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June Wine Club Notes > Details

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Wine Club Notes

June Wine Club Notes

6/1/2013

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Terroiriste Wine Club Selections

June 2013: Rosé

2012 Château La Canorgue Luberon Grenache/Syrah/Mourvèdre

Provence, France

A Good Year for Rosé

We are not supposed to be seduced by eye candy when evaluating wines, however, Château La Canorgue is preposterously lovely. Established in the 17thcentury near the hilltop village of Bonnieux [is itself absurdly picturesque] the property has been owned by the Margan family for 200 years. Long before establishment of the chateau, the property was the site of a Roman villa acclaimed for its naturals springs. Underground water canals still criss-cross the property. Current proprietors Martine and Jean-Pierre Margan, and their daughter Nathalie, farm the vineyards and make the wines. The estate also includes olives groves, truffle oaks, mulberry trees, and a 200 year-old cherry orchard. Château La Canorgue is so striking, Ridley Scott [Ridley Scott?!?!?] filmed his screen adaptation of Peter Mayle’s novel, A Good Year here. The film is reputed to be a stinker [Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian called it “a humourless cinematic slice of tourist gastro-porn.” Reminds me of my notes on some Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot Noir I recently tasted.] but the property produces exceptional wines. The vineyards were certified organic in 1978. While the appellation allows for yields of roughly 4 tons/acre, the Martans restrict their crop to roughly half that. The family devotes certain parcels of land exclusively to rosé and employ the direct to press method rather than saignée. In other words, the pick grapes and press them to yield pink juice, rather than bleeding off juice from red fermentations. This method enjoys many advantages over saignée. First, the grapes can be picked at the optimal ripeness for rosé, rather than higher sugar levels deemed preferable for red wine. One need neither add water nor settle for an excessively alcoholic rosé. Second, its proponents believe the direct to press method produces a more refined and delicate wine. The family goes to every length to produce a superior wine. And this wine? First, delicious. Second, refreshing, energetic and vibrant. Third – revealed during easily schlugged second glass – an exceptional accompaniment to most anything. And what does it taste like? Observe the photos of the estate – that is what it tastes like.

Terroiriste Wine Club Selections

June 2013: Red

2011 Broc Cellars “Cassia” Martian Vineyard Grenache

Santa Barbara County

A New Model for Grenache

Not long ago, Robert Parker, publisher of The Wine Advocate, and hero of the “eno-porn” school of wine lovers [“masses of penetrating, unctuous and fleshy fruit,” “gobs and gobs of pulsing fruit which never seem to end and a finish which lasted nearly 90 seconds.”] excoriated the small but growing chorus of wine enthusiasts who lamented the emphasis on scale, ripeness [and thus alcohol] and extraction in California winemaking and called out for more restraint, calm and elegance. Parker has referred to these rebels as the Anti-Flavor Wine Elite. Where can I sign up? Grenache is actually one of the few grapes for which we can forgive relatively high alcohol levels. It is a wine of the South. It likes heat. It likes roundness and unctuousness. It is a wine Tennessee Williams would like. “I ast you Brick, if you was cuttin’ you’self a bottle o’ gree-nache last night on those galets rou-lets?” No wonder Parker likes Châteauneuf. There are a few rebels however, how begun to investigate a kinder, gentler, more modest, more circumspect interpretation of the variety.

Chris Brockway began his academic career as a philosophy student at the University of Nebraska. As so often happens with the wine-loving Liberal Arts major, his inquisitive trajectory landed squarely at the head of a row of grape vines. He does make a few relatively zoftig wines, though he is best known for his bright, lithe interpretations of lesser known grapes that are vinified without the use of added yeast, acid, chips, enzymes, etc. He also works exclusively with organically or biodynamically farmed grapes. The Martian Vineyard in Santa Barbara is a lovely spot, farmed Biodynamically to modest yields of super clean, vivid fruit. This particular bottling, tipping in at a very modest 12.7% alcohol, is nonetheless succulent, candied and cool. The fruit is so bright and refined, one is not left wanting for more ripeness at all. This should probably be consumed over the next couple years, while good sense still reigns.