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Loire Trip I/IV

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Oswaldo Costa

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Loire Trip I/IV

by Oswaldo Costa » Thu Oct 28, 2010 9:13 am

Ladies, gentlemen, and lurkers, welcome to the greatest show on earth. Inside this giant tent you will find the vinous equivalents of bearded ladies, dwarves, and giants, muscular acrobats and beautiful tight-rope jumpers, their tales augmented by vignettes and sidebars containing truisms and hearsay.

Perhaps I embroider, but much of interest came to pass during a recent, two-week visit to a score of natural wine luminaries from the Loire, the epicenter of the natural wine movement. The sum of what feeble memory serves and a trusty wine-stained notebook contains will be imparted for your vicarious pleasure, serialized in four easy installments.

Loire Part 1: Quick to Angers
Monday, October 11
Flying into Charles de Gaulle at the crack of noon we picked up our rental with, for the first time ever, a GPS. Marcia, whose job it is to navigate, had long pined for one, but it had eluded us since the pining began, for reasons that also eluded us. To break the ice, we chose Portuguese as the language of guidance, but since Brazilian Portuguese was not an option, the gizmo greeted us with the accent of our foremothers. So we named her Amália, in honor of the immortal Fado chantress Amália Rodrigues, and set off for Angers. The three hour drive was uneventful, but it was only after Amália sent us the wrong-way down the Hotel du Mail’s street that we managed to maneuver into the driveway and check into the charming ancient premises, decorated in a distastefully tacky modern manner. The staff was attentive, but our second story room was no better than adequate, and the lack of an elevator combined poorly with our heavy suitcases.

Dinner at Le Salamandre
Don’t ever arrive in France on a Sunday or Monday. Most of the better restaurants are closed, so we slunk over to the only “recommended” one that was open. Le Salamandre appears in a few guides, but served disappointing food made from good ingredients. The wine list was weak, but a fair percentage was available as halves. Since no halves remained of the Epiré Savennières, we ordered a Closel La Jalousie which was premoxed (at least I got no typicity argument once the waiter tasted it), so had to content ourselves with our third choice:
2006 Dom. de Baumard Clos Saint Yves 13.0% 375ml
Screw cap; jasmine, fennel, wet stones; dilute, caramel sweetness, needs more acidity.
2005 Chateau de la Grille Chinon 14.5% 375ml
Sour cherry, leather, eucalyptus; good balance, good weight. Nice surprise.

Tuesday, October 12
A Rolling Stone Gathers no Mosse
We kicked off on the right foot with a morning visit to René Mosse, friendly and in good spirits. From behind a bar-shaped stand he chatted and poured, and it all felt like the ideal store tasting, one in which you have the producer to yourself for almost two hours. No sign of Agnès. While we were there, one of the winery’s employees came in to announce that the last harvest (Savennières) was finished. Sighing, René said that 2010 had not turned out so good (something I would not hear from anybody else); too much rain, too many grapes bloated and/or rotten.

Mosse uses zero or low SO2, but filters, finding the latter a lesser evil as refermentation insurance (something I would hear from several vignerons in the coming days). We talked about why wines close down: Mosse thinks it’s the result of excessive SO2; you don’t notice it at first because the fruit is still very present, but then the wine shuts down, and stays closed until the SO2 starts to fade many years later (this dissipation is controversial; some sans soufre practitioners I spoke to think it never happens).

While tasting the whites, I remarked how they all had fennel notes; Mosse said that was the “mark of the vintage.” The two Anjou crus were just outstanding, certainly among the most impressive young whites I have ever tasted. Comparing the Rouchefer to the Bonnes Blanches, Mosse said the former was rounder, like a “tube,” whereas the latter was pointed, like a sharp tip.

