Roussillon: Jean-Louis Denois, Saint Paul de Fenouillet

Updates posted November 2013: see link below.

There's a lot of talk about "low or no sulphite" wines, and enough examples out there to remind us why most winemakers DON'T go down this more challenging route (sulphur dioxide and related additives are basically used as anti-bacterial agent, antioxidant and preservative).

Wine Education Service NI courses & tastings update

April update: Le Tour de France one-day wine workshop has been rescheduled to Saturday 1st June: £80 for the day including lunch, about a dozen wines for tasting, course notes and tuition. More details about this and other workshops here: wine-education-service.co.uk/workshop

And don't forget the hot Wines of Southern France tutored tasting on Tuesday 30 April (£30 or £50 for two) - "Tasting and talking about 8 wines in all colours from across the 'big south' featuring classic styles from e.g. Bordeaux, Cahors, Languedoc, Roussillon, Provence and the southern Rhône Valley."

Full listing of wine tastings and courses running in Belfast city centre to end of June 2013 and on-line booking are here: www.wine-education-service.co.uk/wine-tasting-belfast

Or pay for evening tutored tastings by PayPal:

Select tasting:

April 30 Southern France £30.00 GBP April 30 S. France two people £50.00 GBP May 30 Wines of Spain £30.00 GBP May 30 Spain two people £50.00 GBP June 27 Champagne & Sparkling £35.00 GBP June 27 Champagne two people £60.00 GBP

Wine Education Service NI courses & tastings update

Further to this Wine Education Service courses & tastings March update: "There are four Wine Education Service NI events scheduled in Belfast city centre over the next few weeks, tutored by RMJ..." Here's an April update:
Le Tour de France one-day wine workshop has been rescheduled to Saturday 1st June: £80 for the day including lunch, about a dozen wines for tasting, course notes and tuition. More details about this and other workshops here:
wine-education-service.co.uk/workshop

And don't forget the hot Wines of Southern France tutored tasting on Tuesday 30 April (£30 or £50 for two) - "Tasting and talking about 8 wines in all colours from across the 'big south' featuring classic styles from e.g. Bordeaux, Cahors, Languedoc, Roussillon, Provence and the southern Rhône Valley."
Full listing of wine tastings and courses running in Belfast to end of June 2013 and on-line booking are here: www.wine-education-service.co.uk/wine-tasting-belfast

Or pay for evening tutored tastings by PayPal:

Select tasting:

April 30 Southern France £30.00 GBP April 30 S. France two people £50.00 GBP May 30 Wines of Spain £30.00 GBP May 30 Spain two people £50.00 GBP June 27 Champagne & Sparkling £35.00 GBP June 27 Champagne two people £60.00 GBP

"Chablis on foot" part 1: Chablis Wine Awards

Stop press: Chablis: special focus report now available (part of a massive PDF e-magazine or download from Amazon).

As a gentle warm-up to more in-depth reflections and my pick of wines and wineries from a recent tour in and around Chablis land (including a day's cellar hopping on foot, as is easy to do in Chablis town), we'll whet our appetite for the region's distinctive, possibly unique even, take on the Chardonnay grape by featuring all 22 medal-winners from this year's Chablis Wine Awards, which we sampled at a tutored tasted on 4th March. So, for what it's worth (as the fanfare has already been heralded), this is what I thought of them, mostly 2011 vintage wines plus a trio of Grands Crus from the excellent 2010. More info @ chablis.fr. And many more words on the Chablis area (including hotel and restaurant tips), vineyards, vintages and some of the podium-topping producers cited below (Fèvre, Moreau, Chablisienne, Geoffroy, Droin, Long-Depaquit, Bordet...) have now been cunningly packaged into another two enticing instalments: Part 2 and Part 3...

GET THE FULL REPORT BY SUBSCRIBING NOW TO READ THE REST OF IT!

From chablisgrandcru.com

Hectares more on Chablis HERE (goes to archive Burgundy page inc. Grand Cru tasting and links to the rest of my "Chablis on foot" series).

