TN: Chanteleuserie 2008 Bourgueil Cuvée Beauvais

I preferred this to the '08 Baudry Grezeaux in my last post. While it's more herbaceous and 'basic' as far as Chinon/Bourgueil go, the balance is much better. At the sub-$20 price point, definitely this is a buy and seems to have upside as well. While this isn't going to light the room on fire right now, I'm very appreciative of the typicity and balance.

On a side note, this is from sloped, tuffeau-based terroir according to Kermit Lynch's blog. While I can't speculate on causation, definitely I'm correlating my Loire Cab Franc preferences strongly with calcareous soil types.

• 2008 Domaine de la Chanteleuserie Bourgueil Cuvée Beauvais - France, Loire Valley, Touraine, Bourgueil
  
  
  
  Really nice, very typical Cab Franc. High toned florals are underlined by deeper bass of tobacco aromas with some fresh cherry. Light-medium body with medium acidity. Fresh red fruit on the attack, a little roundness to the middle. There's a definite iron mineral note. Finishes with earthy, savory tobacco and olive. More standard Loire Cab Franc than the '08 Baudry Grezeaux, but balance is much better. Nice dusting of tannins on the finish to firm it all up.
  
  
  
  Edit: Pencil shaving/fresh cedar characteristics (not oak). No impression of sweetness; all savory and fresh.
  
  

TN: Bernard Baudry 2008 Chinon Les Grézeaux

Given how much I loved the 2007 version of this cuvee, this was a letdown. Definitely this is an ambitious wine with more depth, especially aromatically, than a rank and file Chinon. But right now the acidity is really out of whack to the point of eclipsing the rest of the palate. Will it come around? That's a question for more experienced tasters. I did find it odd how high the acidity was despite the minimal herbaceousness--usually these qualities scale together.

I must admit, though, that the 2007 Grezeaux was a personal outlier in some sense. I have not generally liked gravel-based Cab Franc from the Loire, so perhaps that was the exception, not the rule.

• 2008 Domaine Bernard Baudry Chinon Les Grézeaux - France, Loire Valley, Touraine, Chinon
  
  
  
  Great typical nose--leather, musk, underbrush and a hint of tobacco. Unfortunately, the acidity is sharp and unyielding. Light body. This is all pomegranite and grapefruit, with a bit of pith on the finish. Very angular though not overly tannic. Minimal oak influence, no heat. The herbaceousness that Chinon can have is definitely well in check, but the acidity is a few notches too high for my comfort. Much preferred the 2007 which was a fruit bomb in comparison (at least in Chinon context).
  
  

Wine Movie: Blood Into Wine

I'm inherently suspicious of celebrities or other simply rich people who jump into making wine, even if out of passion. It's like any other field: proper training and experience are vital components of success, though often celebs simply outsource the work to others with the necessary background. Thus, I approached the documentary Blood Into Wine with some suspicion. It presents the story of Tool frontman Maynard James Keenan's (pictured on the right) winery Caduceus, located in the Verde Valley of Arizona.

The documentary, however, peels away various misconceptions I had going into it. Just as one might expect Arizona to be blisteringly hot--it's not at higher elevations where Keenan farms--I'd expect Keenan to be kind of a stuffy, obnoxious guy thinking he is running some modern day wine plantation. He's not, though sometimes a bit of overconfidence shows. In reality, he's down to earth about his approach. Most impressively, he has joined forces with Eric Glomsky, a professionally trained winemaker. Glomsky isn't simply his wine-monkey, though, not by a long shot. There's a give and take evident, and Keenan views Glomsky as a mentor, not an employee.

Glomsky actually steals the show at times with his passion for the 'terroir' of Northern Arizona. He has a clear distrust for the wine establishment's hard-wired belief that certain regions and styles are inherently superior. Much to his credit, Keenan also does not go around name dropping famous producers or regions much, nor does he seem concerned that his wines are not imitating those of other regions. In fact, when James Suckling (pictured on the left) compares Keenan's wines to various reference points, Keenan rather visibly seems annoyed. The blog HFF delves into this subject a bit more deeply, and is definitely worth a read. Suckling comes across, unsurprisingly, as a pompous snob; out of all wine critics, he is probably the one who most fully personifies the typical wine snob stereotype.

There are definitely some running gags intended to bring levity to the proceedings, but fall a bit flat. In sum, though, I came away with a positive view of Maynard Keenan James and am especially interested in tasting Verde Valley wines at some point. This is a very good wine documentary that balances nerd appeal with more broadly accessible material. Additionally, it's worth adding that Caduceus' wines have dropped in price recently. When I checked out the price list over a year ago, it was kind of outrageous for wines with no track record. The wines are still not cheap, but they are more in line with what I'd expect for a younger wine region. It's not that I don't think the wines could command a premium eventually. Rather the market is competitive, and it's probably smart to get the wine into folks' hands to try rather than make it just a collectible.

Are There Objective Wine Faults?

