Freddy R. Troya

9.5

Chateau Guiraud is mainly known for amazing Sauternes terroir-driven (botrytis-styled) wines, natural vineyards and very jealous preserving the genetic sources of its grape varieties.
This 2020 vintage was released to honor its 10th anniversary of being AB (“Agriculture Biologique”) certified, and also was a very good year for a great white wine.
An outstanding blend of Sauvignon blanc 70%, Sémillon 30%, with an unique vilification process; fermentation was for 3 weeks in barrels having previously been used for the vinification of its flagship Sauternes and underwent through MLF at 35%, and aging in barrels for 12 months.
The nose welcomes all baked tropical fruits and very distant hint of white flowers. As for tasting, a very rich and texturized white with gentle acidity and creamy lemon zest with an impressive silky mouthfeel, it also has a subtle astringency with undertones of delicacy towards the back-end of the palate.
This wine seats next to my most preferred complex, age-worthy whites as Gran Vin de Bordeaux. Salute! — 21 days ago

Frank Artale

9.2

Deep ruby going to garnet at this age. Can't see the stem standing over the glass. Nose surprisingly bright and new oak influence still being felt. While not a carbonic process you can feel the whole berry fermentation works well to great here. — a year ago

Vanessa

9.1

We’re pairing our Christmas brunch with a very special wine that we brought home from our recent trip to Champagne. 🍾🥂 🇫🇷

As we open this wine, we recall our visit to Hervieux-Dumez; a family-owned and -operated Champagne Grower/Producer, and member of the Club Trésors, located in the bucolic Premier Cru Village of Sacy. 💕 @champagne_hervieuxdumez

This particular wine is a ‘Special Club’, an indication of its quality and the purity of its terroir-expression. To receive this designation, the wine must come from an exceptional vintage and satisfy two blind tastings at different stages of the winemaking process: the first occurs when the wine is still, just prior to the second fermentation in bottle, and the second takes place after 3 years aging in bottle. 👏👏👏👏

This wine is a beautiful pale, gold hue. The mousse is fine and delicate. ✨ On the nose and palate, this wine offers primary notes of yellow apple, pear, lemon curd, and dried white blossom; also secondary notes of bread dough, yeast, brioche, and cream. 👍👍This wine is wonderfully balanced and refreshing; it presents dimension and complexity. It’s delicious.

Joyeux Noël to those celebrating today 🎄❄️ May your holiday be filled with warmth, peace, and many blessings. 🙏 — 3 years ago

with Deked1

Vanessa

9.0

Late brunch with these Bugey bubbles on a rainy Saturday afternoon was pretty fantastic. 👌🥂

This sparkling wine was made using the Méthode Traditionnelle which notably involves a second fermentation in the bottle and aging on the “lees” for at least 12 months. 🕰

In essence, “lees” are what remain in the fermentation vessel after the active yeast has consumed the sugar in the pre-fermented grape juice during the fermentation process; when they die they undergo a process called autolysis, which is responsible for releasing unique flavor/aromatic compounds and enhancing richness and complexity of the resulting wine. The more contact a wine has with the “lees” the greater the “lees” influence the resulting wine. 🤓

This wine comes from the cru of Montagnieu in the alpine appellation of Bugey within Savoie France, situated in the foothills of the Jura mountains. It is a blend of the Altesse (local), Mondeuse (local), and Chardonnay (international) grape varieties. 🇫🇷

I loved the complexity of aromas and flavors with notes of sweet herbs, watercress, a funkiness of cheese rind, also baked apple, pear, brioche, honeysuckle, peony, and toasted almond. 💕💕

This wine was smooth and dry on the palate with medium(+) acidity, a medium body, and medium alcohol. 👄

We paired it with an aged cheddar, chive, and arugula omelet and it was deliciously complementary.

Franck Peillot, Brut, NV, from Montagnieu, Bugey AOC, Savoie, France. ABV 12%. @franckpeillot
— 4 years ago

with Deked1

Freddy R. Troya

8.9

Typical California Chardonnay from the Russian River Valley, Sonoma. Buttery, creamy, vanilla-driven and oaky on the nose thanks to its fermentation and aging process for 12 months in French and American oak barrels.
Definitely shows expression of the Russian River Valley's distinctive climate that provides lime and tropical fruits with some camomile and other white flowers to most of Chard’s sourced from there. The savory notes mixed with ripen apricot and baked pineapple makes it really refreshing and interesting. A bit toasty to my preference, but appreciate its weight and intensity on the finish and general decent overall as a mouthfeel. — a month ago

Vanessa

9.3

This is the 2018 Marc Hébrart Brut ‘Special Club’ – a beautiful bottle of vintage bubbles hailing from a collection of premier and grand cru sites in the Marne and Montagne de Reims regions of Champagne, France.

