deVine Thoughts

Author: Dirk Chan

Our day started with a visit to one of Pomerol’s premier estates – Chateau La Conseillante, named after Catherine Conseillan, a metal dealer based in Libourne. Somewhere in the 18th century, she established a vineyard close to the border between Pomerol and St. Emilion. Indeed the famed Cheval Blanc is across the street. It has such illustrious neighbours as Petrus, Vieux Chateau Certan and L’Evangile. We visited with Jean-Michel Laporte, the Directeur of the estate, who thanked us for being on time for our appointment (the Bordelais like visitors to be on time!)

About 4000 cases of Conseillante are made each year from vines averaging 40 years of age and cropped very small to control the volume, around 4000 litres/hectare. Planted in 80% Merlot and 20% CabFranc in one contiguous block of vines, this is an elegant expression of Pomerol, never the boldest nor the lightest of wines, it is all about finesse and class. We were treated to the superb but tight 2005 and an already exquisite 2010 from barrel that will rival the superb 2009 (have we heard this before?). They had just started the green harvesting at the vineyard (pictured), and we saw bunches left lying on the vineyard. Jean-Michel confirmed earlier reports that the vintage 2011 is about 2-3 weeks ahead of schedule and picking will be one of the earliest in history. The price has crept up slowly but steadily over the years to catch up with the other superstar neighbours. For the Merlot lover, this is a must experience wine.

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Author: Dirk Chan

Chateau Fombrauge is owned by Bernard Magrez of Chateau Pape Clement fame since 1999 and this Saint-Emilion Grand Cru, and is one of the oldest chateau in the region (16th century). The beautiful old single floor chateau has 5 rooms for rent to travelers, is beautifully decorated in the old Victoria style. The stately tasting room is huge and immaculately styled with a couple of glassed enclosures holding antique time/watch pieces (pictured). We were greeted by Nicolas Contiero, the Marketing Director (an Italian in France!)

With 75 hectares in 3 plots, the vineyards are well exposed on a chalky slope at the south end of St. Emilion. The main wine is well priced and adored by Scandanavians (who were the previous owners before Magrez).

There is a small production garage wine, the Magrez-Fombrauge ultra-premium and there is the very good and inexpensive 2009 white St. Emilion (one of only three in the entire region) which we tasted that was lovely with great exotic tropical fruit and bright citrus acid (quite different from the mineral driven whites found in Pessac Leognan). We tasted the 2007 Fombrauge Rouge that was beautifully made and makes a case for drinking your 2007’s right now whereas the 2010 tasted from barrel was more structured and in a different quality plane – this is an excellent QPR wine.

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Author: Dirk Chan

Well, here’s one for the ages. Myself, Marc Vigneron of Nobilis Wines (pictured with yours truly, who supplies all of deVine’s right bank Bordeaux futures) and David Dienger of Zyn in Calgary were amongst the 90 guests invited to a special VinExpo lunch at the home of Christian Moueix (of Petrus, Lafleur Petrus, Trotanoy, Hosanna, and Dominus fame). We started with a barrel sampling at the Libourne estate with the 2010 Magdelaine, Belair-Monange, Latour a Pomerol, Providence, Hosanna and Lafleur-Petrus in that order. The latter was simply AMAZING! (freshly picked flowers, and a liquid velvet palate that lingered on and on) and a must buy for the vintage, and the others were nothing short of pretty stunning themselves!

Then we drove up to Mr. Moueix’s beautiful home, where we were led into a tent to start things off with a vertical of Chateau Trotanoy, vintages 1998, 2000, 2002, 2005, 2008 and from barrel, the 2010. The 2002 surprised us by drinking the most beautiful of them all at the moment, while all the others required more time. The 2010 is special and will be ranked alongside the already legendary 1998 which showed the most power of the entire flight.

From there, we were led to the entrance of the courtyard next to the home and met with Bollinger Champagne before officially being greeted by Christian and his wife Cherise, son Eduardo, long-time legendary winemaker Jean-Claude Berrouet, and we then sat at the lucky #8 table where I got the pleasure to sit next to Michel Gillet, the estate manager for all the Moueix stable of estates since the late 1960’s. Despite my no doubt bambling and broken French, we managed to carry on a conversation about the Moueix estates, great vintages (he considers the greatest Moueix vintages of the last quarter century to be the 1982, 1989, 1998, and 2009) and the fact that great wine is meant for drinking and that the 2011 looks like will be the earliest picked vintage since 1893!

