Burgundy tasting at Capital Grille Orlando: Part II

Stacole Fine Wines, a member of the Vintner Group, hosted a tasting at the Capital Grille Orlando on April 24th for selected area collectors and retailers.  The wines on offer were one 2008 white Burgundy and 11 Côte de Nuit reds dating from 2006-2009.  I have covered the tasting of the white and the 2006 and 2007 reds in a previous post and will cover the remaining wines in this dispatch.

Red 2008 Flight

The 2008 vintage kept Burgundy vignerons on their collective toes.  They confronted mildew, odium, rot, and a number of other vineyard challenges which forced a minimum of two sprayings.  The grapes ripened rapidly in the two weeks prior to harvest when conditions became more favorable.  Truly a "miracle" vintage.

Domaine François Lamarche La Grande Rue Grand Cru

La Grande Rue Grand Cru is an 11.33 ha monopole of Domaine François Lamarche, a multi-generational family farm.  While most of the Côte de Nuit soil is ferruginous limestone over stony, rocky, or clay-soil subsoils,Vosne Romanée has a deeper clay-limestone soil.  Grapes are hand-harvested and sorted twice (once in the field and again in the winery) before being destemmed and placed uncrushed into temperature-controlled wood or steel open vats.  The fermented must is bladder-pressed prior to a cold maceration and long vatting.  Depending on the vintage and appellation, the wines are aged between 14 and 20 months in 60-100% new French oak prior to being bottled unfined and unfiltered.

Tasting Notes: Aromatic.  Bright red strawberries, buttered popcorn.  On the palate sour, rich, red fruit.

Domaine Comtes George de Vogué Chambolle-Musigny

The characteristics of this producer were discussed in the previous post.

Tasting Notes: Elegant, restrained nose.  Smoky, red fruit, vanilla.  On the palate lean with great acidity.  A great wine for acid hounds like me.

Red 2009 Flight

2009 was a warm, dry, near-perfect growing season which yielded clean, ripe fruit.  According to Allan Meadows, "An excellent and very consistent vintage of opulence, charm, and seduction."  According to Berry Bros & Rudd, "... 2009 ranks among the very best Burgundy wine vintages of recent times."

Domaine François Lamarche Les Chaumes Premier Cru

The characteristics of this producer were discussed earlier in this post.

Tasting Notes: Vanilla and red fruit on the nose.  Lean, smooth red fruit on the palate.  Silky finish.

Domaine d'Eugénie Clos-Vougeot Grand Cru

This domaine came into being when Francois Pinault bought the estate of René Engel in the summer of 2006.  The domaine owns 7.5 ha of vineyards to include Grand Cru plots in Clos Vougeot, Grands-Échezeaux, and Échezeaux and Premier Cru and Village plots in Vosne-Romanée.  The Clos-Vougeot plot (1.36 ha) is located in the top-left portion of this property in an area called Les Marets Hauts.  Subsequent to the purchase the new owner has invested a lot of effort in restoring the vineyards to pristine condition.  The domaine has experimented with vinifying one cuvee with the stem and one without and then blending them together prior to bottling. They have had success with this approach and will be implementing it more broadly in the future.

Tasting Notes: Spicy dark fruit on the nose and rich on the palate.  Ron described it as a beautiful wine with soaring spice, great length and balanced.

Domaine Méo-Camuzet Échezeaux Grand Cru

Prior to 1985 the domaine operated a sharecropper-like arrangement where the vines were tended by farmers and the owners compensated for the farmers' use of the land.  Beginning in 1985 the domaine began making wine under its own label and, since 1998, has begun taking control of vineyards as these "sharecropping" agreements expire.  Currently the domaine has 15 ha of vineyards under its control while another 13.5 ha is still controlled by farmers.  The domaine's objective is to make wines that are seductive and delicate.  Vines are farmed organically and fruit is sorted and destemmed prior to a pre-fermentation maceration.  Fermentation occurs in temperature-controlled vats over an 18-day period with pump-overs twice daily.  The wines are aged in 60-70% new oak if from a Premier Cru vineyard and in 100% new oak if Grand Cru.

Tasting Notes: Sour red cherries and baking spices on the nose.  Red and black fruits on the palate along with an earthy minerality.  Balanced with a long finish.

Domaine Méo-Camuzet Les Chaumes Premier Cru

The characteristics of this producer were discussed earlier in this post.

