Vintus Trip preceeded by 2 days in Paris
Tasted Friday, April 14, 2023 - Thursday, April 20, 2023 by nzinkgraf with 178 views
Flight 3 - Bollinger - in the cellar, a trade lunch, and a bike ride to Côtes aux Enfants (7 Notes)
Founded in 1829
79ha = 50% of what they need
85% Grand Cru and 1er Cru
60% Pinot Noir, 25% Chardonnay, 15% Pinot Meunier
All cuvées have a minimum of 60% Pinot Noir
Reserve wines are held in stainless steel and Magnums
4000 barrels in the cellar, plus they have their own cooperage
Appellation requires 15m min aging for NV and 24m for vintage.
36m @ Bollinger for NV
84m for Grande Annee(s)
Lily Bollinger was a widow, no children, so it passed along and 3 nephews and their families run Bollinger today.
Standing in Clos St Jacques right next to the winery. There are only 15 Clos in Champagne and 3 of them are at Bollinger (Clos St Jacques, Clos Chauters[sp?], and a third?)
Clos St Jacques is ungrafted, they mix mulch & manure to cover the vines. There are some crowded plantings and some plantings in rows.
Clos St Jacques and Clos Chauters(sp) = <1ha and are Vielles Vignes Francaise
3000btls in a large vintage. 100btls go to USA
HEV Certified in 2012
Moving towards Organic Certification. 25% already certified.
Renovations of the old Chai, plus a new hotel and hospitality venue starting to happen to be in place for 200th anniversary in 2029.
Only use the ‘Cuvee’ juice at Bollinger.
La Taille and La Rombeche (1st and 2nd press juice) goes to the distiller
2050L of Cuvee juice per(…?)
They get used barrels from Chanson in Burgundy and they have to be at least 5yrs old. No new barrels here. The cooper will replace staves and such.
Only PN and Chard from 1er Cru and GC sites go into barrel.
Pinot Meunier doesn’t go into barrel as it matures to quickly. And the PM only goes into the Special Cuvee and Rose NV.
Barrels will be used for 20-25 yrs, larger barrels might get used up to 80-100yrs
Each year 10% of the barrels (400) are repaired. 1-2hrs to change a stave.
They’ll use trees from their own forest if possible, otherwise from Forest Montagne de Reims.
36m of air drying for wood.
There are only 10 coopers in Champagne, and they are the only with their own. Krug, no?
No glue, no silicone used, just a water & flour paste to seal.
Sulfur cubes to sanitize the barrels.
Chestnut branch hoops to transport/roll, plus the insects attack this part first, as it’s softer wood.
vintage.
Cote aux Enfants - 4ha and it’s their best PN. Was 50 growers, but Jacques Bollinger bought all parcels over time and now it’s a monopole
-Still PN from Cote aux Enfants goes into La Grande Annee Rose
‘Couillage’ - to top up
In the cellar
6km of cellar, 850.000 Mags of reserve wine.
Oldest part of the cellar from 1829-1907. Newest 1907-1920, with bricks & concrete to reinforce.
Reserve wines in Mag age for 7-15yrs.
Special Cuvee is 15% Reserves from Mag, 40% Reserve from stainless, plus 45% base
Stainless reserves are at max 5yrs old, Reserves in Mags 9yes old on average.
Reserve mags have 1Kilo of pressure to suppress oxidation and that represents 1/4 of the pris de mousse. They will filter the reserve wines when blending to remove sediment.
It takes 10 gents, 6wks to open and filter 80.000 mags for a batch of Special Cuvee.
Mags to sell to market are at higher pressure than 750s, 10bars for mags.
Special Cuvee is then aged y see crown cap.
150.000 btls on the riddling racks. Place on racks 15 days before starting. 1/4 turns and 1/8 turns
10 riddlers in Champagne, and 3 of those are at Bollinger.
In the winter the sediment is sticky, in the summer it’s lively. By hand riddling, the status of the yeast is recognized.
50.000btls turned per day per man. 32-35 total turns/btl and a min of 6wks on the racks.
Then placed sur pointe and the necks are frozen.
A 2010 cellar renovation found btls dating back to 1830
UK is the top export market for Bollinger as it was the Wine of the King for 5 generations. Stopped under Elizabeth, hoping for Charles to get back in the groove with it.
UK then France/Australia/USA.
It's noted that one vintage of Dom Perignon is 3x the entire production of Bollinger.
