Ask a casual imbiber what wine evokes for them and you may see a bead of sweat trickle down their brow.
The wine world conjures up stereotypes of black-suited sommeliers, stately châteaux, manicured vineyards, and a requirement to speak confidently about such things as vintages, grape varieties, terroir, when to carafe, what glassware to use, and how long to cellar wines.
Give someone a pricier bottle of wine and they will invariably ask you the last question.
The superiority of aged wine has cropped up in historical references from the Bible to Thomas Jefferson.
However, widespread use of wine cellars to improve wine, rather than simply store excess volume, is a relatively recent phenomenon. “Before the 1800s, wines were generally unstable and it was risky to keep them too long,” explains wine writer and historian, Rod Phillips. “Nineteenth century wine books don’t talk about cellaring.”
Regardless of when the practice started, cellaring wine became the norm first for wine merchants then aficionados by the early to mid-20th century. Fast forward to the mid-1970s, and access to insider information on vintages and suggested cellaring duration hit the mainstream, with the arrival of publications like Tidings (now known as Quench), Decanter, The Wine Advocate, and Wine Spectator.
The idea that wines from regions like Bordeaux, Barolo, and Burgundy required cellaring to soften tannins and tame acidity was thus an accepted truth for wine lovers. Connoisseurs would seek out older vintages in restaurants and tuck away recent acquisitions for decades-long hibernation, all in the pursuit of drinking fine wines at some distant, lofty peak.
It must then have come as a shock to some, when, in 2013, the Wine Spectator’s Matt Kramer shared his view that “most of today’s fine wines—not all, mind you—will reach a point of diminishing returns on aging after as few as five years of additional cellaring.”
Kramer wasn’t suggesting that the top wines of the day were less age worthy than their predecessors, but rather that advancements in viticulture and winemaking technique had changed these wines structurally.
“Certain stylistic winemaking changes have resulted in wines which are approachable earlier than a generation ago,” explains Guy Seddon, fine wine director at Corney & Barrow. “The use of whole bunch fermentation, gentler pressing, and less new oak have contributed to wines which are more accessible in youth.”
The wines have certainly changed, but so have the consumers. Tonya Pitts is the sommelier and wine director at One Market Place in San Francisco. In recent years, she has seen a definitive move “to imbibe with fresher, more vibrant flavor profiles.” This, she explains, is achieved through more youthful, lighter wines.
Taking this logic one step further, Michael Madrigale, fine and rare wine consignment director at Heritage Auctions, and former Bar Boulud wine director, points to the rise of natural wines. “These wines are not meant to be aged at all,” he explains. “In fact, they are almost made to be consumed within the first year.”
In Madrigale’s opinion, younger generations that have grown up with natural wines are increasingly unfamiliar with aged wine profiles. “A large, emerging demographic has been spoon-fed the philosophies of natural wine and has in turn based a lot of their purchasing in natural wines.”
Whether the transition to drinking younger wines was led by evolving patterns in viticulture, winemaking practices, consumer preference, or new wine styles, the fact remains that older wines are harder to come by in today’s restaurants and from wine merchants. “Restaurants like the Tour d’Argent—that can hold wine for 20 years before they put it on the list—don’t really exist anymore,” says Madrigale.
In some ways, the idea of tossing out the vintage charts and the cellaring rule book seems like a positive step for an industry long deemed overly complex and elitist. Though Corney & Barrow still provide drinking ranges to guide clients, Seddon feels that “where the peak of deliciousness lies is fairly subjective.”
While Seddon has a highly wine literate clientele with the means to purchase and cellar fine wines, Pitts sees a wide diversity of consumers in her work. “Not everyone has access to cellars, or to smaller production natural wines, to old world or to new world wines,” she explains. “We all start our wine journey somewhere.”
This drive to help newcomers embrace wine is shared by Jermaine Stone, aka The Wolf of Wine. Budding hip hop artist turned fine wine auction house director, Stone now owns Cru Luv Selections, a wine importing and consultancy firm in New York.
“I think the thing that wine has to do is stop telling people how to enjoy it,” Stone laughs. With his popular Wine and Hip Hop podcast and Tasting Notes from the Streets events, Stone is breaking away with staid conventions around wine drinking and reaching out to a previously untapped demographic.
“The beautiful thing about our events is that they attract two different types of crowds,” he explains. “I have guys who are clearly not familiar with wine that leave with a newfound appreciation for it because they were approached differently; it was integrated with something that they were already subscribed to.”
For both Pitts and Stone, the ultimate goal is to see wine drinkers progress in their appreciation and understanding. “The more you know, explore, and taste, the more you want to learn and discover,” says Pitts. In Stone’s view, teaching people how fine wines evolve over time is a powerful draw.
Far from alienating newcomers, Stone sees wine’s luxury image as a strength. He dismisses the idea that younger generations simply can’t afford the high price tags for top crus, pointing to the designer sneakers, watches, and handbags they prize.
“People have the money,” he says. “They just don’t have the reverence for the product. If they don’t think that it’s special, they won’t want to collect it.” His aim is to make this luxury approachable, so that people want to invest.
Stone is returning to his auction house roots for just this reason. Fine wine auctions are one of the few remaining sources of cellared wines, from great value $18 Hautes Côtes de Beaune to top crus. Stone wants to bridge the gap from the exclusive auction house setting, bringing their wines to a wider audience.
“You can buy second to fifth growth Bordeaux from the 1970s in pristine condition, at under $100 per bottle on auction,” says Madrigale, backing up Stone’s appreciation for auction values. “This is often less than the current release price from the château.”
Of course, the kind of wines sold at auction are a fraction of what is being produced today. Not everyone can or wants to buy wines by the case through specialist channels, just as not everyone has the means or desire to purchase designer goods.
The world of wines has undergone an incredible diversification since the turn of the century. New wine styles have exploded onto the scene, and new waves of wine professionals and consumers have overturned the formalities once so closely tied with wine connoisseurship.
There is no denying however, that fine wines still have an important role to play in this brave new world. Their cult status casts a glow that illuminates wine on every level. Compelling tales of unique terroir and legendary winemakers are a large part of their appeal. But what sets fine wines apart from other luxuries is their power to evolve, to transform over time.
Sherry, the really great mind blowing kind, is one of the more complex alcoholic beverages to understand. Developed over centuries the universe of Sherry is enveloped in a labyrinth of classification intricacies, fortification variations, and aging regimens that make even the most seasoned wine pro wilt at this most unique ancient beverage.
Flavors are not easily relatable to the foundational data points of most drinkers, they can be alienating to the uninitiated palate trained on French oaked Chardonnay or the sweetness of Vintage Port. Frankly, most importer portfolios dare even to explore such fruits of Spain as they haven't built up the markets they serve and therefore are uncertain of who these buyers are...but merchants can tell you - these are some of our most passionate, geeked up, eclectic palates we serve. The most knowledgeable aficionados search the globe for the highest quality bottles they can find, paying as much as $500 a bottle - often at auction if they want to acquire unicorns like Vintage Sherry.
CELLAR TERROIR
Wine lovers have come to under the concept of terroir in relationship to a place where vines, foliage and fruit grow. In the Jura and Jerez the notion of cellar terroir is a foundational concept, that where and how the wine is raised plays a vital role in the eventual expression of personality that will be delivered in bottle. Understanding the cellaring process is arguably the single most important element, even over the wine growing region, that will determine the final character of the product being served. As you continue to read on keep this in mind as it is your key to understanding the multitude of options available.
BEGIN WITH FRIENDSHIP
In 2005, a small group of friends and fellow Sherry lovers encountered a surprise during a cellar visit in Sanlúcar de Barrameda: a few dozen casks of a gorgeous amontillado that had been aging for over 20 years, unsold, and which still offered a steely precision that echoed its origins as a manzanilla. Galvanized by this discovery, they privately bottled 600 bottles solely for personal consumption and for sharing with fellow enthusiasts, repeating the exercise twice more the following year with different selections, and gradually commercializing their endeavors on an intimate scale.
Calling themselves “Equipo Navazos”—navazos is a farming technique used in Sanlúcar whereby topsoil is excavated to allow moisture from the underlying aquifer to reach the surface—the group quickly garnered buzz among Sherry connoisseurs who were floored by the intensity and complexity of these micro-bottlings. Over the years, the group’s reach and production have grown, but quantities of each release top out at just a few thousand bottles—and often just a few hundred.
Equipo Navazos remains a passion project for its two core members, both of whom still work full-time jobs: Jesús Barquín is a professor of criminal law at University of Granada, as well as one of Spain’s foremost experts on the wines of Andalucía, having authored numerous articles and books on the subject; and Eduardo Ojeda is the technical director of Grupo Estévez, which owns the famous houses Valdespino and La Guita, among others. Their reputations and connections allow them incredible access to the region’s many cellars, and over the years they have been able to influence the direction of their projects from ever-earlier points in the production process.
Most Sherry today is made on an industrial scale with a mind to consistency above all else, but Equipo Navazos revels in the ultra-specificity of each treasure they unearth and guide into bottle. In effect, theirs is the exact inverse of the consistency model, as every release—numbered in succession as “La Bota # …”—has its own origin story and its own indelible personality, and their offerings encompass a staggering stylistic range. In addition to working with Palomino Fino grown in the Sherry Triangle (primarily with bodegas in Jerez de la Frontera and Sanlúcar de Barrameda), the group also has partnerships to the north in Montilla-Moriles, a warmer zone renowned for Pedro Ximénez in both dry and sweet forms.
While their approach may be unorthodox, Equipo Navazos also helps connect the region to its pre-industrial winemaking past: their “Navazos-Niepoort” bottlings—unfortified Palomino Fino from great vineyards spontaneously fermented in cask and aged under flor—harken back to the Andalucían wines of the late 1700s; and they have released several examples of “fino amontillado,” an obscure category no longer authorized to appear on labels, but one with deep historical significance and renown among connoisseurs. Furthermore, their “OVNI” bottlings offer unfortified, low-alcohol expressions of Palomino Fino and Pedro Ximénez given minimal flor exposure, and thereby providing a different lens into this fascinating viticultural area.
Equipo Navazos is already a justly revered entity among those who know and love Sherry, and we are eager to introduce them to a broader clientele. In most of Europe’s prestigious historical winegrowing areas, the very best exemplars of a region are inaccessible to all but the uber-wealthy and well-connected. In the world of Sherry, however, the offerings of Equipo Navazos—inarguably among the most stunningly complex, layered, and distinctive wines on the planet—are available to all that are willing to engage… at least for now.
UNDERSTANDING THE NAVAZOS PORTFOLIO
[bold stocked by C4, click link]
Palomino Fino “La Bota 84 – Florpower MMXVI” Vino Blanco
Over time, the Equipo Navazos team has shortened the period of flor exposure for their “Florpower” series, preferring a slightly lighter kiss of yeasts on releases like the MMXXI described above. This earlier bottling, La Bota #84, comes from the same plot—55- to 85-year-old vines of Palomino Fino in Sanlúcar’s Miraflores la Baja vineyard—as the MMXXI, but from the 2016 harvest (hence “MMXVI”), and it saw 19 total months of flor exposure: eight months in bota followed by 11 months in steel. Unlike the MMXXI, this wine underwent alcoholic fermentation in bota rather than steel, and its overall character is brinier and more intense, with a gripping saline texture that has been nicely burnished by a few years in bottle. 12% alcohol; 3,000 bottles produced.
Manzanilla “La Bota 111 – Florpower MMXVIII”
This release, La Bota #111, is of a rare breed: a single-vintage (2018, or MMXVIII) manzanilla from a single vineyard (like all “Florpower” releases, from Miraflores la Baja in Sanlúcar). After a natural alcoholic fermentation, it spent one year in 5/6th-full 40-year-old bota aging under flor at natural strength; it was then gently fortified with wine spirit to 15% and aged two and a half additional years in cask, thereby becoming a manzanilla by definition. It is a sleek, refined, ultra- clinging wine with astonishing kinetic energy, suffused with mineral salts and offering great purity amidst its flor-driven complexity. 15% alcohol; 4,500 bottles produced.
Manzanilla “La Bota 113 – Navazos”
While the group actively resists a standardized “product line” approach, there is a unifying thread in each release of a “Navazos”-designated Sherry. La Bota #113 is the tenth occurrence of a “Navazos”-designated manzanilla, and with this wine, they seek a complex expression of relatively long-aged Palomino Fino from Sanlúcar de Barrameda given only the gentlest of filtrations before bottling. La Bota #113, then, is a selection of casks among several dozen which have been monitored and shepherded by Navazos co-founder Eduardo Ojeda since 2007, with an estimated average wine age of seven years. Because it has been so minimally filtered, #113 pours a deeper golden color than many more commercially minded manzanillas, with a deeply saline yet vibrant palate that hums with intensity. Though remarkably quenching, a simple aperitivo-style manzanilla this is not. 15% alcohol; bottled in June 2022; 5,000 bottles produced.
