2008 Jean-Claude Boisset 'Les Ursulines' Bourgogne Rouge

Boisset Family Estates is the largest wine company in France, they have grown rapidly and done well but quality was often not a priority in this strategy (think Dan Ackroyd Estates and French Rabbit) and the name is invariably sneered at in Burgundy.  A little unhappy about being dissed in their backyard, the family decided to re-invest in the 'father' brand of Jean-Claude Boisset. They took some of the best vineyard parcels in their collection and added Gregory Patriat, a blond, young, energetic and modern winemaker with very traditional ideas on fermentation and bio-dynamism from Domaine Leroy.

I got a mixed case of 2008 recently and wanted to start slow so I picked the '08 Les Ursulines Bourgogne Rouge (Burgundy, France - $19).  My expectations were limited I have to say but on opening I was very pleasantly surprised.  The nose was light but very expressive, all red and black cherries with a little star anise-infused bacon fat.  The palate was high in acid (very 2008) and light in body at 12.5% alcohol.  But it flowed nicely and had some decent red fruit in there and worked much better with food.  All in all for $20 (!!) you won't do much better from the region.

2009 RK Beechworth Chardonnay

Another in the Vintage Cellars line of 'Gun Winemakers do Chardy'.  This one the '09 RK Beechworth Chardonnay (Beechworth, VIC - $40) from Rick Kinzbrunner of Giaconda renown.  I was looking forward to this, my church mouse winemaker's salary making Giaconda purchases something of a rarity, what with children to feed etc..

The nose has that intense struck match, gunpowder flavoured yoghurt smeared over spiced, grilled pineapples character that you so often get in good white burgundy.  The palate is very full, but beautifully structured with acid cutting through from the start and reappearing to tidily wrap up the finish.  The flavours are almost inconsequential so much time is spent enjoying the structure but there is juicy citrus squeezed stone fruits in there.  The finish is long and fine with only a slight reduction in the intensity stopping this from being a truly great wine.

If this is an average day for Mr K then the asking price of Giaconda is looking to be very good value indeed.  Sorry kids.

Bowe Lees, yes please.

Alternative varieties.  The words generate about as much excitement in me as the phrase 'boutique winery'.  It is not that I don't like either of these things per se, both are of great interest to me.  It's just that they have become so heavily flogged as lazy 'point of difference' phrases that they instantly bring up the marketing yawn filter.

Which brings me to a wonderful wine I had recently from a boutique winery specialising in alternative varieties.   Fortunately the folk at Bowe Lees use none of these phrases.  In fact, they seem to be either a) painfully shy, b) hiding from the authorities or c) anti-marketing with nary a reference on Google, no 'interesting' back label, no website, no blog, not even a Twitter account - what is wrong with these people?  Not much at all, judging by the '08 Bowe Lees 'Xylem' Tannat (Adelaide Hills, SA - $30).  Fabulously glossy and dark in the glass this throws out great wafts of dark fruits and ripe leaf notes.  Yes, leaf - yes, good.  Very good.  The palate has the trademark solid tannin structure of the variety but all is ripe, layered and gently coated with fruit - think of an inverted Cherry Ripe.  Finish continues the excellent work and ensures this wine gets a definite 'sad when the bottle is empty' rating.

2009 Ballewindi Chardonnay

I recently ordered in a mixed dozen from Vintage Cellars - which was a first - good discount, reasonably timely delivery and they send to PO boxes which is borderline essential.  The inspiration was an article on Chardonnay on the wonderful Drinkster blog of Philip White.  I was intrigued by the chance to get Kinzbrunner-created chardonnay at terrestial prices and also see what famous winemakers do in their spare time for corporate retail giants.

I'm pleased to say the '09 Ballewindi Chardonnay (Mornington Peninsula, VIC - $28) by Sandro Mosele was a very smart introduction to the range.  The nose was set up with ripe fruit in the peachy scale but with some slatey character there too.  The palate was very well put together, tight and just slightly unctuous but with a classically grown-up mealy dry finish.  Roll on Rick.

Ah yes, small is beautiful

You know what?  The Riverland gets pretty cold in winter.  We have already burnt a tonne of perfectly good dead trees and are on our second load.  This time we got mallee which is a harder wood (I know, I tried and failed to get an axe through it) and so should burn longer and hotter than the previous tasmanian oak.  As you will see from the photos, it is beautifully ugly wood.  A pile of it resembles some horrific collection of bones.

  

The love of wine has been returning after a long vintage spent getting a bit sick of it.  The ones that turned it for me were a 2002 Ashton Hills Five Merlot blend (Adelaide Hills, SA - $35) and the 2008 Jasper Hill Georgia's Paddock Nebbiolo (Heathcote, VIC - $65).  The Ashton Hills was perfectly ready and perfectly ripe, a wonderfully balanced tight rope walk a mile away from green and mean and another mile from fat and hot.  I was very pleasantly surprised and it served as a timely reminder that wine should almost always be made in small volumes by someone who cares.  So should most things come to that, but reality bites.  The Jasper Hill took a more ethereal, high toned (VA?  Maybe. Who cares?), light and graceful turn, a wonderful compote of red fruits, florals and proper tannins, the sort you used to be able to buy by the pound at the local shop in the good old days.

