A Burgundy revelation (vaguely Vinisud-related)

So there I was, just beginning to type out my notes about our (fairly eventful) drive to the South of France, for the bi-annual Vinisud event in Montpellier, plus some notes on the first batch of wines we tasted at the event, when I suddenly thought "Gosh - I really should finish writing my tasting notes on those Burgundies we tasted the other evening, before they are completely shot".

I'm referring to a tasting I presented to the Nottingham Wine Circle on Wednesday, featuring the wines of a couple of growers from less exalted parts of greater Burgundy, namely Domaine Guillot-Broux in the Maconnais and Les Champs de l'Abbaye in the Cote Chalonnaise. Both of these growers (more by coincidence than design, in this case) produce wines from biodynamically farmed vineyards. I have written enough about biodynamic winegrowers in the past for any followers of this blog to know exactly what I am talking about, but if you are unfamiliar with biodynamics, then Google is your friend(!) Suffice to say that, as I have also stated ad-nauseum in the past - and I quote (myself) - "whatever one thinks about biodynamicism - extreme organics or just plain wacky - it is a philosophy which does tend to go hand-in-hand with a healthy respect for the land and a fastidious approach to winemaking."

I visited these growers during a couple of (relatively) relaxing days and nights we spent in Burgundy, based at our friend David Bennett's house in the medieval village of Saint Gengoux-le-National, as a post-Vinisud "wind-down". I'll tell you more about Domaine Guillot-Broux in a later post, but for now I will concentrate on Les Champs de l'Abbaye. This is a domaine created by a gentleman by the name of Alain Hasard, who just happens to be the brother of Thierry Hasard, a man who in my opinion makes some of the Languedoc's finest wines (also biodynamic) and who I have written about so enthusiastically on various occasions. I figured that if Thierry makes such brillliant and individual wines, then perhaps his brother may do the same. I had also read an extremely enthusiastic (and extremely detailed) review of Alain's wines in Bertrand Celce's excellent Wine Terroirs blog dating back to 2009. As far as I could see, this guy was a "must visit", whilst in the region............ 

We arrived at Les Champs de l'Abbaye in the village of Aluze (without an appointment) at around 1.30 pm - still at least half an hour before the end of lunchtime in French terms, but I was hoping perhaps to arrange a tasting after 2 pm. I made a telephone call to Alain Hasard.... "Puis j'avoir une rendevous, s'il vous plais?" The answer came back "Aujourd'hui?...... err, oui..... dix-huit heures?" Oh dear - 6 pm. Not ideal, but better than nothing - we might be on holiday, but the French had work to attend to, so 6 pm it was. Off we went for a coffee in Beaune and a drive up to the Cotes de Nuits. We returned at 6 pm prompt (well, 6.10, actually, but it was close enough) and met with Monsieur Hasard at his cellar door for a tasting. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but an hour later, following a very enjoyable tasting of all his wines (or at least the ones that were currently available) we left, armed with a bottle of delicious Crémant de Bourgogne Brut Nature 2010 (with zero dosage and zero sulphur) for our pre-dinner aperitif and a selection of his other wines to taste back in the UK.

Fast forward a couple of weeks and I presented these wines to the NottinghamWine Circle. It is fair to say that (alongside the wines of Domaine Guillot-Broux, who as I said, I will deal with in a later post) they showed reasonably well, but didn't particularly shine, especially given the relatively high cellar door prices (and hence, the prices I would need to sell them at, if I chose to do so). Don't get me wrong, they came across as good wines, but they aren't cheap, when you consider that it is still possible to find many a decent Cote d'Or village wine for less money. When presenting a tasting, it is difficult to find either the time or the presence of mind to actually write cohesive notes on the wines you are presenting, so (as usual) I took what was left in the bottles home, fully intending to write some proper notes. And (again, as usual) I ended up too tired/hungry/whatever to bother myself with such a chore, at the end of a long day. Therefore, it wasn't until 24 hours later that I managed to re-taste the whites, and a full 3 days (i.e. last night) before I managed to get to the reds. Frankly, I thought they would be well past it, for in my experience, red Burgundy generally does not show well in the "next day" stakes - it seems to oxidise sufficiently to eradicate any degree of freshness.

