Years ago on a bright seventy degree afternoon, moments after tying off our boat in the Camargue’s picturesque Marseillan port, I fell in love with Muscadet and its Melon de Bourgogne grape lounging in a simple oyster restaurant’s tiny outdoor courtyard.  It was a magical few hours.  I was taken by the wine’s satiating freshness, crisp acidity, saltiness, vibrant fruit, and mineral qualities that performed as comfortably as mignonette sauce next to oysters.  So when I sat down to lunch at Island Creek Oyster Bar with the Loire Valley Wine Bureau last week to kick off Muscadet May in Boston, the early May sunshine combined with a lineup of nine different examples of Muscadet to stir up soothing memories of past oyster/muscadet revelry. This time, a small group of wine writers and restaurant trade indulged in three courses of deftly handled Boston seafood paired with Muscadet from a range of vintages and terroir. The mid day respite advanced my grasp of the truths and untruths of Muscadet’s “sur lie” designation and generated new enthusiasm for aging Muscadet through patient cellaring.

At least two thirds of the Muscadet presented at lunch sold for $11-$18, which is neither unusual nor an exception.  I never understood how some pretty sharp winos want nothing to do with these wines, curiously turning up noses at their mention.  The fact is Muscadet supplies the world with superb food friendly white wine values offering a reasonably priced restaurant option, age-worthiness, and high quality drinking by the caseload.  The idea of laying away $15 wine for 15 years or more might seem strange, but shortly you will see how three rereleased wines from 1995,1999, and 2000 performed.  These older wines we drank last week were all very recently purchased at retail (Astor Wines & Spirits and elsewhere in NY) by the Loire Valley Wine Bureau representatives.  They were late released or rereleased by wineries that understand most Muscadet is consumed early and are motivated to help consumers experience the amazing transformation of cellared Melon Bourgogne.

I am often amused by the French in this one regard; adhering to or violating self imposed regulations as it fits the moment.  In the first flight of wines, only the 2010 Domaine de la Louvetrie Sevre et Maine, with great fruit definition and the richest mouthfeel of the three, had “sur lie” noted on the bottle.  When I started drinking Muscadet, I stuck with sur lie label designated wines because only the best sub-appellations are permitted by French authorities to use it on the label.  It’s a good rule of thumb and reliable method for purchasing and experimenting with Muscadet.  But I was curious and asked our Loire Valley host whether any other wines in the first flight saw lees contact despite the missing label designation.  That’s where things turned deroutant.

1995 L d'Or Luneau-Papin

Besides the appellation restrictions, regulations further dictate the wines sit on their lees until the winter following the harvest to be bottled without any racking somewhere between spring and late fall of that same year.  Longer or shorter exposure to the lees or bottling dates disqualify label designation.  But some producers extend the lees exposure and bottling date beyond the allowable window, making great wines that have creamier texture and fuller flavor, and are fine leaving the sur lie designation off the label. Some simply violate this regulation by including the label designation after leaving the wines in contact with their lees, bottling on a time table of their own discretion, and dismissing regulations with a characteristically care-free and dismissive French hand wave.

Seeking flexibility or the chance to share the truth, there is a movement by Muscadet’s Crus Communaux to extend the permissible contact and bottling period to 17-24 months, aligning with the actual practice of many of the best producers. In any event, while the French authorities argue this “oh so tres important” detail, it’s not as easy as I once thought to understand whether or not a wine is truly made sur lie simply by reading the label. Tres tragique!

Each of the recent vintage wines was immensely satisfying, but the real story line of this afternoon was Muscadet’s exceptional performance at various stages of bottle age.  I heard about this cellar worthiness, but never had the opportunity to drink old Muscadet until now.  It’s mind boggling to think you can go down to your favorite wine shop with $25 in your pocket, or lay $12 wines away for decades, and experience the magic of advancing well constructed white wine.  Here are the three older wines and my notes:

1995 L D’or de Luneau-Papin Cuvee Medaillee Muscadet Sevre et Maine **** $25

Deep yellow color revealing the oxidation that is also evident on the nose.  But the age has not sacrificed the underlying acidity, wet rock, or fruit core and the wine shows crispness inside an ultra rich mouthfeel. Exceptionally long finish.  It’s masquerading as a distant cousin to Muscadet, offering hints of Sherry and aged Burgundy character. A wild and unique wine that is riveting from the first sip forward, but you have to like oxidation to fully enjoy this wine.

