The Reynard vineyard is on a beautiful, terraced granite hillside that overlooks the village of Cornas and is bordered by cedar trees.
Christopher Moestue, a knowledgeable and respected Norwegian importer, bought a plot at the top of the Reynard, and he got Vincent Paris to vinify. The 2007 was served at a private tasting a couple of weeks ago. The wine was maybe at its peak.
Cornas Coteaux de Reynard 2007(Vign. Moestue)
Dark red with touches of brick. Scent of blackberry, pepper and cooked sauce, over a layer of dried fruits and cinnamon. Meaty in the mouth where fruit still remains, polished tannins, still with some acidity. Good concentration and a long finish. Superb now, for my taste it will not get any better than this.
It’s beaujolais nouveau day again. The best producers have made light and delicate wines, while those from the more commercial wine houses are generally more thin.
Foillard and Brun are among those all time favourites who excel in this context. Dupond, that I discovered A couple of years ago, is delivering again. Last year’s find was Perrachon.
As I wrote then, Laurent Perrachon is based outside Juliénas and harvests six appellations. Martine and Laurent are fifth generation, and the sixth is also involved in the family business.
This nouveau is made exclusively from grapes grown in the Chânes municipality on granite and blue stone soil. The wine underwent 5 days carbonic maceration.
Beaujolais Nouveau 2024(Perrachon)
Dark cherry. Red fruits, predominantly raspberry and strawberry, with some dark berries and flowers. Fresh in the mouth, soft tannins, good acidity, and a very generous fruit.
This exceptional white wine from Jura was served in a private dinner a couple of weeks ago. It was paired with a vacherin mont d’or, one of the region’s formidable cheeses.
It was aged for more than 36 months under a veil of yeast (“sous voile”), and shows a delicate balance between the nutty richness of a vin jaune and the fruitiness of a young savagnin.
Grown in clay soils the savagnin grape is perfect for oxidative winemaking without fortification. The result is a wine with a complex flavour, reminiscent of a fino sherry, but without the added alcohol.
Savagnin Sous Voile 2019(B&STissot)
Light golden. Oxidation notes with nuts, dried fruits, salt- and a flowery note. Rich in the mouth, concentrated with good acidity, and good length. It’s both delicate and full of depth.
Château Thivin dates back to 1877. Today the 6th generation of the Geoffray family runs the estate.
The name of the wine comes from seven plots at Mont Brouilly in Côte de Brouilly, each contributing to the complexity with their various orientations and characteristics.
The soils are dominated by the blue stones of the region, stonier for the highest plots and more clayey for those closer to the foot of the hill.
The wine is made partly with whole bunches and matured in oak tuns for 7 months. Blending is done in the spring.
Côte de Brouilly Les Sept Vignes 2023(Château Thivin)
Garnet red with bluish hint. Aroma of cherry, blueberry and flowers, with a mineral touch. Round in the mouth with fine tannins, good acidity and a spicy finish.
This wine was from the same Morgon theme tasting as last week’s wine. Jean Foillard is a favourite on these pages. See fx here.
Côte du Py is a prestigious slope in the outskirts of the village of Villié-Morgon, that gives name to the Morgon cru. The soil is decomposed schist, rich in ferrour oxide and called morgons.
Domaine Jean Foillard is a family-run winery founded in the 1980s by Jean Foillard, who took over the estate from his father. Foillard was one of the so-called gang of four, vintners that were inspired by the teachings of natural wine guru Jules Chauvet. The majority of the 14 hectares of vines on the estate are found in the Côte du Py.
The wine is made with natural viticulture and vinification techniques, without the use of herbicides or pesticides, and with minimal sulphur additions. Some keywords: Hand-harvest, whole cluster maceration and fermentation with indigenous yeasts. The wine was raised a good half year in used oak barrels.
Morgon Côte du Py 2022(Jean Foillard)
Deep cold cherry colour. Intense aroma of cherry, with chalk and earth. Though concentrated it also has a layer of fresh raspberry and flowers on top. Quite powerful in the mouth, with young tannins, fresh fruit, an integrated acidity. Fabulous wine that currently is good with food, but will probably benefit from 5-6 more years.
Last Monday my local wine club served a dozen of Morgon wines. Most of them originate from the various climats that make up the appellation. This one is from a small climat called Douby, next to the famous Côte de Py.
Domaine Louis-Claude Desvignes is located in the town Villié-Morgon, that gives name to the Morgon appellation in Beaujolais. Today it’s run by eighth generation, the siblings Claude-Emmanuelle and Louis-Benoît Desvignes. They work their soils in the most natural way possible. No synthetic products are used in the vineyards, and the work in the cellar is carried out with as little intervention as possible.
Their Morgons are made without aging in wood. Instead they spend some time in concrete vats. The macerations depends of the wine. In preparing the tasting I also tried their Morgon Voûte Saint-Vincent. That one is macerated only for ten days and aimed at earlier consumption, while other bottlings see longer macerations.
This wine comes from an 80 year old 1 hectare vineyard in Douby. Here at this place called Château Gaillard the soil is sand and granite. The harvest is manual and the vinification traditional with 10% of the grapes destemmed. Fermentation lasts 10 days, then the wine is aged in cement vats for 7 months.
Morgon Château Gaillard 2021(Louis Claude Desvignes)
Deep cold cherry colour. Intense aroma of cherry and flowers, with chalk and earth. Quite powerful in the mouth with fresh fruit, an integrated acidity and young fine-grained tannins. I think the 21s in the tasting had benefitted from one year more than the 22s. Still this one is probably at its best after 4-5 more years.
The tasting of mature Muscadets in our local wine club slowed once again that the western Loire can produce perfectly balanced wines at very economic prices. This wine was among my favourites in the tasting.
