International Pinot Noir Celebration, part IV

On the Saturday morning, we had another fantastic breakfast and this time I located the proper coffee stand which was worth the wait. Then it was time for the “grand seminar” which was a series of panel discussions and tastings held in the theatre at Linfield University. This fell into three parts and I believe the presenters rotated between three different venues due to capacity constraints, so it must have been a bit strange for them to be giving the same talk three times in rapid succession. The format for each session was that the chairman spoke for a few minutes and then each representative from a winery spoke for a few minutes. It wasn’t at all clear when we were supposed to be tasting the wines, so I found myself surreptitiously doing it while they were talking.

The theme for this particular IPNC was sustainability, a tricky subject. Climate change is clearly a big issue for the wine industry, and there are steps that can be taken to reduce emissions such as using lighter glass bottles or even other forms of packaging, cutting back on capsules etc. I enjoyed hearing about permaculture, electric tractors, regenerative agriculture and phytotherapy, the building up of natural defences.

But some speakers took it a little too far, in my opinion. The representative of one winery in New Zealand informed us that they ask their visitors where they have come from and where they are going afterwards, and include this travel in their records of carbon emissions. Another speaker made a reference to Black Lives Matter and it all started getting a little political. Quite honestly, I didn’t attend the IPNC in order to receive a lecture on social justice from someone much, much richer than me… One was also aware of the vast number of bottles of San Pellegrino lying around all over the place which presumably were imported from Italy!  

Moving swiftly on… Of the wines that we tasted during these sessions, I particularly enjoyed:

- the Blanc de Noirs Extra Brut Reserve 2016 from Brundlmayer in Austria which was very champagne-like

- the Savigny 1er cru Aux Vergelesses from Domaine Simon Bize et Fils. Chisa Bize gave a very good talk. She’s from Japan and took over running the domaine after her husband died ten years ago. It was interesting hearing how she had questioned their approach to winemaking and gradually modernised it. Santenay has never been one of my favourite villages in Burgundy, but she is producing some very pure, delightful wines which thankfully lack the offputting gravy/meatiness that one sometimes encounters. I see they are represented by Jeroboams in the UK

- Sunday’s Child 2021, a pinot noir produced by Hope Well in the Eola-Amity Hills region of Oregon, which had some agreeable complexity to it.

We returned to one of the lawns where we found a table for another excellent lunch. The wine people at this table were from Coline Clemens and we’d actually chatted to them in the queue for dinner the previous evening. They were good company and they had chilled their wines, which made them very drinkable despite the relatively high alcohol level. A good time was had by all!

International Pinot Noir Celebration, part III

In the afternoon, the coach returned us to McMinnville and we had some time off before heading over to another lawn for the first of two major tastings. There were roughly 70 wineries present at the event, with 35 presenting on the Friday and 35 on the Saturday. Each winery only showed one wine, and it was up to them which vintage they provided, so we weren’t necessarily comparing like with like. Wines from the 2020 vintage were notable by their absence...  

We started out with enthusiasm and then by about two thirds of the way through, I found myself beginning to flag. It was a warm evening, and a lot of the wines had a kind of nervous, high-toned tension - although some attempts had been made to cool them, the weather was not entirely pinot-friendly. A few of them did stand out, but my list covers both evenings so I’ll save it for a later post.

After the tasting, dinner was held on yet another lawn. We were joined by Robert Watkins and another member of staff from Mt Beautiful in New Zealand and it was interesting to hear about the IPNC experience from the point of view of a producer. They aren’t charged to attend, unlike some other wine festivals, apparently, and indeed receive some travel expenses, but are expected to contribute a considerable amount of wine to the IPNC’s stash. Presumably these are stored somewhere and brought out on future occasions.

Once again, the food was amazing. Opinions were divided on the chilled raspberry and roasted beet soup, but the seared Oregon albacore tuna went down very well. There was also a roulade de lapin with a marionberry jus - we came across marionberries several times during the weekend, and they turned out to be a type of blackberry unique to Oregon. 

A sommelier went past occasionally, pouring small amounts of library wines from the IPNC’s stocks. These offerings seemed to be quite random, and we were unfortunate enough to receive at least two red Burgundies from 2006, my least favourite vintage ever. But all in all, it was a good evening and we staggered back to the apartment feeling content.

