Kさん宅にて女子会

KさんとAさんと3人で、Kさん宅にて女子会です。Kさんは、元気一杯な私たちの”お姉さん”です。簡単な普段の料理と謙遜しながら、こんな素敵なテーブルでもてなしてくださいました。お重の中身は、少しの手間とアイデアを加えて、なんとも楽しいおいしいお弁当箱です。
Aさんのお父さんからの差し入れのヒラメのお刺身も、これまた美味。オート・コート･ド・ボーヌ　ドメーヌ・ルシアン・ジャコブ2008でいただくと一層引き立ちます。この後登場した、平凡な薄切り肉を生姜のきいたタレに漬け込んで焼いたお肉の一品を、ブルゴーニュ・ピノ・ノワール　ドメーヌ・シュミット2006でもりもり食べてしまいました。普段はほんの少ししか飲まないというAさんも、このピノ・ノワールは美味しいと、2杯、3杯と進んでいました。
気がつくと時計は12時を回り、Aさんは最終の電車に飛び乗るべく、走って帰られました。
またしましょう、Kさん、Aさん！

Wood and micro-oxygenation

Micro-oxygenation is a technique that can be used for many purposes when making wine. It is mainly used to age wine artificially. When wines have very much tannins, from oak or because of too much extraction they cannot be drunk within a couple of years. Micro-oxygenation is often used to smoothen those tannins and make them acceptable. Then critics sometimes talk about "velvety", "silky" or "round" tannins... These techniques are well used to make tannic wines drinkable early (St Emilion, Madiran, vins de cepage etc..)

When this technique is used for ageing or smoothing purposes, it is actually very violent for the wine. The wines produced in this way are easily recognizable: they have no "defaults" (round smooth) but no genuine taste either and they are trivial according to my modest opinion. Removing defaults in the wine also removes the essential things.

We tasted last Sunday a bottle from Madiran brought once by may uncle. He now lives in Pau so quite likes Madiran. The wine was supposed to be good as it was a "cuvee speciale", bla-bla... This is the kind of wine elaborated with much technology that had some commercial success recently. I tasted these kinds of wines a couple of times. I was not disappointed: smooth with much tannin and absolutely trivial... Just like tomato ketchup, nobody dislikes but it is not interesting. Fortunately the same day friends brought a Chambolle Musigny village 2006 made by a small producer they know and are used to buying to. It was just another story... No fiction there: a real story. Very subtle and feminine and... unique!

Let me mention another example. Today I cooked beef in wine, a bit like the "coq aux vins" by Yoko. No need to cook it with Gevrey. One can do so, no law again this, but it is a waste: Gevrey is not designed to be cooked. So I bought in a supermarket a cheap bottle of vin de pays d'Oc (south of France) made from Cabernet Sauvignon. One should not cook with poor wines but this one should have been good enough and I was interested in tasting it. The reason is that it is a best seller in France for 2,40 eur. So I needed to know! Uhhhh... this was bad. Again surmatured, articially concentrated (?osmotic techniques to gain concentration?), a bit woody as expected and obviously micro-oxygenation. It was round, sweet but it was still bad and I could hardly drink a full glass. I cooked with it. Actually the two best sellers in volume in Bordeaux wines in France are also very similar to the later wine. No names here. They are of course cheap and really woody, made very mature grape juice and -- I bet -- microoxygenation!

In brief one can make for cheap a successful wine using surmatured grapes, oak and micro-oxygenation. But I think the results are poor.

Jean Francois Ganevat - Rotalier Jura.

I would like to say a few kind words about a very good winemaker: Jean-Francois Ganevat whose vineyards are in the village of Rotalier in Jura.

The guy is now very successful (at least in France!), so that when we visited him in April he had absolutely no bottles anymore to sell to anybody. Every bottle has gone and Jean-Francois could not open any bottles for clients to taste. He had to cancel visits from sommeliers... That is success! Still we could taste the 2009 white wines that were all still in barrels. Yoko and I found them superb and we could secure a few boxes for VFM.

