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Question: What is the newest designated wine grape-growing region in Washington State?
Answer: Royal Slope AVA (American Viticultural Area) inside the Columbia Valley AVA. It comprises over 150,000 acres of which nearly 2000 are planted with some 20+ grape varieties. Royal Slope is situated just north of the well-known Wahluke Slope AVA.
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One of the few beneficial upsides of this continuing less social Covid-19 pandemic is allowing us to enjoy more meals at home and to reminiscence about earlier wine & food experiences. Crafting home-made sourdough bread has become a popular new sport plus distance enforced shopping at the local food markets for the unique varieties of those seasonal heirloom tomatoes is still a delightful adventure. Your scribe has been excited with delectable meals at home including fresh Dungeness crab & Wild King Chinook salmon paired with older white Burgundy that have been a continuing lifestyle that provides a wonderful present diversion from these current affairs. What a joy also to read again the words of wisdom by Kermit Lynch in his Adventures On The Wine Route (A Wine Buyer’s Tour of France) First Edition 1988. This nostalgia all came rushing back to me due to two recent old treasures revisited both from Meursault-Charmes 1985. Lots of talk these days about the terroir of a “place” and specific vineyards but less so on the producer style which is also important. Every white Burgundy aficionado seems to have thoughts on the merits of the so- called big three of Meursault: Perrieres, Genevrieres & Charmes but less on the several producers of them. In these days of sometimes disturbing pre-mox it was re-assuring to see 35 year old whites in such an amazing mature condition. The bottles were from Michelot & Francois Jobard and Kermit Lynch really nailed them with his earlier astute style descriptions!
First started collecting the wine of these producers back in the eighties influenced by their smart importation through Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant in Berkeley California. Domaine Bernard Michelot was an icon Estate that later was split into 3 parts of Michelot-Buisson & Mestre-Michelot (now Domaine Michelot) and Michelot Mere et Fille (now Domaine Bernard-Bonin). Francois Jobard another Burgundy icon became Antoine & Francois Jobard when his son joined in 2002 and is now Antoine Jobard.
Remember some 30 years ago in August 1990 comparing this rather young elegant balanced 1985 Charmes from Michelot-Buisson with their full blown nutty rich 1982. Monitored this 1985 vintage along the way including service as my birthday celebration dinner wine in 1993 where it had put on more weight and had such a smooth intense texture but continued to show how well made it was. Celebrated my wife Joan’s birthday dinner in 1999 with a mini horizontal-vertical of all four Meursault vineyards (Charmes, Genevrieres, Poruzot, and Blagny) of Francois Jobard from both 1985 and 1986. What stood out was the more sweet ripe character of 1986 compared to 1985 (especially the prominent botrytis of 1986 Poruzot wanting a foie gras pairing) but the 1985s showed their trademark Jobard fresh acidity. In July 2003 recall serving a perfect pairing recipe idea of Salade Pere Maurice from Gerard Boyer in Reims while comparing 1985 Charmes style of Michelot-Buisson & Francois Jobard. At 18 years the full rich nutty mature Michelot contrasted with the fresher more minerally balanced Jobard. In 2020 now twice that age at 35 both Charmes continue on a remarkable plateau of enjoyment with the same relative stylings as earlier. Michelot is ripe, nutty, buttery, toasty, depth of lees and so rich. Jobard is minerally, precise, refined, steel backbone, almost still restrained but obviously mature. Wow – What a memorable difference from the very same vineyard!
Here are two pages (246 & 248) from that amazing book I recommend you read. Kermit back in 1988 so cleverly captured the essence of these two outstanding producers of Meursault that still most aptly give you admirable insight into the complexity of both wines. Hope you are recalling some inspiring memories too.
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Question: Which vineyard has the highest altitude in the Okanagan BC?
Answer: Believe the prize should go to Garnet Valley Vineyards of the Okanagan Crush Pad. Their remote site is certified organic sitting mostly around 600 metres (1968 feet) but goes up to 680 metres (2230 feet) at the very top vineyard. Some interesting young pinot noir fruit going into a very dry 2017 Free Form Blanc de Noir (150 cases from low pH 2.98, high acidity 8.8 with 18-20 months on the lees – going to about 400 cases for 2018) and their Haywire brands. Probably is the highest elevation vineyard in Canada. Couple others are close: Culmina on Margaret’s Bench is about 595 metres (check out their Unicus from Gruner Veltliner) and See Ya Later atop Hawthorne Mountain at around 2000 feet with a large planting of some 65 acres of Gewurztraminer.
