I have awesome $20 wines to come,
promise.
I will have to close this offer by Thursday morning. Price does not
include applicable tax and delivery.
If you have not set up an account, please reply with your desired
amount and I will reply with account set-up info.
If you like this service of being offered awesome wines at excellent
prices by people actually in wine country who know what they are
talking about, please refer some friends.
A lot of if's....
Slainte,
Mary
Dear Friends,
While I was regrettably not on the street embracing random strangers last night as passed in awesome Brooklyn, we did open some bubbly to celebrate what the Europeans are likening to the fall of the Berlin Wall. I know I have readers on all sides, so I just hope everyone can at least appreciate our renewed reputation across the pond. I walked into a restaurant in France last night wearing a very loud red white and blue sweater, welcomed by real smiles, and felt, for the first time in Europe, damn proud.
November in Beaune is high season, with the famous Hospices de Beaune auction coming up, along with fall colors, brisk air, the sense of fermentation that matches so dynamically with nuanced Burgundies.
There are wine consumers from all reaches that descend upon us to eat at Beaune’s staple restaurant 'Ma Cuisine' and drink fabulous older vintages - while spending gobs of money. This year is a little lacking in bigwigs, however, economics being what they are - and thus I feel vindicated in my mission to highlight less blue-chip, but deeply admired wines of the France and beyond.
So with that said, let’s talk pink bubbles:
Even though they might not yet know it, when people walk into your house they want to be handed a glass of sparkly pink wine.
Unfortunately bubbly wines that come from elsewhere than Champagne have a hard time marketing themselves, and there's a lot of head-achey stuff sold in super-marche's. The other night a girlfriend and I tasted at the family domaine of Parigot-Richard in Savigny-les-Beaune, one of approximately 11 family domains hand making small batch Cremant de Bourgogne, garnering themselves a following. Gregory Georger, the next generation, who's last name is not Parigot "because the family kept having girls," led us through a comprehensive tour and tasting of their bubblies. He explained that while it would be legal for them to use multiple vintages in their non-millesime cremant, they don’t - because they are simply making each vintage as it comes. I have tasted the 05 and 06 rose in bottle and I agree with Gregory that the 05 has a little more depth and structure, at this stage.
Cremant goes through exactly the same process as Champagne, but the grapes come from Burgundy. I find the salmon-hued rose to be citrusy, apply and delicate - not almondy in any respect, since they use no oak, but with a depth of Burgundian Pinot Noir that you don't find in Champagne. The pinot gets pressed like a white wine, which produces white juice and is aged separately from the second pressing of red juice. Everything is blended around Christmas following the vintage, with a special expertise into which we delved as Gregory led us through his caves. Their grapes are grown half in their vineyards and half by growers, which he says offers some favorable diversity in the flavor, yields far below the norm even in Champagne. 25 vats representing their individual parcels are vinified separately - and in order to understand the final result of a particular blend one needs at least ten years experience, and so here the Parigot generations converge.
Aged in bottle for 18 to 30 months so that the lees contact (which is later removed by the Champagne method) ‘nourishes’ and thereby deepens character and aromas in the wine. Every morning his team of 4 hand riddle the bottles - their morning exercise.12% alcohol, never overripe. Has the true taste of Burgundy, a minerally dryness with apple compote.
There’s not much coming to the US – most goes to Japan, so first come, first served.
Parigot Cremant de Bourgogne (from the 05 vintage)
$23.50 per bottle
I put some pictures of the tasting on my blog which you can check out at thoreauwinesociety.vox.com
Offer closes Sunday - price does not include applicable tax and delivery.
If you have not set up an account, please reply with your desired amount and I will reply with account set-up info.
If you like this service of being offered awesome wines at excellent prices by people actually in wine country who know what they are talking about, please refer some friends.
Slainte,
Mary
ThoreauWineSociety.com
2003 Ada Nada Barbaresco 'Valeirano' single vineyard, 38 year old vines:
Dear Friends,
The weather's gotten so cold here in Burgundy, I'm actually jealous of my family who are basking in the tropical Boston sunshine. Basking indeed, because they ain't working, which is why my newsletter has been getting rare. While I'm celebrating what will be the end of the 'bling' years, I’m also taking protectionist measures like honing my
hunting and gathering skills. Last weekend I witnessed a lightening up of the old french chauvinists - a band of hunters actually let me follow them around while they traipsed along in the lovely but frosty Maconnais hills, strategizing how to gets the pheasants to flutter out. You would think the GOP and the French would get along much better.