Amontillado “La Bota 117 – Navazos” Montilla-Moriles
Amontillado constitutes a vital part of Equipo Navazos’ history: the “La Bota” lineage began with an amontillado in 2005, and they have bottled an additional five “Navazos”-designated amontillados since then— including this, the first in the series to hail from Montilla-Moriles. In their words, a “Navazos”-designated amontillado must “represent the ideal balance between complexity and freshness that in our opinion makes amontillado the king of wines.” La Bota #117 comprises casks of Pedro Ximénez from the Altos de Moriles zone which began life at a prestigious bodega in Lucena—first long-aged as a fino then briefly as an amontillado—and which were thereafter refined and finished at the Pérez Barquero estate. With an average wine age of over 20 years, #117 is palate-commandingly intense and layered, yet with a sense of brightness and delicacy—partly a result of its modest-for-the-category alcohol level of 18%, derived through the slow oxidation and concentration of its unfortified component wines. Bottled October 2022; 3,200 bottles produced.
----------------
[The following may be special ordered - inquire]
Pedro Ximénez “OVNI” Blanco Seco Montilla-Moriles 2022
The Navazos team conceived “OVNI” to spotlight indigenous Andalucían varieties in a more straightforward fashion. Through harvesting at modest ripeness levels, fermenting spontaneously, foregoing fortification, and aging under flor only briefly, the “OVNI” wines express varietal character and mineral-driven finesse on attractively delicate and drinkable frames. Produced in the cellars of the renowned Pérez Barquero estate, the 2022 Pedro Ximénez “OVNI” comes from plantings in the white chalk soils of the Montilla ridge harvested at 11.5% potential alcohol—a sweet spot where the variety displays a balance between acidity, fruit, and mineral tension. The wine aged partly in stainless steel and partly under flor in the zone’s distinctive bulbous cement tinaja and was bottled with minimal sulfur after only a few months. 6,000 bottles produced.
Palomino Fino “OVNI” Blanco Seco Sanlúcar de Barrameda 2021
A frequently encountered cliché asserts that Palomino Fino, before fortification and aging, is a “neutral” variety of little interest; however, Palomino Fino can clearly evoke its seaside birthplace when planted in a good site, harvested at proper ripeness, and vinified naturally. The 2021 Palomino Fino “OVNI” comes from old vines planted in the white chalk (“albariza”) soils of the historical vineyard Miraflores la Baja in Sanlúcar de Barrameda. It was picked at 11.5% potential alcohol, fermented spontaneously, and aged in steel without any flor development for just a few months—with an early bottling to capture its freshness. Palomino Fino is a variety of naturally low acidity, but also of extremely low pH, so the impression on the palate is not one of flab but one of intense cling, with mouthcoating sapidity even at low alcohol levels. 6,000 bottles produced.
Palomino Fino “Navazos-Niepoort” Vino Blanco 2020
“Navazos-Niepoort” is an homage to the way wine in the Sherry Triangle was produced two centuries ago: Palomino Fino planted in top albariza vineyards, fermented naturally in traditional old (40 years or more) American-oak casks of 600-liter capacity known as “bota,” and aged under flor—the development of which is encouraged by the bota being filled to only 5/6th capacity—for eight months before bottling. Tangy flor and mouthwatering salinity intertwine on the palate, unencumbered by fortification, and the wine is simultaneously rich and sprightly, with an assertive character that stops short of punchiness. 12% alcohol; 5,820 bottles produced.
Palomino Fino “La Bota 114 – Florpower MMXXI” Vino Blanco
As scholars of Andalucían wine, the members of Equipo Navazos have a keen interest in exploring flor outside the context of fortification, as well as how flor interacts with, and helps deliver, site and vintage character—two factors underplayed in traditional large-scale solera-based Sherry production. Their “Florpower” series uses grapes from a single vintage, grown in a single vineyard, and exposed to flor—sometimes for mere months, and sometimes for years. This release, La Bota #114, comprises 55- to 85-year-old Palomino Fino from the 2021 vintage (corresponding to the Roman numerals in the wine’s name) planted in the albariza soils of the esteemed Miraflores la Baja vineyard in Sanlúcar de Barrameda. It was fermented spontaneously in stainless steel, then passed six months in bota under flor, followed by an additional month of assembling in steel (with flor present). It is both delicate and penetrating, with its classically steely manzanilla character delivered on a lighter-alcohol and more fruit-inflected frame. 11.5% alcohol; 4,200 bottles produced.
Manzanilla Pasada “La Bota 110 – Capataz Cabo”
The solera from which La Bota #110 was sourced has a distinctive and somewhat unorthodox history of maintenance. Named after a legendary cellarmaster in Sanlúcar, Capataz Cabo, who looked after this solera for over a decade, its barrels are filled up to just a few fingers’ width of the top rather than the 5/6th capacity typically employed in the region. This higher fill engenders a lighter and more tenuous flor—one which still blankets the wine, yet which also allows for achingly slow oxidation over time, thereby creating a long-aged (“pasada”) manzanilla of astonishing complexity and delicacy. This gradual oxidation also causes an evaporation which raises the alcoholic strength over time to 16.5% from the 15% to which it was originally fortified. Bottled in February 2022; 3,000 bottles produced.
Fino “La Bota 115” Jerez de la Frontera
La Bota 115 is the tenth saca (extraction for bottling) based around the same solera in Jerez de la Frontera, overseen by Navazos co-founder Eduardo Ojeda for the past several decades. This release, unlike previous iterations, employs a small portion of younger criaderas (rows of casks) from the Macharnudo Alta vineyard, which brings freshness and elegance to the blend. With an average wine age of eight years, #115 was bottled with only an ultra-gentle filtration in order to preserve its ravishing texture—silky yet intense, with an almost buttery roundness—and its rich golden hue underlines its noncommercial, uncompromising spirit of origin. 15% alcohol; bottled in August 2022; 5,000 bottles produced.
Fino Amontillado “La Bota 85” Montilla-Moriles
In contrast to those of the Sherry Triangle, traditionally made wines from Montilla-Moriles—located 100 miles north of Jerez de la Frontera—are not fortified; rather, they are picked at an alcoholic strength of 15% or so, a level facilitated by this zone’s significantly warmer climate. Furthermore, Pedro Ximénez—rather than Palomino Fino—is the dominant variety in Montilla-Moriles, famous in its ultra-sweet version but capable of producing flor-aged dry wines of staggering complexity as well. La Bota #85 belongs to the elusive category of fino amontillado—an “in-between” classification of historical significance which is rarely seen today and is in fact prohibited from appearing on labels. This saca comes from the esteemed Pérez Barquero estate in Montilla, from the oldest fino solera in their bodega Los Amigos, and the Equipo Navazos team selected 15 casks from the 63 that comprise the solera. Produced exclusively from Pedro Ximénez grown in the white chalk soils of the Montilla ridge and hand-harvested at 15% alcohol, #85 sports an average wine age of 12 to 14 years, with a bottled alcohol level of 16% owing to a slow oxidation that marks the onset of the amontillamiento process. A cousin of sorts to the manzanilla pasada “Capataz Cabo” (see La Bota #110), this bottling offers the brisk, direct, salty freshness of a fino alongside the more mysterious murmurings of an amontillado on a frame of impressive concentration and tunneling length. [NOTE: While “fino amontillado” is not allowed to appear on the label, the phrase “un fino que va para amontillado” is utilized to capture the wine’s spirit.] Bottled in October 2018; 3,000 bottles produced.
Amontillado “La Bota 95 – Navazos” Sanlúcar de Barrameda
La Bota #95 has a rather complex history: the historic amontillado soleras of Rainer Pérez Marín, which housed a wide array of amontillados of varying character from the early 1980s through the mid-2000s, were restructured in 2007, with the best-quality casks being completely refreshed with unfortified manzanilla pasada of a particularly fine caliber. It is from these 100 or so casks that the Equipo Navazos team selected a dozen for themselves in 2012; half the volume in these 12 barrels was bottled soon thereafter as La Bota #37, and the other half was returned to casks for additional aging into a full-on amontillado. After seven more years, the mind-bogglingly complex La Bota #95—with an average wine age of 25 years—was extracted and bottled, with no fining and virtually no filtration. Its shapeshifting palate slides between fresh notes of salty flor and deeper strata of dried aromatic herbs and burnt caramel, always carrying a phenomenal sense of equilibrium and overall drinkability. 18.5% alcohol; bottled November 2019; 2,800 bottles produced.
Amontillado “La Bota 109 – Bota Punta” Trebujena
Part of Sherry’s allure is the sheer age of some of its raw materials. With La Bota #109, from a single cask raised by the small co-operative Albarizas de Trebujena (a town immediately north of Jerez de la Frontera whose production is within the D.O.), the liquid inside was already considered an old amontillado when the co-op was founded in 1977—so much so, in fact, that its specific origins remain unknown. “Bota Punta” refers to the barrel’s position at the very end of the bottom row of casks in its solera. As such, it is exposed to more airflow than any other barrel in the row, and thus to more humidity and more yeasts. Furthermore, as a Bota Punta, it receives different treatment from the cellarmaster than the other casks: whereas most casks are refreshed with new wine, the bota punta is refreshed only with wine from its solera row, and thus it develops more dramatically due to the age of the materials with which it is replenished. It is astonishing to reflect upon the years such a cask as this has endured. The spellbinding liquid the Equipo Navazos team pulled from it for La Bota #109 takes one far beyond the realm of useful descriptors, and it is nearly hallucinatory in its immense concentration and profound depth. 22% alcohol; bottled October 2021; 1,200 bottles (375ml) produced.
Palo Cortado “La Bota 102 – Florpower MMX” Sanlúcar de Barrameda
Following the theme of other “Florpower” releases, La Bota #102 is from a single vintage (2010, hence “MMX”) and a single vineyard (50- to 80-year- old vines in the highly regarded Miraflores la Baja in Sanlúcar)—a rarity in the world of palo cortado. This elusive category—theoretically between an amontillado and an oloroso in character—can be obtained in a variety of ways; historically, a cask of flor-aging fino that showed a particular fullness or intensity early on (not necessarily suitable for bottled fino) would be marked, fortified again to kill the flor, and reassigned to a different solera, where it would develop into a wine primarily oxidative in profile but still bearing an influence of the flor under which it began its life. This release started off in tank with only a subtle flor, and was fortified to 17.5% before being transferred to casks, the solera of which was overseen by Navazos member Eduardo Ojeda. The team selected the casks they felt most embodied the combination of purity, freshness, and oxidative finesse they seek in a palo cortado and conducted the saca for the stunningly poised La Bota #102 from them. 18% alcohol; bottled March 2021; 2,100 bottles produced.
Oloroso “La Bota 116 – Montilla” Montilla-Moriles
Equipo Navazos has a close relationship with the Pérez Barquero estate in Montilla-Moriles, and their patron Rafael Cordoba is renowned for the superb quality of the musts he obtains from the robust Pedro Ximénez variety for which this zone is known. This oloroso, La Bota #116, comes from the second pressing (the “color” pressing) of Pedro Ximénez picked at around 15% alcohol and fortified right away, and the solera from which it is sourced—"Solera Diogenes” in the Bodega El Puente at Pérez Barquero—contains wines averaging 35 years of age. Offering the spicy, broad punch of an oloroso of Pedro Ximénez, it nonetheless maintains a gorgeous balance and a connection to its youthful fruit despite the unfolding layers of oxidative complexity. 20.5% alcohol; bottled October 2022; 2,700 bottles produced.
Oloroso “La Bota 108 – Bota NO” Chiclana
The elemental, almost imposingly complex La Bota #108 comes from a single cask (“Bota NO” is a cellar designation meaning that the barrel should never be filled with new wine) of 90-year-old Sherry cared for by Chano Aragón in his ancient bodega Calle Olivo in Chiclana, situated 25 miles due south of Jerez de la Frontera. This museum-worthy artifact of a wine is bone-dry, bracingly acidic, and kaleidoscopic in its oxidative character, with tobacco leaf, dark-roast coffee, musky leather, and brass all stretching their arms up from the seething mosh pit of flavors. 22.5% alcohol; bottled October 2021; 1,200 bottles (375ml) produced.