2009 Anjou Blanc
Young vines (<10y); mineral, lemon, fennel; good density, balanced; ideal entry-level.
2009 La Rouchefer Anjou Blanc
40y vines; like preceding, with everything heightened; utterly delicious.
2009 Savennières Arena (sand)
3rd vintage; mineral, white flowers; sweeter, very lively; waxy.
2009 Les Bonnes Blanches Anjou Blanc
Fennel, mineral; attractive, nervy, excellent balance; “best terroir in St Lambert du Lathay”
2009 IBB (Bonnes Blanches) Anjou Blanc
From oldest BB vines; awesome aromatics, rich, heady, complex; sensational.
2004 La Rouchefer Anjou Blanc
Oxidative, jasmine, fennel, persimmon, pine resin. Unctuous, sweeter.
2009 Anjou Rouge
60% Cabernet Sauvignon/40% Cabernet Franc; cherry, cassis, cab franc leather; mouth-puckering tannins & acidity, needs time to come into balance.
2006 Anjou Rouge
Cherry, leather; harsh tannins, light CO2, yeasty aftertaste.
2009 Rosé Moelleux 11%
CS, CF, Gamay & Grolleau; “white wine made from red grapes” strawberry, herbs, chalk, honey; 80g rs, nice, but a touch too sweet.
2007 Coteaux-du-Layon Champ Boucault 10.5%
50% botrytis, 50% passerilage; pale tawny; oxidative hazelnuts, honey, dried figs; oxidativeness diminishes as we chat; lovely texture; but more sweet than acid;

The Joly Green Giants
That afternoon we went on a long-awaited pilgrimage to Coulée de Serrant, where I had made an appointment with Virginie Joly. She was out in the vineyard, picking, and told us by phone to meet her there. Virginie and a few others were walking up and down the rows of vines, picking bunches and placing them in large plastic vats strapped to their backs. Once full, the contents were poured into baskets. Virginie greeted us warmly but was way too busy to dally, so we only exchanged a few words. 2010 was turning out to be an ideal crop, she said, beaming, surrounded by dogs panting for a game of catch.
004CdSVirginie.jpg

As we stood there, gaping at the wonder of it all, but not offering to help, a man emerged from one of the rows, his container full. As he disgorged the grapes, I noticed it was none other than Nicolas Joly, working as hard as everyone else. He took time out to chat very agreeably with us, not omitting a wee bit of soapbox, despite hints that we were somewhat on the same side. When Joly flicked a ladybug off my shoulder, I noticed that all the grape bunches were crawling with the cuties; maybe they are a more common “ingredient” than we fear.
005CdSGrapes.jpg

The deposited grapes seemed to me chromatically bipolar, some quite green, some quite brown, so Joly had us taste them. The former were refreshingly acidic, the latter deliciously ripe; at that moment you could hear the penny drop with a thud upon the soft, loamy earth of my consciousness.

Fiat Lux moment #1: being a city slicker, I used to think individual vinifera bunches matured homogeneously, like their GMO supermarket cousins; growers would pick when most bunches reached the desired state, removing outliers at the sorting table. In the presence of such unevenly mature grapes, the process appeared closer to shooting for an average maturity for the overall vineyard, a point at which many grapes will still be under ripe, providing extra acidity, while some might be over ripe, providing extra sweetness.


I offered to chaperone Joly when he comes down to São Paulo in November for a biodynamic wine fair, and we exchanged coordinates (a week ago he suffered a minor stroke and is sending Virginie instead). Going back to the grunt work, he suggested we take a walk around the property, during which we saw indices of biodynamic practice. Everywhere the leaves were changing color, after another year of distinguished service. While we basked in nature’s idyllic embrace, the Jolys moved on to a different vineyard, and we lost them. Driving back to the chateau, we tasted two wines laid out for visitors.

2008 Savennières Le Vieux Clos 14.5%
White flowers, fennel, straw; good balance, attractive acidity, light sweetness, equally attractive.
2008 Savennières Clos du Coulée de Serrant 14.5%
Closed, but what little aroma there is seems alluring and mysterious; no hint of oxidativeness, spicy, light-footed, perfectly balanced, but not suggesting complexity at this point.

