2010 Diageo Chateau & Estate Burgundy Tour

Recently I was invited to attend the 2010 Wines of Burgundy Tour held at the St. Francis in San Francisco. Outside the weather was dark and stormy, but inside, once the tasting commenced, things instantly became warm and cozy.

This event was for the trade, so most everyone there was well acquainted with the wines and the growing regions, but it was all new to me. I found it helpful that each table had a map indicating where the wine was from and I loved the big map at the entrance that showed the entire Burgundy region. I subsequently learned that the wines of Burgundy are classified by the vineyard location not the winery name or producer’s name.

I really appreciated the lower alcohol level of the wines. The majority were in the range of 13 to 13.5 % and I found it a huge difference, a good difference, compared to the wines of California that I normally drink. I became interested in wine when I lived in Italy and most of my wine experience is with Italian wines that have lower alcohol levels as well. Overall I found the wines of Burgundy to be true food lovers wines and more in line to my tastes. I recently completed my third Wine Sensory Experience class and believe it has deepened my ability to appreciate wine and understand the complexity of what I taste.

The vintages we tasted were mainly Grand Cru or Premier Cru from 2007 and 2008. Of the 35+ wines I tasted here are my top three whites and reds:

WHITE WINES

#1 Domaine Philippe Colin

The 2007 Premier Cru Chassagne-Montrachet Les Chenevottes was a delight-- a virtual vanilla cream peach puff of pleasure.

But it was the Grand Cru Chevalier-Montrachet 2007 that gob-smacked me. I am still thinking about it five days later. It was classic and elegant like a signature scent. If Chanel No. 5 was a wine this might be it. Despite being14% alcohol it had a food friendly demeanor with a long loving embrace of a finish. It was the essence of ambrosia. I was completely captivated by this wine. It made me smile and I burst into an impromptu song inspired by Maurice Chevalier singing ‘Thank Heavens for Little Girls’ in the movie Gigi--

“Thank heavens for white burgundy

The grapes ripen in the most delightful ways!!”

The gentleman pouring thought my song was hilarious and agreed it was the kind of wine that can possess people. So I guess my response was not all that unusual. (Thea Dwell was there too and she can vouch for this exchange.)

# 2 Domaine Jean-Louis Chavy

Puligny Montrachet Cru Les Perrieres 2007

Ooh La La – I liked this one very much. It was a harmonic convergence of wild honey and spicy tropical fruit, with a good balance of acidity and oak. It reminded me of a light flakey croissant with a creamy butterscotch finish. All breakfast pastries should be this good.

# 3 Domaine Alain Chavy

Grand Vin de Bourgogne Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Folatieres 2007-- Honestly, I don’t know what all the designations on the labels meant, but the wine needed no translation--It was full of flavor, bright citrus and crisp apple with a tiny hint of musk scent. This was a wine that begged you to order room service and spend the day getting to know one another.

RED WINES

# 1 Domaine Georges Roumier

Morey-Saint-Denis 1er Cru - Clos de la Bussiere 2007

Amazing. I wanted to run-away with this wine. I found hints of chocolate and leather and what I wrote in my notes as “warm puppy belly”. And that was it. It had that happy scent of warmth and pure joy a puppy has that makes you want to just to snuggle up to it. Okay, so maybe I should have been spitting more before I came up with that description. But a restaurant owner I met tasting at the same table agreed that warm puppy belly summed up that wine most succinctly, so don’t be surprised if you see that as a tasting note somewhere soon, paired with pork belly or something like that. But remember, you heard it here first.

#2 Domaine Jean Grivot

Nuits-St. Georges 1Er Cru “Aux Boudots” 2007

This wine was the epitome of French to me: Pepper and spice and everything nice with light tannins and a bouquet to take me away. Catherine Deneuve in a glass.

#3 Domaine De Courcel

Pommard Les Rugiens Premier Cru 2007

In my notes I wrote: “Wow!” Honest and bold. It smelled like French teen spirit and it rocked in a most delightful way!

Can your palate change in an afternoon? Probably not, but you can certainly be awakened. Later that same evening I tried a Cabernet with a 14.5% alcohol level and it was like drinking syrup or Smuckers jam straight from the jar. Ugh! In the past I liked this heavy style of wine, but suddenly I was put off by it. I also tried a Pinot Noir made in Dry Creek I’d recently bought, but now it seemed way too harsh and it just made me sad to drink it.

I longed for the refined and delicate French wines I’d had that afternoon. There was something ethereal, transcendent about them. I wanted to experience more. So thank you France for the wake up call. It was a truly educational and palate expanding. And thank you to Marie Griffin and Jill Deaver for extending me an invitation. Next stop France!