Viejo Cream “La Bota 79 – Bota NO” Jerez de la Frontera
La Bota #79 was withdrawn from a “Bota NO” (“Bota NO” is a cellar designation meaning that the barrel should never be filled with new wine) from a nine-cask solera in Jerez de la Frontera whose origins date back over a century. Early on in this solera’s history, dry oloroso was blended with sweet Pedro Ximénez—following the traditional model of cream Sherry—and several generations worth of aging has allowed the contents of these casks to integrate their flavors thrillingly. Rather than feeling like a dry oxidative wine with sweetness tacked on, it unfolds its silken, honeyed flavors—made profound with time—in gentle swells. 21.5% alcohol; bottled October 2017; 950 bottles (375ml) produced.
Pedro Ximénez “La Bota 56 – Bota NO” Jerez de la Frontera
Norwegian Sherry aficionado and friend of Equipo Navazos Jan Pettersen has managed the historic and small Bodegas Rey Fernando de Castilla for over two decades. Upon assuming his post, Jan acquired some extremely old Pedro Ximénez casks—emptied of their contents but still containing a dense syrup of PX at the bottom. He replenished these casks with younger PX, which over the ensuing years has developed beautifully, picking up the savory complexity of the old wines with which it slowly integrated. Astonishingly dense yet with an inner freshness, La Bota #56—a selection from these very casks—sports an average wine age of over 40 years. 15% alcohol; bottled March 2015; 1,200 bottles (375ml) produced.
Pedro Ximénez “Casa del Inca” Montilla-Moriles
The Peru-born writer and historian Garcilaso de la Vega (known as “El Inca” for his intensive studies of Incan civilization) resided in Montilla in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, and his former house is today employed as part of the city’s wine culture. Not part of the “La Bota” series due to its affiliation with a high-end Spanish gourmet goods purveyor (the original client for the series), “Casa del Inca”—named after El Inca’s residency—is produced from late-harvested Pedro Ximénez grapes from the Pérez Barquero estate which are subsequently sun-dried for several weeks, thereby concentrating their sugars even further. Fortified with high-quality wine spirits and aged in the distinctive traditional cement tinaja of the zone for 18 months before bottling, this offers a fresher, more youthfully vibrant profile than that of an older, barrel-aged sweet PX.
David got his start at Caymus in the late ‘70s, where he worked with Ric Forman managing Inglenook’s farming. It was during this time that the two took several trips to Bordeaux, observing and absorbing everything they could, bringing back with them techniques and concepts for both the vineyards and the cellar. This expertise would help David launch David Abreu Vineyard Management in 1980, which lead him to become one of the most sought-after vineyard managers in the valley.
Today, his influence is immeasurable. His cast of clients reads like a Who’s Who of Napa, including names like Harlan, Blankiet, Staglin, Colgin, Bryant, Fisher, Araujo, Grace, Viader, and Screaming Eagle.
It only stands to reason that someone with such an incredible talent for growing grapes should take a stab making wine. In 1987, seven years after starting his vineyard management business, Abreu did just that, releasing his first commercial bottling using fruit from his Madrona Ranch Vineyard. Before long, the winery would gain the press’s attention, garnering well-deserved critical acclaim that has continued to this day.
A CHEF'S JOURNEY
Over the years Abreu added three more vineyards to his lineup: Thorevilos, Cappella, and Howell Mountain, all superb sites and unique in their locations, soils, and expressions. For a long time, the wines were made at Sloan. In 2006 the official Abreu winery opened just off Yountville Crossroad, dug into a hillside behind Cliff Lede.
In 2000, winemaker Brad Grimes made his debut, with a rather unorthodox entry into the wine business. While working as a chef in Seattle, he decided to make a change of careers and see what the wine industry could offer. His girlfriend (now wife) was working off and on as a private chef for Stuart Sloan in Napa, and Brad would come down to visit when he could. It was during those visits that he got to know Abreu, and when his girlfriend was asked to come for a six-month stint, Brad decided he would move to Napa and take the plunge. He called Abreu (“He was one of the only people I knew in Napa”), who took him on despite his lack of winemaking experience. Abreu must have seen something — perhaps it was Brad’s training as a chef, or that he seemed to have a more intuitive and observational method of working — that suited his hands-on approach to viticulture and winemaking. In any case, Brad and David hit it off, and over the next years Brad would immerse himself in the backbreaking, often tedious, work required to farm and make wine — training, trellising, harvesting — learning the ropes and putting in his time. Today, he runs the show at Abreu (and consults at Rudd, as well), and is one of the most respected winemakers in the Valley.
Soft spoken and reserved, Brad’s humility is striking, and refreshing. He speaks well of his experience working from the bottom up and has the utmost respect for the team of people he has worked with over the years and whose roles he emphatically acknowledges are every bit as important as his own in the success of the winery.
Brad’s winemaking philosophy is rooted in the vineyards, where the focus is on achieving balance. While the Abreu vineyards are not yet certified organic, Brad has always farmed as naturally as possible. He gardened with his grandmother when he was a kid, helping her with compost piles and planting by the phases of the moon. When he was older, he’d hassle farmers who were spraying chemicals on their vineyards without regard for the drift that was impacting the neighboring vineyards.
IN THE FIELD
The vineyard team has remained almost entirely the same since Brad arrived, with very little turnover. Each of the vineyards has its own crew, with intimate knowledge gained over years of working with the same vines. These crews manage the canopy, green harvest, position clusters, and prune during the growing season, and then harvest and head to the winery to sort the berries — a fully hands-on approach.
As harvest begins, selection — and, in a way, the first “assemblage” — is done in the vineyards. The key is to pick select blocks and sub-blocks — sometimes even individual vines — as the grapes reach desired maturity, for all varieties. They may pick half a row of Cabernet Sauvignon from one spot, a few vines of Cabernet Franc from another block, both carefully selected to complement each other and with a vision in mind of how the whole vineyard (and final wine) will be composed. The selections are severe in the vineyard, and each of these small picks are sent to the winery to be co-fermented in small custom fermenters (2- and 3.5-ton capacity) designed specifically for the task. Sometimes eight or nine blocks may yield only 2 tons in a specific pick. The tiny Capella Vineyard may see three or more picks, while Madrona may go through seven or more in a given year.
Perhaps Brad’s training as a chef allows him to keep all the sub-blocks and picks in his mind, “seeing” how these disparate parts will come together. It’s not unlike the chef’s job of sourcing the very best ingredients, all the while envisioning how they will all be processed, prepared, and presented as a dish. “It’s not formulaic at all,” Brad explains. “We don’t pick one year and then go back the next, look at the marks on the maps of what we picked when and repeat,” adding with a laugh, “As if we even had marks on a map!” Intuition certainly plays a role, but it has a basis in a sense of the vineyard developed during the growing season, combined with knowledge and experience gained over many years.
The result is the ability to balance the wines naturally — pH, Brix, and acidity, to name a few variables — alleviating the need to manipulate or make corrections or additions in the winery later. For example, brighter, fresher picks can be matched to complement a later, riper vintage. They can vary the percentage of grape varieties in each pick, which also changes the makeup of that specific co-fermented lot. All of these steps create layers, flavors, complexity, and balance to the building blocks that will make the final blend. Brad believes you can’t really achieve this by picking large blocks by varietal and fermenting them separately.
NO FORMULAS
Once in the winery, things are pretty straightforward: cold soak for about five days, about 28 days from crush to dry, then 35-42 days on the skins. No formulas, everything is subject to change, all done by taste. Wines then go to barrel, all free-run, no press, usually two primary cooperages and several supporting, with oak pretty consistent across all four wines. Two years in barrel and two years in bottle makes them a late release, but the wait is well worth it.
The results are truly exceptional wines. They show a polish, depth, and sublime elegance that speaks volumes about the care with which they are made. Each wine captures and expresses its unique origin with depth, richness, and power to be sure, but also with a sense of proportion and harmony that to me is the winemaker’s ultimate goal — a balancing act only achieved by a few.
Among the most compelling examples of Syrah outside France are made in the most unlikely of places—on the Oregon side of the Walla Walla Valley—and by a Frenchman, born not in the Rhône, but in Champagne.
The winemaker is Christophe Baron, who discovered an area in the valley littered with cobblestones. Astonished by the Châteauneuf-like stones, he instinctively knew he could make great wine here. He planted the first commercially successful vineyards in these stones, including Coccinelle Vineyard in 1996. But Christophe was inspired less by Châteauneuf du Pape than the great wines of Cornas and Côte Rôtie. And so, in 1998, he planted Syrah in Coccinelle. And in 2000 he made the first vintage of the wine that would make him a cult superstar, Bionic Frog.
In Search of the Essence
Bionic Frog is arguably America’s most sought-after Syrah. Only 300 cases are made. Reportedly only one American retailer receives an annual allocation: The Rare Wine Co. However, because of Chapter 4's long held private client relationships we have regularly secured parcels of this highly allocated wine for our own shop. Our private client inventory is acquired ex-cellars and are retrieved from private home cellarage or professional off-site wine storage here in Los Angeles.
According to The Rare Wine Co: they are accorded this special allocation privilege for two reasons. The first is their longstanding belief in Christophe. But the other is a shared passion for the Syrah grape—and the great Northern Rhône winemakers that have been role models for him. These include Thiérry Allemand, Verset and Auguste Clape from Cornas; Hermitage’s Chave; and Rostaing and Jamet from Côte Rôtie. The work of each of these legends has played a part in developing Christophe’s winemaking philosophy. Christophe's vines are now 100% biodynamic, and he relies solely on native yeasts, with partial whole-cluster fermentation and yields of 1.2 to 2 tons per acre.
Today, he uses very little new wood. All Cayuse reds, including Bionic Frog, now see only 15 to 20% new oak. He is also gravitating towards larger barrels. For years he has been buying used 600L puncheons from René Rostaing and is starting to experiment with aging in large old 1,200L foudre, á la Clape.
Armada
Bionic Frog remains Cayuse’s most coveted wine, with recent vintages fetching an average of $300+ on the open market. But in the 2003 vintage, Christophe introduced a second monumental Syrah: Armada.
The Armada vineyard is even stonier than Bionic Frog’s source, Coccinelle, and is planted to even greater vine densities. Christophe prunes Armada to six clusters per vine, which he feels gives the truest sense of the terroir. It also gives exceptionally low yields: less than two tons an acre. Armada Syrah is aged for 30 months in 600L puncheons—most of which are six to eight years old and bought from René Rostaing.
Armada’s Syrah has at least as much Northern Rhône character as Bionic Frog. It’s very tight—“nervous,” as the French say—and boasts an intense animal, earth and mineral character. It is indeed exciting.
Horsepower
Christophe’s latest project, Horsepower, gets its name from the draft horses that work its vines. Such an idea isn’t new: horses have worked vines since the dawn of time. But Horsepower is the first estate in America to be farmed this way exclusively.
Horsepower burst on the scene with the 2011 vintage. From the moment Christophe began accepting requests, the ’11s sold out in a blistering 72 seconds. And when the dust had settled, more than 2000 people were on the waiting list. Given Horsepower’s minute production, most of these face a long wait before they get an allocation.
Old School All the Way
Of course, Horsepower’s appeal is based off more than just horses. There are only two tiny vineyards—The Tribe and Sur Echalas—and the yields produced by each is incredibly small. In a recent phone conversation, Christophe told us that in 2011, it took four vines to produce a single bottle of Tribe Syrah and an astonishing seven vines to produce one bottle of Sur Echalas Grenache.
The small number of bottles produced of each wine is sure to guarantee the wines’ continued scarcity. In 2011, Christophe produced only 220 cases of Tribe Syrah and 131 cases of Sur Enchalas Grenache. As of mid-2015, the average price on the secondary market for the five Horsepower wines released to date was more than $275 a bottle (with some sources asking up to $375).
The wines are true Old School in their making. As Christophe told David Schildknecht of The Wine Advocate, he was inspired to do whole-cluster vinification by Noël Verset, aiming for 100% use of stems where possible.
As at Cayuse, the barrels are only about 15 to 20% new, and Christophe is in the process of replacing all of his barriques with much larger 600-liter puncheons and 1200-liter foudre. “Barrique est morte,” Christophe told us in 2014.
words: Rare Wine Co.
]]>The following is one of the more comprehensive expositions of the grand Northern Rhône legend: Maison Paul Jaboulet Aîné you are likely to ever read from the legendary taster, Linden Wilkie.
