VINE TRAIL NEWS NOVEMBER 2011

2010 - an exceptional vintage in the Rhône and Burgundy

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Cécile Tremblay lunch at Texture - 28th February

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New Wines

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New Restaurant Customers

Vine Trail wines can now also be found in the following restaurants, pubs and hotels:

London & environs
The Wolseley, Piccadilly, W1
Hedone, Chiswick, W4
Viajante, Bethnal Green, E2
The Corinthia, Whitehall, SW1
Gilbert Scott, St Pancras, NW1
Medlar, Chelsea, SW10
Pollen Street Social, Mayfair, W1
Roganic, W1

Bath & other UK locations
Le Beaujolais, Bath
The Feathered Nest, Nr Burford, Oxon
Ellenborough Park, Cheltenham, Glos
Chester Grosvenor, Chester
Hand and Flowers, Marlow, Bucks

STOP PRESS

Look out for Vine Trail champagnes in the January issue of Decanter (out December).

click here ........to see comments on our wines from Robert Parker on the Rhônes and David Schildknecht on Beaujolais.

FOR LIONEL'S NOTES ON RECENT VISIT TO FRANCE(PROVENCE/LANGUEDOC/ROUSSILLON)

See Here for Bandol Ste Anne...

See Here for Languedoc Conte des Floris.....

See Here for Roussillon Cyril Fhal......

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FOR PROFESSOR DAN BOSENCE'S LATEST GEOLOGICAL TOUR OF THE LOIRE, SEE BOTTOM OF OUR HOME PAGE....

Peter Liem comments about champagne from www.finewinemag.com January 2011

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FAREWELL MARCEL 

No doubt many of you have heard about the tragic death of Morgon's Marcel Lapierre. The obituaries have concentrated on Marcel's position as the ‘godfather' of natural wines. I would just like to add a few words about Marcel, as he was one of the kindest, most generous inspirational people that I have come across.

Every year he hosted a major party around Bastille Day. He invited his many friends in Beaujolais, and 350 growers from around the world. The party was legendary, and increased in number every year (he had flagged down motorists in Villié-Morgon the first year to boost numbers!). It would commence with a gentle preamble on the Friday evening, Marcel providing the wines for the main event on Saturday and the growers the wines for the follow up on Sunday! Marcel tried to persuade us to stay for the full weekend's festivities in July. He was on splendid form, typically concerned about everyone he had invited. He phoned us to find out where we were on the Friday evening when we were still tasting with Jean-Claude Chanudet. The main course had been served and he was concerned that we wouldn't taste it at its best. Cath took the photo that Friday evening of Marcel and his great friend Jean-Claude Chanudet, ‘le chat' when we eventually extracted ourselves from le chat's cellars.

Friends for over 40 years, Marcel and Jean-Claude travelled the world taking multiple jobs to pay their way, choosing the country they'd visit by spinning a globe and seeing where a finger landed! They spent 10 years worth of holidays this way! They were also joint owners of Château Cambon in Beaujolais. Jean-Claude recounted that Marcel would often phone him at 6am to join him in the tasting room to taste through various cuves and wine to find the perfect blend. His work ethic and attention to detail were second to none. Marcel always gave 100% and will be very badly missed by his family and friends.

April 2010 Editorial - Variation in Vintages by Joanna Simon

Joanna Simon says we should be celebrating the variations nature gives us each year

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Flavours from France article
Jan 2010

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Excerpt from American wine merchant, Terry Theise’s 2008 champagne price list

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LA Times - Alice Feiring

California wine? Down the drain
Too much technology and a desire to play to the critics have produced overblown, overpriced vintages.
By Alice Feiring May 5, 2008

A view from California on St Joseph Gonon -

The peaches squirt, the tomatoes drip, and don't get me started on the chew of the frisky, wild-yeasted bread. I love eating in California. Whenever I return from the Golden State to my New York City five-floor walk-up, I am laden down with the state's riches. So why is it that for the last 10 years I can't drink the wines?

