Mâcon-Villages Quintaine 2006 – Pierrette et Marc Guillemot Michel – Alc.14% - (€13,90)
I was hugely impressed when I met this wine at a tasting presented by Roger Michel, one of Belgium’s best wine pickers, in October last year and here is the gist of what I wrote then.
This wine was something very special from this lowly appellation; rich and round with gently delicious acidity, complex aromatic notes including acacia honey and minerals and a caressing mouth-feel, which lead one lady customer to complain of its being too sweet in spite of a near absence of RS; it is certainly a wine which calls for a richly sauced fish or chicken dish and Roger Michel says that it needs decanting due to its “élevage” in tank. I look forward to confirming this wine’s quality with appropriate food; first impression 17/20.
Well, last night Germaine produced a rich dish of sea bass lying on a bed of fennel soaked in Ricard and topped by Parmesan gratings. So I brought up one of these.
My first observation is that the lady who complained about sweetness had a point; apart from botrytised bottles from Thévenet, I have never met such a sweet wine from the Mâconnais; indeed, I would describe it as “demi-sec” or at least Indice 3 on the Zind-Humbrecht scale. Roger Michel’s remark on the “near absence of RS” really puzzles me.
I found that there was now a candied undertow which tended to dominate the other facets, particularly the minerality, rendering the balance less perfect than I remembered; so the wine seemed even richer but still had just enough freshness to avoid cloying. I had neglected to decant, as Roger Michel had recommended, and that may have played a part in muting some aromas and fruit, thus disturbing the balance. That is not to say that the wine was not highly enjoyable or a poor pairing but it was not celestial; 16/20.