Notes from a Sunday: A Wicked Pair of 2005s

Just some thoughts on a couple of great reds for today, enjoyed among friends with supper on a recent Sunday.

Arbois Pupillin (Ploussard), Maison Pierre Overnoy (Emmanuel Houillon) 2005
~$35. 12.5% alcohol. Cork. Importer: Louis/Dressner, New York, NY.
There are a good deal of differing opinions in the thread on this one at Wine Disorder (no surprise there), with some finding Houillon's '05 Poulsard spot on, others too young, and yet others oxidized or simply not happening. The winemaker himself was apparently less than thrilled with the 2005 vintage for his red, which went through an uncommonly long fermentation (don't know exactly how long). Even so, it sounds to me like there's a rash of bottle variation and/or poorly handled bottles floating around.

On the night in question, this particular bottle was a pure joy to drink. Insanely direct, tangy and full of mouthwatering red sour patch fruit. This is not about complexity at the moment; rather, it's all about the moment itself. Shining its usual, beautiful green-tinged rose petal color, I could have drunk it all night and been very happy. There were other things waiting, though...

Morey Saint Denis "Vieilles Vignes," Jacky Truchot 2005
~$45 on release. 12.5% alcohol. Cork. Importer: Weygandt-Metzler, Unionville, PA
This was rich by Truchot's standards of delicacy and transparency, showing the concentration of the 2005 vintage as well as plenty of promise. Here, though, was the painful youth. It was hard not to like, with its finely detailed fruit and balance, but this one's really needing and deserving several more years of cool, dark slumber. Luckily (for him and occasionally for me), my friend Bill seems to have a near endless stash of Truchot lurking about his various wine nooks. And no, I won't tell you where he lives.

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Five for Friday, Including Passing References to QPR and the Tyranny of the Tasting Note

For today, just a few notes and pics from a recent Friday get together. It had been too long, so I hope you’ll pardon my indulgences.

Rioja Gran Reserva “Viña Tondonia” Rosado, R. Lopez de Heredia 1998
$25. 12.5% alcohol. Cork. Importer: USA Wine Imports, New York, NY.
Drinking like your most comfortable pair of shoes feels, that pair you just can’t bring yourself to part with – soft, supportive, something you’d be happy to wear (or drink as the case may be) all day and just about every day. Showing medium, fully matured acidity, penetrating yet not at all forceful. Say what you will about the subjectivity of tasting notes (see the comments), this wine inspires them. A nose full of maple, orange confit and potpourri leads into a candied pecan driven flavor profile that persists and envelops the palate for minutes. Vanilla, pear, clove, peach, rose petals, winter melon… they’re all there. And the extraordinary QPR for a wine of this provenance and quality continues to astound me. Lovely stuff.

Côtes du Jura, Jean Bourdy 2005
$26. 12.5% alcohol. Cork. Importer: A Thomas Calder Selection, Potomac Selections, Landover, MD.
Jean Bourdy’s Côtes du Jura Blanc is varietal Chardonnay, which is aged in old oak tonneaux for 3-4 years prior to bottling, yielding a slightly oxidative style. Bourdy recommends decanting the wine 3-4 hours prior to consumption but we weren’t nearly so patient. In spite of our quick pour and even following a very tough act, the wine was quite subtly delicious, showing an intensely mineral nose laced with apple and pastry nuances. Drinking it, I couldn’t help but ponder whether there are Chardonnay based wines produced anywhere else that show such nervy, crackling, tight wire acidity. Certainly not in Chablis. Maybe, just maybe, in the tautest examples of Côtes des Blancs Champagne. But even then, I’m not so sure. The wine continued to improve as it warmed toward cellar temperature (which is the recommended serving temp, by the way), letting the wine’s inherent core of sweet concentration unfurl.


Sancerre “Clos la Néore,” Edmond Vatan 2007
$55. 13% alcohol. Cork. Importer: Wine Cellars Ltd., Briarcliff Manor, NY.
On this night, Vatan’s Sancerre – only a few ounces remained in a bottle opened the previous day – served as a quick segue before shifting into red gear. Very floral, bursting with aromas of lavender, Queen Anne’s lace and gooseberry pie. Maybe Sharon knows something I don’t (see her comments here), but this is really freaking delicious wine. Worth the splurge and, though I’ve never had what might be considered a fully mature example, reputedly quite worthy of cellaring.

Vallée d’Aoste Torrette “Vigne les Toules,” Les Crêtes 2006
$28. 12.5% alcohol. Cork. Importer: Domaine Select, New York, NY.
Les Crêtes’ Torrette is a blend of 70% Petit Rouge – an heirloom vine, if you’ll forgive the term, native to the Valle d’Aosta – and 30% “other varieties.” Fermented in steel for a little over a week, the wine is then finished in older casks for about eight months before bottling. The wine reminds me very much of Freisa from the Langhe, barky in its aromas and texture and full of cinnamon, cocoa and huckleberry nuances, finished off with a slightly bitter edge. Very loamy, think of moldering forest floor. Raspy tannins and the slightest suggestion of a frizzante prickle make for a solid, rustic pleasure at the table. The QPR trend falls apart here, though; in the teens this would be a great value but in the high $20s I’m afraid it’s destined to be more of an occasional curiosity than a regular quaff.