Bollinger (5M btls) is 1.5% of the total production in the region (326M total in Champagne)
Flight 4 - Ayala w/ Laurence Alamanos - Export Manager (5 Notes)
Founded in 1860 by Eduard Ayala
Always a lower dosage @ Ayala
In 1865 Ayala launched in the UK, producing 1M btls when the whole region did 13M
@ the time there was:
300g/l - Russian-style
150g/l - French-style
50g/l - British-style
22g/l - Ayala
In 2023 Ayala is still 1M btls in a region of 326Mbtls
Part of the UMC in 1884, as one of 24 members
Eduard died in 1901
Ayala and Collet were destroyed in the peasant revolt associated with the 1911 disaster ours harvest. Many houses bought grapes from outside the region but not Ayala, so a pity their estate was destroyed. Rebuilt in 1914. Ayala was sold in 1934 to Rene Chayoux. Champagne appellation established in 1936. Rene sells eventually to JM Ducellier, and then sold again to Bollinger in 2005.
1.Low Dosage
2.High % of Chard
3.Stainless Steel
2km of cellars here @ Ayala (48km total in Ay, 6km is Bollinger)
They are now certified organic and the wines will be labeled as such in 2yrs.
12ppl on the production team, and 12ppl on admin team.
The previous blend was 45% Chardonnay, now 55%. Was 30% Reserve wines not 43%. Was 7g/l, now 6g/l
Flight 5 - Lunch in Beaune @ Caveau des Arches and then tasting and dinner @ Domaine Chanson (17 Notes)
W/ Vincent Avenel
Aloxe ——> Santenay
43ha of Estate Vineyard, contribute to 25% of their supply.
1 Grand Cru and that’s Corton-Vergennes
In the Cotes Chalonnaise, they just purchased a Mercurey/Rully Estate of 50ha, that brings them to 93ha total…Chateau d’Etroit??
- it’s noted that Henriot (Bouchard/Fevre/Henriot) was sold in Sept 2022.
Oldest Family Winery in Burgundy was Bonneau de Martray (10/11 generations), but that sold to the Waltons in 2020.
-70s/80s/90s - ‘margins for Negociants in Bordeaux, shifted to the Houses. That is now happening in Burgundy too.’
The Bastion was built as fortress in the 15th Century, with 7 meter thick walls and a constant temp of 12-14C. The height was doubled in 182
…an aside…walking through Beaune (pop. 25.000) with Anthony, we ran into Patrick Leflaive (Anthony knows him from his time at Wildman) and JP and CD got kisses on the cheek…
Back to Chanson. Originally founded as Maison Verry in 1750, then 2 generations later the Mdm married Mnsr Chanson, they changed the name and in 1999 was purchased by Bollinger. 2nd oldest producer in Burgundy (oldest is Maison Champy going back to 1720).
2/3PN & 1/3 Chard between 50 wines (used to be 100). No more Beaujolais. Beaune and Chalonnaise now all Estate.
4ha Beaune Clos de Feves, a monopole since 1969. Bressandes is just up slope - 25% new oak, with some stem inclusion.
Before 2020 they did 100%WC, but they don’t want their wines to take 20 years to come around. Stems are the last thing to ripen…
Faiveley Clos de l’Ecu is another Monopole site in Beaune. Bouchard L’Enfant Jesus aussi?
They’ve also got 1ha of Chard in L’Ecu (not the Clos).
It’s noted that bud break in 2020 was normal, but 2022 and 2021 were 1-2 weeks earlier.
2020 is a vintage of high ripeness, concentration and tannin.
2021 a more delicate, ethereal, elegant vintage
They’re in their third year of Organic Conversion, with 2024 to be their first harvest certified Organic.
For yields 35hl/ha is their target for reds, 40hl/ha for whites. 45/50 is the legal limit. It’s noted that 2021 was on average 15hl/ha for them.
All Diam cork since 2012, confident in no instances of Prem-Ox either.
Flight 6 - @ Chateau de Nalys (5 Notes)
W/ Ralph Garcin - Director. He came over from Chateau La Nerthe in 2019.
Founded in 1633 by Jacques Nalys. Grand Pierre is the lieu dit. He had a contract with the Church until the French Revolution.
Du Nerthe family sold Nalys to an Insurance group after WWII. In the early 70s the Shah of Iran was going to buy the estate, but the French government stepped in.
Bought by the Guigals in 2017, and the previous team stayed intact.
Here the grapes, by law, must be handpicked.
5 weeks to pick, 75ha/200acres, 16 grapes across 66 blocks
2023 - rain deficit of 85%
Drip irrigation isn’t allowed, until it’s allowed.
50yr old average vine age.
Next vintage (2024) they will be certified Organic.
The whites are now picked early than they were previously at the property and the reds are picked later. Both conscious choices.
In CndP 35hl/ha max, but at Nalys 25hl/ha.
Historically here, it’s noted, bad quality wines from great vineyards. Robert Parker was harsh on the wines of Nalys, calling them ‘wine for picnics.’
Chateau Rayas is adjacent to Nalys and not all too far from where we’re at. It’s noted that Rayas is 30 acres of vineyard and 30 acres of forest. The old vines are in the middle of the forest that acts like an AC.