While wine enjoyment is primarily about personal preference, there are certain 'faults' that are identified in the wine trade. Most have to do with intent--still wine shouldn't have spritz, dry wine shouldn't taste sweet, etc. Brettanomyces and its funky byproducts often fall in this group as well, though opinions vary. Oxidation is generally not good, but there are nonetheless oxidative styles of wine that are well-liked. Even volatile acidity (VA, similar to a bit of vinegar) has its place, especially in dessert wines.

I believe there are some faults, though, that have a purely physiological basis. Hence they are essentially objective; there is no context where noticing them is good. The only issue here is that not everyone has the same sensitivity--witness a debate about a wine being corked and this becomes clear. Here I'm thinking of a hypothetical scenario where a person is presented with two identical wines except for the fault--one that is clean, the other that has been dosed with the offending chemical. Assuming the chemical was in sufficient concentration to be smelled, virtually any person would prefer the clean wine.

High Levels of Mercaptans: A mercaptan is used in natural gas (at very low concentrations because most people are so sensitive) to give it a stinky aroma. Skunk spray also has several different mercaptans. The fact that mercaptans are a defense mechanism suggests they are almost universally offensive. I suppose some rotten cabbage, skunk, or rubber tire could be complexing at very low levels. But I doubt many people would find skunk-cabbage wine pleasing if presented with a non-skunky version of the same wine.

TCA/corked wine: At low levels, it seems simply to flatten a wine. At high levels, it's like a moldy basement. I don't think TCA could ever be a positive feature. Humans are programmed to generally avoid eating mold, and without fail when a corked wine is compared to a non-faulty version, the clean version is almost universally preferred.

Are there others? Geosmin, a byproduct of moldy grapes, is sometimes mentioned. But often enthusiasts enjoy earthiness, and moldy grapes can also give rise to certain 'noble' styles. I think what I describe as seaweed and like as a complexing aroma probably is also related to moldy grapes. I purposely left out volatile sulfides (non-thiol sulfur compounds), though, as these seem to be double edged swords, often contributing to varietal character lit black currant in Cabernet.

It does make me wonder about Brettanomyces byproducts. From an evolutionary standpoint, it makes sense that humans would avoid moldy and skunky smelling foods. So why not cow pasture smelling foods? Feces are not good to eat, hence people are repelled by the smell. But it seems at low to moderate levels if you did the thought experiment--one clean wine, then the same wine with some 4-EP--the latter might be preferred, though probably only by enthusiasts.

This is what makes this question tricky. If horse sweat and barnyard can be acquired tastes, what's to stop skunk and moldy rag? Farmyard is more positively evocative, and to me has a nice rustic and agrarian connotation. But does everyone feel this way? Maybe burning rubber tire and stewed cabbage are nostalgic for a person who grew up on a cabbage farm next to a tire manufacturing plant.

WN: Charles Joguet 2005 Chinon Clos du Chêne Vert

There are some wines that simply are gripping for one reason or another. The Charles Joguet 2005 Chinon Clos du Chêne Vert was one such wine for me. It's everything I love about Chinon that can be summed up in two words: rustic elegance. As paradoxical as this sounds, I have no other way to sum up wines such as these. They are unassuming in weight and often funky, yet have a special harmony and complexity.

All the pieces are here: a great vineyard, a great vintage, and a top producer. The Clos du Chêne Vert (roughly translating to the Enclosed Vineyard of the Green Oak) is on the north bank of the Vienne River and has clay and silico-calcareous soil. There is a lot of characterful, yet simple wine made from sand and gravel soils in the Loire. But it's these sloped vineyards with clay and limestone that produce special wines that marry the regional and varietal character to depth and structure.

Interestingly, while this wine did show some of the characteristic "farmyard" stink--think horses and cow pastures--of the yeast Brettanomyces, in a certain way this enhanced the wine. I do not know the reason behind it, but this funk seems to be a regional expression. Brett can and does ruin many wines with what I'd describe as band-aid and antiseptic flavor that tastes identical regardless of varietal or region. Yet here it is different, and I'd argue it's an expression of terroir in some sense. While it is not the earth or countryside that is locked in the wine, some combination of the indigenous yeast strain(s) and chemistry of the Chinon fruit yields a typical funk to the finished wine.

• 2005 Charles Joguet Chinon Clos du Chêne Vert - France, Loire Valley, Touraine, Chinon
  
  
  
  Epic Chinon. It's not really a powerful wine, but needed a good hour in the decanter to open up. At first has barnyard, menthol and cassis aromas. (OK, there's some Brett here, but it is more fertilizer/soil than the band-aid/medicinal Brett typical in CA--seems to be a Brett strain or expression specific to the Loire.) Medium bodied with medium high acidity on the palate. Chalky tannins. A mix of blackcurrant, tobacco pomegranate and chalky mineral flavors. All of these just linger on the finish, and there's no heat or weird off flavors. Tobacco and minerality were more pronounced over time. This is not going to be everyone's cup of tea, but this is amazingly concentrated Chinon Cab Franc that is a straight beam of awesome in my book. Nowhere near mature, either, though it oozes class right now.