Later, we heard suggestions that Joly is more enthusiastic about biodynamics than wine, but I’ve enjoyed all the half dozen or so Coulée de Serrants that I’ve tasted (all from the last decade). I never got to ask Virginie about changes under her newly acquired winemaking duties, but came away with an intuition that, by temperament, she will pay close attention to the wines.

That evening, dinner was at Le Cercle Rouge, the natural wine bar in Angers.
010CercleRouge.jpg

We shared plates of cheese and charcuterie, accompanied by a variety of hipster wines by the glass, two whites, three reds and three stickies. Overall, the experience felt unfocused; variety does not favor meditation, and keeps you skipping like a pebble on the surface.

2008 Geneviève Delatte and Nicolas Bertin La Flibuste au Naturel VdT 12.0%
White flowers and straw; very fresh, with tart acidity; good initial attack but drops off quickly.
2008 Christian Chaussard Patapon Coteaux-du-Loir
Smoke, white flower and honey; good weight and balance, slightly toasted sweetness; richer.
2006 Domaine Pascal Potaire Les Capriades VdT
Gamay from the Chèr valley. Fruity, leathery, a bit bretty. CO2 spritz, fresh but yeasty.
2007 Nadège and Laurent Herbel Sylvestre VdT 12.0%
Cab Franc. Lard; light CO2 spritz, light body, balanced, lovely.
2008 Hervé Villemade Les Argilles Cheverny Rouge AOC
Pinot Noir and Gamay. Smells like pot and leather. CO2, good balance, nice acidity and medium tannins.
2006 Béatrice and Michel Augé Poussière de Lune
Demi-sec, sans soufre. Oxidative almonds, peaches, white flowers and fennel. CO2, not too sweet, good texture.
2007 Domaine des Sablonettes (Christine and Joel Ménard) Coteaux-du-Layon Fleur d’Erables 11.5%
Chenin Blanc. Smells closed, with some apricot. Lovely texture and sweetness, balanced, harmonious.
2009 Domaine le Mirabeau Le Carmier
Open three days, but smells closed; more sweet than acid. Not impressed.

Wednesday, October 13
Le Roi est Vif
The second morning saw us in the picturesque village of Rablay-du-Layon, where the visit to Richard Leroy, perhaps the smallest winery on our agenda, would turn out to be among the most memorable. Responding to our questions and comments with enthusiasm and thoughtfulness, Leroy drove us to the Montbenault vineyard, where he repeatedly emphasized dedication to fieldwork, since his approach to cellar work is entirely non-interventionist. He said that, at first, he tried to be equally non-interventionist in the field, but mildew taught him the hard way that a bit of treatment is sometimes necessary. Like Mosse, he sees filtering as the lesser evil compared to SO2.

Having come to the region in the late 1990s to make sweet chenins, Leroy has become increasingly biased towards dry, in part because the sweeter a wine, the more incompatible it becomes with practices like zero sulfur. He picks based on a potential alcohol so that he can vinify dry enough to avoid SO2. Consistent with that, no botrytized grapes are used (Montbenault is at the top of a hill, and the wind keeps the grapes healthy and clear), among other reasons because they mask terroir (“you work your whole life so that the terroir can express itself”). A problem with purchasing used barrels from cooperage houses is that the grains and pores contain residues of others’ practices, including tartaric acid (from acidulation) and sulfur.

Back at the house, we met Leroy’s youngest child; when I asked Leroy how old he was, he replied “1998.” We were shown the small adjoining garage which was, in effect, the winery until August of this year, when Leroy acquired a larger property two doors down. At the new winery (which Leroy kept referring to, with a smile, as his “royaume”) we tasted several barrel samples from the freshly pressed 2010 Rouliers and Montbenault, too young to show anything but lovely fruit and promise.