International Pinot Noir Celebration, part II

The coach tour felt a little like a school trip and there was a rather amusing video about how the “motor coach” was cleaned in three different ways. Our destination was kept secret until the last minute. Since I was unfamiliar with any of the wineries in the area, the suspense was somewhat wasted on me. Eventually it was disclosed that we were going to Lingua Franca.

The bus stopped in the vineyard next to some well-maintained chardonnay vines and everyone hopped out and donned sunhats as the sun was beaming down and it was very warm. We were given a quick talk by Thomas Savre, the Director of Winemaking at Lingua Franca, who is French and has trained at many of the big names in Burgundy. Apparently Comte Lafon is a consultant at Lingua Franca and had been visiting earlier in the week. 

There were also contributions from other wine makers including Ken Wright, who was very experienced and knowledgeable. He mentioned that the vines grow down an extraordinary distance – something like a foot a year until they max out at around 20 feet down. This is why old vines are such a big deal – they’re rummaging around down there for all the interesting trace elements, which younger vines can’t do. I’d never really understood this before, so that was interesting to hear.

Then it was off to the Lingua Franca winery itself for a tasting followed by lunch. There was plenty of opportunity to mingle with the winemakers and other attendees and the atmosphere was convivial. The four course lunch was very impressive, especially given that it was served in a winery and not a place set up for fine dining. 

We tasted six wines from different producers and I enjoyed three of them in particular: the 2019 Ken Wright Cellars Tanager Vineyard, the 2021 Lingua Franca The Plow, and the 2019 SUNU Wines Matteri Vineyard. These were light, pretty and enjoyable, and not too alcoholic. But a quick check of the prices revealed that the going rate was around $75 a bottle. So much for my hope that Oregon pinot noir might replace my Burgundy habit!

International Pinot Noir Celebration, part I

The blog has been on something of a hiatus lately due to major life events i.e. moving to the US at long last! I arrived on 16 June (or June 16, as they say over here) and have been acclimatising since then.

Now that I’ve moved, my wine drinking patterns have changed somewhat and the good stuff is likely to be in concentrated bursts of activity. Fortunately, there have been two such bursts in the last few weeks: the International Pinot Noir Celebration at the end of July, and a trip to the Finger Lakes in early August. It will probably take several posts to cover them all.

Starting with the IPNC, this has been going since 1986 and is held in Oregon, in the town of McMinnville which is about an hour away from Portland. This was the furthest west I’ve ever been! It turned out to be an excellent introduction to Oregon pinot noir. There were also a few producers from other places such as California, France, New Zealand and Austria.

I met up successfully with G and H at Portland airport on Thursday evening and we got a car to our student apartment in McMinnville where our wine friend D from upstate New York was waiting for us. This turned out to be the perfect accommodation as it was within walking distance of all the activities. The only weird thing was the height of the beds, which were about four feet off the ground with no ladder – presumably aimed at athletic young men. I ended up putting my mattress on the floor which solved the problem.

We had pizza delivered and I’d picked up a couple of wines at the airport to get things rolling. One of these had appeared to be a tempranillo when I saw it in the shop, but on closer inspection it was a tempranillo / riesling blend, which I think it’s fair to say was not entirely successful. Described on that website as “a fun combination of grapes one wouldn’t expect to find in Oregon” – hmmmm! I will learn to check the label more closely in future. Fortunately the other bottle, a pinot, was drinkable so all was not lost.

On the Friday morning, we had an amazing buffet breakfast on the lawn with some particularly wonderful raspberries and apricots. The opening ceremony consisted of an elderly celebrity couple giving a quick speech in praise of pinot noir, including a memorable quote along the lines of how the first time you taste it, it's like your head leaves your body and then reattaches in a slightly different way. This was followed by a long parade of people from the various wineries, which took some time to get through.

One noticeable thing for me, attending for the first time, was how everyone assumed that one already had an encyclopaedic knowledge of Oregon AVAs. I hadn’t even encountered the term AVA before but someone at our table explained to me that it stands for American Viticultural Area and is a bit like an appellation in Burgundy. It would probably have been helpful to have a map of how they all related to each other, but the info for the festival was all on a mobile phone app and I don't think this was included. Serves me right for not doing any homework, I guess. 

After breakfast, it was into the coach for a vineyard tour… More to follow!

Swiss Pinot Noir Society, 17th May 2023

Last Wednesday, it was off to the Savile for another instalment of the SPNS. Present and correct were G, T, P, D and myself. 

