2009 Pinots, Côte de Beaune Reds, etc…
Kelley & I tasted through all the lots of our 2009s yesterday. They’ve been gorgeous during their élévage, and have now settled in to a very nice place. Globally, I would say the 2009s are first and foremost ripe and rich, but not to the level of 2006, thankfully. They don’t have the perfect balance of the 2008s, but they”re damn close. A pretty streak of raspberry and cherry fruit runs through all the lots, and they seem to have excellent length. The fruit quality is similar to the 09s in Burgundy that I spoke about below – very much the “cream of the fruit”. As a group they should be very appealing when young, and they have enough balancing acidity to mature nicely for 5-10 years.
Our old-vines at Maresh
After sorting them all out, we arrived at the preliminary blends. There will be six barrels of Audrey from a single block of Maresh, a succulent La Paulée from several different parcels, and one four-barrel cuvée that has yet to be named. We will fine tune these by going through barrel-by-barrel in the next several weeks, and the plan is to bottle on August 25th…
View from the deck at Azana
I spent this morning up at our Azana vineyard, where we’re building a nice party deck overlooking the vines, and a barn for the tractor and vineyard implements, etc. We’ve also decided to plant a small block of ultra-high-density Chardonnay this spring – we’ll be doing the no-trellis, no-wire old-school Burgundian plantings like I described a few posts ago. At maturity we should have enough to make a barrel or two of Chard, and we’ll see how it goes. If it’s great we might sell it, and if it’s just really good, we’ll probably drink it all!
The barn in progress at Azana
Thanks to Paul Gregutt of Wine Enthusiast for including us in his excellent new article on the best of Oregon Pinot touring and tasting – and for making our ’08 Audrey his top-scoring wine this year! Read all about it here.
I’m getting fired-up for our Côte de Beaune Reds Tasting Saturday here in Carlton. It’s a great chance to check out a bunch of killer 1er Crus from Beaune, Pommard & Volnay – and get 25% off the featured wines for the weekend. (I’m also doing a seminar on these wines that night – there may still be a seat or two open by the time you see this – email Kelly Karr to book yours if you’re interested in joining us.)
Some final thoughts on my latest Burgundian adventure… Having tasted a couple hundred 2009s and maybe four-five hundred 2008s to his point, here’s my take on the vintages. When you think of the ’09s, think raspberry cream. When you think of the 2008s, think of a pure, clear, cold running mountain stream. Both are very delicious, but in very different ways. There’s a purity and brightness to the 2008s that I adore, and the sexy fruit of the 2009s is undeniable…
The Huber-Verdereau wines in Volnay have hit new heights in both ’08 and ’09. They’ve always been really well made and well received, but Thiébault seems to have taken them to a new level. I told him that he had now found the elegance within his terroirs, and he agreed. Watch for the next two vintages from this young biodynamic rockstar, they will be a revelation.
Thiébault Huber - a man outstanding in his field!