To the best for last, the four course lunch was prepared by none other than the legendary chef Michel Guerard, the founder of nouvelle cuisine, and the owner/proprietor and chef of the famous Les Pres d’Eugenie which has garnered and maintained their three Michelin stars standing since 1977! Without doubt, the most amazing lunch I’ve ever had and the food I must say overshadowed the exquisite but young 2005 Hosanna, and a pretty stunning and drinking beautifully 1998 Lafleur-Petrus, both served from magnum.

Enough superlatives, but a priviledged day indeed and totally unforgettable. I feel honored and humbled to be invited, thank you Marc!
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Author: Dirk Chan

Back to the madness at VinExpo, it is flabbergasting to see the number of people here. The traffic congestion into Bordeaux is a nightmare, we would have waited an hour to get into pavilion parking. Instead, we parked afar and walked for 10 minutes to the show. We visited with Fernando van Zeller of Vinihold, the famous Portuguese producer and negociant and tasted wines from several states he represents.

Two that stood out to me were the Quinta do Alorna, established in 1723 and since 1958 has produced wines of quality from its 250 hectare estate. With a much more fancy reworking of the labels and a very good line of wines from top to bottom, it is a well-priced and well tuned estate that we should keep an eye on. I was really impressed with its brand new ultra premium wines, the Marquesa de Alorna. The 2008 Red and the 2009 White are secret blends which were outstanding and ageworthy – which we tasted with winemaker Marta Simoes Reis. I tried but could not get any information about the varietals and percentages in either of these two high end blended wines that come beautifully packaged in a 3pack wooden box configuration. Guess you’ll just have to taste them for yourself when they come into the province later this year.

We finished the tasting with a new range of Barao de Vilar ports, including an electric and unfiltered 2001 LBV late release, and an exquisite 2003 Vintage Port. Ah, my tongue is black and my teeth blue these days..

2007 Quinta da Alorna Reserva

2003 Barao de Vilar Late Bottled Vintage Port

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Author: Dirk Chan

We visited Thierry Lurton and his lovely wife, the Comtesse Solange de Ravinel at Chateau Camarsac for an outdoor barbecue tonight. Located between Bordeaux and St. Emilion, stands Entre-Deux-Mers, the castle known as the ‘castle of the Black Prince’ has vineyards dating back to the 1400’s. Despite its Bordeaux Superieur status and located in the heart of Bordeaux, we were treated to a dinner of grilled Canard, Saucisse de Bordeaux, roasted potatoes in duck fat, cheese and ice cream. We tasted the 2005 Camarsac from magnum and it was delightfully delicious and showing extremely well. To say I’ve gained weight since my arrival in France is an understatement – the bread alone is enough to put on a few pounds.

Back to the huge and ancient Chateau, we were brave enough to climb up the circular staircase to garner a view from the top. Thierry comes from the famous Lurton family (his sister Berenice owns Chateau Climens in Barsac, cousin Andre owns La Louviere, and Pierre is the Director of Cheval Blanc and CEO of Chateau d’Yquem). Thierry is his own man and puts the vines and vineyards at the forefront – he has decided to put own various cuvees (including one called ‘The Black Prince’ from his various plots to showcase each unique terroir.

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Author: Dirk Chan

Well, we’ve arrived at VinExpo in Bordeaux! And indeed it is four football fields worth of pavillions and showcases wines from all over the world. This is serious business as negotiants and agents meet and all the trade descends on this famous wine city. We navigate the parking nightmare, and we visit immediately with a new winery from Portugal, the Quinta Nova de Nossa Senhora do Carmo or Quinta Nova for short and we met with their Export Manager Renata Abreu (pictured).

The introductory line Pomares Branco and Pomares Red are great values in the easy drinking category of wines as we’ve come to expect from Portuguese wines. The intermediate level Grainha Tinto was full of blueberries and earth from the Touriga Franca and Touriga Nacional grapes and finally the Reserva was special and actually needs a few years in the bottle.

The 2008 LBV was very fine, oh so smooth and the alcohol well managed with plenty of fruit. You can also see the avante garde bottle design pictured above with Renata in their CLA Ruby port, with its decanter shape bottling. Creative and innovative, we will be bringing this house to Edmonton. Quinta Nova is a wealthy winery and they are pulling out all stops to fast-track their ascendency into the Portuguese wine scene so look for it over the next few weeks on the New Arrivals page.

Tomorrow, a barbecue at Chateau Camarsac.