1999 L d’or de Lundeau-Papin Cuvee Medaillee Muscadet Severe et Maine ***** 25

This was my favorite wine of this older flight—and of the entire lunch. It was simply perfect; serious, classy, pointed flavors and aromatics and a lively balance that showed off the knitting of age and youthful vibrancy all at once.  The nose wreaked of pronounced slate.  There were tropical fruit flavors delivered to the palate in regal fashion.  The age of this wine has not deteriorated its vibrancy or focus, and oxidation was barely noticeable.  There is simply no other $25 wine that I can think of that offers this much complexity and balance in such a classy way.  For the price, it is worth buying up every last bottle that Astor has in stock.  At its rate of development, you have at least another decade or two of dreamy drinking.

2000 Domaine Du Haut Bourg Musdadet Cotes de Grandlieu *** $20

Little evidence of bottle age in the flavors and aromatics except for a tiny, tiny touch of oxidation.  This wine was held and then bottled at the ripe old age of seven. There is serious mouthwatering salinity and citrus notes. It drinks like a baby.  I have no idea how it will fare in the bottle, but there is simply no evidence of age yet.  It is completely reminiscent of delicious young Muscadet.  Such an anomaly and mighty surprise.

Enjoy your Muscadet, both young and old, sur lie or not. It’s cheap enough, always, to buy by the dozen with six for now and six for much, much later.  If you live in Boston, enjoy Muscadet in May at these participating wine shops and restaurants:

Restaurants:
Brasserie JO
Petit Robert Central
Petit Robert
Petit Robert Bistro (South End)
Petit Robert Needham
Aquitaine Boston
Gaslight Brasserie du Coin
Island Creek Oyster Bar
Union Bar and Grill
Beehive
Jackys Table
51 Lincoln

Retailers:
Wine Bottega
South End Formaggio
Downtown Wine & Spirits
Central Bottle

Happy Muscadet May!

The Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux just rolled across America on a four city press and trade tour with more than one hundred different Chateau owners, representatives, and wines representing and promoting the 2008 vintage from thirteen different appellations.  Normally, for fun, context, and some learning I’ll pour two different vintages of the same Chateau or two wines of the same vintage from two different Chateaus side by side.  In this modest pair sized sampling, inspections can span hours without interruption from distraction or boredom.  On occasion, our tasting group dives into a dozen Bordeaux, in two flights of six, from the same vintage and different producers (or vice versa), sending palates plunging off the high board of useful comprehension and falling hundreds of feet on the doorstep of fatigue.  And just every so often, I get lucky enough to find myself in a daunting room like this one at the Boston Harbor Hotel, at 3pm in the afternoon with only two hours to spare and 120 wines to taste before my dinner meeting.

I managed to taste about 70 wines as I moved about the room in peripatetic fashion, sloshing and spitting, taking notes, chatting with old and new wine friends and colleagues while building a vintage impression and reaffirming one very important wine fact. First, the fact; wine is a living unpredictable thing and 2008 Bordeaux is proof.  The wines are really good for the most part, excellent in many cases, and only pockets, not communal swaths, of blemished product were in evidence.  The buzz around 2008 going into barrel was not encouraging on the heels of months of miserable weather, and since I had not been to France for Spring en primeur tastings and have not paid attention to the vintage’s progress, I made my way through the room without expectation only to be rewarded often enough with dark or deep purple colored claret, pure fruit, sweet tannins, beautiful berry flavors, pretty aromatics, and classic structure.  Now for my impression: 2008 has turned into a certain buying opportunity and hints at classic long term greatness, only living in the shadows of the heralded 2009 vintage.  2008 is a recession year vintage, and the prices reflect that.  First growths were available en primeur for under $3000 per dozen.

The tough grainy tannins makes for extra work, but the wines are manageable enough and seem integrated in a naturally classic Bordeaux style.  It is admittedly hard tasting these wines so young with their edgy tannins and closely held profiles that make the sorting process a little frustrating and somewhat uneven. With that said, the right bank wines struck me as more approachable than the Cabernet dominated wines from the Medoc that are usually more aligned with my personal style preference.  Many St. Emilion wines were simply mind blowing including Troplong Mondot and Pavie Macquin which are both hedonistic wines with mint, herbs, black cherry, and a silky round satiny and fat mouth feel for the latter with added notes of black licorice for the former.  There seemed to be more consistency among the wines from Saint Emilion and both of these recommended wines are approachable today, definitely worth buying, but will benefit from a at least a good half a dozen years of cellar time.  The 2008 Pavie Macquin is selling for about $65, almost half the price of the 2009 vintage. Same holds true for many of the excellent wines from Pessac Leognan and the Medoc. I tasted eleven different Sauternes and Barsacs and my hands down favorite was Chateau Suduirat, and at $60 it feels like a bargain.

