Vinsobres with a bit more

Famille Jaume is an excellent producer in Vinaobres with a wide portfolio. Shopping our local Pa store today I found Domaine Courtois 2009 by Jaume. Like all of the Jaume wines, this is well made and has a true sense of place. It is an excellent small production cuvée at a superb price.

The parcel is small, 10 acres, and with low yields.

The wine is a dark and bright ruby; it is translucent. The nose gives intense red fruit aromas with a hint of resinous herbs and the beginnings of smoked meat. The finish is well balanced with a nice blend of acid, alcohol, tannin and fruit. As the wine opens the smokiness increases, the tannin softens, and the fruit persists.

This is 60% Grenache and the rest Syrah. It is a great blend. 2009 was a great year in the southern Rhone and this wine shows the quality of the year.

This is a great wine at an exceptional price in Pa stores. It should show well for at least 3 to 6 years, maybe longer.

Petit Chablis

The meal last night called for minerality and acidity, or a delicate red wine. I went with 3 options- a wonderful Sancerre, a red cotes du Beaune, and a young Petit Chablis (2010). For me the winner as a pairing for the meal was the Petit Chablis from Domaine d' Elise.

The wine is a clear light straw color. On the nose it has incredible fruit with green apples and citrus, but a sense of secondary aromas of sur lees aging as well. The mouth shows wonderful minerality and honed acidity. The acidity lingers on the palate. In sum I liked this wine and will find more. It is young and seems to have structure to age a bit.

The producer, Domaine d' Elise, has a single 13 hectare plot which abutts the Chablis Premier Cru of Cote de Lechet. From the terroirist perspective it does have credibility. It is tank fermented and aged.

I tasted the remains of this bottle this morning as a follow up and nothing was lost- still apples, citrus, lees, vibrant acidity and striking minerality. It is more Chablis than Petit Chablis.

Beyond words

So this one is outside the blog's price point, but it was excellent and provides a reference point for comparison for the wines posted.

A bit of the Loire

These three give a nice expression of their region and years.

annual caymus dinner

every year this weekend corresponds with when i get my "new caymus." this year it was, of course, 2009. we tasted it blind with two other wines- caymus 2006 and la fleur de haut-bages liberal 2000 (pauillac). the 2009 was first, the 2000 last. the idea was to show the stylistic differences in old and new world cabernet based wine.

the 2009 caymus was dark, fruity, and balanced. the tannins were quite soft and in spite of its alcohol level it had no "burn" to it on the finish. it is quite drinkable now.

the 2006 caymus was uniformly dark, the nose was more complex than its younger sibling's, there were hints of tertiary flavors, the tannins were soft, and it was balanced.

the 2000 pauillac made its point. the wine has not lost any color. the nose is quite complex, with fruits, leather, and cedar. it is well balanced, but the tannins continue to need to soften. this wine has years to last in the cellar- it was great with food but it will continue to improve with age. i am not even going to try the first wine of haut-bages liberal (2000) for a couple of more years since the second one is still youthful.

just for comparison's sake, i put in a ledson 2002 russian river valley reserve zinfandel. nice contrast.

sun dried tomato tapenade
cheeses from the pyrenees and savoie
seared ahi tuna
onion tart
grilled beef tenderloin
grilled squash with onions stewed in tomatoes
tomato, basal, and mozzarella
strawberry and blueberry tart

and the closer is pictured above...

vacqueyras rose

Sols : calcaire, argilo-sableux

Cépages : Grenache 70%, Cinsault 30%

Age moyen des vignes : 35 ans

Rendement : 36 hl / ha

Production annuelle moyenne : 7 000 bouteilles

Vinification : Vendange manuelle avec tri sur table. Assemblage de rosé de saignée et de rosé de pressurage direct. Elevage sur lies fines 6 mois en cuves.

Accords mets et vins et conseils de dégustation : A déguster avec modération dans l'année. Sera l'accompagnement idéal des repas d'été ( apéritif, salades, grillades…) et la cuisine orientale ( tajines )

c'est tres bien. pour ce soir, c'est l'aperitif avec les formages...

no posts for a while, sorry about that

sorry, i have been a bit reluctant to post lately because of an excessive level of political correctness. i am on vacation, so it is "safe" to put one up. there have been a plethora of great wines over the last few months; i hope over the next week to hit at least several of them.

first, here is a great tasting i put together to emphasize that california whether they get it or not is actually starting to express terroir. clare luce abbey 2006, gott 6 2006, j lohr carol's vineyard 2006, and caymus 2006. yes, this was all about cab. the flight expressed the soils and "climat" of napa, everything from the hot valley floor with alluvial soil to the cooler hillsides. aside from the caymus, the other 3 are under the $25 dollar price point. clare luce abbey was sold after the 2006 vintage, i addressed this in a previous post. if you want to play wine games and learn a bit about soils, this is nice grouping and it is entirely reasonable to replace the cla and caymus with other wines, just focus on valley floor, hillside, and how far up the napa valley the source is located.

at the moment, i am sipping a 2010 tavel domaine des carteresses. this appears to be a private producer who vinifies at the tavel commune winery. i have tried several bottles of this and there seems to be some bottle variability. that said, this is a nice tavel from a great year. i would recommend it. courtesy of guillaume at chateau trinquevedel i had the opprotunity to taste 2010 from the tank in january and taste the grapes in the vineyard in september. my impression is that 2010 tavel will absolutely be the "greatest pink you will ever drink." i am looking forward to my september trip and hope to do a massive tasting of 2010: look for trinquevedel and the other top producers to shine in this vintage.

now to the purpose of this post, a celebration for jill's taking the cfa level 3 exam today. i have ruminated over the wines for tonight for weeks; jill has had indigestion over the arbitrary level 3 test for months. as i write, she is half finished with the afternoon session.

dinner tonight is at spring mill cafe in conshohocken- google it and check out the menu. this is our go to french option and it NEVER fails. i have gone to spring mill since it opened, it only gets better and i highly recommend it. never have i had a less than exceptional meal there.

ok, so i have put a long lead out into the wines for tonight. i have opted to go with some old stuff. when we get home (i will pick her up) we open iron horse 2007 wedding cuve; this is a really nice california sparkling wine which seems to have a good potential to age over the short term. for dinner we will have a 1990 dom perignon followed by a 1998 reserve chateau st michel chateauneuf du pape which i brought back from our january trip. the 1998 vintage in cdp, in my eyes, was a turning point in style for cdp. the year was hot and the grapes were optimally ripe. stylistically, i think this is when the "modern" cdp's really began. the st michel is a nice intermediate between a totally modern wine and the traditional style, and based upon what "madame" at st michel has taught us it should be wonderful (for the cdp, always age at least 12 years). the option was 2005 chateau pignan, the second wine of chateau rayas, which i viewed as infanticide.

so, that is it. in the cellar is a great tasting (done) of provencal rose which i will post. also coming is a neat mix of sauvignon blanc tastings: the funk in this is the concept of pyrazines which give that nasty or maybe unique hint of green pepper. look at rambling california sauv blanc, benzinger duel canopy management, a stony sancerre, and a new zealand sauv blanc. maybe pyrazines are not always a fault (we did a cab tasting where the most novice of the group sniffed and said, "green peppers and i hate them," it was from chile and a wonderful pick up).

no pictures today, sorry. look for the wines and the pairings. i will post the old wines from tonight (no, not doing the ancient krug this evening).