Archive for the ‘Spotlights’ Category
Spotlight on Rhone Valley White Wines: Domaine de la Charbonniere 2006 Chateauneuf du Pape Blanc
Posted by Shea in $40-$60, Clairette, French Wine, Grenache Blanc, Rhone Valley White Wine, Rousanne, Very Good on September 2nd, 2010
As mentioned in my last post, Chateauneuf du Pape Blanc gets little attention. Nevertheless, these are distinct wines with their own expression of some of the famous terroirs of Chateauneuf that are quite unlike the whites of the Northern Rhone.
Galet Vineyards
Charbonniere makes their four red Chateauneuf and one white cuvee from four main vineyards: les Brusquières, la Crau, Mourre des Perdrix, and around the estate Charbonniere. These vineyards are in the north or north east and thus have clay and limestone soils (one of four broad types within CdP). The vineyards also contain the famous galets or rounded stones that sit in the vineyard soaking up and storing heat.
A Classic Vinification
From 20 year old vines Charbonniere makes their white using a blend of 40% Grenache blanc, 40% Roussanne, 20% Clairette, with the Clairette being harvested after the other two. The wine is then destemmed, crushed and vinified in 25% new oak and 75% stainless steel, with no malo-lactic fermentation. As the wine ages it sees regular battonages (lees stirring), which works well in this wine as its acidity balances the richness.
The classic approach reflects in the flavour profile, with this wine delivering good rounded flavours and structure, but little out of the ordinary or exciting.
A Wine of Itself but Lacking Punch
The nose is softly spicy with lemon and minerals that remind me very much of Chardonnay. This is more expressive than the Boursan, and the palate has better structure and length, with Chardonnay-like flavours of lemon, cream and minerals. However, it is quite a bit less distinctive than the Boursan, though more accessible and more immediately delicious.
Again, this is a well made wine but nothing particularly stands out. Everything is in its place, though I suspect the balance of the wine could be improved.
Very Good+
$55 at Marquis Wine Cellars
So What’s the Deal with CdP Blanc?
While signs are that these wines will continue to improve, right now they can’t match the range, complexity and better value offered by the white wines of the Northern Rhone. Despite this, these wines still possess enough interest and terroir to make them worth experiencing and are an important stop on a wine geek’s journey.
The remainder of this focus on Rhone whites will look at how these varieties are being treated in the New World – some of what is going on is quite surprising.
Spotlight on Rhone Valley White Wine: Domaine Bois de Boursan Chateauneuf du Pape Blanc 2007
Posted by Shea in $40-$60, Bourboulenc, Clairette, French Wine, Grenache Blanc, Rhone Valley White Wine, Rousanne, Very Good on August 29th, 2010
Chateauneuf du Pape is, of course, famous for its red wines. In Vancouver particularly CdP is often the premium wine of choice for many novice buyers and moneyed collectors. Many wine geeks, however, have moved away from many Chateauneufs, which with ever better reviews from Robert Parker and ever increasing interest from the points crowd, have increased in price significantly. Despite this trend towards prestige pricing, the white wines of Chateauneuf still sit well under the radar of most collectors, and even many wine geeks.
Chateauneuf du Pape Blanc can be made from five different grapes – Roussanne, Grenache Blanc, Clairette, Bourboulenc and Picardan. Most predominantly use Grenache Blanc, though there are a few pure Roussannes that have gained a strong reputation (Beaucastel’s most notably). Bois de Boursan makes its white from a unique blend of 35% Clairette, 35% Grenache Blanc, 15% Roussanne and 15% Bourboulenc. Most of us, including myself, have never tasted pure Clairette or Bourboulenc so it is hard to tell exactly what these add to the flavours of the blend, but Jancis Robinson explains that the grapes are used in the southern Rhone to add aroma and acidity to a wine.
The wine is unique, presenting apple ginger spice cake on the subtle and not overly expressive nose. The wine tastes best at near room temperature, and along with the above flavours, has some dry minerality in the finish. Perhaps thiswas too young when I drank it, but I found it fairly closed, even as the mid-palate had serious structure. The medium acid held the wine together well enough so it didn’t become overly rich – but this is not a sprightly or crisp white. Bois de Boursan uses barriques from Alsace and Borgogne for its wines and the old wood influence works quite well. I expect the wine will open with age, but it is not nearly as immediately delicious as the Northern Rhone whites.
