B-Sides: Some Recent Hits, Misses and Outtakes

B-Sides. Sometimes neglected, almost always overshadowed by their siblings on the up-side of the disc; sometimes plain bad, but just as often every bit as interesting, if not more so, than the tracks that get more airplay. Here at MFWT, “B-Sides” will be a new series of posts that I’ll run periodically (as long as the content moves me in any way). The B-Sides are quick notes about wines that didn’t get the full attention, by way of individual or more detailed posts, they may have deserved.

The hits – wines that made my palate stand up and take notice….


Pfalz Pinot Noir, Becker Estate (Friedrich Becker) 2006
$20. 12.5% alcohol. Screwcap. Importer: A Rudi Wiest Selection, Cellars International, San Marcos, CA.
I’ve read good things about Friedrich Becker’s Spätburgunders at both Barry’s Wine and Rockss and Fruit. So I didn’t hesitate to pick up a bottle of Becker’s Estate Pinot Noir when I found it on the shelves at, of all places, a local outlet of the PLCB. Very nice wine, with fresh acidity, minimal tannins and clear fruit expression. A classic unoaked Spätburgunder nose of black cherries, smoke, a little pepper and clove, and a twinge of green herbaceousness. Reductive when first opened – perhaps a side-effect of its screwcap closure – but that blew off quickly.

Chénas, Domaine des Pierres (Jean-François Trichard) 2007
$17. 13% alcohol. Cork. Importer: Petit Pois, Moorestown, NJ.
A solid example of fruity-style Beaujolais, showing much better than when last tasted a couple of months ago. It’s shed its earlier baby fat and is starting to lean-out and take on more herbal interest in its bright, raspberry driven flavor profile. Jean-François has taken over charge of the estate from his father Georges. They're apparently still working through their batch of old labels, so you may see this version of this wine labeled with Georges' name as well as with that of Jean-François.

Vouvray “Cuvée de Silex,” Domaine des Aubisières (Bernard Fouquet) 2007
$15. 13% alcohol. Screwcap. Importer: Weygandt-Metzler, Unionville, PA.
I don’t have much more to say about this than last time other than that it’s showing drier than it was just three months ago. At an average retail price of $16 – and I’ve seen it lower in some spots – this is a great value in Vouvray that’s both serious and quaffable.

The misses – wines that left me wanting a little (or a lot) more….


Jasnières “Clos des Longues Vignes,” Domaine le Briseau (Nathalie & Christian Chaussard) 2004
$28. 13% alcohol. Cork. Importer: Louis/Dressner, New York, NY.
The Chaussards’ wines continue to leave me scratching my head. This is a fully dry Jasnières that showed some Chenin typicity, with pear fruit, good acidity and aromas of flowering herbs. But it was bitter on the finish, hollow on the mid-palate and short on the end. Though fresh on day one, it darkened in color and oxidized more quickly than normal by day two. Too low-sulfur for its own good? I’m not ready to give up yet but it will take some convincing showings to change my impression of this estate’s wines.

Barbera d’Asti “Tre Vigne,” Vietti 2006
$26. 14% alcohol. Cork. Importer: Remy Cointreau USA, New York, NY.
I have a love/hate relationship with Barbera. This one fell in the grey area, with not enough depth in the fruit and textural departments to balance its tangy, borderline sour acidity. I have no problem with high acidity – it’s one of Barbera’s hallmarks – but it has to be in balance to work. Vietti is a consistently reliable producer but this vintage of “Tre Vigne” didn’t do it for me.

Marlborough Pinot Noir, Churton 2005
$10. 12.5% alcohol. Cork. Importer: Allied Beverage Group, Carlstadt, NJ.
Every once in a while, I get the urge to explore a thing or two from Down Under and, for whatever reason, New Zealand Pinot Noir has recently piqued my curiosity. I had an off chance to pick this up for $10 on an importer’s close-out deal; it usually retails for $20-25. I wouldn’t buy it again even at $10. Like sweet and sour tomato paste. I forced myself to stick with it for not one but two nights – for educational purposes, mind you. I had a hard time squelching it past my tongue on both evenings.

The outtakes – wines that might have been hits if consumed at the right time or if handled with better care….


Bourgogne Aligoté, Domaine Diconne (Jean-Pierre Diconne) 2002
$13. 12.5% alcohol. Cork. Importer: Petit Pois, Moorestown, NJ.
As I enjoyed this wine when it was released back in 2004, I know it to have been a solid example of textbook Aligoté from a producer whose wines I generally enjoy. This one just got away from me in the cellar. Once I realized that, sometime in ’07 I believe, I decided to make an experiment of it, intentionally keeping it past its expected prime. The results of said experiment turned out as anticipated. Not entirely uninteresting but it was more volatile than anything else, smelling and tasting not unlike the vapor of Lemon Pledge.

Bekaa Valley White, Château Musar (Gaston Hochar) 2000
$30. 12.5% alcohol. Cork. Importer: Broadbent Selections, San Francisco, CA.
I’ve yet to have a bottle – white or red – from Musar that justifies the reverent things I’ve heard and read about the estate. I don’t doubt that such a bottle is out there. It’s just that those with which I’ve crossed paths have all been either lackluster or abused. This one fell into the latter camp, the result of heat damage I suspect. What little fruit was left was caramelized; otherwise, this mostly just showed volatile acidity.

