Fairly light turnout last night, only 9 people participated. It worked out fine, though, as we had enough people to cover our bottle cost, and we got a few people who otherwise wouldn’t have been there on a Tuesday night. And most importantly, the people that were there had a good time and really enjoyed the wines.
As usual, I wish I had more time to put together materials for people. I always write up a couple of pages on the region / wines, but especially with this tasting, there’s so much information it’s hard to condense it down, and I’m so busy day-to-day that I always end up scrambling on Tuesday morning/afternoon to pull something together. Fortunately, Burgundy & CA Chardonnay is something I’ve had a fair amount of experience with so it seemed to turn out ok.
The theme was Burgundy vs. California Chardonnay, with one moderately priced example of each and one more expensive. It wasn’t meant to be comprehensive (that would have required a lot more time and many, many more wines), but an overview of the stylistic differences between the two regions, and quality levels within each.
The wines:
Olivier Merlin 2005 Macon-La Roche Vineuse ($19.95)
Merlin is one of the top producers in the Macon, and this wine showed off why. Very Burgundian in character, with fruit just one component of the wine as opposed to dominating. Lots of nut, cream, and lemon curd, yet still fresh and vibrant. Fairly subtle and nuanced; great food wine. Drinking well now, won’t improve. A nice start to the tasting.
Solex 2006 Chardonnay, California ($14.95)
The California appellation is misleading, as this wine gets its fruit from top Chardonnay regions of Sonoma County (49%), Monterey (28%), and Santa Barbara (23%). Aimee’s liked this wine for awhile; I only tasted it for the first time a couple of months ago, and it’s a steal. Very well made CA Chardonnay, with nice balance of acidity, oak, and fruit. Much more fruit forward than the Merlin, with tropical pineapple notes combined with the citrus flavors. Reading the tech sheet before the tasting, I got a clue why I liked the wine – it’s 75% barrel fermented and aged (25% stainless steel) and 60% malolactic fermentation. The numbers aren’t important; what mattered to me was that the winemaker cared about balance and proportion. He/she thought that all barrel aging would make the wine too oaky, and full ML would have made the wine too buttery and low-acid. Balance is all-important to me, and this wine has it.
Daniel Barraud 2006 Pouilly Fuisse “La Verchere” ($47.95)
The star of the night. This wine is absolutely amazing. I hadn’t had it before last night (one of the reasons I chose it, actually), and it was a show-stopper. Very rich and fleshy for a Pouilly Fuisse, yet the acidity and concentration despite moderate (13.5%) alcohol made it undisputably Burgundy. Ripe poached pear, lemon curd, spicy oak, lemon, minerality….this wine has it all. Still young; will be even better in about 3 years. The La Verchere is made from 50-year-old vines, and the depth shows through in the wine.
Flowers 2006 Sonoma Coast Chardonnay ($44.95)
In retrospect I should had put the Flowers before the Barraud in the tasting order – the wine tasted a little tigher than it should. I tried to pick wines that blurred New World/Old World lines, and these last two definitely did – the Barraud was the showier of the two, while the Flowers showcased minerality and taut concentration. It’s an absolutely beautiful wine, but one that shows its charms over time and with a meal; it’s not one that you take one sip of and are wowed by. Those kinds of wines are generally my favorites; in a comparative tasting, though, where you’re taking an instant snapshot and not savoring them over time, they don’t show as well. (Probably one reason why I disagree with the Wine Spectator and other magazines about their ratings so often; they rate wines based on initial impact only and in comparison with dozens of others; obviously the showiest will stand out the most.) Anyway, back to the wine. Long and concentrated; tightly wound, great acidity combined with a round mouthfeel; like the Barraud, needs a couple of years. Pretty, elegant, yet with a lot going on. Always one of my CA favorites.