Tasting Notes: Dark cherries and oak on the nose.  Red and black fruit plus spice on the palate.  Good acidity level and mouthfeel.

***********************************************************************************************************

This was a very good event. Stacole brought some excellent wines to the table and combined that with an excellent team and a bunch of folks who enjoy drinking high-end wines together.  I showed my appreciation for the effort, and for the wines, by placing orders for the Bonnes Mares, the Clos de Beze,  the Clos Vougeot, and the La Grande Rue.

At then conclusion of the tasting Ron and I pulled out bottles of Bordeaux, Burgundies, and Rhones to accompany our long-delayed lunch.

© Wine -- Mise en abyme

Stacole Fine Wines Burgundy Tasting at Capital Grille Orlando: Part I

On April 24th, Stacole Fine Wines, a member of the Vintner Group, hosted a Burgundy tasting at the Capital Grille in Orlando where attendees were treated to a lineup of multiple years of that stellar region's offerings.

Attendees at the event were primarily collectors and area retailers.  Stacole enriched the event by bringing in a powerhouse group to support its effort: Laura DiPasquale MS, GM and VP Country Vintners; Brian Koziol MS, Sales Director, Stacole; Tom Johnson, District Manager, Stacole; and Carter Nixon, Regional Sales Representative.

I have previously recommended that the buyer of Burgundian wines be familiar with three quality elements prior to making acquisition decisions: the AOC, the producer, and the vintage.  I have provided information on the Burgundy region and Côte de Nuit AOCs in prior posts and will provide the same (in this post) for the specific producers and vintages included in the tasting.

White 2008 Flight

With one exception, this was a red wine tasting.  The white on offer was the Domaine Roulot 2008 Meursault.  The 2008 whites from the Côte de Beaune had been well received.  Berry Bros & Rudd found the wines to be "intriguing" due to their richness of fruit combined with excellent acidity.  The Burgundy Report lauded the wines' "minerality and aidity with good ripeness" and found them "hard to resist."

Doamine Roulot is managed by Jean-Marc Roulot who replaced a line of caretaker winemakers who had bridged the gap between his father's death and the initiation of his stewardship.  The estate tends 13.5 hectares of vines organically to produce a "bright, chiseled" style of Meursault.

Tasting notes: This wine was nutty on the nose along with icy apple pear and a slightly toasted oak.  It had a bright acidity which burst on the palate and accompanied notes of citrus and citrus rind.  The limestone presence was reflected in a coating minerality.

Red 2006 Flight

The 2006 Côte de Nuit vintage was good but not great.  According to Clive Coates "while overall the red 2006s are charming, fruity, and soft-centered ..." they lack the "depth, vigor, and concentration of the 2002 ..."

Domaine Michel Magnien Clos de La Roche Grand Cru

Domaine Michel Magnien sources grapes from family-owned Grand Cru, Premier Cru, and Village vineyards sited from Gevrey-Chambertin south to Chambolle-Musigny.  The grapes for the Grand Cru wines are destalked prior to being placed uncrushed into tanks for six to eight days of pre-fermentation maceration, followed by alcoholic fermentation, and then 10 days of post-fermentation maceration.  Malolactic fermentation is initiated after the wine has spent 8 months in barrel.  The wines are bottled unfined and unfiltered

Tasting notes: On the nose cinnamon and red berries.  On the palate soft, round, fleshy, almost flabby with a medium finish.

Maison Frédéric Magnien Latricieres-Chambertin Grand Cru

Frédéric Magnien is the son of Michel Magnien and, in addition to helping his father out at Domaine Magnien, he runs his own negocé which he founded in 1995.  Frédéric has been described in the Wine Advocate as having a "commitment to quality winemaking" and an "experimental, inquisitive mind."  He works closely with wine growers in the region to ensure that he obtains optimum-maturity, old-vine grapes from the best appellations.  His business has grown from 21 barrels annually to over 1000 today. 

Tasting notes: On the nose red fruit, vanilla, baking spices, petrol.  Petrol on palate along with hot pepper.  A good finish.  Ron ( my regular tasting partner; a Burgundy collector of note and the driving force behind the event) felt that this wine had more structure than the Clos de La Roche and had staying power.

