https://www.wines.com/wineboard/ Mon, 04 May 2026 10:54:00 +0000 MyBB https://www.wines.com/wineboard/thread-23446.html Thu, 31 Aug 2017 18:54:23 +0000 Mleonardi03]]> https://www.wines.com/wineboard/thread-23446.html https://www.wines.com/wineboard/thread-23432.html Mon, 19 Jun 2017 14:10:56 +0000 Kryptonic]]> https://www.wines.com/wineboard/thread-23432.html
I will be visiting Napa for the first time in October - not the purpose of my trip to the west coast, but will have ONE DAY to explore Napa (I know, not nearly enough time).

Anyways, with that said, my inclination is tasting full-bodied cabs - I will make my will be in SF the night before my one day in Napa and on the day I'm heading up to Napa I will be picking up my rental at 7am. I am looking to start at 10am and go through wineries until 5. I will have a designated driver (wife isn't much of a wine drinker)

Any and all recommendations on great vineyards for cabs would be appreciated!

Thanks in advance,
K]]>
I will be visiting Napa for the first time in October - not the purpose of my trip to the west coast, but will have ONE DAY to explore Napa (I know, not nearly enough time).

Anyways, with that said, my inclination is tasting full-bodied cabs - I will make my will be in SF the night before my one day in Napa and on the day I'm heading up to Napa I will be picking up my rental at 7am. I am looking to start at 10am and go through wineries until 5. I will have a designated driver (wife isn't much of a wine drinker)

Any and all recommendations on great vineyards for cabs would be appreciated!

Thanks in advance,
K]]> https://www.wines.com/wineboard/thread-23425.html Sat, 06 May 2017 09:10:50 +0000 Md Ahmed khan]]> https://www.wines.com/wineboard/thread-23425.html The site that provides services in Africa or Kenya. and I found a good service provider site. But help with the name of more such services website. Because I will buy many things in online. I got help from this site maybe it can help you ... ( http://maishbz.com )]]> The site that provides services in Africa or Kenya. and I found a good service provider site. But help with the name of more such services website. Because I will buy many things in online. I got help from this site maybe it can help you ... ( http://maishbz.com )]]> https://www.wines.com/wineboard/thread-23316.html Sun, 29 Nov 2015 15:25:18 +0000 Mirehe1]]> https://www.wines.com/wineboard/thread-23316.html Anybody has any idea?]]> Anybody has any idea?]]> https://www.wines.com/wineboard/thread-22998.html Sun, 26 Oct 2014 04:06:11 +0000 TheEngineer]]> https://www.wines.com/wineboard/thread-22998.html
Schedule
Day 1 & 2 Champagne
Day 3 Chablis
Day 4 & 5 Burgundy (Cote' d'Or)
Day 6 & 7 Bordeaux
Day 8 & 9 Cognac and Jarnac
Day 10 Sauternes
Day 11 Bordeaux
Day 12 Boca, Piedmont Italy
Day 13 and 14 Barolo
Day 15 Milan recovery... (new)


Day 1 and 2 Champagne

Sorry for the delay in getting down to business and typing out these notes. I'll fill in a few trip details as well so that there will be some context.

I took a red eye flight out of Boston on Friday night a few weeks ago (the 15th actually) as did three of my other friends and one flew out from CA. We were all landing in different places but converging on the town of Reims. I arrived first and found both my hotel and rental car place immediately across from the train station at Reims. So I dropped off my stuff and went to pick up my European rental....it was a Chevy! All the way across the pond, hoping to pick up some European metal and I get a Chevy....oh well. At least it was a diesel. (Recall I use to work for GM)

I drove around a little and pulled out the GPS that my friends gave me only to find that they had left all settings in Mandarin...which would be useful if I actually spoke mandarin. !$!@$#!#.......... After an hour of fighting it, I figured out how to get it all back to English.

First place I went was Tattinger. I must have been quite the sight, not shaving after landing, just traveled a whole day on trains and planes and automobiles.

I took the English tour and went down into the caves first, alone without any of my friends as they had not arrived yet. Nice! The Tattinger that was the sample was the regular bottling. Interesting in that it tasted very fresh and lighter than I recall from the US. I attributed that to other things until I thought to ask the tour guide if they have different dosages for different countries. She quietly confirmed this and said that the US usually gets the highest dosages, after Asia. Hmmm....I guess I should expect different experiences in each country. In lower dosage form, the champagne was much brighter, crisper and cleaner, very elegant. which do I prefer? Not sure but probably lower dosage since these champagnes are not meant to be aged. For aged Champagnes, I'm not sure I want lower dosage.

I went back to the train station and picked up three of my my friends (one was still enroute). We had a bit of time so we drove to Epernay for a quick look. Cute little town. Back to Reims, I dropped them off at VC for a tour while I went to pick up the last of our tour friend who was arriving at a different trains station as he was coming in from Belgium. His train arrived late and we were going to be late for our first tour. I RACED back (just imagine a minivan with a 5 speed stick burning rubber all the way back into Riems...). We just barely made the tour (due to in no small part that the Chef de Cave arranged for our trip and they did not want to disappoint him). We were quickly ushered back to the group and we caught up to them just before they went into the caves.

The caves at VC are much bigger. very impressive. After the tour, we were lead to a barricaded area where there was nice leather furniture and 20 foot high glass ceilings. The rest of the tour was outside having a regular VC. A person then walked into our room with a bottle of the 2002 Vintage and the 1998 La Grande Dame. We were having a private tasting! This was great. (Thanks much again Chef de Cave whom I met before). We were getting the rock start treatment! The 2002 was fresher than the ones from my memory, much less toast but more elegant again. Super clean but with a good density. The 1998 La Grande Dame, a champagne that I've had on many occasions now, tasted nothing like any of the ones I've had. This thing was straight from the caves downstairs and like the other champagnes, was simply fresher and more vibrant than any I've had. Less nose of brioche, less toast, less mushroomy, less development overall but super fresh and very powerful a pinot based champagne. I noted this to the person serving us and she said that all Champagne bottles are different but in general he agreed with me.

We got to finish off the rest of the 2002 and the LGD in that beautiful room. What a great way to start the trip.

We dragged ourselves out of the space as we had another appointment at Mumms. Mumms also gave a good tour of the facilities and caves before the tasting. the tasting room was not as nice as the others but we got to try the vintage champagnes as well. It's hard to follow LGD so I did not take notes. Suffice to say, it was not up to LDG level but it was serviceable.

We had dinner in the restaurant street of Reims and had a bottle of the Chapoutier st. Josephs.

The next day, we went to Epernay first and visited Moet & Chandon. Probably the best looking guide we had ever met show us around the facilities and then the tasting. The 2002 vintage white and rose were servced. I agree with many that these are probably the most underrated vintage wines around. For the price, they are worth a look. For not much more than a regular NV, these are wonderfully made wines. Perhaps they lack a bit in personality but they are well made.

We raced back to visit Pommery but missed our appointment. So we took an early trip through the Champagne road. Stopped at the cooperative Mailly and tried their champagnes. Pretty good, interesting at least if not entirely polished. I bought my first bottle of wine here.

WE took the LONG (lost) way to Dijon (a 3 hour drive took us almost 7.......). Tomorrow we start Burgundy.

I wanted to add here that as we had a lot of time on the road, we had visited a few gas stations, one of which we ate at. Not a bad place, an autogrill I think where they had hot fod servied cafeteria style (but looked nicer). there was this sausage that I saw and I asked what it was. I was assured that it was a regional speciality and that I would love it. It was called Andouille. For those of you that know, it is made with pig small intestine adn stomach. Let's jsut say that there is a certain aroma about things like these. While I had not issues eating it, my friends only saw their caloric intake reduced a bit more as they left some of it behind on the plate. in the battle of hunger versus aroma, the aroma had a slight lead in this case.
Trip day 3 Burgundy cote D'Or visit Gambal, L. Latour, H. Lignier, Pillot, etc
In my previous post I did not really tell you why it took so long to get to Dijon. I will today. The GSP system we used is from Garmin and they use a map set that is not the most liked when it comes to Europe. It is also highly sensitive to selections and defaults so when you select most use of motorways but no tollways, the system will put you on an extremely convoluted route to avoid tolls but as all many roads are called motorways, it will use anything from an unpaved road to full highways.

Also, I must admit that there was operator error. As we discover each default to reset, the route would change again. I swear I saw some cities three times from different directions. We also drove on our fair share of farm dirt roads.....for miles....... We'd come blasting out of the trees in our Chevy SUV at 65 miles per hour to make blind right hand turns onto major highways....just like the movies.... Exciting but I did not really need that

More than once, we had to stop to find out where we were. None of our phones were getting signals so we could not find out our current position. Our GSP was failing to do the same. Through some ingenious triangulation and just pure hopeless guessing, we pointed ourselves at an intersection that we finally drop towards and got to, not without more drama. We actually overshot this intersection by 3 miles to the west. Then on the way back, missed the highway entry and drove 6 miles further south before realizing that the GPS was taking us back in to the woods away from the highway so we turned around again and made our way back to the firs waypoint. This time we did not miss as all five guys shouted when we got there. This in itself was a major milestone as once we were there, we knew finally where we were and could finally start to go towards the right direction to Dijon.

So when we finally arrive in Dijon, a rather large city with more modern structures than I had originally envisioned. Traffic is horrible as there is a lot of road work around the new convention center. Guess what, the GPS also did not know about all the road closures and had no idea how to get around them. If I ever hear of the word "Recalculating" one more time, I will crush this $!@# GPS. We finally got into the hotel, behind a tour bus....and when their crowd subsided, we tuck in for the evening.

Blurried eyed with just a few hours of sleep, my friends and I get up. They are still looking for #$!#$!@$ drip coffee and a full breakfast. I've explained again and again that the French eat only pastries like croissants and expresso for breakfast. I'm gonna kill these guys before the end of the trip.

We drive the hour down to Beaune and find the winery of Alex Gambal which is our first stop. We had planned on being early so we leave his location and put into the GPS, hospice du Beaune that I had wanted to visit. The @#$!@# GPS took us to the new hospital in a modern suburb of the city. I'm gonna crush this thing at the end of the trip@#$!@#$!. I pull out a map and reset my personal orientation and drove back into the city. We wound an entry way from the ring road into the town of Beaune and park BESIDE the Hospice de Beaune. What a beautiful place. As we had a bit of time, we went into the Hospice and walked around. Humbling indeed the work that the nurses and nuns did here.

We ran back to the car for the appointment with Alex. Got there just in time to find Alex entertaining a crowd from Hong Kong. They were getting married in France and were trying Alex's wine for the event. We got to try the lineup as well. Alex let us know that the wines had in fact been open for four days. As we were tasting the 2009’s they look like long term keepers. My notes are cryptic as we were pretty sleep deprived by this time.

Whites

2009 Chassagne Montrachet - very nice nose, fully of fresh lemons, lemon rind, some ripeness and tropical fruits like Pineapple, nicely put together.

2009 Saint Aubin – A bit more austere up front, more lime then lemon and more minerally than the CM

2008 Chassagne Montrachet – very perfumey nose, less ripe and structure than the 09.

2008 Chassagne Montrachet 1er cru Clos st. Jean – a bit more structured than the stock CM, teeth tingling acidity and good minerality but fruit appeared to be muted.

2008 Corton Charlemagne – Rich, much more ripe and density, apples, vanilla, more expressive.

Reds

2009 Savigny Les Beaune VV – the vines are apparently more than 50 years old. Alex noted that the 09 season was just perfect, perfectly ripe pips, high levels of tannins resulting in lovely wines. This was one of them, lovely bright berries, crunchy but tight, good balance and always noticing the freshness. Remember, this was opened many days ago.

2009 Chorey les Beaune – perhaps more approachable than any other bottle, can be drunk now frankly, a bit more tart than SLB but very pretty, a bit more structure.

2009 Volnay 1er En Chevret – deeper and spicy than Chorey les Beaune, deep darker berries on the palate, but a bit austere mid palate, very clean, very long.

2009 Clos Vougeot GC – Deep dark nose of berries and floral, nicely structured. Saw 2/3 new oak. Lovely indeed.

2008 Clos Vougeot GC – this was from parcels on the top of the hill. Very aromatic nose, tons of minerals in the nose, bright red fruit, very focused and lifted.

2007 Clos Vougeot GC- very pretty nose, bright red fruit, a bit reserved, minerally again, definitely felt like hillside fruit, nice smooth texture, very fresh.

Alex was nice enough to take us on a tour of his facilities. He showed us the results of many years of hard work, the new fermentation area and equipment he used, the caves and stored bottles. Through it all, you saw a man that was very pragmatic about his life experiences, which is frankly quite refreshing after Champagne. We bought a few bottles and thanked him for his time. We would be meeting up with his wife Diane tomorrow for a full day.

We had a few hours so we took off for lunch to Café Madeline just a short walk from Alex’s place. Great place for lunch if a bit pricey for us. The wines are stored on the walls so that you just have to pick them yourselves. The restaurant charges you for the wine and a 6 euro corkage fee. We sat down with a 2009 Beaujolais that went well with a small salad and a great but tiny Beouf Bourgogne. After that, we made our way to Louis Latour.

Louis Latour’s offices are located in the town but they do not stand out like Napa wineries. This was like any other pretty but old building (except for the small courtyard) with a small sign outside that announced the domaine. We had a guide that took us out to the Corton hills for a tasting at the mansion. I was looking forward to this as I has never seen the Corton Hills. Everyone says you can’t miss the Corton hills when you are driving in Cote D’Or and they were right. It stands out in front of you like a large goaltender in net. We drop up to the house and walked into the vineyards. It was great to see people working the vines and to see the soils.

A quick tour of the facilities was followed by a walk down into the cellars two floors down. We saw bottles as old as 1870 Cortons before we were lead into another very dark room for our tasting. 3 whites and 3 reds. There was an interruption in the tasting but I’ll explain later. All the bottles were just opened as we tasted.

2009 Maison Louis Latour – Montagne 1er Cru La Grand Roche – white flowers on the nose, lemon zest, minerally, banana??, long finish.

2009 Maison Louis Latour Grand ardeche – more density, more oaky perhaps less floral and attractive but decent. Good acidity and medium length.

2009 Maison Louis Latour Meursault Blagny – lessy, tight almost like Sauvignon Blanc nose with zipy acidity but lacking fruit. Good persistence. Perhaps needed some more air

2009 Maison Louis latour Marsanny – Fresh strawberries but a bit herby

2009 Domaine Louis Latour – Beaunes Vignes Fraches – much better in structure and a bit smokey. Berries, strawberries,, good length, very fresh and lovely.

At this point, the entire group hears a high pitched, almost static like yell right behind one of the members of the group. There is no one else on the property and certainly no one else in the caves. A few seconds later, all the lights go out……. We all pull out our cell phones for some illumination and follow our guide out. Out in the light we saw several French military plane flying overhead. It felt like we walked into a battle zone. Our guide walks around to see if she could find the problem with the lights. She is visibly nervous by what happened and what she heard downstairs. She find a way to rest the power and because we had not finished the tasting, we all headed back down into the basement….. ? Seriously….. she’s a trooper. Why did we go back down?

2009 Corton Grand Cru – Now this is much much more like it. This is a good bottle. Very pure, fresh, super smooth, silky, berries, great structure and very night length. We joke around a bit, perhaps the alcohol was giving us a bit of strength…stupidity… who knows. Nice way to finish the tasting and we headed back up to the surface only this time to be greeted by the start of rain. Good timing.

Tomorrow, more Burgundy.


Burgundy Day 4, Lignier, Senard, and Pillot
It was day two and it started out with rain. It had rained for four days straight now. Everyone noted that it had been sunny and hot for months before we arrived. The day we arrived, it rained. Oh well, at least it was good for the grapes.

