While driving home from skiing yesterday, I decided the nice acidic kiss of the '12 White Hill would be a good accompaniment and enhancement to the Cheddar, Beer and Broccoli soup. A great pairing. This vintage has a little more volume than the '11. Lemon, pear, apple fruit, and the slight scent of slate after a fresh rain.
We immediately followed the '12 White Hill with a 2011 “4”. This was more viscous and voluptuous, and has nice new oak notes. It wears it’s volume and oak lithely, and the crisp cut keeps is quite lively. While they’re quite different, I’m equally smitten with both the 4 & the WH.
I can’t believe I’ve turned into such a California Chard fan.
A side note; what are your thoughts about the LF corks? They look like a composite. Good, bad, indifferent?
LF uses Diam corks. Guaranteed to be fee of TCA/bacteria and provide consistency. They are cork but cleaned through a process, thus the look. Hey if you can get the benefits of cork without the pitfalls, who cares what they look like.
Greg - I read your last sentence about benefits and who cares what they look like, then looked at your avatar and practically spit out my wine laughing!!
Thanks for the notes. I doubled down on the '12s on BerserkerDay, so your impressions give me something to think about while waiting for a shipping window to open. If you could send some of that soup along in mid-March or so, that would make it even better!
Will do! A March shipping window is a reasonable expectation in Maryland. My friends in the midwest might be thinking they’ll never have a shipping window.
Sorry on the delay on getting in here about the corks!
So, 1st vintage in 2009 we used a regular cork as we typically see…we had some cork taint here and there but, the major issue was bottle variation - we had to open each bottle before presenting/sharing it - not something I was happy about being that we had SO very little (48cs of each WH and GS !!) that liquid as it is now is PRECIOUS!
(note; DIAM is all natural cork, high quality and put back in form with a natural sugar glue vs. agglomerated cork that is used typically to cut costs, can be made from inferior cork, is not treated as DIAM is w/ super critical CO2 - I will get to that below - and use synthetic/cheap adhesives to put it all back together)
My entree into DIAM was thankfully quick and due to Jeff’s working with Henriot Champagne - who since the 90’s have owned and helped turn around the issues of premox, etc at Bouchard Pere et fils and William Fevre.
I was not sold until I looked at the extensive research that Bouchard and Fevre had done. They started trials back in 2004 - money being no object they looked at everything under the sun and this is what they decided on - now the closure for most or all of their 1er and Grand Cru wines. So, I had to take heed.
I didn’t love the look/feel as much - they are a pain in the ass to get BACK in the bottle and can be a little harder (at least now/while young/freshly bottled) but, I remind myself every time I get the wine I know and love each and every time I crack a bottle, there is no worry about taint/about off aromas/about bottle variation / premox/oxidation - the wines are protected and they sing like they are supposed to. I know that will be the experience you guys have when you open and share them - that helps me sleep at night.
Big awesomeness here? Super critical CO2/Diamite process. here is a link to how they do this (also the process that can take caffeine out of tea and coffee btw )
It gets CO2 in the form of gas and a liquid - penetrating it like a gas and washing it like a liquid - completely deodorizing the cork. pretty cool shit. there are permeability options too - we use the top on Chards - 10yr Guaranteed, they may make available a longer guarantee (like 15 or 20) and if and when they do we will move to those. The Rosé this year will have the 5 yr. on it, lets face it no ones looking to drink those 10 years from now - although we will save a few to see what the hell they’re tasting like.
The other thing that was clutch for us was that this closure still supports the very incredible and multi-generational cork industry.
We cannot say the same for alternative closures such as screw caps, synthetic and glass, etc.
One last thing I easily got over regarding the sexier appeal of the “traditional cork” is the cork is not that color, they have to use bleach/processes to attain that lighter/whiter color. Eww. They also treat it with paraffin to give it that sleek haut couture slimness that makes easing the cork out of the bottle or back in - easier to do…When I thought about it, perhaps too much air/inconsistent amounts of air then is interacting with the various bottles. This to me explains much of the bottle variation we can experience with various wines - esp. white burgundy - maybe 1/2 the case are 9’s and 10’s and you are going to bet your ass there will be one 1-3 bottle in there - maybe more. That slickness causes varied permeability of oxygen. Some is great, but more than you bargain for and inconsistent amounts? Me no like.
Most importantly - we hope you like DIAM cuz your LF babies will never be corked and always singing in unison!
Holller if you guys have any questions, thoughts! I have now opted in on this post to be notified of replies so I can keep in touch with it
Nikki, thank you for the on the fly education. What is the price difference between the diam and the shitty, glued, yet ubiquitous corks? Wondering why more don’t use them.
@Kylyemittskus -
Not sure on the synthetic/cheaper guys to be honest - I would guess pending how many were ordered bulk maybe 5-10 cents??!? The DIAM 10 year that we are getting (2012 GS/FOUR onward with a slightly longer cork, etc) are around 50 cents per cork. I guess if you are making a certain price point/level of wine that is a big deal. The Rosé cork in under 40 cents per cork. Really high end corks range from 50 cents - $1-2 even + / to me its a no brainer but everyone has different reasons for the closures they use, for us - this has worked, is working and we really have been super happy with it across the board
Rama,
Thanks! We love to open a bottle selfishly and more so felt the balance of keeping supportive of the cork industry while fending off what was faulty about it at the same time, felt right for us
So the answer to premox is the cork? I know lots of theories including the cork, but if it was just the cork, why don’t the producers fix it? They are losing many customers over this issue. I have not bought any white burgs since 2002, but that could be good for you since I source my whites from California (very select few though) now. I can’t wait to try your wines (from Berserker Day) this Summer.
I’m also a Burgundy refugee, driven away by premox, and by the high quality of juice I’ve discovered coming out of Santa Cruz, Sonoma, and now Santa Rita Hills. You’re gonna love the LF wines.
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