TDF 2010 Stage 13: Rodez to Revel

Up today is Ben Wood, gypsy jazz guitarist, cycling enthusiast, wine buyer at 67 Wine, and all around good guy.



Hi all,

Today I'm honored to be guest posting on David McDuff's blog. He has covered the Tour De France in a vinous way for the last several years. We managed to have him up to 67 wine for a tasting last week (while the race was in the Jura region). Today, I am writing about Stage 13 from Rodez to Revel. The course for this day is a fast rolling romp through the southwest part of the French countryside. The riders roll quite near to one of my favorite wine regions, Gaillac, and also pass Fronton, another great wine region in the southwest of France.

Unlike the stereotypical professional cycling racer, these wines are not steroidal monsters with chemical injections (kidding). The wines are, however, racy, controversial and fascinating. All of the great wines of these areas are made from native grapes that grow for the most part only in the southwest. Fascinating grapes like Braucol and Duras for red wines; Ondonc, Mauzac and Len De l'El for white and sparkling wines. These are unique grapes rescued from obscurity by winemakers like Patrice Lescarret at Domaine de Causse Marines.

These are wines of whimsy, interest and intensity. A member of the "vins naturels" movement, Lescarret practices organic farming with some biodynamic ideas as well as extremely minimal intervention in the cellar. The wines are focused on the native grapes in the region and include a cuvee named "Les Greilles," an AOC Gaillac made from all of the local grapes. A beautiful crisp white wine with honeysuckle and mineral notes, dry on the palate and refreshing, one of my favorite wines to drink.

There are some telling images on the label:

(the saluting mouse, and the no badger symbol) involving the personal mythology (M. Lescarret is called the mouse, and badgers hunt mice . . . This was the story I was given. A good mystery for you!).

A second wine from Gaillac that I love is made by Brigitte and Alain Cazottes of Domaine des Terrisses. Racy and good, the red from this estate has proven to be one of our best selling wines. The grapes are farmed biodynamically, and the soil site has quite a lot of clay (up to 60% in some parcels); because of this the wine comes through with strong aromatics and great flavor. Firmly in the Syrah camp, this wine smells of garrigue (a bit) and dark red fruit, with soil-y mineral notes and a hint of game. Beautiful and complex, it is racy and thirst quenching with just enough weight to make you know it is wine!

Tomorrow will be a fast and hopefully interesting stage as the riders pass some very great vineyards. Makes me wish I was there to eat the food, drink the wines and cheer on the riders!!

Up next: your guess is as good as mine....

Intro only...

Tuesday with Terrisses, Weegmüller and Lafarge

An impromptu call led to a particularly enjoyable, relaxed Tuesday evening, sharing good wine and food among good friends. While the chicken thighs for the meal to come marinated in their bath of soy, maple, ginger and garlic, we started things off with a little aperitif, an old friend in the wine sense.

Gaillac Doux “Cuvée Saint-Laurent,” Domaine des Terrisses NV
$16. 9% alcohol. Cork. Importer: Wine Traditions, Falls Church, VA.
The Cazottes family’s Gaillac Doux is the old friend to which I refer. I hadn’t had a bottle of this in years, so was duly jazzed when I saw it emerge from the fridge. Bill didn’t have record of exactly when this was purchased but I can safely say it was a minimum of three years ago, perhaps longer. The lot number on the bottle, L MGD 01, which I take to mean something along the lines of “Lot Mauzac Gaillac Doux 2001,” suggests to me that the wine was most likely based on the 2001 vintage. Even if I’m wrong, it’s safe to say that this had seen some measurable bottle age. It came through it fresh as a daisy, with immediately satisfying aromas and flavors of fresh pressed apple sauce, complete with a dusting of cinnamon. Impeccably balanced, this could easily have paired with a dessert of orchard fruit based tarts but was not at all too sweet to serve as an aperitif. As the wine opened, it developed a lavender overtone on the nose, along with an ever so slightly oxidative character and richer flavors of apple skins and raised pastry dough. Very tasty….

Though it’s entirely proper in the context of today’s production methods to consider the Méthode Gaillacoise as synonymous with the Méthode Ancestrale, local legend has it that the Méthode Gaillacoise was originally realized by plunging partially fermented barrels of white Gaillac wine into the River Tarn during the winter following harvest. The combination of the icy-cold waters and the turmoil of the river’s flow would stun the yeasts into temporary slumber, their activity later to resume, capturing bubbles and a natural degree of residual sugar in the finished wine. Terrisses’ “Cuvée Saint-Laurent” is based primarily if not entirely on Mauzac, perhaps with a small quantity of Len de l’El.


Pfalz Scheurebe QbA trocken, Weingut Ed. Weegmüller 2007
$23. 12% alcohol. Screwcap. Importer: Petit Pois, Moorestown, NJ.
Scheurebe represents only five percent or so of the plantings at Stefanie Weegmüller’s estate yet she always does as fine a job with her Scheurebe as with her expressive, broadly flavorful Rieslings. Stefi’s 2007 Scheurebe trocken could easily play ringer in a blind Gewürztraminer tasting. It’s aromatically loaded with scents of citrus oil, mint, and lemon and orange pith. This was the primary wine drunk with dinner and, at first, I wasn’t entirely convinced it played nicely with the food. A twist of bitter grapefruit (juice and peel) on the finish, along with a deeply-grained texture, makes the wine a bit too aggressive for delicate foods. But as the flavors of Bill’s Asian Chicken built on the palate, Stefi’s Scheurebe got better and better. Translation: this is intensely perfumed wine that plays best with highly flavorful food.


Côte de Beaune Villages, Domaine Michel Lafarge 2005
$35. 13% alcohol. Cork. Importer: A Becky Wasserman Selection; Martin Scott Wines, Lake Success, NY.
Tough love. This was one of the most painfully dry red Burgundies I’ve drunk in a very long time; not easy in giving but very rewarding. Medium-red and slightly amber-rimmed, its aromas were of dried cherries, spice cabinet, fennel bulb and red leaf tobacco. It opened with lean, wood and grape tannins and cutting acidity; very narrowly textured yet still very fine. I found it more minerally than earthy, a trait which really suited the wine’s texture, though there was also a distinct aroma of wet clay. We enjoyed this as a meditative wine but it really needs food to blossom – I’m thinking roasted, truffled game birds would be just about perfect. Several more years in the cellar wouldn’t hurt, either. Far from perfectly balanced today but nonetheless profound, charismatic and a study in the pleasures and pain of good Burgundy.

Domaine Lafarge is farmed biodynamically. Their Côte de Beaune Villages, of which only a little over 50 cases are produced in a typical vintage, issues from vineyards situated in the commune of Meursault.

Intro only...