Very Good+
$60 at Marquis Wine Cellars
Spotlight on Rhone Valley White Wine: Domaine Auguste Clape St. Péray 2007
Posted by Shea in $20 and under, Excellent, French Wine, Marsanne, Rhone Valley White Wine, Rousanne on August 25th, 2010
From History to Obscurity
St. Péray may be the most obscure region in the entire Rhone valley. Once as famous as regions like Cornas and Condrieu, it has now dwindled to a near obscurity. Situated directly south of Cornas, St. Péray is the most southerly of all the Northern Rhone appellations, except for a small piece of the large Croze-Hermitage.
Napoleon Bonaparte once described the still wines of St. Péray as his first wine discovery – much like many wine lovers today have that moment that opens their eyes and palates to wine. But since the excitement of the 19th century for the wines of St. Péray wore off, the region has seen a continuing decline in interest. Today there are only a dozen growers and a handful of negociants, with half of the wine being made at the cooperative of Tain L’Hermitage. All the more rare it is, then, to find a wine from the caliber of a producer like Auguste Clape, who is probably the leading producer in Cornas. Accordingly, Clape’s St. Péray vineyards are just south of his Cornas vineyards and comprise a miniscule 0.23 hectares. As a result, Clape only makes 100 cases of this very rare dry white.
Youthful Terroir
Clape’s vineyards are sited on acidic soil, with quartz granite and patches of clay limestone on the lower slopes. The granite tends to produce wines that drink better young. The Marsanne, which comprises 99% of the wine (1% Roussanne), is picked mostly from 55-65 year old vines, with about 1/3 of the fruit from 15 year old vines.
There has also been a trend in St. Péray to increase the use of oak, which tends to cover over the more terroir driven aspects of the wine, which are quite delicate despite the commonly robust alcohol. Clape, on the other hand, ferments in concrete and stainless steel, and allows malo-lactic fermentation to complete naturally before bottling in April. This vinification methodology also reflects that the oaked whites need more time in bottle to come together. With Clape’s terroir favouring younger wines, it makes little sense to produce an oakier style of wine.
St. Péray – its Own Terroir
The pale colour of the wine belies its richness and its luminescent nose of pear, apple and a touch of honey nut. The palate presents tremendous minerality with deep orchard fruits. This has impeccable structure for a 14% ABV wine, and it holds the alcohol extremely well. The richness is outstanding given the complete lack of oak – and this is perhaps why the wine is so balanced. The finish is very persistent given the price point. Overall this is a distinctive terroir based wine that shows more minerals and spice versus the more honeyed and floral tones of its St. Joseph counterparts. The price I paid for the quality is astounding – it is worth four times as much.
Excellent
$17 at K&L Wine Merchants in SF.
Spotlight on Rhone Valley White Wine: Pierre Gonon ‘Les Oliviers’ St. Joseph Blanc 2005
Posted by Shea in $40-$60, Excellent, French Wine, Marsanne, Rhone Valley White Wine, Rousanne on August 23rd, 2010
A return to elegance and complexity as I return to this spotlight – lost amongst distractions and digressions. Run by two brothers in their 30’s, Domaine Gonon is one of those dwindling producers only making one red and one white wine. With the infection of the prestige cuvee both in the southern and the northern Rhone, it is rare and exceptional to find a producer with some incredible terroir who see simplicity as the way to the heart of good wine.
A Simple Take on Terroir
As wines made in the St. Joseph appellation, some might place the Gonons’ creations into the unfortunate realm occupied by the highly cropped and poorly made wines from the regions with little terroir. This would be a mistake. The Gonons’ father was one of the first to pursue white wine seriously in the modern generation, planting his Marsanne vines in 1958. This makes the vines some of the oldest in the Northern Rhone.
These days, the white Gonon is made with 80% Marsanne from these vines and 20% Roussanne from vines planted in 1974. The vines sit above Tournon, 200 metres above on the Coteau des Oliviers – a site renowned since before the creation of the St. Joseph appellation. As for soils, you will find stones and red clay with some sanded granite.
Farming and vinification practices are thoughtful and attentive at this estate. For instance, all the vineyard work is manual and they don’t use wire training for any vines. They also select cuttings from their own rootstock to avoid importing clones. In the cellar, they use all indigenous yeast and ferment in open wooden vats.
A Perfect Balance
The brothers report that their white wine can age up to 20 years in great vintages, a rarity for whites made from Marsanne and Roussanne. I tasted it at a mere 4 years of age, but it was showing perfectly. The nose was soft and clear with minerals and stone combined with citrus zest. This is basically textbook St. Joseph Blanc – it marries suppleness and elegance with intense flavour and tremendous versatility for a low-acid wine. I would pair this with a main course, but the pear, apple, honey, nuts and caramel flavours are also lush and wonderful by themselves. Full bodied, clean, but not overly sweet, the aromatics and texture are enticing beyond addiction. This is the complete package and you could not hope for better quality from a white at this price.
