We visited Denis Basset yesterday at his Domaine Saint Clair outside Tain l’Hermitage. He’s a friendly, energetic winemaker making truly excellent wines. (They’re a lot of flavor for 9:30 in the morning, but they wash the toothpaste right off your palate.)
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We spent an enjoyable few hours on Nicolas Haeni’s charming backyard terrace yesterday. Haeni runs the Domaine Malmont, a tiny source in the Southern Rhône whose entire winemaking operation fits inside a small garage attached to his house. Under clear skies and a warm Provencal sun we tasted through Malmont’s recent cuvées.
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We arrived yesterday afternoon in Provence. It’s lovely here — the sun is warm, the light is crisp, and the wind whistles through the craggy olive trees. If we could bottle the feel of Provence and bring it back we certainly would. (Apologies to any readers who were at yesterday’s marathon — that last paragraph may have been painful.)
The best kept secret in a Burgundy collector’s cellar is his stash of St-Aubin. From a forgotten valley wedged between the superstar towns of Chassagne-Montrachet and Puligny-Montrachet, the wines of St-Aubin are some of the most overperforming wines we know. Jancis Robinson calls it now “virtually the equal” of its famous neighbors.
Of all the white Burgundy we import, none is a purer expression of Chardonnay than Nicolas Maillet’s classic Maconnais cuvées. They’re cool, round, unadulterated Chardonnay with excellent balance and little or no oak. If the Côte d’Or offers Burgundies of pedigree and refinement, then the Maconnais offers Burgundies of vibrancy and joy.
The carignan varietal isn’t known for making sophisticated wines. Second only to Merlot plantings in France, Carignan covers enormous swaths of the southern third of the country. It’s known as an undistinguished, high yield grape, which can produce four times the volume of Pinot Noir on the same acre.
Of the 12,000 acres of vineyards planted in Chablis, only 250 (2%) qualify as Grand Cru. This highest tier includes seven distinct vineyards, each famous in its own right. But among the seven, the Grand Cru “Les Clos” is generally considered the finest. As Master of Wine Clive Coates puts it, Les Clos is “Chablis at its very, very finest… combining depth, intensity, and great elegance.”
Wherever they live, people notice the subtle changes that mark the turn of the seasons; sometimes consciously, sometimes by feel, one way or another everyone senses the turn. Moving from the heart of a big city to a sparsely peopled seacoast means adjusting to new indicators — particularly when it comes with a change of almost four degrees of latitude and five of longitude. Up here, without the Phillies and Rita’s Water Ice to announce the arrival of Spring, we look to the ducks.
We’re looking forward to our trip to France next week. We will tasting with some exciting new prospects, and revisiting many of our old favorites. As the current three-month rail strike and “Easter Monday” holiday have reminded us, things move a bit slower in Europe. While it can be frustrating in matters of business, there’s no doubt that the pace is healthier for the soul.
Springtime has returned. Baseball is back, green shoots are pushing through the dirt, and but for a freak snowstorm here and there we seem to be on the path to warmer weather. It’s not quite rosé season yet, but that’s not far off either.
