Decanterberry Tales - A Willamette Valley Wine Blog - burgundy tag

Domaine Charles Audoin, Marsannay (Pinot Noir), 2002

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 16:57:50 GMT

Funny and perhaps fitting that after a couple months I start posting again yet with a French wine! And despite all the great Oregon Pinot that I've been drinking recently (see my earlier post), it was apparently this bottle that got me back to blogging wine. And I've also received very nice and encouraging emails from folks wondering what happened to me.

So, this Marsannay (Burgundy) was quite nice. No, not Oregon. Not jammy. And oh boy: such earthy flavors and aromas! It's very nice if you like that. And once I got into that earthiness of the French Pinots, it helped me understand that whole French terroir thing. It's not that I think Oregon wines are inferior -- to the contrary -- but there is something deep and mysterious in a really good French Pinot. That earth can be haunting -- in a good way, if you ask me. Though, it's also easy to spend $30/40 on a bottle that's thin and flabby. French Burgundy is not for the faint-of-heart; it's can definitely be a gamble. So beware!

The nose included: nutmeg, strawberry, dusty/earthy, a little dank, a little vanilla (but this is french). However, later I think that nutmeg might be more like cinnamon. There was white pepper. And perhaps not strawberry, it was more like a salmon berry (the smell).

The body was light -- but then I said it wasn't jammy. The fruit was raspberry and red cherry. And you can actually taste that dank smell. Oh boy: yummy earth! The fruit flavors were very quick, then earth and then dry. It was ever-so-slightly bitter at the end -- like a turnip or maybe an artichoke.

This is not a bottle that I'd recommend regularly. It's a bit different than what many palette's prefer. But for me, this was very, very yummy. I thought it might be peaking, but I think this one is likely to remain good for another year or two (maybe more).

Cost:

Rating: 8.5

Pierre Morey, Bourgogne (Meursault), Pinot Noir, 2005

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 04:45:05 GMT

This was a bottle brought to a recent dinner we had. Apparently the purchasers of the bottle were talked into the bottle by the wine steward at the now defunct Zupan's that used to be on Beaverton-Hillsdale Hwy. They mentioned that they were unsure of this bottle as many other recommendations from that steward were not to their tastes. Wine can be very subjective of course. Anyway ...

The nose started out with a strong chemical smell, which definitely became more and more subdued over the course of the time we drank it. That's the thing about many Frnech Burgundies: they are usually so much different between when you first open the bottle, and when they finally open up. Sometimes that's over an hour later.

Under and through that chemical smell, there emerged cinnamon and dust. No, there's really little if any fruit in the nose like you'd find in a typical Oregon (or California) Pinot Noir. However, if you smell this one next to, say, a Rhone or a Bordeaux, there is something very, very subtly sweet or fruity — just every-so little.

The taste is a thin strawberry plus something much less sweet, like a currant or loganberry. No, this is not at all sweet. Not even a little bit. It's dry and light if you wee comparing it to a typical Oregon Pinot. It's also very earthy — dusty and slightly dirty (in a good way). And the spice is more subtle — there was some pepper and cinnamon. The finish is pretty quick and has that sort of apple-dryness quality right at the end.

Cost:

Rating: 7.5

Domaine Michel Gros, Bourgogne, 2004

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 23:27:00 GMT

A number of years ago I had a bottle from Michel Gros at a restaurant -- his Vosne-Romanee -- and it was really nice. In fact, it was memorable enough that when I saw this bottle at Elephant's Deli (a local specialty food store and deli), I had to buy it.

It's a "Bourgogne" (Burgundy) so they can't say, exactly, where the grapes are from. But Michel Gros is located in Vosne-Romanee, and this was bottled there, so ... it's likely the lesser quality Vosne-Romanee grapes, and maybe mixed with grapes from other parts of the Cotes d'Or. Anyway, I've kept this for a couple years, and finally decided to crack it open.

The smell was really rustic: meat, bologna, bark, steak, and a rotting pile of wood chips. In a word: earthy. And it was down right dank -- not wood like over oaking -- it was like moss. The fruit tastes were very subdued, yet there was subtle marionberry, red cherry, and maybe salmonberry. You take a sip, and the body is really full in you mouth. Then it's much lighter body on the finish. In the middle, there's hints of something floral (maybe violet), and honey! However, that honey taste was completely devoid of sweetness; just imagine the taste of honey without being sweet. At the end, your left with marionberry, and earth (moss or something green veggie).

I found this wine very interesting. This is Pinot Noir, but it's not at all like anything you'd find from Oregon. I really like earthy wines, yet beware, this is really earthy. This bottle was not heavily oaked, so it wasn't at all sweet -- it fact, it was very dry. It was so dry, it was almost slightly sour (but I don't mean that in a bad way). As I said at the start, the best one word description I have for this is: "rustic". Sort of like an dirty county road with an old Ford pickup truck. Yeah, like that.

Cost:

Rating: 7.5

Francois Gay et Fils, Chorey-les-Beaune, 2006

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 04:59:24 GMT

This was wine number two in our "Pinots of the World" flight night. Next up: French Burgundy. Yummy.

The nose was crazy good: peppermint, violet, dirt, leather, tobacco, sweet pea, wood chips, asparagus, cinnamon, mushroom, and dust. Yeah, there was a lot in there. Then drink, and, well, this is Burgundy. And the body is quite light. The flavors are much more subtle when compared to Oregon or California Pinot. Yet, if you were patient, there was mushroom, barnyard, oregano, dust, pomegranate, and strawberry. The finish did have citrus (but not as bad as the Pinot from New Zealand), and the fruit was more like red cherry. At the very end, it had that apple-dryness and some mineral hints.

Some at the dinner that night decidedly did not like this wine, and I would guess it's the very light body that drives this aversion the most. But for me, this one was far superior to the Pinot from New Zealand, and was one of my favorites of the evening. And, I really enjoy it when, the next day (or even days later), I inexplicably and randomly, suddenly taste or smell the wine again as if it's haunting me. Usually it's the really interesting or satisfying wines that produce this for me. Well, this one did it to me the next day a few times. Interesting, and good.

Cost:

Rating: 8.0