A Hot-Headed Bordeaux Meets Johnny Cash

Last fall, when I was working in a Bordeaux vineyard in the Fronsac appellation, I was surrounded by other vineyards (when I first looked at the address on Google Earth I was pumped- there was nothing but vineyards there)! So when I found a bottle of the 2003 Moulin Haut Laroque at the Wine Library for $26, I knew I was bringing home a bottle. The winemaker I was working for, Benoît, loved this wine and had several different vintages in his personal cellar. I got to try a few and got hooked.

As the bottle I bought was a 2003, I knew it was time to drink this baby soon. In 2003, Europe experienced an awful heat wave; because of all this sunshine and hot weather, the wines tended to be more fruity while they're young. Now, only 6 years later, you can tell that this vintage is not one to keep in your cellar. Due to the heat, it was almost as though the grapes were cooked- the 2003s I've tasted lack the usual tannic structure that a typical Bordeaux has. It is this tannic structure that allows Bordeaux wines to be kept for 10, 20, 30, 40 or more years.

When I poured the Moulin Haut Laroque into my glass, the color was a deep purple with orange on the sides. This is one indicator of age, as red wines turn more orange and brown as they grow older. The nose was complex and lovely, and I spent about 5 minutes swirling and having fun discovering the new aromas. There were obvious plums, violets, pepper, a leathery gaminess (think beef jerky), green peppers, and a crème de cassis thing going on. Every swirl opened up a new flavor. The mouthfeel was similar in that way, with plums and blackberries leading the way, changing to a drier oak/vanilla influence on the midpalate, and finishing with a cedar box, covered with leather and earth, as well as a lovely caramel note. Even though the alcohol is at 14.3%, you don't feel it. That being said, this is a one-glass wine, to be sipped and enjoyed. Although this is not a typical Bordeaux because of the weather that year, the winemaker, Jean-Noël Hervé, made one killer wine!

The 2003 Moulin Haut Laroque made me think of Sue in "A Boy Named Sue" by Johnny Cash. Because circumstances at his birth made him tough, he'll keep up that façade whenever made fun of his name. And believe me, he can whoop some ass. But when it comes to forgiveness, after fighting with his father, the "SOB who named you Sue", he comes to the realization that he only did that to make him grow up tough. Now, when it comes for Sue to have a son, will he repeat this tactic? No. Once was enough, he'll go for something a bit more classic like: "Bill or George! Anything but Sue! I still hate that name!" The Moulin Haut Laroque reminds me of this song because although the vintage made it different, it can still fight tough and is more multi-dimensional than some people might think. This wine might seem simply fruit-forward, but it brings a lot to the table and is a very well-made wine; this will keep you swirling, sniffing and tasting for awhile.

A view of Moulin Haut Laroque's vineyard. One secret to this wine? Lots of old vines.

2005 Bordeaux- Off the Beaten Path

Alright, so a little late, but when I was at the Boston Wine Expo I attended a seminar of 2005 Bordeaux, featuring "off the beaten track" wineries. It was supposed to be hosted by Jean-Christophe Calvet, the owner of Aquitaine Wine Company (who supplied the wines), but I guess there was a last minute change up and his wife and CFO of the company, Margaret filled in. We had a lovely spread of 17 different Bordeaux wines: 2 dry whites, 14 reds, and 1 dessert wine. Having recently worked in Bordeaux with a winemaker, I'm always interested to learn more about the area as my three months of meeting people only skimmed the surface of the approximately 10,000 châteaux in the area.

Aquitaine Wine Company's goal, described in one of the pamphlets, is "to provide hand-crafted, discovery, value wines from wines to meet the demands of consumers around the world." Awesome- count me in! In the Boston area, Martignetti distributes their wines.



The first two whites were both from the 2007 vintage (the rest of the wines were all 2005s). White Bordeaux is a blend that is usually made with sauvignon blanc, sémillon, and muscadelle, but can also use ugni blanc and colombard. These two whites were great because they showed two different sides of white Bordeaux: ones with fresh acidity and others that are more creamy, with a touch of oak. The Château Haut Peyruget, located in the Entre-Deux-Mers region. The blend was 60% sauvignon, 20% sémillon, and 20% muscadelle. It was a pale yellow color with apple Jolly Ranchers and lemons on the nose, with a nice attack of acidity, lemony Pinesol, and grassiness. The Château La Freynelle is in the same region, which abuts Château Bonnet, owned by the powerful and well-connected Lurton family. The La Freynelle was half and half sauvignon and sémillon and the winemaker did partial malolactic fermentation to soften the wine a bit. Malolactic fermentation dulls the acid and changes it to lactic acid, similar to the difference between Granny Smith apples (malic) and Golden Delicious apples (lactic). This wine was more golden in color than the last, had a lemony nose with a very apparent minerality. It was creamier on the mouthfeel than the last, with a wonderful freshness and a continuation of the lemons on the nose.