Excellent
$50 at Marquis
Spotlight on Rhone Valley White Wine: Domaine Yves Cuilleron St. Joseph Blanc ‘Le Lombard’ 2005
Posted by Shea in $40-$60, Excellent, French Wine, Marsanne, Rhone Valley White Wine on July 30th, 2010
As with most wine regions in Europe, in St. Joseph there is a tension between the old and the new. At what point does a producer cease being traditional and become modern? One point of comparison might be to look at vinification practices, but who is to say when any one technique bridges the purportedly vast gap between memory and anticipation.
When History Becomes Modern
If Domain Courbis attains venerability with its history dating back to the 16th century, then Domaine Yves Couilleron must look elsewhere for like wisdom. Within itself the Domaine lives its own tradition, with its oldest syrah vines being planted in the time of Yves’ grandfather in the 1930’s and 40’s. If we see things from the vine’s perspective – the oldest vines in the world top out at around 100 years – wisdom and time acquire a different meaning. And, indeed, the Marsanne vines for this wine were planted in 1967, thus sitting comfortably amongst the most venerable of its peers.
So what makes Yves ‘modern’ in the eyes of critics? Perhaps because his partnership with Pierre Gaillard and Francois Villard in planting old vineyards and focusing on fruit has earned him and his partners the reputation of New World influenced upstarts. Gaillard, for instance, was the first in the Northern Rhone to use oak for his whites. It could also be because he carries an American style passion for inventiveness and risk – which could also be why he is shaking up the region and helping to breath new life into some underdog styles, such as this white St. Joseph.
When is a Wine Natural? And Does it Matter?
There is much talk these days of ‘natural’ wine making. For Yves, ‘natural’ must be considered in context. If, for example, he eliminated all weed killing chemicals, he would have to increase his work force and increase the price of his wines about 35%. He feels this is untenable in the current economic climate. Furthermore, while he likes to use only natural yeasts, he does find that he cannot make his white wines dry without the addition of yeast towards the end of fermentation.
The question some might ask, then, is at what point do his wines cease being ‘natural’? For Yves, on the other hand, he is simply attempting to add his touch to wines so they can best express their terroir. He believes that the 6-7 grams of residual sugar that would result in naturally fermented whites would mask the terroir of the various plots in St. Joseph from which he makes his wine.
He also cask ferments his whites, using 25% new oak, but does not stir the lees. The fermentation lasts up to four weeks, to fully maximize the sugar in the fruit, which is often picked fairly late.
A Taste of the New
The Lombard, pure Marsanne, presents itself in the glass with a deep rich golden-hued yellow. The nose provides honey, toast, apples, and a hint of quince. One simply feasts on the palate, with its honey-apple spice and lonely rocky undertones. A delicate and structured wine, the Lombard is also elegant while holding more weight on the palate than the Courbis. I suppose if the Courbis is ‘traditional’, then this is ‘modern’ St. Joseph – but the differences are all those of perspective as both wines are delicious.
Excellent
$45 at Marquis Wine Cellars
Spotlight on Rhone Valley White Wine: Domaine Courbis Saint-Joseph Blanc ‘Les Royes’ 2004
Posted by Shea in $40-$60, French Wine, Marsanne, Rhone Valley White Wine, Rousanne, Very Good on July 18th, 2010
While Viognier is known for its aromatic complexity and its rich, opulent texture, as we move from Condrieu into St. Joseph, we also see a change in grapes from Viognier to Marsanne and Roussanne, known to be more elegant and restrained, often in need of a little age. We also see a move from a very small and closely demarcated wine growing zone to a very large and broad one, with multiple terroirs. St. Joseph has been so expanded over the years that it is difficult to predict the terroir and quality of a wine based simply on the appellation. Producer is what matters in St. Joseph, and if you want quality it is essential to properly research the producer whose wine you are buying.
White wine from St. Joseph is also very rare, comprising a mere 9% of the total production of the region. Marsanne, known for depth and richness, dominates the white blends in St. Joseph, but many wines also blend in Roussanne for acidity and aromatics. While there is debate over whether Marsanne and Roussanne grow best in granite (the undisputed choice for Syrah) or limestone soils, many important producers such as J.L. Chave, Domaine Coursodon and the producer of today’s wine Domaine Courbis, think that limestone produces the best white grapes.