After crushing the grapes (using a neighbor’s pneumatic press), the juice goes straight into barrels and is left there to undergo “everything” (alcoholic, malolactic, and élevage), at its own pace, for twelve months. It is this philosophy of non-intervention that requires so much work in the fields. For every vintage to date, after these twelve months the wine has had to be bottled, simply to make way for the new vintage. Now that there’s room for additional barrels, Leroy doesn’t know how long he will leave the 2010s in barrel. Candor playing everywhere. Questioned about the taste of oak, he suggested the wines need a few years to absorb it. He can’t explain why the oak is quite so perceptible, since the percentage of new barrels is minimal, and he only uses wood for the wine to breathe. Questioned about the oxidative flavors, he said they dissipate with aeration (“leave an oxidized wine in the sun, and it will turn brown, but leave an oxidative wine in the same situation, and it will clear up and last several days”).

After the barrel samples, Leroy opened five bottles of his two crus:
2009 Anjou Le Clos de Rouliers
Just bottled; aromatically closed; tastes like very fine fruit, more acid than sweet, showing a bit too much wood.
2009 Anjou Les Noëls de Montbenault
Very similar.
2008 Anjou Les Noëls de Montbenault
Oxidative nose, rich and balanced mouth feel.
2007 Anjou Les Noëls de Montbenault
Oxidative nose, with herbs and apricot. Great density, almost chewy, less oak flavor.
2005 Anjou Les Noëls de Montbenault
Straw, honeysuckle, jasmine, peach. Chewy, and lovely, despite some residual yeast flavor.

These wines need time and decanting, but the beauty of their fruit seemed compelling. As was Leroy’s enthusiasm and evangelism for natural wine. We came away deeply impressed with the integrity of his project and his detachment from commercial concerns, but also disappointed that temporary oxidative and oak flavors had interfered with our perception of the wines’ true colors.

Earlier in the (last) decade, the Loire wineries I was most familiar with were Baumard and Closel, so initially I wanted to visit both. I decided to skip Baumard after reports of increasing modernity were confirmed, a month before the trip, by a deplorably treacly 2005 Quarts de Chaume, and Jim Budd’s recent reporting on the cryoextraction issue made me glad I didn’t insist.

Thoroughly Modern Millie
Evelyne de Jessey was away, but we enjoyed the “self-guided” tour of the grounds and chateau, chaperoned by Millie, the Jessey’s black lab.
009CloselMillie.jpg

When we returned, Michele de Jessey, the clan’s matriarch, dotingly took us through the line up, reds first (she considers the whites too overwhelming to be served first).

2009 Une Emotion Anjou Rouge AOC 13.0% (open three days)
100% Cab Franc. Muted cherry, chalk and herbs; more acidic than sweet, medium tannins, needs time.
2005 Anjou Rouge Corsé AOC 13.0% (freshly opened)
2/3 Cab Sauvignon, 1/3 Cab Franc. Attractive aromas, cherry, wool, resin; good structure, still very tannic, needs time.
2009 La Jalousie Savennières Blanc Sec AOC (open three days)
From schist, bottled 15 days before. Fennel and white flowers; fruity, balanced, simple and attractive.
2004 Les Caillardières Savennières Blanc Tendre AOC 14.5% (open three days)
From sand and gravel. Oxidative, with jasmine; lush, generous, fruity, intense.
2005 Clos de Papillon Savennières Blanc Sec AOC 14.5% (open four days)
Sees two years of wood. Fennel and white flowers; fresh, structured, balanced.
2006 Clos de Papillon Savennières Blanc Sec AOC 14.0%(freshly opened)
Muted nose, but tastes lively, balanced, with a strong backbone. Attractive.
2003 Clos de Papillon Savennières AOC 13.5% Moelleux (open four days)
A year in which only moelleux was made at Clos du Papillon. Honey and quince marmalade aromas; has some minerality but too sweet for the acidity.

That evening we had dinner at Le Petit Comptoir, a highly touted restaurant in Angers. The food and atmosphere were fine, but the wine list disappointed and we found the overall gestalt a bit too precious. Chastened by the diversity at Le Cercle Rouge, we decided to go with just one wine, but it did not come to the rescue:
2009 Domaine des Sablonnettes (Joel and Christine Ménard) Le Bon Petit Diable VdF 13.0%
Dusky cherry, leather, iodine and cloves; quite acidic, light tannins; spicy, with savory finish; light CO2 pétillance; found it lacking in body, disappointing.