We were meeting with Diane Williams Gambal today (a bit more on her later, she is a great guide). She runs a boutique tour company called Hidden France where she delivers custom tours. We had met her obviously through Alex. We were to pick her up in Gevrey Chambertain’s rail station in the morning. Not to continue to pick on the GPS but you’d think that a town’s rail station would be on there…..guess again. So we drove down to GC and asked the locals. That worked pretty well actually. Stopped for café and croissant (yes…they were still asking for drip coffee, thinking that a town such as GC might yield for them. ….I’m guessing by now that the first Dunkin Donut coffee machine they see when they get back, they might just become romantically involved with).

Picked up Diane who gave us a great little intro to Burgundy, specifically Cote D’Or and we were off. With Diane at the wheels, it gave us some time to see the vineyards as they rolled past, one by one. The names that we had worshipped rolled by like regular beats, so frequent were they. First stop Hubert Lignier. Some of us will know that his son had passed away a few years ago and that his widow and the family no longer get along. So Hubert has started up a new winery with his younger son and we got to taste the fruits of this effort.

2010 Chambolle Musigny – Nose of leather, crushed berries, very balanced, fruity and pretty What a great start

2010 Morey Saint Denis – A bit more austere, but great elegance and just beautiful in the mouth.

2010 Gevry – A bit darker and deeper in fruit than the other two, a hint of malo still going on (in the toungue), but good structured wine. Perhaps a bit less charm than the CM.

2010 Pommard – wow, great nose, ripe berries, certainly more pommard in character. Smooth, super smooth texture and tannins, fully bodied and great structure.

2010 Nuit St George – Also still finishing the malo, wonderful wine, very pure fruit and again, great mouth texture and elegant. These are wines that will be really great to drink with a bit of bottle age.

2010 MSD Les Riottes 1er Cru – New wood and very structured, a bit closed right now but shows depth and great potential.

2010 Mores Saint Denis !er Cru VV – Like some of the barrels here, also just completing malo, very deep fruit, floral but still tight, great structure and super length.

2010 Clos de la Roche – super nose, bright fruit, wonderful purity, elegant, super structure and great persistence. I’m gonna look for this one when it hits the market even through I know that it’s tripel digit prices are gonna hurt.

Then Hubert disappears for a few minutes only to show up with a smile on his face and two bottles of 2009 that were in fact getting ready for bottling.

2009 Assemblage MSD – deeper tones of color than 2010, slightly thicker and denser, almost a bit sweeter in sensation but wines are fully dry. Beautiful pure fruit, perfect balanced between power and acidity.

2009 MSD Ier Cru (missed vineyard) – Just fantastic. I had ripe deep fruits that seem to go on forever, extremely elegant. Super smooth mouth texture, good balance, great length, and ripe tannins. I could drink this now. Loved it. He has every reason to smile with wines like this!

His son showed us the cottage that they had just finished so that they could rent it out. We met with a closure salesman on the site as well. We thank Hubert and his son for their time and tastings. Hubert had another meeting and we saw him jump into an old white 205 hatchback and drove off. I’ll never forget this tasting.

More vineyard visits, and we stopped on top of the Corton hills by the Madonna to take pictures. That’s when the sky opened up and really let us have it. Could not see the sights from the corton hills so we headed off to lunch at Domaine Comte Senard. Both a winery and a restaurant (that needs reservations as some of the food is catered). I’ve not seen nor had wines from this domaine but there were a few interesting wines to try.

2008 Aloxe Corton Village Pinot Gris…..yes Pinot Gris or as they say Pinot Beurre planted in 1938. This was apparently grandfathered. Light yet floral, good minerals, a hint of butter, high acidity. Needs food to go as it is a bit austere otherwise, but interest fact is high

2003 Aloxe Corton Grand Cru, - this is yet another anomaly, a white grown in a red only area. So it is classified as a Corton White. A bit fat due to the vintage but holding up well.

2009 Corton Village – Bright berries, a bit thin and acidic, vervy for sure, pleasant but needs food

2006 Corton !er Cru Las Valoziere, velverty tannins, ripe fruit, a bit of herbs and a bit hot on the finish.

We tried a few other wines but I stopped taking notes. The newer wines are much better but they have brought out lunch, scalloped potatoes and beouf borgogne. Great meal! I loved it.

Senard’s claim to fame? It has one of the few formally recognized true monopoles in burgundy. That would be the Senard Clos des Meix. On the way out, we see the Comte. He was driving a small Caterpillar with tools in the front. Off to work on the land!

A bit about Diane Williams Gambal. She first of all is a great person to work with. I would have no problems suggesting that you get in touch with her on putting together trips. She does trips to pretty much all wine regions in France and others. She also does bike tours. She is a past US Olympic ski team member and coach. On top of that, she is extremely humble, knowledgeable about the people and the wines and she is great company. We had a blast with her.

More vineyard and town visits and a final stop at Fernard et Laurent Pillot’s operations. Although I drink Paul Pillot’s stuff regularly, I have never heard of F&L. Apparently (by the road signs that show that there are many Pillot operations) they are cousins. In the area, there is a saying that if you are looking for a date, go to a family reunion……..

Fernand and Laurent came out to meet us, they are a young couple that both finish oenology school together. Fernand makes the whites and Laurent makes the reds. I must say that the wines here are wonderful. I would buy them if I saw them but the whites are definitely the sweet spot.

2009 Chassagne Montrachet – a bit heavy on the oak, but time will pull this in, lemony long finish, good acidity and verviness.

2010 Chassagne Montrachet Les Verger 1er Cru, Nose of apricot, lemon, very nice structured, tense wine, good balanced and minerality

2009 Chassagne Montrachet Vide Borse 1er Cru (very near Batard Montrachet) – Lemony, citrus rind, grapefruit, oak is a bit intrusive now, but not yet integrated

2009 Chassagne Montrachet Grandes Ruchotts – more steep side of the slope. Very different nose, and profile, a bit more citrusy and pineapples, good ripeness and texture.

2009 Meursault Les Caillerests 1er Cru – Citrusy nose, but fully denser body, somewhat more mealy as Meursaults should be, lovely, on Volnay side of Meursault meaning a bit more minerality in the wine.

2007 Chassagne Montrachet Vide Borse 1er Cru – Closed and needed much air, great texture, elegant and good structure, bits of pineapple. Lovely.
2009 Pommard Tavannes (located below Epernot) – bright cherries, a bit of herbiness, quite a big structure, tart almost a bit citrusy, tannic and not very charming at this point. Tough but perhaps time will mellow out this large wine.

2009 Pommard Clos de Verger 1er Cru – Deep berries, some herbal notes again, big nose but still some indicating some hidden power medium density, nicely structured with a long finish and tannic at the back.

2009 Pommard Les Charmot 1er Cru – A bit of leather, very structured, very tight, hidden power, good fruit density but still very elegant.

2009 Pommard Les Rugien 1er Cru – Big boy wine, lots of tannins, big fruit, red berries, blue berries, long finish. Quite the bruiser.

2005 Pommard Les Rugien 1er Cru – 100% new oak, but oak has been absorbed, clean line of fruit on nose and palate, structured, tigher toned acidity, nicely done!

We ended the evening going through many other vineyards and then dropping Diane off with Alex. They were planning a three week trip to the US and needed to get started on the packing! We picked up our order from Alex and headed back to town for the dinner.

We had dinner at Ma Cusine in Beaune. What a great place for dinner. The meals were absolutely great. Flavours were spot on perfect. We shared a bottle of 1967 Remoissenet Morey Saint Denis that was still in very good shape. Solid wine and something different than what we’ve had all day.

1967 Remoissenet Morey Saint Denis Village – colour is bricking but still solid. Nose is a bit portly and a bit sweet. This must have been a reasonably ripe wine in its youth. Not much complexity but this shows what an aged (Cripes 43 years old) pinot can taste like. Still hangs onto a bit of acidity and was surprisingly refreshing. Interesting wine for sure. Turned out that one of the travel group’s birth year was 1967.

Day 5 Chablis: Christian Moreau
Day five of trip, day three in Burgundy. We were bloody tired now as we really have not slept much. Two hours here, three hours there and the hotels rooms while clean are not exactly palatial. Most of our car rides now consist of one guy driving and four guys snoring away while a GPS continues to recalculate the route….

We had an appointment in Chablis with Christian Moreau. I’ve long admired his wines for their finesse and power. I love the stuff. We drove up a bit early and had a chance to drive up to the Grand Cru hills behind the town. What a great view. The grapes were clearly behind those lower in Burgundy and the soils much more closely resembled those of Champagne than Cote D’Or. This is why we travelled all this way.

Drove back into town and had a great intro with Christian. We are warmly greated in his office. He notes that he needed to pick up his grandson so our tasting might be a bit shorter. Once inside, his operations, he give us a quick tour of the production facilities. I had not known that it was in fact his son that has been producing the wines since 2001. Lively conversation and onto the wine tasting. Christian himself is pouring. We are taking pictures of him, his son and the facilities when Christian pulls out an Iphone and starts to take pictures of us! The great Moreau wanted pics of us! Wonders never cease. Fabien (his son) is racking the wines in the background and Christian is telling us of his background while we taste. He has lived one helluva life! You can tell that he still lives and breathes Chablis and the wines. This is a man with Passion. We tell him that we have been in Cote D’or the last few days and he asks us “they make wine down there??” grinning. Quite the character, quite the man.

2010 Chablis – Lemony, very fresh, good scidity, very minerally, and super fresh. Medium finish.

2010 Chablis 1re Cru Vaillion – Finish is much longer than the base Chablis and everything else is a bit more heightened.

2010 Chablis Valdesir 1er Cru – Finished malo in January! Very long, very elegant, more of everything in this wine. Lovely and I did not want to spit.

2009 Valmur Grand Cru - Great mouthfeel, good balance, minerally, great texture. Gonna look for this one, nicely complex.

2009 Le Clos – Very elegant, larger wine but with restrained power. Did not spit either.

2008 Valmur – very nice, a bit more verviness, but restrainted right now. Perhaps needs much more air.

Great visit. Glad that the people behind the wines you love are great people and not just that but great characters!
Day 6 and 7 Bordeaux

We left Burgundy feeling great about the wine and the people that were behind them. Never had we felt closer to the product, the land and the producers. Three days of trekking up and down the region only leaves you with the need to return for a much longer period of time.

It was with this mindset we set off for Bordeaux. We drove from Dijon down to Lyon to drop the car off and then took a short flight to Bordeaux. It was in this flight that I found the best place in the world to exchange British Pounds for Euros….on an EasyJet flight. When most places were giving me about 0.85 euros per pound (for 50 GBP), I gave the flight attendant my 50 GBP and got in exchange 56 euros and a coke! Gotta remember that.

Day 6

First stop was an early morning visit to St. Emilion and Chateau Troplong Mondot. We stopped off at the town first to see if I could get a memory card for my camera and some breakfast. We had smelled the croissants baking from miles away….we walked around the visitor’s center and onto the ledge where the cafes were and wow…..the view our was insane. You look over the town and then into the vineyards. This was a breathtaking view. I will definitely return here just for the view alone.

But onto the first session with Troplong Mondot. I’ve enjoyed the wines from here in the past so was interested to see the ops. You drive past the town and up into the vineyards. They are by the watertower that they try to hide with tall trees. Facilities are immaculate and the new cave is very nice though I could have done without the Crystal lamps hanging down above the barrels. Quite the difference from Burgundy!!. The spittoon was the waterfall of wines that is behind us. Nice tasting room. They also showed us the hall that can be rented out now. The wine tasted was a 2006 which is great as I’ve not had that one yet.

2006 Chateau Troplong Mondot – deep in color, we are in Bordeaux and Saint Emilion at that. Nose is very tight dark fruits, tobacco, cedarwood, a bit of menthol and spices. On the palate, also a bit reserved but lush and smooth, taste per palate, some nice crush stones on the minerality front. Long finish good structure.

Next visit was Pape Clement and that was back in Bordeaux area so we made a mad dash back across and arrived on time. More evidence of money. If I had time to play golf, I would not see lawns as perfectly manicured as this one. The gardens were impressive. The facilities were impressive. Church choral music would start as we moved through the wine storage rooms. The reserved wines were mostly in large formats so definitely size envy for the big boys club. But tasting was back in the retail area. I had not known that you could buy wine at the Chateau in Bordeaux so was unprepared for this. We tried a trio of wines from the B Margrez stable.

2009 Chateau Frombrough AC Bordeaux: 40% Semillion, 40% Sauvignon Blanc, 20% (could not catch) I thought it was oxidized, my friend thought it was corked. They opened up another bottle for us. The cellar master appeared to taste the wines and confirmed that they are as they should be. The second bottle was a bit fresher but over a very short period of time, I thought mine became quickly oxidized and my friend thought it was corked. Either way, not something I wanted to drink . Slightly smokey, more oxidized characteristics, a bit orangey, quite the structure but nothing to return to.

2007 La Crois de Perennes: Almost bakery like, cake on the nose, blueberry, mostly merlot we were told, tannic still but medium length with short finish, oak is intrusive. Not excited. Funny thing, the large French group that is in there tasting with us are buying tones of the wines.

2007 Pape Clement: Lush to watch on pour, deep dark berries, a touch of herbs but pleasant, it is very tight, a bit of mushroom on the nose that grows larger with more air. Highly structured. Good wine but compared to the 2007 Pavie I had the other day, this is leagues behind for the same vintage.

I walk back out into the vineyards, the grapes appear to be several weeks behind the ones from Saint Emilion. Terroir?? I was greatful for the visit and the guides were great but today the wines did not show that well.

The day ended with a tasting at Lynch-Bages. We had a bit of time so went up to Pauillac for lunch along the river. Lovely but expensive so we just ate omlettes. We walked around the rehab village that the Cazes are putting money into. Lovely places, especially the bakery where we dropped some serious euros. I also ended up buying a few things at the gift shop. The tour at Lynch-Bages was great and we had a great tasting, the first of many 2010 barrel samples.

2005 Haut Bages Averous 59% CS, 26% Merlot, 15% CF – Very nice, elegant deep dark berries, medium bodied and length, not totally integrated yet, bit of wood still out there, but solid, slightly spicy, good acidity and persistence. Just a hint of austerity midpalate more likely due to the phase that it is in.

2004 Lynch Bages 84% CS, 9% Merlot, 5% CF, 2% PV – a very clean nose, deep fruit driven, nicely balanced, elegant, a bit austere again but bottle was just opened. A bit of black tea at the end of the palate. Medium + bodied, and good length.

2010 Lynch Bages Barrel Sample – 79% CS, 13% Merlot, 7% CF, 1% PV. WOW, this is an intense and thought provoking wine. I’ve never had a barrel sample quite like this, in that I would have taken it to dinner if they gave it to me! Blackberries, blue berries, intense nose, dense, explosive is the right word. But over it all a great balanced, nothing poking out, great structure is unobtrusive under the wine and the fruit but focus in on it and it is massive. Great acidity, great freshness. Long persistence, I could taste it all the way back to Bordeaux. We DRANK most of this bottle while in the tasting room. It would be probably the wine of the trip if not number two but always right up there. Insane experience. I will remember this one for a long time. I’m glad I’ve got my hands on a few even though they are much more expensive than the 09’s

Day 7 Bordeaux

Today was to be another long day of tasting or so we thought. First up was Pontet Canet. We have been fans of Pontet Canet for many years as it was always the little wine that punched well above its weight but more recently, the prices have been ,…well,….high. It is no longer for us the value option, this year at $179 a bottle, it is now priced outside of what we want to spend on wine (but I still got some.).