Speaking of, the other morning while shuffling through the forbidden frozen game drawer, I found, among other wild animals, what appeared to be a deer leg. Springs of rosemary, thyme garlic, shallots, a leftover half drunk bottle of Cote de Nuits and a couple of beers later, I sat pretty while my sweet bambi cooked low and slow. 8 hours later, I deglazed my cocotte and pulled out some perfectly fitting Piedmontese Nebbiolos (sometimes we tire of the Chambertin).
I used to sell this particular Barbaresco for double the price when I was a retailer. 100% Nebbiolo, (the Italian answer to Burgundy), handmade by Giovani and Gian Carlo Nada, a father and son team, along with a gaggle of wives and daughters that would melt your heart, who work with low yields (28 hl per hectare). No chemicals, not acidified, no hangover, no bling. Elegantly ripe and sweet delicious dark cherry, earthy, rustic bit refined, structured but quite silky. Brought up in small oak casks for almost two years, racked and unfiltered. You can drink this or cellar for 20 years. This is a 2003 with true balance.
Back in Brooklyn, I recently attended a wine-serioso byob party at the legendary Tommasso's. Dragging along my dear-old-dad who was quite shocked by the 50 or so wines that went whizzing through our glasses while Tommasso and his lovely redheaded wife belted out some kind of nouveau opera, the evening was dominated by old Gajas and Rinaldis. At one end of the table, I spotted an innocent magnum - within which was this very Barbaresco from Ada Nada that I’m offering today. It was incredibly precise, clean, rich but delicate - not sludgey nor monolithic. Others commented how surprisingly gorgeous it was but no one recognized the producer (which usually marks a good buy).
$27 per bottle – compare at $52
Offer closes Sunday.
No minimum. Last of its kind, so order accordingly.
Sitting in a cool and damp cellar in New York - ready to go
immediately.(Need wine for Thanksgiving?).
If you have not set up an account, please reply with your desired amount and I will reply with account setup info.
If you like this service (being offered awesome wines at excellent prices by people actually in wine country who know what they are talking about) please refer some friends.
Slainte,
mary
Mary Taylor
ThoreauWineSociety.com
Dear Friends,
My first few days back in Burgundy, the electricity of New York slowly dissipating, I headed out with a group of harvesters to pick a young vines Beaune vineyard, meaning the fruit was between ankle and knee height - absolutely back breaking work considering the bowed shape of the hillside. At the 10 am break our melange of locals and foreign interns shared casse-croute, coffee, Corton Charlemagne, croissants on a make shift table. I had just returned from a 5 week sojourn in New York, where I found myself walk/running up 6th avenue, rushing from one thing to the other, Venti Starbucks and New York Times in hand, schedule packed, rightfully obsessed with the crisis and the election. These things are not far away from that vineyard picture - the existence of the artisan depends on the American consumer (you can remember that the next time you cross paths with a sententious winemaker). While our lives move in a particular velocity - there remains, as in these vineyards, traditions that carry on - the antithesis of the use of machines designed to shake the death out of vines; grapes trucked to a facility and pressed by colossal steel monoliths, resulting in a cheap commercial product. Pardon the cliche, but life is just too short for bad wine.
With a trunkload of antiques, this morning, I drove through St-Romain, one of the most beautiful villages in memory. If I may quote a friend’s letter, 'The colors were almost silly in their extravagance.' A quilt of blazing autumn belay the terroir - that being of the high altitude stony calcareous variety, producing Chardonnays of conspicuous minerality and depth, depending on the grower, the positioning on the slope, and of course, the vintage. If chosen correctly, St. Romain can be an especially auspicious source for every-day white Burgundy.
D'Allaines, the tiny negotiant, makes a profusely mineral, mid-slope example – I was at a typically packed tasting at Cru in New York, and I elbowed in to taste these eidetic wines, a grower in whom I’ve been interested for particularly loveliness, a certain elegance and delineation. His St. Romain is Chardonnay neither voluptuous nor deft of richness, ripened fully but with the austerity of the 2006 vintage. Francois, who buys grapes from names such as de Montille, requires a minimum vine-age of 30 years, the wine is NOT made chiefly by the accomplished Jean Yves Devevey - my mistake, bad information. With its appley-precise white Burgundyness, it stood out over many other whites in the room, I wrote ‘delicious’ for the second time. It was, coincidentally, served by a cultivated palate (not to reduce my friend to his tongue) just a night later.
For those of you that require scriptural reinforcement, this wine was described as 'luxurious' in Food and Wine’s "Standouts" in the July issue.