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One of the traditional annual highlights in Vancouver is the La Confrerie des Chevaliers du Tastevin Summer Paulee. This is always a fun educational event usually with a specific wine region theme many of which were previously written up on this Blog. However this year on Sunday August 23 precautions against Covid-19 were in place so rather than one large group of 48 we were wisely split into six hosted locations of members each with eight persons. Everyone enjoyed the same outstanding French-styled lunch expertly prepared by Chef-Proprietor Jean-Francis Quaglia and his culinary team from Provence Marinaside Restaurant with identical wines served as shown on the menu. In addition each location had some special white Burgundy wines brought along to be tasted blind during the reception. Zoom meeting arrangements were set up for the end of the lunch to provide wider discussions among all locations. Sensible organizational idea to suit the times and most successfully executed. Maybe consider this innovative dine-around idea for one of your upcoming IWFS events.
As always the Paulee mystery wines were exciting to study. A varied selection at our venue included full ripe forwardly 2015 Meursault Charmes Chateau de Meursault, solid 2013 Puligny-Montrachet Les Folatieres Louis Jadot, disappointing pre-mox 2009 Meursault Perrieres Domaine Lafon, and charming elegant 2006 Corton Charlemagne Bonneau du Martray, Your scribe provided an old but sound mature 1985 Puligny-Montrachet Les Referts from Etienne Sauzet. It is remarkable how those 1985 & 1986 white Burgundies have stood the test of time with little concern for pre-mox issues. This 1985 wine was supposed to be a comparison with the same producer from the same vineyard in 2007 (22 years later) but La Garenne substituted for Referts vineyard at last minute. Both showed the producer style well with the older Les Referts spicy rich mature while La Garenne is younger leaner showing more acidity from both higher slopes and the vintage.
The reds were a mixed bag of three consecutive vintages featuring Gevrey-Chambertin mainly from Frederic Esmonin (a long time grower and also a wine producer from 1988 finding his really outstanding path during this present decade). 2005 is an outstanding classic year but “Clos Prieurs” is in 2 parts of 1er cru Haut next to Mazis & Village Bas further south-east all in Gevrey. Still it showed breeding and clean stylish delicious underrated fruit from Patrice Rion. Remember visits with him during the eighties at Daniel Rion before he broke away in 1990 with wife Michele and their son Maxime from 2005 for their own firm. The other two vintages of 2006 & 2004 are not classic. A few lovely 2006 out there but this Estournelles St. Jacques is rather typical in a somewhat leaner unripe style from the cooler year plus the cold winds of this site. This vineyard is benefiting from climate change and one to watch in hot vintages of 2018-2020 from Frederic Esmonin, Louis Jadot and others. The two Grand Crus suffered from being that controversial 2004 vintage. Many like to overly generalize the year 2004 as being tainted by pyrazines from lady-bugs but probably not the total picture as the the whites seem cleaner. Your scribe feels it is complicated by several factors including hail during July & August resulting in oidium (more usually a problem for whites) & rot conditions requiring rigid selection of grapes plus overall less ripeness of pinot noir. These resulting greener herbal notes shown here detract from the complex terroir lying underneath these two superb sites of Ruchottes and Chambertin (that prefers hotter conditions than even Clos de Beze). Still they showed better with the wonderful food courses. Wished they were from 2005 instead but what a difference a year can make with top Burgundy!
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Question: Which vineyard in Burgundy is benefiting most from climate change?
Answer: Fascinating question. Yes vineyards everywhere are seeing grapes ripening earlier. In Burgundy those more outlying areas at the top of the hills and on the ridges have become warmer especially over the past five years than previously. Many places are much improved. If I had to pick one spot I would say Estournelles-Saint-Jacques is a top candidate because of their classic rocky soils of limestone & clay helping to retain moisture but with colder west winds (more so than in already deservedly celebrated neighbour Clos St. Jacques) that in the past produced generally leaner wines. Those winds become an ever increasing advantage with continuing climate change. Similarly for just southerly Lavaux-Saint-Jacques. This is all encouraging news for all producers from those spots including Louis Jadot, Frederic Esmonin and others. Tip: Look for their wines from 2015-2020.
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