Posted On March 25, 2010 at 9:54 am in Burgundy
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Day three of the Grands Jours de Bourgogne took place at the Palais de Congres in Beaune and featured wines from the Maconnais and the northern Cote de Beaune appellations of Aloxe-Corton, Savigny les Beaune and Haute Cotes de Beaune. The sheer number of wines at events like these forces you to focus on a specific appellation rather than taking a shotgun approach to tasting. By my count there were 424 producers present and each has at a minimum at least three to four wines. Some claim to have the ability to effectively evaluate five hundred or more wines a day. However, for me, after about a hundred wines, especially the more tannic ones, I can discern the high and lows but I find difficult to taste the nuances. Thankfully, organizers set up a vinothèque or sample table featuring one wine from each producer. Here you can freely try wines and then after finding something interesting you go and meet the producer to taste his full range.
The endless table of wines
Posted by Greg Roberts · Tags: Burgundy, cote maconnais, france, Wine · No Comments »
Posted On March 18, 2010 at 3:48 pm in Burgundy
Next week I have the opportunity to participate in giant Burgundy tasting event called Les Grands Jours de Bourgogne. It’s held every other year with 15 different tastings spanning from Chablis in the north to the Cote Chalonnaise in the south. This year they are expecting 1600 journalists, importers, distributors and restaurateurs from 34 countries to take part in the tasting.
Despite having to be away from the office for five days for the event I’ve justified taking part since its an opportunity to taste a lot of Premier and Grand Cru Burgundy, which are not exactly everyday wines in our household. Also, it’s an occasion to taste and compare side by side the different styles of wines from producers in each appellation. Finally, since I’m sitting for the difficult blind tasting section of the Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET, London) Diploma in June, this is exam prep!
A tasting of wines from Clos de Vougeot & Vosne-Romanée takes place at the Chateau
Posted by Greg Roberts · Tags: Burgundy, france, les grand jours, vosne romanee, vougeot, Wine · No Comments »
Posted On March 1, 2010 at 2:26 pm in Languedoc
Small vats at Combe Blanche
I was recently in the Languedoc tasting at two trade shows in Montpellier for organic and bio-dynamic wines, Millissime Bio and La Remise. While in the region I also took a brief detour one hour further south to visit with Guy Vanlancker owner of Domaine Combe Blanche in the village of La Liviniere.
You drive past acres and acres of vineyards on the flat plains of the Minervois AOC where in the hot summer months grapes mercilessly bake in the sun. These vineyards are some of the earliest to be harvested and the wines from here tend to be unstructured and overly fruit-driven.
La Liviniere and the vineyards of Combe Blanche which means small white valley are located hills and valleys at 700 feet altitude. It was unusually cold but sunny so we decided to drive up into the hills to inspect his vineyards and talk shop. Soils are limestone and red clay and many vineyards are north facing. Because they receive less direct sunlight and they therefore have a longer more gradual growing season. All of these factors make for more aromatic, rich and complex wines.
You won’t find state of the art vinification equipment in his cramped but functional cellars. But when you start with healthy grapes taken from some of the best vineyards in the appellation you don’t need much else to make great wine.
"Les Morels" hot, dry and early ripening vineyards, the Coteaux in the background
Posted by Greg Roberts · Tags: French, Languedoc, Minvervois, vanlancker, Wine · No Comments »