2010 – Bottles in July 18, 65% CS, 30% M, 4% CF, 1% PV – We tasted in the barrel room. They noted that this is the area for the professionals to taste so we were appreciative but frankly, there are so many aromas in the barrel room that it is hard to taste in there. It is hard to smell beyond the aromas of the room and so to some of my friends the PC lagged behind the LB if only by a bit. This wine is explosive as well. Tannic to be sure, but the black fruit is all over the palate. Tight but elegant and full bodied, I now understand the term precision in a red wine. Ripe and lush texture and super long finish but still fresh. Forbiddemal.

2008 – Frankly quite similar to 2010 in profile, but berries and oak is not quite integrated. Very pretty on the nose full bodied and greath length. Classic but does not reach the highs of the 2010.

Mouton Rothschild – I had been calling and sending in letters to no response. I found out why. They are closed to visitors due to the renovations to the Chai…err…new Chai. Lovely location

Lafite Rothschild – I had not appointment and thus no hope in hell.. still I wanted to walk the grounds and see If there were any cancellations. There were none.

Pichon Comtesse de Lalande – Beautiful property.
2004 Pichon Lalande was available for tasting – very pure wine, very pretty, cedary, elegant, grippy and still needs time. Great nose, deep dark berries, slightly sweet almost, some soy. 53% CS, 35% M 5% CF, 7% PV. Good supple body. Very enjoyeable.

We were suppose to go to Branaire Ducru which I’ve enjoyed more of lately but my our car was broken into so we had to spend the rest of the afternoon with the Gendarmerie……

Oh well…….

Day 7 and 8 Cognac and Pineau
Hoping to program a bit of a break into our agenda, I decided to drag the group up to Cognac for the weekend. We were suppose to be in Cognac the first day and Jarnac the second but some changes we made due to the incident in Pauillac the day before.

So Saturday still progressed well for us. A tasting a Hennessy started the day. There was the SHORT boat ride across the river (they should’ve just built a bridge but then they would not get any style points) to the caves. Interesting to see how they would discuss wines that are really too thin to drink yet perfect for distillation. In the barrel rooms, some barrels went back to 1890’s. We also visited Otard and the old castle.

The highlight of the day really was the visit at Remy Martin’s. I opted for a custom visit that included a tasting and dinner at the old family estate so we would visit both the downtown site and the actually estate. We had a great hostess walk us around. She was an American from Georgia and was extremely pleasant to work with. I learned that Extra was not being discontinued and being replaced with something called Diamant (SP?). The $400 Extra was deemed to be insufficient of a step between XO and Louis XIII so Diamant will be priced at $1000. They had a few Extras left in the building so I asked for one. After a tasting with specific appetizers, we got a limo to the estate and another tour of the site (including where they held the Louis XIII’s).

She then lead us to the dining area and our jaws dropped. The old (in production until a few years ago) distillery room was our private dining room. This room was incredible. Our five guys had one dedicated chef and one server. The food was spot on great (the finger foods and appetizers were some of the best of our trip and the desserts were incredibly hard to make so we foodies appreciated that effort). The wines and Remy were poured without hesistation. It was a great evening. While the price was a bit high (and frankly it really wasn’t), you could not replace that level of personal attention, the products served to us and the locations that were used for our session at anywhere remotely approaching this price. I highly recommend anyone who is coming here with a group to seek out this experience. We won’t forget this one shortly.

The next day we went for a qui ck visit to Leopold Gourmel but we must have crossed up a bit as Leopold was not there. He called the next day to apologize in person, I did not take this to be anything but completely honests and frankly I could have made the mistake. So instead of heading to Jarnac, we headed back to Cognac to let our friend off to catch a train. We went off instead looking for Pineau. WE found a producer so we headed west in search of him. We found his place out in the countryside with the requisite real farm and family setup. This was a real operation. The proprietary with his young daughter at his side (4 year old and very clingy of dad) lead us to the production facilities and then his store. His pineau was great. His name was Paul Bossuet and we bought a few bottles from him. On the way out, we drove by him and his daughter and we stopped to say thank you again. Paul told us that his daughter was now interested in seeing China. I told her that China is a beautiful place but be sure to stop first in Hong Kong ?……

We went to the town of Saintes where a full on street market scene was in session. We bought a bunch of food, sausages, paella, road side roasted chicked, fruits ,etc,…. Had a great lunch in the park. No spoons so the mussels served as the spoons for the paella.
Day 10 Sauternes

After a lovely weekend up in Cognac, we headed back to Bordeaux and prepared ourselves for more wine. But this was also meant to be a change for the taste buds. We were heading south to Sauternes.

Our first visit was Chateau Guiraud, one of my fav's. This is one pretty property. The LONG front drive up to the Chateau is lined with hugh trees that give this estate a very grand feeling. The resulting impresion is once again very different than Bordeaux which has a certain shall we say bling to it. This felt aristocratic.

The property is 128 hectares with abuot 100 planted. They made a change towards organic vinticulture in 1996 and will be certified this year. muscadelle, Sauvignon Blanc, Semillion and Sauvignon Gris are planted on the property.

A quite tour of the chateau and production facilities will yield some nice picts. I love it when they stack up the bottles of liquid gold without the labels yet as they always make interesting pics. Apparently the 2009's have been bottles very recently as they are just cleaning up all the equipment and tanks. One thing I learned on this trip is how they stop fermentation when there is so much sugar left in the wine.

We got to try to 2006 bottle. Nose is very interesting, has a bit of peppermint on it, great freshness, very pretty, fruity, pineapple, caramel, good length, hint of tea at the end. Lovely.

While I've read that you cannot buy wines from the winery, some places seem to be prepared for this as they have effectively a store for you to browse through or a list that you can pick from. This was true at Pontet Canet, Pichon Lalande, Pape Clement,and now at Guiraud (and later La Tour Blanc and Chateaux Gruaud Larose). Prices are not good by US standards but actually not bad by international standards (where they may have high taxes)Guiraud was also testing 100mL crewcap bottles that looked like test tubes. Interesting design and also acknowledges that somethings like Icewine makes, even a half bottle might be too much. So 100 mL is good to share with two people. I bought a 1996 100mL bottle home with me.

Our GPS which has proven itself to become a bit more successful with the streets of Bordeaux once again became useless within Sauternes. It got us to our first place great but it was hopelessly lost trying to get us to La Tour Blanche...which is not a small site. I liked their 2001's so decided to see what they are about since they are structured very differently, as a cooperative. Certainly a nice building awaited us but with less of the panache and bling of Bordeaux or even Guirand. They grow 80% Semillion, 15% sauvignon Blanc and 5% muscadelle. WE tasted through their range fo dry,second and first wines. Lovely stuff but I will have to locate my tasting notes for here. I was able to purchase from here, a 1977 bottle that we opened for Christoph at Le Piane but turned out to be oxidized. My heart sank tehre as I had been looing forward to a cellar direct bottle but the cork had somewhat failed here.

Looking for a place for lunch on Monday in Sauternes is not an easy task. We wanted to have lunch in the town but Le Sapien, a nice and "only" restaurant was closed so we had to look elsewhere.

Our GSP had no idea where Chateau d'Yquem was. We were tight on the timeline and no blood GPS was gonna keep me away from YQUEM!!! There are signs to the property that we saw. We knew where the property was so finally we found an unpaved road and headed in. Up on the hills loomed a silhouette that I knew well, even the well manicured trees. It was Yquem. but no one wa around. It took a few minutes of running aournd to find the right door adn then we were lead into the waiting room. Beautiful site. Great little tour and the tasting was of the yet to be released 2008.

This wine is very light in color, much like 2001 was whe first released. Nose is very floral, honey, apricots and a hint pf tropical fruits like mangos and pineapple. Not overtly explosive on the nose like other vintages, On the palate, much the same, medium light bodied but very pure very focused yquem. It is very elegant and while I would normally complain that this wine lacked the chassis of a bigger wine, I noticed how "comfortable" my mouth felt after drinking this, and that the persistence would last until we got back to Bordeaux. This is not the best from Yquem, but only Yquem can make a wine like this.

We drove around more, got incredible lost , ended up in many vineyards on one way roads..... drove by the incredible renovation at Fargues. and had a happy journey back to Bordeaux where we ate at La Tupina. Not a bad day at all!!!!
Day 11 Chateau Gruaud Larose and Cos d’Estournel
The trip was starting to click now for most of the group. It was definitely a group question and answer period when we visited the chateaus so everyone had a good time bugging our assigned staffer. This was our last day in Bordeaux and France and up to bat were Chateau Gruaud Larose and Cos d’Estournel, so sandwiching Pauillac with visits to Saint Julien Beychevelle and Saint Estephe.

We drove around for a bit before we found Ch. Gruaud Larose. It is in behind some of the residential areas of St. Julien and our GSP continued its useless track record. Thank god for the Iphone….

I had met representatives from Ch. G-L while at a couple of UGC events earlier this year so had contacted them about a visit. The estate is meticulously manicured and they even flew the flags of the countries from where the visitors were coming! This is quite the red carpet rollout. The tour is informative. I’ve never seen an anti hail gun before. We were wondering about the mega weather station we had seen attached to the side of one of the buildings and it turns out that it gave information as to when to use the hail gun. Apparently it is quite effective but I’m not sure I want to be around when it is firing.

2002 Sarget de Larose (80% CS 11% Merlot and others). I was surprised when they pulled this out as I’m not sure that I would show a second label from a poor vintage but this was on purpose. They wanted us to see that even in a poor vintage this wine is currently drinking well. And in fact it was. Slightly medium light bodied, quite balanced and elegant in a more quiet way, slightly herby but in a manner that I like more as a calling card for G-L. Would be a perfectly good wine for a meal.

2001 Chateau Gruaud Larose (55% CS, 35% Merlot, 7$ CF, 3% PV), more lush and ripe due to higher merlot percentage. A bit closed for me right now but can certainly see that the structure is there to hold the wine for a while.
2010 Chateau Gruaud Larose Barrel Sample: a bit more restrained from some of the barrel samples that we have tried. Typically G-L with good complexity and some herby traits, minerally, big structure and lush but not as big as say a Pontet Canet.

Next stop we took the backroads to Cos d’Estournel. We have seen pics of this for a long time. I had expected in fact a bigger building but in person, Cos looks surprising compact compared to its contemporaries. The site at G-L was much bigger. None the less, an interesting building with an instant wow factor both outside and to our surprise, inside. They have spent a fortune inside the building. The visitor hall is massive and looks into the even larger tank rooms. The barrel Chai looks like something out of a James Bond movie, the way its lit and we see it from a glass floord bridge from above. The private stock room is equally as impressive.

2010 Pagodes de Cos Barrel Sample. This is a very nice bottle. It is a very large wine but there is brightness in the fruit, vrush berries, minerality, good focus for a red, great structure and frankly I can’t believe that this is not a first wine except that it is 2010 where first wines are even better. Wonderful freshness

2010 Cos d’Estournel: The nose explodes out of the glass. I was three feet away and I was knocked down by the aromas from the glass. Large but structured wine, sark fruits and berries, crunchy berries, still elegant supter smooth and lush, very long and minerally . Some tea on the finish and while tannic, it does not beat you up entirely. This is an impressive wine and while I had thought that I would be tasting a more portish wine, it had similar balance and size (perhaps a touch bigger) to the Lynch Bages we had tasted a few days ago so not entirely overblown for the vintage.
It was an interesting way to close out Bordeaux regardless.

Day 12 and on Italy (Boca and Piedmont)
I know that it’s been a few days since my last installment and almost three weeks since I’ve come back but (1) I’ve been crazy busy and (2) it only feels like yesterday for me, especially Italy. The people we meet were SO NICE. If thought the French were crazy nice but the Italians, they really wanted you to have a good time.

We took a short ride from Bordeaux to Milan on Easyjet again. Picked up our rental and went to Boca to meet with the owner/wine maker of Le Piane Christoph Kunzli. First of all, those of you who have never tasted the wines of Le Piane, go and look for them. They are very unique I’ve been fortunate enough to taste though more than my fair share of his wines now and they are all great wines from a very unique location. This man is on a one-man-mission.

Boca use to be one of the largest wine regions in Italy. One generation ago, there were 10,000 Hectares of vines in Boca, now its in the dozens. One generation. Christoph, on tasting the wines of the one gentleman who made serious wines still in the area, felt the strong urge to protect, preserve and bring back heritage to the area. He told me that he went to a school to talk about the vineyards and the children had not idea that they were living in a wine region, one of the largest only a few decades ago. This man is a hero to all of us who are drawn to these types of wines. Wines that are compelling and are of a place and only of that place. You could tell a wine from Boca in a lineup of Barolos without any difficulty, that is how strong this terrior imposes itself on the grapes. The wines are very compelling indeed.

We met Christoph in the middle of town. Christoph told us to follow him to his truck so we could see the vineyard. We told him that we could follow in our minivan but he kindly suggested that might not be a great idea. So off to his truck we go and very quickly we got to see why. Those that have been with him on tours call it a Safari ride. We now understand why. IT IS STEEP and IT IS THICK with vegetation. Our rental minivan would not have lasted 2 minutes in these environments. We got off the truck at one of the older plots. We saw trellising systems that we had never seen before. They would grow a couple of vines together and then trellis them in the form of a square ring and then up almost like fruit trees. I’ve never seen anything like that before, almost as unique as the basket style vines of Santorini.

With this trellising system, Christoph found that it provided some protection against hail damage and that the most damage the hail could do was to 25% of the crop or the side that was facing the hail storm. The trellising also went rather high. This was going to be constant in Italy in the places that we went. In France, the trellising is rather low but in Italy for Nebbiolo and other varietals we saw, the top of the wines went just over 6 feet. Almost everyone said that Nebbiolo needs the additional exuberance of the taller vines to ripen. Chrisptoph also plants fairly dense, at about 5500 plants per acre, which he felt give just enough competition for the grapes. The vines are also planted on extremely steep slopes. 45% and higher grade makes this a difficult task to harvest the wines.

We tasted though the barrel samples of ’08, ’09 and ’10. They were great wines with great structure and clearly were able to see Boca through the wines. That citrusy warmth in the wines. Kracher (yes before he passed on) once spoke of Christoph’s wines as being white wines with a red sweater on it. I could not come up with a better description. We tasted through his ‘07’s ‘06’s, magnum bottle syrahs only, etc, .etc,…. And some bottles with no labels that were bottled by the previous owner. He thinks that they are ’70 and ’71. Both were insanely great bottles. Mature with age but oh delicious and balanced. Great sense of balance in the wines. Calm and serene. Just a joy to be able to try some of these incredibly old bottles. I cannot thank him enough for his time, knowledge and his friendship.

We stayed in Turin, won’t do that again now that we know we can stay in Alba……. Why? Because Alba and Barolo are GORGEOUS! Remember that we had just come from the rolling hills of Champagne, and the valley that is Burgundy, and the cute town of Chablis, etc,… and our mouths dropped. The rolling hills in the Barolo area are truly spectacular. The town are located all at the top of the hills, and the look down into a puzzle of hills and vineyars with different vine orientations. And something about the Italian sun, just looks different…oh I forgot, we never got sun for 14 days in France……

First stop of the day was Sandrone. We got soooo lost trying to get ther it was not funny. We meet with Barbara Sandrone at the front door and she was just so kind to us as we walked in. They showed us around the facility, obviously very proud of the things that they are doing as they should be. The we got to see one of the vineyards up close and personal. It was a 22 mile drive out. I love driving in this area, it is spectacular. The vineyard is a nebbiolo (mostly) vineyard called Valmaggiore. It is super steep and it is just pretty. Barbara hiked up this hill in slippers (we all wearing hiking gear..) and she showed us the soil and the ancient clam shells in the soil.

