The French Journal

Wine truc: Cabernet Franc = herbs

In some of the world's the finest wines, like those of Bordeaux, the Cabernet Franc grape is used sparingly as a blending element, adding a "herbaceous" note. As a varietal, however, the grape lacks prominence, despite some notable bottlers in the Loire region, such as Saumur-Champigny, Bourgueil and Chinon. To learn more about the grape, hie yourself o'er to the LA Times for an introduction to Cabernet Franc. Since the LAT is a California publication, be prepared for a report that emphasizes the grape's status in that state and in Washington, but there's a good dose of France in the article's blend. Should you not have the energy to follow the link, here are the salient tasting hints to remember: "(Cabernet Franc's) herbal marker is so unique that when it goes missing, as it does in warmer sites, the wines can seem generic and sullen.Too much and the wine can be green and weedy." Santé!

Wine truc: Get to know your Rothschilds

Let's travel in rarefied air for our Friday wine truc and visit Château Lafite, the crown jewel in the kingdom of Domaines Barons de Rothschild, which includes vineyards in Bordeaux, Entre-Deux-Mers, Portugal, Chile, and Argentina (The Telegraph UK). Rothschild's concern produces over 12-million bottles a year.

Just to confuse you, and to prove life isn't fair, another branch of the Rothschild family owns Château Mouton Rothschild and several other labels. In spite of the proximity and overlap between the two producers, there is no rivalry as such between the two factions; one senses that in this world, competition is beneath consideration, as there's enough money to go around for everyone, isn't there?

A tour of Pontet-Canet

For a (late) wine truc this weekend, we'll tour the Bordeaux chateau Pontet-Canet with its owner, Alfred Tesseron (courtesy of The Wine Spectator). The vineyard is the source of a high-end Paulliac, and I love Tesseron's little spiel about the wine at the end of the video. "It's made to sit around the table...and share with friends. You'll find that when the wine is good, the conversation is always good. My philosophy of wine is always sharing. So cheers to you!"

Books/Wine truc: To Cork or Not to Cork

Ah, yes! The romance of the cork. Screw tops or plastic closers just don't satisfy. This ritual can turn reasonable people into mules -- who cares that there that there may be a better way? We love cork! The phenomenon is examined by George Taber in his book To Cork or Not to Cork. Taber -- who wrote The Judgment of Paris, about the famous 1976 wine tasting in which California wines were deemed to be better than their French counterparts -- explores the many sides of the controversy: the cork industry, working to protect its livelihood; the wine makers, looking to protect their wine and profits; the bull-headed customers, like me, wanting to preserve tradition in the face of change. Haven't yet read the book myself, but it's on the list; a recent James Beard nomination (in the "wine book" category) suggests that it's worthwhile. Here's an excerpt. An informative interview with Taber follows.

Wine truc: Back in the saddle

One of last week's wine trucs dealt with the elimination of any kind of "artificial" intervention in the creation of a wine. This week, courtesy of France magazine, we have another return to basics: the use of horses in Burgundy to cultivate fields. Tractors, apparently, are causing noticeable damage to fields, as their heaviness compresses soil and allows less rain to seep through to vines and roots. Horse-drawn plows is reversing some of that concern. They're a limited answer, suitable mostly to smaller operations; some vineyards are too big to make this process viable.

Weekend wine truc #2: Goin' natural

Time has an article on French wine producers who are abandoning any kind of chemicals when producing their products. Vin naturel goes past organic to foregoing filtration and the addition of yeasts or sugar. "The results range from sublime to suspect: some natural wines go down more easily than fresh grape juice, while others have distinctly earthy, leathery or even barnyardy aromas that can be hard to tolerate."  If you're in Paris, the article points you to some bars where you can taste some of these cow-patch wines: Racines in the second arrondissement, Autour d'un Verre in the ninth, and Le Baratin in the twentieth.

Weekend wine truc #1: More Champagne!

The big news in the French wine world today is that French regulators have agreed to expand the regions which can produce Champagne (AFP). Since Champagne is one wine that is in increasing demand, this news has major economic impact: "'If your vines fall on the wrong side of the divide, they will be worth 5,000 euros a hectare,' said Gilles Flutet, who is in charge of demarcation at INAO. 'On the other side they will be worth a million euros.'" That's for landowners; for the rest of us, more Champagne!

You can also read an earlier post on this subject.

Wine truc: Test yourself

For Friday thoughts of wine, I'm sending you over to The Wine Spectator, where you can take a series of quizzes to test your oenophile knowledge. The questions are not only about French wine, but a lot of them are, and some of the quizzes, like one on Bordeaux, are obviously based in knowledge about France and its vineyards.

So far, German wines are really screwing up my scores. Warning! The quizzes are addictive.

Rerun: An absolutely fabulous wine truc

As the week sinks slowly into the west, let's share a (blurry) wine tasting in France with Pats and Eddy...

Santé!

Domaine de la Romanee-Conti: Too expensive to spit

Today's other posts wore me out, so I'll be brief for the weekend wine truc. Over a Bloomberg, an oenophile has the chance to taste some high end Burgundies, like Domaine de la Romanee-Conti. For you and me, this would be like getting an invitation to see the Holy Grail; these are wines that are sold as soon as they're bottled, and only to those who have bottomless bank accounts. The article's writer calculates that a sip costs about $500, so -- to paraphrase, she ain't spitting. As for her tasting notes, "Romanee-Conti is all the others rolled into one, with complex flavors that stamp themselves on my memory. Montrachet, poured last, is the ultimate chardonnay, a heady melange of honey, minerals and candied lemon rind." To approximate the Montrachet, I'm going to mix some lemon rind, honey, and dirt in a cup, and will let you taste it cheaply. Heck, I'll give you a whole glass for $250.