January, October and December 2019 saw the latest three rounds of Jaboulet Hermitage ‘La Chapelle’ vertical tasting dinners I hosted at The Fine Wine Experience, in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing.
Over the past 25 years or so these wines have become familiar friends, the 1983 and 1985 being the first serious Rhône wines I tasted back at the beginning of the 1990s when I was a student. I’ve formed certain views about ‘La Chapelle’ wines over those years, but, much like good friendships, you come to appreciate the idiosyncrasies as much as the most meritable qualities. Wines have personality too.
After this introduction, you will find my tasting notes for each wine, in each city tasted. That doesn’t mean that the ‘same’ wine opened in three different settings in three different cities on three different evenings with three different menus will give the same impression. One cork will do a better job than another, and all the other factors combined will deliver different impressions. I’m fine with that. So you will see those three impressions, uncombined, below.
But if I can say something about the personality of these wines here, it’s this: the 1966 is one of the greatest classics in the history of the label in my view. It’s an archetype, and the right bottle still delivers all that you could want today. We opened the last three bottles from a full original wooden case, and happily both were lovely. The Beijing bottle won the hearts of almost everyone at the table that night. Generally speaking the La Chapelles of the 1960s and 1970s are the best of all for drinking today – but they have become distinctly rare in the last decade or so. Still, if the provenance is good, they are worth paying up for.
1969 is also one of the great La Chapelles, but it is so rare I have only tasted it a few times over the years. It has never disappointed. In magnum I am not surprised that it came top in our Hong Kong dinner. Sadly, I’m also not surprised we couldn’t find another to share in Shanghai or Beijing.
The 1976 lacks balance, but has a rich attack. It was better in the 2000s, but is still interesting today, and better than most red Bordeaux of the vintage if this is your year.
1978 is authoritive, complete, a must-try. It’s the best between 1961 and 1990, and it is La Chapelle at its most visceral and wild. Full of fruit, glycerin and ripe tannin, the best bottles are still yet to come off their peak.
1979 is another personal favourite, it usually shows bright, elegant yet intense, very Hermitage, very varietally syrah. I’m glad it is not talked about more – I buy it when I see it, which is not often.
The 1982 is yet another personal favourite, but for quite different reasons. It’s not the richest or densest La Chapelle but it is one of the most fragrant and expressive. This is one for the full time Burgundy drinker who likes to dabble in the Rhône. If that is you, there is not a better choice than 1982.
1983 is perhaps the La Chapelle I have drunk most. Cases of it. It’s a funny one. If you read the old barrel tasting reviews for it from Parker and Wine Spectator, it was thrilling. The 1983 came from a hot summer vintage in which the skins thickened, and there was less juice. That meant power, richness, but also tannin. And in the case of this wine enough tannin to shut it down firmly. Reviews for it became more equivocal and finally negative. Its value in the market fell to ‘poor vintage’ level. It’s true that there is an imbalance here in the 1983 – it’s a bit chewy. But it is packed with fruit and character. Just don’t think it’s a wine for sitting around and sipping at the bar (unless you have a pizza). This is a classic food La Chapelle. It’s a steak or braised dishes wine. It’s a winter wine.
1985 has a very different personality. It’s so vibrantly fruity, and a bit of a Peter Pan. The 1985 tastes today almost as it did 25+ years ago. There is a slightly odd milky element here – like fruit with a little caramel cream, but if you don’t mind this idiosyncrasy it is one of the most friendly and amenable La Chapelles. In this regard it is in the same vein as 1985s from Bordeaux or Burgundy, but fresher than many of those cousins.
1988 used to be one of the wines to recommend for those who prefer the cooler expression, without unripeness, and a more savoury tone. But I think it has become a bit patchy more recently. I’ve had as many bottles past their best as I’ve had right at the end of their peak. Still, value is good, even if it is a little bit of a roll of the dice now.
1989 is perhaps the ripest La Chapelle of the classic Jaboulet family era. It has a noticeably thick texture, very ripe fruit, and a bit of a scorched tone. At its best it comes across U.S. muscle car V8 revving hard. It’s a fun wine, a party wine, yet still with some depth. I’ve had bottles of this that have really thrilled.
1990 can be truly spectacular, the best wine between 1978 and the most recent vintages. It can be interesting to taste side by side with the ’78, which is higher in acidity and gaminess. 1990 has some of that classic game and garrigue
La Chapelle tone, but its essential quality is its concentrated fruitiness, the seamless integration of tannins, and its layered feel, revealing nuances one at a time until your eyes light up. I think that at its peak the 1961 was better, and aromatically still can be today, but the 1990 is now in its element, at the early stage of its long peak. For that I think it is undervalued today – both for current drinking, and for longer term cellaring. If I can nitpick at all about the 1990, it is that occasionally the fruit profile has an element of prune. Perhaps a parcel or two came in a touch overripe, but overall the balance is there. It never feels flat.
1991 is the other side of the coin. If we think of the 1990 as the virtues of 1989 and 1991 combined, with no downside, and 1989 is the party wine, the 1991 is a more cerebral La Chapelle experience. This is all fragrance, garrigue, game, sweetness with fine acidity. Get the dish right (I’d go richer poultry dishes) and you have the right pick. Some bottles are now showing the weakness of age, but most are fine.
(Ideally, buy all three of these and serve them in 1991, 1989, 1990 order).
There are okay wines in the 1990s and early 2000s, but relative to other growers, and relative to the exalted reputation this label hard-earned in the 1950s-1980s, these wines can range from disappointing through to shameful. Sometimes there can be some ‘good day’ bottles. Personally I’d opt for magnums, or simply opt for older vintages from the 1980s or older, which are still good value.
The arrival of Caroline Frey in 2006 was seen as controversial then because the family were known at that time for their excellent wine at Château La Lagune in Bordeaux and there was some fear that this great Hermitage would become too ‘Bordelais’. But I think that Frey has won over many critics for her hard work, complete dedication, and her intelligent approach to improving every aspect of viticulture and winemaking for La Chapelle. The estate is now biodynamic. 2009 and 2010 show a clear step up in quality from the wines of the 1990s and 2000s. But when I taste 2015 and 2016 I see a full return to greatness for La Chapelle. Not just the quality, but the personality is there too. I see very refined wines with all the intensity and character we expect of this label. These two vintages are of course very young still, but both can be enjoyed today on their fruit, if you want to see the state of play. I really do recommend that you do if you haven’t attended one of the verticals we’ve organized over the past couple of years. Do this especially if you are a Rhône fan, because if Frey is able to maintain current form the market will begin to catch up with the fact that they are (once more) real “grand cru” wines.
Before I leave you with the tasting notes, it is worth reviewing a little what we are dealing with: a 100% syrah wine, grown on the best 131ha site in the world for that grape variety. Squeezed out of the fault between the Drôme and the Ardèche at the eastern bank of the Rhône, admiring this hill from across the water in Turnon-sur-Rhône it seems a coherent shape. You could imagine something homogenous. But once you are up in it, walking the hillside as it undulates, and changes aspect from southwest to southeast, it reveals its patchwork quilt of terroirs. Some, like Chapoutier, capture the individual characters of these lieux-dits in climat-specific bottlings. These are instructive
In presenting to the taster the hill’s best soloists. But to appreciate Hermitage writ large, you need to get to know Jaboulet’s ‘La Chapelle’, an amalgam of multiple lieux-dits, blended to represent Hermitage in full symphonic glory – ‘Bessards’ for its minerality, strength and structure, ‘Méal’ for its sumptuous creaminess and palate-filling fruit, the heart of the La Chapelle blend. ‘Roucoules’, ‘Les Greffieux’ and ‘Varogne’ complete the picture. You might be surprised to know that only 20% of the French oak barrels used to age it are new. This is not an oaky style wine.
Below you will see my tasting notes from these three evenings. Also, as usual, I asked all participants at the three dinners to vote for their two favourite wines of the night. The result of those polls is also recorded below.
2014 Maison Paul Jaboulet Aîné Hermitage Blanc ‘Chevalier de Sterimberg’
Focused fragrant and taut, but with some telltale glycerin in the mid-palate. Pear and quince taste with some modest complexity, a little herbal twist at the end. Acidity elevated – this is a modern, crisp-styled Hermitage Blanc.
88, Hong Kong, 25th January 2019
No votes for wine of the night.
2009 Maison Paul Jaboulet Aîné Hermitage Blanc ‘La Chapelle’, Magnum
Fairly rich but in a contained style. Great texture and depth, and there is a luxurious way in which the fine, understate oak dovetails into the fruit, with a little creamy/nutty note. Very modern and contained, the fullness is there but the
throttle held tight. Reminded me of Corton-Charlemagne, despite the difference in region and grape.
92, Hong Kong, 25th January 2019
No votes for wine of the night.
2016 Hermitage ‘La Chapelle’, Maison Paul Jaboulet Aîné
Fragrant, refined nose, ripe and fresh; fine, ripe and detailed on the palate, this is concentrated without feeling packed, this has transparency. An expressive and precise La Chapelle, very nice. Promising.
94, Beijing, 12th December 2019
No votes for wine of the night
A dull, fairly solid ruby-garnet; sweet and fragrant nose, fresh and floral-edged, with fine detail and precision; fleshy, sweet, lovely candied violets and boysenberry, bright, elegant, yet sumptuous, very fine and clean, precise, yet also fully “Hermitage” in its underlying strength. Overlays an aromatic seduction on the nose and palate like a Château Margaux or a Chambertin.
96, Shanghai, 26th October 2019
No votes for wine of the night.
Full, clear carmine; fragrant, this has a salty-edged brightness to the fruit, piquant and sweet; fine, sweet fruit, lovely freshness, mineral, detail, some florals, bright but ripe and confident, fragrant and long. This is really very promising, especially if you value aromatic complexity – this will evolve, I think, into a really appealing, mid+ weight La Chapelle emphasizing clear fresh fruit character rather than absolute depth and power. A modern day ’66?
95, Hong Kong, 25th January 2019
No votes for wine of the night.
2015 Hermitage ‘La Chapelle’, Maison Paul Jaboulet Aîné
Ripe dark fruit, some tapenade and smoke on the nose; lush, sweet, fleshy yet well balanced, good acidity, great depth. Superb quality, that needs time in the cellar now.
96, Beijing, 12th December 2019
No votes for wine of the night.
Full, quite dense – opaque with a crimson rim; ripe, wild and brooding on the nose, good freshness, dark in expression with notes of tar and wild berry fruit – an intense nose; concentrated and fleshy on the palate, layers on concentrated dark fruit, iron, a hint of blood. This is finely made, supple in that youthful way, and underneath there is potent tannin and extract. A Hermitage for the ages, yet well-poised and there are layers here.
98+, Shanghai, 26th October 2019
Three votes for wine of the night. 2nd equal place.
Deep-coloured crimson, denser than the ’16 ; a wild and exuberant melange of ripe to exotic-edged fruit, skirting the limit while remaining fresh and clear; so precise on the palate yet so full, this explodes. This is completely grown up red Hermitage that combines precision and care with plenty of character – a landmark for modern-day La Chapelle for sure. It verges on heavy, but stays the right side of the line, like on the nose, it’s rich, but the thickness is not gratuitous or blocking the flow of the wine or expression of the fruit and terroir at all. Patience will be required – this is a La Chapelle for laying down, but with full confidence in my view.
97, Hong Kong, 25th January 2019
Three votes for wine of the night.
2010 Hermitage ‘La Chapelle’, Maison Paul Jaboulet Aîné
Deep, full ruby-crimson; a little closed on the nose now, clean, a touch of vanilla; fleshy, full, a touch of violets, a touch more ‘clarety’ in this flight (’16, ’15, ’10, ’09). Precise, thick, some refinement. Very good quality, but hard to read right now, its personality is so subdued.
93?, Hong Kong, 25th January 2019
No votes for wine of the night.
2009 Hermitage ‘La Chapelle’, Maison Paul Jaboulet Aîné
Sweet, slightly singed fruit on the nose, plummy and ripe; sweet and bold in style on the palate, lush, with unctuous fruit, some dried dark fruit – Xmas cake notes. This comes across concentrated, slow and oozing in fruit.
93, Beijing, 12th December 2019
No votes for wine of the night.
Full ruby; sweet nose, candied fruit, open yet still primary in aroma; delicious, thick, fleshy, ripe fruit, plenty of oak here – in style and in texture, very round, this is a fleshy, corpulent La Chapelle. Delicious, but the 2015 and 2016 reach another level.
94, Shanghai, 26th October 2019
No votes for wine of the night.
