amarchinthevines

Learning about wine, vines and vignerons whilst living in the Languedoc

Tag Archives: Kumpf et Meyer


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My wines of 2017

Sparkling

I was fortunate to taste many excellent sparkling wines this year. Excellent PetNats such as Éxilé from Domaine Jousset in the Loire, Jeff’s Bibonade rosé and the excellent Restons Nature from Kumpf et Meyer in Alsace. However, I have to admit that champagne always comes out as my favourite sparkling wine. From Boulard, Pascal, Jacquesson and others I was able to appreciate some lovely wines.

Top of my class this year though was Jacques Lassaigne, who I was very happy to meet at Chai Christine Cannac in Bédarieux. His vintage 2008 was sheer delight, a top class champagne with freshness, complexity and sheer pleasure.

White

So many good white wines this year. The unexpectedly good Georgian amphora wine from Marks and Spencer was a late favourite. Alexandre Bain’s excellent Pouilly Fumés are always a joy, especially Pierre Précieuse 2015, proving that Sauvignon Blanc can be a wine of true quality. Okanagan Crush Pad from Canada was another source of excellent Sauvignon Blanc, Free Form 2015 which had nine months of skin contact. Austria provided many highlights, the wines of the Rennersistas, Koppitsch, Gut Oggau, Meinklang and the brilliant Andreas Tscheppe.

Alsace, however, was the star of the year. I visited the region in May and had the great pleasure to spend time with the inspirational Patrick Meyer and the rising star Julien Albertus. The quality of wines, typicity of grape, freshness and pleasure provided were remarkable. Patrick’s wines astonished me, even many days after opening they were precise, fresh and stunning.

Special mention to the orange wine from Languedoc producers Régis and Christine Pichon of Domaine Ribiera, Orange sur les Canilles a wine which more than any other persuaded me of the benefit of skin contact wines.

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Red

From the Languedoc Maxime Magnon’s Métisse 2016 readily springs to mind along with some older vintages of Barral’s Faugères. Olivier Cohen and Mas D’Alezon were other Languedoc producers whose wines I enjoyed.

Italy’s I Mandorli and Azienda Vitivinicola Selve made an impact at RAW in London. I enjoyed the Pinot Noirs from the aforementioned Patrick Meyer and Julien Albertus. This was a year when white wine provided most of the memorable moments however. Highlight of reds will be described in the next post.

Sweet and fortified

A lovely Banyuls Cuvée Méditeranée 2005 from Piétri-Géraud was a highlight but the most memorable was the 1959 Muscat De Frontignan which Jeff opened for me on my birthday. Not often you get to drink a wine from your birth year, especially as the years slip by! It was sticky, sweet and very rich, a real taste of history.

 


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Natural Alsace

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My last article explained the many virtues of Alsace as well as a slight misgiving about some vignerons though, it must be said, Alsace has the highest % of organic producers in France. There are some great winemakers amongst them and I was able to visit two of them during my visit.

The first was Patrick Meyer of Domaine Julien Meyer in Nothalten. This was a step back in time for me as Patrick is based just two doors away from a house where I stayed on holiday many years ago. Indeed it was around the same time as Patrick made his first natural wines in 1992, one of the pioneers. He has improved the soils of his vineyards growing plants and flowers which are rolled into the soil when they reach 30cm in height. The soils are fine, full of life and even smell fresh.

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Patrick showed us around hos cellars and we tasted many excellent wines. Some were collaborations with vignerons from around the country including Axel Prufer in the Languedoc, very good they were too. However, it was when we tasted the 2016 Alsace wines in the cellar and older vintages from bottle that the wines reached another level. Varietal wines were excellent, the Crémants too. The jump to Grand Cru however, brought amazing results. Layers of flavour, texture and complexity in every bottle.

The real surprise came with bottles which Patrick had opened not just days before but 2-3 weeks before. They were still fresh, still full of life – amazing. Despite having few wines to sell Patrick kindly found some bottles for me, I shall cherish them.

We moved on to Rosheim to meet Julien Albertus who runs the vineyards and winery of Kumpf-Meyer. I met Julien at Les Affranchis in Montpellier and was keen to meet him again and taste the wines once more.

Julien has moved the domaine on to producing some natural wines alongside the organic wines. They are in their early days and will improve on coming years but they are already full of flavour and life. The Pinot Noir and Crémants were the stars but these are serious wines and Julien is a real talent, an example of the the next generation after Patrick taking up the mantle.