With so many good wines worth recommending, here are my top picks from the vintage sampling:

****1/2

Troplong Mondot - Saint Emilion

Leoville Barton – Saint Julien

Pichon Lalande -Pauillac

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****

Pavie Macquin – Saint Emilion

Suduiraut – Sauternes

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***1/2

Lynch Bages – Pauillac

Domaine de Chevalier - Pesssac Leognan

Fieuzal (white)- Pessac Leognan

Larrivet Haut Brion - Pessac Leognan

Angelus - Saint Emilion

Beau-Sejor Becot - Saint Emilion

La Conseillante – Pomerol

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***

Pape Clement – Pessac Leognan

Figeac – St. Emilion

La Gaffeliere – St. Emilion

Gruaud Larose - Saint Julien

Leoville Poyferre - Saint Julien

Talbot - Saint Julien

Pichon Loungueville - Pauillac

It is definitely safe to go back in the water following 2007 and buy these wines.  They are classic Bordeaux, with a good balance of sweet fruit and firm tannin, certainly less tannic than, say, 1986 but not nearly as ripe or fat as 1989 or 1990. For all things considered, the are fairly priced for arrival and appear to have the bones to outlive my own useful palate.

Note: Critics like Parker, Laube, Tanzer and so many others too numerous to list here, that taste massive amounts of wine on a regular basis to perform exhaustive inspections of vintages and regions deserve a lot of credit.  This is palate-taxing duty.  The amount of focus and concentration that goes into tasting regimens like this is impressive.  Doing it on a regular basis over the years is no small feat.  Hats of to this cadre of tasters and critics that go beyond the small flight, side by side, and individual bottle tastings that I am most certainly more familiar and comfortable with.

France scores a smooth hat trick in the WineZag “Top Three Wines” December round up. This holiday month provided ample opportunity to drink a lot of great, and not so great, wine with boastful price tags and venerable credentials.  These WineZag “top three” wines are especially worthy, all offering pinnacle palate moments that stand out in an elite and competitive lineup. The Southern Rhone, Languedoc, and Beaujolais weigh in with beauties between $18 and $40, each one compelling and worth seeking out.  Every one of them is a standing value either on a total price to quality ratio measure or within its own category.

( $20 ****1/2) 2007 Puech Noble Coteaux du Languedoc Vassal: I drank this wine on Christmas Eve.  It is a Rene Rostaing wine, but this time from the Languedoc and not Cote Rotie.  The cuvee of primarily Syrah sells for a fraction of his Northern Rhone wines but with a purity of fruit and noble quality (hmmm, something in that name) that beckons north without entirely leaving behind some garrigue, earth, and country-like qualities inherent in its Southwestern roots. This wine simply overwhelmed me, is worth twice the price, and moved me to acquire another full case to lay down for drinking over the next ten years.  It was my favorite discovery of the month, a top wine of the year, and I can not recommend it strongly enough.

($18****1/2) 2009 Pascal Granger Julienas: No surprise that the 2009 Beaujolais vintage offers up one of the top wines of the month.  Out of a large field of wines tasted blind, this Julienas rose to the top.  Flowers, stone, and salt combine behind acidic verve that is just thrilling to drink.  There is a focused fruit core and a purity of flavor to this wine that makes you sit up in your seat.  A top wine from a top vintage.

($39 ***1/2) 2007 Bosquets des Papes Chateauneuf du Pape: I revisited Bones steakhouse in Atlanta after (truly) a 25+ year hiatus.  The restaurant appears to have gone through a physical expansion, and the energy on this evening was fever pitch in all corners of this venerable southern beef temple.  The wine list is now conveniently presented via networked iPads allowing you to build “top personal selection lists” from real time inventory.   The list is powerful, and I could eat there for a month straight and not drink the same wine twice nor get bored.  The evening was marked by full throttled California Cabernets, but I managed to slip in this rich modern styled Chateauneuf du Pape from a top southern Rhone vintage showcasing enough fruit and extraction that I suspected would be appreciated by my Cabernet leaning dinner companions.  The ’07 Bosquet des Papes did not disappoint, showing off tannins that border on the silky side, raspberry and blackberry fruit, peppery spice, tobacco and herbal aromatics, and a long gripping finish.  A compelling CDP value that should last a long time but can be completely reveled in today as well.  It is a strong buy for its age worthiness and current day complexity.