This wine is grown in the famous Les Royes vineyard, one of the steepest in the Northern Rhone, which holds limestone and clay soils. It sits at between 200 and 270 metres above sea level and is well sheltered from the famous Mistral wind. The vines, comprising Syrah, Marsanne and Roussanne, average around 35 years of age, but the oldest are, impressively, over 60 years old. Everything produced at Courbis is hand harvested and left on the vine as long as possible. Because Courbis is so skilled at this technique, this means the white wines have incredible balance and phenollic ripeness without going too far into the realm of opulence.
Unlike the classic white St. Joseph, the Les Royes white is made with pure Marsanne dating from 1975 and is completely fermented in new Allier oak, which in the case of this wine is a very good thing. The wine also sees batonnage (lees stirring) and full malo-lactic fermentation – but that doesn’t mean it isn’t one of the most elegant St. Josephs available. Only the best casks are used and the total production is a tiny 3000 bottles or 250 cases.
The wine itself? Well, it offers a nose of apple, spice and rock and is very soft and clean – a general hallmark of this very elegant St. Joseph. The palate adds some interesting licorice and herbal/root characteristics along with apples. This has great flavour and structure and great elegance. It might lack a little in acidity, but this wine successfully combines power and elegance and a fantastic ability to pair with food. I had it with honey/tamari glazed Salmon and the pairing was extremely successful.
As rich, dense and opulent as the wines of Condrieu are, so far the wines of St. Joseph are discrete, powerful and yet very elegant.
Very Good+ to Excellent
$50 at Marquis Wine Cellars
Spotlight on Rhone Valley White Wine: Pierre Gaillard Condrieu 2005
Posted by Shea in $60+, French Wine, Rhone Valley White Wine, Very Good, Viognier on July 12th, 2010
One of the trends in Condrieu over the last few decades has been a move from a fresh steel fermented style that often saw arrested malo-lactic fermentation to a heavier oak fermented and barrel aged style with full malo. For the not so geekily inclined, this is equivalent to a move from making freshly squeezed juice to milkshakes. However, in this case the move occurred because a number of top growers realized that Viognier – the raw materials – was much better when vinified in a heavier and denser way. Some argue that the prevalence of aging in new oak has come to hide the multiple terroirs of Condrieu, but the grower/producers answer to that is a now sustained attempt to reduce the amount of new oak while maintaining a solid oak influenced backbone. It is thus on the vinification side of things that Condrieu is now coming into its own and learning how to express its terroir.
Gaillard is one of the modernist producers who really pushed to use oak. He began in 1995 with 2.5 hectares on one plot and now works four vineyard sites, most of which have granite soils. Interestingly, the southern part of Condrieu – where Gaillard grows most of his vines – overlaps with St. Joseph and so it is possible to produce both white Viognier wines labeled Condrieu and red Syrah based wines labeled St. Joseph from the same vineyard sites. However, whereas Gaillard produces 4 different St. Joseph cuvees, he only makes a single dry Condrieu, labeled simply by the region.
In the vineyards, Gaillard looks for near-overripeness in his grapes, and in the summer he strips leaves and excess vegetation so that the grapes don’t get quite that far. Lately, Gaillard has withdrawn from the use of new oak, even though he was one of the first to use it.
The wine itself is both a year older and is lighter in colour than the Villard I just reviewed. The nose is also duller and less expressive, with dill, stone, lemon and peach, though all in a more restrained manner than the Villard. Peaches, cream and dill come forward on the palate, which is not as long as the Villard but is perhaps a bit more balanced. This is ultimately a very different wine from the Villard, being more contemplative and less opulent, but also very successful with food (I paired it with a lobster, pea, lemon and white truffle risotto). I do, however, think that the Villard is superior in both structure and expressivity, perhaps providing ammunition that Viognier should be consumed young.
Very Good+
$60 at Marquis
Spotlight on Rhone Valley White Wine: Francois Villard “Les Terrasses du Palat” Condrieu 2006
Posted by Shea in $60+, Excellent, French Wine, Rhone Valley White Wine, Viognier on July 9th, 2010
Sometimes one sibling can overshadow another, leaving it underappreciated. Oftentimes fame outweighs any appreciation of subtlety and personality. In the world of wine this is all too common an occurrence, even as the lesser known can become somewhat of a cult itself. Neither fame nor underground notoriety has christened the white wines of the Rhone Valley, and so it is even more surprising that the wines have grown in popularity over the years.