When you see “Special Club” on the label of a bottle with this distinctive shape, you’re dealing with essentially a prestige cuvée of a grower-producer who’s a member of the “Club Trésors.”

Marc Hébrart joined the Club Trésors in 1985, which is an association of quality-minded grower-producers. Grower-producers operate differently than the big champagne houses (e.g., Veuve-Clicquot) in that they are smaller-scale vignerons who own the entire production process from the vineyard to the winery and cellar.

They have helped raise awareness and appreciation of artisanal champagne wines that speak to a sense of place and personality, unobscured by extensive, widespread blending.

To achieve the status of “Special Club” a wine must undergo a rigorous application process and meet minimum quality metrics culminating with in two blind tasting panels – the first tasting evaluates the base wine after the first fermentation; the second and final tasting occurs after a minimum of three years aging sur lie.

From our studies we’ve learned the 2018 vintage bore above-average fruit; the warm and dry summer paved the way for a riper expression in an otherwise marginal climate. This wine is made with 60% Pinot Noir and 40% Chardonnay.

The bouquet has a medium (+) intensity of yellow and green apple, lemon zest, white peach, gardenia, almond biscotti, nougat, pastry, biscuit, and toast notes. The palate is creamy with vibrant acidity, adding lift, a fine-beaded, persistent mousse and long, elegant finish.

— 8 months ago

with Deked1

Vanessa

9.4

Today we began with a visit to Billecart-Salmon, which has been family owned since 1818. They are 7 generations strong, producing between 2 and 2.5 million bottles per year. We received our informative tour from Jérôme Lafouge. 👏

He explained how Billecart-Salmon grows and manages many of the vines used to produce their wines; they also source grapes 🍇 from other growers, but otherwise own the production process from the pressing of the grapes on… the facilities are pristine and processes are executed meticulously.

Each wine is vinified by vineyard plot. A unique feature of Billecart-Salmon is its decision to have a slow, cool fermentation process for all of its wine - both those vinified in barrels and those in stainless steel tanks - a process that takes 6 weeks to complete.

Each winemaking decision is customized based upon the type and condition of the grapes, e.g., some undergo a malolactic fermentation (where tart malic acid is converted to soft, lactic acid) while others may not, some have a first fermentation in oak where as some are stainless steel, etc.

At the end of our tour we had the pleasure to taste a few beautiful wines (pictured here).

Our favorite was the 2002 Vintage Cuvée Nicolas François comprised of 60% Pinot Noir from Mareuil-Sur-Aÿ, Aÿ, Ambonnay, and Verzenay and 40% Chardonnay from Chouilly, Cramant, and Avize.

This wine was clearly developing lovely tertiary aromas. It also had great complexity retaining its primary and secondary notes. It was disgorged January of 2016, resting over a decade on the lees.

The aromas and palate had caramel, toffee, brioche, pie crust, toast, hazelnut, cream, melted butter, honey, ginger, candied lemon peel, quince, fig, and chamomile notes.

What an enjoyable experience and we loved meeting some new friends on the tour from Savannah, Georgia and Canada.

Santé mes amis 🥂🥂🥂 — 4 years ago

with Deked1

Vanessa

9.3

“La Côte” of Domaine de la Côte is a DREAMY Pinot Noir from the Santa Rita Hills AVA of California’s Central Coast region.

Here pacific coastal breezes stretch inland and cool the sun-soaked vineyards. Domaine de la Côte has a collection of 6 vineyards on the western edge of Santa Rita Hills. On the back label you see a map of several of their vineyard blocks, including “La Côte” which is organically-farmed and nestled on a steep southeast-facing slope, where it absorbs the radiant sun during the growing season.

The grapes that went into this wine were harvested by hand, cluster-by-cluster, affording a gentler handling of the fruit with reduced risk of oxidation and microbial spoilage.