Off to the reds, all from 2005. Small primer: Bordeaux reds are blends and can only use cabernet sauvignon, merlot, cabernet franc, malbec, petit verdot, and carménère. We had La Freynelle's red (blend of 65% merlot and 35% cabernet sauvignon). A lighter colored red, this had lovely floral notes and red berries; an extremely up front nose. It coated my palate, had sweet tannins, but was not a wimpy wine. There was some great backbone to it. Next off was the Château Bellevue Peycharneau. The color was extremely dark. It smelled like someone stuck some white flowers into a big pot of strawberry/raspberry jam, though on the palate there was a nice spiciness to it along with the red fruits and some pretty intense tannins, which gave the wine that mouth puckering feel. An extremely dry wine.

The next two wines were from Côtes de Blaye, an appellation located across the river from the Médoc. I've found that wines from this appellation generally do not please my palate; although the first wine was not to my liking, the second was a well made wine. The first, Château Haut Colombier was a very dark wine with bug spray smells mixed with blackberries and cassis. Ick. On the mouthfeel, it was a gamy and herbaceous play. Not for me. The second Côtes de Blaye was Château Roland La Garde. Again, this was a dark wine, but had a more spicy nose with hints of cedar box and cassis. The wine was incredibly dry with intense tannins, some fruit, but more earthy and herbaceous in taste. Although not my favorite, this was certainly a well made wine. The winemaker used 100% new oak, which usually scares me, but it was well integrated in the wine.

Now off to St. Émilion and its satellites. The Château Saint André Corbin (from St. Georges-St.Émilion) was lighter in color with oak and red fruit on the nose, tasted like strawberry Jell-O at first with a kinda sweet finish although there were lots of vegetables at the end too. Really could taste the 25% cabernet franc. The Château Coutet (SE Grand Cru) was a more interesting wine. Although it was probably the lightest of all the reds I had, it vanilla, red fruits, cassis, chocolate and cinnamon on the nose. The wine tasted like cherries, with some spiciness, and had an amazing structure, with some good tannins in there. It was quite an elegant and refined wine- something for your dinner party with the local celebrity.

The rest of my tasting notes will be in the next post.

Boston Wine Expo, Day One

This past weekend, I was attended the Boston Wine Expo and had a fabulous experience! Gary Vaynerchuk was the keynote speaker at the Expo and was also there to spread the word about his blog, Wine Library TV, as well as give away tons of free bags and wristbands. I helped the Wine Lib crew at the booth on Saturday and Sunday. During the trade hours, I was lucky enough to be able to run about and taste from some of the hundreds of exhibitors. This weekend was a bunch of firsts for me, as I got to try several Sauternes, Gavi di Gavi, Arneis, Mazuelo (Carignan) from Navarra, Agiorgitiko (St. George), Moschofilero, some bodacious reds from Lodi, and a Zinfindel from Chile from TerraMater. And this was just on Saturday.

That night, I got to eat and drink at the lovely Troquet restaurant in Boston. The food was wonderful and it ran the gamut from minestrone soup with wild boar to confit de canard to pork belly. And of course, when eating with fellow wine nerds, we had some good bottles. The first was the 2002 JJ Christoffel Auslese Riesling Ürziger Würzgarten. Lovely nose, nice peachy notes and great minerality on the palate. Now that is riesling my friends! The red that followed was the 2004 Coche Dury Bourgogne, the super hard to find pinot noir from Burgundy. For my palate, pinot noir usually comes off as too barnyardy and unenjoyable for me. As much as I love Old World wines, this is one varietal that prefer from the New World. The Coche Dury was an exception to that rule; even though there were some light barnyard elements to it, the wine had a smoothness and polish about it that I haven't tasted in Old World pinot before. Perhaps it's that I usually can't afford to drop tons-o-money on a bottle of wine and to compound this, the entrance price to a good pinot has become higher and higher. Call it the "Sideways" effect. The Coche Dury was fabulous and if you ever see it on a list, get it. Not only is a very hard wine to find, but there's some serious juice in the bottle.

And to end the night: the Expo After Party at the Boston Wine School. There were a lot of good Vayniacs there to celebrate. The party was well stocked with wine and small hors-d'oeuvres. The prosecco and the prosecco rosé that was poured was definitely a crowd pleaser, although I prefer wines with a bit more acidity and bite to them. I also got to try out the 2006 Truro Vineyards Triumph, a meritage blend from a local vineyard from Cape Cod. I was a bit skeptical that Bordeaux varietals could fully ripen here, but the wine was not terrible!* I was quite surprised that it had some nice flavors and wasn't completely overoaked. Kudos. That being said, I can get actual AOC Bordeaux wines that cost less even after the import taxes.

All in all, day one of the Expo was a success. Had some great wines, some not so great, and got to meet some wonderful people.

*There is some doubt as to whenever all the fruit is grown in Massachusetts, as claimed by the winery. Check out the comments section.