Head South For This Smashing Pair, One White, One Red. Or Just Head to O'Brien's

Head South For This Smashing Pair,

 One White, One Red.
Or Just Head to O'Brien's!

Domaine Begude “Etoile” Chardonnay Limoux (AOC) 2018, 13.5%, €18.95 (21.95)

Beautiful mid-gold colour. The aromatics are quite complex, regular fruit (such as apple and pear) along with the exotic (mango) in the mix. It is certainly more of the exotic on the rich palate, quite a rounded almost creamy mouthfeel, more complex than most French Chardonnays (not that there is such a thing as a typical Chardonnay as the chameleon grape makes itself at home wherever it finds itself), good acidity too though, so the long finish is harmonious.

This Highly Recommended wine should be fine with salmon and trout, with roast chicken (even roast turkey!). The winery also says it is “heavenly with Comté & other hard cheese”. Worth a try so with Hegarty’s Templegall though I know cheesemaker Jean-Baptise may prefer a Saint-Emilion.

This certified organic wine, full-bodied and smooth, is crafted from Chardonnay grapes high in the cool climate region (hot summer days and cool nights) of Limoux. Fertilised using only natural manures and cultivated with the utmost respect for the environment, this wine is vinified and matured in the very best French oak to bring you “our finest cuvée, Etoile”.

Chateau de Caraguilhes “Prestige” Corbieres (AOP) 2017, 14.5%, €14.95 (18.95)

Colour is a dark red. Intense nose of dark fruits, notes of spice, perhaps a hint of the garrigue, the scrub that thrives around here. I once stayed in a gite in Languedoc owned by a Madam Garrigue. Like the senior citizen Madame, this wine is amazingly smooth (the madame used tidy up the pool in her bikini every evening). Must say that gite was great value for money and I can indeed say the same about this Prestige, fresh, and full of fruit, enhanced by nine months in oak. No pesticides, no herbicides, just excellent value (more so with the current reduction). 

Garrigue, by the way, is a feminine noun. And since I’m on gender, the French language version of the label indicates that Syrah is feminine while Carignan and Mourvedre, the other two in this blend, are masculine!

O’Brien’s tell us that Caraguilhes is completely organic, “this estate was using organic techniques when it was virtually unheard of anywhere else”. The Prestige is their oak-aged Reserve wine and is a seriously stylish wine. 

As regards keeping the wine, the winery advices that while it has potential of 6 or 7 years, it can be drunk today. Decant one hour in advance and serve at around 15 degrees. Food pairings: Provencal lamb (if you don’t have Herbes de Provence, try thyme, sage and rosemary), roast grilled beef with olives, quail in truffle sauce. Enjoy.

Four Super Wines from Mary Pawle

Four Super Wines from Mary Pawle Wines

Maison Emmanuel Giboulot Bourgogne (AOC) 2016, 11.5%, €30.00 Mary Pawle Wines

This wine is organic and biodynamic, as are many of the wines that Mary Pawle imports. So nothing new there.

Except that, as recently as 2014, this winemaker Emmanuel Giboulot was fined and threatened with a jail term for sticking to his principles. He was convicted for refusing a government order to spray crops with pesticides, following fear over an outbreak of golden rot, only to have the decision reversed on appeal. Prison rather than poison.

This is quite a wine with a lovely light gold colour. Delicate aromas of white flowers. A velvety mouthfeel, beautiful intense fruit (stone, citrus) from start to long finish. Excellent bright minerality too. This elegant wine is superbly balanced and is Very Highly Recommended.

Emmanuel met the problem of agricultural practices and its impact on wine and human health head on and is now a prominent advocate for organic and biodynamic viticulture. His wines reflect his principles and the widely acknowledged exceptional Burgundy terroir. Enjoy this one!   As we celebrate Real Wine Month.

Maison Emmanuel Giboulot “Terres Macônnaises” Mâcon-Villages (AOC) 2016, 11.5%, €30.00 Mary Pawle

Sometimes, I have very little to say about the better wines - they speak for themselves. This is one such. It is 100% Chardonnay and biodynamic. Colour is a very bright light gold. There are appealing aromas of white fruit, blossom notes too. Superb fruit (pear and apple), a refreshing acidity, and that balanced mix takes you all the way to a long and satisfying finish. Very Highly Recommended.

Grapes are hand-picked and sorted. The whole bunch is pressed and cold settled for 24 to 48 hours. The light must is fermented in old oak tanks. Before being bottled, it is aged on fine lees for 11 months.

The Mâconnais wine region is in the south of Burgundy and takes its name from the town of Mâcon. It is best known for its Chardonnays. 

Hemingway was quite a lover of these wines as he disclosed in A Moveable Feast. On a drive up from the south of France with Scott Fitzgerald, they enjoyed a packed lunch which included truffled roast chicken and he reported that Scott was very happy when we "drank the white Maconnais at each of our stops".  Later on that day, "At Mácon I had bought four bottles...which I uncorked as we needed them." No breath-analyser in those roaring twenties.

The French World Cup winner Antoine Griezmann was born and raised in Mâcon but was deemed too small to play for Lyons so headed for Spain where he is now earning about €400,000 a week with Atletico Madrid. Since I didn’t have to say too much about the excellent wine, I thought I’d throw that in!

