Nov.
16 is the most auspicious day of the drinking calendar – the Wandering Palate’s
birthday and the day when wine Feng Shui is at its zenith.
This is the eve of the new vintage Beaujolais
Nouveau, celebrated on the third Thursday of November annually, so by default I
find myself somewhat compelled to join in the festivities, and you will find me
at one of the Nouveau parties, somewhere on this planet, drowning in a krater
of Beaujolais, burbling incoherencies of an impending midlife crisis.
No doubt wine snobs will cringe at the thought
of The Wandering Palate embracing Beaujolais Nouveau; however I actually quite
enjoy the wine – certainly refreshing for a period.
I am also intrigued by the ideology or
technique as it were, of carbonic-maceration and the thought that this is what
wine would perhaps have been like in ancient times; drunk young and resembling
rose and light red.
It is believed that wine cultivation began
some 8,500 years ago, around the Anatolia Peninsula in ancient Persia and
particularly Armenia, where archaeologists have unearthed the earliest evidence
of wine production.
The theory goes that the first wines made by
man were in fact by a form of carbonic-maceration, and that they had discovered
the first biotechnology (fermentation) with whole grapes that were sealed in
containers and effectively making "Stone Age Beaujolais Nouveau".
To quote the most recent discoveries of wine
archaeology in the National Geographic, “Wine snobs might shudder at the
thought, but the first wine-tasting may have occurred when Palaeolithic humans
slurped the juice of naturally fermented wild grapes from animal-skin pouches
or crude wooden bowls.”
Then there is a more evocative theory of how
wine was discovered with a similar carbonic-maceration theory, as told by G.
Harding in ‘A Wine Miscellany:’ “According to Iranian legend, wine was
discovered by a Persian girl despondent over her rejection by the king. The
girl decided to commit suicide by drinking the spoiled residue left by rotting
table grapes. Instead of poisoning the girl, the fermented must fermented
caused her to pass out to awaken the next morning with the realization that
life was worth living. She reported back to the king her discovery of the intoxicating
qualities of the spoiled grape juice and was rewarded for her find.”
Perhaps we should be viewing Beaujolais
Nouveau in a different light... a sort of ‘Back to the Future’ wine experience.
There’s no question that the Nouveau made
nowadays is a whole lot brighter, fruiter and plusher, bristling clean with
refrigerated fermentation technology and modern equipment and science, and one
assumes a whole lot more anaerobic than rudimentary "Stone Age Beaujolais
Nouveau".
I have just received samples of the Georges du
Duboeuf Beaujolais Nouveau, and Nouveau Villages 2011, dropped of by the
marketing representative and under a journalistic embargo until release this
evening; however by the time you are read this, it will have been unveiled at
celebrations all over the world.
Georges Duboeuf is the benchmark in
consistency and quality, particularly in an export sense with the wines widely
distributed.
My immediate impression of the wines, and
setting the olfactories alive is the dense colour of the two wines, reminiscent
of the deep, plush and intense 2009 vintage. 2011 was clearly an excellent
vintage in Beaujolais and these wines exhibit the freshly-crushed aromas of all
the black berry fruits – blackberry, blueberry, black cherry, currants – with
some underlying nuances of sweet strawberry, but clearly there is very ripe and
intense fruit. There’s also the distinct, earthy, graphite, flinty soil
character coming through and the youthful spearmint-like nuances and steeliness
of fresh, lively acidity.
These black berry flavours and sweetness carry
to the palate in a fruit bomb, engulfing the mouth, gliding at first then
racing across the palate with a tantalizing tangy, spicy, juicy, mouth-watering
succulence and all silky and soft in texture, caressing the palate with layers
of sweet-n-sour lushness, yet all kept crisp, crunchy and wonderfully
refreshing.
The two wines seem very similar in aroma and
flavor although as you would expect of the higher appellation of Beaujolais-Village,
this wine has an extra smoothness with more integrated, finer tannins and
overall exhibiting a little more polish, the straight Beaujolais, which is
enjoyable though just a little more graininess to the texture.
I don’t know the price difference between the
two, but I would personally opt for the Beaujolais-Villages level, perhaps I am
a sucker for hierarchy – a Beaujolais-Villages Nouveau snob!
I certainly have no qualms in saying these
wines are absolutely delicious and tantalizing drinking and continue the trend
towards a far denser and more luscious style that I would think very appealing
to all wine drinkers.