We tasted through many of Sandrone’s wines:

(1) 2010 Dolcetto: No new oak, just SS for 10 months, very fresh berries, cherries, tight but still showing tones of fruit. Great structure for a little Dolcetto! Delish!

(2) 2009 Babera D’Alba: berries, cherries, very feep fruit, tones of concerntraction. Oaky on the nose, and palate, high toned acidity. Lots of concentration.

We also tasted the three nebbiolo based wines (two Barolos) but we did this over a lunch that Barbara brought us to a restaurant for. Great food, we got go talk to Barbara a bit more and appreciate her time and knowledge on the subject. Lunch as FANTASTIC and the three Barolos were wonderful. We thank them for the wonderful hospitality.

2009 Sandrone Nebbiolo Valmaggiore: This is a rather feminine wine for me, very pretty, floral, perfumed and elegant. Nose of of strawberry, berries, and minerals. Wonderful focus in the mouth, very eleant., better than many's barolo's. And yet in it, almost....a hint of citrus, a la BOCA which is actually not too far away from it.....

2007 Barolo Le Vigne is one big step up. This bottle is very good and frankly I'm not sure what I prefer more, this or the Cannubi. Big on the nose, ripe berries and cherries, but with an elegance that makes it so nice to try, Minerals all around this puppy.

2007 Barolo Cannubi: An even more compact and powerful wine than the LE Vigne, but losing none of that elegance, this wine is also extremely good. Berries an dcherries, a bit of oak, but really elegant with this power, impressive to drink even now and I know I'm missing most of this wine.

In the afternoon we went to Conterno Fantino. We meet with the brother sister team and again, just great people to meet. Very open with their time. Our meeting occurred during a large storm and hail that knocked power out more than once to the region. We tasted through a few bottles.
2009 Bastia Chardonnay: a bit heavy on the oak, butterscotch, with a bit of pineapples, a bit off dry? Ripe.

2010 Dolcetto D’Alba: done in stainless steel tanks, berries, plums, blueberries, a bit of detergent a first but not sure if it was not the glass itself, good tartness, a bit short

2009 Nebbiolo Ginestra: 10 months for the nebbiolo in oak, musted nose but go nebbiolo typicity on palate, structured and tannic, lacks some elegance but has some power. Tough to do now but will be fine with some time, if but a bit simple.

2008 Monpra: very tight at the moment, not open at all, tannic and closed for business but it appear to have sufficient stuffing! Would look forward to tasting this again when it opens up.

2007 Barolo Sori Ginestra: nose of leather, tobacco, a bit reserved, a bit oaky, dried fruits, strucutured, and tannic, a bit closed as well but long with muscles.

2007 Barolo Mosconi: more dense more muscular, but still very reserved right now. Tight, bits of cedar, and tobacco.

2007 Barolo Vigna del Gris: similar nose, a bit more elegant than mosconi, dried fruits, leather, big structure, rose, very reserved again, hide this in the cellar

2006 Barolo Vigna del gris: better nose, more floral than either 05 or 07, a bit more softer and more approachable now but still tight and tannic.

2005 Barolo Vigna del gris: more open but still sense that it is tight, floral, dried fruits, a bit of a nice Chinese medicinal herb on nose, a bit simple but structured. Tannins are still definitely out front.

Final visit was to Renato Ratti. Beautiful new winery, with a green roof, can’t miss this place. Malo in Stainless Steel, barrels are all 225L in French oak with some Slovanian in the mix.

2010 Barbara d’Alba: probably the most ready to drink Barbara of them all, lush, nose of berries and plum, good flavor density but not overblown. Nicely restrained.

2007 Barolo: Marcenasco: Smoother, more fruit than the others coming up, cherries, more approachable now, good length and refined.

2007 Barolo: Conca: much more focused, more density, minerally especially in the finish, more serious if that is possible to convey, while reserved and still tight. A bit of meat, bacon, a more elegant Barolo than the others, tannins are there but do not beat you up as much.

2007 Barolo: Rocche, bigger nose still, great fruit, plums, cherries, dried cherries, slighty meaty, a bit austere in the mid palate, pretty for a Barolo.

Day 15

I never wrote about this day but I'll write what I remember of this because it was useful. We had spent 15 days travelling up to this point and frankly I was also working those 15 days at night. WE had also gone the budget route and booked some inexpensive European business hotels which also means cramped. The fact that our group survived and frankly got along really well was due in no small part to the places that we say and the people that we met. It was incredible.

But day 15, we arrive early morning in Milan and the group broke up to go home in all their different ways. One of the guys stayed with me as he had never been to Milan before. We got to the Hilton Hotel in Milan early am to see if we could just drop the bags off. We must have been quite the sight so I was not expecting to be treated so nicely by a 20 something Italian reception desk. She told us we got a nice upgrade (I was a diamond member at the time).

I went to the room and opened the door. It was a palatial suite. probably 10 times bigger than any room we had spent in the last two weeks. I felt like crying. Wall to wall windows looking out over Milan, clean furniture, the place was just insane. A short shower (which real hot water) and my friend and I meet a the club house for a breakfast. two espressos later. We had fully recovered from the tough parts of the trip.

The point is this. No mater how nice the places are, the hotels, restaurants and airlines, we tried to make economical. Partly due to guilt (ok I admit this) that we did not bring our spouses (look we lived like freaking pigs and did not spend without you to which they would counter you went to some amazing places.....), we went as economical as we could but while it is easy when you are 20, you become accustomed to travel in a certain manner. 15 days with minimal food and tough nights plus working takes its toll on you.

So if that is the way you traveled too, take one night in a major city and book a really nice place to stay to decompress before you come home. It is a really nice punctuation mark on the trip.]]>
Schedule
Day 1 & 2 Champagne
Day 3 Chablis
Day 4 & 5 Burgundy (Cote' d'Or)
Day 6 & 7 Bordeaux
Day 8 & 9 Cognac and Jarnac
Day 10 Sauternes
Day 11 Bordeaux
Day 12 Boca, Piedmont Italy
Day 13 and 14 Barolo
Day 15 Milan recovery... (new)


Day 1 and 2 Champagne

Sorry for the delay in getting down to business and typing out these notes. I'll fill in a few trip details as well so that there will be some context.

I took a red eye flight out of Boston on Friday night a few weeks ago (the 15th actually) as did three of my other friends and one flew out from CA. We were all landing in different places but converging on the town of Reims. I arrived first and found both my hotel and rental car place immediately across from the train station at Reims. So I dropped off my stuff and went to pick up my European rental....it was a Chevy! All the way across the pond, hoping to pick up some European metal and I get a Chevy....oh well. At least it was a diesel. (Recall I use to work for GM)

I drove around a little and pulled out the GPS that my friends gave me only to find that they had left all settings in Mandarin...which would be useful if I actually spoke mandarin. !$!@$#!#.......... After an hour of fighting it, I figured out how to get it all back to English.

First place I went was Tattinger. I must have been quite the sight, not shaving after landing, just traveled a whole day on trains and planes and automobiles.

I took the English tour and went down into the caves first, alone without any of my friends as they had not arrived yet. Nice! The Tattinger that was the sample was the regular bottling. Interesting in that it tasted very fresh and lighter than I recall from the US. I attributed that to other things until I thought to ask the tour guide if they have different dosages for different countries. She quietly confirmed this and said that the US usually gets the highest dosages, after Asia. Hmmm....I guess I should expect different experiences in each country. In lower dosage form, the champagne was much brighter, crisper and cleaner, very elegant. which do I prefer? Not sure but probably lower dosage since these champagnes are not meant to be aged. For aged Champagnes, I'm not sure I want lower dosage.

I went back to the train station and picked up three of my my friends (one was still enroute). We had a bit of time so we drove to Epernay for a quick look. Cute little town. Back to Reims, I dropped them off at VC for a tour while I went to pick up the last of our tour friend who was arriving at a different trains station as he was coming in from Belgium. His train arrived late and we were going to be late for our first tour. I RACED back (just imagine a minivan with a 5 speed stick burning rubber all the way back into Riems...). We just barely made the tour (due to in no small part that the Chef de Cave arranged for our trip and they did not want to disappoint him). We were quickly ushered back to the group and we caught up to them just before they went into the caves.

The caves at VC are much bigger. very impressive. After the tour, we were lead to a barricaded area where there was nice leather furniture and 20 foot high glass ceilings. The rest of the tour was outside having a regular VC. A person then walked into our room with a bottle of the 2002 Vintage and the 1998 La Grande Dame. We were having a private tasting! This was great. (Thanks much again Chef de Cave whom I met before). We were getting the rock start treatment! The 2002 was fresher than the ones from my memory, much less toast but more elegant again. Super clean but with a good density. The 1998 La Grande Dame, a champagne that I've had on many occasions now, tasted nothing like any of the ones I've had. This thing was straight from the caves downstairs and like the other champagnes, was simply fresher and more vibrant than any I've had. Less nose of brioche, less toast, less mushroomy, less development overall but super fresh and very powerful a pinot based champagne. I noted this to the person serving us and she said that all Champagne bottles are different but in general he agreed with me.

We got to finish off the rest of the 2002 and the LGD in that beautiful room. What a great way to start the trip.

We dragged ourselves out of the space as we had another appointment at Mumms. Mumms also gave a good tour of the facilities and caves before the tasting. the tasting room was not as nice as the others but we got to try the vintage champagnes as well. It's hard to follow LGD so I did not take notes. Suffice to say, it was not up to LDG level but it was serviceable.

We had dinner in the restaurant street of Reims and had a bottle of the Chapoutier st. Josephs.

The next day, we went to Epernay first and visited Moet & Chandon. Probably the best looking guide we had ever met show us around the facilities and then the tasting. The 2002 vintage white and rose were servced. I agree with many that these are probably the most underrated vintage wines around. For the price, they are worth a look. For not much more than a regular NV, these are wonderfully made wines. Perhaps they lack a bit in personality but they are well made.

We raced back to visit Pommery but missed our appointment. So we took an early trip through the Champagne road. Stopped at the cooperative Mailly and tried their champagnes. Pretty good, interesting at least if not entirely polished. I bought my first bottle of wine here.

WE took the LONG (lost) way to Dijon (a 3 hour drive took us almost 7.......). Tomorrow we start Burgundy.

I wanted to add here that as we had a lot of time on the road, we had visited a few gas stations, one of which we ate at. Not a bad place, an autogrill I think where they had hot fod servied cafeteria style (but looked nicer). there was this sausage that I saw and I asked what it was. I was assured that it was a regional speciality and that I would love it. It was called Andouille. For those of you that know, it is made with pig small intestine adn stomach. Let's jsut say that there is a certain aroma about things like these. While I had not issues eating it, my friends only saw their caloric intake reduced a bit more as they left some of it behind on the plate. in the battle of hunger versus aroma, the aroma had a slight lead in this case.
Trip day 3 Burgundy cote D'Or visit Gambal, L. Latour, H. Lignier, Pillot, etc
In my previous post I did not really tell you why it took so long to get to Dijon. I will today. The GSP system we used is from Garmin and they use a map set that is not the most liked when it comes to Europe. It is also highly sensitive to selections and defaults so when you select most use of motorways but no tollways, the system will put you on an extremely convoluted route to avoid tolls but as all many roads are called motorways, it will use anything from an unpaved road to full highways.

Also, I must admit that there was operator error. As we discover each default to reset, the route would change again. I swear I saw some cities three times from different directions. We also drove on our fair share of farm dirt roads.....for miles....... We'd come blasting out of the trees in our Chevy SUV at 65 miles per hour to make blind right hand turns onto major highways....just like the movies.... Exciting but I did not really need that

More than once, we had to stop to find out where we were. None of our phones were getting signals so we could not find out our current position. Our GSP was failing to do the same. Through some ingenious triangulation and just pure hopeless guessing, we pointed ourselves at an intersection that we finally drop towards and got to, not without more drama. We actually overshot this intersection by 3 miles to the west. Then on the way back, missed the highway entry and drove 6 miles further south before realizing that the GPS was taking us back in to the woods away from the highway so we turned around again and made our way back to the firs waypoint. This time we did not miss as all five guys shouted when we got there. This in itself was a major milestone as once we were there, we knew finally where we were and could finally start to go towards the right direction to Dijon.

So when we finally arrive in Dijon, a rather large city with more modern structures than I had originally envisioned. Traffic is horrible as there is a lot of road work around the new convention center. Guess what, the GPS also did not know about all the road closures and had no idea how to get around them. If I ever hear of the word "Recalculating" one more time, I will crush this $!@# GPS. We finally got into the hotel, behind a tour bus....and when their crowd subsided, we tuck in for the evening.

Blurried eyed with just a few hours of sleep, my friends and I get up. They are still looking for #$!#$!@$ drip coffee and a full breakfast. I've explained again and again that the French eat only pastries like croissants and expresso for breakfast. I'm gonna kill these guys before the end of the trip.

We drive the hour down to Beaune and find the winery of Alex Gambal which is our first stop. We had planned on being early so we leave his location and put into the GPS, hospice du Beaune that I had wanted to visit. The @#$!@# GPS took us to the new hospital in a modern suburb of the city. I'm gonna crush this thing at the end of the trip@#$!@#$!. I pull out a map and reset my personal orientation and drove back into the city. We wound an entry way from the ring road into the town of Beaune and park BESIDE the Hospice de Beaune. What a beautiful place. As we had a bit of time, we went into the Hospice and walked around. Humbling indeed the work that the nurses and nuns did here.

We ran back to the car for the appointment with Alex. Got there just in time to find Alex entertaining a crowd from Hong Kong. They were getting married in France and were trying Alex's wine for the event. We got to try the lineup as well. Alex let us know that the wines had in fact been open for four days. As we were tasting the 2009’s they look like long term keepers. My notes are cryptic as we were pretty sleep deprived by this time.

Whites

2009 Chassagne Montrachet - very nice nose, fully of fresh lemons, lemon rind, some ripeness and tropical fruits like Pineapple, nicely put together.

2009 Saint Aubin – A bit more austere up front, more lime then lemon and more minerally than the CM

2008 Chassagne Montrachet – very perfumey nose, less ripe and structure than the 09.

2008 Chassagne Montrachet 1er cru Clos st. Jean – a bit more structured than the stock CM, teeth tingling acidity and good minerality but fruit appeared to be muted.

2008 Corton Charlemagne – Rich, much more ripe and density, apples, vanilla, more expressive.

Reds

2009 Savigny Les Beaune VV – the vines are apparently more than 50 years old. Alex noted that the 09 season was just perfect, perfectly ripe pips, high levels of tannins resulting in lovely wines. This was one of them, lovely bright berries, crunchy but tight, good balance and always noticing the freshness. Remember, this was opened many days ago.

2009 Chorey les Beaune – perhaps more approachable than any other bottle, can be drunk now frankly, a bit more tart than SLB but very pretty, a bit more structure.

2009 Volnay 1er En Chevret – deeper and spicy than Chorey les Beaune, deep darker berries on the palate, but a bit austere mid palate, very clean, very long.

2009 Clos Vougeot GC – Deep dark nose of berries and floral, nicely structured. Saw 2/3 new oak. Lovely indeed.

2008 Clos Vougeot GC – this was from parcels on the top of the hill. Very aromatic nose, tons of minerals in the nose, bright red fruit, very focused and lifted.

2007 Clos Vougeot GC- very pretty nose, bright red fruit, a bit reserved, minerally again, definitely felt like hillside fruit, nice smooth texture, very fresh.

Alex was nice enough to take us on a tour of his facilities. He showed us the results of many years of hard work, the new fermentation area and equipment he used, the caves and stored bottles. Through it all, you saw a man that was very pragmatic about his life experiences, which is frankly quite refreshing after Champagne. We bought a few bottles and thanked him for his time. We would be meeting up with his wife Diane tomorrow for a full day.