Flash back to 1971 and you would find that only about 12 hectares (30 acres) of Viognier were planted in the entire Rhone Valley, including the Condrieu sub-appellation. That’s barely enough grapes to make 2500 bottles, a mere pittance even for a single producer. By 2005, however, Condrieu expanded to 135 hectares – a far cry from 30 years prior. Part of the reason for this is the extreme steepness of the slopes, which makes planting and tending the vines not particularly cost-effective, and also the difficulty the vines have penetrating the topsoil, which, if they don’t do, relegates them to producing bloated fruit. The deepness of the vines is essential for great Viognier.
Unlike all the plantings in the new world, Condrieu is now populated with mostly old-vine pre-clone material, which for the non-geeky essentially means vines that often produce grapes with more character and depth. The other side of this were the crappy replantings in the 1980s where many producers started cropping their vines at yields far too high to produce anything of interest. As with any region, Condrieu is all about the growers and producers who do it right.
Condrieu is also the perfect example of why wine growers and makers need to treat their varities right. In the 1990’s it was common for producers to make wines in a ‘lighter and fresher’ style, much like Sauvignon Blanc. This is not the nature of Viognier, the best expressions of which are rich, dense and sensuously textured. Fermenting the wine at low temperatures became the norm and this killed the character and balance in the wines. Why go for up front zing when you can get density and an endless finish? That’s what trends can do.
Francois Villard is a new wave kind of Condrieu producer. He generally lets his grapes get to the point of a certain percentage of noble rot before vinifying and always uses oak. The Terrasses du Palate Condrieu has 20% new and 80% used oak and sees about 3-5% noble rot. These are overt wines, almost in the style of new world examples like that of John Alban from Paso Robles. The fact that Villard learned wine making on his own from books and trial and error? Well, that’s just a bonus.
The wine itself pours a lovely burnt yellow, looking much like an aged Riesling. On the nose I got apricot, honeysuckle, peach and toasted coconut. The palate is glycerous, rich and honeyed. Peach notes develop quickly, but the wine is also very long and deep in flavour. It is also elegant for such a rich wine, but in the end this is not a wine about tightness, clarity or precision. Rather, this is a wine about luscious texture, expressivity and exotic richness. And, the glycerous palate does nothing to interfere with the intense, flowered, wafting scents that speak purely of sensuous pleasure. This truly is a great wine wine and is a good indication of how excited I am about this spotlight.
Excellent
$60 at Marquis Wine Cellars
Jerez: The Soul of an Enigma – Part VI: Bodegas Jose Estevez S.A.
Posted by Shea in Jerez-Sherry, Sherry, Spanish Wine, Spotlights on June 8th, 2010
Staring down from an observation perch at an extremely large and fully industrialized bottling line places many things in perspective. Wine, in the majority of circumstances, is an industrial product. Clones, fertilized soil, pesticides and herbicides, mechanical harvesting, machine sorting, crushing, pressing, sulfites, cultured yeasts, fining, filtering and, finally, sloshing into bottles on a fully mechanized bottling line. This is the life-cycle of most bottles of wine consumed in the world.
Why is it, then, that we tend to think of wine as a ‘natural’ product? For one, wine has become romanticized in modern western cultures as the representative of a form of idyllic life. Sipping wine, eating great food and staring out at beautiful vistas. In many ways this romanticized image is the dominant brand message of wine as a product category, particularly in North America.
On the other side is the French-influenced philosophy of ‘terroir’. Wine is a product of the earth, we are told, and the best wine expresses its ‘natural’ origins completely and uniquely. ‘Wine makers’ (the French notoriously hate this term) are mere conduits for the expression of the particularities of nature in a given place. Of course, this is merely another form of idyll, this time with great mother nature playing the harp rather than the enraptured wine drinker.
While debates about ‘natural’ wine can sometimes start asking interesting questions about this relationship between humans and nature that is expressed in wine, for the average and majority of wine consumers, any such talk is complete nonsense. A good 90% of the products on the shelf are industrial products more than anything else, founded on some basic raw materials that have been cultivated for thousands of years.
It is only in this context that one can understand the biggest producers in Jerez, their aims and their philosophy. Wine is an industrial business and no amount of romanticizing will change that. That said, what is important is understanding how wine is industrialized and making an informed choice about what products one chooses to consume. For, as with many product categories, not all wine falls under the umbrella of ‘industry’.
Bodegas Jose Estevez S.A. is one of the biggest sherry companies in existence, with an annual production of 18 million bottles. That is 18 times larger than Williams & Humbert, which is already considered a very large producer. Grupo Jose Estevez, as it is also known, has been at the centre of a considerable amount of consolidation in the land of Sherry, and it currently has plans for continued growth and expansion.