Still very deep in colour; this is a little more open and playful than the ’10, sweet fruit, more in the mould of the ’90; ripe, fleshy on the palate, this really makes you spin, hard to pin down. It is just beginning to show its depth, it is so primary
and deliciously so. Will be a La Chapelle of broad appeal.
94, Hong Kong, 25th January 2019
No votes for wine of the night.
1997 Hermitage ‘La Chapelle’, Maison Paul Jaboulet Aîné, Magnum, Ex-Domaine
Mature garnet, bricked through with an orange tone to the rim; sweet nose, a touch of raisin, a bit superficial, some garrigue and spice, but not the freshness or depth that should be there at a mere 21 years of age in magnum; fleshy,
soft, palate-coating, there is an appealing cool, spearmint-like note on the palate (appears on the nose too). This is a
pleasing La Chapelle, absolutely fully ready and evolved, declining, but offering pleasure as it goes. It should have been better – and it pales against the brilliant J-L Chave equivalent from ’97. (Others like this more than me).
88, Hong Kong, 25th January 2019
One vote for wine of the night.
1991 Hermitage ‘La Chapelle’, Maison Paul Jaboulet Aîné
Not quite as fresh in profile as the Shanghai bottle, but sweet and open, with tapenade and garrigue notes in the aroma; mid-weight on the palate, a touch of tar, there’s glycerin, and a salty edge to the finish. A good sweet-savoury
balance. But this bottle lacks a bit, a touch stripped. In the ’91-’90-’89 flight this ’91 showed more Hermitage’s game and tapenade savoury character.
91, Beijing, 12th December 2019
No votes for wine of the night.
Fine bright garnet with a bricked edge; fragrant and open, fine fruit, sous bois, and lots of meaty gamey notes on the nose, wild venison and grouse; sweet attack on the palate, lovely acidity, sous bois notes, as well as fennel, garrigue, cracked pepper, sumptuous texture, this is a very complete more ‘Burgundian’ La Chapelle, not the full symphonic power Hermitage is capable of, but lacking nothing else in Hermitage expression. À point today, lovely.
95, Shanghai, 26th October 2019
One vote for wine of the night.
1990 Hermitage ‘La Chapelle’, Maison Paul Jaboulet Aîné
Sweet smoky nose, with a touch of pure chocolate, savoury Kalamata olive notes, a wild and sweet nose; intense and fleshy on the palate, this also has more tannin, more grip through the palate, and it is a touch dry at the finish in fact. It’s a minor notch in an otherwise impressive bottle – but not quite as great as the one enjoyed in Shanghai. Nonetheless,
even this bottle is the most complete wine in this ’91-’90-’89 flight. With further time in the glass, it became more fragrant and confident. This is so layered and long. Not far off the full archetype great La Chapelle this is capable of being.
98, Beijing, 12th December 2019
Four votes for wine of the night. 2nd equal place
A full colour still, with ageing evident just at the edge of the rim; gorgeous nose, sweet, ripe, decadent, very fragrant and open tonight, lots of fruit expression, but also garrigue, this is mouthwateringly aromatic; concentrated, fine, sweet,
fresh, meaty, crystalline in its expression, floral and spicy, this is layered and fine. An exceptional bottle of the 1990 La Chapelle – just spectacular, this delivers all the promise of the hype this evening.
100, Shanghai, 26th October 2019
Seven votes for wine of the night. 1st place.
Bright, clear, still so ruby with garnet peeping out just at the edge of the rim – the depth at 28 years is promised at first 96 glance; sweet, bold, black fruit, oozing black fruit, liqueur and simply the very essence of Hermitage, a hint of black
cherry, wild herbs and olives fill out the symphonic spectrum here – a wow! nose; fleshy on the attack, sumptuous and
almost creamy, this has lovely fruit, some grip. It’s hard to nitpick really.
96, Hong Kong, 25th January 2019
No votes for wine of the night.
1989 Hermitage ‘La Chapelle’, Maison Paul Jaboulet Aîné
A sweet nose, biscuit, mature, a touch caramelized in tone in the fruit; sweet and bold on the palate, some grip. This opened up in the glass to become sumptuously sweet, generous, less complex than ’91 or ’90, but sweet and delicious.
94 Beijing, 12th December 2019
No votes for wine of the night.
Full clear ruby; sweet opulent nose with an exotic spicy edge, a touch of iron and tar, but also lively and fragrant; thicker-textured, concentrated, very wild in expression, with gushing sweet boysenberry, an incredibly fruit-laden expression, so much effortless flowing concentration.
96, Shanghai, 26th October 2019
Two votes for wine of the night.
This is more than a « year » apart in appearance after the ’90 – still a thick appearance, but more garnet in tone; sweet on the nose, with a more candied expression to the fruit, a chocolate-orange candy note, some malt, some spice – a bold nose, at once appealing in its richness, but also teetering on being over the top - sur-maturité; bold, fleshy, up front in its approach, some grip, this has a super fleshiness, with sufficient acidity and tannin, though it is not as well balanced as many of the others – exuberant but wobbly.
92, Hong Kong, 25th January 2019
No votes for wine of the night.
1988 Hermitage ‘La Chapelle’, Maison Paul Jaboulet Aîné, Ex-Domaine
Mature nose, sweet, but with a little oxidation creeping in; better on the palate, lovely fruit, sweet and savoury, some mushroom/oxidation creeping in on the finish. A little dried tomato and tapenade coolness, good extract and natural concentration, without power as such. Satisfying even if this bottle is below the best this has shown.
89, Beijing, 12th December 2019
Two votes for wine of the night.
Fine garnet with a broad, mature rim; an open savoury fragrance, lots of sous bois, game and the sweetness of age, just a touch of rust and decay; fine, elegant taste and weight, fragrant and mature, savoury in expression, supple with fine resolved tannins and a long finish. A distinctly cool expression. Drinking beautifully tonight.
94, Shanghai, 26th October 2019
No votes for wine of the night.
Bright fresh garnet; a lively nose, meaty-sweet, almost cha siu honey-roasted pork-like, sweet, savoury, umami; fine on the palate, mid-weight, very straight, notes of tapenade, bright, perky, upright, there is a touch of dryness at the finish. Past its best, and not for casual drinking, this cries out for the right meat (preferably game bird) dish.
91, Hong Kong, 25th January 2019
No votes for wine of the night.
1985 Hermitage ‘La Chapelle’, Maison Paul Jaboulet Aîné
Lovely nose, sesame, tamarillo fruit, plum, smoke, camphor, and the sweetness of decay, a touch of milk chcocolate – lovely, a very together sort of nose; pristine on the palate, lovely, luminous fruit, sweet taste but lighter-bodied, a hint of something lactic. Still fruity, with resolved tannins. Lovely.
92, Beijing, 12th December 2019
No votes for wine of the night.
Fine ruby; sweet open nose, peppery/leafy tone coming through, this is really fragrant; bright and fruity on the palate, with a touch of lactic-milk toffee-like flavor, malted milk perhaps – distinct in this wine and probably not to everyone’s
taste. But lovely fruit, garrigue, acidity, succulence and soft tannin. Juicy, creamy and lovely.
93, Shanghai, 26th October 2019
Three votes for wine of the night. 2nd equal place.
1983 Hermitage ‘La Chapelle’, Maison Paul Jaboulet Aîné
A rich wild nose, ripe, leathery, spicy; denser on the palate, lots of extract, sweet tannin, a hint of dryness. I love this – it is not in perfect balance, it is slightly pruney and tannic, but it is wild, and so packed with flavor and character.
93, Beijing, 12th December 2019
Three votes for wine of the night.
Fine, full ruddy garnet; ripe and spicy on the nose, exuberant, leathery, gamey, a super wild nose, very bloody Hermitage; thick, glycerin-driven, concentrated, spicy and exotic, resolved but present tannin, there is enough extract and glycerin to keep it flowing.
94, Shanghai, 26th October 2019
Two votes for wine of the night
Bright in appearance with a lighter depth than the ’89 and ’90 in this flight; spicy with lots of garrigue – this ’83 has a great, lifted, aromatic nose; bright, intense and focused, tight initially with its heavy cloak of tannin, with plenty of time it softened enough to reveal the depth of fruit on offer, the texture turning more to glycerin, though the acidity also offers good balance. Appealing, characterful La Chapelle, on its long plateau.
92, Hong Kong, 25th January 2019
Two votes for wine of the night
1982 Hermitage ‘La Chapelle’, Maison Paul Jaboulet Aîné
A super great nose – wow! It’s so aromatic. You can stop at the nose and be in heaven – sweet, floral, with notes of tea and spice (I’d love to know how much, if any, whole bunch fruit went into this); sweet, elegant, seamless, no tannin left,
this reminds me more of an ‘80s Clos St Denis from Domaine Dujac than it does other vintages of La Chapelle, in that
panoply of super aromatics on both the nose and palate. Just a touch unclean, ultimately, this wine, a hint of brett, but it stays the right side of the line. Great wine.
94, Beijing, 12th December 2019
Four votes for wine of the night. 2nd equal place.
Fine, mature garnet; high-toned roasted nose, really sweet, almost peach or apricot-like, mixed with dark fruits, game, garrigue – this is sweet and very fragrant on the nose; fleshy, really silky, with sweet fruit, lower acid – though it’s there, quite a particular taste, and a really fragrant finish. Delicious.
95, Shanghai, 26th October 2019
Three votes for wine of the night. 2nd equal place.
Full garnet, this has an open, soaring, spicy nose, garrigue notes, wild red fruit with a touch of black, touch of black pepper (one guest noted ‘Chinese medicine notes’, which seemed a good description), the overall impression is
gourmand and inviting; fleshy on the palate, moderate+ weight but there is some glycerin here buffering the palate
through the now resolved melting tannins. Spicy and juicy, this is a very appealing La Chapelle – one of the most seductive.
94, Hong Kong, 25th January 2019
No votes for wine of the night.
1979 Hermitage ‘La Chapelle’, Maison Paul Jaboulet Aîné
Bright bricked colour with a faded tone; fine nose, really quite honeyed and sweet; full palate-coating fruit and extract, gently melting, with a crystaline core and melted edges, this really lures you in. A touch of spearmint emerged after another hour – quite specifically spearmint(!) This is such a lovely La Chapelle, bright and lively but also with good creaminess and fullness – unmistakably Hermitage, and so typical of the year-on-year greatness of Jaboulet in this period.
94, Hong Kong, 25th January 2019
Three votes for wine of the night.
1978 Hermitage ‘La Chapelle’, Maison Paul Jaboulet Aîné
Very fine garnet, still holding colour well; wild dark brooding nose, umami in spades – the sweetness of age, and wild savoury garrigue and game notes – this is authoritive and immensely appetising to smell; concentrated and fleshy,
intense and very layered, this is mind-bogglingly good – the finesse of the ’66, the seduction of the ’82, the wildness
of the ’69. It’s all good, full-spectrum La Chapelle. It also took time in the glass to really open up, the glycerin and fruit extract fully covering the still resolving tannin at the end. No end in sight for this ’78.
97, Hong Kong, 25th January 2019
Five votes for wine of the night – 2nd place.
1976 Hermitage ‘La Chapelle’, Maison Paul Jaboulet Aîné
Sweet and biscuit on the nose, caramelized fruit – a sweet nose; solid, concentrated, wild, a bit mono-dimensional after the fireworks of the ’82, also thicker, more the potency of Hermitage. Tannic. You need time with this in the glass. Less dimension but solid and direct in style, some heat and some dryness on the finish, which is a touch short, but spicy and interesting.
90, Beijing, 12th December 2019
One vote for wine of the night.
Fully bricked; sweet, spicy biscuit nose – orange cookies (“Jaffa Thins” for those who know the Australasian classic); sweet, scorched taste, up front on the palate, good intensity, but a bit dried-fruit in taste and lacking real fleshiness, and not as long as some. Delicious, spicy and exotic ‘warming’ style. (Andy Tan thought this had a touch of dried roses – I can see that).
91, Shanghai, 26th October 2019
No votes for wine of the night.
1969 Hermitage ‘La Chapelle’, Maison Paul Jaboulet Aîné, Magnum
Full garnet; a wild earthy spicy nose, exuberant, bold, and expanding as the night wore on, never tiring; fleshy, sweet, some tannin here still, this is full-throated, wild, rich and grand La Chapelle, a real feel of the granite and authority of Hermitage. Still to begin leaving its maturity plateau, this is a La Chapelle for the ages.
95, Hong Kong, 25th January 2019
Eleven votes for wine of the night – 1st place.