Morey-Saint-Denis “Vieilles Vignes,” Jacky Truchot 2005
$45-ish. 12.5% alcohol. Cork. Importer: Weygandt-Metzler, Unionville, PA.
My friend Bill seems to have an unending knack for uncovering caches of Jacky Truchot’s Burgundies. This was a glorious bottle, more concentrated than the usual Truchot but that’s no doubt a natural outcome of the ’05 vintage. Loaded with savory, sweetly earthy umami characteristics yet equally bursting with black cherry fruit. Built to last, entirely in the vineyard rather than through any technique; immaculately balanced and, no matter how ripe and forward, entirely old school. Now if only I can convince him to part with a couple of bottles….

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Jacky Truchot and the Human Element

I’ve been on a wee Truchot-Martin kick of late, most of it courtesy of my friend Bill who has to be one of the biggest fans of Jacky Truchot’s wines on the planet. A couple bottles of 2004 Bourgogne, a 2003 Morey-Saint Denis 1er Cru “Clos Sorbés” Vieilles Vignes and the Chambolle below have all gone down the hatch in the last month. Infanticide, you say. Perhaps, I say (although I think the ’04 Bourgognes are better drunk now than later). The problem is trying to save them; the wines are just too plain delicious not to drink.

Run afoul of water damage…. Somehow, the sepia toned stain doesn’t seem out of place with the old school elegance of Truchot’s label. Kind of reminds me of a hidden treasure map.

Chambolle-Musigny Premier Cru “Les Sentiers,” Domaine Truchot-Martin (Jacky Truchot) 2004
Price unknown. 12.5% alcohol. Cork. Importer: Weygandt-Metzler, Unionville, PA.
The cloudy, punch-like color of Truchot’s wine makes it look almost like a barrel sample, even though it’s been in bottle for several years now. Aromas of raspberry cream and white pepper lead to a mouthful of soft, sweet, cherry-vanilla fruit. Sounds like a rather modern profile, but this couldn’t be much less modern in style. There’s a tang of sourness wrapped around the whole package, from aroma to finish, and an underlying sense of pure, wild character. This is classic Truchot – light and racy, completely open, expansive and deep.

“Les Sentiers” 2004. Unfined, unfiltered and unclear.

Who makes wine like this anymore? Not David Duband. When I tasted through Duband’s lineup a few weeks ago, I didn’t even put it together that he’d purchased some if not all of Truchot’s land following Jacky’s retirement after the 2005 vintage. Neither produce(d) wines that bear any signs of heavy manipulation, yet Duband’s wines – masculine, dark and perhaps more technically correct – could hardly be more dissimilar from Truchot’s, which are limpid, delicate and sometimes variable from bottle to bottle. Lest you think I didn’t like Duband’s wines, I assure you that’s not the case (although Ms. Feiring didn’t think too highly of them a couple of years back).

The terroir seems to speak clearly in both cases, yet the human element – each man’s voice as it speaks through his wines – renders their end products strikingly different.

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Exploring Burgundy: Morey-Saint-Denis

Morey-St.-Denis sits in the heartland of the Côte de Nuits, sandwiched between its more famous neighbors Chambolle-Musigny to the south and Gevrey-Chambertin to the north. Though its wines are not as undervalued as those of Auxey-Duresses, for instance, they can be somewhat easier on the pocketbook relative to the wines from neighboring communes. Perhaps most surprising is the fact that Morey-St.-Denis suffers in recognition even compared to Nuits-St.-Georges, which includes no Grand Cru vineyards, in spite of the fact that Morey does sport its fair share of great growth sites. In fact, over 50% of the acreage in Morey-St.-Denis is rated either Premier or Grand Cru, one of the highest concentrations of top sites in all of Burgundy.

So why this relative obscurity? Up until the 1960’s, nearly all of the fruit grown and wine produced in Morey was sold to négociants. And much of it was labeled, depending upon style, as either Gevrey-Chambertin or Chambolle-Musigny. It’s only since the modern swell in prominence of small estate bottlers that the individual reputation of Morey has finally started to come into its own. Still, its wines tend to be described relative to those from neighboring communes – one part grace à la Chambolle-Musigny and one part sinewy structure as in Gevrey-Chambertin.

Morey-Saint-Denis “Vieilles Vignes,” Domaine Truchot-Martin 2004
While I can’t say that Jacky Truchot’s wines are exemplars of the typicity of today’s Morey-St.-Denis, they certainly do epitomize the elegance of which the commune’s wines are capable. His is a style, based on the farming and winemaking practices he learned in the 1960’s, which expresses the deepest, oldest traditions of the region. Few if any other producers still make wines in his manner; regrettably, neither does he. Jacky retired at the end of the 2005 vintage, making this 2004 the penultimate bottling of MSD “Vieilles Vignes” ever to emerge from his estate.

Like virtually all of M. Truchot’s wines, the first thing that strikes notice is the incredibly pale yet pretty hue of the wine in the glass. Pigment and tannin extraction techniques were, to say the least, subtle within Jacky’s regime. However, there is no resulting loss in savor or aroma. The wine nearly leapt from the glass. I accommodated by gladly accepting its invitation to explore. What did it taste like? The combination of aromas and flavors brought back a clear scent memory from the past: the beach. I’ve had plenty of red Burgundy’s that have hinted at the flavors of seaweed and the fishing pier; not this one. Here, the experience was literally like taking a deep inhalation while standing at the shoreline at sunset on a warm September evening – soft, fresh, invigorating and comfortably reassuring. Subjective, yes, but that was the wine. I’ll miss it.

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