france

Rouletabulle

by whitney on December 18, 2012

Had a little gathering of friends at the Victorian last night! When a few of the first ladies walked through the door, I popped open a bottle I’ve been excited to try. And it exploded all over me, but whatever. Don’t hate the bubble game, hate the shuffle. Or something.

OK, the wine. It’s Eric Texier ‘s 2011 Rouletabulle Petillant Naturel, made primarily from old vine Chasselas in the Rhone. Say what? Chasselas is a grape you usually find in Switzerland. Interesting!

Here’s a quote from Eric I pulled from the David Bowler Wine site:

“Confronted with fantastic old vines of white and pink Chasselas growing on sandstone in Flaviac (near Saint- Julien en Saint-Alban), we had one question: what to do with them? Before thinking about uprooting or overgrafting them, we wanted to vinify the grapes. The climate is certainly too southern to make a dry wine (the location is definitely not the shores of Geneva lake), so why not a pétillant naturel? We made our first attempt in 2011, and added 20% of Muscat de Hambourg (red Muscat table grape) from a nearby plot. On the advice of good friends from Die, we kept residual sugar at 15 to 20g/l with about 10 degrees of alcohol. All explained that fermentation would stop when pressure would get to a few bars. But, surprise, pressure continued to climb and would not stop. So we had to disgorge and affix the closure without adding any SO2. These bubbles are astonishing with their aromatic complexity, and the wine is suited for conversations, for poolside, for afternoon snacks, and intense heat, it is mischievous for sure. Rouletabulle was born and named after the reporter Rouletabille in Gaston Leroux’s books, for its irrepressible elan. 3200 bottles produced.”

Well, we  weren’t poolside in intense heat, but we definitely had snacks and got a little mischievous. This was far too easy to drink, as in the bottle was probably finished in about 5 minutes. So delicious! Like apple cidre meets lemon candy. It’s 9 am and I want another glass.

You can find me on Instagram @ubriaca

Cuilleron Syrah & Unfamiliar Places

by whitney on December 13, 2012

I like drinking wine in unfamiliar places. If I’ve had the wine before, I always experience it differently in new surroundings. Maybe I catch something I missed the first time, understand it in a different way.  I’m housesitting for a week in a truly epic Victorian home built in the late 1800’s in an area of Los Angeles called Angelino Heights. The entire block I’m staying on is listed under the National Register of Historic Places and the house itself is a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument. VERY COOL.

The house has a lot of energy, to say the least. I arrived as the dark evening hours were quickly rolling in and decided I needed a large glass of wine to help me settle into the new temporary digs. I turned to one of my current favorite “weekday wines”-  Yves Cuilleron‘s 2011 Les Vignes d’à Côté, an entry level Vin de France from a Northern Rhone master. As it boldly and simply states on the label, as well as in the glass, this is purely Syrah. The kind of Syrah I love. Fresh and fruity, but serious and savory at the same time. The classic sensory Syrah experience, with minimal oak and balance.  I hate to say it, but a lot of Central Coast Syrah is a shame when you taste how it should be done. And for $18.

What a bargain! Seriously. These are the kinds of bottles people should be opening as their everyday wines. Spend a few extra dollars than you normally do on your Wednesday night wine. The return on your investment is huge.

PS- Good news! I didn’t see any ghosts last night.

Discoveries

by whitney on November 13, 2012

One of my favorite things about wine? The discoveries. The amazing wine you’ve never tasted before, the winemaker you’ve never heard of that you suddenly feel is your kindred spirit. If I was Oprah I would call them Aha Moments. But, I’m not Oprah. Should I call them Winescoveries? No, I shouldn’t.

So, I met this guy named Josh Eubank. He came down to Los Angeles from San Francisco to taste us Domaine LA ladies on some of the wines he imports. He just started his own company called Percy Selections and every single wine he poured for us was great. After the first two, I thought, “Wait a second. Who is this dude and why didn’t I know he existed?” It’s wonderful to see someone at the beginning of something special. His heart (and his palate) is in the right place and I’m excited to see where it takes him.

One of the stand out wines for all of us was the 2011 Clos des Vignes du Maynes Cuvée 910. It’s an interesting little Burgundy made from Pinot Noir, Gamay and Chardonnay. Yes, Chardonnay. It’s also worth pointing out that the grapes come from land that has never, ever been treated chemically. The Guillot family’s handful of hectares were originally planted by Benedictine monks around 910 AD, hence the name of the wine, and is thought to be the oldest organic vineyard in France.

The wine was vibrant, alive, playfully elegantly and highly drinkable. Since Josh was headed back to San Fran, he very kindly let us each pick out a bottle to drink and get to know. I grabbed the Cuvée 910 and ran. Straight to…The Hart and The Hunter.

Get ready to hear and see even more about this place than you already have, cause I’m obsessed and it’s delicious. They still don’t have a wine list in place. Or wine glasses. So, we drank the wine out of coffee mugs. Not ideal, but I ain’t gonna hate. It still went in my mouth and down my throat and into my veins. And I was happy.

I wanted you guys to see the absolutely gorgeous color of this wine, so I poured it into my empty water glass.

Right? Ridiculous.

Winescoveries!

 

The Men & Their Vineyards

by whitney on January 8, 2011

(spoken in Mr. Movie guy voice)

You’ve seen The Men & Their Horses and the critically acclaimed sequel The Men & Their Cellars, now we head…to the vineyard. Follow 2 rogue winemakers through the wild bush vines of Roussillon. Scorpions. Olive trees. Fallen almonds. Beehives. Bright sun and strong winds. And old vines. Really old vines.

