Next VINO Wine Tasting—“Slightly Aged Game Changers” Thursday, October 17th 6pm Every now & then it seems over the years, a “Game Changer” emerges. While it seems there is really no rhyme or reason, the fact is it is their ingenuity, culture, passionate & hard work which is the essence of their ermergence. It also helsp to have a very special & unique vineyard site too. On this night, we look to showcase wines from 3 such masters. Furthermore, each wine have some bottle age which will better showcase what the winemaker envisioned. You will NOT want to miss out on this one! Yes…..just another opportunity to learn. 2004 Michel Bregeon “Gorges” Now, here is a slightly aged white wine from France’s Loire Valley, specifically from the Nantais. While this appellation generally has over the years been know for light, crisp, completely refreshing & food friendly Muscadet based whites, we were introduced to a winemaker who thinks otherwise. When I first tasted the wines of Michel Bregeon back in the 90’s, he was then a standout producer of this region & trying to think & do “out of box” just as we have seen from Ostertag from Alsace. In the vineyards, this meant the conversion to uber-organic, even before it was fashionable. The wines have always, therefore, had great purity & transparency, seamless-ness & delicious-ness. I was completely dumb founded, however, when I first tried this wine. What a revelation!!!!!!! Here is your chance to see what I mean. “Michel Bregeon farms seven hectares of vineyards in clay, silica, and gabbro soils. Gabbro is old, blue-green, volcanic rock, rarely found in vineyard land. Formed by magma eruptions under the ocean floor, it is said to impart intense complexity to Michel’s wines. His corner of the Muscadet-Sèvre-et-Maine, Gorges, is particularly known for this rock, and all of Michel’s vines are planted in it. His small community of vignerons is actively seeking recognition and preservation of this particular cru, called “Gorgeois.” Though Muscadet (made from the Melon de Bourgogne grape) has been commonly known to produce young, fresh wines, (even those that spend a few months sur lie), Michel has broken the mold, keeping some of his wines on the lees for as much as seven years! He ages these wines in subterranean glass-lined cuves. In his mind, ¬the longer they stay there, the better. The unexpected freshness and depth of these older wines has silenced many a skeptic. Tastings at the domaine of bottled vintages spanning twenty years are the stuff of KLWM lore. An older wine from Brégeon has similarities to aged Chablis”. 2000 Cavallotto Barolo Riserva “San Giuseppe” The world of wine is greatly changing because of considerable improvements in plant material, vineyard management, winemaking, which is also affected by a generational change. It is therefore quite fascinating for me to see 3 young Cavallotto brothers choose to instead adhere more to the Old Ways of producing Barolo. Eventhough 2000 was rated 100 points by the Wine Spectator, instead of BIG wines, Cavallotto’s Baroli are classical, BUT have much more elegance, refinement & pedigree. 2000 La Spinetta Barbaresco “Starderi” Giorgio Rivetti has been one of the leaders of a New winemaking “revolution” in Piemonte. The centerpiece of their methods included roto-fermentors & French barrique. In their youth, the resulting La Spinetta wines were to some, “over the top”, although no one could argue the pedigree & sophistication was still present. As is the case in other contemporarily styled wines, we have found it sometimes just takes time & patience for the components of the wine to resolve, so that the terroir & soul has a chance to surface to the forefront again. Here is such an instance…..La Spinetta…13 years old..
Posted on: Tue, 15 Oct 2013 21:05:23 +0000
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