1966 Hermitage ‘La Chapelle’, Maison Paul Jaboulet Aîné, late-release ex-domaine case
Fine colour still; fragrant, spicy, cedary, blood, game, camphor – this has a terrific nose; sweet, elegant, yet more concentrated than the ’82, more fine tannin, this is well balanced, expressive, fragrant and long. There is an easy, natural density to this. Wild strawberry coming through on the nose, and more blackberry and licorice on the palate. The last bottle from a full original wooden case we had, and I’m so happy it is showing so well.
96, Beijing, 12th December 2019
Eleven votes for wine of the night – 1st place.
Fine, fully bricked garnet; fragrant, high-toned nose, freshness in the expression, a larger ’88 perhaps in style; good concentration, sweet and bright, fresh and long with a touch of dark chocolate, and old school taste, resolved but
present tannins, like an old Médoc of similar age in structure – but very syrah in taste. This is a real treasure. Beginning to
dry out a bit on the finish. A little bit of austerity, but an eminently classic and expressive La Chapelle.
93, Shanghai, 26th October 2019
Three votes for wine of the night. 2nd equal place.
Fine garnet; a good wild nose, fragrant and gamey; sweet, lush, lovely attack, pulls in a little with some fine grip toward the finish. This has a more linear, elongated expression (seemingly in parallel with claret and red Burgundy of the year). A more elegant and charming old La Chapelle, beginning its gentle decline, it holds a lot of appeal still.
93, Hong Kong, 25th January 2019
Four votes for wine of the night – 3rd place
Originally published March 9, 2020 in The Fine Wine Experience
]]>During the 1980s, Eric Bordelet was one of the most influential figures in the Parisian wine scene, as he spent several years at the helm of the wine program at the illustrious Michelin Three Star restaurant l’Arpège.
]]>[a Yogi Berra-ism that should have been said but probably wasn't...]
This is quite possibly the finest, under the radar, beverage we have ever offered. My enjoyment of ciders dates back to discovering some truely enjoyable pours at bars in Frankfurt, Germany in the early 1990s. A few decades on, while pulling the rarest selections for sale for an upcoming LA auction (Cellar of Christen Sveaas) I worked outside of London and the team frequented local pubs around town and in Bath. The locals would add ice to their ciders and I must say on a hot summer evening after work I thoroughly enjoyed the practice. However, stateside, as many of us know, the selections are big brew brands and less than inspiring grocery shelf stock - Strongbow Dry Cider wasn't cutting it.
Fast forward...I'm researching ciders to bring into Chapter 4 and every article I read on the "Top 10" are from states east of the Rocky Mountains. Fragmented distribution and archaic alcohol shipment laws in Pennsylvania and New York states were non-starters. I remain miffed as to why a nationally distributed publication would bother touting a Top 10 list that would never leave the state!? Just dumb.
That was until I discovered that Beaune Imports in California is one of the largest suppliers of what I came to understand as THE finest Cider / Sider on the market - anywhere.
So fine is this ambrosia that highly acclaimed chef's thrive on it...not for their clientele BUT FOR THEMSELVES! 🤣 ...it's what they enjoy drinking before, after and during service.
During the 1980s, Eric Bordelet was one of the most influential figures in the Parisian wine scene, as he spent several years at the helm of the wine program at the illustrious Michelin Three Star restaurant l’Arpège. However, his native Normandy called him, and he handed over his sommelier duties and returned to the windswept orchards of Normandy in 1992, desiring to bring his superb palate to bear the high-powered ciders of the region. Bordelet was greatly encouraged in this endeavor by his close friend and confidante, the late Didier Dagueneau of Pouilly-Fumé, who was one of the Loire Valley’s most talented winemakers and colorful characters. Bordelet took over his family's 19 hectares property of Château de Hauteville, and planted 22 additional hectares of orchards in fields that had been fallow, all of which he transitioned to biodynamic farming. Along the way he has risen to prominence as one of the world's greatest cider producers.
At the core of Eric’s estate are three hectares of ancient, heirloom varietals of apple and pear trees that are 40-50 years old. In 1992, he began planting seven hectares of young apple trees and five hectares of pear trees, which are now in full production. He plants only pure varietal trees (non-hybrids), which are balanced between sweet, bitter and sour taste profiles. These are essential for producing ciders of character. Currently, he works with 20 varieties of apples and 14 types of pears—a true master of his craft who is eager to revive the less well-known varieties. Situated on schist and granite bedrock with silt and clay soil, he farms his orchards organically and biodynamically, which Eric believes produces the best fruit for ciders. He received official organic certification in 1996. While most of his orchards are free-standing, he chooses to trellis some of his pears.
Despite the incredible acreage of his orchards, Eric’s entire production of fruit is hand-picked, or rather picked-up, and put in wooden cases. The fruit is left in a drafty cellar to dehydrate for three to five weeks, after which time it is pressed. (The exception to this is the apples destined for the cuvée “Argelette” which are crushed and left to macerate on their skins for more extraction.) After pressing, fermentation begins, and the must is racked several times to both clarify the juice and slow down the process, and is then lightly filtered. The ciders are then bottled during this fermentation with varying amounts of residual sugar depending on the cuvée, without any chaptalization, to reach a final alcohol level in between three and four percent. The entire production of mousse in the bottle is derived from the primary fermentation and the delicate bottling process. And if the outstanding quality is not enough, some of Eric’s ciders also stand the test of time, making them ideal for aging . . . magic that only a former sommelier could make happen!
THE RANGE
ERIC BORDELET 'PERLANT' JUS DE POMMES A SYDRE (750ML) 🥂
Non alcoholic sparkling apple juice made from a blend of varieties and is just lightly sparkling like all his ciders. Fabulously pure and perfumed and wickedly moreish bottles of this delicious cider empty remarkably quickly. Gently sweet and incredibly pure. Try some at any time of the day.
ERIC BORDELET, BRUT TENDRE (750ML) 🥂
Fermented almost bone dry, this is the traditional style of cider for the region. It is very fresh, and like all of Bordelet's ciders, it tastes like you're biting into the fruit.
ERIC BORDELET, POIRÉ L’AUTHENTIQUE (750ML) 🥂
This is true pear cider with just a hint of residual sugar. We could get out the wine terms for this, but tasting is believing. Very classy stuff with the texture and taste of ripe pears. Good acidity and length make this an excellent food match, especially with cheese.
ERIC BORDELET, SIDRE ARGELETTE (750ML) 🥂
This is Bordelet’s special cuvée for apples. Named after what the elders called the large and small rock formations which dominate the area, this is a truly “Grand Cru” cider. The apples are crushed and left to macerate on their skins for 3-5 days for some serious extraction of flavor.
ERIC BORDELET, POIRÉ GRANIT (750ML) 🥂
ERIC BORDELET, CORMÉ SYDRE 2021 (500ML) 🥂
ERIC BORDELET, SIDRE, NOUVELLE VAGUE (5L KEG) 🥂
It is refreshing and vibrant and always delicious to sip. Bordelet is the "terroirist" of ciders, as his ciders, like the best wines, are not just tasty but complex and expressive. Fresh, off-dry (but closer to dry) apple cider from his younger trees is fermented in a fresher style than his bottled ciders. Less skin maceration, makes for a more refreshing cider that will be even more versatile.
]]>
Due to the extreme rarity of its wines—and the fact that its pure Cabernet Francs may be the world’s greatest—Clos Rougeard has become the Loire Valley’s ultimate cult producer.
Its red trophies, Poyeux and Bourg, are now among the world’s most coveted wines, while its towering white, Brézé, is nearly as ardently sought after.
]]>Due to the extreme rarity of its wines—and the fact that its pure Cabernet Francs may be the world’s greatest—Clos Rougeard has become the Loire Valley’s ultimate cult producer.
Its red trophies, Poyeux and Bourg, are now among the world’s most coveted wines, while its towering white, Brézé, is nearly as ardently sought after. Not only do they come from three of the most extraordinary terroirs in France; they represent the winemaking of two brothers who are among France’s most gifted, Nady and Charly Foucault.
But with the passing of Charly in December, 2015, and the subsequent sale of the domaine two years later, the eight-generation-old Foucault family domaine in Saumur came to an end. And the wines have become scarce to the point of being virtually unobtainable.
Clos Rougeard stands alone, despite the fact that Nady and Charly have inspired and groomed several potential heirs. These include Romain Guiberteau, Thierry Germaine’s Domaine de Roches Neuves and Charly’s son Antoine Foucault’s Domaine du Collier
The Foucault brother’s wines belong to that rare group that isn’t just the best of their type, but transcendent of it, endowed with that rare and magical sense of extra dimension found only in the greatest wines. They are the Loire as Brune Giacosa was to the Langhe and Henri Jayer to Burgundy.
The brothers consistently achieved this through an approach little changed from that of their predecessors. Charly and Nady’s grandfather had trademarked the Clos Rougeard name and was bottling his own production more than a century ago, at a time when most of their contemporaries were selling in barrel.
And what went into those bottles set Clos Rougeard apart as well. Well aware of their vineyards’ greatness, the Foucault family has long made classic vins de garde, with the ability to develop gracefully for decades in bottle.
The Clos Rougeard Cabernet Franc vineyards are located in the heart of Saumur’s tuffeau plateau, a deep bed of limestone overlain with different topsoils. In contrast, the estate’s Chenin Blanc vines in Bréze are on limestone-clay marls, long regarded as ideal for Saumur blanc.
From their Cabernet Franc terroirs, the Foucaults made three cuvées, beginning with the blended Le Clos bottling, sourced from 50-to-70-year-old vines in the villages of Chacé, Varrains and Dampierre. Next is Les Poyeaux, half-century-old vines in a south-facing parcel of eroded sandstone over tuffeau, adjacent to the deep cellar in their home village of Chacé.
Finally, the iconic Le Bourg is from vines averaging 80 years old, planted on a thin layer of clay over a deep bed of tuffeau, also in Chacé. The combination of vine age and richer soil makes this the most powerfully structured wine in Clos Rougeard’s array.
All three reds are made based on an approach championed by generations of Foucault. It as Nady Foucault has famously been quoted: “The only revolution at Clos Rougeard is that we have not changed anything!”
The reds all undergo a 4- to 6-week native yeast fermentation and maceration in open top cement vats, with gently extraction. This is followed by 18- to 24-months aging in small barrels, which according Nady has long been the tradition in Saumur. Key to their deep yet elegantly textured character is the exclusion of the press wine, which was always sold off.
The character of each of the red wines determines both their length of barrel aging, and the use of new oak. The barrels are all neutral for Le Clos; one year old for Poyeaux, and new for the powerfully rich Le Bourg.
Rougeard’s mythic white is made from Chenin Blanc grown in the hallowed Saumur Blanc terroir of Brézé, a unique slope of sandy clay and limestone. Curnonsky—France’s most celebrated 20th century gastronomic writer—considered Brézé the rival of the great Chardonnay vineyards of Burgundy.
Here, the Foucault brothers tended their 60+year-old Chenin Blanc vines organically, just as their ancestors had all of the domaine’s vines, long before it became trendy to do so. And they always allowed the Brézé cuvée’s style to be determined by the vintage, which for the versatile Chenin Blanc in the central Loire could be Sec, Demi-Sec and even Moelleux, depending on the growing season. Aged in 20% new barrels, and rarely finishing malolactic fermentation, Clos Rougeard Brézé is a uniquely complex and long-lived expression of its great terroir.
But the reverence accorded Clos Rougeard has created great scarcity for all the wines. Little was ever made, and most of it stayed in France, doled out to Michelin-starred restaurants and loyal private clients. Today, with Clos Rougeard fever at its zenith, and no new post-2016 vintages bearing the Foucault touch, the wines are more difficult to find than ever.
]]>Whether you’re just prone to clutter or an avid collector of wine or spirits, stumbling upon a forgotten bottle is not uncommon. It happens to wine and spirits fans alike, and can involve anything from a misplaced bottle of wedding whiskey to a vintage bottle of Champagne hiding in the weeds of your basement.
Chances are good that that rediscovered bottle is worth investigating. Depending on its age and state, it could be something truly special, maybe to the point of cracking it on your next anniversary or even taking it to auction — and going on vacation with the earnings.
So, do you sell? Do you pop it and enjoy? Might that old bottle be flawed altogether? We asked a few industry pros for some wisdom.
Scott Torrence is a seasoned wine expert and founder of Chapter Four, and is the former senior wine specialist and VP of Christie’s North America. Over his many years in the trade, Torrence has brought many remarkable multi-million dollar wine collections to auction, and he tells us that forgotten bottles are actually pretty common.