                   

Dit Celler “Selenita” Montsant (DO) 2008, 14.5%, €17.00 Mary Pawle Wines

Biodiversity in the vineyard

This powerful red is a blend of Garnatxa, Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon. Mary Pawle: “If you are fond of the wines from Priorat then you should enjoy the Montsant wines from the opposite valley.”

Priorat is a region in Catalonia, Spain. The central part of the region, Priorat històric, produces the highly-regarded wines that are certified under the DOQ Priorat. Wines from elsewhere in the region are certified as DO Montsant.

So now that we know about Montsant, how about the name of the wine? The Selenita are the inhabitants of the moon and the producers infer that some of their night-time magic has been bottled. You too are free to use your imagination! While we’re on it, the winery is named after its founders Dani Sánchez (from Azul y Garanza in Navarra) and Toni Coca, so D and T (DiT).

Wine-Searcher says Montsant, an approved wine region only since 2001, has earned a reputation for its high-quality red wines. This dark ruby offering is one of them. It is lighter at the rim (still very narrow, even after ten years). The legs are certainly slow to clear, confirming the high abv. Intense dark fruit aromas (plum, cherry, cassis), toasty notes too. Powerful yet velvety on the palate, elegant, deeply flavoured and tannins by now well-integrated (you’ll get a soft reminder on the lips), smooth spice, and the long finish echoes the palate. A big hug of a wine and Very Highly Recommended.

Mas Théo Gemeaux Vin de France 2016, 13.5%, €17.20 Mary Pawle

The little-known Grignan-les-Adhémar AOC growing area lies to the south of Montélimar (a Rhone city famous for its nougat). Planted among fields of lavender and thyme or olive groves, on land long famous for its truffles, the vines soak up the scents and aromas distilled by the generous sun of the Drôme provençale and it is in the heart of this area that you’ll find Mas Théo. Mas by the way means farmhouse; Mas de la Dame near Baux de Provence is another example. This AOC is between the northern and southern Rhone and is regarded as southern.

This “delicious and crunchy” wine is a blend of Carignan (60%) and Mourvedre (40), is organic and biodynamique. Recommended serving temperature is 14%.

It has a very dark red robe and you’ll find blackberries and notes of the garrigue in the aromas. It’s nice and smooth on the palate, has excellent acidity, medium to full bodied, smooth tannins and a good finish. Highly Recommended.

Sarabande's GSM. Where Syrah dances on a windy hill. And partners well with Grenache and Mourvedre.

Sarabande's GSM. Where Syrah dances on a windy hill

And partners well with Grenache and Mourvedre.

Isla and Paul, when I
met them in Cork

The Syrah for the wines below is trellised across the top of a windy hill in the Languedoc that was planted with the aid of dynamite. The earth is completely made up of classic blue/grey schist with practically no topsoil. Therefore the rock had to be blown up so that the vines could find some dirt where they could anchor.

Despite these kind of local obstacles, there are more vines growing in the Languedoc than in Australia. Paul Gordon should know. He is Australian and he and his Carlow wife Isla work (and I mean work) the Sarabande vineyard, about twenty minutes drive from Beziers. The rugby-loving couple’s vineyard is called Domaine la Sarabande. 

They met in New Zealand in 2003 and then spent five or six years in wine in Marlborough. In 2009, they settled in France and raised some €40,000 from relations and friends in return for wine in the future. Isla: “There is just the two of us. We are very small; everything is gently worked and done by hand..” 

With so many vineyards in the area, there is much competition locally and so the pair export most of their wine, mainly to English speaking countries. And indeed, those same countries (Ireland, US, Australia and New Zealand) are all happy with the Sarabande screw caps but not so the French. 

Today, working with some unique terroirs and old vineyards treated organically and by hand, the Gordons, according to their importers O’Brien’s, “produce some stunningly good old world wines but with a modern Oz twang”.

Sarabande “Les Rabasses” Faugeres (AP) 2014, 14.5%, €21.45 (got it for 17.16 in sale) O’Brien’s

The aromas of the Faugeres are dominated by black cherries and plums as is this blend. The Syrah, on its exploded base, is trellised across the top of the windy hill. Unlike the Syrah (the dominant grape - about 50% - in this GSM blend), the Grenache and Mourvedre are grown as bush vines. They sit on a south facing slope which is well drained. This is particularly important for the notoriously late ripening Mourvedre variety.

And so it is from this hilltop vineyard that this Les Rabasses comes with its hard-won flavours. Keep it, they say, or drink it now with “equally flavoursome food”. Suggested are: Cold meats/pâtés, Duck, Hard mature cheese, Roast lamb/beef, Slow cooked shoulder of lamb.

Colour is a mid to dark ruby. There are strong aromas of dark fruit, spicy. Fruit forward and deep, power and finesse in equal measure, that spice too, excellent acidity as well; the finish is pure, long and also balanced. Very Highly Recommended.

Sarabande “Misterioso” Faugeres (AP) 2014, 14.5%, 16.95 (13.56 in sale) O’Brien’s 

Sarabande tell us that “bright cherry flavours are the backbone of this cheeky little number…that will invite itself.” Indeed, it is mainly cherry all the way from the colour to the aromas to the dry finalé. A slash of spice too, fine tannins and well balanced acidity add to the easy-drinking enjoyment. Highly Recommended.

The blend this time is mostly Grenache and Syrah with “a small amount of Mourvedre.” Only the best quality fruit survives the sorting stage.