@ Nalys they’re re-planting trees at the edges. for trees on the north and vines on the south.
4 soil types in CndP and 3 of those @ Nalys
1. Gres - Stones/Compact (Sand&Silica/Shells). A high % @ Nalys, red sand, iron oxide, a touch of clay
2. Pure Sand (white) - St Pierre de Nalys wines - more finesse, used to be the seabed - Grenache, Cinsault, Bourboulenc, Terret
3. Pebbles - Nalys white and red
4. Limestone - they don’t have any of these soils @ Nalys - best for Whites - Chateau de La Gardine
Bush Vines vs Trellis w 2 cordons on the wire.
Trellis protects against the winds. Syrah is naturally fragile and trellis is better for it.
On trellis’d cordons, there can be up to a week of different ripeness. Far from the truck gets ripe first and close to the truck ripens a week later. Bush Vines w/ 4–5 arms have more uniform ripening.
Trellises tend to sun burn, and less burn on bush vines.
Nalys has 1/10th of La Crau (that’s the site with big stones - they came down from Chamonix near the Swiss Alps). Vieux Telegraphe is the #1 holder of acreage in La Crau.
Stones of 1. Flint (reductive quality), 2.Quartz (minerality), 3. Sandstone
The stones hold heat, also trap heat, to keep the soil cooler. Vine age in La Crau gets up to 65 yrs and then the vines are re-planted. 1 vine here equals 1 bottle of wine.
In 2020 they bought a parcel from Clee d’Or (also bought Domaine Mercier in 2020), Old Vine Grenache plantings from 1904 (the pic after the La Crau Pebbles pic) - La Crau Centennaire (north facing, less hot, longer hangtime). it’s all virus’s, but they take the buds, grow new vines from the buds. <20hl/ha here. 1/2btl per vine. it’s noted that they get 40-42C daytime temps here, but down to 20C at night.
When the glaciers melted after the last ice age, H2O flowed to the Mediterranean, but Gibraltar was closed at the time, so sea level in the Med went up, eventually techtonics opened Gibraltar and the H20 escaped to the Atlantic.
In the Chai…
Only 3 rows of Muscardin planted at Nalys and no Picpoul Gris.
40hl (5000btls) foudre are for Grenache. About 1.5-2ha go into each foudre.
Medium size barrels for Syrah and the small barrels are for Mourvèdre. (See pics)
Flight 7 - Guigal w/ Phillipe Guigal (23 Notes)
Phillipe’s Grandfather, Etienne founded the estate in 1946. His dad, Marcel, now 80 years old, still shows up to the office @ 4:15am during the week. Etienne completed 67 vintages, Marcel 63 vintages, Phillipe, an only child, now 30 vintages. He has two kids 12 years old.
Guigal owns Vidal Fleury (founded in 1781), it’s run completely independent of E Guigal, Phillipe visits them 2x/yr
They also just purchased a new Tavel/Lirac producer, Chateau d’Aqueria.
At Guigal - all vilification is done in stainless, in the cellar there are 5000 barrels, they have their own cooperage. 850-900 new barrels/year. Wine goes into barrel for 36m on average and used 3x, so used for approx 9 years/each. Then lots get shipped to Scotch producers like Bruichladdich, Gordon Macphail and more. The founders get used for 50 years plus.
The small barrels are for the Syrah, as the reductive nature of Syrah wants for more O2.
220 larger 60hl barrels mainly for Grenache, and the CdR Rouge.
The 1999 Guigal Châteauneuf-du-Pape that was WS#1 had some components stored into new 60hl, and Phillipe feels that contributed to it’s #1 honor.
Cote Rotie has 2,400 years of winemaking tradition. In the cellar pic with Phillipe, the tile mosaic is 1,900 years old. They boast a 6acre cellar of 350 years old, it’s the oldest in Cote Rotie and it’s FULL. 12C in the winter, 13C in the summer, 90% humidity and 2m underground. The new part of the cellar that were currently in was built 9 years ago. It’s noted that the proximity to the Rhône River makes for shallow cellars. And they have 45,000hl of storage in the Southern Rhône.
All of their blending for the last 67 years has happened in the historic family tasting room.
Production @ Guigal is 10M Bottles of which 5-6M is CdR.
Upstairs from the cellar are 140 stainless steel vats for blending 37,000hl
10M btls is 1.5%% of all Rhône production
The Côtes du Rhône bottling is comprised of LOTS of small LOTS. 800-850 winery lots go into the CdR bottling. 500hl, 250hl, and 100hl lots. Not 5000hl, not 3000hl. It’s noted that 50hl lots are the smallest that they can buy. Everyday they taste between 100-150 samples, and they only select about 2% of the lots they taste. They lots are then pre-blended over the course of the 3 years.
