Vouvray and the test of time

If you know me you probably know by now that I enjoy a good amount of acidity in wine. It is no surprise of course, that I love the incredible whites from the Loire valley from lean, minerally Muscadet to decadent sweet Moelleux (pronounced mway-le)Vouvray. These wines, thanks to their acidity, are legendary for their potential to age and wine lovers will often tell tales of drinking astonishingly old vintages. I had my first experience a couple of years ago when I tasted a 1990 Vouvray from the Domaine du Viking. Though I don’t remember exactly when it was, I know that the wines was at least 12 years old and it the way it tasted amazed me. It was bright, full of fresh acidity, but time had given it nuttiness and a depth of flavor that I hadn’t ever experienced in Vouvray- all this from a producer that I hadn’t even really heard of, and haven’t really seen lately in our market. Looking at the great labels of Vouvray on the shelf at work from producers like Huet, Foreau and Nicolas Joly, I wondered how wines considered benchmarks for their appellations -symbols of quality and dedication in the vineyard- would fare after some extensive aging.

After some searching on the internet and around town I ended up procuring a bottle of 1971 Domaine Huet Clos du Bourg Vouvray from a friend with an extensive cellar. As soon as I got the wine I planned a dinner and started prepping by doing some reading about what I should expect and if the wine might even be over the hill. With the night of the tasting upon us I started wondering if drinking a 37 year old white wine might be too good to be true. Maybe people just write about drinking insanely old wines because it is exclusive and they end up fooling themselves into liking them…maybe. The level of the wine was definitely lower than a young bottle and I could see, holding the bottle up to the light, that the color was surely different from any other I had seen. Removing the capsule, I really got nervous when I saw that the cork was covered in thick, black mold, no doubt the sweet wine had started to seep through the cork and became food for mold. Pulling out the cork was tough since it wanted to crumble and fall into the bottle, but we couldn’t let that happen! Finally the moment arrived and we poured our glasses. The golden color was inspiring and I could smell fresh apples…I suspected we were about to taste magic.

Absolutely magical.

The flavors and aromas mingled like colors in a pile of leaves, there were fresh appley scents as well as apricot, honey and then some butter, and of course, bright acidity framing the whole thing. After tasting several times I decided I didn’t even want to have any food with it, it was enough to just appreciate the wine by itself, unadorned in all its glory. How amazing it must have been, the first time somebody tasted a wine this old and expected it to be bad. Imagine the thrill of being a winemaker and realizing what your wine is worth 37 years down the line. I get a chill just thinking about how in the past 37 years seasons have come and gone, people have been to the moon and back, people are born, other people die, and all the while the wine is resting peacefully under ground, evolving slowly, revealing layer upon layer. For all this I have one word: amazing!

Lamb+ Cabernet Franc

Sometimes you happen upon a recipe or a wine and they really seem to mesh together well. Sometimes, however, the pairing turns out to be really amazing, and the total experience ends up being truly enlightening. Last night I decide that I wanted to try out a lamb recipe in preparation for this Sunday, where we will taste some very old Bandols. I chose a Friulano recipe that sounded simple , yet flavorful. Leg of lamb is cubed and browned in a pot with some onion and garlic that are sizzling in some olive oil, then you throw in some beef broth and cook for a half an hour. After a half an hour on low heat you add a spoonful of tomato paste, some red wine ( I used '06 Paitin Barbera D'Alba) and a dash of cinnamon. Simmer on low for another half an hour, and that is it.
When I tasted the lamb it was so soft, flavorful, and rich it was much more than I expected. We just so happened to have a bottle of Cabernet Franc from the Loire valley open and it was an amazing combination. Loire Cabernet Franc is my girlfriend's favorite but we often drink it as a do-all wine that ends up being paired with some silly food that we are eating like thai food or something spicy. Tonight, though, I decided to make the lamb and it might have been the best food and wine pairing I have ever had. You take gamey, fatty lamb meat and pair it with brightly acidic, aromatic, slightly tannic Cabernet Franc and you get magic. Magic! Acid met fat and earthy wine met gamey meat, and the result was perfect. I am sorry for taking this too far but how can you pass up the opportunity to share a great experience.
I am going to make the dish again with a couple of very rare wines.
This Sunday is going to be a special night. We will be doing some very old wines with some simple, savory dishes and it will be a lot of fun. We will have Tempier Bandols "La Tourtine" from 1982 and 1985 as well as a 1971 Huet Vouvray "Clos du Bourg" Moelleux. I will write more after Sunday, for sure- as for now, drink some Bourgeuil!

mm mm mm Vouvray!

I just finished reading Wine and War, by Donald and Petie Kladstrup, which i will have to say is my first official wine nerd book. It details the experiences of vineyard owners and vignerons in France during the German occupation during World War II. I could write and write about the book but the reason I bring it up is because the book talks a lot about the Loire valley, and how some producers played a part in the resistance, while others, like Gaston Huet, were POWs. The Loire is one of my favorite wine making regions in France, a region that has very high quality reds and whites but yet is often sadly overlooked when people list great wine regions. While i love Cabernet Franc, what I love about the Loire the most are the wines made from Chenin Blanc. From crisp, off dry Vouvray to seriously dry, rich Savennieres, the spectrum of flavors is really amazing.
Tonight i had the pleasure of drinking a sparkling Vouvray from the producer Champalou. Sparkling Vouvray has a certain effect on me that I do not really understand. One sip and I picture myself standing in a cold, damp cellar being poured a barrel sample and I just cannot get over it. The wine tonight is not really that complex, showing lots of fresh apple and pear scents with maybe a little litchi aroma, with a lower acidity than I would have imagined. With 12% alcohol, I found myself drinking more than my fair share and not even realizing it. While i thought to myself that maybe a simple wine is a bit disappointing, sometimes the greatest achievement is not a wine that conjures a string of over-done phrases adorned with adjectives or descriptors, but a wine that is at once simple yet satisfying, and that is certainly how i would describe the Vouvray tonight. So instead of searching for complexity that may not even be there I am content with saying "mm mm mm, Vouvray."