Lapierre and brett?

I generally love Lapierre, but have come across more than a few bottles from different vintage with a touch of barnyard. I’ve never seen anyone else mention it in a TN, so maybe it’s just me. Sitting here with a glass of '10 Morgon that’s showing the trait.

Cheers,
Warren

N or S bottling ?
I have only S (sulfered) bottlings across multiple vintages including 2010.
No Brett so far knock wood.
There is a line of thought that the non sulfered versions do not do so well on the journey here to the left coast.

I’ve been drinking Lapierre since the 2008 vintage and have never found it to show brett.

I’m about 50/50 on the almost dozen 09’s I’ve had.

Warren I think some of it has to do with the provenance. Don’t know for certain but he was aware of the possibility.

Lapierre is not where I find brett. That honor goes to Thenevet.

Never had the wines but here are a few thoughts:

If bottled unfined and unfiltered, you will always have a chance of brett in every bottle.
If bottled filterered and brett existed at bottling, you may still have a touch of brett but it won’t bloom.
If unfiltered and then shipped and exposed to temps above cellar temp, there is always a chance for a bloom to occur and for brett to grow selectively in those bottles.
High levels of sulfur do help to keep brett at bay, but not to kill brett.
Last, but but probably most importantly, we as consumers and an industry do not ‘speak a common language’ when it comes to brett - unless each wine is tested for its presence, individual ‘experience’, ‘knowledge’, ‘bias’, and sensitivities will always mean that one person’s ‘terroir’ will be another person’s ‘brett’ . . .

Cheers :slight_smile:

Drank a 2014 Morgon N last week, here in California, no signs of brett. But we imported it so I know the provenance was fine.

I’m so glad you brought this up (and apologies in advance for thread drift – happy to take this to a PM if others want to boot me out of the thread [cheers.gif] ). I had an interesting encounter with the manager at a well-established wine shop after mentioning I enjoy trying natural wines. I got a lecture how brett, and other things found in those wines are “all flaws” and he will only keep “clean” wines in his shop. Great! I’ll agree to disagree and go on merry way. Except he pulls me over where he’s tasting two wines … a $40 Pommard and a $12 Cote du Rhone. He served them to me in clear plastic cups and told me they were great examples of the wines he carries. I tried the Pommard. It had bright cherries and was a pretty wine. Certainly a crowd-pleaser easy-drinking table Burgundy. I then tasted the CdR – I put my nose in it and immediately started getting barnyard/musty-borderline mildew aromas. I took a sip – and continued to smell the barnyard, and got a few sour notes on the palate. So I spoke up and said that I think I actually smell some Brett – and he immediately knocks me down – and tells me there’s no way I could smell that. That there’s no Oak in the wine. So I acknowledged maybe it wasn’t Brett – but I was smelling those flavors: barnyard, musty and then after a third whiff, I added mushrooms. And again, he and another person who worked there told me that was impossible. And that’s what a “clean Syrah” smells like.

So here’s my question: I know I smelled those things. Do I have a misunderstanding of what Brett smells like (just as your post implies)? Or do those aromas, come from other factors? Was the wine maybe corked instead (which actually would have been funny, if that was the case). The manager got called away – and I didn’t want to sit there and argue, especially when they couldn’t answer my “What am I smelling?,” so I paid for my cheeses and meats (the reason why I was in the shop to begin with) and left. Sadly, I didn’t get too close to the label of the wine and didn’t feel the need to go back.

First off, gotta love the pours into clear plastic cups - certainly the best way to show wines off you are trying to sell, eh?!? :slight_smile: I truly have nothing ‘against’ them, but they certainly do not do a very good job putting the wine in its best element (IMHO).

As far as your question goes, you are bound to get lots of differing opinions here. Some folks will talk about reductive or sulfur-derived characteristics that can smell like ‘brett’ and all kinds of other things (I had a young syrah over the weekend that smelled like bacon - but I am relatively sure it was due to reduced aromas).

Tell tale signs of brett, though, are certainly barnyard and/or band aid. ‘Musty’ is tougher because it’s not a descriptor that can clearly be ‘defined’ in an ‘objective’ manner - at least, to me, as much so as barnyard.

Hope that helps . . .

I was going to say that I suspect that in many cases what people here describe as brett is probably some kind of sulfur/reduction. That kind of stinkiness can be experienced as something like manure/barnyard. (I bet there are 50 references to brett here for every reference to reduction, which makes me skeptical.)

Thanks Larry and John! That helps a lot. The barnyard was more dominant than the mustiness, so maybe it was the sulfur/reduction and not brett. But I don’t know if I’d still describe that as “clean” while he knocks every natural wine producer off his shelves! (To each their own, I guess.)

And yes – I was very surprised to see the plastic cups!

John,

You are probably somewhat correct, but that type of aroma may ‘blow off’ whereas brett will not, at least in my experience.

Cheers

Indeed.

I would think that significant reduction is at least as common as brett in wine, though.

Reduction generally has much more characteristic aromas than brett, which can be all over the map. I think reduction is actually easier to identify once you know what to look for.

One out of three of my '09s opened to date has had noticeable brett influence. All were stored the same.

For those with an extra sensitive nose, I’d like to point out that native yeasts can sometimes produce aromas that are evocative of low concentration brett.

P Hickner

It’s likely reduction and not Brett. Beaujolais and Jura reds made in a “natural” manner usually have a good amount of reduction and they frequently get accused of being Bretty as a result

I’ve probably had 10 bottles of LaPierre Morgon, and I’ve never had a bottle with notable brett or reduction. They’ve always seemed very clean to me. Maybe I’ve just been lucky and/or not very perceptive.

Berry,

Herein lies a major issue with wine - apples and oranges. You or I will never know about these other bottles because we are not consuming them - and therefore, even though these wines are not known for having characteristic levels of Brett, they very well might . . .

Just my .02 . . .

Opened an '09 S tonight. No brett or other fault at all to my taste, and have never detected it in Lapierre (I’ve probably drunk 6 vintages and 20-30 bottles).

Edit to add: this has been kept in a wine fridge since purchase. Also, just remembered that I had some '02s that went bad in '06 (cloudy but not bretty IIRC) probably due to NOT being stored well.