50hl and 100hl vats are continually blended together over the course of the 3 years, by the time they get to 750hl vats, they are stylistically/tasting profile very similar. It’s noted that they bottle all year long.
Negociants CdR Rouge has to be 50%+ Grenache by communication, but in reality potentially 55% Syrah.
By Dec 80-90% of purchases are made, but Phillipe’s dad, didn’t buy before Feb.
Brokers are now paid a miserable 1% rate, but Guigal pays 2% to get exclusivity rather than whoever calls first, and this compensates for teh geography of the N Rhône.
2018/19/20 - 5M btls excellent quality. 2021 - 1.5M btls - same quality.
2022 will be 6M btls. 2020 maybe up to 5.5/6M btls, as they are allowed to blend 15% of other vintages, but they choose not to blend between vintages. 2008 was just 150,000btls. 1993 was ZERO, but could have been 2-3M btls.
Boxing/unboxing, 3ppl and 7 robots installed 19yrs ago. For this part, the human component doesn’t help quality. Total 170 people work here and 37 of those are in the vineyards.
In the fermentation room, auto-punch downs started 5yrs ago. They were the first here to experiment with this.
in Bordeaux, malo needs to happen within one weeks to blend for en primeur, or people get nervous. Here it could be Oct/Nov, cold April/May. They have 3 years really.
8-9% of Rhône is white wines, @ Guigal they are 25% Whites.
After lunch to Chateau d'Ampuis and then the vineyards of Cote Rotie...
Cote Blonde is South (Granite--->Elegance)
Cote Brune is North (Schist--->Power) More clay here for more power.
S---->N = La Mouline, La Turque, La Landonne
there are 330ha in the AOC and 325 of those are planted.
Chateau d'Ampuis. The oldest part is from the 11th Century, more added on in 12th Century and then the modern building in the 16th Century.
They have a cooperage on site and they build about 5 barrels/day. they have one guy that works here solo, he's been here 20yrs.
From the Alliers forest and others The forests are government owned and managed.
@ La Mouline - not a lot of clay, so there's significant erosion here. They use hand tills and hoes here.
-Le Clos, La Garde, La Grandes Places are some of the sites that surround La Mouline in the Cote Blonde
In my pics from La Mouline, we see the Cote Brune. more schist here. la Turque is just behind sign in the picture with the black house. The red house (Pavillon Rouge) just right of La Turque is Pommiere.
Le Moulin (windmill) under Pavillon Rouge. La Reynard is to the left of la Turque and is the new terraces in the picture. The houses in the pics are just covered cisterns.
2022 will be the first vintage of La Reynard. Reynard is the name a the small stream at the lower part of the slope. Iron Oxide w/ more clay (tannin) and schist. The Clay in the Cote Brune gives more strength and power.
NV Emmanuel Brochet Champagne Rosé de Saignée
France, Champagne
(4/14/2023)
@ Caves Legrand in Paris w/ JB.
2018 Base, w/ a little natty/volatile spark. 100% Pinot Meunier, as it opens a little licorice aroma, wild and refreshing drink. Red apple crunch, soft and frothy texture. Excellent start to a wild evening
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2016 Domaine Bernard-Bonin Meursault Les Tillets
France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Meursault
(4/14/2023)
w/ JB @ Le Mermoz in Paris (~250Euro) - a precise and focused style of Meursault. Cream soda aroma and a bit of fresh hazelnut. Excellent, and really needed all of the time that we gave it. Last drop was starting to lean into some lime nuance. To search out, JP says PP has a couple…
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2019 Pierre Gonon St. Joseph
France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, St. Joseph
(4/14/2023)
w/ JB @ Le Mermoz in Paris (120Euro)
This is what I was going to go for, but also what the Somm recommended, so that’s that.
WOW, very Kalamata olive, with a toasty meat driven edge. A little citronella note behind that and Red Raspberry fruit starts to come more to the front with more time in the glass and the decanter.
There’s discussion of Ammanit de Cesar Mushrooms which JB said Alain Ducasse called the King of Mushrooms. Time to search these out….
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2021 Nikoladzeebis Marani Tsolikouri Orkhvi
Georgia, Imereti
(4/15/2023)
@ Septime
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2020 Jean Foillard Fleurie
France, Burgundy, Beaujolais, Fleurie
(4/15/2023)
@ Septime
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2020 Domaine du Facteur Vouvray Le Facteur Su'L'Vélo
France, Loire Valley, Touraine, Vouvray
(4/15/2023)
@ La Buvette
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2018 Domaine Brand et Fils Le Bidule
France, Alsace
(4/15/2023)
@ Cave a Vins Michel
Tough to tell if we ever ended up at Candalaria (52 Rue de Saintonge; don't think so)
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