Patrick spoke to me about the difficulty for young winemakers buying vineyards due to the high price of land in Alsace, so it is difficult for that generation to come through. However, Julien and  Catherine Riss, also based in Nothalten, are showing that natural wines of real quality will be made for a long time to come. Patrick and Julien are certainly producers to seek out alongside Binner, Schueller etc.

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A happy customer


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Les Affranchis 2017

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Two of the main salons of the year take place in Montpellier in January, Les Affranchis and Le Vin De Mes Amis. Both are based around natural producers though there are other producers present who follow organic or biodynamic methods but who do use SO2 in their wines.

Les Affranchis (The Liberated) meet at Chateau de Flaugergues, happily this year the event was back in the main rooms of the domaine rather than the marquees of 2016. The Sunday was relatively quiet and it made it easy to get around and talk to the producers as well as taste their wines. Though some were familiar, Jeff Coutelou and Olivier Lemasson for example, there was plenty of opportunity to meet producers whose wines were new to me.

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A familiar range

Rather than a bottle by bottle description here are my highlights from Les Affranchis:

La Busattina (Tuscany) – completely new to me but what an impression. The white San Martino was lovely and came in two forms, the traditional and the longer maceration which I actually preferred with cleaner, direct fruit and acidity though both versions were very good. Legnotorto 2012 was a Sangiovese of real cherry fruit and impressive length, and the Ciliegiolo 2008 was even better showing the value of aging these wines with truffle, cherry and round flavours. It was pleasing to hear other friends also praise these wines, the real highlight of the day.

Kumpf et Meyer (Alsace) – I am a fan of Alsace wines but this was a new domaine to me and quickly became a favourite. Julien Albertus presented an excellent range from a lovely fresh PetNat, top still wines and a delicious sweeter wine. Favourites were a Crémant of Chardonnay and Auxerrois plus a Pinot Noir Weingarten 2014 of lovely fruit and depth. I never thought an Alsace Pinot Noir and Crémant would be highlights of any tasting so these were a lovely surprise. Best of all though was the Riesling Westerberg 2014, classic Riesling flavours with a freshness and drinkability all too rare. I shall be looking out for Julien’s wines in future.

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Binner et Cie, Les Vins Pirouettes (Alsace) – yes Alsace again. This is a range of wines where Christian Binner has enabled young producers to move away from the co-ops and bottle their own wines. There was one producer, Stéphane, whose wines shone here. His Tutti Fruti, a blend, was lovely classic Alsace wines but the single cépage Riesling Bildstoeckle, Pinot Gris and Gewurztraminer were all just lovely, marked by freshness, fruit and flavour. The Riesling was top class and Gewurz is a grape I find difficult but was delicious. Prices are very affordable too.

More familiar wines which again proved worthy of a place at the top table came from:

  • La Ferme Saint Martin (Rhone), a long term favourite of mine and this time it was the Beaumes De Venise Vieilles Vignes 2015 and the delicious Le Blanc 15 which took the prize
  • La Sénéchalière (Muscadet), proving how the region has really moved on and is producing top fruity wines of distinction. Favourite cuvées were the well named Miss Terre 16 and, especially, the longer macerated Nuitage 15.
  • Pierre-Olivier Bonhomme (Touraine), more lovely, fresh Loire white wines from all across the river’s length. Lovely Melon De Bourgogne 16, round apple and pear fruits made from grapes bought from the Landon family. Very nice Pouilly Fumé 15 of real minerality and clean fruit and lots of other good cuvées too.
  • Boulard (Champagne), lovely wines, champagnes of real freshness and length. Les Murgiers was my favourite cuvée and came in two forms, non-dosage and 5mg dosage. Both had their merits though the former had clearer floral notes and a zesty finish.

Other wines I really enjoyed were:

  • Les Roches Sèches (Anjou) – Pentes Douces with a lovely, dry fruit and a well-judged touch of sweetness from Chenin Blanc
  • Tetramythos (Greece) – Muscat Sec 15, fresh and grapey
  • La Paonnerie (Anjou) – Les Champs Jumeaux 15, a lovely Chenin Blanc, clean, fresh and mineral; Loire white wine at its best

 

  • Rémi Dufaître (Beaujolais) – Côte De Brouilly 16, darker fruit and lovely Gamay, joyful
  • Chateau Meylet (Saint Ėmilion) – the 2010 showed the benefits of age for this lovely wine. I had forgotten how good Bordeaux wines can be and this has freshness and very deep fruits. The other vintages were good but this was lovely.

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An excellent event, relaxed atmosphere, great producers and not too crowded. I missed out on some other top producers as always at any tasting, however the wines above and many more made for a lovely day. Surprises in the form of enjoying Crémant and St Émilion, variety from Greece and Italy, favourites from previous years – liberating.

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