Quite dry on the palate, and with more body than a typical Muscadet (at least in my experience). Nice framing acidity and quite refreshing, but not overly complex. A hint of bitterness on the finish that slightly detracts from the overall impression of the wine.
I’ve just been sitting here with a glass catching up on a few threads, and the nose on the Bossard wine has really opened up - nice citric notes, “steeliness” and almost a rainwater-like purity. I am listening to 11/17/72 by the Dead, so maybe Jerry’s recent space jam woke the wine up .
Bob, just saw your note in CT as I was musing about the list online to find some bottles to open. I opened the 2009 Clisson, so not far off from your 2010. I probably would not mind the bitterness you wrote about, though.
And how is the '09, Frank - I have the '07, and I have the '09 Trois, but for some reason never picked up the Granite de Clisson in '09?
I do like Kenny Burrell - I don’t know if you remember Hank Gillespie from the Parker board, but Hank and I were always posting about pairing up wine with jazz. I am more of a Grant Green fan, though. If you like Stanley Turrentine, I highly recommend Blue Hour, which pairs up Stan with the Three Sounds, featuring Gene Harris on keys - very nice, and very conducive to contemplating a fine bottle of wine.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, Jerry and the boys are about to take off on a 30 minute excursion into Playing in the Band .
I was satisfied with that L’Ecu. Pretty similar impressions as your update. I generally like Luneau Papin, but less of a fan of that cuvee; too floral for me. Not much of a fan of young Margaux wines either.
Bob, I have a couple of the 3 Sounds cds, just not the one you mention. I appreciate too that you mention Grant Green, as I have several of his things but I have always had a hard time appreciating him, finding Kenny more to my style, even Wes Montgomery to probably say second place to Kenny.
On the 09 Clission, I have a little left from y/day’s pahty and will post a note this afternoon. I found the wine round, although not flabby. Look for my note later if you want to wait until I can retaste and have a better sense. We had about 10 bottles of wine out y/day and that bottle got a little lost. Or, well, I got a little lost!
Frank, assuming the link above worked, if you don’t already have this, this is the Grant Green release to buy - he’s paired with Sonny Clark throughout both discs - Sonny died way too young, but the man could play the piano, especially in a supporting role. Great shtuff, IMO.
Bob, thanks for that link. I have 3-4 of Grant’s things, but not with this backing section, a group of guys I would normally be drawn to so if you say the work here is different than the other stuff like Matador or Green Street, I’d be down for buying it
Oh, and the note, almost forgot:
2009 Domaine de la Pépière (Marc Ollivier) Muscadet de Sèvre-et-Maine Clisson- France, Loire Valley, Pays Nantais, Muscadet de Sèvre-et-Maine (8/3/2014)
Opened y/day. I like this much better today, as the apple sauce note from y/day, that weight is less and the wine has more lean edges, more energy today. Bitter lemon, almost a tonic water-like note, mineral, green apple, pear. Needed air, as it really helped advance the wine’s complexity.
Here’s a bit of background to this cuvée from the Butte de la Roche; the Luneau-Papin’s have been looking for vines on the ‘butte’ (which is east of Nantes) for years, but it was only very recently that managed to find some. The butte is an arrow-shaped ridge of serpentinite rock, just one of many different igneous rocks you can find in the Muscadet region; it has a really weird appearance, dark green, with a strange ridged, fissured, peppered surface. I have a small lump, pocketed when standing atop the butte last year, sitting on my desk here as I type. The butte is regarded locally as a very special place, and I know the Luneau-Papin family were glad to finally take possession of some vines here; in winter the surrounding marshland floods, essentially making the butte into an island, which probably only enhances the feeling that this is a special place. I really like the Butte de la Roche cuvée they make (I think 2008 was the first vintage), despite my original beliefs about the effect of serpentinite it is a wine that seems set to cellar well. As it happens I have one (a 2010) lined up for drinking, but I have some in the cellar too to see how it does.