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Author: Dirk Chan

One of the first things to be cleared up about Langlois-Chateau is that the name is NOT Chateau Langlois as most people think (yours truly included) but Langlois-Chateau. The origins of this house lie in the union of Edouard Langlois with a young woman from the Vendee (Muscadet country) named Jeanne Chateau. Due to this very often misconception, the winery will be dropping the Chateau from its labels. This famous Cremant de Loire sparkling wine producer is actually owned by the Champagne house Bollinger. We were greeted by the charismatic General Manager Francois Regis de Fougeroux who juggled a private tasting of their portfolio with us and another German delegation!

We were really impressed with the entire range of sparkling wines, all made in the Champagne method with the rose a clear standout. Their still wines made were equally impressive and we’ll be bringing some in for you to try.

This is a huge property as you can see (photo is taken from our lovely picnic spot high above the vineyards). A clear leader in the region – they are extremely professional and highly motivated in promoting their wines but also those of the entire region – many adjacent properties use the Langlois facilities to make and bottle their own wines. The sparkling wines are clearly superb – try the following:

NV Langlois-Chateau Dry Carmin – $27.99

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Author: Dirk Chan

Already on this trip, we’ve noticed how young the winemakers are in the Loire Valley, and our visit to the Chateau Marie du Fou estate in Vendee is another example. Young Jeremie Mourat is in his early thirties and leading the next wave of innovative winemakers in this vast region. What a beautiful Chenin Blanc the 2009 Clos Saint Andre is, made from old vines from an ancient clos vineyard formerly owned by the Taittinger family for the longest time as an experimental plot, and which Jeremie recently purchased it from the famous Champagne house after it sat idle since 1968. This wine is a great expression of the grape.

A wide range of wines are produced by Jeremie, including his father’s vineyards (under the Chateau de Marie du Fou label) with Chenin Blanc and Pinot Noir and Cabernet Franc in the forefront, but we were impressed with an intriguing bottle of the red indigenous grape Negrette (very Tannat like), requiring much cellaring.

In the cellar, Jeremie is using the world’s biggest egg shape vat (pictured with Mark Ferrier of Renaissance Wines), made from porous clay, and with an ingenious interior design such that the wine is swirled automatically and continuously without human intervention. As well, we were all duly impressed with his specially designed stainless steel spit bucket (yes) which leads directly into the sewer system (click on the ‘read full article’ link below to see it). The whole vineyard is very modern in feel and the wines and their UFO based labels are also avant-garde.

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Author: Dirk Chan

The Chateau de Parnay in the beautiful town of Saumur in the appellation of Saumur Champigny in the Loire Valley. From the outside, the walled castle property looked like it was in ruins and when we went inside to visit with owner/winemaker Mathias Levron-Regis, we were amazed at what was going on. He is managing an 8-million dollar renovation that will turn this property into a 4-star hotel to be finished in 2013 using all the original marble and rock already in place with rooms renovated in the underground cellars. The castle dates somewhere between the 10th and 11th century. Pictured on the right is Mathias in what will be the main swimming pool – note the pigeon holes slots used by royalty for messaging from the old days – the more pigeon holes, the greater the power and prestige of the owner/proprietor. We can’t wait to come back to see the final results..

Alas we were there to taste the wines and both the Chateau de Parnay bottlings and the Chateau Prince offerings were amazing. While deVines has carried both houses – including the great Prince Brissac, there are many more bottlings to be had that we will be bringing in for you including some wonderful sparkling wines.

In the meantime, here are some already available wines:

2008 Ch. Prince Brissac – $25.99

2007 Ch. Prince Coteaux de L’Aubance – $28.99

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Author: Dirk Chan

The Domain Guy Saget is a landmark name in the Loire Valley with seven different ventures and 360 hectares of planted vineyards. It is a huge name in the region, and when you’re talking a five million bottle production per year, you get the scope we’re talking about. Most of the wines are whites made from the Chenin Blanc and Sauvignon Blanc grapes and the Cabernet Franc and Pinot Noir as reds.

Thus, we were grateful that the afficable Mr. Jean-Louis Saget, who manages this discreet empire, drove three hours to meet up with us at the Chateau de la Mulonniere. We did a power tasting of over a dozen wines in various price categories before heading to a delicious lunch where we bought the wines along with us – my how the wines change with food!

The highlight though was upon our return to Moulonniere where we sample some fabulous dessert wines from the cellars (pictured above) including the fabulous 2007 vintage. Sampled from barrel were the super expensive and tiny production of both the Coteaux du Layon (5 barrels made) and the Quarts de Chaume (2 barrels made). What a way to finish off lunch! And to boot, he sent us on our way with a fabulous bottling of the Vallon Sancerre to have with our fresh caught fish dinner..

Tomorrow, an amazing visit at Chateau de Parnay..

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