Languedoc: Domaine de la Marfée, Montpellier

By coincidence (apologies in advance for the linguistic pun for those of you who do French), La Marfée is Francoise and Thierry Hasard's baby, a name I just chanced across on my other blog in a post about Alain and Isabelle Hasard's Les Champs de l'Abbaye estate in Burgundy. I've since found out that Alain and Thierry are indeed brothers, so it must have been vinous fate that I tasted both guys' wines at the same event. In any case, moving swiftly back to the Languedoc and more specifically a village called Murviel-lès-Montpellier found on the northwestern outskirts of said southern French city (next door to St. Georges d'Orques), where I met Thierry recently and sampled La Marfée range (at Millésime Bio organic wine show in fact), a name I sort-of knew but wasn't very familiar with his wines. These are sourced from several different plots around the village, which have been treated to the biodynamic way since 2003. Thierry decided to take this plunge after "a very convincing introductory training course by Pierre Masson," and says he notices the difference in vineyard and vine health and performance. More @ www.la-marfee.com where I copied this intriguing photo from:

Not making meringue but "dynamizing cow horn dung!"

2010 Frissons d'Ombelles white (mostly Roussanne + Chardonnay & Petit Manseng) - enticing yeast lees and toasty tones, seems quite concentrated then closes up on a tight finish; not very obvious at the moment or is there something missing? Overpriced at £15.50.

2010 Les Gamines (50% Mourvèdre + Syrah & Grenache) - aromatic fruit with rustic edges, rich dark palate with meaty and black cherry/olive flavours, tasty ripe dried black fruits developing savoury notes, attractive chunky mouth-feel yet the tannins are quite soft. Good stuff. £13.50 €20.45

2010 Della Francesca (mostly Mourvèdre) - again this is fairly supple and layered with concentrated dark cherry and raisin fruit vs a light bitter twist, meaty savoury flavours vs that 'sweet' fruit, nice balance and style in the end. £18

2010 Les Vignes qu'on abat (old vine Carignan) - rustic 'inky' aromas, concentrated though with lively fruit and good depth, nice fresh bite on the finish. £25

2010 Champs murmurés (Syrah, Mourvèdre) - spicier with lots of black cherry, again a light bitter twist of tannin (but not astringent) adds to its tasty long finish. £25

Some of these wines are available from Leon Stolarski in the UK (£ prices above) and Le Caveau in Kilkenny, Ireland (€).

Italy: Tuscany - San Polino, Brunello di Montalcino

According to their site, Luigi Fabbro, Katia Nussbaum and family practise "permaculture and biodynamic-organic farming..." at their four hectare estate (10 acres divided roughly into two thirds / one third of vines and olives, which are made into their own extra-virgin olive oil) up in the pretty Montalcino hills. I've never seen or heard the former term used by a winery before, which apparently implies an element of sustainable design or building within a self-sufficient and environmentally friendly farming model (man). The vineyard is planted entirely with the Sangiovese grape, and their first Brunello, as they call this variety here or rather the local 'clone' of it, was released in 2001 following several years of restoration and replanting work between 1991 and 1998. Winemaker and viticulturist Alberto Gjilaska, originally from Albania, has been on the team since those early days. Importers include Integrity Wines in the US, Vintage Roots (£ prices below) and Dynamic Vines in the UK; € prices quoted are approx. cellar door. So, chill out and enjoy the view (copied from www.sanpolino.it)!

2011 Sant Antimo Rosso di Montalcino - lovely fruity vs 'inky' red with dark morello cherry flavours, easy going and tasty. €7

2008 Brunello di Montalcino - light toasted coconut tones, rich vs firm palate, quite extracted and chewy yet has nice tannins and plenty of ripe 'sweet/savoury' fruit, some fresh acidity lingering too on its balanced long finish. €20 £27-£30

2008 Brunello di Montalcino Helichrysum - perfumed floral wild herb and minty notes vs dried fruits, attractive maturing fruit yet still firm and dry mouth-feel, tasty concentrated 'sweet/savoury' finish. €30 £52

2007 Brunello di Montalcino Riserva - similar profile but more developed and softer, lovely dried fruits with meaty edges, still structured with subtle concentration but riper tannins and long finish.