(you can now return to the normal voice in your head)

Up first, Stephane Gallet of Domaine Le Roc des Anges. Marjorie, Stephane’s wife and winemaker, was away on business (gotta sell that wine!) so Christina and I ventured into their 100+ year old carignan vineyard with him and their 2 adorable sons. They had quite the time smashing almonds as we walked and explored, enchanted by our surroundings.

We tasted their great wines with 2 new snail friends, courtesy of the Gallet boys.

And up next: the always jolly Olivier Varichon of Domaine Vinci. What a guy! And what fantastic wines- some of my favorite of the trip. Sadly, his wines are not imported into the US. Maybe someone will remedy that in the near future, but probably not. He’s not too keen on producing any more than the few cases he already (barely) releases.

His vineyards were a windy 20 minute drive away from his small garage of a cellar in Estagel and tucked within a mini canyon of sorts in the Agly Valley. It’s where he spends the majority of his days. He says it’s peaceful and I most certainly agree.

This is how you can tell how old a vine is. Just count the number of “round spots”  from the annual cuttings.

Off to check on his beehives.

Christina has lovely and informative posts on both of these winemakers (scroll down a bit and you’ll see them.) Please give them a read if you want to know more about Olivier and the Gallets.  Oh yeah- and there’s also a rather unflattering photo of me stuffing my face with ” un Americain” hamburger.

The Men & Their Horses

by whitney on November 20, 2010

Before setting out on our France adventure, I don’t think Christina or I had any idea how many horses there would be in our future. Almost every winemaker we met had at least 2. Other than their obvious majestic beauty and wise soulful eyes (I’m partial and from Kentucky), the winemakers keep them around as “farm hands.” And companions, of course, but they represent the return to a larger movement championing hand harvesting and non-machine use in the vineyard. It takes a lot more time and can be grueling work, but all of these men feel it is vital to the health of their land and their vines. And to the excellence of their wines.

I wanted to share a little pictorial of, as the title clearly suggests, the men and their horses. So, let’s get to it. Our very first stop of the trip was to see Sebastien Riffault in Sury-en-Vaux a hop, skip and a jump from  Sancerre. We took a cart ride with one of his horses, Ophelie, out to the vineyards. What a lovely, albeit brisk, way to spend a morning and see the land!

Our next horse experience, and perhaps the most amazing one, was with Olivier Cousin in the very small town of Martigné-Briand outside of Saumur. If it’s any indication of the epic-ness that was our Cousin experience-  the first night we shared with the Cousin clan ended with midnight horse rides through town to the cellar where we tasted all the new ferments, among other things. Did I mention Olivier’s son played the accordion while doing all of this? Yes- that happened.

Olivier with Kiki (right) and Romeo, my prince (left).

The next afternoon, I got to ride Romeo again bareback through Olivier’s old vine carignan vineyard. Myself, Christina and Olivier’s wonderful American apprentice Clare each had a horse and trotted side by side within the rows of vines. Bareback! On horses! Through the vineyard! The cool factor was almost making my heart explode.

Note from Christina:  What Whitney didn’t tell you is that her beloved Romeo, scared by the ‘cellar dog’, bucked her right off the horse.  I was right behind so saw her go flying.  Scary at first, but now quite funny…in a dark way.

As amazing as it all was, we had to get in our little Renault Clio and drive 9 (!) hours south to Roussillon for our final visits.

This is where Nina and the plough come in.

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The Beurre of My Dreams

by whitney on November 14, 2010

I’ll get to all the wine soon, but I just HAVE to share with you the amazing butter I had while in Sancerre. We were lucky enough to be invited over for dinner to the home of young winemaker Sebastien Riffault (he was chef for the night!). In addition to tasting his great sauvignon blanc and a decadent tartiflette, he shared some delicious butter and bread to snack.

These beauties are from Le Beurre Bordier aka The Butter Geniuses. The butter hails from Brittany in the north of France and is artfully crafted by Jean-Yves Bordier. This was, hands down, the best butter I have ever had. Ever. The yuzu was my personal favorite, although they were all delicious. You know something is special when it inspires heated conversation over its many possible uses. I think the yuzu would be amazing in a fruit pie or tart crust, the seaweed melted over grilled fish, the salted on- well- just about anything.

More info on the wines to follow, but Sebastien is making a great skin contact Sancerre (on the right). It was my favorite of the 3. And in a tip of the hat to the recently departed Marcel Lapierre, I drank from his tasting glass all night. He was a dear friend of Sebastien’s and the Riffault family and a extremely well respected Beaujolais master and natural wine pioneer.

I didn’t have my camera that night, so Soren filled in as photographer. Merci Didier! I used a little Rollip effects action to add some “nostalgia” as well as some typography…for educational purposes.

Parli Francese?

by whitney on October 30, 2010

So- I can’t ALWAYS go to Italy. I need to spread my European love to other countries- they’re getting jealous. Tomorrow morning I am off to France to meet my dearest friend Christina and our German pal Soren (this is what happened the last time we were all together). We’re meeting in Paris and then shoving our luggage and selves into a tiny car rental. Destination: Loire! 2nd destination: Roussillon and the Languedoc. There will be a lot of winemaker visits. And a lot of eating. And a lot of drinking. And an immense amount of fun.

Before my return home, I’ll have 2 days in Paris alone with a whole lot of nothing to do other than get on a bike and explore. C’est magnifique.

Photos by my pal Logan Tracey from her recent Paris adventure.