I don’t have so much to say on the Ecu wines; I’m definitely not a fan of the 2011 vintage in Muscadet as it was beset by invidious grey rot at harvest time. You don’t find many cuvées not tainted by it, in some cases heavily, and the Ecu wines are no exception. I tend to find 2011s are either clearly marked by grey rot, or they feel ‘stripped out’ which may reflect post-fermentation treatments with activated charcoal or similar to remove the rot flavour. The only really good wines from that vintage come from Luneau-Papin, who reacted to the rot in the correct way.
Chris, I enjoyed the 2011 Amphibolite from Jo Landron. Didn’t notice rot, but I may not know what to look for. The Amphibolite comes from metamorphic rock (not too dissimlar from the metamorphic formation of Serpentinite). Not exactly a selling point, but both Serpentine and Amphibole rocks are the primary sources of asbestos.
I know Jo and Guy Bossard are neighbors. Similar grey rot issues for both?
I have only tasted the 2011 Amphibolite once, in May 2012, and didn’t see any rot, but I didn’t like the wine much. I like Jo very much, and generally like his wines too (his 2012s are really back on form - a lovely Amphibolite for example) but I haven’t enjoyed his 2011s, including Amphibolite. I found in 2011 his wines have lacked the vigour and flavour they should have, but there hasn’t been any rot flavours in them except for the Grains de Raisins Muscadet Nouveau 2011 which was overtly rotten when I tasted it back in 2012.
I have thought to myself that the “flat” wines of 2011 have been stripped out by treatments, but this is just an assumption, it’s not something I have clarified as few winemakers enjoy discussing it.
The rot issue in 2011 in Muscadet was widespread (you also get some 2011s in Anjou with notes of grey rot), potentially affecting everyone (it was an issue at every domaine I usually taste at anyway). The problem was unusual as it is normal for rot to appear on the surface of bunches as harvest approaches, in this case the problem can be snipped out at picking. But in 2011 the rot was deep inside the bunches; the bunch looked fine on the outside, but if you broke it open the inner part was rotten. Pierre Luneau-Papin saw this and changed his selection, breaking open bunches, discarding rotten fruit; they threw away up to 30% of what they picked. I am convinced that is why his wines taste like proper Muscadet in 2011. Many others (that I know of anyway) didn’t and got rot flavours in their wines as a consequence; when I asked Guy Bossard about his discards through rot in 2011 he looked at me non-plussed and made up a tiny figure (I think he said 5% if I recall correctly, but it was clearly plucked from the air), and that tallies with my finding that his 2011s are heavily marked by rot - I have tasted each cuvée 3 or 4 times and it is a consistent finding.
As for the machine-pickers, in a vintage like this, there’s no hope.
Happily, the 2012 vintage is much better qualitatively (although the frost in April pushed yields right down to half of normal so a difficult one for the vignerons) and I love these wines, the 2013s tasted from cuve earlier this year are also really good (again lower yields though, often 75% of normal) and I expect these wines will be fine once in bottle. I hope 2014 gives them better volumes though - so far the vintage has gone well (no frost, no hail, good flowering, yields should be at least normal) so it all depends on how harvest goes.
Thanks very much for the heads up Chris. Very much agree on the 2012 vintage for Muscadet. I tasted some of the 2012 Grains de Raisins Muscadet Nouveau with Jo and immediately bought some. Only so much room in the suitcase! 2012 wasn’t so easy either IIRC, but some really lovely wines. Seems like the '13s have been hitting the shelves here, looking forward to tasting some soon.
The 2011s out of the Bregeon cellar can be very good. Fred and Michel have produced three different bottlings so far in 2011 (with one still to come) and the second one is superb, with the fourth one (still in cuve) also looking pretty good. The first and third are no slouches either. They did a fierce selection though to remove rotten grapes. The advantage of 100% hand harvesting - which I don’t think many producers do (even some famous names, who hand harvest most of their grapes, rely on machines for some vineyards in some vintages I believe).
I’ve gone through a lot of Muscadet this summer and have really enjoyed the 2012 Luneau-Papin / Domaine Pierre de la Grange Muscadet de Sèvre-et-Maine Vieilles Vignes Sur Lie Clos des Allées. and 2012 Chéreau-Carré Muscadet de Sèvre-et-Maine Sur Lie La Griffe in particular. The former has all but disappeared in Ontario, unfortunately, so hopefully the next vintage rolls through soon.
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