We had a few hours so we took off for lunch to Café Madeline just a short walk from Alex’s place. Great place for lunch if a bit pricey for us. The wines are stored on the walls so that you just have to pick them yourselves. The restaurant charges you for the wine and a 6 euro corkage fee. We sat down with a 2009 Beaujolais that went well with a small salad and a great but tiny Beouf Bourgogne. After that, we made our way to Louis Latour.

Louis Latour’s offices are located in the town but they do not stand out like Napa wineries. This was like any other pretty but old building (except for the small courtyard) with a small sign outside that announced the domaine. We had a guide that took us out to the Corton hills for a tasting at the mansion. I was looking forward to this as I has never seen the Corton Hills. Everyone says you can’t miss the Corton hills when you are driving in Cote D’Or and they were right. It stands out in front of you like a large goaltender in net. We drop up to the house and walked into the vineyards. It was great to see people working the vines and to see the soils.

A quick tour of the facilities was followed by a walk down into the cellars two floors down. We saw bottles as old as 1870 Cortons before we were lead into another very dark room for our tasting. 3 whites and 3 reds. There was an interruption in the tasting but I’ll explain later. All the bottles were just opened as we tasted.

2009 Maison Louis Latour – Montagne 1er Cru La Grand Roche – white flowers on the nose, lemon zest, minerally, banana??, long finish.

2009 Maison Louis Latour Grand ardeche – more density, more oaky perhaps less floral and attractive but decent. Good acidity and medium length.

2009 Maison Louis Latour Meursault Blagny – lessy, tight almost like Sauvignon Blanc nose with zipy acidity but lacking fruit. Good persistence. Perhaps needed some more air

2009 Maison Louis latour Marsanny – Fresh strawberries but a bit herby

2009 Domaine Louis Latour – Beaunes Vignes Fraches – much better in structure and a bit smokey. Berries, strawberries,, good length, very fresh and lovely.

At this point, the entire group hears a high pitched, almost static like yell right behind one of the members of the group. There is no one else on the property and certainly no one else in the caves. A few seconds later, all the lights go out……. We all pull out our cell phones for some illumination and follow our guide out. Out in the light we saw several French military plane flying overhead. It felt like we walked into a battle zone. Our guide walks around to see if she could find the problem with the lights. She is visibly nervous by what happened and what she heard downstairs. She find a way to rest the power and because we had not finished the tasting, we all headed back down into the basement….. ? Seriously….. she’s a trooper. Why did we go back down?

2009 Corton Grand Cru – Now this is much much more like it. This is a good bottle. Very pure, fresh, super smooth, silky, berries, great structure and very night length. We joke around a bit, perhaps the alcohol was giving us a bit of strength…stupidity… who knows. Nice way to finish the tasting and we headed back up to the surface only this time to be greeted by the start of rain. Good timing.

Tomorrow, more Burgundy.


Burgundy Day 4, Lignier, Senard, and Pillot
It was day two and it started out with rain. It had rained for four days straight now. Everyone noted that it had been sunny and hot for months before we arrived. The day we arrived, it rained. Oh well, at least it was good for the grapes.

We were meeting with Diane Williams Gambal today (a bit more on her later, she is a great guide). She runs a boutique tour company called Hidden France where she delivers custom tours. We had met her obviously through Alex. We were to pick her up in Gevrey Chambertain’s rail station in the morning. Not to continue to pick on the GPS but you’d think that a town’s rail station would be on there…..guess again. So we drove down to GC and asked the locals. That worked pretty well actually. Stopped for café and croissant (yes…they were still asking for drip coffee, thinking that a town such as GC might yield for them. ….I’m guessing by now that the first Dunkin Donut coffee machine they see when they get back, they might just become romantically involved with).

Picked up Diane who gave us a great little intro to Burgundy, specifically Cote D’Or and we were off. With Diane at the wheels, it gave us some time to see the vineyards as they rolled past, one by one. The names that we had worshipped rolled by like regular beats, so frequent were they. First stop Hubert Lignier. Some of us will know that his son had passed away a few years ago and that his widow and the family no longer get along. So Hubert has started up a new winery with his younger son and we got to taste the fruits of this effort.

2010 Chambolle Musigny – Nose of leather, crushed berries, very balanced, fruity and pretty What a great start

2010 Morey Saint Denis – A bit more austere, but great elegance and just beautiful in the mouth.

2010 Gevry – A bit darker and deeper in fruit than the other two, a hint of malo still going on (in the toungue), but good structured wine. Perhaps a bit less charm than the CM.

2010 Pommard – wow, great nose, ripe berries, certainly more pommard in character. Smooth, super smooth texture and tannins, fully bodied and great structure.

2010 Nuit St George – Also still finishing the malo, wonderful wine, very pure fruit and again, great mouth texture and elegant. These are wines that will be really great to drink with a bit of bottle age.

2010 MSD Les Riottes 1er Cru – New wood and very structured, a bit closed right now but shows depth and great potential.

2010 Mores Saint Denis !er Cru VV – Like some of the barrels here, also just completing malo, very deep fruit, floral but still tight, great structure and super length.

2010 Clos de la Roche – super nose, bright fruit, wonderful purity, elegant, super structure and great persistence. I’m gonna look for this one when it hits the market even through I know that it’s tripel digit prices are gonna hurt.

Then Hubert disappears for a few minutes only to show up with a smile on his face and two bottles of 2009 that were in fact getting ready for bottling.

2009 Assemblage MSD – deeper tones of color than 2010, slightly thicker and denser, almost a bit sweeter in sensation but wines are fully dry. Beautiful pure fruit, perfect balanced between power and acidity.

2009 MSD Ier Cru (missed vineyard) – Just fantastic. I had ripe deep fruits that seem to go on forever, extremely elegant. Super smooth mouth texture, good balance, great length, and ripe tannins. I could drink this now. Loved it. He has every reason to smile with wines like this!

His son showed us the cottage that they had just finished so that they could rent it out. We met with a closure salesman on the site as well. We thank Hubert and his son for their time and tastings. Hubert had another meeting and we saw him jump into an old white 205 hatchback and drove off. I’ll never forget this tasting.

More vineyard visits, and we stopped on top of the Corton hills by the Madonna to take pictures. That’s when the sky opened up and really let us have it. Could not see the sights from the corton hills so we headed off to lunch at Domaine Comte Senard. Both a winery and a restaurant (that needs reservations as some of the food is catered). I’ve not seen nor had wines from this domaine but there were a few interesting wines to try.

2008 Aloxe Corton Village Pinot Gris…..yes Pinot Gris or as they say Pinot Beurre planted in 1938. This was apparently grandfathered. Light yet floral, good minerals, a hint of butter, high acidity. Needs food to go as it is a bit austere otherwise, but interest fact is high

2003 Aloxe Corton Grand Cru, - this is yet another anomaly, a white grown in a red only area. So it is classified as a Corton White. A bit fat due to the vintage but holding up well.

2009 Corton Village – Bright berries, a bit thin and acidic, vervy for sure, pleasant but needs food

2006 Corton !er Cru Las Valoziere, velverty tannins, ripe fruit, a bit of herbs and a bit hot on the finish.

We tried a few other wines but I stopped taking notes. The newer wines are much better but they have brought out lunch, scalloped potatoes and beouf borgogne. Great meal! I loved it.

Senard’s claim to fame? It has one of the few formally recognized true monopoles in burgundy. That would be the Senard Clos des Meix. On the way out, we see the Comte. He was driving a small Caterpillar with tools in the front. Off to work on the land!

A bit about Diane Williams Gambal. She first of all is a great person to work with. I would have no problems suggesting that you get in touch with her on putting together trips. She does trips to pretty much all wine regions in France and others. She also does bike tours. She is a past US Olympic ski team member and coach. On top of that, she is extremely humble, knowledgeable about the people and the wines and she is great company. We had a blast with her.

More vineyard and town visits and a final stop at Fernard et Laurent Pillot’s operations. Although I drink Paul Pillot’s stuff regularly, I have never heard of F&L. Apparently (by the road signs that show that there are many Pillot operations) they are cousins. In the area, there is a saying that if you are looking for a date, go to a family reunion……..

Fernand and Laurent came out to meet us, they are a young couple that both finish oenology school together. Fernand makes the whites and Laurent makes the reds. I must say that the wines here are wonderful. I would buy them if I saw them but the whites are definitely the sweet spot.

2009 Chassagne Montrachet – a bit heavy on the oak, but time will pull this in, lemony long finish, good acidity and verviness.

2010 Chassagne Montrachet Les Verger 1er Cru, Nose of apricot, lemon, very nice structured, tense wine, good balanced and minerality

2009 Chassagne Montrachet Vide Borse 1er Cru (very near Batard Montrachet) – Lemony, citrus rind, grapefruit, oak is a bit intrusive now, but not yet integrated

2009 Chassagne Montrachet Grandes Ruchotts – more steep side of the slope. Very different nose, and profile, a bit more citrusy and pineapples, good ripeness and texture.

2009 Meursault Les Caillerests 1er Cru – Citrusy nose, but fully denser body, somewhat more mealy as Meursaults should be, lovely, on Volnay side of Meursault meaning a bit more minerality in the wine.

2007 Chassagne Montrachet Vide Borse 1er Cru – Closed and needed much air, great texture, elegant and good structure, bits of pineapple. Lovely.
2009 Pommard Tavannes (located below Epernot) – bright cherries, a bit of herbiness, quite a big structure, tart almost a bit citrusy, tannic and not very charming at this point. Tough but perhaps time will mellow out this large wine.

2009 Pommard Clos de Verger 1er Cru – Deep berries, some herbal notes again, big nose but still some indicating some hidden power medium density, nicely structured with a long finish and tannic at the back.

2009 Pommard Les Charmot 1er Cru – A bit of leather, very structured, very tight, hidden power, good fruit density but still very elegant.

2009 Pommard Les Rugien 1er Cru – Big boy wine, lots of tannins, big fruit, red berries, blue berries, long finish. Quite the bruiser.

2005 Pommard Les Rugien 1er Cru – 100% new oak, but oak has been absorbed, clean line of fruit on nose and palate, structured, tigher toned acidity, nicely done!

We ended the evening going through many other vineyards and then dropping Diane off with Alex. They were planning a three week trip to the US and needed to get started on the packing! We picked up our order from Alex and headed back to town for the dinner.

We had dinner at Ma Cusine in Beaune. What a great place for dinner. The meals were absolutely great. Flavours were spot on perfect. We shared a bottle of 1967 Remoissenet Morey Saint Denis that was still in very good shape. Solid wine and something different than what we’ve had all day.

1967 Remoissenet Morey Saint Denis Village – colour is bricking but still solid. Nose is a bit portly and a bit sweet. This must have been a reasonably ripe wine in its youth. Not much complexity but this shows what an aged (Cripes 43 years old) pinot can taste like. Still hangs onto a bit of acidity and was surprisingly refreshing. Interesting wine for sure. Turned out that one of the travel group’s birth year was 1967.

Day 5 Chablis: Christian Moreau
Day five of trip, day three in Burgundy. We were bloody tired now as we really have not slept much. Two hours here, three hours there and the hotels rooms while clean are not exactly palatial. Most of our car rides now consist of one guy driving and four guys snoring away while a GPS continues to recalculate the route….

We had an appointment in Chablis with Christian Moreau. I’ve long admired his wines for their finesse and power. I love the stuff. We drove up a bit early and had a chance to drive up to the Grand Cru hills behind the town. What a great view. The grapes were clearly behind those lower in Burgundy and the soils much more closely resembled those of Champagne than Cote D’Or. This is why we travelled all this way.

Drove back into town and had a great intro with Christian. We are warmly greated in his office. He notes that he needed to pick up his grandson so our tasting might be a bit shorter. Once inside, his operations, he give us a quick tour of the production facilities. I had not known that it was in fact his son that has been producing the wines since 2001. Lively conversation and onto the wine tasting. Christian himself is pouring. We are taking pictures of him, his son and the facilities when Christian pulls out an Iphone and starts to take pictures of us! The great Moreau wanted pics of us! Wonders never cease. Fabien (his son) is racking the wines in the background and Christian is telling us of his background while we taste. He has lived one helluva life! You can tell that he still lives and breathes Chablis and the wines. This is a man with Passion. We tell him that we have been in Cote D’or the last few days and he asks us “they make wine down there??” grinning. Quite the character, quite the man.

2010 Chablis – Lemony, very fresh, good scidity, very minerally, and super fresh. Medium finish.

2010 Chablis 1re Cru Vaillion – Finish is much longer than the base Chablis and everything else is a bit more heightened.

2010 Chablis Valdesir 1er Cru – Finished malo in January! Very long, very elegant, more of everything in this wine. Lovely and I did not want to spit.

2009 Valmur Grand Cru - Great mouthfeel, good balance, minerally, great texture. Gonna look for this one, nicely complex.

2009 Le Clos – Very elegant, larger wine but with restrained power. Did not spit either.

2008 Valmur – very nice, a bit more verviness, but restrainted right now. Perhaps needs much more air.

Great visit. Glad that the people behind the wines you love are great people and not just that but great characters!
Day 6 and 7 Bordeaux

We left Burgundy feeling great about the wine and the people that were behind them. Never had we felt closer to the product, the land and the producers. Three days of trekking up and down the region only leaves you with the need to return for a much longer period of time.

It was with this mindset we set off for Bordeaux. We drove from Dijon down to Lyon to drop the car off and then took a short flight to Bordeaux. It was in this flight that I found the best place in the world to exchange British Pounds for Euros….on an EasyJet flight. When most places were giving me about 0.85 euros per pound (for 50 GBP), I gave the flight attendant my 50 GBP and got in exchange 56 euros and a coke! Gotta remember that.

Day 6

First stop was an early morning visit to St. Emilion and Chateau Troplong Mondot. We stopped off at the town first to see if I could get a memory card for my camera and some breakfast. We had smelled the croissants baking from miles away….we walked around the visitor’s center and onto the ledge where the cafes were and wow…..the view our was insane. You look over the town and then into the vineyards. This was a breathtaking view. I will definitely return here just for the view alone.

But onto the first session with Troplong Mondot. I’ve enjoyed the wines from here in the past so was interested to see the ops. You drive past the town and up into the vineyards. They are by the watertower that they try to hide with tall trees. Facilities are immaculate and the new cave is very nice though I could have done without the Crystal lamps hanging down above the barrels. Quite the difference from Burgundy!!. The spittoon was the waterfall of wines that is behind us. Nice tasting room. They also showed us the hall that can be rented out now. The wine tasted was a 2006 which is great as I’ve not had that one yet.

2006 Chateau Troplong Mondot – deep in color, we are in Bordeaux and Saint Emilion at that. Nose is very tight dark fruits, tobacco, cedarwood, a bit of menthol and spices. On the palate, also a bit reserved but lush and smooth, taste per palate, some nice crush stones on the minerality front. Long finish good structure.

Next visit was Pape Clement and that was back in Bordeaux area so we made a mad dash back across and arrived on time. More evidence of money. If I had time to play golf, I would not see lawns as perfectly manicured as this one. The gardens were impressive. The facilities were impressive. Church choral music would start as we moved through the wine storage rooms. The reserved wines were mostly in large formats so definitely size envy for the big boys club. But tasting was back in the retail area. I had not known that you could buy wine at the Chateau in Bordeaux so was unprepared for this. We tried a trio of wines from the B Margrez stable.

