Some new “natural” wines from PM Distributors showed up at Kokoman’s Fri, so I tried this weekend:
Famille Peillot Altesse AdOC: Roussette du Bugey-Montagnieu (12.5%; MeBalP; Louis/Dressner Slctns) 2018: Med.gold color; slight appley/floral bit earthy/funky slight haymow/natty/bit mousey rather strange nose; quite tart/tangy/grapefruity/bit metallic bit funky/natty/earthy/haymow slight cidery rather strange flavor w/ precious little fruit; med.long rather tart/tangy bit grapefruity/apple cider bit earthy/natty/haymow no fruit finish; a rather strange charmless white that only a mother could love; not a bad wine or a flawed wine but just sorta strange and doesn’t deliver much pleasure; a sorta apple cidery wine w/o the apples. After several hrs opened, the wines clears to a pleasant Savoie Roussette w/ the savory/mineral character you expect from a Savoie Roussette. $23.50 (KK)
Famille Peillot Mondeuse AC: Bugey (MeBalP; 12%; Louis/Dressner) Montagnieu/Bugey 2017: Med.dark color; strong black cherry cola/herbal/Mondeuse rather earthy/loamy/dusty light oak somewhat rustic/funky/root cellar nose; lightly tart/tangy bit lean/hard/tannic/rough some Mondeuse/herbal/black cherry cola bit funky/natty/loamy bit metallic interesting flavor w/ some tangy/bitey hard/coarse tannins; med.long rather black cherry cola/Mondeuse earthy/loamy/hard/coarse/rough bit funky/natty finish w/ some hard/coarse tannins; a rather earthy/loamy/coarse/funky expression of Mondeuse; doesn’t hold a candle to a Lagier-Meredith. $21.00 (KK)
A wee BloodyPulpit:
So there you have it…two “natural” wines. They were a bit better than I expected and rather interesting…but didn’t offer up a whole lot of pleasure. Pretty much the story of many “natural” wines.
Tom
I like Peillot’s traditional method Bugey-Montagnieu Brut, haven’t tried his still wines. Nothing about that bottling screams natural wine to me, though.
Hi Tom,
I’ve met Franck Peillot several times in Seattle when the winemakers have been in town. He would not consider his wines part of the “natural” wine movement, and would be surprised to hear them described that way. I think his feelings about natural wines may be pretty close to yours in fact!
He’s pretty much a hard working farmer, his vines are mainly on steep slopes which forces him to do most of the work by hand. He’s not even certified organic, but minimizes as much as possible the use of chemicals in the vineyard. He doesn’t inoculate the juice with yeast and lets the fermentation go with the indigenous yeasts present on the grapes, but that’s as natural as he gets. He has a dislike of volatile acidity found in many of the “natural” wines, and tries to do what he can to avoid it in his wines as it detracts from what he’s trying to do, which is express the terroir of the Bugey vineyards.
For my tastes his Altesse really shines in cooler years, and in years like 2015 can get a bit blocky and flat. I imagine in ‘18 it may be similar. The 2017 version is a beauty. It’s never the most aromatic variety but it has a good combination of minerals and acid and more subtle orchard fruit.
His Mondeuse is fairly rustic, and he doesn’t try to use techniques in the cellar to soften the tannin.
He has a small amount of Pinot Noir, and that wine is usually an easy to drink version of the grape.
I really enjoyed talking with him, and think his wines are good examples of the Montagnieu Bugey region.
Thanks for chiming in, Marc. I didn’t do much research on him, so you have a better take than I. It came into NM thru a distributor who’s focus is “natural” wines. The importer is Louis/Dressner, who carries a lot of natural wines. So I just assumed he was in the natural camp. Thanks for correcting me. So I was attributing his winemaking style to natural. They weren’t nearly as “bad” as some natural wines and certainly not flawed. But I’ve had better examples of those varietals from Savoie.
Tom
Mondeuse home place is the Savoie/Bugey vineyards, typically cold continental climate and mostly limestone soils (acidity enhancers).
Lagier Meredith Mondeuse can hardly be considered as a benchmark wine from this varietal, due to the volcanic soils and rather hot climate compared to Savoie.
I had this lovely wine a few time and, for me, it says a lot more about the Mount Veeder terroir, than about the varietal, that I failed to identify each time I was blinded!
I am a bad blind taster but an serious mondeuse drinker!!!