Domaine de L'Ancienne Cure in Bergerac

Earlier this month, I was in the Dordogne for our biennial family reunion. This region, located in southwest France and east of Bordeaux, is I think, one of the best spots in France for a family vacation. There are hundreds of prehistoric caves, more than 1500 castles and plenty of medieval villages to explore. The region is also famous for its local specialities including foie gras, duck confit, duck magret, and truffles. And of course, there is wine.

The Bergerac wine region lies along the Dordogne river and is the biggest appellation in the south west of France, producing red, dry white, and sweet white wines. The grapes growing in the region are similar to the Bordeaux varieties but the local climate is more continental and less influenced by the Atlantic ocean. Winters are mild and summers are long and can be very hot with occasional storms and showers.


Vineyards in the Bergerac Appellation

During the week that I spent in the area, I had the opportunity to visit the Domaine de L'Ancienne Cure. It is a family owned estate growing grapes in the Bergerac, Pécharmant, and Monbazillac appellations. The name of the domain refers to the old presbytery that Hélène and Gaston Roche bought in 1946 in the small village of Colombier, several kilometers from the town of Bergerac. They were mainly growers at the time, sending most of their grapes to the local cooperative. In 1984, their son Christian Roche inherited part of the family property and built its own winery to become an independent winemaker. Since 2009, the estate has been converting to organic viticulture.


Domaine de L'Ancienne Cure

At the domaine, we were warmly welcomed by a friendly and knowledgeable staff. We sat at the large farmhouse table in the middle of the tasting room and spent two hours tasting and talking about the estate production. The winery makes dry white, sweet white and red wines in three different lines: Jour de Fruit for fruit-forward, ready-to-drink wines, L'Abbaye for more concentrated, age-worthy wines, and the top of the line, L'Extase.

We tasted the following wines:

• 2009 Bergerac Sec Domaine de L'Ancienne Cure L'Abbaye: 30% Sauvignon Blanc, 20% Muscadelle, 25% Sémillon, and 25% Sauvignon Gris. Sauvignon Gris is a rare grape variety on the brink of extinction that has been revived recently in Bordeaux and in the south west. Manual harvest, aged 9 months in barrel, 30% new. My notes: deep golden color, sweet floral nose. On the palate much drier than it smells, peach, tropical fruit aromas, creamy mouthfeel.

• 2008 Bergerac Sec Domaine de L'Ancienne Cure L'Extase: 45% Sauvignon blanc, 35 % Sémillon, 20 % Muscadelle. Manual harvest, 60% new oak barrels. My notes: deep golden color, intense nose, lots of freshness on the palate with additional citrus notes, great balance between acidity and richness.


The red wines

• 2008 Pécharmant Domaine de L'Ancienne Cure Collection: Pécharmant is a small appellation on the north bank of Bergerac. The name means charming hill, pech coming from the occitan word puèg which means hill and charmant meaning charming. The wine is a blend of 50% Merlot, 25% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Cabernet Franc. Aged 18 months in new oak barrels. My notes: dark color, blackberry nose, very young, still tight and not really "made" yet (with the fruit on one side and the oak on the other side), age-worthy.

• 2005 Bergerac Domaine de L'Ancienne Cure L'Extase: 50% Merlot, 40% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Cabernet Franc. Grapes are harvested very ripe on calcareous soils and with more acidity on clay soils. Aged 19 months in new oak barrels. My notes: deep color, gamey aromas, ripe blackberries, jammy, quite silky on the palate, fine tannins, good acidity, age-worthy.


The sweet Monbazillac wines

• 2009 Monbazillac Domaine de L'Ancienne Cure Jour de Fruit: the wines of Monbazillac were already well-known in France in the 14th century but were discovered by the Dutch in the 17th century during the Wars of Religion when many Protestants from the Bergerac area emigrated to Holland. Like nearby Sauternes, the wine is issued from Sémillon, Sauvignon Blanc, and Muscadelle grapes harvested by hand when the grapes are affected by the noble rot or botrytis cinerea. The wine is a blend of 90% Sémillon, 10% Muscadelle. My notes: light golden color, floral nose. On the palate, light-bodied, sweet and fresh without been sirupy, nice citrus on the finish, good acidity, great with foie gras.