Saint-Véran, Domaine des Valanges (Michel Paquet) 2005
$15. 13% alcohol. Cork. Importer: Petit Pois, Moorestown, NJ.
Another grey area wine, this is still holding some drinkability but hasn’t developed enough in the way of bottle bouquet to offset its trip down the slippery slope. Paquet produces direct, early drinking Mâcon-Davayé and Saint-Véran that are pretty decent values. But this, after only two-plus years in the bottle, is fading faster than I would have expected. If you’re holding any, drink up while the drinking’s still satisfactory.

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WBW #36: Unoaked Chardonnay

It’s Wine Blogging Wednesday again. This month’s consortium, celebrating the third anniversary of WBW, is being hosted by Lenn Thompson at LennDevours. The theme for the month is Chardonnay, straight up, no chaser – Naked Chardonnay, if you prefer (I don’t, but that’s another story…). Perhaps uNoAKED Chardonnay would be a happy medium. In any event, the idea is to go out and select a Chardonnay based wine that saw no oak during its wine making and elevation regimes. Price and place of origin for this episode were both without restriction.

Though I had originally thought it might be fun to write-up two wines, comparing and contrasting new world and old world examples, time constraints forced me to settle for one. When it comes to Chardonnay – just as with Pinot Noir – I reach for Burgundy nine times out of ten. Whether it’s from Chablis or the Chalonnaise, Beaune or the Maconnais, it’s more likely to grace my glass than Chardonnay from any other part of the world. Oak, along with acidity, balance and a sense of place, is one of the many factors that tend to drive that decision. Don’t get me wrong, oak barrels play an important role in Burgundian wine making. Meursault, Chassagne-Montrachet and Corton-Charlemagne would not be the wines they are today without the use of barrels during fermentation and aging. When utilised correctly, oak plays a supporting role to the underlying structure of the wine. A rich or powerful wine can often take oak or even benefit from its influence. Lighter, crisper and more aromatic styles can easily be overshadowed. In either scenario, oak, particularly in the form of small, new barrels, does not tend to be used as a human signature in Burgundy with anywhere near the frequency and intensity shown in California, Australia, Chile, and New World production areas in general.

If you’re reading between the lines, you may be starting to understand why I’m not a fan of the term “Naked Chardonnay.” Sure, it’s cute and can appeal to a consumer base hungry for something different. It suggests, though, that Chardonnay is somehow incomplete, sophisticated as it is, without its oak clothing. It suggests that undressing it is something new and daring, somehow risqué. It’s not. It’s been done for ages in Burgundy and other parts of Europe. It’s just that winemakers have rarely seen any reason to call attention to it – or to barrel aging for that matter. That’s why, just to be a contrarian, I selected an Old World wine, a white Burgundy, where the producer chooses to point out his wine’s “nudity.”

The Winemaker: Gilles Corsin
Gilles Corsin is a fanatic in the cellar. He works as a Courtier, a business he took over from his father 15 years ago; as such, he sources fruit on behalf of some of the largest and most influential négociant producers in the Maconnais: Verget, Jadot, DuBoeuf. In his rounds working for these merchants, he tastes and assesses thousands of Macon-Villages, Saint-Vérans, Pouilly-Fuissés and other regional wines every year. Needless to say, he’s developed a good palate and a tyrannically critical technique. At his family estate, working along with his vineyard man and brother Jean-Jaques, Gilles takes a methodical, critical and fastidious approach to making his own wines. He may rarely be happy with them himself but they’re unquestionably among the highest quality, most expressive yet simultaneously subtle wines of the region.

M. Corsin could be thought of as a modernist in at least one sense: he micro-vinifies. The fruit from every vineyard parcel, no matter how small, is vinified separately with the idea of being able to isolate the unique qualities of terroir of every inch of the domaine. The idea, though, is not to produce scores of micro-bottlings and limited edition cuvées; in most vintages, he produces only four wines, only in extraordinary years adding a special version or two of Pouilly-Fuissé. Rather, it is to be able to identify qualities, both good and bad, of each lot with an eye toward then creating a blend that marries those good qualities into the best possible representation of the typicity of the appropriate AOC. His Saint-Vérans, as such – like them or not – can be viewed as benchmark wines. He makes only two. The fruit for both comes from the same collection of sites, undergoes primary fermentation together and is blended in the same manner. In effect, they begin their lives as the same wine. Prior to undergoing malolactic, the wine is split in two. One half is destined to be moved to barrels for secondary fermentation and a modest aging cycle. The other half goes naked, eventually becoming the bottling called “Tirage Précoce,” which literally translates to “early pulling.” Both wines are perfectly viable expressions of the traditions of Saint-Véran. For the oak aged cuvée, which is simply labeled with the AOC name, he prefers barrels of one-year which support the wine without obscuring the qualities of his fruit. The unoaked wine is finished in steel cuves.

The Wine: Saint-Véran “Tirage Précoce,” Domaine Corsin 2006
Pale, straw and green apple colors show in the glass. Aromas at this early stage of development are subtle but hint again at apples and a definite stoniness. A slight hint of the primary flavors of fermentation remains on the palate, no banana at all but a light, floral yeastiness. Not to sound redundant, but the apple fruit continues in the mouth, along with hints of pear and other orchard fruits. Acidity is bright yet easily born by the gentle, medium-bodied textures of the wine; its alcohol level is 13.5%. The stoniness mentioned earlier persists on the palate, not intensely mineral in the way of Chablis, rather hinting at the polish of cold, rushing mountain stream water. Though quite pleasurable now, I think the wine wants for another three to six months in the bottle before it will fully begin to shine. It should pair wonderfully with simply prepared white fleshed fish and, not surprisingly, with butter and herb roasted chicken.

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