Harvest report from Champagne

The last day of picking in 2011 was Wednesday the 7th September. A date which is usually matching the preparation of the harvest in Champagne rather than the end. But an early summer-like spring has given more than two weeks advance to the vines. This is not the earliest harvest we have had in recent years, 2003 with it's summer heat wave and the 11th April frost that destroyed almost all the yield had seen the harvest start on August the 23rd. Luckily this is also the only common point of those two years.

This year we have seen grapes of exceptional quality: healthy, ripe, giving sharp and fresh juices. Our chardonnays, from both Chouilly and Vitry were already at this stage a pleasure to taste. Now that fermentations are complete, our hope is confirmed, as in 1961, 2011 will contradict the common belief that "years in one" don't make good wines. We could have thought of no better gift for our 20 years anniversary. Similar in many ways to beautiful vintage years (1995 for its structure and to 2004 for its elegance) 2011 will continue to keep us in suspense until the final decision to make a vintage or not. We will be very cautious when taking that decision, even if 2011 is a meaningful year for us but we want to leave no doubt about the reasons for making it a Vintage.

Jérôme Legras
Champagne LEGRAS & HAAS

LEGRAS & HAAS CHAMPAGNE EXTRA

The champagne house of Legras & Haas maybe is unknown for some, but let me tell that you are missing out on some great wines made by this family.

Brigitte Hass & Francois Legras started up their own company in 1991 after being growers to other houses for many years.

I meet one of three sons, Jerome Legras and his mother on a sunny afternoon at the winery in Grand Cru Chouilly (he hade just finished the last pressing) to try some of the wines that they produce, what a great tasting hi gave me,

From the tradition bottling of 50% chardonnay, 25% pinot noir and 25% pinot meunier that is representing the house in full scale and great quality to the

Millesime 2005 made of 100% chardonnay grand cru selection parcellaire, what a great wine it was.

The house produce some 80 000 bottler per year from 14 hectare in Chouilly and a very small parcel of pinot in Ay and the vilification is obtained by the best and most rigour ways to obtain the highest quality.

Per Exigence

Bollinger Per Se

To visit Bollinger is a mission by it self, after months of work I was able to get a visitation time to this Grand Marque in champagne.

The Bollinger style is one of my favourite for many years and is was a special treat to get a chance to visit them as VIP extravaganza, both me and Christina was amazed on how much manual labouring was behind all of the cuvees and what efford they put in at every single bottle.

What I like about Bollinger is the power in the wines, I would say that they make a great white Burgundy with the finest and tiniest bubbles, its powerful, masculine, elegant and extremely complex wines always ready to consume, witch I like J

The barrel storage is one of a kind in champagne and the 3000+ barrels where all with a barcode so that the winemaker could read the whole history of the barrel with a scanner, some high Tec in a traditional place.

The latest baby is the rose wines that Bollinger was the latest to adopt due to that Lilly Bollinger did not like the idea of a rose wine, but market demands make them think twice about this and for the last two years there is two bottling of rosé

The special cuvee and the La Grand Annee rose.

The most mystifying in the range is the bottles of Vieilles Vignes Francaises! Made of ungrafted vines that was not affected of the phylloxera with two tiny grand cru plots of 100% pinot noir just outside the house and only about 2000 bottles a year, mystical, magical and probably fantastic, I did not taste it unfortunately, the bottles are all allocated to the best customers around the globe and if you can find it buy it. The price is an average of 900 €

The range goes from special cuvee, La Grande Annee, the R.D (recently disgorged) and then the masterpiece V.V.F, the best thing is that Bollinger put focus on a smaller portfolio and make the best of what the grapes can provide.

 Bollinger is the trademark for gutsy champagne and I just love it.

Domaine Weinbach / The Faller family

One of my all time favourite wines has to be the wines from Domaine Weinbach and the Faller family, guess if I was exited when I manage to get a appointment with Catherine Faller at the old winery. (from 1612)

The Faller ladies was the best hostesses you can imagine and the tasting that we hade was just mind blowing with the whole range of the Faller wines one better than the other what a treat that was to taste the wines from the grand cru of the estate.

Schlossberg, Furstentum, Mambourg, Altenbourg, cuvee Laurence vineyard, Marckrain and the historical monopole vineyard Clos de Capucins are all making the finest Alsace wines available, beautifully crafted with a female twist to it.