Back in the late '70s, California whupped the French at wine competitions with offerings that were classily expressive and mostly low-tech. But, by the year 2000, California lost its way, something I attribute, in part, to the desperate desire for 95-plus-point ratings, that ultimate affirmation from top wine critics. Forget "Eureka," the new state motto can well be: "Anything worth doing is worth overdoing." Today's California wines are overblown, over-alcoholed, over-oaked, overpriced and over-manipulated.

When I first stopped drinking the Left Coast, it was because I was offended by the overuse of wood, boring flavors and lack of structure. The wines, many of which had plenty of edge and personality, seemed neutered to me. I soon learned that the other part of the story was that an arsenal of technology was deployed to make them that way: yeast, enzymes, tannin, oak and acid, as well as over-extracting techniques, micro-oxygenation, dialysis and reverse osmosis.

Even when winemakers shun these technologies and attempt a naturalish wine, their grapes are often picked so ripe -- all the rage since famed winemaker Helen Turley was anointed a grape goddess by famed critic Robert M. Parker Jr. back in the mid-1990s -- that all chance for complexity and interest is stripped away. There are so many strikes against the local wines -- not the least the taste and the cost -- that when I evaluate them, I think not in terms of whether I like them but whether I can tolerate them.

But take heart, Golden State, you're not alone in making what I consider to be undrinkable wine. About 90% of the rest of mondo del vino has been similarly corrupted. Mercifully, there are still a few beauties made, mostly in France, by vignerons who could care less what the critics think or even what the public thinks it likes. Instead, they make wines of authenticity. Try, for example, the cot (malbec) from the Loire's Clos Roche Blanche (under $20), which makes me conjure up violets floating through a chalk straw. Or Pierre Gonon's St. Joseph (under $40), which illustrates what syrah should taste like -- and it's not cherry vanilla.

Sure, France makes oceans of crappy stuff, but there is also an ever-expanding band of winemakers fiercely committed to working with, not against, nature. Their philosophy is spreading to Italy and slowly to the rest of Europe, while California has been slow on the uptake. And what's more, even with the beastly exchange rate, they are bargains compared with the pricey bottles from Napa or Santa Barbara counties.

This spring, I wondered if while I was otherwise occupied, California vintners had found the road to sanity. I took advantage of the flowering of spring distributor events in New York City. I went tasting and found too many wines still based on over-ripe fruit. Alcohol levels still flirted with those as high as port. Even wine from prized makers such as Heidi Barrett or the highly touted ones from Sea Smoke and Brewer-Clifton were disasters.

At one tasting, I stopped by a relative newcomer, Stewart Cellars. Michael Stewart, a Texan, told me he discarded the 2005 vintage because it tasted "too French." When asked what that meant, he replied "more earth than fruit." Then he added, "I want to make a California wine, not a French wine."

Dull, fruit-driven, alcoholic wines have become the incontrovertible wine identity of California. Or is there hope?

Two tables down, Napa winemaker Cathy Corison stood flanked by decanters and bottles. Her '03 Kronos was shockingly elegant. Her 1996 cabernet wore its gorgeous herbs unapologetically, with vibrancy. The wines weighed in at a miraculous 13.6% alcohol, compared with a more typical 14.9% and beyond. I asked her how she managed this remarkable feat, and she answered: "I don't make wine from prunes. I don't make Las Vegas showgirls."

Forever the cynic, I asked if she had perhaps reduced the alcohol with reverse osmosis. Her response was something along the line of: On a cold day in hell, I would. She has never followed the fashion; she has stayed true to her mission. There aren't many like her around.

Around the aisle from her stood a grinning Mike Dashe. I heard he recently made a wine so un-Californian he was at risk of deportation. It was made in a manner worthy of the French natural wine movement: organic, no added yeasts or trickery, no wood influence. It was a zinfandel with structure and earth and lightness. It also had a color that a famous wine critic might call "feeble."

"I can't show this to critics," Dashe said. "They'd be offended." It was delicious.

Maybe these two represent a fledgling natural wine revolution. If so, I'll certainly wave that flag. But until the overthrow is complete and more California vintners give making real wine a go, I'll always have France.

Alice Feiring is a journalist, food critic and the author of the forthcoming book, "The Battle for Wine and Love -- Or How I Saved the World from Parkerization."

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