But these wines were different, because every single one was was fresh and full of life - and showing considerably better than when they were first opened, a full 3 days before. Which is all the more amazing, given that Monsieur Hasard uses only the bare minimum of SO2 at the bottling stage - i.e. just enough to make them sufficiently stable to be transported and stored/aged under what most of us would consider normal conditions. The prices shown in Euros are cellar door (visitor) prices, whilst the prices in brackets are what I would need to sell them for, if I chose to do so.........

Les Champs de l’Abbaye “Les Cailloux” Rully Blanc 2009 - €15.00 (N/A - sold out)

Initially a strong whiff of banoffee oak, but this integrates with time, revealing some rather nice lemon/lime and mineral aromas and flavours. Tightly wound, flinty and nervy, this at first seems almost Chablis-esque in structure, though with more fruit (even grapiness) and none of the sicky notes I often find in Chablis. By day 2, it had opened-out beautifully into something rather different, now putting me more in mind of a Coulée de Serrant we enjoyed a few nights previously, with a steely minerality, still tightly wound, but with great complexity and immense length.

Les Champs de l’Abbaye “Les Gardes” Bourgogne Côte Chalonnaise 2009 - €12.00 (£16.75)

A delightfully bright, clean, fresh Pinot nose. The palate too is uber-fresh, clean and bursting with life, with red cherry and raspberry flavours and a hint of soft spice. Fruit, acidity and tannins all in perfect balance. Really elegant and full of promise.

Les Champs de l’Abbaye “La Brigadière” Mercurey 2010 - €17.00 (£21.75)

This is also beautifully fresh and clean, heady with aromas of violets and roses, summer pudding, cream and spice. Delightfully fresh in the mouth - light and airy, with a core of ripe, elegant raspberry and cherry fruit and a wonderful citrus/mineral tang. This is elegant, long and very lovely.

Les Champs de l’Abbaye “Les Marcoeurs” Mercurey 2010 - €22.00 (£23.99)

Another lovely nose - this one being more strawberries and cream, with a hint of something darker. A touch of brioche, exotic spices and polished mahogany. The palate is a real joy - full of complexity and elegance, with a combination of redcurrant, cherry and raspberry fruit flavours, very fine tannins and g;orious acidity. A glorious wine, with fabulous balance and real breeding.

Les Champs de l’Abbaye “Les Sous Roches” Monthelie 2010 - €22.00 (£23.99)

A riot of red and black fruits, with a hint of savoury/meat, again with polished wood and exotic spices. Amazingly fresh and full of vigour - a wine I could sniff all night. A wonderfully fresh, vibrant palate, packed with light, delicate red fruit flavours, zesty acidity and barely perceptible tannins and great length. A wine of tremendous complexity.

So why did these wines show so well last night, when 3 days earlier they had come across as, well..... a touch ordinary? Perhaps they suffered from being so young and recently bottled and just needed time to open out. Perhaps it was my mood - not that it had changed drastically, and I wasn't exactly feeling ebulliant! Or maybe (being biodynamic) they just needed the juxtaposition of the moon, stars, planets, earth and sea to be just right before coming out to play(!) Whatever the case, their transformation from a few evenings previous was amazing - these were pure, fresh and utterly life-affirming wines, which really put a smile on my face.

But could I sell them? Well, to be honest, I have enough trouble trying to sell wines from my own specialist region of Languedoc-Roussillon in the 15 to 25 quid price bracket - brilliant though many of them are - so I'd have the Devil's own job in trying to shift "Villages" level Côte Chalonnaise wines from a virtually unknown grower with little track record. But who knows - perhaps with the inexorable rise in prices for the wines of the nearby Côte d'Or, Burgundy diehards may eventually begin to look further south. And maybe then these wines will begin to look like good value. For now, though, I'm not sure they are......