By way of contrast, all our wines here at the winery have now finished malo, nearly all have been noisily centrifuged onto bags of oak chips of varying colours, shapes and effects.  Some of it is looking quite reasonable, the Petit Verdot for example.  Some of it; is not.

Happy days in '07

I was pleasantly surprised to come home tonight and find a chicken casserole bubbling gently on the stove.  The open recipe book was of classic French dishes to serve with the wines of the Côtes du Rhône, the recipe was fricassée de poulet au beurre d'herbes.  The book and the aromas brought back happy memories of vintage 2007 in the beautiful little village of Chusclan.  Sunny days of pine needles, white stone and wild thyme under the bald eye of Mont Ventoux.  Smelly caravan, outside toilets and 100km/h mistral headwinds on a supermarket bicycle.  Ah, memories.

The only option was to crack something from that vintage and the '07 Chapoutier Belleruche (Côtes du Rhône, $25) came easily to hand and was only a step below a Côtes du Rhône Villages as recommended by the book.  A well crafted wine with inadequate fruit to carry it's significant alcohol (14.5%), decent ripe Grenache strawberries and caramel but a disappointing absence of garrigue.  A hot nose and a spiky, hollow departure.  The fricassée, however, was delicious.

Faltering indeed

Okay, bad me.  My quest for wine soul in the Riverland was a little half-hearted, as half-hearted as my blogging in fact.  I started out full of gusto and positivity but was then quickly side-tracked like a small child.  There are indeed some nice wines here, Omersown Petit Manseng was proof to me that this variety can do very well here, Mirabella Shiraz has the type of rich fruit and instant appeal of this region backed up with some decent structure and spice.  The Spook Hill Grenache was a pleasant surprise, hiding it's alcohol exceptionally well.  But that was as far as I got, vintage and more exotic fair caught my eye and beckoned me away.  I will re-focus though, as a believer in terroir it would seem counter-intuitive to ignore the product of the lands surrounding me.

Not that I have been doing that in any other category, an endless supply of beautiful peaches, nectarines, strawberries, oranges, mandarins, tangelos, lemons, pumpkins, courgettes and tomatoes has passed across our table having been plucked from as close as our backyard and as far away as down the road.  Add to this wonderfully fruity, green olive oil from Markaranka and local mettwurst, salami, dukkah and you have a pretty well stocked table.  Oh, and the rib eye, the wonderful, sweet rib eye - now I see what the fuss is about, good steak is as far from ordinary steak as great wine from plonk.  Only a decent sized freezer has prevented us from investing in a side of local saltbush lamb - damn you whitegoods phobia.

G'day Riverland

Hah!

Anyone who actually reads this will have been thinking "here we go, another blog that starts with a flourish and dies with a whimper" Well not this one bucko.

I have been voluntarily transplanted from the manicured, rustic, beautiful and holy terroirs of Burgundy in France to the machined, extensive and bushy vineyards of the Riverland, Australia. Quite a change, yes. But where better to learn technical winemaking than a place that produces megalitres of drinkable, clean and correct wine from tonnes of irrigated healthy fruit?  Not a hint of terroir, no charm or subtlety, just big harvesters, big crushers, big tanks and small character.

So I decided to set myself a challenge - amidst the storm of hand-wringing, fearful victim playing of the Australian industry (most of it quite justified) I have decided to try and find the soul of the Australian wine industry, right here in its soulless refinery centre. Wish me luck, I may need it. I have no preconceptions, I like it here, despite it's relative poverty and environmental stress it is a beautiful place that truly feels like the 'land of plenty'. But I have no love of the wines, this will be a journey of discovery (or not) for me too.

Au revoir la Bourgogne

That's it.  No work and the ensuing frustration have meant it's time to leave this place and give somewhere else a go.  It's been 3 months since the end of vintage and that is more than I can take in terms of job searching and not working (I lack a little patience).  So it's off for vintage in NZ (Marlborough) where I hope to see many beautiful grapes needing neither sugar nor acid to make lovely wine (we shall see!!).

But I am sad.  After all this is one of, if not the greatest wine region in the world.  So I gave myself a little leaving treat by riding to my favourite village, Pernand-Vergelesses just beneath the classic vineyards of Corton Charlemagne.  First I rode up the very steep hill to the lookout of Notre Dame de Bonne Esperance.  Having recovered from that exertion I returned to La Grappe de Pernand for a glass of white Pernand-Vergelesses Village (3.30 Euros - nice minerality as is the trademark of this village but acid a bit all over the shop) and a blanquette de veau (delicious with a touch of lemon rind added for pizzazz).