All the wines are made in a special style house style with extracted mature fruit extremely well balanced with sharp acidity and the minerality that make the wines preferable to match with any modern and classic cuisines.

As a chef I see pictures of food when I taste wines and let me tell you that the menu I hade in my mind was extraordinary that could match the domains wines.

The wine that was slightly above the others is the Riesling Schlossberg Cuvee Sainte Catherine “ INEDIT “ that was produced in 1998 for the first time of vines that are more that sixty years of age! This specific little plot reach exceptional maturities year after year with some botrytis without “ trie “ this wine is pure fantasy of how a great Riesling should be in the mature style with an average residual sugar of 22 grams every year, the wine is silky, smooth, complex with a dry finish that shows a perfect balance and elegance of what Riesling as a grape can produce in the hands of a master winemaker. Do you want to have more information of the wines or the Domaine feel free to drop me an mail.

Finger licking good//D

Zind - Humbrecht wines in gods garden

When you leave South Africa you can not believe that one of the first persons you meet is from that country! How fun it was to meet up with Jolene Hunter the cellar master of maison Zind-Humbrecht, she is from J-burg bye the way J

The winery of Olivier Humbrecht is in my book one of the 3 best producers in Alsace ( I will meet them all this week) and Jolene ( Olivier has to drive his son to a new school out of town this day) made this tasting a memory for life, I hade the tasting extravaganza never seen before when we started to get berserk in the tiny wine cellar, the one great bottle after the other, she was a great hostess who could explain all of my silly questions about all aspects of the house winemaking methods and about biodynamic winegrowing techniques.

The wines in the range are all amazing and it’s hard to pick a special wine, but if you have a request for this just drop me a e-mail on dragan@unictaste.se and I will get you an update.

When you taste wines like this from a master of terroirs you can really notice the difference of every slope and the different plots of land where the grapes are grown, very knowledgeable and interesting and put things in new perspective on things.

To be a sommelier and wine nerd is fantastic because the education never stops and you learn something new every time you taste a wine and meet a winemaker, I’m really humble for all of this people that work hard to give us these great wines, there is no shortcuts for quality when it comes to wine.

You get what you pay for//

Maison Trimbach

After a Quick change at home we where heeding for Alsace for some meetings with the top producers in the region, first out after a long drive that night ( believe me I was exhausted after the long flight from Johannesburg ) was a appointment with the lovely Anne of maison Trimbach in ribeauville one of the bigger wine towns in Alsace, what a wonderful treat she gave me when she start to pour the whole range of the Trimbach wines, believe me its hard to choose but an all time favourite is always the Frederic Emile cuvee made of Rieslings right outside the house on the slopes of Osterberg.

The Rieslings of the house Trimbach is extremely well balanced with racy acidity and great matures in the fruit, with a high content of minerality in the nose this is especially for the Clos St Hune Riesling that still after 5 years is very young and need many more years before it start to show of the real potential with maturity, this is for sure a world class Riesling that is hard to beat for any growers.

The Trimbach VT and SGN wines is something special with a massive fruit and complex aromas but all of them are perfectly balanced with sharp acidity and the sweetness, I’m so lucky to taste wines like this and have friends like the Trimbach family that can treat and spoil me like this.

Many Thanks once again dear Anne and bye the way you look amazing in your costume of flames J

The lucky bastard//

Pinot Noir and great friends

Pinot Noir must be the most exiting grape variety in South Africa right now, after attending a great Pinot tasting with my friend sommelier Miguel Chan I realised quickly the potential of this grape and the great future to come.

The best pinot wines I have tasted so far is Meerlust 2009 from Stellenbosch, De Grendel 2009 from Cape town area, Catherine Marshall seven barrels 2009 from Elgin and finally Nature in Concert made by Danie de Wet from Robertson.

In the new world people mostly rely on New Zealand as a good pinot country by all means, but S-A will give them an match for they money in an few years to come.

The pinot grape can be an real challenge to grow and many winemakers just don’t want do take It, but they who do can make beautiful wines that the world loves right now, its going to be interesting to see how long this grape will stay in fashion considering that everything in the wine world is very sensitive to media and what / how journalists write about wine, for the last 15 years I could see a great development in different countries that make wine but also a development in new style from the old world, we my friends are born in right time for this magic time.

I would like Dusan Jelic welcome back to Europe after many years in S-A, we will meet soon my friend.

Have a great pinot day.