Francois d’Allaines Saint Romain 2006 $26.65
Show me a better price, I will match it. The wine is available within the next 5-7 days. There is a 3 bottle minimum. Applicable tax and shipping not included.
How to Order: Respond to this email with desired amounts.
We are antiquarian paypalless folk, and will call you to set up an account if none exists – please include your phone and shipping address so we can calculate shipping costs.
A note to frequent customers: Our biggest challenge has been getting the wine from retailer to customer (some retailers are very back-logged with orders and ours are on the back-burner).
However, it looks like we have found a brilliant solution – so thank you for bearing through some growing pains and we will do whatever we can to get the wines from France, through the wonderful world of customs and individual state requirements, to your door, for the lowest price we can find. Going forward (starting with this offer) this will be expedited more swiftly. If anyone is still waiting on their wines, please reply and I will follow up with you.
Slainte,
Mary Taylor
ThoreauWineSociety.com
Chers Amis,
To shed some light on a father and son team who have spent the last 70 years toiling the earth and ending each day with good food and wine. Why can’t we extend the same luxury to ourselves? Thoreau famously wrote that most men lead lives of quiet desperation, but seemingly not so much here in France where I’ve fallen into the pace (peace) of life, which means that work is secondary to life, and yes, I'm broke.
Paul Jacqueson Rully 1er Cru Pucelles 06 is in keeping with the TWS theme of grace and not a 'putassier' wine, which would be rude to translate. We had a bottle of this demure loveliness at Bissoh, my favorite Beaune restaurant, with sushi and a gang of les Francaises who only eat their legumes from the garden and prefer very precise aromatics, minerality and detail - here the unique quality lays within its burst of white flowers and subtle fondue, length, and charm, a light kiss of oak - I would think it was a Ramonet Boudriottes if tasted blind.
For those out there that don’t need to be schooled, I shouldn’t have to mention that Jacqueson is of the finest estates in the Cote Chalonnaise, having established this reputation early on with insistence on hand harvesting and natural vinification. Uncle Clive says they are the best source for White Burgundy in the lower Cote.
From the Burghound:
Moderate wood frames notes of acacia blossom and citrus hints that can also be found on the detailed and vibrant medium weight flavors that are delicious, round and complex, culminating in a linear, mineral-infused finish that delivers excellent length. I very much like the balance here. 89-91 points
I have access to 6 cases only. 6 bottle Max. First Come, First Served.
$36.95 per bottle
(Not including applicable tax and shipping).
Please reply with desired amounts. If you have not yet set up an account, please email me shipping or delivery address, phone number, your favorite ice cream flavor, and I will skype you for billing info.
PS: A dear friend, and 5 other Americans have just been detained in Beijing for taking photos and such of the Tibetan conflict. Please spread awareness - http://freemikeliss.com/
Slainte,
Mary
Dearest Readers,
I imagine most of you are on some extravagant vacation and care little to hear about the business of wine at this moment, but for the diligent ones who want to ensure their fall meals are amply enriched by perplexing aromas, tune in.
I’ve just finished my studies in Tours and will be making my way back to Burgundy where my heart resides, so let's get back there so I can tell you about an understated godsend with the capacity for brilliance. I was just reading some of Clive's latest book (and website: clive-coates.com) on the subject of Marsannay - the most northern commune of the Cote de Nuits, where there is an ocean of decent' wine made (some less so) and just 3 excellent producers – those who take the time and expense to hand harvest, and otherwise work naturally, thereby letting Marsannay truly communicate its fortitude and prettiness. Being a man of precision and true gentleness, giving patience and passion to his métier, Sylvain who went through the Dijon School and worked as a consulting oenologist until building up this excellent domaine, is highly respected by the more talented of his contemporaries.
Sylvain Pataille Marsannay Clos du Roy 05 :
A 3-acre lieu-dit, planted in 1970 on hilly Bathonian limestone (thanks, Clive), I barrel-tasted the 05 at the Domaine in 2006 - but discovered (to my chagrin) that it was completely sold out, until today when a teeny amount has made itself available. Some new oak and stems - elegant, authentic, pure, juicy, fresh pinot noir, whose terroir expresses a touch of roasted strawberry and dark cherry, completed with that Burgundian perfume. Fine tannins, fully graceful. Those that really know and love Burgundy, know this wine. Drink now through 2015.
$42 per bottle - Compare at $125 at the restaurant because there is none to be found in wine shops.
Offer ends Sat the 2nd (tomorrow!)..
Wine should be in by the end of the following week.
Gratefully,
Mary
PS: Am off to Ireland for a few days and will have a spotty internet
connection, so please forgive me if it takes a bit of time to respond.