The blanquette was washed down with an '03 Dubreuil-Fontaine Pere et Fils Clos du Roi (Burgundy, Corton Clos du Roi Grand Cru, 72 Euros).

I was a little worried about the vintage (ridiculously hot) and the nose was indeed very ripe but still in control and throwing out lovely ripe red fruits that were jammy but in a good way.  Like the jam your Mum/Gran made that actualy still smelled like the fresh fruits rather than some kind of miserable sugary concoction.  On the palate is was delicious, dead set delicious.  The tannins were a little rustic (vintage effect) but still fine grained and the fruit intensity was incredible, mouth-filling, well structured, juicy and with that touch of fruit sweetness that seems to be the go for good reds in the surrounding villages (Aloxe, Pernand, Savigny).  A thoroughly enjoyed and dare I say it, well deserved treat.

(Anything But) Chardonnay

It is the weekend of the Saint Vincent Tournante here.  Every year a village hosts the event and lots of people turn up, drink wine and have a nice time.  It's one of the bigger events here and this year it was hosted by Macon.  Not a village at all, more of a city but it's the first time it's been hosted outside the Cote d'Or and so it is centred on Macon with supporting roles from the villages Pierreclos and Chardonnay.  Yes, the village the grape is named after.

Not a very original photo perhaps but as a wine 'amateur' it's kind of cool to visit a place that gave its name to one of the most ubiquitous grape varieties in the world.  It's a pretty little village by the way, in rolling hills that are only about a third covered in vineyards, which is quite low around here.  Anyway, the tastings were limited to 11 special cuvees prepared by the committee to demonstrate the Maconnais terroir.  My favourites were the '07 Macon Villages white which had a lovely semi-tropical fruit nose and excellent palate weight, nice ripe fruit and a minerality that carried through the whole affair.  The other good white was the '07 Macon Verze, from the village Verze, quite ripe nose but a lovely tight palate despite the evident malo impact.

The reds were nice and fresh, Gamay is the grape of choice around here (around 80%) but there is approximately 8% Pinot so you never know your luck.  The favourite reds were the '06 Macon Aze which was light, red fruity and tight as a whip.  The '07 Macon Mancey was a cracker though, really quite a fine almost Pinot like nose of red fruits and subtle complexing pepper and mineral.  Palate was fairly acidic but crunchy red fruits, a little speculoos biscuit and quite a long cherry skin finish.

All in all a lovely day with the usual side shows of music, tractors, blacksmiths and food.  The most entertaining of which was the spot where you could try your hand at miniature dry stone construction, I was very proud of the bridge below entirely constructed by me (with a little help from my 4 year old daughter).

Vineyard Equipment

Burgundy is blessed with two types of wonderful vineyard equipment.  One is the Bobard tractor that is used to go up and down these very narrow vineyards.  They are extremely strange and have the sort of cute ugliness you can but love.  I hope to get a decent photo of one of these tractors to post here soon.

The other is the brazier wheelbarrows that are used to burn pruned canes all over the Cote d'Or (la brouette aménagée en brasero).  The photo was taken at the premier cru Puligny Montrachet vineyard 'Les Murgers des dents de chien' yesterday on a very cold and blustery post Sunday lunch walk.  The machines themsleves are very simple, the vigneron starts a fire in the drum and then adds the canes ('sarments') and wheels the thing along as he goes down the vines.  The thing that gets me is that there are at least one of these things in pretty much every vineyard around here, and every single one of them looks exactly like this, rusty, battered and not a little like an antique.

1978

What better way to bring in 2009 than with a wine from 1978?

Well, yes true, but anyway, that's what I did.  To be precise a 1978 Chateau de Madere (Bordeaux, Graves AC - pre-Euros) white bordeaux.  As I opened the bottle I thought the chateau name might end up being a little ironic but amazingly, this thing that has been around since I was a child and has seen everything from proper cellars to cupboards under the stairs, moving vans to floods, with only a swathe of tissue paper to protect it (a clear glass bottle no less) is alive and kicking.  Subdued nose but incredibly clean, slight toasted honey notes with a little lemon pith, palate is vibrant, multi-layered, slight minerality and citrus fruit with a roundness and length that is suprising.  Heaven only knows what this thing was like to drink 30 years ago but it is still as taught as a bow.

Christmas was fantastic, the lunch saw a magnum of 2005 Les Genets Cotes du Rhone Villages Chusclan (Rhone Valley, Cotes du Rhone Village Chusclan AC - 18 Euros) that was delightful - full, rich and ripe fruit but elegant and balanced in a way many New World GSMs don't even understand - a genuine delight.  After a couple of bottles of Savigny-les-Beaune were equally appreciated the attention focused quite rightly on presents and family and I didn't think about wine again for the rest of the day.  So the tasting notes are weak but the day was perfect and all is right with the world.