Alexandre Jouveaux

(Rosé in Zalto Burgundy)

With the risk of repeating my appraisal for the wines of Alexandre Jouveaux I bring you an update on his latest releases, which includes a new white, red and rosé.

Let’s however kick of with two wines you have read about before in the current vintage: 2010. 

2010 Préty

The 2010 Préty are pretty insane stuff. There are some obvious resemblance to the previous vintages, but still the 2010 vintage are even more avant garde. It oozes and flirts with flor yeast notes, which are typical for Vin Jaune and it even have notes of sherry, ammoniac (what you sometimes find in brie cheese), sherry, fennel, liquorice and tarragon. With air – which it’s really in need of – it becomes more linear and although these characteristic flor notes are still present they take a step back.  What also appears are more citrus fruits, flowers and butter in sync with an enormous intensity. The taste is ultra sleek, clear, bone dry - with nerve wrecking energy, acidity and mineral spine. Despite I have already had it twice I am confident it’s better in 2 years time. Possibly the best release I have tasted of this wine. 

2010 Le Mont

Le Mont also flirts with these flor notes, but it’s somewhat different glass of wine. Le Mont might not have the same depth as Préty, yet it offers a more direct attack with even more energy, purity and higher acidity. Le Mont is so political incorrect, filled with personality and  The 2010 are a beautiful specimen and equal with the stunning 2008 vintage. 

A fresh update on Le Mont, which I have just tasted 12^th of May-2012. With this bottle, there was a different string of stronger minerality, lime, white flower and crushed rocks. It was ultra clear without any of these flor yeast notes. Beautiful wine and so direct and energetic.  

2010 Combarnier

A new realse and consider to be a kind of entry-level wine. It’s less complex than the Préty and Le Mont, but offers and splendid flowery spectrum, citrus, lime and are filled with Jouveaux’s signature of tense freshness, clarity and acidity. Loved it.

2010 Rosé

When it comes to rosé – both still and Champagne – I often find temperature decisive and an individual parameter. Some do better by always being cold and preserving a mouth-watering freshness. Other has more red wine character and structural base and really do much better in the range of 14 <> 16 degrees. I most often start from 10 degrees and see what happens with warmth.

Here the lower temperature presents some dilemmas, as the wine gave away some rather strange aromas of rifle oil (don’t ask) - mixed with far better notes of red salted fruits. With warmth the profile completely changes and when reaching *14,5 degrees the wine enters a magic zone and becomes one of the most sophisticated still rosé I have ever tasted. The oily aromas are more a dark herbal touch and the salted red fruits now get companionship of strawberry, rosehip, cranberries, iodine and chicken skin. Taste is ultra sleek, tight, salted and with immensely beautiful red perfumes adding a lovely inner warmth.

*To measure the correct temperature I use this little gadget. Highly recommended.

2008 Rouge

The red was the only offering I wasn’t ecstatic about. It’s still a fair wine, but holds some earthed notes of wet forest floor, becoming a bit rustic and lowers the energy and purity a few gears down for my taste.

Sans Soufre

The fact that I do indeed like Natural wine and are exposed to lower thresholds of sulphur doesn’t necessarily mean that I am obsessed with a hunt for numbers and a clear division on what wines are on the right side of the “law”.

Nevertheless I am eager to see more and more going for lower dosed sulphur wines as there is clear evidence that sulphur has an impact on wine. Many are spooked and see ghost of movements in the making when discussing sulphur, but in fact the only movement is in their own minds.

I am also pleased to see how it’s often a small authentic grower pushing the boundaries and often producers located at the periphery of the most famed appellations.

To add another trophy for the diversification and alternatives for the wine lower, it pleases me even more to see Champagne now also being exposed to sans soufre and especially to see such a cuvée emerge from the skilled Marie-Courtin in Polissot (Aube).

2009 Marie-Courtin “Concordance”

Blend: 100% Pinot Noir

Terroir: Clay and chalk

Vines: Planted in 1968

Dosage: 0 g/l

Winemaker: Dominique Moreau

Disgorded: Jan-2012

Glass: Spiegelau Adina Red Wine (Water Goblet)

Let me just say that this experience came across several phases – including; exiting, worrisome and thrilling. The start was good, kicking off with exotic notes of currant, mango and pineapple - wrapped in such a lively and fragile package. It also seemed rather tight and there were distant breezes of seawater indicating a very young Champagne. After having shared 2-3 glasses with my wife, I rested it and returned an hour later. The result was devastating and like sunshine had been replaced with sea fog. In real language this meant a Champagne on the verge of dissolving itself , with this seawater component in completely control, leaving behind a Champagne without nerve, direction or focus. 