First up was a bottle of Ambriel Rose 2015, a sparkling wine made entirely from pinot noir, from West Sussex. This was brought along by T, who thought it might be (slightly) over the hill, but it actually went down pretty well! It was a beautiful dark colour with strawberries and good fruit. P described it as spring/summer in a glass which I think sums it up nicely.

We went upstairs to the dining room, where we had the bottle which I brought along. This was a 2020 white pinot noir from Willamette Valley Vineyards in Oregon which I was given by my friend J recently and thought would be appropriate to share with the SPNS. I think it's fair to say it didn't wow the assembled company. I found it interesting and J had told me it was quite smoky which was indeed the case. Others struggled to say much about it and one member damned it with faint praise - "Quite pleasant". Perhaps they should stick to making the red...

Moving swiftly on, the next wine was a Rose des Riceys "En Valingrain" 2017 from Olivier Horiot, provided by G. This was something of a rarity - a still pink champagne. It was light, fresh and pretty, with lots of raspberries going on, and we all enjoyed it.

After that, we moved on to a trio of reds which we compared side by side:

• Chateau Grand-Pontet 1961, provided by P
• Chateau Haut-Brion 1966, provided by D
• Chateau Berliquet 1988, provided by P

This was a fascinating opportunity to compare and contrast three mature clarets. At this stage of the evening, the comments in the Book became even more illegible than usual, but I'll do my best to summarise. The 1961 had some lovely cedary notes and was still standing up well. D considered that it was on its plateau and would last, and T particularly liked it. The Haut-Brion was as good as you'd expect, i.e. very. Textbook claret - a robust dark colour and wonderful cabernet nose of pencil shavings and mint. "Pleasing to drink" said D with appropriate modesty. Wonderful stuff. 

The Berliquet had been living in my wardrobe for a good 8-10 years, left by P on a previous occasion, and I was relieved that this didn't seem to have done it any harm. It was generally regarded as very good and with a lot of life still in it. 

Finally, with dessert, we had a Massandra White Muscat 1975 bottled in 1982, brought along by G. This was a murky brown colour and I found notes of rhubarb while others detected figs. It was very sweet - maybe even a bit too sweet for me - and went very well with the baklava. T described it as "habit forming" but I doubt he'll get the chance as this was another very rare bottle.

All in all, it was another great evening of diverse and interesting wines! Thanks for all for their contributions and company.

Vosne 1er cru vertical!

Yesterday I invited a select group round for Sunday lunch with the aim of drinking two of my vinous treasures recently out of storage. Yes, it was time for a vertical tasting of the legendary Vosne Romanee 1er cru Reignots from Domaine Audiffred! The two vintages in question were 2010 and 2016, and I'd like to think we're probably the only people in the world who have ever carried out this comparison as these wines are so rare and quantities very limited.

G and I had polished off a bottle of Vosne Champs Perdrix 2016 also from Audiffred on Wednesday night, so that was still fresh in our minds. I'm a big fan of the Champs Perdrix which isn't a premier cru but feels like one, and this was no exception. It was a light to medium weight with a lovely perfume, beautiful autumnal fruit and sous bois, and some chocolatey tannins on the finish. It reminded us a little of Morey St Denis, never a bad thing.

On to the Reignots... this was famously the wine which ACC could smell from across the cellar the first time he visited Domaine Audiffred, and fortunately for us he was able to persuade Henri to supply some in very limited quantities. 

We tried the 2016 first. It was a significant step up from the Champs Perdrix. I'd opened it three hours earlier and gave it an hour in the fridge. Again it was medium weight but this wine was absolutely bursting with fruit and we went through all the different colours of currants - black, red and white. It was supremely elegant, with a wonderful finish. We felt it was at the beginning of its drinking window.

The 2010 was even better. The cork was very crumbly so I had to decant it. It was more savoury, and both beetroot and "high quality saddle" were mentioned, but not in a bad way - it was very complex. It had a wonderful core of acidity and every sip was a pleasure. There was no doubt that this wine deserved 10 points on the premier cru scale, while the 2016 was perhaps a high nine. The 2010 was drinking very well now but I don't think there would be any rush, not that I have any more. 