Thursday, October 14
A different aspect seems to stand out at the beginning of every trip, and this time it was the frequent use of the prefix “artisan” before a profession, as in artisan-boulanger, artisan-boucher, artisan-pâtissier, etc. Having checked out of our hotel first thing in the morning, we drove to Pithon-Paillé, Jo Pithon’s new winery, musing about how great it would be if every profession were preceded by the word artisan. While there has to be room for wonder bread and mass production, and, historically, the guild tradition lent itself to abuses and restrictive practices, it seemed as if the world would be a better place if the prevailing mindset were artisan-this and artisan-that. This reflection seemed fitting while visiting Jo Pithon’s reinvention as artisan-négotiant, following the 2007 loss of his domaine to the investor Philip Fournier.

A Pithon in Sheep’s Clothing
Pithon came to the door sheepishly, apparently not expecting us, but pulled himself together by the sideburns and gave us a tour of the recently acquired winery, operated in partnership with his wife’s son, Joseph Paillé. In the tasting room, he genially poured what seemed like his winery’s entire lineup, and an impressive display it was. Pithon talked ruefully about being forced to reinvent himself in his fifties, but seemed to relish the dazzling variety of soils available in Anjou, all of which are now his for the buying.

Pithon says he likes his dry whites very dry and, consistent with that, avoids botrytis in the mix; he will filter rather than use sulfur, though he might use a little bit right after the harvest. He said the whites sometimes just naturally don’t start their malos. I looked puzzled, so he explained that good grapes contains less malic acid, and if there is little enough of it, malos simply don’t happen; less malic also means less lactic, an acid he doesn’t like (“tastes like yogurt”). All dry whites and reds receive between 15 and 20 mg/l of SO2 at bottling. The Mozaïk is available under cork or screw cap; Pithon says two liners are available for the latter; he uses the one with the least exchange. All barriques are Burgundian because “they impart less flavor than Bordelais barrels.”

2008 Anjou Blanc 13.0%
100% chenin (same composition as the 2009 Mozaïk, but the name didn’t exist at the time). No malos. Very aromatic, expressive; white flowers and garrigue; fruity, more acid than sweet, structured, quite austere for an entry level wine.
2009 Anjou Blanc Mozaïk 13.0%
In Anjou, the slate-schist Brittany basin meets the clay-limestone Paris basin, and this wine gets its name from combining chenins from both soils. This underwent malo; smells attractively floral and fresh; balanced and delicious.
2009 Savennières
Bottled in august. Denser aromas, with herbs and white flowers; thicker texture, mineral, yeasty. The weight comes from the greater heat retained by the large boulders resting on the soil.
2009 Anjou La Fresnaye
Muted, white flower aromas; fresh, citric acidity, bitter finish; interesting.
2009 Anjou Bonnes Blanches
Exotic and lovely lemon and floral aromas; balanced, attractive bitterness, perfect.
2009 Coteau des Treilles
From the only property Pithon retained from his former estate. Rich, white flower, garrigue and fennel aromas; dense and mineral; remarkable complexity from such young (<10Y) vines. Pithon says that’s because it’s a superb terroir, and vine age is less important for whites than for reds.
2009 Anjou Mozaïk Rouge
Bottled in July. “The clay-limestone half gives it roundness, the schist half gives it structure.” Smells reduced, with some cherry peeking through. Very dry, but fresh and attractive, with zippy acidity and a gently bitter finish.
2009 Chinon Vieilles Vignes
From 80Y vines planted on clay-limestone, bottled 10 days before. Also reduced, with a hint of cherry underneath. Leafy, with fine tannins and lovely acidity. Delicious.
2009 Bourgueil Graviers
From 20Y vines planted on gravel, bottled 10 days before. Sour cherry, chalk, herbs, mint; more acid than sweet, but lovely fruit.
2009 Bourgueil Coteau
From 50Y vines planted on clay-limestone, bottled 14 days before.. Less expressive nose, but wonderful fruit, elegant, smooth, round. Yeasty aftertaste, should disappear with time.
2009 Coteaux-du-Layon 4 Vents 13.0%
From half ripe and half botrytized grapes. 100g of rs. Smells fresh, with expressive fruit and honey. Delicious. Pithon says that sterile filtration allows him to use only 25 mg/l SO2, otherwise would have to use 100 mg/l.
2009 Coteaux-du-Layon Belargus de Treille 12.0%
100% botrytized. 170g of rs. More expressive nose, with dense peach and apricot. Found this a bit too sweet; Pithon says you have to wait 10 years.
2009 Quarts de Chaume
From vines planted in 1930, only one barrique made. 100% botrytized. 150g of rs. Delicate honey and botrytis aromas. Less cloying than the preceding, very good, potentially great.