Obviously disappointed, I decided to rest maybe 20% of the bottle for the day after.

My excitement was low, but my curiosity was on the other hand elevated, as I released the Champagne stopper on day two. I couldn’t believe it. In the glass were the most focused, fragile and weightless Champagnes I have encounter in a while. Fruit wise, the Pinot Noir character was singing with Aube's magical terroir definition of black cherries and warm currant perfumes. I enjoyed those remaining 3 glasses like it was the last drops of wine I would ever taste. Pure bliss.

Summarizing: I can’t help to wonder what to do when opening my next bottle? I will think like this – it’s one way or the other in need of cellaring and I think 2-3 years should do the trick. Fingers crossed.

Hello again

I hadn’t really planned the pause would be this long, but during the last two months, there haven’t been a real opportunity to write about wine. 

It happens that I ended the final module of a brilliant personal leadership course, which I have attended since September 2011. The day after I travelled to Thailand with my family.

For sure there were wine opportunities in Thailand, but I actually preferred a cold beer @ 36 degrees of Celsius and wine was a rather expensive thing.  When at home again my calendar was filled with work, editing some 400-holiday images and another course in London waited shortly after. I might not have told you, but I have shifted form 23 years in the financial sector – 19 years as a specialist - to the Energy sector. The transformation of being an expert to completely rookie has been very challenging, but also exiting. In between I have also been training for a relay in Rotterdam and believe me I wasn’t (still aren’t) in good shape.

So blogging haven’t been an opportunity – in fact I had a period were I didn’t even miss wine.

Yet I have tasted a few things, which I will start to write about now, but I will leave you with some images from Thailand.

Thank you for you patience and stay tuned. 

(Welcome to the Jungle)

(Pansea Beach)

(The Surin Phuket)

(Maya Beach - Phi Phi Island)

2012 Terres et Vins de Champagne

A must for real Champagne lovers.

Sadly I can’t make it this year due to a business trip to Rotterdam. I will miss it more than you know, but I will return for 2013.

Lost & love

I realize that this blog is turning towards two categories: Natural Wine & Champagne.

I am eager passionate about both things, but from starting this blog some 4½ years ago my preferences has narrowed. At the same time I started this blog, I also sourced my wines from maybe 10 domestic wine importers – even had wine sent from Germany, France and Italy. Today I use mainly one importer and have 2-3 others that I also like.

Looking forward, I face an obstacle of going around in circles with this blog and not being able to present you with something “new”. Will it be boring just to read about an “old wine” in a new vintage? I have to think about this and maybe change the concept of this blog – turning away from tasting notes to another template?

Meanwhile…let’s have a look at a classic: A Champagne – yet something which is almost new from one of my absolutely favorite producers.

2004 Cédric Bouchard “Inflorescence La Parcelle”

Blend: 100% Pinot Noir

Terroir: Argilo-calcaire

Lieu-dit: Côte de Béchalin” – 0,737 ha

Location: Celles-sur-Ource southwest exposure

Production: 2.000 bottles per year

Dosage: 0 g/l

Disgorged: April-2011

Glass: Spiegelau Adina Red Wine (Water goblet)

Almost, means – that I have in fact tasted it before in another vintage (2003) and written a small notice, when I visited Cédric in April-2011. Until vintage 2004, the wine has been made from a close friend of the family. From ‘04 Cédric makes the wine himself. It’s also the first time the Champagne is available here in Denmark. Since the first release of La Parcelle, the 1999 vintage, the Champagne has been sold exclusively in Japan and later in US. Slowly the wine has become more accessible around the world, but like always with the Champagnes of Cédric Bouchard, the wines are produced in microscopically numbers.

Before I opened it, I couldn’t help to think how it would compare vs the standard Inflorescence and Les Ursules, which are both crafted from Pinot Noir and Champagnes I know very well.

The similarities are again a Champagne with staggering level of purity. It’s a clean cut diamond, which sparkles with clarifying sensorial sweet fruit, black cherries, currant perfumes and wrapped in Cédric’s always sleek corset where delicacy are brought to a sensational level. The trademark of his Champagnes are breeds capturing their own dimension and La Parcelle is no exception.

Where it takes on it’s own agenda – especially compared vs Les Ursules are more yellow fruits, flowers and ginger. The structure is also different – feeling even silkier. I don’t always believe in what is best – but you could say Les Ursules are somewhat deeper, more structure, compact and complex.

Having said that – I absolutely adored it, especially how it orchestrated the tonality between Pinot, yellow fruits and this lovely subtle ginger appeal. This I have not seen before from Cédric Bouchard and in fact it pairs even better with food than Les Ursules because of this.