2009 Chateau Frombrough AC Bordeaux: 40% Semillion, 40% Sauvignon Blanc, 20% (could not catch) I thought it was oxidized, my friend thought it was corked. They opened up another bottle for us. The cellar master appeared to taste the wines and confirmed that they are as they should be. The second bottle was a bit fresher but over a very short period of time, I thought mine became quickly oxidized and my friend thought it was corked. Either way, not something I wanted to drink . Slightly smokey, more oxidized characteristics, a bit orangey, quite the structure but nothing to return to.

2007 La Crois de Perennes: Almost bakery like, cake on the nose, blueberry, mostly merlot we were told, tannic still but medium length with short finish, oak is intrusive. Not excited. Funny thing, the large French group that is in there tasting with us are buying tones of the wines.

2007 Pape Clement: Lush to watch on pour, deep dark berries, a touch of herbs but pleasant, it is very tight, a bit of mushroom on the nose that grows larger with more air. Highly structured. Good wine but compared to the 2007 Pavie I had the other day, this is leagues behind for the same vintage.

I walk back out into the vineyards, the grapes appear to be several weeks behind the ones from Saint Emilion. Terroir?? I was greatful for the visit and the guides were great but today the wines did not show that well.

The day ended with a tasting at Lynch-Bages. We had a bit of time so went up to Pauillac for lunch along the river. Lovely but expensive so we just ate omlettes. We walked around the rehab village that the Cazes are putting money into. Lovely places, especially the bakery where we dropped some serious euros. I also ended up buying a few things at the gift shop. The tour at Lynch-Bages was great and we had a great tasting, the first of many 2010 barrel samples.

2005 Haut Bages Averous 59% CS, 26% Merlot, 15% CF – Very nice, elegant deep dark berries, medium bodied and length, not totally integrated yet, bit of wood still out there, but solid, slightly spicy, good acidity and persistence. Just a hint of austerity midpalate more likely due to the phase that it is in.

2004 Lynch Bages 84% CS, 9% Merlot, 5% CF, 2% PV – a very clean nose, deep fruit driven, nicely balanced, elegant, a bit austere again but bottle was just opened. A bit of black tea at the end of the palate. Medium + bodied, and good length.

2010 Lynch Bages Barrel Sample – 79% CS, 13% Merlot, 7% CF, 1% PV. WOW, this is an intense and thought provoking wine. I’ve never had a barrel sample quite like this, in that I would have taken it to dinner if they gave it to me! Blackberries, blue berries, intense nose, dense, explosive is the right word. But over it all a great balanced, nothing poking out, great structure is unobtrusive under the wine and the fruit but focus in on it and it is massive. Great acidity, great freshness. Long persistence, I could taste it all the way back to Bordeaux. We DRANK most of this bottle while in the tasting room. It would be probably the wine of the trip if not number two but always right up there. Insane experience. I will remember this one for a long time. I’m glad I’ve got my hands on a few even though they are much more expensive than the 09’s

Day 7 Bordeaux

Today was to be another long day of tasting or so we thought. First up was Pontet Canet. We have been fans of Pontet Canet for many years as it was always the little wine that punched well above its weight but more recently, the prices have been ,…well,….high. It is no longer for us the value option, this year at $179 a bottle, it is now priced outside of what we want to spend on wine (but I still got some.).

2010 – Bottles in July 18, 65% CS, 30% M, 4% CF, 1% PV – We tasted in the barrel room. They noted that this is the area for the professionals to taste so we were appreciative but frankly, there are so many aromas in the barrel room that it is hard to taste in there. It is hard to smell beyond the aromas of the room and so to some of my friends the PC lagged behind the LB if only by a bit. This wine is explosive as well. Tannic to be sure, but the black fruit is all over the palate. Tight but elegant and full bodied, I now understand the term precision in a red wine. Ripe and lush texture and super long finish but still fresh. Forbiddemal.

2008 – Frankly quite similar to 2010 in profile, but berries and oak is not quite integrated. Very pretty on the nose full bodied and greath length. Classic but does not reach the highs of the 2010.

Mouton Rothschild – I had been calling and sending in letters to no response. I found out why. They are closed to visitors due to the renovations to the Chai…err…new Chai. Lovely location

Lafite Rothschild – I had not appointment and thus no hope in hell.. still I wanted to walk the grounds and see If there were any cancellations. There were none.

Pichon Comtesse de Lalande – Beautiful property.
2004 Pichon Lalande was available for tasting – very pure wine, very pretty, cedary, elegant, grippy and still needs time. Great nose, deep dark berries, slightly sweet almost, some soy. 53% CS, 35% M 5% CF, 7% PV. Good supple body. Very enjoyeable.

We were suppose to go to Branaire Ducru which I’ve enjoyed more of lately but my our car was broken into so we had to spend the rest of the afternoon with the Gendarmerie……

Oh well…….

Day 7 and 8 Cognac and Pineau
Hoping to program a bit of a break into our agenda, I decided to drag the group up to Cognac for the weekend. We were suppose to be in Cognac the first day and Jarnac the second but some changes we made due to the incident in Pauillac the day before.

So Saturday still progressed well for us. A tasting a Hennessy started the day. There was the SHORT boat ride across the river (they should’ve just built a bridge but then they would not get any style points) to the caves. Interesting to see how they would discuss wines that are really too thin to drink yet perfect for distillation. In the barrel rooms, some barrels went back to 1890’s. We also visited Otard and the old castle.

The highlight of the day really was the visit at Remy Martin’s. I opted for a custom visit that included a tasting and dinner at the old family estate so we would visit both the downtown site and the actually estate. We had a great hostess walk us around. She was an American from Georgia and was extremely pleasant to work with. I learned that Extra was not being discontinued and being replaced with something called Diamant (SP?). The $400 Extra was deemed to be insufficient of a step between XO and Louis XIII so Diamant will be priced at $1000. They had a few Extras left in the building so I asked for one. After a tasting with specific appetizers, we got a limo to the estate and another tour of the site (including where they held the Louis XIII’s).

She then lead us to the dining area and our jaws dropped. The old (in production until a few years ago) distillery room was our private dining room. This room was incredible. Our five guys had one dedicated chef and one server. The food was spot on great (the finger foods and appetizers were some of the best of our trip and the desserts were incredibly hard to make so we foodies appreciated that effort). The wines and Remy were poured without hesistation. It was a great evening. While the price was a bit high (and frankly it really wasn’t), you could not replace that level of personal attention, the products served to us and the locations that were used for our session at anywhere remotely approaching this price. I highly recommend anyone who is coming here with a group to seek out this experience. We won’t forget this one shortly.

The next day we went for a qui ck visit to Leopold Gourmel but we must have crossed up a bit as Leopold was not there. He called the next day to apologize in person, I did not take this to be anything but completely honests and frankly I could have made the mistake. So instead of heading to Jarnac, we headed back to Cognac to let our friend off to catch a train. We went off instead looking for Pineau. WE found a producer so we headed west in search of him. We found his place out in the countryside with the requisite real farm and family setup. This was a real operation. The proprietary with his young daughter at his side (4 year old and very clingy of dad) lead us to the production facilities and then his store. His pineau was great. His name was Paul Bossuet and we bought a few bottles from him. On the way out, we drove by him and his daughter and we stopped to say thank you again. Paul told us that his daughter was now interested in seeing China. I told her that China is a beautiful place but be sure to stop first in Hong Kong ?……

We went to the town of Saintes where a full on street market scene was in session. We bought a bunch of food, sausages, paella, road side roasted chicked, fruits ,etc,…. Had a great lunch in the park. No spoons so the mussels served as the spoons for the paella.
Day 10 Sauternes

After a lovely weekend up in Cognac, we headed back to Bordeaux and prepared ourselves for more wine. But this was also meant to be a change for the taste buds. We were heading south to Sauternes.

Our first visit was Chateau Guiraud, one of my fav's. This is one pretty property. The LONG front drive up to the Chateau is lined with hugh trees that give this estate a very grand feeling. The resulting impresion is once again very different than Bordeaux which has a certain shall we say bling to it. This felt aristocratic.

The property is 128 hectares with abuot 100 planted. They made a change towards organic vinticulture in 1996 and will be certified this year. muscadelle, Sauvignon Blanc, Semillion and Sauvignon Gris are planted on the property.

A quite tour of the chateau and production facilities will yield some nice picts. I love it when they stack up the bottles of liquid gold without the labels yet as they always make interesting pics. Apparently the 2009's have been bottles very recently as they are just cleaning up all the equipment and tanks. One thing I learned on this trip is how they stop fermentation when there is so much sugar left in the wine.

We got to try to 2006 bottle. Nose is very interesting, has a bit of peppermint on it, great freshness, very pretty, fruity, pineapple, caramel, good length, hint of tea at the end. Lovely.

While I've read that you cannot buy wines from the winery, some places seem to be prepared for this as they have effectively a store for you to browse through or a list that you can pick from. This was true at Pontet Canet, Pichon Lalande, Pape Clement,and now at Guiraud (and later La Tour Blanc and Chateaux Gruaud Larose). Prices are not good by US standards but actually not bad by international standards (where they may have high taxes)Guiraud was also testing 100mL crewcap bottles that looked like test tubes. Interesting design and also acknowledges that somethings like Icewine makes, even a half bottle might be too much. So 100 mL is good to share with two people. I bought a 1996 100mL bottle home with me.

Our GPS which has proven itself to become a bit more successful with the streets of Bordeaux once again became useless within Sauternes. It got us to our first place great but it was hopelessly lost trying to get us to La Tour Blanche...which is not a small site. I liked their 2001's so decided to see what they are about since they are structured very differently, as a cooperative. Certainly a nice building awaited us but with less of the panache and bling of Bordeaux or even Guirand. They grow 80% Semillion, 15% sauvignon Blanc and 5% muscadelle. WE tasted through their range fo dry,second and first wines. Lovely stuff but I will have to locate my tasting notes for here. I was able to purchase from here, a 1977 bottle that we opened for Christoph at Le Piane but turned out to be oxidized. My heart sank tehre as I had been looing forward to a cellar direct bottle but the cork had somewhat failed here.

Looking for a place for lunch on Monday in Sauternes is not an easy task. We wanted to have lunch in the town but Le Sapien, a nice and "only" restaurant was closed so we had to look elsewhere.

Our GSP had no idea where Chateau d'Yquem was. We were tight on the timeline and no blood GPS was gonna keep me away from YQUEM!!! There are signs to the property that we saw. We knew where the property was so finally we found an unpaved road and headed in. Up on the hills loomed a silhouette that I knew well, even the well manicured trees. It was Yquem. but no one wa around. It took a few minutes of running aournd to find the right door adn then we were lead into the waiting room. Beautiful site. Great little tour and the tasting was of the yet to be released 2008.

This wine is very light in color, much like 2001 was whe first released. Nose is very floral, honey, apricots and a hint pf tropical fruits like mangos and pineapple. Not overtly explosive on the nose like other vintages, On the palate, much the same, medium light bodied but very pure very focused yquem. It is very elegant and while I would normally complain that this wine lacked the chassis of a bigger wine, I noticed how "comfortable" my mouth felt after drinking this, and that the persistence would last until we got back to Bordeaux. This is not the best from Yquem, but only Yquem can make a wine like this.

We drove around more, got incredible lost , ended up in many vineyards on one way roads..... drove by the incredible renovation at Fargues. and had a happy journey back to Bordeaux where we ate at La Tupina. Not a bad day at all!!!!
Day 11 Chateau Gruaud Larose and Cos d’Estournel
The trip was starting to click now for most of the group. It was definitely a group question and answer period when we visited the chateaus so everyone had a good time bugging our assigned staffer. This was our last day in Bordeaux and France and up to bat were Chateau Gruaud Larose and Cos d’Estournel, so sandwiching Pauillac with visits to Saint Julien Beychevelle and Saint Estephe.

We drove around for a bit before we found Ch. Gruaud Larose. It is in behind some of the residential areas of St. Julien and our GSP continued its useless track record. Thank god for the Iphone….

I had met representatives from Ch. G-L while at a couple of UGC events earlier this year so had contacted them about a visit. The estate is meticulously manicured and they even flew the flags of the countries from where the visitors were coming! This is quite the red carpet rollout. The tour is informative. I’ve never seen an anti hail gun before. We were wondering about the mega weather station we had seen attached to the side of one of the buildings and it turns out that it gave information as to when to use the hail gun. Apparently it is quite effective but I’m not sure I want to be around when it is firing.

2002 Sarget de Larose (80% CS 11% Merlot and others). I was surprised when they pulled this out as I’m not sure that I would show a second label from a poor vintage but this was on purpose. They wanted us to see that even in a poor vintage this wine is currently drinking well. And in fact it was. Slightly medium light bodied, quite balanced and elegant in a more quiet way, slightly herby but in a manner that I like more as a calling card for G-L. Would be a perfectly good wine for a meal.

2001 Chateau Gruaud Larose (55% CS, 35% Merlot, 7$ CF, 3% PV), more lush and ripe due to higher merlot percentage. A bit closed for me right now but can certainly see that the structure is there to hold the wine for a while.
2010 Chateau Gruaud Larose Barrel Sample: a bit more restrained from some of the barrel samples that we have tried. Typically G-L with good complexity and some herby traits, minerally, big structure and lush but not as big as say a Pontet Canet.

Next stop we took the backroads to Cos d’Estournel. We have seen pics of this for a long time. I had expected in fact a bigger building but in person, Cos looks surprising compact compared to its contemporaries. The site at G-L was much bigger. None the less, an interesting building with an instant wow factor both outside and to our surprise, inside. They have spent a fortune inside the building. The visitor hall is massive and looks into the even larger tank rooms. The barrel Chai looks like something out of a James Bond movie, the way its lit and we see it from a glass floord bridge from above. The private stock room is equally as impressive.

2010 Pagodes de Cos Barrel Sample. This is a very nice bottle. It is a very large wine but there is brightness in the fruit, vrush berries, minerality, good focus for a red, great structure and frankly I can’t believe that this is not a first wine except that it is 2010 where first wines are even better. Wonderful freshness

2010 Cos d’Estournel: The nose explodes out of the glass. I was three feet away and I was knocked down by the aromas from the glass. Large but structured wine, sark fruits and berries, crunchy berries, still elegant supter smooth and lush, very long and minerally . Some tea on the finish and while tannic, it does not beat you up entirely. This is an impressive wine and while I had thought that I would be tasting a more portish wine, it had similar balance and size (perhaps a touch bigger) to the Lynch Bages we had tasted a few days ago so not entirely overblown for the vintage.
It was an interesting way to close out Bordeaux regardless.

Day 12 and on Italy (Boca and Piedmont)
I know that it’s been a few days since my last installment and almost three weeks since I’ve come back but (1) I’ve been crazy busy and (2) it only feels like yesterday for me, especially Italy. The people we meet were SO NICE. If thought the French were crazy nice but the Italians, they really wanted you to have a good time.

We took a short ride from Bordeaux to Milan on Easyjet again. Picked up our rental and went to Boca to meet with the owner/wine maker of Le Piane Christoph Kunzli. First of all, those of you who have never tasted the wines of Le Piane, go and look for them. They are very unique I’ve been fortunate enough to taste though more than my fair share of his wines now and they are all great wines from a very unique location. This man is on a one-man-mission.

Boca use to be one of the largest wine regions in Italy. One generation ago, there were 10,000 Hectares of vines in Boca, now its in the dozens. One generation. Christoph, on tasting the wines of the one gentleman who made serious wines still in the area, felt the strong urge to protect, preserve and bring back heritage to the area. He told me that he went to a school to talk about the vineyards and the children had not idea that they were living in a wine region, one of the largest only a few decades ago. This man is a hero to all of us who are drawn to these types of wines. Wines that are compelling and are of a place and only of that place. You could tell a wine from Boca in a lineup of Barolos without any difficulty, that is how strong this terrior imposes itself on the grapes. The wines are very compelling indeed.