Domaine Trapet Chambertin Grand Cru

The Trapet family has been producing wine in Gevrey-Chambertin for seven generations and currently owns 13 hectares of Grand Cru and Premier Cru vineyards which yield 5000 cases of wine annually.  The Chambertin Grand Cru holdings total 1.9 ha spread over three parcels.  The winemaker is Jean-Louis Trapet, a disciple of biodynamic farming.  Grapes are harvested by hand and sorted twice before natural-yeast fermentation ( 30% whole cluster, 70% destemmed) in open-top vats.  The wines are aged in 35%-75% new oak for 15-18 months before being bottled.

Tasting notes: Notes of green prunes and a little vanilla but, for the most part, ungiving.  On the palate lean, watered down red fruit.  Flat.

Red 2007 Flight

In 2007 Burgundy vignerons experienced a fairly miserable summer sandwiched in between a fine April and a cool, dry autumn.  According to Clive Coates MW, 2007 is the "least-good" of the Burgundy red wine vintages between 2005 and 2009 because there were few wines "with the depth, concentration and intensity one would like to find ..."

Domaine Comte Georges de Vogué Bonnes Mares Grand Cru

This 20th-generation domaine is among the very best Burgundy houses and seeks to maintain that standing by blending tradition and modernity.  The estate owns 7.5 ha of Le Musigny (80% of the available vineyard), 2.75 ha of Bonnes Mares, and 1.8 ha of Chambolle-Musigny Premier Cru vineyards.  The estate manager is Jean-Luc Pepin and the winemaker is Fancois Millet. This team is focused on maximizing fruit flavors as evidenced by crop thinning practices and a resistance to having more than 30-40% of the Grand Cru aged in oak.

Tasting notes: Red fruit and baking spices on the nose with a slight phenolic note.  Rich and creamy on the palate.  Great weight with a long finish.  This was an excellent wine.

Maison Frédéric Magnien Chambertin Clos de Bèze Grand Cru

The capabilities of this house were detailed in the Red 2006 Flight discussion.

Tasting notes: On the nose smoke, red berries, vanilla, and rich shoe polish.  Soy on the palate with a long, lean finish.  Low acidity.  Ron detected some earth and agreed with the richnesss assessment.  He felt that the acid level was appropriate.

*************************************************************************************************************

With a few exceptions, the wines tasted to this point had all showed pretty well (keeping in mind that red Burgundy is designed to be drunk at a more advanced age than was the case for this particular tasting).  I will cover the remainder of the tasting in a subsequent post.


© Wine -- Mise en abyme

Bond Estates Portfolio Tasting

On Thursday March 4th, Stacole Fine Wines, one of the most respected distributors in the metro-Orlando area, presented a tasting of the Bond Estates portfolio (Melbury, Quella, St. Eden, Vecina, and Pluribus) at the Country Club of Orlando. It was an exquisite affair. One of the finest pure wine tastings that I have experienced in the Orlando area and truly befitting the wines on offer, the venue, and the presenting organization. If you are a wine-tasting process person (as I am) this was all-galaxy.

The event was held in one of the larger halls of the Country Club of Orlando. The room was outfitted with circular tables arrayed around a centrally positioned lecturer's table and each of these tables had settings for four attendees in order to ensure that each attendee would have an unobstructed view of the lecturer. Each attendee position had a total of 9 Reidel glasses, each holding a pre-poured sample of the current-year offering of each of the Bond wines plus prior-year vintages of all except for the Quella whose 2006 vintage is its market introduction.

The tasting was led by Paul Roberts (below left), Estate Director and a Master Sommelier. He spent approximately 15 minutes providing extensive background on the winery, winery owner, winery philosophy and practices, and the wines. After this introduction he led us on a wine-by-wine tasting of the Bond portfolio.

The attendee list included: owners and representatives of Wine on the Way, The Wine Barn, Tim's Wine Market, Sanford Wine Company, Luma, The Elusive Grape, The Vineyard, The Wine Room and Orsay; contributors from Metro-Orlando Wine Scene and Events; representatives from The Country Club of Orlando; and some of the more important wine collectors in the area. There were about 50 attendees.

The material covered over the course of the two-hour tasting cannot be effectively covered in a single post. Over the next several posts we will examine why this was such a heralded event; provide details about the winery, the wine owner, and the wines; and provide our impression of the wines based on the tasting and other independent perspectives.