As we drove to Chinon, we marveled at the changing microclimates, the rolling hills, the sleepy, almost vacant towns, the neatly trimmed forests lining the bumpy gravel roads favored by Amália. But most of all we marveled at the signs of artisanal cultivation, at comfortable proportions as a species of knowledge, handed down by tradition, like the location of the best terroirs. This delicate countryside is a trove of gastronomic raw materials and it may not survive the unfeeling marketplace. The demand for this level of quality, with its higher price tag, may not be large enough to sustain this culture against competition from the cheap and the generic. Like it or not, whenever we consume, we take a stand. Whenever we drink wine, we also drink its ideology.

Next installment: Taking it on the Chinon
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Last edited by Oswaldo Costa on Thu Oct 28, 2010 9:37 am, edited 1 time in total.
"I went on a rigorous diet that eliminated alcohol, fat and sugar. In two weeks, I lost 14 days." Tim Maia, Brazilian singer-songwriter.
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Re: Loire Trip I/IV

by David M. Bueker » Thu Oct 28, 2010 9:31 am

Thanks for the extensive notes Oswaldo. It's going to take a bit of time to digest them all (skipping over the Sauvignons will speed things up :wink: ).

As for Like it or not, whenever we consume, we take a stand. Whenever we drink wine, we also drink its ideology, I guess I just don't take it quite as seriously as you do, despite my passion for fermented grape juice. I'll leave it at that.
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Oswaldo Costa

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Re: Loire Trip I/IV

by Oswaldo Costa » Thu Oct 28, 2010 9:59 am

David M. Bueker wrote:As for Like it or not, whenever we consume, we take a stand. Whenever we drink wine, we also drink its ideology, I guess I just don't take it quite as seriously as you do, despite my passion for fermented grape juice. I'll leave it at that.


I guess my point is that we (unwittingly) drink ideology regardless of how seriously we take our wine.
"I went on a rigorous diet that eliminated alcohol, fat and sugar. In two weeks, I lost 14 days." Tim Maia, Brazilian singer-songwriter.
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Re: Loire Trip I/IV

by David M. Bueker » Thu Oct 28, 2010 10:14 am

Oswaldo Costa wrote:
David M. Bueker wrote:As for Like it or not, whenever we consume, we take a stand. Whenever we drink wine, we also drink its ideology, I guess I just don't take it quite as seriously as you do, despite my passion for fermented grape juice. I'll leave it at that.


I guess my point is that we (unwittingly) drink ideology regardless of how seriously we take our wine.


If a tree falls in the forest and all that.
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Re: Loire Trip I/IV

by John S » Thu Oct 28, 2010 4:16 pm

Great notes, looking forward to the next installment.

BTW, I agree with your idea that we inevitably do more than drink wine when we drink wine: we support or reject various ideologies as well as different people and families. The same goes for all decisions we make on consuming various goods and services, not just wine.
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Re: Loire Trip I/IV

by David M. Bueker » Thu Oct 28, 2010 5:54 pm

Maybe it's the concussion, but right now I just want to be able to eat food and drink wine. I don't give a hoot about agendas, ideologies, natural this, organic that, biodynamic the other thing or any of that pseudo-political crap. If it tastes good feed it to me. Hopefully in another week I will be able to taste it.