• 2003 Monbazillac Domaine de L'Ancienne Cure L'Extase: 90% Sémillon, 10% Muscadelle. Careful selection of the best berries, aged in new oak barrels. My notes: deep amber color, powerful nose of madarin orange. On the palate, very rich, sweet, long finish.


Showing the different amounts of botrytised fruit used in the Jour de Fruit and Extase cuvées

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Napa Cellars wines: tasty and well-priced

Before the holidays I received four new release samples from Napa Cellars, sent to me by Balzac Communications. I thought these wines were pretty tasty, food-friendly, and really well-priced. For instance, you can currently find the 2009 Napa Valley Chardonnay for $13.99 at Bevmo.

Although Chardonnay is the winery's most popular varietal, Napa Cellars produces wines from seven varieties including Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Zinfandel, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, and Syrah. Grapes are sourced from different areas of the Napa Valley, and lots from diverse climates are often blended together to obtain a consistent quality and balance.

The director of Winemaking is Joe Shirley, a California native raised in Napa Valley. Before Napa Cellars, he worked at Sonoma Cutrer and Trinchero Winery. He's been also involved in research while he was studying enology at UC Davis. He co-authored a paper on grape seed extracts and also a study published in the British Medical Journal The Lancet that showed that chocolate was a more powerful antioxidant than many common foods, such as prunes and blueberries.

Here are the wine samples that we tasted:

• 2009 Napa Cellars Sauvignon Blanc Napa Valley: sourced from vineyards in Yountville and the warmer Chiles Valley, the wine is cool-fermented in 100% stainless steel tanks. To retain the wine's acidity, no secondary fermentation is allowed . The wine exhibits a light yellow color and a fresh nose of grapefruit and citrus. On the palate, it is medium bodied with a rounded mouth feel and lively fruity flavors. Try it with Steamed Mussels in White Wine broth

• 2009 Napa Cellars Chardonnay Napa Valley: sourced from a collection of vineyards located in South Napa, Oakville and Atlas Peak. The fruit from the cool southern part of the valley adds acidity to the blend while the fruit from Oakville adds riper flavors. A quarter of the juice was cold fermented in stainless steel, the rest in small French oak barrels. The wine has a golden color and crisp braeburn apple aromas on the nose. On the palate, it is medium-bodied with peach & cream flavors and notes of vanilla spice on the finish. Try it with Seared Halibut with Haricots Verts, Scallions, and White Wine Sauce

• 2009 Napa Cellars Chardonnay Mount Veeder: sourced exclusively from the estate vineyard atop Mount Veeder. Located west of Napa and Yountville, within the Mayacamas mountain range that separates the Napa and Sonoma valleys, Mount Veeder is the largest AVA within Napa Valley but makes only about 1.3% of total Napa Valley production. It is characterized by a rugged mountain terrain, thin volcanic soils, and labor-intensive viticulture. Wines from the Mount Veeder AVA are typically powerful in structure. The Mount Veeder Chardonnay is produced from grapes that are hand-picked, crushed, pressed, fermented, and left on the lees for six months in 100% French oak barrels. The wine has a golden color with notes of caramel and tropical fruits on the nose. On the palate, it is rich and round with hints of bitter almonds and toasty oak on the finish. It is a more serious than the Napa Valley Chardonnay. Try it with Salmon with Lentils and Mustard-Herb Butter.

• 2007 Napa Cellars Syrah Dyer Vineyard: the Dyer Vineyard is situated on the sunny, northwest hillside of the cool Los Carneros AVA. The vineyard has minimal irrigation. Grapes are cold soaked for 24 hour after crushing and skins are pressed off early to avoid excessive seed tannin extraction. The resulting wine is aged in both French and American oak for 16 months. It is deep in color with a nose of black cherry and pepper. On the palate, it is medium bodied, well balanced with a smooth mouthfeel, leaving flavors of sweet black berries, spices, and notes of oak. Try it with Lamb Chops with Mushroom Wine Sauce

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If you like Rioja, you should try Navarra

Not long ago, I received a set of wine samples from Navarra that was sent by Balzac Communications as an introduction to the Navarra Wine Region.

