Take five (wines) with Kate and Jude in Queen’s Park

Had a picnic with our friends Kate and Jude in Queen’s Park.  Kate and Jude own and run the superb wine shop & bar called Green & Blue in Lordship Lane in East Dulwich. They specialise in wines from small producers (generally organic or biodynamic) and you can drink these wines at a very low mark up in the adjacent bar with platters of cheese or antipasti.

The weather was overcast but pleasantly mild, the setting viridian and the rumble of carnival a few streets down provided a surreal contrast. Kate had cooked a pissaladière and various salads and we hunkered down for a long overdue reunion.

I brought a few bottles that they hadn’t tried before. Kate and Jude are great to taste with; it is not just that we tend to love the same wines, but their enthusiasm and open-mindedness are so refreshing that I am sure that the wines actually taste better. Every time we do a tasting together I come out elated, thinking positive thoughts. Conversely, I know people who can kill wine with their sheer negativity and their analysis-paralysis.

The first time I wrote about this Chenin it was an interesting two tone affair, some honey-coated quince sweetness balanced by jagged acidity. Since that time this uncouth wine has evidently begun a second fermentation in the bottle and now there’s renewed zip, verve, myriad tiny bubbles and offensive quantities of fun. Orthodox wine lovers would roll their eyes (and I saw a sommelier squirming in his straitjacket after trying this), but I love a wine that tickles my ribs whilst staying several steps ahead of my palate.

Sizzling sparkling white unsheathing sharp darts of spiky lemon, grapefruit and white peach. In the mouth, it blossoms to layers of white peach, quince and ripe greengage, brine and chalk minerality, finishing persistently with musky florality, anise, angelica, and subtle bitterness of herbs, alkaline minerality, and fruit skin. A wine to pique the curiosity of the smallest person.

1999 Savennières Les Genets, Domaine Laureau (biodynamic)

Wine has been made in the fields that Domaine Laureau currently occupy, on the edge of the city of Angers, since the middle ages. To the west of Angers, on the north bank of the Loire river, it is possible to create probably the most intellectually engaging, ageworthy Chenin Blanc in the world. Les Genets is picked from some of the highest elevation vineyard parcels in this part of the Savennières AOC. The soils under these vines are a mix of volcanic material and schist, key to the drainage and eventual mineral character of wine farmed here. The Chenin is harvested via successive sorting, pressed directly, allowed to settle for 12 hours and then left to ferment (indigenous yeasts for up to a year in vats or barrels depending on the “terroir”. Each ‘micro-terroir” is identified and vinified separately.

They are matured on the lees for 18 months, and some vats undergo malolactic fermentation. All of this allows the wine to acquire fullness, complexity and charm. The character of the Chenin and the terroir are maintained through gentle, non-interventionist maturing. The wines are matured in slight reduction to preserve all their aromatic potential.Damien Laureau avoids chemical vine treatments, favouring the use of fruit extracts, non-synthetic vine treatments, and the cohabitation of symbiotic , indigenous plant species in his fields to create a healthy vine-growing environment. Fruit is picked relatively late to assure sufficient texture in the wine, but before the onset of widespread botrytis which would fundamentally alter the aromatic qualities of Les Genets.

Les Genets is intriguing with rich aromas of apple bakewell, papaya, oatmeal and honey, sherry and old musk, secondary development veering towards roast mushroom. Typical Chenin that, as it ages, the honey notes become drier and it acquires a bruised fruit mingled with soft nutty character.

http://www.wineterroirs.com/2009/08/damien_laureau.html for a hugely detailed description of this estate.

A river runs through it...

2007 Bourgueil Trinch! Catherine et Pierre Breton (biodynamic - low sulphur)

Trinch! is perhaps one of the best known wines from the Bretons, the name apparently referring to the ‘clink’ made by two glasses knocked together in mutual celebration. It comes from young vines grown on gravelly soils, and the fruit is harvested by hand into small, 10 kg crates. Again sulphur is avoided during fermentation, with just a little added at bottling. The early-drinking 2007 Bourgueil Trinch! is seamlessly ripe, gushing with tart blackberry and mulberry, with a palate-saturating, anything-but-thin palate presence (despite low alcohol) and rich dark chocolate, toasted nut, and crunchy red fruit flavours, touch of minerality and fennel notes in the finish. Cabernet Franc is the perfect all-purpose al fresco red (ignoring Pinot for more sensual encounters...). It is grassy, smells of the earth and endlessly refreshing. The Breton wines invariably put a smile on my face.