As an example, one of the most famous Manzanillas is La Guita. This used to be produced by a mid-sized producer who also had ancient soleras known to be filled with some of the most exciting sherries in the region. However, upon acquisition by Grupo Jose Estevez, these old soleras were removed and the production of La Guita ramped up many fold. In many ways this acquisition had the opposite effect of what a producer like Tradicion has accomplished – eliminating rather than saving some of the greatest old soleras in the region (in this case, from Sanlucar).
Walking through the cellars of Jose Estevez futher embodied the industrial mentality – they use a mechanical humidity system rather than the traditional method of sanding and watering the floors. This ensures that their humidity never wavers and that spoilage is pretty much unheard of. Mechanical pumps are also used to transfer the sherry from criadera to solera and to pump over when necessary. Commercial yeasts are commonplace amongst the cheaper products. I was even told that the traditional systems were simply not hygienic, though I’m sure those over at Bodegas Tradicion would disagree with that as a blanket statement.
Other acqusitions included Tio Mateo in 1993 and Valdespino in 1999. These now make up two important lines of product for Jose Estevez, with Valdespino being the ‘high quality’ offering from the group. To put this in perspective, Valdespino was 400 years old when acquired and considered to be one of the benchmark producers in Jerez. Several owners and high level employees in the Sherry industry lamented this sale to me, saying that some of the greatest houses were giving in to market pressures and the promise of an easy way out of dealing with some difficult market fluctuations and shifts.
Jose Estevez has its business model oriented towards doing business with supermarkets and other large buyers, and as such to meet the laboratory requirements of such buyers they use industrial and mechanical systems to ensure consistency wherever possible. It is understandable that when one’s business model relies on such large buyers that it is not worth the risk of using traditional methods when slight contamination could result in the loss of a very large contract. Jose Estevez also wants to keep prices low for their target consumer (which particular demographic is the dominant one for wine). Of course, with such large buyers, a huge bottling plant is necessary, this one capable of pumping out between 12k to 24k bottles per hour.
As I tasted through the sherries that comprise the portfolio of Bodegas Jose Estevez S.A. I was, despite some of my worries, quite impressed with the quality they had managed to achieve despite their industrialized process. These sherries do not reach the heights of the best artisanal producers in Jerez, and it is certainly lamentable that many fine bodegas and old soleras have gone to the wayside because of the massive acquisitions by this industrial-focused group. That said, these sherries remain high quality products that far outclass almost any other industrial wine. My tasting notes follow.
Valdespino Innocente Single Vineyard Fino: Fresh and clean with good depth and balance. Umami qualities drive the flavour profile. Very Good+.
La Guita Manzanilla: Heavy yeast quality on the nose, also rich and floral. The palate is floral again, with a subtle and softer mid-palate with great saline qualities persisting on the finish. Despite the industrialization of this product, it is still one of the best QPR manzanillas available. 4.5 euros. Very Good+. Available in Seattle or Berkeley at The Spanish Table.
Tio Mateo Fino: A nose with fresh floral qualities and moderate bready yeast. The palate is quite biscuit-driven and fresh while also fuller bodied than the La Guita. Good length. Very Good to Very Good+. 5.5 euros.
Valdespino Tio Diego Amontillado: 10 years old. Oxidative nose leading into nuts and caramel on the palate. This also retains a great saline quality that I tend to associate with Fino more than Amontillado. The finish is more dominated by oak-spice than anything else, but there is good, though not great, finesse. Very Good+ to Excellent.
Amontillado Del Principle Muy Viejo: Amber coloured. Caramel and oxidative nose. There is great texture and length on the palate as well as a soft and supple texture. Almonds and hazelnuts start showing up in the mid-palate. However, what makes this special is that it is cleaner and more finessed than most Amontillados on the market. Excellent.
Valdespino Amontillado Contrabandista: This Amontillado has Pedro Ximenez added to it, which darkens its colour and brings out some richer aromas and flavours such as prunes, figs and caramel. The classic nuttyness is present, but this has more spice and dried fruit on the palate than you get from classic 100% Palomino based Amontillado. I was not overly excited by this sherry. Very Good to Very Good+.
Valdespino Solera 1842 Oloroso VOS: Again, this has 5% Pedro Ximenez added and so is a corresponding brown to pale gold colour. The fruit character has more dark and heavy raisinated fruit than you normally get from Oloros. There was some volatile acidity here too, detectable as a varnish aroma. The palate has a big punch of nuts, but becomes extremely persistent (the best quality of the sherry) and offers chocolate and caramel to go. Very Good+ to Excellent.