UPDATE:

After I posted this I saw an article that stated this would be the last year Diageo would be the importer of he wines. So that’s sad news, but now I feel even more fortunate that I was able to taste and experience these exceptional wines that for the most part are well out of my price range.

CORRECTION: Although Diageo has chosen not to participate in the 2008 or 2009 Bordeaux futures, they WILL continue bringing these fine Burgundies into the States.

Scents and Sense Ability: The Wine Sensory Experience in Calistoga

Early this week my friend Kerry Eddy, of Tom Eddy Wines, invited me to The Wine Sensory Experience in Calistoga to take the scent challenge offered in their wine education classes. Dare I take a test in which I go head to head with an experienced winemaker? Heck yeah! Bring it on.

The Wine Sensory Experience is not as science fair or Exploratorium-esque as it sounds. It’s actually one part wine education, one part tasting room, and one part gift shop. T’Anne Butcher, who has been involved in her families wine business (W.H. Smith Wines) for over 30 years, decided to open The Wine Sensory Experience to give groups a casual and fun way to learn the basics of scents and aromas that can be detected in wine. This is something I’ve always been curious about and I have even toyed with buying one of those scent vial test kits to hone my olfactory skills.

Here’s how it works: Five to six opaque glasses with glass lids are set up and arranged according to aroma types such as Fruit, Pinot Noir, Herbal, or Barrel scents. Then you sniff each glass and try to guess what it is. This is NOT EASY!! You are provided with a clipboard and test sheet that lists each flight of scents with blanks where you write in your response.

With our pens at the ready, we began the test. Kerry started with the Barrel scents while I tried the Fruit Aromas. We then moved around the stations recording our answers until we had completed them all. Afterwards T’Anne gave us the answers.

I correctly guessed the blackberry, liquorice and bacon fat scents, and All Spice too. I flubbed apricot, mistaking it for strawberry and also mistook vanilla for coconut. I was completely stumped by scent # 5 on the Pinot Aromas even though I absolutely knew it was a familiar scent. I guessed celery root and then wrote down cabbage as a base note. The answer? Wasabi- or more commonly known as Horseradish!

Another revelation was the scent I considered to be distinctly “barnyard” was actually white pepper. But as soon as T'Anne mentioned it was white pepper, I could suddenly smell it. It’s like those negative space puzzles where you stare at an image and only see a face and then, once it’s pointed out, you see a goblet or different object altogether.

I was amazed how such a simple exercise opened up my eyes, not to mention my nasal passages to the dynamics of scent. Also I was happy to learn that my recent Lambrusco mishap did not permanently damage my sense of smell as I had feared.

The next exercise involved Barrel Component samples that allowed you to see and smell how barrels play a part in the flavor profiles of wine and the differences in American and French oak barrels that had been toasted. The heavy toasted samples looked black and charred like charcoal briquettes, but they were the least oak smelling. I loved the scent of the no toast French oak and was surprised how delicate it was compared to the medium toasted American oak.

After the scent tests we tasted some of W.H. Smith wines and I felt like I was sniffing wine for the very first time. Once our sensory experience was done, and the tasting completed, it was time for some very serious business-- shopping! T'Anne carries a clever selection of wine and non wine merchandise and I came away with the door mat in the photo below that parodies location maps that state “You are here”.

The Wine Sensory Experience was exactly that-- an experience. It was fascinating, intriguing and challenging. I now find myself taking sniffs of everything at the market and I try to associate the smell and aroma to a mental trigger so I can identify the scent again when I taste wine.

T’Anne changes up the scents according to the season so you could go through the experience several times and not be presented with the same aromas. I plan on going again in January when my sister is in town. I think this would be a great prelude to a day of tasting or even just a fun outing on it’s own.

Private groups of 6 or more can be arranged and T’Anne mentioned that she had just booked a session for a group of executives from Goggle. So maybe sensory exercises are the next big thing for off–site team building. It sure beats the heck out of the ropes courses that were all the rage in the past. I mean really, I don’t need to jump off a tower to test the trust of my peers thank you very much. I think a team building exercise at The Wine Sensory Experience would be far more stimulating and creative than one that includes the possibility of falling to one’s death.

Classes are $25 a person and consist of eight sensory exercises involving different groups of scents such as Fruit Aromas, Herbal Aromas, Pinot Noir Aromas, Oak Barrel and more. When you consider that some wine scent aroma kits cost upwards of $300, the class is an absolute bargain. Plus you get the guidance of a professional like T'Anne, something you won’t get sniffing vials on your own at home

For more information about The Wine Sensory Experience you can check out the website here. (Oh and by the way, my friend the winemaker? You'll be glad to know she scored way better than I did!)