“These are often bottles of modest initial pricing or gifted bottles that are buried in a cellar and overlooked, as its owner’s tastes may have evolved to finer selections,” he says. They get lost or misplaced, and typically go bad. “Most quality wines between $25–$75 should optimally be consumed within their first 10 years of cellarage,” Torrence warns.
When you do find that bottle, one dilemma is whether to drink it yourself or sell that experience to somebody else. Motives to sell could include everything from unlocking value or repurposing funds to simply getting rid of something you don’t covet as much as others. Either way, a reseller is a solid way to establish proper valuation and terms of sale, Torrence says.
“However, not all resale outlets are equal. There are meaningful differences between retail outlets versus auction outlets,” he explains. “A local merchant that specializes in ‘old and rare wine’ or similar is likely to have access to buyers who will trust the merchant’s selections and can tailor offers to buyers that meet their needs.”
There’s also the quantity element. “A merchant can also offer single units of a larger set, thereby allowing buyers to commit to a bottle or two as opposed to a full case,” he adds. Torrence says auctions function more like a wholesale market.
If you are sitting on some serious quality, though, provenance becomes an issue as merchants and auction houses tend to require proof of purchase. “Informed buyers interested in wines of quality regularly want to know the history of a bottle’s ownership,” Torrence says. “This is particularly important for wines over 20 years old, and is often requested on more expensive purchases. The ability to honestly and accurately describe or prove the provenance of a collection can be crucial to obtaining a maximum value on your sale.”
Torrence adds that just evaluating the original price paid or the wine’s appellation is probably not enough. Due diligence comes in talking to an area buyer. “My preference is to rely on your local merchant to advise you, as they often sell these wines and have buyers looking for back vintages of them long after they have been released to the market,” he says. “A seller may get 60 cents on the dollar for such items, but at least you didn’t have to pour it out or give it away.”
We’ve heard stories about old Champagne and cherished bottles from famous Bordeaux houses fetching high prices, but what about spirits? Leo Gibson, cofounder of BHAKTA, a brand that specializes in aged Armagnac, says the category offers three things that can attract collectors and soaring price tags.
Older bottles, of course, offer history in a bottle. Bottles from shuttered distilleries are attractive, too, as Gibson points out they have a certain romantic cachet. Lastly, limited releases can earn you a sum, especially when part of a series. This is something whiskey fans know especially well — just ask the Pappy crowd.
“Collectors who are late arrivals to the category or brands who have begun amassing a full collection of the series are often willing to pay jaw-dropping prices to go back and complete a set,” he says.
Allen Katz, a spirits expert and the founder of New York Distilling Company, says the most important thing you can do is comparison shop. “There are many good resources,” he says. “Just remember, most are looking for their cut as well.”
Katz suggests drink brokerage site Bottle Blue Book. “They buy and sell a whole host of whiskeys and spirits and wine collections and have a pulse on up-to-date prices for many vintage-y items,” he says. Whiskey clubs are another option. Katz advises starting locally as there are many, and that way you can connect with interested collectors.
Like Torrence, Katz says there’s no overvaluing a trusted retailer, as they often have experienced buyers who can assess value. “Finally, once you have an appraisal, whether for one bottle or a collection, consider insuring it,” he says.
With wine, Torrence says there are some visual clues to look for. Seepage is a big one and can indicate heat damage or cork failure. Then there’s the color of the wine, which changes as it ages and oxidizes. “For white wines, this means color changes that shift from light golden to amber. For red wine, this may mean changes from dark red to garnet or partridge eye,” he says.
Torrence notes that this can take a highly trained eye but even non-somms can do a comparative analysis if there are multiple bottles (or even taste one).
With spirits, Gibson advises to look for flaws in the seal, which tend to show up via low fill levels or stains on the label. His colleague at BHAKTA, brand CEO Sean O’Rourke, says spirit bottles are rarely corked as they might be in wine, and your best bet is to check in with your online community and trusted shop managers. “Spirits will be more consistent and less variable in a given production run than wine and a bottling reputation should be pretty well documented,” he says.
In the end, these bottles are meant to be enjoyed in good company, whether by you or somebody you sold to. “We can’t take our collections to our grave,” O’Rourke says.
Originally Published: May 7, 2023 on Vinepair.com
Images: Chapter 4
]]>MAINQUÉ, Argentina — The flat, dry Río Negro Valley on the northern end of Patagonia won’t strike anybody as a glamorous wine region. For one thing, apple and pear orchards, along with platoons of poplar trees, far outnumber grapevines. For another, the restaurants, hotels and the usual camp followers of the winemaking life are nowhere to be found.
But glamour did not draw Piero Incisa della Rocchetta to the Río Negro. The old pinot noir vines did, along with promising soils, a sparkling climate and a dream of creating a self-sustaining wine estate the way his grandfather the Marchese Mario Incisa della Rocchetta did in Italy 50 years ago. The marchese created Sassicaia, a paradigm-breaking cabernet blend that proved greatness could be achieved in Bolgheri, on the Tuscan coast.
Dreams and inherited wealth have fueled more than a few wine start-ups, but rarely in so unprepossessing a place and with so untested a notion as Argentine pinot noir. Unlike many start-ups, though, Mr. Incisa’s estate, Bodega Chacra, is producing wines that decisively earn whatever attention his family history initially brings him.
Argentina is known for one wine, malbec. The prevailing style of these wines, grown mostly in the province of Mendoza to the northwest, is the antithesis to good pinot noir; powerfully fruity, opulent and often highly alcoholic and oaky. By contrast, good pinot noir is known for its elegance and finesse, characteristics that Mr. Incisa has managed to achieve in his Chacra wines in just a decade.
A 2012 Treinta y Dos, made from pinot noir vines planted in 1932 by Italian immigrants, is a savory delight, graceful and lithe with flavors of red fruits and flowers tempered by minerals. A 2013 Cincuenta y Cinco, from vines planted in 1955, is likewise beautifully balanced and floral, with an umami quality. Even Mr. Incisa’s bigger-production 2014 Barda, made from younger vines, shares their tangy, floral, energetic qualities, though without the extra depth of the other pinot noirs.
While pinot noir may not be associated with Argentina, it’s not unknown. Fifty years ago, Mr. Incisa said, more than 4,000 acres in Patagonia were planted with pinot noir. Most of those grapes went into sparkling wines. Chandon Argentina, for example, a subsidiary of the Champagne producer Moët & Chandon, has been making sparkling wines in Argentina for more than 65 years. But many of those grapes are now in other regions. By 2000, Mr. Incisa said, less than 500 acres of pinot noir remained in Patagonia.
From those remaining vines came a pinot noir that Mr. Incisa tasted blind in 2001. He was impressed with the wine, which had been made by a Dutch wine consultant, Hans Vinding-Diers, for Humberto Canale, a pioneering Patagonian producer. So impressed that he was determined to see the source of those grapes. He finally visited in 2004.
He found an old stand of pinot noir dating from 1932. He was struck by the dry climate, the fresh breeze that seemed to blow constantly from the Andes in the west and the brilliance of the sunlight. Though technically a desert, bounded by rivers flowing from the mountains into the Río Negro, the region was irrigated by canals dug by British colonists in the 19th century.
But Mr. Incisa was disturbed by the condition of the vines, which had long been neglected, and of the soils — gravel, sand, limestone and clay — which seemed gray and lifeless. Taking a chance, he bought the land and the vines and set about building his estate. He has since supplemented the oldest vines with several additional pinot noir vineyards.
“I was the idiot guy with a fair dose of not knowing what I didn’t know,” Mr. Incisa said as we walked the vineyards, now alive with birds, bees, bats and other signs of a healthy environment, the result of biodynamic viticulture. “Maybe I had the idea of getting out of a family trajectory, which was very privileged but maybe not so much of a challenge for me. Plus, I had a passion for pinot.”
Mr. Incisa, now 48, has a history of adapting to new environments. He was born in Bolgheri, and spent his early childhood there and in Florence. He went to boarding school in Switzerland, college in California, and now commutes between Patagonia, New York and Italy.
As he established himself in Patagonia, he found something of a guide in Mr. Vinding-Diers, who by then had his own label, Bodega Noemía, making Patagonian malbec. Mr. Vinding-Diers allowed him to use his winery until his own was completed. Mr. Incisa’s first vintage was 2004, and he called it Chacra, a regional term meaning “farm.”
“I wanted to use a local word,” he said. “Here, I’m very much of a stranger.”
Despite the condition of the vines and soil, Mr. Incisa said, the vineyards came with built-in advantages. In the fresh Patagonian climate, there were none of the usual problems — humidity, fungus, mildew, pests. Unlike the vines in most of the great vineyards of Europe and the world, which are grafted onto American rootstocks to combat the threat of phylloxera, an aphid that devastates grapevines, Mr. Incisa’s vines, even the younger ones he has planted to supplement his old stands, are ungrafted.
“We know it’s sort of a gamble,” he said, “but if at 85 years old the vines are doing well, we figure we don’t need to change.”
Adapting to local custom, Mr. Incisa has planted rows of poplars around the vineyards and in between different blocks to protect the vines from the stiff, incessant wind. He has planted cover crops in between the rows of vines to absorb heat from the summer sun and has sculpted the canopy of leaves over the vines so that the grapes ripen slowly in the luminous light.
“We’re looking for something on the feminine, softer side rather than big and tannic,” he said. “I always want freshness, good acidity and, as a byproduct, low alcohol.”
In the low, sandstone winery Mr. Incisa built, the grapes are handled as little as possible. They are fermented in epoxy-lined cement tanks, mostly as whole bunches, with indigenous yeast. The wine then ages in French oak barrels until bottling. The wines are neither fined nor filtered, and receive a minimal dose of sulfur dioxide as a preservative. Mr. Incisa is experimenting with small cuvées that receive no sulfur at all.
As he has become more confident in his winemaking, his wines have become more precise and transparent. He has cut back on the use of new oak, harvested earlier and become more delicate in the winery.
“There is not a right or wrong,” he said. “There is just personal taste.”
Working in virtually the middle of nowhere (the nearest city, Neuquén, is more than an hour’s drive away) and in an often dysfunctional Argentine economy has its challenges. Equipment is difficult to repair or replace, and a lack of technical support means Mr. Incisa and his local team must figure things out for themselves.
“You learn to make do, conserve, be efficient,” he said. “Keep everything cheap, local and good for the environment.”
Winemaking can also be dangerous. In 2012, while working in his winery, Mr. Incisa slipped off the edge of a tank and fell backward onto the floor below, where he remained for hours until he was discovered. He broke his leg in many places and was in a wheelchair for three months.
He decided life was too short to play it safe. He would take chances to make the wines that he wanted.
“The most beautiful thing in my life was the accident,” he said. It has given him perspective on his project. “It’s taken a small series of miracles to make this work,” Mr. Incisa added. “I attach more to the process than the outcome.”
His 2015s may be his best wines yet. Tasted from barrels, where they are still aging, they are fresh and energetic with crunchy fruit flavors and that characteristic savory quality.
Nonetheless, persuading the rest of the world to take interest in Argentine pinot noir has proved a challenge. With so much other good pinot noir in the world, why should anybody drink his?
“Hopefully, because you are curious and want to explore,” he said. “It’s an expression of pinot noir that’s different.”
A version of this article appears in print on Jan. 27, 2016, Section D, Page 6 of the New York edition with the headline: Pinot Noir That Stands Out in a Sea of Malbecs.Alice and Olivier De Moor live and work in Courgis, a small village 7km southwest of Chablis. It is where Olivier grew up, and his “old” cellar, the part where he ages his Chablis in oak barrels, is underneath his grandparents’ house.
Alice is from the Jura, and the two met at a large Chablis estate where Olivier was in charge of the vineyards. Both are enologists, graduates of the Dijon enological school, with enough knowledge to take a radically different direction for their vines and wines than their neighbors. While the division of labor principally consists of Olivier in the vines and Alice in the cellar and office, both are equally omnipresent in every role and all decisions are made together.
]]>Olivier says the landscape has changed a lot in his lifetime, that all the woods, bushes and fallow land that dotted the hills have disappeared in favor of vines.
Alice is from the Jura, and the two met at a large Chablis estate where Olivier was in charge of the vineyards. Both are enologists, graduates of the Dijon enological school, with enough knowledge to take a radically different direction for their vines and wines than their neighbors. While the division of labor principally consists of Olivier in the vines and Alice in the cellar and office, both are equally omnipresent in every role and all decisions are made together.