Valdespino Ideal Pale Cream: Stylistically correct, but many will not like this style – pear and apple and very fruit on the nose, but also fresh and light on the palate, similar to a high residual sugar white wine with good acidity. Very Good.
Valdespino Pedro Ximenez El Candado: Aged 16 years. Brighter than many PX’s I’ve tasted, this is very honeyed and adds raisins, dried figs, caramel, and chocolate when you taste it. Classic PX viscosity, but the acidity makes this work. Quite excellent for its level. Very Good+ to Excellent.
Valdespino Marques del Real Tesoro Brandy Solera Gran Reserva: This is the traditional style of Brandy of Jerez, which is more scotch like and savory than the new style, which is far more similar to Cognac. Wood spice and vanilla on the nose, this starts out light with some nice wood and tobacco notes, and then gets into a very earthy and dry finish. Very Good+.
In conclusion, this was a fairly consistent line of products from such a large producer, and the best of them stood out as excellent, if not exceptional, sherries.
I should apologize for the lack of photos in this piece. My computer suffered a major meltdown and I lost all my photos from the past 6 years – a sad occurrence. This is also the last piece in my series on Jerez. I hope that you enjoyed reading about the wonderful world of sherry and I implore you to give a bottle a try sometime with some nice cured meats, cheeses, olives and nuts. Sherry is one of the world’s greatest wines – in fact a wine to rival the likes of Bordeaux – and yet it is most certainly one of if not its most underappreciated, often relegated to a couple shelves in the ‘fortified wine’ section of your local store. Sherry deserves better, and in this series I have attempted to show the complexity, depth, and incredible history that underlies those simple little bottles that so many pass on by.
Jerez: The Soul of an Enigma – Part V: Emilio Lustau
Posted by Shea in Jerez-Sherry, Sherry, Spanish Wine, Spotlights on May 29th, 2010
There is a tendency amongst Jerez’s sherry producers to craft wines in a broad array of styles, with most bodegas maintaining large portfolios of wines. Lustau has perhaps the broadest range of sherries produced under a single label, and is Jerez’ jack of all trades. I tasted 13 different sherries all produced under the Lustau label, and this was only a portion of their entire portfolio of 30. Some of these wines sell only a few hundred bottles a year.
As anyone with experience bringing new wine drinkers into the fold of sherry can attest to, the range of styles and complexity of the methods of production make sherry difficult to appreciate for many new to intermediate drinkers. Add to that bodegas with huge lineups and it is asking a lot of consumers to understand what they are getting into when they pick up a bottle of sherry off the shelf. It would serve the industry well for bodegas to streamline their offerings into a more easily digestible format.
That said, Lustau is one of the more consistent bodegas in Jerez, with all of their wines meeting a basic quality threshold. Furthermore, Lustau has been instrumental in saving some of the small sherry producers from extinction with their Almacenista series, which buys up soleras from small producers and bottles them under the Lustau label. While the company claims that they wish to do this in order to give recognition to what the small guys are doing, it is also clear to me that in the context of falling sales and consolidation that this series was also a business decision. Lustau distinguishes itself from most of the other giants by keeping the name of the original producer on the bottle and highlighting the fact that the wine came from such a source by labeling these wines differently from their main lineup. This is a respectable process for a bodega that already has a strong brand and theoretically has little need to create such a series of wines.
Lustau, which was founded in 1896, has also been setting aside vintage dated sherries since 1985 and now has a substantial library of these wines. With the regulator poised to introduce an official designation for vintage dated sherry in the near future, surely these wines will gain more recognition in time. The current vintage dated sherry on the market from Lustau is from 1990, the year when Lustau was taken over by Grupo Caballero.
Since then Lustau has grown into one of the larger bodegas in town with 15,000 casks and an annual production of 1 million bottles. Currently the company owns vineyards in Jerez (the chalky soils of Vina Montegilillo) and Sanlucar (the sandy soils of Vina Las Cruces). Lustau also contracts with various growers to augment the harvest from their own vineyards.
After touring through Lustau’s vast and cathedral-like cellar I was treated to a taste of a broad range of their products.
Lustau Solera Reserva “Papirusa” Light Manzanilla: A fruitier and less aggressive nose, with grape and citrus notes. This has a subtle yeast profile compared to other Manzanillas. The palate was clean and nutty. Overall, this is very drinkable and well made – but note that freshness is everything for Manzanilla and Fino sherry. Avoid anything older than 6 months. Very Good+. 15% ABV.
Lustau Solera Reserva “Puerto Fino”: Nuttier and more yeast driven aromatics than the previous wine. This is big and a little more aggressive than what I like – but if you like your fino to be fuller bodied, this is a good wine to go for. Very Good+. 15% ABV.