A wonderful aged Languedoc Syrah, an enigma wrapped up in a conundrum, and a delicious white from Southern Burgundy

Here are 3 wines worthy of note, consumed over the last week. I've been meaning to write them up for a couple of days now, but as always, other things seem to get in the way.....

Chateau La Dournie Elise 2000 Saint-Chinian

80% Syrah, 20% Grenache. Part of the wine is aged for 10 months in new oak barrels, whilst the remainder is aged in vat. This has all of the hallmarks of absolutely top-notch Saint-Chinian. It offers complex aromas which range from floral to savoury/herby/meaty to mineral and all points in-between. There's a strong hint of black olives, a whiff of smokey bacon and even a suggestion of lilies and violets. There's something very Northern Rhone about it, and indeed when I put this bottle around at a Nottingham Wine Circle blind tasting last week (and even given my propensity to offer wines from Languedoc) nobody guessed Languedoc - in fact, most were convinced it was a Cote Rotie or a particlarly elegant Cornas. It has a wonderful core of raspberry and blackcurrant fruit - at almost 12 years old, still absolutely fresh and vibrant - along with a rather fabulous array of secondary aromas and flavours, a subtle herbiness and an intense core of stoney minerality. I've often opined that Saint-Chinian is capable of producing some of the most distinctive wines in the whole of Languedoc, especially when grown on schistous "soil" (which La Dournie is). And this is a simply exquisite wine, which (despite the Grenache element!) bears comparison to many more exalted Northern Rhone wines.

Domaine d'Estoublon Blanc 2007 Vin de Pays des Alpilles

A blend of Grenache Blanc, Marsanne and Roussanne. This wine (and I don't just mean this particular bottle or vintage) is the epitome of an enigma wrapped up in a conundrum! I recently published a tasting note for the 2008, in which the wine seemed tired and oxidative to begin with, before blossoming into something much better over the next few days. This 2007, on the other hand, was much cleaner and fresher when I first opened it - which, as I write, was around a week ago. But despite that freshness, it just seemed to lack the excitement and complexity I was expecting, so I bunged the half-consumed bottle in the fridge and forgot about it. Until a couple of nights ago, that is, when I poured myself a glass and was struck by how much it had changed and evolved - for the better, thankfully. It now has wonderful aromas of spring flowers and honeysuckle, peaches and orange marmalade, garrigue herbs and exotic spices. The texture is slightly oily, rich and mouth-filling, with flavours of quince, apricot and bitter orange peel, again quite spicy/licoricey and full of southern warmth. The acidity isn't high, but it is adequate, and there is plenty of minerality and an almost tannic grip to it that keeps everything nicely together. I'm just amazed by the chameleon-like qualities of this cuvée (both the 2007 and 2008) but it only serves to strengthen my view that it is a wine that will go through various phases before really blossoming into something quite different (though hopefully very pleasing and quirky) in a few years' time. 13.7% abv. £22.99.

Domaine Laborbe-Juillot Les Saint-Jacques 2006 Rully

For some reason, TLD isn't a big fan of the Estoublon white(!) so to placate her, I opened this wine (we were having some home-made chicken liver parfait and salad, so a white wine was called for). It comes from the relatively humble Caves de Buxy co-operative in southern Burgundy, so has no great pretensions to complexity or seriousness. But it does everything I want a young, inexpensive white Burgundy to do - plenty of Chardonnay typicity, minerality by the bucketload, a decent structure and gorgeous acidity. It is ripe, but not fat, with delicious lemon meringue, peach and ripe bramley apple flavours, mouth-watering acidity and a distinct mineral streak. It is a really lovely, refreshing and very food-friendly wine, which can be had from the cellar door for not very much money (if I remember correctly, about 7 or 8 Euros).

Next up, some fine Burgundies.........