2005 Jasnières Les Longues Vignes, Domaine Le Briseau (biodynamic - low sulphur)

In 2007, the estate had grown to eleven hectares. All vineyard work is done according to the principles of organic viticulture (with the certification of Qualité France): no pesticides, insecticides or chemical fertilizers are used; nettle and horsetail decoctions are sprayed on the foliage; copper is used in modest quantity (less than 5kg/ha); the vines are ploughed and grass allowed to grow between the rows. In 2006, the estate started its conversion to biodynamic principles.

Apart from biodynamic viticulture, the following harvesting and cellar practices are followed: The harvest is done by hand in 10kg boxes.  The white grapes are pressed lightly and slowly. Débourbage (first racking to separate solid matter from juice) takes place after twenty-four hours, then the must goes into barrels for the alcoholic fermentation (none of the barrels are new, but rather four to eight year old.) Malolactic fermentation usually follows and is not stopped by any means.  Nothing is added: there is no chaptalization, no selected yeasts, no sulfur, no enzymes, no de-acidification, no fining. There is one racking to get rid of the wine’s gross lees, and then aging for several months, according to each cuvée. There is a light filtration and addition of 2g/hl of sulphur at the time of bottling. The red grapes are trodden by foot before going into maceration vats.  Maceration occurs under the protection of CO2 in a semi-liquid stage (semi-carbonic maceration) and lasts one to three weeks. The musts are then pressed and go into barrels for their alcoholic and malolactic fermentations. Again, nothing is added to the wines and the same principles are used at bottling.

Les Longues Vignes comes from a selection of the best vines in a particular clos on a southern exposure on mid-slope with a terroir of shallow red clay with silex. The wine verges on the unctuous. Golden coloured and sweetly fleshy with almost tropical flavours of peach, mango and honeydew melon, mellow on entry with good concentration. Wonderful back notes of toasted almonds. Relatively low acidity and pronounced malo notes – very much the nature of the (warm) vintage. Gorgeous with the pungent blue cheese we were eating.

2007 Matassa “Romanissa”, VdP des Cotes Catalanes (biodynamic - low sulphur)

In 2001 New Zealanders Sam Harrop and Tom Lubbe purchased a small vineyard high up in the hills of the Coteaux du Fenouillèdes, in the Roussillon region of France, called Clos Matassa. The vineyard was a hillside plot planted with old-vine Carignan, and because of the altitude, 450 metres, the growing season is around a month longer than the lower vineyards in this warm region. Soils are schist and slate surrounded by garrigue. Lubbe has experience of making wine in both France and South Africa and is renowned for making fascinating Observatory Syrah from the Swartland region of South Africa. From 1999–2002 he made wine at Domaine Gauby, a celebrated estate that’s led the way in this part of the Roussillon.

Vineyard management here employs biodynamics, and the winemaking here is aiming to be as natural as possible. The only addition is a bit of sulfur dioxide, and handling is gentle. Elevage is in a mix of 500 litre demi-muids and 228 litre pieces, of which only a third are new.  They are all old vine vineyards, with half high up in the Coteaux des Fenouillèdes and the other half around the village of Calce, lower down (at around 150 m). Lubbe and Harrop say that the lower vineyards contribute power and the higher ones minerality and finesse.

Matassa means ‘underwood’ in Catalan, and this wine shows plenty of the garrigue herbs, spice and red berries typical of wines from this region of France. A blend of 65% Grenache with 15% Carignan, 10% Mourvèdre and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon. It has a rather taut, fresh nose that isn’t giving too much away: some spicy cherry and red berry fruit with a refined minerality, and just a hint of roasted character. The palate has a wonderfully tight, savoury structure with good acid and grippy, mouthfilling tannins underpinning the delightfully fresh berry fruits. This wine has a lovely savoury, minerally presence – despite the fact the Roussillon is a warm-climate region that’s capable of making super-ripe, alcoholic wines, this is a lively, bright, structured wine that’s built to age well, but is deliciously light on its feet.

All wines a point? Mais, certainement. It had to be… a fruit day.