... (in case you´ve noticed I´ve been away). As previously noted in a post here, I went on a 5 week holiday, mostly in Southern France. Great. They had a heat wave in June, temperatures about 36 - 38 centigrade which is fairly warm and will keep me warm for the rest of the year. A few acceptable restaurants. A great week-end with the Tommasis (Mike and Cathy), including the annual bouillabaisse party in Le Rusc. 7 vineyards visited (that is counting Chapoutier as one, even though that is rather a tasting room).
95 bottles of wine brought home (not counting one vacusaved bottle of Muscat de Rivesaltes, and 54 bottles of beer). Found some intereseting wines, too. In Bandol, we visited old favorite Gros Noré. M Pascal was just like he used to be; maybe, in retrospect, somewhat subdued - I know the true story ... He, and his brother, were building an extension to their Provencal farmhouse (possibly a new tasting room), so he greeted us in shorts, and little else (sandals, I think). The white was slightly more acid, more refreshing than normally - however, I tend to think that the white Bandols are as a rule questionable QPR at 10-11 EU/bottle. The red (2001) was more tannic than the previous vintage (he still had some of that), cost EU 14 and we settled for 6 of that and 6 of the rosé. We then went on to equally appreciated Ste Anne. Greeted, as always, by Mlle Marie, we proceeded to their rosé which is quite different from Gros Noré´s - for one thing, it is mostly Cinsault, more jammy in nose and on palate - and then their two reds, the 'normal' and the 'collection' which is "98% Mourvedre" - this is accomplished by taking
100 hl of Mourvedre, then adding one grape of cinsault, and one of grenache - that makes 2%. Very small %, of course, but still. ANyway, the 'collection' we were offered this year was the 2000 vintage. No doubt about it, this wine is a monster, a rolling thunder, a wale in a bath tub of a wine, and even at the stiff price of 23 EU we bought 3 bottles, one of which will not see New Years´s Eve, because I´ll have it with a game casserole as soon as the hunting season starts ... I will not go into the wines we had with Mike and Cathy - I feel it would be to presume too much, doing tasting notes in the Tommasi home - however, let it be said that Mike served us a wonderful red from Languedoc (Pic du Loup, something - my wife wrote it down, but she´s working tonight poor thing) which evolved, and evolved, and evolved in the glass. Also a very very good Banyuls, bought from the legendary gipsy wine vendor, the cavist in pyjamas ... Ch Val Joanis Reserve "Les Aubepines" C d Luberon 2001, which we had at 'L´âne Rouge' in Nice - one star in Guide Rouge, 14 points in Gault-Millau, very classy place to have a quite lunch with all the trimmings. According to the maitre d´hôte, made from Ugni Blanc and a bit of Rolle. Since we hade just been to Bandol and tasted whites (mostly made from Ugni Blanc) we thought that it didn´t much resemble other Ugni Blanc wines? He fatherly instructed us in the obvious differences in terroir between Luberon and Bandol, then called the sommelier (because we´d asked for the adress of the producer) who told him the wine was made from Grenache Blanc and Rousanne. Never mind. A nice, floral nose, hint of honey. On palate very spicy, nutmeg, ground dried coriander seeds. Slight fiery, no acids to speak of. Price in resto EU 40 (oops), in vineyard 11,89. A good wine with a meal, we had grilled fish followed by goat´s cheese and it worked wonderfully as an accompaniment. We bought 6 bottles. In Tournon we had a new pleasant surprise. A white Croze, Dom Collonge
2001, 100 % Marsanne, nose of old English roses, on the palate a smoked or almost flinty tone - as expected, very little acids. Unfortunately the producer was all out of the vintage, and the 2002 was not at all as good - more fresh but less stuctured, not at all the same exeprience. However, they did a fairly good red Croze at an affordable price (EU
7,50) which, could be taken as the Beginner´s Croze - very good typicity with a peppery nose, and a mouth full of blackberries - a wine to drink this autumn. Good QPR but not a truly great wine, of course. We visited Chapoutier and tried the reds from Northern RHone (except Cornas, which I so far find to tannic - I may learn, I suppose; and Hermitage, which I don´t think I´ll ever find myself willing to pay for, considering the asking prices). Previously, we have been offered Petite Ruche for Croze, but this year, the offering was Meysonnier, which is a biodynamically produced wine - very concentrated, very tannic, a wine to save a few years. As I remember it, the Petite Ruche is much lighter. The Meysonnier costs 1,5 Euro more but appears worth it. If you´re passing through Tain and are looking for a rather good deal on Cote Rotie, they have a load of `96s which, apaprently were exported to Canada but then returned because of dealings with the Canadian wine-selling monopole - they cost EU 29 and were excellent back in 2001, but may have closed down a bit now. It is obvious that we will have to take a week in Northern Rhone soon, maybe next autumn (this autumn we´re going to Beaune). Finally, with the little car (Volvo V70) bursting with holiday gear and wine boxes, we reached Alsace and our old friends, F Baur in Turckheim, were we also had an extended tasting. It afforded us the opportunity to compare their wines BB and AB - before and after biodynamics - which was instructive. A Riesling GC Brand 1997 was good but not quite at the price of EU 9,80 - by going to Eguisheim and buying the Ginglinger GC Eichberg 1997 at EU 7,80 you will make a fair deal. The Gewurz 1998 GC Brand (first time we´ve tsted a Gewurz from Brand on the Baur label) was slightly thin and sparse, a typical nose but not what we have grown accustomed to. The wines from 2000 and after (AB) uniformly had very good concentration and typicity - particularly the Muscat, and the Pinot Gris GC Brand 2001 which was a wonderful wine with heaps of mature, aromatic, yellow fruit (plums and apples, and peaches) with good acid/sugar balance. I believe that it has cellaring potential, I just hope I can refrain from drinking it all this winter ... I recognise a tendency to find the Alsace `98s less than satisfying, at least the ones from Baur - while the `97s uniformly are good to excellent. Apart from the mentioned wines we even found a few good buys at Carrefour, notably an AOC St Chinian, Dom de la Serre - 60% Mourveder,
20% Grenache, 20% Syrah, at the ridiculous price of EU 3,89. If I get a chance to do a Bandol red tasting, I´ll put this in as a "dark horse", but, really, it does not taste very much like a Bandol, the presence of the Syra being quite obvious. We also picked up six bottles of Gewurz Fronholtz Dom Ostertag 1999 which I had _forgotten_ (this is true!) in a hotelroom in Eguisheim last August! The case had spent the winter in their cave after a frantic telephone call last september, and seems to have stood the ordeal fine - we had a bottle yesterday. [N] Grap fruit and honey which continues in [P], little acidity, residual sugar to balance what there is - according to Hugh Johnson a wine with cellaring potential. We´ll see about that, I have 5 bottles left.
Hoping this finds you all in good health, I remain, Yr obdt servant
Nils Gustaf
PS Cheers!