Sorry to be strident, but it's where I am right now. If Monsanto could bio-engineer a wine that could cut through the fog in my head I would buy it by the pallet.
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Re: Loire Trip I/IV

by R Cabrera » Thu Oct 28, 2010 10:18 pm

Great report Oswaldo. Thanks and looking forward to the next installments.
Here's Millie back in August.

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Re: Loire Trip I/IV

by Bob Parsons Alberta » Thu Oct 28, 2010 10:31 pm

Great start, all Loire-heads will be paying attention for next installment!
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Re: Loire Trip I/IV

by Michael K » Thu Oct 28, 2010 11:36 pm

Great notes and picts as always!
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Re: Loire Trip I/IV

by CMMiller » Thu Oct 28, 2010 11:49 pm

Really enjoyable reporting. How about a few more details of what you ate?
Oswaldo Costa wrote: Mosse uses zero or low SO2, but filters, finding the latter a lesser evil as refermentation insurance (something I would hear from several vignerons in the coming days). We talked about why wines close down: Mosse thinks it’s the result of excessive SO2; you don’t notice it at first because the fruit is still very present, but then the wine shuts down, and stays closed until the SO2 starts to fade many years later (this dissipation is controversial; some sans soufre practitioners I spoke to think it never happens).

Frankly, this puzzles me. When I worked at a winery, we did controlled tastings of unfiltered vs. tightly filtered wines. The filtered wines tended to be harsher, less complex and dryer in a papery sort of way in their youth. The effect mostly, but perhaps not entirely, wore off after a few years in the bottle. Nonetheless, the conclusion was that it was better to go unfiltered unless there some some compelling reason (RS, major brett infection) to do otherwise.There was a general goal to reduce SO2 as long as it didn't risk an unstable wine, but none of the winemakers (who played around with SO2 levels all the time) ever expressed the notion that no SO2 or extremely low SO2 wines tasted better than modest levels of SO2 that they had achieved, certainly not better enough to be worth the risk of spoilage. When it comes to wines with RS, or non-malo, those wines need a very tight filtration to be stable, no? Seems to me it would be better to have a few more ppm of SO2 than a sterile filtration, but I understand I'm indulging in armchair winemaking.

The SO2 shut-down theory seems quite plausible to me, although only in high doses. I remember when someone overdosed a couple of barrels of Chardonnay with SO2 one vintage. This lot was kept around out of curiosity. Undrinkable initially, it remained utterly closed for several years, then eventually emerged as a rather decent wine. Kind of reminds me of Prum Rieslings, actually.

When Joly flicked a ladybug off my shoulder, I noticed that all the grape bunches were crawling with the cuties; maybe they are a more common “ingredient” than we fear.

I hope they're not the same type that has been afflicting Ontario and Northern NY. Those give off a noxiously flavored chemical when crushed.
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Re: Loire Trip I/IV

by Jacques Levy » Fri Oct 29, 2010 11:21 am

Nice notes, and sounds like a wonderful trip. Yannis was looking for you and sent you an email, good thing I can check on your whereabouts here.
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Re: Loire Trip I/IV

by Tim York » Fri Oct 29, 2010 11:29 am

Great notes, Oswaldo. Wish I could have joined you but my son's and granddaughter's visit was great compensation.
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User

Dale Williams

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Compassionate Connoisseur

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11112

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Tue Mar 21, 2006 4:32 pm

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Dobbs Ferry, NY (NYC metro)

Re: Loire Trip I/IV

by Dale Williams » Fri Oct 29, 2010 1:55 pm

great tale (and notes, and pictures -you know I'm a sucker for dogs). Looking forward to next installment
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User

Salil

Rank

Franc de Pied

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2653

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Sun Sep 28, 2008 2:26 pm

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albany, ny

Re: Loire Trip I/IV

by Salil » Mon Nov 01, 2010 6:40 am

Great stories and writeups, Oswaldo. Looking forward to more. And when do we get the update on the status of the Baudry FdP vines?

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