We met Christoph in the middle of town. Christoph told us to follow him to his truck so we could see the vineyard. We told him that we could follow in our minivan but he kindly suggested that might not be a great idea. So off to his truck we go and very quickly we got to see why. Those that have been with him on tours call it a Safari ride. We now understand why. IT IS STEEP and IT IS THICK with vegetation. Our rental minivan would not have lasted 2 minutes in these environments. We got off the truck at one of the older plots. We saw trellising systems that we had never seen before. They would grow a couple of vines together and then trellis them in the form of a square ring and then up almost like fruit trees. I’ve never seen anything like that before, almost as unique as the basket style vines of Santorini.

With this trellising system, Christoph found that it provided some protection against hail damage and that the most damage the hail could do was to 25% of the crop or the side that was facing the hail storm. The trellising also went rather high. This was going to be constant in Italy in the places that we went. In France, the trellising is rather low but in Italy for Nebbiolo and other varietals we saw, the top of the wines went just over 6 feet. Almost everyone said that Nebbiolo needs the additional exuberance of the taller vines to ripen. Chrisptoph also plants fairly dense, at about 5500 plants per acre, which he felt give just enough competition for the grapes. The vines are also planted on extremely steep slopes. 45% and higher grade makes this a difficult task to harvest the wines.

We tasted though the barrel samples of ’08, ’09 and ’10. They were great wines with great structure and clearly were able to see Boca through the wines. That citrusy warmth in the wines. Kracher (yes before he passed on) once spoke of Christoph’s wines as being white wines with a red sweater on it. I could not come up with a better description. We tasted through his ‘07’s ‘06’s, magnum bottle syrahs only, etc, .etc,…. And some bottles with no labels that were bottled by the previous owner. He thinks that they are ’70 and ’71. Both were insanely great bottles. Mature with age but oh delicious and balanced. Great sense of balance in the wines. Calm and serene. Just a joy to be able to try some of these incredibly old bottles. I cannot thank him enough for his time, knowledge and his friendship.

We stayed in Turin, won’t do that again now that we know we can stay in Alba……. Why? Because Alba and Barolo are GORGEOUS! Remember that we had just come from the rolling hills of Champagne, and the valley that is Burgundy, and the cute town of Chablis, etc,… and our mouths dropped. The rolling hills in the Barolo area are truly spectacular. The town are located all at the top of the hills, and the look down into a puzzle of hills and vineyars with different vine orientations. And something about the Italian sun, just looks different…oh I forgot, we never got sun for 14 days in France……

First stop of the day was Sandrone. We got soooo lost trying to get ther it was not funny. We meet with Barbara Sandrone at the front door and she was just so kind to us as we walked in. They showed us around the facility, obviously very proud of the things that they are doing as they should be. The we got to see one of the vineyards up close and personal. It was a 22 mile drive out. I love driving in this area, it is spectacular. The vineyard is a nebbiolo (mostly) vineyard called Valmaggiore. It is super steep and it is just pretty. Barbara hiked up this hill in slippers (we all wearing hiking gear..) and she showed us the soil and the ancient clam shells in the soil.

We tasted through many of Sandrone’s wines:

(1) 2010 Dolcetto: No new oak, just SS for 10 months, very fresh berries, cherries, tight but still showing tones of fruit. Great structure for a little Dolcetto! Delish!

(2) 2009 Babera D’Alba: berries, cherries, very feep fruit, tones of concerntraction. Oaky on the nose, and palate, high toned acidity. Lots of concentration.

We also tasted the three nebbiolo based wines (two Barolos) but we did this over a lunch that Barbara brought us to a restaurant for. Great food, we got go talk to Barbara a bit more and appreciate her time and knowledge on the subject. Lunch as FANTASTIC and the three Barolos were wonderful. We thank them for the wonderful hospitality.

2009 Sandrone Nebbiolo Valmaggiore: This is a rather feminine wine for me, very pretty, floral, perfumed and elegant. Nose of of strawberry, berries, and minerals. Wonderful focus in the mouth, very eleant., better than many's barolo's. And yet in it, almost....a hint of citrus, a la BOCA which is actually not too far away from it.....

2007 Barolo Le Vigne is one big step up. This bottle is very good and frankly I'm not sure what I prefer more, this or the Cannubi. Big on the nose, ripe berries and cherries, but with an elegance that makes it so nice to try, Minerals all around this puppy.

2007 Barolo Cannubi: An even more compact and powerful wine than the LE Vigne, but losing none of that elegance, this wine is also extremely good. Berries an dcherries, a bit of oak, but really elegant with this power, impressive to drink even now and I know I'm missing most of this wine.

In the afternoon we went to Conterno Fantino. We meet with the brother sister team and again, just great people to meet. Very open with their time. Our meeting occurred during a large storm and hail that knocked power out more than once to the region. We tasted through a few bottles.
2009 Bastia Chardonnay: a bit heavy on the oak, butterscotch, with a bit of pineapples, a bit off dry? Ripe.

2010 Dolcetto D’Alba: done in stainless steel tanks, berries, plums, blueberries, a bit of detergent a first but not sure if it was not the glass itself, good tartness, a bit short

2009 Nebbiolo Ginestra: 10 months for the nebbiolo in oak, musted nose but go nebbiolo typicity on palate, structured and tannic, lacks some elegance but has some power. Tough to do now but will be fine with some time, if but a bit simple.

2008 Monpra: very tight at the moment, not open at all, tannic and closed for business but it appear to have sufficient stuffing! Would look forward to tasting this again when it opens up.

2007 Barolo Sori Ginestra: nose of leather, tobacco, a bit reserved, a bit oaky, dried fruits, strucutured, and tannic, a bit closed as well but long with muscles.

2007 Barolo Mosconi: more dense more muscular, but still very reserved right now. Tight, bits of cedar, and tobacco.

2007 Barolo Vigna del Gris: similar nose, a bit more elegant than mosconi, dried fruits, leather, big structure, rose, very reserved again, hide this in the cellar

2006 Barolo Vigna del gris: better nose, more floral than either 05 or 07, a bit more softer and more approachable now but still tight and tannic.

2005 Barolo Vigna del gris: more open but still sense that it is tight, floral, dried fruits, a bit of a nice Chinese medicinal herb on nose, a bit simple but structured. Tannins are still definitely out front.

Final visit was to Renato Ratti. Beautiful new winery, with a green roof, can’t miss this place. Malo in Stainless Steel, barrels are all 225L in French oak with some Slovanian in the mix.

2010 Barbara d’Alba: probably the most ready to drink Barbara of them all, lush, nose of berries and plum, good flavor density but not overblown. Nicely restrained.

2007 Barolo: Marcenasco: Smoother, more fruit than the others coming up, cherries, more approachable now, good length and refined.

2007 Barolo: Conca: much more focused, more density, minerally especially in the finish, more serious if that is possible to convey, while reserved and still tight. A bit of meat, bacon, a more elegant Barolo than the others, tannins are there but do not beat you up as much.

2007 Barolo: Rocche, bigger nose still, great fruit, plums, cherries, dried cherries, slighty meaty, a bit austere in the mid palate, pretty for a Barolo.

Day 15

I never wrote about this day but I'll write what I remember of this because it was useful. We had spent 15 days travelling up to this point and frankly I was also working those 15 days at night. WE had also gone the budget route and booked some inexpensive European business hotels which also means cramped. The fact that our group survived and frankly got along really well was due in no small part to the places that we say and the people that we met. It was incredible.

But day 15, we arrive early morning in Milan and the group broke up to go home in all their different ways. One of the guys stayed with me as he had never been to Milan before. We got to the Hilton Hotel in Milan early am to see if we could just drop the bags off. We must have been quite the sight so I was not expecting to be treated so nicely by a 20 something Italian reception desk. She told us we got a nice upgrade (I was a diamond member at the time).

I went to the room and opened the door. It was a palatial suite. probably 10 times bigger than any room we had spent in the last two weeks. I felt like crying. Wall to wall windows looking out over Milan, clean furniture, the place was just insane. A short shower (which real hot water) and my friend and I meet a the club house for a breakfast. two espressos later. We had fully recovered from the tough parts of the trip.

The point is this. No mater how nice the places are, the hotels, restaurants and airlines, we tried to make economical. Partly due to guilt (ok I admit this) that we did not bring our spouses (look we lived like freaking pigs and did not spend without you to which they would counter you went to some amazing places.....), we went as economical as we could but while it is easy when you are 20, you become accustomed to travel in a certain manner. 15 days with minimal food and tough nights plus working takes its toll on you.

So if that is the way you traveled too, take one night in a major city and book a really nice place to stay to decompress before you come home. It is a really nice punctuation mark on the trip.]]> https://www.wines.com/wineboard/thread-22791.html Mon, 09 Dec 2013 20:11:42 +0000 TheEngineer]]> https://www.wines.com/wineboard/thread-22791.html
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The next day I met up with my friend Sallie for church in College Park, MD (where a male-female duo from the choir sang a beautiful Haydn piece) and lunch at Calvert House known for its crab cakes. After an abbreviated garden tour in University Park, MD (the azaleas were gorgeous and about three weeks later blooming than in Fayetteville, NC) but it started to sprinkle and I didn't want to get drenched, dinner was at Proof in downtown DC. Proof has an extensive wine list and also some 2 oz. or 6 oz. pours available. I requested a 2 oz. pour of Arneis to start but they brought the 6-oz. glass and didn't charge me for the extra wine. I enjoyed this with a tempura of newly arrived asparagus, green bean and wild mushroom with lemon aioli dipping sauce (yum!) Sticking with the wild mushroom theme, I ordered chicken breast stuffed with goat cheese and wild mushrooms. It came with polenta which I enjoyed and rapini, not so much. I ordered two small pours of red wines to have with the chicken--a Bourgogne Rouge and a Regnie' Beaujolais Cru. The 2009 VIETTI ARNEIS ROERO ITALY was a straw color with transparency and was served at room temperature. As the server remarked, it was a little round for the grape variety. It had a subtle ginger note. The 2005? DOMAINE DES CROIX BOURGOGNE ROUGE was a deep purple, nearly opaque. It had an unusual scent that I liked but couldn't identify. Dark cherries is not quite accurate as a descriptor but hints of dark cherry informed the nose and palate. I liked this well enough to request a second 2-oz. pour to have with a cheese course. The 2-oz. pour of CHATEAU DU BASTY REGNIE' BEAUJOLAIS CRU (I didn't write the vintage--possibly 2009) was pretty with mostly red fruit but some deeper tones present. Nice flavor and smooth drinking. I liked it better than the server did who speaking frankly called it "gum-droppy" and "macerated." At least that indicated to me that the servers are encouraged to taste the wines on the list and be familiar with their properties. The cheese courses were listed as any 3 or any 6 selections but I wanted to order 4 (really wanted to try 6 but that was too much after two courses) so they priced in between the 3-cheese and 6-cheese prices. I had the Montgomery Cheddar (Somerset, England), a Pecorino (Italy), Humboldt Fog (California) and Blue d'Auvergne (France). I was also considering the Stilton and another. The plate contained two dates, walnut bread, honey and apple puree. The Bourgogne rouge did best with the hard cheeses--Cheddar and Pecorino.

Monday I had lunch at Bistro Lepic and Wine Bar on Wisconsin Avenue before leaving DC. The wine bar is only open in the evening so I was lunching on the first floor. I had a tomato salad with frisee and balsamic vinaigrette (from their 3-course Prix Fixe lunch menu) and Crevettes Sautees avec Riz Chinois (sauteed jumbo shrimp with forbidden rice and thin green beans and Parmesan? melted cheese.) The shrimp dish was marvelous and the tomato salad was refreshing. I had two glasses of 2009 DOMAINE DE LA CHAUVINIERE MUSCADET SEVRE ET MAINE SUR LIE. 12% alcohol. Nearly transparent. Green-tinged straw color. Crisp and lemony. The waiter (French?) said it should be consumed with oysters and black bread but it did nicely with my meal. He also refered to it as "stun gun" I guess because of the acidity which is pronounced but not enamel-stripping. The Muscadel also exhibited mild salinity (sea salt). Very pleasant. Recommended if you see it at a good price. The 2009 was sufficiently young to be very appealing. Nice, relaxed, unhurried lunch before a visit to Macarthur's Beverages (Bassin's) and the drive to Baltimore.

My last fine dining experience of the trip was Monday night at Cinghiale Restaurant on Lancaster Street in Baltimore. I ate in the less formal Enoteca/Wine Bar side. The extensive all-Italian wine list offers small pours and flights of wine (white wine flight, Sangiovese flight, Tuscany flight, etc.). To be continued tomorrow.]]>
The next day I met up with my friend Sallie for church in College Park, MD (where a male-female duo from the choir sang a beautiful Haydn piece) and lunch at Calvert House known for its crab cakes. After an abbreviated garden tour in University Park, MD (the azaleas were gorgeous and about three weeks later blooming than in Fayetteville, NC) but it started to sprinkle and I didn't want to get drenched, dinner was at Proof in downtown DC. Proof has an extensive wine list and also some 2 oz. or 6 oz. pours available. I requested a 2 oz. pour of Arneis to start but they brought the 6-oz. glass and didn't charge me for the extra wine. I enjoyed this with a tempura of newly arrived asparagus, green bean and wild mushroom with lemon aioli dipping sauce (yum!) Sticking with the wild mushroom theme, I ordered chicken breast stuffed with goat cheese and wild mushrooms. It came with polenta which I enjoyed and rapini, not so much. I ordered two small pours of red wines to have with the chicken--a Bourgogne Rouge and a Regnie' Beaujolais Cru. The 2009 VIETTI ARNEIS ROERO ITALY was a straw color with transparency and was served at room temperature. As the server remarked, it was a little round for the grape variety. It had a subtle ginger note. The 2005? DOMAINE DES CROIX BOURGOGNE ROUGE was a deep purple, nearly opaque. It had an unusual scent that I liked but couldn't identify. Dark cherries is not quite accurate as a descriptor but hints of dark cherry informed the nose and palate. I liked this well enough to request a second 2-oz. pour to have with a cheese course. The 2-oz. pour of CHATEAU DU BASTY REGNIE' BEAUJOLAIS CRU (I didn't write the vintage--possibly 2009) was pretty with mostly red fruit but some deeper tones present. Nice flavor and smooth drinking. I liked it better than the server did who speaking frankly called it "gum-droppy" and "macerated." At least that indicated to me that the servers are encouraged to taste the wines on the list and be familiar with their properties. The cheese courses were listed as any 3 or any 6 selections but I wanted to order 4 (really wanted to try 6 but that was too much after two courses) so they priced in between the 3-cheese and 6-cheese prices. I had the Montgomery Cheddar (Somerset, England), a Pecorino (Italy), Humboldt Fog (California) and Blue d'Auvergne (France). I was also considering the Stilton and another. The plate contained two dates, walnut bread, honey and apple puree. The Bourgogne rouge did best with the hard cheeses--Cheddar and Pecorino.

Monday I had lunch at Bistro Lepic and Wine Bar on Wisconsin Avenue before leaving DC. The wine bar is only open in the evening so I was lunching on the first floor. I had a tomato salad with frisee and balsamic vinaigrette (from their 3-course Prix Fixe lunch menu) and Crevettes Sautees avec Riz Chinois (sauteed jumbo shrimp with forbidden rice and thin green beans and Parmesan? melted cheese.) The shrimp dish was marvelous and the tomato salad was refreshing. I had two glasses of 2009 DOMAINE DE LA CHAUVINIERE MUSCADET SEVRE ET MAINE SUR LIE. 12% alcohol. Nearly transparent. Green-tinged straw color. Crisp and lemony. The waiter (French?) said it should be consumed with oysters and black bread but it did nicely with my meal. He also refered to it as "stun gun" I guess because of the acidity which is pronounced but not enamel-stripping. The Muscadel also exhibited mild salinity (sea salt). Very pleasant. Recommended if you see it at a good price. The 2009 was sufficiently young to be very appealing. Nice, relaxed, unhurried lunch before a visit to Macarthur's Beverages (Bassin's) and the drive to Baltimore.