Jura is not far from Burgundy. The climate might be slightly colder and soils are similar. The grapes for making wine are mainly Pinot Noir and Poulsard for red and Chardonnay and Savagnin for white. Pinot noir and Chardonnay are just the same grapes used in Burgundy. There is also a tradition of oxydized white wines in Jura. And in particular there is the famous "vin jaune" made from Savagnin with a very specific process. It is prestigious and popular in France. But it has definitly a particular taste... So either people loves it or dislikes it. It is a bit like spinach... either one loves or hates. Personnaly I appreciate a lot vin jaune and also good spinach. People also make wines in Jura just like in Burgundy that is with barrels full so without oxygen so that in this case the wine is very little oxygenated. This is called "ouillage". One has to fill the barrels to ensure it is always full.

Jean-Francois worked in Burgundy (Meursault as far as I remember) before he came back in Jura to work on the family vineyard. He makes red from Pinot noir and Poulsard and the two kind of wines with and without "ouillage" and vin de paille. What is really particular with Jean-Francois is that he makes extremely "natural" wines. Nearly without any sulfites and without heavy processes to change the taste of the grapes. This requires an incredible work in the vineyards. Vinifications are of course with complete grapes etc... without technical tricks... (I can explain if there is an interest but it is a bit technical for a blog.)

Results are handsome. His reds are fruity, say a bit in the style of Pacalet. Very "drinkable" according to some critics. Understand: it is just a pleasure to drink and it is hard to refrain from having many glasses. I remember tasting with the "meilleur sommelier de monde ****"(!) who owns now a wine shop. His opinion was that it is trully great but may be not for everybody. People need to be accustomed may be ...????

His whites are simply extraordinary. Some of his vines are more than 100 years old. His chardonnays grapes are grown on fantastic soils: "marnes blanches" and "marnes bleues". That yields wines comparable to Corton Charlemagne. JF had also some Savagin that is sometimes mixed with Chardonnay. Eventually prices are really wise. No speculation there. JFG is fantastic.

Jean-Francois has also very strong opinions about wines and I tend to share some of his views. His wines are really worth sending to Japan and the carbon cost per bottle is completely justified.

Sちゃんの誕生会とGevrey Chambertin

高校時代の同級生仲間の一人Sちゃんの誕生日を祝って、仲間で集まって誕生日会です。新婚の頃を思い出して、とRちゃんが腕を振るったCoq au ｖin（鶏肉のワイン煮）をGevrey Chambertin Combe de Lavaux Pierre Naigeon 2004と共にたのしみました。しかしこの日の大失敗は、ニョッキを転がすのに夢中になって、ワインの栓を前もって抜くことを忘れてしまっていたこと。せっかくの会で、一番おいしく味わってもらえなかったのが、本当に後悔が残ります。ワインを生業としているものとして本当に失格です。。。

とはいいながら、香りもすばらしく、バランスのとてもよい美味しいワインだなあ、とつくづく思いました。

翌日のVincentのお叱りメイルには：

Wrt: Gevrey. These wines are elaborated without oxygen.
We call this "reduction". Sometimes when you open they even smell bad. It is well known that they need to be opened in advance. Naigeon said that sometimes his wines are better
the day after. T*** said to his client open the morning in a decanter for the evening for grand crus. Etc...
I do not like decanters though. But il is well 2-3 hours that you
need so the wine breathes... It really needs to react with oxygen.
Moreover if the bottle remain full it does not breath much.
Usually Gevrey is one of the heaviest Burgundy. All these tannins need to react with oxygen. What is true for Gevrey is not with all Burgundy wines. (Think about ***'s wines etc... they are open immediately and if they breathe they loose their perfume).
Do not forget.

里帰り記念・新緑には白ワイン！

３月末にワインが届き、皆様に新入荷ワインをご紹介し、また皆様の声を聞かせていただくために、お土産話を抱えてフランスより帰ってきました。里帰り記念と、日頃のご愛顧に感謝して、「新緑には白ワイン！」と題して試飲会を開催します。

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