This blog might face some challenges, but when Champagne is this good – why on earth should I keep searching for alternatives just to present something new and shiny?

Weightless

2009 Jérôme Prévost “La Closerie Les Béguines”

Blend: 100% Pinot Meunier

Terroir: Sand & Calcareous elements

Age of vines: 40-45 years old

Location: Village of Gueux – located west of Reims.

Dosage: Think 2 g/l.

Glass: Spiegelau Adina Red wine (Water goblet)

My first date with a Champagne from Jérôme Prévost made me realize that the expression of Pinot Meunier doesn’t have to be a baroque experience. Today I know of maybe two or three producers, which can take this grape to such sophisticated delightfulness and Jérôme Prévost is one of them.

His Champagnes are getting more and more sought after, especially at my local northern backyard where it takes about one week before his current release are sold out.

His 2009 were present at the December-2011 tasting and it did extremely well. However the Mad About Wine dogma is about drinking bottles and not 1-2 glasses – so here is a “real” tasting note.

The 2009 are the most elegant “La Closerie Les Béguines” I have tasted so far. It might not posses the concentration of the ’08 or the nerve of the ’06, but it’s the most weightless of them. Rather approachable, but I don’t know if I would call it open, as no oxidation patters are apparent. I have always found the spices absolutely adorable with this Champagne - especially when young, they are sophisticated and racy. All togehter the notes are; sensorial sweetness, black cherries, oat flakes, pear, cornfield, almonds and sour dough. On the palate it floats beautifully, with this vivid weightless appeal, but also a devilish intense acidity.

My only complaint was a small membrane running across the Champagne, which I sometimes associate with dosage. I felt this membrane prevented me from getting a full soil bite. However – I rested 1/3 of the bottle and returned two hours later. Now this membrane had almost dissolved itself and you were able to sort of touch ground a have this splendid structured sandy soil bite.

I should mention that the Champagnes from Jérôme Prévost are a tribute to food, mainly driven from these refined spices and poised acidity. I had this with: Cod, beetroot, cherry, dill seeds and rye bread // Thin slices of stir-fried beef fillet, with pickled mushrooms, porcini mushroom cream, juniper salt and crunchy bread // Salmon Rillettes, plus a selection Italian hams. Everything went great.

She loves me, she loves me not, she loves me…..

2006 Vouette et Sorbée "Saignée et Sorbee"

Blend: 100% Pinot Noir

Terroir: Portlandian limestone.

Method: Maceration Carbonic

Vineyard: Located in village of Buxières-sur-Arce with south exposure.

Dosage: 0 g/l

Disgorged: 17th of February 2009

Glass: Spiegelau Adina Red wine (Water goblet)

To determine whether you like a wine or not should not only be logical but also easy. This Champagne however challenged that statement. Over the 4 days I tasted it brought me through several phases where I was almost about to give up all hope of embrace and reciprocity.

On a Friday, when I happened to be home alone, I decided to open this always very distinctive rosé Champagne. Apparent that my experience would not be without problems, but that it should evolve in this way, I had not expected.

First impressions were not good. It blasts out of the glass, completely wanton, aggressive and not very appealing. Troublemaker is a beast of oak perfumes and cranberry associations linking to Campari and sherry notes. The taste is tannic, raw, sour and like biting into an iron rod. I drank probably 2-3 glasses like this and quickly decided that we were not meant to be this night.

The next day I tried again. The change is not overwhelming and yet – the oak is secondary, but the Campari and sherry notes are still here..hhhmm. Not particular eager to continue my journey I lost interest and returned maybe 20 minutes later. Aha!!!....something has happened and it's merely temperature, turning hatred to love. With warmth, the wine becomes sleeker, saltier and the fruits take on a more dried style. The cranberry notes are still here, but joined by chords of smoked meat, apricot, buckthorn and vanilla, which are the last perfumes from the oak. The taste is sleek, elegant and the tannic tones are now being replaced with this iron touch, which is also an essential part of the Champagnes structure. At this stage its dazzling Champagne. Overall it’s also food Champagne - requiring attention and immersion.

I saved even a little to day 3 - but felt asleep on the couch, so at day 4, I tried it again. It was still alive, even though the bubbles were now quite secondary. First impressions were the same hideous cranberry / Campari / Sherry notes = horrible. So: Rest and raise it in temperature… wait wait wait ... and we have delicious and seriously sophisticated Champagne with a very strong personality.

So eventually it became love – but remember to serve it around 14-16 degrees Celsius.