My last fine dining experience of the trip was Monday night at Cinghiale Restaurant on Lancaster Street in Baltimore. I ate in the less formal Enoteca/Wine Bar side. The extensive all-Italian wine list offers small pours and flights of wine (white wine flight, Sangiovese flight, Tuscany flight, etc.). To be continued tomorrow.]]> https://www.wines.com/wineboard/thread-15230.html Thu, 09 Dec 2010 22:17:00 +0000 ]]> https://www.wines.com/wineboard/thread-15230.html
So did the very tourist thing and headed up to Ch. Ste. Michelle which was located in Woodinville. It was located in the same area a many other wineries so I figured it would be a god place to spend an afternoon. I had expected that these wineries were in fact vineyards. I was wrong. They were all tasting rooms but it still beats work..

Wineries visited included:

(1) Chateau Ste Michelle
(2) Bryan Carter
(3) Dusted Valley Winery
(4) Airfield Winery

Of the four, I liked Dusted Valley winery the best, followed by Bryan Carter. But I wish I still saw some vineyards...I guess I'm gonna need more time and actually get out into the valley.]]>
So did the very tourist thing and headed up to Ch. Ste. Michelle which was located in Woodinville. It was located in the same area a many other wineries so I figured it would be a god place to spend an afternoon. I had expected that these wineries were in fact vineyards. I was wrong. They were all tasting rooms but it still beats work..

Wineries visited included:

(1) Chateau Ste Michelle
(2) Bryan Carter
(3) Dusted Valley Winery
(4) Airfield Winery

Of the four, I liked Dusted Valley winery the best, followed by Bryan Carter. But I wish I still saw some vineyards...I guess I'm gonna need more time and actually get out into the valley.]]> https://www.wines.com/wineboard/thread-15155.html Mon, 06 Dec 2010 21:55:00 +0000 ]]> https://www.wines.com/wineboard/thread-15155.html
2008 Dashe Cellars Zinfandel, Dry Creek Valley. Clean tasting with dark berries; smoother, not rustic like some Zins. I bought a bottle to ship home.

2006 Dashe Cellars Zinfandel, Louvau Old Vines, Dry Creek Valley. Nice, but I prefered the 2008.

I also tried a 2006 Collier Falls Zinfandel, Dry Creek Private Reserve that was labeled at 15.7% alcohol.

I also tasted without notes the 2007 Philip Staley Syrah.

2005 Philip Staley Vineyards & Winery Vinho Dulce Syrah Port, Russian river Valley. Dark purple-red, semi-transparent. Nice, less pruney than traditional Port. 18.2% alcohol.

At the Amphora tasting room my favorite was the 2007 A.Forchini-Watson Vineyard Zinfandel which won a double gold at the 2010 San Francisco International Wine Competition. I also like Amphora's Syrah.

At Papapietro I liked two of the Pinot Noirs I tasted--one was the 2007 Elsbree Vineyards, Russian River Valley but I didn't get down the name of the other one.]]>
2008 Dashe Cellars Zinfandel, Dry Creek Valley. Clean tasting with dark berries; smoother, not rustic like some Zins. I bought a bottle to ship home.

2006 Dashe Cellars Zinfandel, Louvau Old Vines, Dry Creek Valley. Nice, but I prefered the 2008.

I also tried a 2006 Collier Falls Zinfandel, Dry Creek Private Reserve that was labeled at 15.7% alcohol.

I also tasted without notes the 2007 Philip Staley Syrah.

2005 Philip Staley Vineyards & Winery Vinho Dulce Syrah Port, Russian river Valley. Dark purple-red, semi-transparent. Nice, less pruney than traditional Port. 18.2% alcohol.

At the Amphora tasting room my favorite was the 2007 A.Forchini-Watson Vineyard Zinfandel which won a double gold at the 2010 San Francisco International Wine Competition. I also like Amphora's Syrah.

At Papapietro I liked two of the Pinot Noirs I tasted--one was the 2007 Elsbree Vineyards, Russian River Valley but I didn't get down the name of the other one.]]> https://www.wines.com/wineboard/thread-15295.html Tue, 16 Nov 2010 21:55:00 +0000 ]]> https://www.wines.com/wineboard/thread-15295.html
I sampled a Joseph Swan 2007 Pinot Noir from Saralee's Vineyard. (91 pts. "Wine Enthusiast") I have had an Eric Ross Pinot from this vineyard previously (and have one bottle left). The Joseph Swan Pinot was nice and I thought less potent than the Eric Ross version which was a bit overwhelming for many traditional Pinot food pairings. I purchased a bottle of this and may try the two Pinots from Saralee's Vineyard side-by-side for comparison.

Also sampled the 2005 Mourvedre and purchased a bottle (which got broken while stored in the church refrigerator last weekend.) It was very juicy with boysenberry or blueberry notes. I may order another at some point. I don't have any notes on the 2007 Tannat Matthew's Station but liked and purchased one bottle of the Syrah, Russian River Valley.

I had lunch at Healdsburg Bar and Grill which was lively and packed. With the chopped salad and adult macaroni and cheese I ordered a glass of Copain Tous Ensemble Rose' Sonoma County. Pink-orange to medium coral color with transparency. I wrote down watermelon and strawberry notes. Looking on the winery website to see what grapes are used I see that they note strawberry, watermelon and floral notes. It doesn't say what grapes.

I had left my umbrella in a taxi on my way to dinner in San Francisco Thursday evening so walked a couple blocks to a CVS to try to purchase a new one. They were sold out. One designer shop in Healdsburg had designer umbrellas but when they told me they started at $180 I decided I could just get wet. They didn't even look very substantial.

I visited the Selby tasting room and Thumbprint tasting rooms in Healdsburg but didn't have any wines that really impressed. I liked the Selby Pinot Noirs and Zinfandels better on my visit in 2007.

That night I met Brian Miller at The Girl and the Fig in the town of Sonoma where we had a very good meal and shared a Lioco from the restaurant wine list and an Antinori Tignanello that Brian brought. I especially enjoyed the fig and arugula salad with Laura Chenel goat cheese and toasted pecans and grilled figs. Both wines were a real treat but we left some to be savored by the waitress and kitchen crew.

Oct. 24--Pinot on the River finally arrives.]]>
I sampled a Joseph Swan 2007 Pinot Noir from Saralee's Vineyard. (91 pts. "Wine Enthusiast") I have had an Eric Ross Pinot from this vineyard previously (and have one bottle left). The Joseph Swan Pinot was nice and I thought less potent than the Eric Ross version which was a bit overwhelming for many traditional Pinot food pairings. I purchased a bottle of this and may try the two Pinots from Saralee's Vineyard side-by-side for comparison.

Also sampled the 2005 Mourvedre and purchased a bottle (which got broken while stored in the church refrigerator last weekend.) It was very juicy with boysenberry or blueberry notes. I may order another at some point. I don't have any notes on the 2007 Tannat Matthew's Station but liked and purchased one bottle of the Syrah, Russian River Valley.

I had lunch at Healdsburg Bar and Grill which was lively and packed. With the chopped salad and adult macaroni and cheese I ordered a glass of Copain Tous Ensemble Rose' Sonoma County. Pink-orange to medium coral color with transparency. I wrote down watermelon and strawberry notes. Looking on the winery website to see what grapes are used I see that they note strawberry, watermelon and floral notes. It doesn't say what grapes.

I had left my umbrella in a taxi on my way to dinner in San Francisco Thursday evening so walked a couple blocks to a CVS to try to purchase a new one. They were sold out. One designer shop in Healdsburg had designer umbrellas but when they told me they started at $180 I decided I could just get wet. They didn't even look very substantial.

I visited the Selby tasting room and Thumbprint tasting rooms in Healdsburg but didn't have any wines that really impressed. I liked the Selby Pinot Noirs and Zinfandels better on my visit in 2007.

That night I met Brian Miller at The Girl and the Fig in the town of Sonoma where we had a very good meal and shared a Lioco from the restaurant wine list and an Antinori Tignanello that Brian brought. I especially enjoyed the fig and arugula salad with Laura Chenel goat cheese and toasted pecans and grilled figs. Both wines were a real treat but we left some to be savored by the waitress and kitchen crew.

Oct. 24--Pinot on the River finally arrives.]]> https://www.wines.com/wineboard/thread-15250.html Mon, 15 Nov 2010 21:48:00 +0000 ]]> https://www.wines.com/wineboard/thread-15250.html
2007 Four Hearts Chardonnay
Quite pure with some delicacy. I might have purchased if I were more into California Chards.

2007 Land's Edge Pinot Noir. Grapes from Far Coast Vineyard and Seascape Vineyard. Pretty medium garnet color. A little heavy on the palate in my opinion.

2007 Maclean's Block Pinot Noir, Russian River Valley. $60. 10-year old vineyard near Occidental. 14.5% alchol by volume. 300 cases. This I like and ended up splurging on one bottle to be shipped with other purchases from other tasting rooms. I usually don't spend this much on domestic wines. I will report in more detail whenever I get around to opening the bottle.

2008 Hartford Fanucchi-Wood Road Vineyard, Russian River Valley Zinfandel. Dry farmed. Head trained. 16.3% alcohol. 250 cases. While not burning on the palate, the alcohol was noticeable. Not my style.

2006 Hartford Outer Limits Syrah. $50. Darker red color; semi-opaque. From 16-year old vines. Not one I would purchase at that price.]]>
2007 Four Hearts Chardonnay
Quite pure with some delicacy. I might have purchased if I were more into California Chards.

2007 Land's Edge Pinot Noir. Grapes from Far Coast Vineyard and Seascape Vineyard. Pretty medium garnet color. A little heavy on the palate in my opinion.

2007 Maclean's Block Pinot Noir, Russian River Valley. $60. 10-year old vineyard near Occidental. 14.5% alchol by volume. 300 cases. This I like and ended up splurging on one bottle to be shipped with other purchases from other tasting rooms. I usually don't spend this much on domestic wines. I will report in more detail whenever I get around to opening the bottle.

2008 Hartford Fanucchi-Wood Road Vineyard, Russian River Valley Zinfandel. Dry farmed. Head trained. 16.3% alcohol. 250 cases. While not burning on the palate, the alcohol was noticeable. Not my style.

2006 Hartford Outer Limits Syrah. $50. Darker red color; semi-opaque. From 16-year old vines. Not one I would purchase at that price.]]> https://www.wines.com/wineboard/thread-15234.html Wed, 10 Nov 2010 22:02:00 +0000 ]]> https://www.wines.com/wineboard/thread-15234.html I also stopped at Gary Farrell along River Road. It was an overcast drizzly day so the view wasn't as lovely as on my visit three years ago. I tried the 2007 Rochioli-Allen Vineyards Chardonnay, Russian River Valley. Rich, creamy with a medium gold color. 472 cases. "Wine Enthusiast" awarded 94 points. The 2007 Starr Ridge Vineyard Pinot Noir, from Dijon clones, received 92 points from WE. I prefered the 2007 Gary Farrell Ramal Vineyard Pinot Noir, Carneros (sold for $50 vs. $60 for the Starr Ridge). 666 cases. Cranberry, pomegranate, kirsch, black cherry and plum (from tasting room notes). I got some faint rose petal and dried herbs on the nose. (WE score of 90).

I also tried 2008 Gary Farrell Bradford Mountain Zinfandel, Dry Creek Valley ($45). 456 cases. It tasted smooth and polished and not too alcoholic. Medium-length finish. Cherries and blackberries.
The 2007 Gary Farrell Rusian River Selection Pinot Noir ($42 and 90 points from WE) was a pretty, medium garnet color with transparency. I found cherries and plums on the palate as the tasting room notes indicate.

Next tasting--Hartford Court.]]> I also stopped at Gary Farrell along River Road. It was an overcast drizzly day so the view wasn't as lovely as on my visit three years ago. I tried the 2007 Rochioli-Allen Vineyards Chardonnay, Russian River Valley. Rich, creamy with a medium gold color. 472 cases. "Wine Enthusiast" awarded 94 points. The 2007 Starr Ridge Vineyard Pinot Noir, from Dijon clones, received 92 points from WE. I prefered the 2007 Gary Farrell Ramal Vineyard Pinot Noir, Carneros (sold for $50 vs. $60 for the Starr Ridge). 666 cases. Cranberry, pomegranate, kirsch, black cherry and plum (from tasting room notes). I got some faint rose petal and dried herbs on the nose. (WE score of 90).

I also tried 2008 Gary Farrell Bradford Mountain Zinfandel, Dry Creek Valley ($45). 456 cases. It tasted smooth and polished and not too alcoholic. Medium-length finish. Cherries and blackberries.
The 2007 Gary Farrell Rusian River Selection Pinot Noir ($42 and 90 points from WE) was a pretty, medium garnet color with transparency. I found cherries and plums on the palate as the tasting room notes indicate.

Next tasting--Hartford Court.]]> https://www.wines.com/wineboard/thread-15330.html Mon, 01 Nov 2010 19:43:00 +0000 ]]> https://www.wines.com/wineboard/thread-15330.html https://www.wines.com/wineboard/thread-15186.html Fri, 29 Oct 2010 19:49:00 +0000 ]]> https://www.wines.com/wineboard/thread-15186.html Cypress Grove was also represented at the Pinot on the River event near Healdsburg and I had a chance to taste the Humboldt Fog again along with some of their other cheeses. Cypress Grove is located in Humboldt County, CA.]]> Cypress Grove was also represented at the Pinot on the River event near Healdsburg and I had a chance to taste the Humboldt Fog again along with some of their other cheeses. Cypress Grove is located in Humboldt County, CA.]]> https://www.wines.com/wineboard/thread-15237.html Fri, 29 Oct 2010 19:23:00 +0000 ]]> https://www.wines.com/wineboard/thread-15237.html
2009 Griva Sauvignon Blanc
100% estate fruit. 97% Sauvignon Blanc fermented in stainless steel tanks and 3% Semillion fermented in neutral oak.

2009 Saignee de Pinot Noir Rose'.
Delicate blush color. Frothy when first poured. An element I couldn't identify--maybe cherry skin.

2007 Rosella's Pinot Noir, Santa Lucia Highlands, Monterey County, Ca.
Pale burgundy color with transparency. (Winery notes say bright ruby red.) Black cherries on the nose and palate along with some clove.

2004 Ocean Block Cabernet Sauvignon.
Single-block bottling. Leggy on glass. More fruit than leather, tobacco, etc. Winery notes mention coffee and dried spices and spicy cedar but I didn't pick up on these.]]>
2009 Griva Sauvignon Blanc
100% estate fruit. 97% Sauvignon Blanc fermented in stainless steel tanks and 3% Semillion fermented in neutral oak.

2009 Saignee de Pinot Noir Rose'.
Delicate blush color. Frothy when first poured. An element I couldn't identify--maybe cherry skin.

2007 Rosella's Pinot Noir, Santa Lucia Highlands, Monterey County, Ca.
Pale burgundy color with transparency. (Winery notes say bright ruby red.) Black cherries on the nose and palate along with some clove.

2004 Ocean Block Cabernet Sauvignon.
Single-block bottling. Leggy on glass. More fruit than leather, tobacco, etc. Winery notes mention coffee and dried spices and spicy cedar but I didn't pick up on these.]]>