Lustau Solera Reserve “Jarana” Light Fino: The light fino is true to its name and has more delicacy than the previous wine. The aromatics are more focused on citrus components and the palate is tart and acidic. This will be outstanding paired with rich seafood. Very Good+. 15% ABV.
Lustau Almacenista Manzanilla Amontillada 1/21 (Manuel Cuevas Jurado): Pouring a very rich dark brown, the nose is rich but clean and filled with classic notes of nuts and brown sugar. I thought this wine had great character on the palate and a light and elegant mouthful coupled with a dense and full flavour profile. This is also an interesting wine because no Criaderas are directly used in its production. Jurado draws the final product from his Manzanilla Soleras and then puts it into a second solera which he then ages into the Amontillado, creating a kind of double-solera system. This was one of the best wines in the lineup and shows the potential of the Almacenista line of products. Excellent. 17.5% ABV.
Lustau Solera Reserva “Los Arcos” Dry Amontillado: Traditionally light brown coloured, this wine has a nut-driven nose but lacks the expressivity of the previous Almacenista Amontillado. The palate is heavier and richer than the above wine, with nuts, caramel and brown sugar. A moderate finish, and again, not quite of the same length and concentration as above. Very Good+. 18.5% ABV.
Lustau Almacenista Palo Cortado 1/50 (Vides): Pours a golden brown and offers a fresh, lively and delicate nose. I found the palate very bold up front, but the wine ultimately settles into a nice clean texture. Similar flavour profile to the two Amontillados above, but with a substantial finish. Very Good+ to Excellent. 19% ABV.
Lustau Solera Reserva Dry Oloroso Don Nuno: We are now moving into the dark brown territory of sherry and accordingly much denser and richer wines. When I tasted this the nose was not very expressive, but the body was absolutely mouth-filling, with quite a bit of richness and a very dry, but only medium-length, finish. I enjoyed the texture, but was ultimately a little dissatisfied with the balance of the wine. Very Good+ to Excellent. 20% ABV.
Lustau Solera Gran Reserva Very Rare Oloroso “Emperatriz Eugenia”: As above, the nose was not as expressive as I would like. I also found this both less intense and less structurally put together than the Don Nuno. However, it was also more elegant and clean. Short finish right now. Very Good+. 20% ABV.
Lustau Rich Oloroso “Anada 1990” Vintage: This vintage dated sherry was surprisingly aromatically light for an Oloroso, with nice cherry fruit aromatics. The lightness of the nose belies the sweetness and intensity of the wine underneath, however, which was both fruity and very clean. This has good strong acid, nice balance and a complex mid-palate and finish. However, the residual sugar will throw those who prefer the very dry styles. Very Good+ to Excellent. 20% ABV.
Lustau East Indian Solera: A cream style sherry with 85% Oloroso and 15% Pedro Ximenez. The addition of the PX jumps the nose into darker fruits, raisins and spice cake. The Oloroso, however, reduces the insane extract that you often encounter with pure Pedro Ximenez. This is essentially Christmas cake in a glass, but it is perfect for those looking for a good quality dessert wine with strong acid. Very Good to Very Good+. 20% ABV.
Lustau Solera Reserva “Emilin” Moscatel: Made with 7 year aged Muscat, the nose is bright and expressive, but also has the classic oxidative character of traditional sherry. The palate is rich and grapey, but the aging brings that grapeyness more into the territory of raisins. Unique but not as cool as it should be. Very Good+. 17% ABV.
Lustau Solera Reserva “San Emilio” Pedro Ximenez: Classic fig and date driven nose and palate. This is classic PX, but compared to the others I had on my trip it is decidedly uninteresting and nowhere near as deep or as balanced as the best. Very Good+. 17% ABV.
Senor Lustau Solera Gran Reserva Brandy de Jerez: The nose is dominated by dark fruits. This has very fine length and structure for a 35 euro brandy, but is nothing exciting. Very Good+. 40%€ ABV.
Lustau will also be releasing four VORS sherries in the near future that I unfortunately did not have the opportunity to taste.
On reflection I found all of the wines to be solid, though not the most exciting sherries being produced today. However, most of Lustau’s line offers excellent value and an introduction to the full range of styles available in the region. Lustau is an excellent good value introduction to sherry compared to such producers as Gonzalez Byass or Harveys, which for all intents and purposes should be avoided.
Note: Many of these wines are available in BC at the BCLDB stores or at Kitsilano Wine Cellars. Salt Tasting Room also pours a good range of Lustau products.