We also had a bottle of Don Zoilo 15 year old amontillado from Williams and Humbert, which came from the Wine Society. This was good stuff and very nutty and intense. It definitely needed food. Fortunately I had a mixed charcuterie board from the Dorset Meat Co and the amontillado went particularly well with the spicy chorizo. 

Finally, we knocked my last bottle of Smith Woodhouse 1994 on the head. This has always been lovely stuff with its notes of pontefract cake, and this bottle was no exception. 

In other news, last week G kindly invited me to attend the Lay & Wheeler 2021 en primeur tasting at Glaziers Hall over by London Bridge. It was an interesting event, especially as I haven't been to an en primeur tasting since January 2020, and am not very familiar with Lay & Wheeler's range of producers. It was noticeable that many of the wines we particularly enjoyed had no price listed but were either sold out or you were asked to register your interest. I gather from Jancis's article in the FT that the 2021 vintage was very challenging and quantities small. 

For me, the highlights were:

• the white premier cru Chassagne-Montrachets from Domaine Fontaine-Gagnard and Domaine Bruno Colin
• the Macon and Pouilly-Loche from Marcel Couturier which seemed to be exceptionally good value
• the reds from Domaine Comte Armand, which took me back to happy evenings at Caveau des Arches 
• the reds from Domaine Georges Mugneret-Gibourg, although I suspect these are way outside my price range!
• the Vosne Romanee 1er cru Clos des Reas from Domaine Michel Gros, an old favourite
• and above all, the premier cru Nuits-St-Georges from Domaine d'Arlot which had a wild quality to them that I found very exciting. 

It was a pleasure to try these wines, even though my Burgundy buying days are coming to an end now, and thanks to G for inviting me!

Swiss Pinot Noir Society, Friday 2nd December 2022

Happy new year to any readers still out there! I'm aware that I haven't been posting as much as usual, for a variety of reasons, but the blog limps on into 2023.

In fact there's a decent chance I may be writing a little more over the next few months, as I packed in my job just before Christmas and I've finally got all my remaining wine out of storage as it needs to be drunk before I (hopefully) move to the US later this year. To paraphrase the Fun Lovin' Criminals: drink it, drink it, drink it if you got it.

First, a quick look back at an SPNS dinner which was held in early December. There were only four of us on this occasion: me, G, T and D. It was a Friday night and somewhat lively downstairs, so we decided to move up to the dining room sharpish.

I opened the batting with this Iron Horse 2017 fizz which I'd brought back from the US. A friend of G's had mentioned some time ago that she rated wines from Russian River Valley so I was hoping this might be quite good. It was 70% pinot noir, 30% chardonnay. My impression was that it was quite light and biscuity but really not anything special. D kindly said "fresh and young, some citrus, clean and easy drinking". G noticed red apples, while T struggled to think of anything to say, and I don't blame him. It just wasn't very exciting. Oh well!

We moved rapidly on to T's contribution, this Tarrant Rose 2021 from Gimenez Mendez who are based in Uruguay. Everyone agreed this was pink, fresh and easily drinkable with a hint of strawberry, but once again, it did not particularly wow the assembled company.

G then produced a Bourgogne Blanc Vieilles Vignes 2009 from Nicolas Joly. Sadly this was maderised and had to be discarded. We weren't doing very well...

Fortunately, things rapidly improved. as G had also brought along this 1964 Gevrey Chambertin from an unknown producer - he deciphered the label as Jean ...... erre. It was part of a recent auction purchase. Well, this was more like it. It was lovely old school burg with a particularly wonderful sous bois nose. On the palate I detected plums and it was very smooth and integrated. It was really quite amazing that this was still drinking so well at the age of 58. We all enjoyed it very much, including T who said it reminded him of his favourite wines when he was an undergraduate.

And finally, D had brought along this Chateau Climens 1986. This was a beautiful golden colour with a lovely nose of apricots and nectarines. It was wonderfully balanced and not too sweet, and had an amazingly long finish. D thought it was still young, while G didn't care if it would improve or not as it was so lovely now. A real treat and thanks to D for sharing it with us. 

That brings me more or less up to date, but coming up soon: a 2021 Burgundy tasting, a report on wine recently out of storage, and later in the year, a trip to the International Pinot Noir Celebration which is a self-indulgent 50th birthday present to myself. This will be followed by another trip to the Finger Lakes in upstate New York, which even Decanter magazine is starting to take notice of. Hopefully we can get there before prices take off!