The domain was founded by Michel Brégeon in the 1970’s and run today by Fred Lailler. Today Lailler disposes of 8.5 hectares of vineyards. Some are on gabbro soils, an old, blueish-green, igneous rock that imparts complexity, length, and an intense minerality to the wines. The Gorges cru is particularly known for this soil. All of the domaine’s vineyards are planted here.
The wine, from 70 years old vines, is aged on the lees in underground, glass-lined cuves for more than 2 years.
Gorges 2018(Dom. Brégeon)
Light golden colour. Aroma of apples, saltwater and a touch of lime. Textured, with a stony minerality, a fresh acidity and good length. Well-balanced.
I am fully aware that Sébastien Riffault has been in the spotlight for things other than his wines lately. Let’s keep this aside for a while. The quality of his wines can hardly be doubted. Okay, there are people who don’t like the mature style. Some even say they are not typical of Sancerre. Remember that many people believe that the early-harvested commercial yeasted cat’s pee in a gooseberry bush is the real thing. Riffault is, in my opinion, very Sancerre, but clearly a different take.
The sauvignon blanc was planted on limestone and clay some 35 years ago. Akmèniné means “made of stone” in Lithuanian (the nationality of his wife). The grapes were harvested by hand in mid-October, directly pressed without skin contact, 30 percent of the grapes having botrytis. It was then fermented in large old barrels, then aged on the lees. No sulphur added, not fined or filtrated.
Akmèniné 2019(S. Riffault)
Pale amber. Aroma of mature apples, mango, herbs and yeast. Good volume and concentration, rich, tasty, with ripe fruit and adequate acidity.
A Portuguese island white was my first wine at yesterday’s tasting at Vinmonopolet, the Norwegian state monopoly. And what a start to the day! Producer Fitapreta is based in Alentejo, but winemaker António Maçanita is very active on the islands. Here is a wine made from palomino grapes grown in Porto Santo, brought to Madeira and finished there. Made with 30% whole bunches, 40 days of maceration, 8 months in used French barrels.
As the company explains on their website: On the island of Madeira, people from Porto Santo are called profetas (prophets), as a response to villões (villains), which the people of Porto Santo call Madeirans. The last nickname comes from vila (city), which thus takes on a double connotation. The wines of Profetas e Villões therefore reflect this duality.
Listrão dos Profetas 2021(Profetas e Villões/ Fitapreta): Pale yellow color with some green. Intense nose with lemon peel, iodine and a flinty minerality. Rich and textured in the mouth, full of flavors with super acidity and a salty finish. Very persistent. This is Portuguese island white taken to a new level.
I have known António and Sara of Casa de Mouraz for many years now. Here I got the chance to re-taste two of their magnificent Dão wines. The Encruzado 2022 is one of the best examples of that variety that I know of. It’s fresh with notes of citrus, flowers and minerals, grapey in the mouth and full of flavours. Unfiltered, it comes really close to nature and the true quality of the grape. Casa de Mouraz Dão 2021 is a cherry red wine that smells like home at their estate, pine forest, red fruits and herbs. In the mouth it’s juicy with some spice.
Importer Non Dos also offered three magnificent sparklers. Two of them were from British producer Oxney, from East Sussex. Oxney 2019 is a complex wine with apples, peach, flowers, nuts and some brioche. Non vintage Oxney Rosé, with 25% seyval blanc, shows red berry fruit, apples and kind, with good concentration of flavours. They also represent Champagne house Fleury, here their Blanc de Noirs non vintage, that came with mature apples, dried fruits and biscuits, along with citrus and a stony minerality. Creamy in the mouth with good concentration.
Guro also poured many good wines that came with unbeatable prices. Various colours of Meinklang was among them. Their Rosa pouch (1,5 liters) in 2023 version was fabulous, with a clear-cut fruit of red berries and herbs, and with a distinct acidity leading to a delicately bitter finish. In spite of its everyday lightweight image it has a decent concentration.
The Wine Merchant is a subsidiary of Non Dos. Pierre here offered champagnes from Colin, that stands for an elegant, less autolysis-marked style. Their Parallèle is a long time favourite, clean, apple and citrus-driven with a layer of anise and herbs.
Liquid is the one importer that is supplying the largest number of Georgian wines to the Norwegian market, here represented by Lasha, himself Georgian. New in their portfolio is Dakishvili. Giorgi and Temuri Dakishvili, father and son, make wines from the family vineyards in Kakheti using the traditional qvevri method. They don’t hesitate to blend in international varieties with the local either. The Family Selection Cuvée 2021 is a beautiful blend of saperavi with cabernet sauvignon, an exciting very dark, sturdy wine that showcases a typical cabernet pepper quality.
Selected Wine Partners presented a bunch of wines from Koncho, also of Kakheti, Georgia. Orange 2021 from rkatsiteli and kisi was light amber in colour, with evident skin-contact on the nose, with notes of orange peel and apricot, along with a full mouth-feel and a distinct acidity.
I came across this wine at Katla, a wine bar with a decent Burgundy list but few pretentions, on a corner of central Oslo, one Thursday night not long ago.
The vineyard is located on the east side of Bordeaux, and comes under the Cadillac Côtes de Bordeaux appellation. The vines are south and southwest facing on clay and limestone, overlooking the Garonne River in the village of Cambes. The vines are some 30 years old, and the cultivation is organic (formally in conversion).
The blend is 80% merlot and 20% malbec. The vinification was traditional, the maturing was done in big vats and smaller barrels.
Domaine de Saint Amand 2019 (Dom. de Saint Amand)
Dark cherry red. Aroma of mature dark fruits (blackcurrant, blackberry), leather and smoke. Good volume, dense fruit, velvety tannins. Quite simple, but fresh and good.
