Monday, August 20, 2012

Domain Pierre Luneau-Papin 
Le L d'Or
2007 Muscadet 

Muscadet which had basically disappeared from the wine lists of America for the last 15 years has made a dramatic return as sommeliers and wine lovers have rediscovered it. I recall first having a Muscadet with seafood in the Loire Valley back in the late 1970’s. I was amazed then and remain convinced it is a perfect wine to pair with the fruits of the sea. 

All Muscadet are made with the Melon de Bourgogne or Melon a varietal derived from the Pinot Blanc grown primarily in the Western Loire Valley region of France around Nantes. Melon is one of the great Cool-Climate varietals and is distinguished by its great resistance to frost. The grape is so associated with its appellation that the grape itself is often known as Muscadet. A little-known fact about Muscadets is that they are a white wine that can improve with aging.

While the Muscadet of the past was very much a “vin de table,” today Muscadet producers are giving it as much attention and care as more highly regarded regions and varietals. Pierre and Monique Luneau started more than 30 years ago to develop a vineyard and winery to take full advantage of the Melon and produce fine Muscadets. Their son Pierre-Marie joined the family wine business in 2005, and he is the 8th generation in this family of vignerons.

The eight different wines of Domaine Pierre Luneau-Papin respect both their different terroirs and each vintage. Reflecting that Muscadets age well the excellent cuvée 'L'd'Or', 45 year old vines planted on granite using organic growing techniques has shown beautifully in verticals from as far back as 1976. L’d’Or wine is enriched and matured for 9 to 11 months on its lees up to bottling. Once fermentation has finished, the lees are regularly stirred, so that the lees remain in suspension.

The 2007 vintage we had at Mas (farmhouse) in the West Village of New York was exceptional and paired perfectly with our first and second seafood courses, The straw colored wine is lush and medium body with aromas of citrus and summer meadow flowers. The flavor was crisp and at the same time full with generous acidity

Monday, August 13, 2012



Erath
2009 Pinot Gris
Willamette Valley Oregon

While Oregon is best known for world class Pinot Noir, and more recently for excellent Riesling, the Pinot Gris varietal that was planted along with Pinot Noir has not received the acclaim it is justly due.

In 1969 Dick Erath was one of the first to recognize the cool-climate grape growing potential of Oregon's Willamette Valley. A firm believer that great wines are grown not made, he actively pursued vineyard development in Dundee's red hills. Now some forty years later Erath farms 115 acres, supplying about 70% of the winery's grapes for each vintage. The remainder comes from other vineyards in the Willamette and Umpqua Valleys. Owned since 2006 by Ste. Michelle Wine Estates, Erath today produces moderately priced Pinot Noir, Pinot Blanc and Pinot Gris wines. During a recent visit I found the winery has maintained it understated strength.
The 2009 Erath Pinot Gris has a mild bouquet, leading into appealing ripe hard fruit (apple and pear) flavors. Crisp and spicy, with good full body and a lingering flavor of dry savory spices, is balanced with just the right amount of acid.. 

Drink Cool-Climate Wines

The purpose of Drink Cool-Climate Wines is to provide information, opinions and reviews of wines that are primarily from cool-climate wine growing regions.

Those of us that enjoy wine, be it as an amateur or a professional recognize that wine profiles, taste preference and styles are continually evolving.  When I first began drinking wines in the late 1960’s early 1970s, the only wines in America for college age drinkers were jug wines called chablis and heart burgundy, sweet wines such as Boone’s Farm Strawberry Hill and occasionally an inexpensive French “vin de table”.  When I traveled to Europe in the early 1970’s the wine cultures of France, Germany and Italy were a great awakening of the wonderful pleasure of wine paired with food offered. Later when I started to travel on business to San Francisco in the mid-1970’s and began exploring the Napa and Sonoma Valleys I was intoxicated by the lush chardonnays and cabernet sauvignons. These wines were much fuller than the red and white wines I now frequently drank from Burgundy and Bordeaux.  Moving to California in the early 1980’s and living there for nearly twenty years I saw California wines as the benchmark and as I travelled, toured and tasted the wines throughout Europe I found I tasted wines that were more austere, but also more defined by regions and vintages than those of much of California. In the 2000+ period I was fortunate to travel not only to more places in Europe, but also to South Africa, Argentina, Uruguay, and Australia as well as throughout the wine regions of North America. My palate was evolving.  By 2006 I was more interested in leaner merlots, cabernet francs, chenin blancs and sauvignon blancs.

While working as the Executive Director of the Long Island Merlot Alliance (now called Merliance) which co-hosted the second cool-climate conference held in Long Island in 2008, I was impressed by the depth and quality of cool-climate wines produced in the United States, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.  My personal taste profile definitely changed, as it was happening throughout America and elsewhere.  Full extracted fruit flavor reds and over oaked fruited whites had their day and their appeal was rapidly diminishing.  In their place were lighter, more acid balanced wines, leaner reds and whites produced primarily in cooler climate wine regions.

By touring, by tasting, and by talking with winemakers, proprietors, sommeliers, writers and amateurs over the past few years, I have explored in depth on where the wines for people who enjoy food and wines are going in the near future.  While there are many opinions, a large number see the upcoming decade as being dominated by cool-climate wines, as well as wines made to match the flavor profiles of cool-climate wines, even if they are grown and produced in warmer climates.

Cool-Climate Wines we love are Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris from Oregon, Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc from Sonoma and Sta. Rita Hills, Merlot and Cabernet Franc from Long Island, Riesling from the Finger Lakes, Albarino from Spain, Riesling and Pinot Blanc from Alsace and Germany, Sancerre and Muscadet from France, Chenin Blanc from South Africa, Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand, etc.  But we also love lean rosé wines be they from Provence or Long Island.

Along with my wife, Martina Gams, my partner in wine and food we hope you find our original posts, our reviews, our opinions and our reposts of interesting pieces to be interesting, stimulating and perhaps occasionally controversial.

Salut

Len Dest