This wine was then fermented in a concrete vessel using 100% whole clusters (stems and all) thanks to the process of wild, ambient yeasts in the vineyard, winery, and on the skin of the berries…

The result is a positively perfumed and pristine berry-fruited profile with concentrated notes of black cherry, strawberry, raspberry, boysenberry, hibiscus, rosewater, cherry blossom, and anise balanced by a firm backbone of acidity and reserved alcoholic profile (13.1% ABV).

Following fermentation, this wine matured for 10 months in oak (30% new oak), lending delicate secondary notes of vanilla, clove, and cardamom.

The Domaine de la Côte “Bloom’s Field” was among the wines featured in the Somm 3 movie; it was blind tasted next to other French and California wines in a 2018 retake of the 1976 Judgement of Paris that culminated in a tasting of wines by a panel of luminaries of the wine world: Fred Dame, Jancis Robinson, and the late, great Steven Spurrier, who organized the Judgment of Paris back in 1976.

It is a captivating wine and has the structure to age, though we are loving it in its current state. It’s a delicious pairing with the herb-crusted salmon, roasted asparagus, and crème fraiche / chive mashed potatoes.

Cheers!

— 7 months ago

with Deked1

Vanessa

9.3

We absolutely love exploring the world’s many expressions of Pinot Noir!  It’s a lifelong endeavor and we’re here for it. 😆

Tonight, we’re taking a sensory trip to South America and, more specifically, Río Negro, Patagonia 🇦🇷 – the most southerly wine-producing region of Argentina – where Antarctic currents, winds descending from the Andes, & high latitudes offer cooling influences, ideal for producing elegant Pinot Noir styles.

Bodega Chacra was established in 2003 by Tuscan Piero Incisa della Rocchetta (grandson of Sassicaia’s founding father) in search of purity and nuance in fruit expression from the terroir of Patagonia. 🍇
 
Piero now partners with esteemed Burgundian winemaker (and friend) Jean-Marc Roulot in the production process, each contributing their respective oenological “genes” to the final wine, which is first and foremost a child of the earth in Mainqué, Río Negro. 🌱
 
Paying utmost respect to the land, Bodega Chacra cares for its vineyards organically and biodynamically aided, in part, by the arid, windy conditions that naturally mitigate fungal pressure in the vineyard. Their fruit is harvested by hand, allowing for selectivity and the use of whole bunches during fermentation. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

This wine is called ‘Cincuenta Y Cinco’ (fifty five) because its fruit comes from vines first planted in 1955, carefully preserved by the team at Bodega Chacra, whose oldest vines actually date back to 1932!

This wine was fermented in cement vats using native yeast, adapted to the environment and matured 11 months (50% in concrete, 50% in French oak of various ages) before release. ⚖️

In a word this wine is ethereal.
 
We served it with a slight chill. Its pristine, berry and cherry fruit profile, complements the delicate cherry blossom, peony 🌺 and baking spice notes. It’s light on its feet w/ medium alcohol (12% ABV) and bright acidity.  It’s lovely & perfumed.

Cheers to Bodega Chacra and all of the beautiful Pinots of Patagonia! — 2 years ago

with Deked1

Vanessa

9.1

I just love Fleurie wines – they’re gulpably delicious and versatile. Here we have a delightfully-perfumed and bright representation with Anne-Sophie DuBois, Les Cocottes, 2019, ABV 12.5%. 💕👏🍷

This wine is made with Gamay grapes and hails from the Beaujolais Cru appellation of Fleurie. 🇫🇷 The grapes used to produce this wine were farmed organically and grown on the famous pink granite slopes of this region, with a beneficial south-southwest orientation towards the sun ☀️, offering good exposure throughout the growing season, aiding in the ripening process.

This wine was vinified using the whole grape clusters 🍇 and was subject to ‘carbonic maceration’, where fermentation begins initially within the confines of the intact grapes under a blanket of carbon dioxide. This process is known to highlight the purity of fruit characteristics along with customary notes of bubblegum, cinnamon, banana, kirsch, among other expected characteristics.

👁 It’s medium purple with a delicate haze. 👃 On the nose it is light and perfumed with youthful notes of cherry blossom alongside cherry preserves, wild strawberry, kirsch, banana, nutmeg, balanced with mineral notes like wet slate. 👄 On the palate this wine is dry, it has a brighter, tarter flavor profile, with vibrant acidity, a light body, medium alcohol, light tannins, and good fruit concentration. It has a medium finish. 😍😍😍

We’re pairing this wine with tarragon chicken and caprese. 👌👌👌👌

@annesophiefleurie — 4 years ago

with Deked1