On a more serious note, even if many wine
connoisseurs find it difficult to think of Beaujolais as a serious wine; I have
decided to select a ‘Must-Have Birthday Selection Beaujolais of the Year; and
this years is –
Jean-Paul Thévenet
Morgon Vieille Vignes 2010 – Cru Beaujolais, France
This is not just serious Cru Beaujolais, this
is as serious as good red wine gets and I would defy anyone to show me a wine
more velvety smooth and so seductively layered and palate caressing than this.
It is Henry Hariyono at Artisan Cellars in
Singapore who is to blame for my being completely seduced by this wine,
although I have had it in the past, but a good eight years or so ago, on
account of being so hard to come by a bottle.
I have written on the Beaujolais Cru Morgon
many times, indeed the Georges Duboeuf Morgon Domaine Mont Chavy 2009 was my
French Red Wine of the Year, last year and would easily award Thévenet Morgon
Vieille Vignes 2010 the same, if it weren’t too obvious an obsession and bias
towards the Beaujolais region.
Appellation hierarchy aside Jean-Paul Thévenet
is one of the most revered winemakers in the region, if not all France; an
artisan vigneron that is making wines equal to burgundies finest and defying
all the mistruths and prejudice that is unfairly dealt out on Beaujolais.
It shows a complete ignorance and herd
mentality of wine consumers, or least the unjust effects of wine fashion and
the ill-informed having sway over those who do not have a great interest in
wine. The irony is, this is the perfect wine for the uninitiated and I could
not think of anything better than cutting my teeth on such a gorgeous,
exuberantly fruity, silky-smooth red wine.
And why is it that Thévenet Morgon Vieille
Vignes is so different from others?
Well for a start Vieille Vignes means old
vines, in this case two plantings of 110 years old and 45 years old, and that
shows in the creamy texture of the wine. The vineyard uses organic and
biodynamic practices; no synthetic herbicides or pesticides, with minimal
additions of sulphur dioxide and no chaptalization (adding sugar to the must)
or filtration.
Essentially, Thévenet went against the modern
movement and went back to traditional practices, and if only more vignerons in
Beaujolais would follow.
My note for Jean-Paul Thévenet Morgon Vieille
Vignes 2010 reads: Super-rich blueberry, black berry, cherry compote (jam) with
a maple syrup nuance and sensation of lactose-double cream (you have to smell
double cream to get the idea), the bouquet becomes deeper and more intense as it
breaths with cassis and ripe black cherry, as it builds in its exuberance is
enhanced by a cinnamon spiciness with herbal notes of dried sage and tobacco,
and distinctive wet bluestone, granite-steely-flinty earthy minerality amongst
oak forest and walnut.
Gorgeously plush, rush of sweet
creamy-textured black cherry and blueberry engulfing the mouth and senses –
layer upon layer of creamy, velvety smooth, rich fruit caressing the mouth and
then a spike of steely acidity bring a tangy, sweet-n-sour balance and
freshness, then some herbal, green olive, bitter walnut complexities, all the
while giving one that textural sensation of great pinot noir, with super-fine
tannins and cool acidity imparting the requisite tension and structure and a
steady crescendo of spicy-cinnamon lingering warmth, check by a steely,
minerally, crisp-acid finish.
It seems impossibly concentrated in its
density of fruit yet so bright, harmonious and suave – an incredibly balanced
and seductive red wine that outclasses all but the very best new world pinot
noirs and high-echelon burgundy.
Jean-Paul Thévenet is the world’s worst kept
secret in the underground wine circles, with a production of only 2000 cases,
snapped up on pre-release with most thankful to get six bottles, luckier folks
maybe a case.
It may seem a bit cruel to tease you with a
wine that is seemingly impossible to get hold of, but the hunt is all part of
the pleasure of this wine, so do your level-best to track down some.
First place to start, in Asia, is to beg Henry
for a few bottles, visit
http://www.artisan-cellars.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/20111101_Jean-Paul_Thevenet_intro.html
In the US, none other than legendary wine
merchant Kermit Lynch is the importer,
http://kermitlynch.com/our_wines/jean-paul-thvenet/
The rest of the world, good hunting!
Curtis Marsh
Asia Sentinel
(Curtis Marsh – The Wandering Palate, our
veteran sommelier and independent wine and food writer, has over 30 years
experience in hospitality, wine and media.)
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