Navarra lies north of the Rioja region and south of the area's main city, Pamplona. The region used to belong to the kingdom of Navarre in late 10th century-early 11th century, a kingdom powerful enough to have halted the southward expansion of the Franks and the northward expansion of the Muslims.

To the north, near the French border, the terrain is very mountainous, but south of Pamplona is Navarre's agricultural area. The land is flatter with a continental Mediterranean influence (long, dry summers and cold winters).

The Navarra appellation includes five sub-regions: Baja Montaña in Eastern Navarre bordering Aragon, Tierra Estella in Western Navarre bordering the Basque Coutry and La Rioja, Valdizarbe in Central Navarre, Ribera Alta south of Valdizarbe, and Ribera Baja in Southern Navarre bordering La Rioja.


Navarra Wine Map

The region used to be famous for its rosado (rosé) wines from Garnacha, a grape overwhelmingly dominant in the 1980' (90% of the plantings at the time). But recently, many Navarra winemakers have modernized their equipment as well as their planting, harvesting and production methods. Grenache is now less than 40% of plantings, with Tempranillo close behind and there is an increase use of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Chardonnay, and Sauvignon Blanc.


The first sample was the 2009 Inurrieta Orchídea. Bodega Inurrieta owns 230 hectares of vineyards in the Ribera Alta sub-region, 57 km (35 miles) south of Pamplona. Although it's a new estate founded in 1999, the area's winemaking traditions date back to the 1st century BC during the Roman rule. Plantings include Garnacha, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Graciano, and Sauvignon Blanc.

The wine is 100% Sauvignon Blanc and this is the only white produced at the winery. It exhibits a light yellow color and an aromatic nose of citrus, peach and white flower. On the palate, it is crip, more fruity than grassy, with a light finish. Try it with Trucha a la Navarra, a Navarra Style Trout.

We also tasted the 2006 Otazu Crianza, a blend of 35% Tempranillo, 35% Merlot, and 30% Cabernet Sauvignon. Located between the Sierra del Perdón mountain range and the Sierra de Echauri, just 8 km from Pamplona, the Señorío de Otazu winery is Spain's northernmost vineyard for red wines. The microclimate is predominantly Atlantic with rainy winters and sunny summers. The estate grows four grape varieties: Tempranillo, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon for red wines and Chardonnay for whites.

The wine has a dark color and a nose of spices and herbs. The palate is round, medium-bodied and quite tasty. Try it with Pochas with Paprika, an other specialty from Navarra with fresh local white beans.

Our last sample was the 2007 Chivite Expresión Varietal Tempranillo. Founded in 1647, Bodegas Julián Chivite is one of the oldest wine producing dynasties in Spain. Currently the bodega owns almost 500 hectares of vineyards and is run by the eleventh generation. In Navarra, the Chivite estate vineyards are located at Cintruénigo in Navarra Ribera Baja, at nearby Corella not far from the border with Rioja Baja, and at Marcilla in Navarra Ribera Alta. Plantings are predominantly Tempranillo and Garnacha with some amount of Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Muscat à Petit Grains.

The Chivite Tempranillo has a dark purple/violet color and an aromatic nose of moka and black cherry. On the palate, the wine is still young with mineral notes and a nutty finish. Try it with an another dish from Navarra: Pollo Chilindron, a chicken stew that uses red bell peppers, a common ingredient in that part of the country.

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Comparative wine and Riedel wine glass tasting

I recently had the chance to be invited to a comparative wine and Riedel glass tastings and I was really glad I came: the tasting, conducted by Maximilian Riedel himself, was much more informative than I thought.

Maximilian Riedel is currently the CEO of the US branch of Riedel Glas, the Austrian glassmaker company that introduced the concept of varietal specific wine glasses. He also regularly hosts tasting events to demonstrate how the shape of the glass can influence the way we perceive wine. According to Riedel, a wine can display different characteristics — good or bad — when served in glasses of different sizes and shapes.


Riedel wine glass tasting with Maximilian Riedel

In order to illustrate that concept, four wines were paired with four varietal glasses from the Riedel Vinum XL series, one of Riedel's most recent lines specifically designed for young new world wines.