They began their estate by planting three plots of Chablis-Bel-Air, Clardy and Rosette-in 1989. Of their first harvest in 1994, they kept only 15HL and sold off the rest. They were still employed elsewhere, but quit that fall after leasing their Saint-Bris vines: 0.55HA of planted in 1902 and 0.40HA of Sauvignon Blanc planted in 1950. For the next three years, they worked their four hectares of vines while tending the vines of other winemakers to make a living. In 1996, they planted a large plot in Chitry (the parcel is called "Champagne") with Aligoté and Chardonnay.
The whole Chablis area is highly calcareous, with soils formed millions of years ago in a warm, shallow sea. The limestone here is rich in shellfish fossils, including oysters (exogyra virgula), urchins, bivalves and ammonites. There are three estate bottlings of Chablis: "L'Humeur du Temps", "Rosette" and "Bel-Air & Clardy", the last a blend of the two plots.
"L'Humeur du Temps" roughly translates to "The Mood of the Times" but is a double entrendre that also could mean "The Mood of the Weather". The idea with this is to capture a global snapshot of the vintage versus the nuance of single vineyard bottlings. In such, the wine comes from four parcels that are vinified separately then blended: Côte de l' Etang, Les Envers de Côte Chétif, Les Goulots de Jouan.
The Bel-Air and Clardy parcels both have a shallow topsoil over layers of harder limestone with fossils, a mix of clay and limestone that is highly draining, even more so in Clardy, which has whiter clay.
"Rosette" has a more complex soil, and is much harder to work. The plot slopes up to a 40% incline, and the vineyard can roughly be separated in three distinct parts: the very top is eroded materials over hard Portlandian rock; the mid-slope is directly over Kimmeridgian marl, which can quickly suffer from drought. Finally, the bottom part is rich in dense clay with some limestone, resulting in later ripening. They usually do two harvests there, sometimes two weeks apart. They consider it their best plot.
These have none of the “normal” under ripeness of Chablis, nor are they marked by the gunpowder aromas created by an excess of sulfur. Olivier believes that in another era, Chablis had a buttery and nutty character similar to any Chardonnay from low yields and reasonable ripeness. He follows the same reasoning for his Sauvignon from St-Bris, which is ripe and rich, so much so that they eventually had to declassify it to Vin de France.
The St-Bris terroir is eroded debris over Portlandian rock. The clay is brown, the soil draining. The Sauvignon Blanc plot has a north-west exposure, which lets it ripen slowly and get to optimal aromatic expression. This vineyard originally had 30% of its vines missing, and replacements were planted over eight years with local massale selections and cuttings of Sauvignon Gris from the Loire valley.
The other cuvées an old vine Bourgogne Aligoté called "1902" (not produced each vintage and only in small quantities), a regular Bourgogne Aligoté and a Bourgogne Chitry. A late harvested Aligoté called "D'Autres Vallées" has also been produced a handful of vintages. The the Bourgogne Chitry and Bougogne Aligoté both come from the Champagne parcel, where clay sits atop Kimmeridgian marls and some silex stones are present.
Some other wines also join the fold through De Moor's négociant project Les Vendangeurs Masqués ("The Masked Harvester"). A Bourgogne Blanc is produced from sourced organic fruit that varies every vintage and is not produced each year. A Chablis from organic fruit is produced annually. A surprisingly charming Viogner called "Caravan" has made numerous appearances, this time sourced from Gérald Oustric in the the Ardèche. And in very bad years (the reason they began buying fruit in the first place), they have sourced grapes from friends all over the South of France; a truly all-star list including Eric Pfifferling, Domaine Gramenon, Eric Texier and Émile Hérédia.
The final and most recent additions come from the 2017 purchase of two plots of 1er Cru vineyards. Vau de Vey represents 0.92 hectares of vines planted in 1953 on heavy marl that remind Olivier of the Rosette vineyard. The name is a local dialect for "little valley". Their other plot of Mont de Milieu is 0.82 hectares; it is extremely steep and has to be worked by horse as it is too dangerous to use a tractor (hence why everyone else uses herbicide). The site gets its name ("Mount of Middle") because it's on the border of Champagne. The vines at the bottom of the hill were planted in the 1980's and the middle and the top in the 1930's. Yields in the old vines are very low and concentrated due to Court Noué.
The De Moors have worked their vines organically since 2005, a rarity in their area. In 2002, they stopped using large harvest bins and replaced them with small boxes where the grapes are not crushed by their own weight. In 2007, they built a large and high-ceilinged winery, allowing them to do all their cellar work by gravity. In 2008, they purchased a second-hand pneumatic press to treat the grapes in the gentlest way possible. There is no SO2 used at harvest or during the vinification. Aging has traditionally been in Burgundian barrels of different ages for the Chablis wines, the Bourgogne Chitry and the old vine Aligoté, with young vine wines and Sauvignon aged in cement and stainless steel tanks. Over the years this has evolved: 228 liter Burgundian barrels are still the most common vessel, though demi-muids and foudres of various sizes have joined the fray along with enamel-lined stainless steel tanks and even a few anforas.
]]>
When 89-year-old restaurateur Marvin Zeidler got interested in wine in the late 1950s, the wine part of the dining scene in Los Angeles was almost invisible to the naked eye. Oh sure, there were places to eat and drink. There was Taix and the Brown Derby; there was Aux Delices in Pasadena, and Ciro’s and Café Mondrian in Hollywood. But unlike today, when the city seems completely obsessed with food and wine, its creative energies lay elsewhere—in movies, music, television, and other cultural pursuits.
So without a meaningful wine scene to slip into, guys like Zeidler—who would go on to partner in several restaurant ventures, mostly in Santa Monica and Brentwood, including Capo and Cafe Brentwood—had to invent one.
In 1959, Zeidler joined the International Wine & Food Society, a global organization founded in London by writer and gourmand André Simon and devoted solely to promoting and celebrating the pleasures of the table. At the time, Los Angeles had three local chapters. Zeidler joined the Hollywood one.
Gathering in the back rooms of old-school restaurants in Hollywood and Pasadena, the society’s members fomented a curiosity and a passion for wine in a metropolitan center where the wine bug took decades to infect the populace. This was an opportunity for wine vendors, resellers, distributors, collectors, producers, and appreciators—without ties to the wine industry—to commingle.
Back then, Zeidler says, the group’s members were a well-heeled lot—“pretty WASPy,” he admits with a laugh. The head of the city’s Department of Water and Power was a member, as was the CEO of Packard Bell, and many doctors, lawyers, and civic leaders. (The society was also overwhelmingly male, a fact that remains stubbornly true of collector culture throughout the country.)
At the time, Zeidler was one of only two Jewish members of the chapter. The other was Nathan Chroman, a Beverly Hills attorney whose passion for wine began during a period of procrastination while he was studying for the California bar. Chroman started to collect, to travel to France and Italy, and to explore California’s burgeoning wine regions. By the early 70s, he was contributing wine columns to the Los Angeles Times.
Zeidler says Chroman befriended prominent importers like Frank Schoonmaker and Cyril Ray, both of whom poured at society dinners and tastings, as did a great many California producers. “The wine scene was so small back then,” Zeidler says. “Wine sales were small too, with so few people drinking wine regularly. We knew the owners of all the wineries; we could just knock on their doors and invite ourselves to taste, or have them down to show us what they were up to.”
Outside this coterie, the market for wine in the city was slow to develop and, according to many old-guard beverage directors, famously lacking in imagination. The “industry” generated plenty of disposable income for its executives, stars, and staff, but tastes tended to be self-limiting, unadventurous, and fairly pedestrian, given to trophy wines and known quantities. Wine’s principal value at the time was to confer status on its buyer, and wine lists reflected this timidity.
But Chroman and Zeidler fanned the flame. Their passion and curiosity attracted like-minded pros and young industry veterans, like retailer Steve Wallace, founder of Wally’s Wine Shop in Westwood, and David Breitstein of the Westlake Village wine shop Duke of Bourbon. Darrell Corti, the legendary retailer from Sacramento’s Corti Brothers, used to make regular visits to the L.A. society. The group invited writers Roy Brady and Robert Lawrence Balzer to taste with them.
And just as certain restaurant kitchens become hives for the dissemination of culinary talent (like Chez Panisse in Berkeley, or Spago, Campanile, and Patina in L.A.), these early group efforts provided the foundation on which the present thriving market was built.
In the last decade and a half, a veritable golden age of wine, tasting groups have sprouted all across L.A. There’s a group devoted solely to Nebbiolo (the Barolo Group) and several to Burgundy and to Bordeaux. One, the Rosenthal Group, is composed of collectors and holds monthly meetings at which a single member supplies all the wines—usually a vertical of something rarefied and marvelous. There are groups partial to the wines of the Rhône Valley, to Riesling, and to California wines from the 60s and 70s, and there are several study groups for boning up for Master Sommelier and Wine & Spirits Education Trust exams.
I too am the product of L.A. tasting groups. In 2004, I moved here with few contacts, but I joined a small group, the Wine Salon, who met in Westwood every third wednesday of every month, where we conducted tastings from a modest retinue of themes, whose throughline might have been to stay abreast of, or ahead of, whatever was trending at the time, whether Austrian reds, obscure sherries, or the latest from Slovenia.
Some of the participants in my group were studying, but many more were exploring wine as an avenue for future business endeavors. Justin Gallen, for example, started his own import and brokerage company, Rinascimento Wines, not long after hosting meetings of the salon. Lou Amdur was easing away from the tech sector to start his eponymous wine bar in Hollywood (and, years later, his retail shop). There were players from the retail community, like Chip Hammack (K&L) and Mike Greene (The Wine House), auction professionals (Scott Torrence and Walker Strangis), and educators, like Shelby Ledgerwood and Bonnie Graves.
In 2010 some of the women in this group, including Graves, barrel broker Françoise Gouges, SevenFifty regional director Dana Farner, and sommelier Dianne DeLuca, started an offshoot of the Wine Salon: an all-women ensemble called the All Girls.
The All Girls was founded with the prompting of Bonnie Graves, who had been involved to one degree or another in tasting groups oriented toward goals—accreditation, diplomas, or jobs—and decided she wanted some way to make her studies less goal-driven or canonical. “We were looking to be less structured,” Graves says. “We wanted to taste collaboratively and not be competitive. It was serious, but we didn’t feel like just checking boxes … we didn’t subscribe to the notion that you had to see a wine in just one way.”
This hints at what is perhaps the most important element of a tasting group: its dynamics. Members may have comparable collections and tastes, but the group itself is often a random assortment of people, personalities, and interests, which is odd when you consider that the process of tasting together, dining together, and talking about wine is a deceptively intimate experience.
Conversations about wine, especially great wine, inevitably fall into a personal realm: your past, your retinue of associations, your emotional life—all well up readily, even when you’re among people with whom you have little in common. “I know these people intimately when it comes to wine,” explained one wine professional. “I can get deeply vulnerable and sensitive, especially when talking about how a wine makes me feel, what other aromas and sensations I compare it with—but outside of wine we have almost nothing in common.” Tasting groups can make for strange bedfellows.
At the same time, after years of tasting together, learning together, celebrating together, getting drunk together, what develops is something more than mere camaraderie. The group becomes that uncommon fraternity that has, for example, tasted rarities and unicorns, that has shared one-of-a-kind experiences. It becomes a kind of repository of knowledge, a collective memory of a very particular, recondite strain.
That, at any rate, is how I choose to think of Marvin Zeidler and those he tastes with. Zeidler’s affiliation with the Wine & Food Society is unabated; his son Marc, himself a member, was recently entrusted with the management of the chapter’s cellar, paid for with dues and consisting, at any given time, of upwards of 1,000 bottles.
Zeidler no longer takes meticulous notes on each wine he tastes, but he still has tasting notes from the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s. In some cases, he has vivid memories of those wines, and can relate not only what they tasted like but what Nate Chroman and Steve Wallace and Darrell Corti thought of those wines, what their experience was.
The best groups start to embody these principles; they’re incubators for your own and the community’s sense of discovery. “The point isn’t to be right,” says Corie Brown, an L.A. journalist and a founding member of the All Girls. “The point is to explore, to savor, to be enlightened, be excited by your own leaps forward. So that when you take notes, they mean something.”
Patrick Comiskey is a senior correspondent for Wine & Spirits Magazine and has served as the chief wine contributor for the Los Angeles Times. His book “American Rhône: How Maverick Winemakers Changed the Way Americans Drink” was published in October 2016.
]]>