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TN: Good Loires & Champagne, plus Burg, St Emilion, and CA reds

Betsy had opened a 2013 Pepiere Muscadet for cooking, and I used more for m y "risotto." I just went out and bought some cheap whites, cause I can't wa ste Pepiere for cooking! What a value, sprightly, saline, minerally. B+

Dinner was tofu with a balsamic glaze, black barley risotto with mixed mush rooms, and broccoli. Wine was the 2009 Ch. du Chassagne-Montrachet (Bader-M ineur) Chassagne-Montrachet rouge. Stolid, a bit clunky, ripe redder fruit , some tannin, not very long. B-/C+

Friday she made cod, chickpeas, and greens in a chipotle/adobo broth; I ope ned the

2004 Huet "Clos du Bourg" Vouvray Sec. This is an "off" vintage for Vouvray , but I enjoyed this a lot. Midbodied, touch of sweetness, blood orange and apple, some wooly notes. Good acids, nice length, not a classic but very t asty and works well with the food. B+

Last night went over to some friends to celebrate hostess's birthday. With nibbles (stuffed peppers, cheese, olives, nuts) the NV Serveaux "Carte Noir " Brut Champagne. Assume from name this is a Blanc de Noirs, but not sure I can isolate that- there's a crisp lemony edge that I'd associate with Char d. Citrus zest, smoke, biscuits. Very good. B+

I had brought along a scallop ceviche, and host paired with the 2010 de Vil laine Bouzeron. Excellent choice, the tangy citrus notes were a perfect pai ring for .....the tangy citrus notes of the dish. Good acids, lemon and min eral, by itself this wine might have come across as tart but just right wit h the ceviche. This night, B+

Main course was a great dish of lamb shanks over orzo, with kale and salad on the side.The wine was the 1999 Ch. Quinault l'Enclos (St Emilion). The modern styling of the wine and the ripe character of the vintage pushed eac h other over the edge for me, others liked more. Plummy, lots of mocha, low er acid. Tasted like a good California Merlot-heavy blend, but that's not w hat I want in Bordeaux. B-/C+

There was also the 2013 McManis Cabernet Sauvignon. Now this made the Quin ault look like a model of restraint. This is quite sweet, as in it tastes l ike it has RS, and lots of chippy oak flavors. I'm sure this is a big selle r, but not my type at all. C

Grade disclaimer: I'm a very easy grader, basically A is an excellent wine, B a good wine, C drinkable. Anything below C means I wouldn't drink at a p arty where it was only choice.Furthermore, I offer no promises of objectivi ty, accuracy, and certainly not of consistency.

Reply to
DaleW
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DaleW wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@googlegroups.com:

I had this wine in February, 2012 and it was really a great wine. Clear A for me. My note was... 96 points no less! According to CellarTracker, I still have one bottle. I wonder where is it, though.

Purchased at 12 euro at the Domaine, back in 2005 or 2006, no less!!!

s.

Reply to
santiago

Ah, a mystery solved. I never knew that you were a Grenache lover, S.

Mark Lipton

Reply to
Mark Lipton

Mark Lipton wrote in news:m40gnb$1tk$ snipped-for-privacy@speranza.aioe.org:

Damn!

I wonder how...

s.

Reply to
santiago

I just received (as you might have also Santiago) the cellar list for this year from Huet. Sad to say that the 2013 Clos du Bourg sec is 22€ depart cave. The new owner ship really seems to be making its presence felt on the price front, anyway. :(

Reply to
Emery Davis

Not to mention their interaction with wine bloggers like Jim Budd and Chris Kissack, Emery.

Mark Lipton

Reply to
Mark Lipton

What's happened there Mark? Haven't followed it.

Reply to
Emery Davis

Emery Davis wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@mid.individual.net:

I did!!!

the cellar list for

2013 was a very difficult year for Vouvray, with a big hail incident in June that almost tore the vineyards apart. So, maybe the pricing reflects the fact that there is almost no wine to sell.

But, of course, the new management would want to make money on the wines. If we look at the issue, Huet is considered to be the best winery in Vouvray, one of the best from the Loire and at a very high level for France, and yet their prices have been reasonable and almost everybody could afford a great bottle of wine from them. With a Sec at 12 euro or a Moelleux Premiere Trie at 30 euro. It is quite an outlier, both in quality (higher) and price (lower). As a wine lover, there is nothing that I like more that a great producer that provides me with wines that taste way better than their price suggest (call me a cheap guy!).

So, it is understandable that after a purchase, the new management wants some return on the investment. Whether it has to be 22 euro or 18 euro, or

30 euro, I do not know. Maybe they will know the reply very soon... if the wines sell... or not.
Reply to
santiago

Emery Davis wrote in news:ccne1pFii90U4 @mid.individual.net:

Kissack put a lukewarm opinion on some of their wines on his site and, when the following february he headed to the Huet booth at Salon des Vins de Loire in Angers , he was denied tasting the wines.

Budd, who is always on the hunt for the next fight, could not resist weighing and bashing the new management extensively in a pretty disgusting (Budd-iesque we may say) way.

My take on the issue is that Noel Pinguet (who inherited the Domaine from Gaston Huet who was, in turn, son of Victor Huet - the founder), was a great winemaker with a lot of sensitivity for grapes, but he lacked management skills or common sense in the business area.

During the last 20 years under the management of Pinguet, the Domaine produced great wines, but they failed to capitalize on the quality and reputation of the domaine. As weird as it sounds, they should have been able to increase the price of the wines while maintaining their clients happy about the transaction. (Ever seen a customer walking out of an Apple Store glowing with satisfaction after paying 600 euro for a smartphone?)

The fact is that the Domaine was not that profitable and he needed to bring an outside investor. Obviously, the investor is a much better businessmen than Pinguet, got to have 51% of the shares and as soon as disagreements arose... they dumped Pinguet. Not unexpectedly, may I add.

The purchase of the Domaine did not include stock of old vintages and I read that Pinguet (who is on age for retirement), sold those stocks through BBR.

Now, what remains to be proved is if the new management is as good with the grapes as they are with the business side.

What Domaine Huet has not know is the sensitivity of Pinguet or the old stocks that were the heritage of the winery.

s.

Reply to
santiago

What many wine managers still don't seem to get is that it is a buyer's mar ket. Yeah, top ranked Bordeaux, Burgundy, some cult Cali wines can get big bucks, the rest are struggling to make sales in an expanding supply chain. Blocking a wine writer because they didn't get the result they wanted is ju st dishonest unless what he wrote was outright falsehood which, from my rea ding of the original article it did not appear to be, would justify their s tance.

Reply to
lleichtman

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