2006 Le Rocher des Violettes Montlouis-sur-Loire Touche-Mitaine

Garagiste

• By Jon Rimmerman
  12/24/2007, (See more on Garagiste...)

  (ROCHER des VIOLETTES Touche-Mitaine) Xavier Dear Friends, Merry Christmas to all! I wasn’t going to send out an offer today, it is Christmas Eve after all, but this is my only chance at this wine so I'll have to overlook the calendar and hope that as many of you as possible are still out there listening today as this wine finished at #6 in my top ten wines of the year. When bombarded with “the next big thing” left and right, it’s tough to get excited until the writing is so obviously on the wall that the vinous concoction within the bottle separates itself from the pretenders. Such is the case with Xavier Weisskopf, one of the most inspiring winemakers in France and a safe bet to carry the torch left by Gaston Huet. This is the world according to Weisskopf, the world of dry Chenin Blanc. This wine, the Touche-Mitaine from Xavier Weisskopf’s Le Rocher des Violettes domaine finished so high in my top ten wines of 2007 for a number of reasons but mostly because the wine itself is a mystical expression of Chenin Blanc from a vineyard that is so hard to farm and so cold, they need to wear gloves....in September (thus the name “Touche-Mitaine”). After cutting his teeth making Cote Rotie for St. Cosme, Xavier decided to go out on his own after differing philosophies on extract, hot fermentation and oak made a parting of the ways with Louis Barroul the only course for him (the parting was with respect, not adversarial, and Barroul goes out of his way to boast that Xavier worked with him first). Xavier is like France’s answer to Eben Sadie - gifted, determined, fanatical and detailed but most importantly he is a one of a kind cellar master - Barroul claims Xavier is the single most gifted cellar-hand in all of France - including anyone that makes wine at DRC, Leroy, Latour, Lafite or other. This initial release certainly gives that statement food for thought. All I can say is if you enjoy the dry wines of Huet, this is a wine you should explore with eyes firmly wide open. It is so esoteric, magical and difficult to pin down that its personality is like a rose bud just waiting to bloom. After tasting thousands of wines this year, the 2006 Le Rocher des Violettes came in at #6 - enough said (it is the type of wine that haunts you long after you consume it). Organically produced and chiseled from solid rock, weather and beaten down vines that need to give every once of life they have to squeeze a few grapes from their nutrient deprived souls, this 12.5-13% marvel changes like the wind with exposure to oxygen and I advise tasting it over a 3-4 hour period to experience the wintergreen, ginger and white flower essence that emerges. The wine is produced in a cellar that was cut in the 15th century and it still houses one of the finest undocumented bat habitats in France. Multiple species of bats roam in and out of the old cellar through a small hole in the 300 year old door - they live in a the old wine press that also dates from the 15th century, so crusted with bat guano, mold and debris that it looks like it would crumble if you so much as tapped it with a stick. I really don’t want to make comparisons but so many of you ask me that I must acquiesce to some degree - so, if I had to compare this to something it would be like a 1996 Boulay Sancerre mixed with junior 2002 Huet Le Haut Lieu with the smallest does of white Graves thrown in for good measure (unoaked of course). The price is much lower than it should be and I don’t see why this shouldn’t be priced at the same level as the Huet sec portfolio. This wine and winery will get noticed - Xavier is too well connected in the wine-world and I would expect very dear praise from the powers that be. In sum, If this isn’t one of the most exciting new wineries in France then I should retire from my day job (that’s about as resounding an endorsement as I can give). VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for amazing new find in a wine world that so desperately needs a bolt of energy like Xavier Weisskopf (the price isn’t bad either). ONE SHIPMENT ONLY directly from the source with perfect provenance (there is only one 50 case shipment for the US this year): 2006 Le Rocher des Violettes (Xavier Weisskopf) “Touche-Mitaine” Montlouis sec (this is not the regular Rocher des Violettes, this is the single site “Touche-Mitaine”) Thank you, Jon Rimmerman Garagiste Seattle, WA Loire6799