Riedel tasting setup

We started with a 2009 Giesen Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough that we tasted in a Vinum XL Riesling Grand Cru glass. The wine had a light yellow color with green reflections and a fresh and fruity nose of grapefruit and gooseberry. On the palate, it was crisp and mineral with a good finish. After having enjoyed the wine in the Riesling glass, we were asked to pour some of it into a small plastic cup. The difference was remarkable. In the plastic cup, the wine had no nose at all and tasted mostly acidic. It is actually easy to understand why: in a small V-shaped cup, there is no room to swirl the wine and bring out the aromas. Moreover, the V-shape is the wrong shape to concentrate the aromas towards the nose (much of what we taste really comes through our nose).

Then we moved to our second wine, a 2008 Talbott Chardonnay Sleepy Hollow Vineyard that we tasted in a Vinum XL Montrachet glass. The wine was deep golden with a nose of apple, pear, and nut. On the palate, it was rich and creamy with notes of caramel. The glass bowl was large and round, which helped temper the alcohol in the wine. It also directed the flow of wine to cover a large area in the mouth, thus enhancing the richness and acidy of the wine. Then we tried the Chardonnay in the Riesling glass. The wine seemed more unbalanced, drier, and not as crisp. The reason is that the Riesling glass, designed for unoaked acidic wines like dry Riesling and Sauvignon Blanc, is much too narrow to allow the creamy aromas to expand towards the nose and in the mouth.

Our third wine was a 2008 Kali-Hart Vineyard Pinot Noir that we tasted in a Vinum XL Pinot Noir glass, a glass with a large tulip-shaped bowl that flares out slightly at the top. The wine had a deep ruby color and a nose of raspberry, dried fruits and raisins. On the palate, it was full-bodied and jammy. When we were asked to try the wine in the Chardonnay glass, we noticed that the wine seemed less fruity and more tannic. In fact, the wine flow reaching the tongue was less focused and much less of these fruity aromas were reaching our tongue.

Our last wine was the 2007 Educated Guess Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley that we tasted in the oversized Vinum Xl Cabernet glass. The wine was dark with a nose of sweet blackberry, cocoa, and vanilla. On the palate, it was full-bodied, young, and oaky. When we switched to the Pinot Noir glass, the wine appeared more tannic, maybe because of the flared top, and in the Chardonnay glass, the opening was too wide and the wine aromas were partly lost.

At the end of the event, we each received a Vinum Xl wine tasting glass set so that we can continue to play at home. There are so many combinations that we haven't tried yet. What about a Sauvignon Blanc in the Chardonnay glass or a Pinot Noir in the Cabernet glass? I'm also suspecting that the Vinum Xl Cabernet glass might be too big for a Bordeaux.

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Forget the Winter Reds, try this delicious California White

The wine departments of our local grocery stores are getting more and more interesting. You can now find wines from many regions around the world and at the same time, there is often a shelf dedicated to wines made by local wineries. So the other day, I found a 2005 Cinnabar Mercury Rising Blanc at my local Mollie Stone's Market. I already had the Mercury Rising Red — a Bordeaux-style wine — several times, and I was curious to try the white version.

Located high on a ridge in the Santa Cruz Mountains, Cinnabar Vineyards & Winery was founded by Tom Mudd, a Stanford grad and research engineer at SRI International (Stanford Research Institute). But after planting a one-acre mountain vineyard in 1974, he decided to change careers, took viticulture and enology courses at the University of California Davis, and finally founded his own winery in 1983.

He chose the name Cinnabar, a brick-red mineral (mercury sulfide) that fascinated the alchemists of the Middle Ages. They would crush and heat up a piece of cinnabar and observe the mercury separate from sulfur and evaporate. Using a similar process, they were hoping to find a way to extract gold and silver from any ordinary metal.

Mercury Rising Blanc is Cinnabar's proprietary white. It is a blend of Sauvignon Blanc, Viognier and Sémillon, sourced in 2005 in Monterey County, Sonoma County and Clarksburg. We opened the wine at a recent holiday potluck lunch where people had brought different ethnic dishes. The wine ended up being very popular. In the glass, it displayed a pale yellow color and a fresh nose of citrus. There was some tangy acidity on the palate followed by lime flavors and minerality on the finish. The wine worked beautifully with the ethnic food, especially the Sashimi salad made with raw flounder and brought by our Japanese friend Misako.


Misako's sashimi salad

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