They put down their small glasses of aged Sauturnes (which have been chilled by Winter fairies blowing ice crystals at them), and are lifted out of their easy chairs on large red ribbons made of the finest silk, held aloft by cherubs singing a lullaby from the music of the spheres, and on the way through their marble hallways to their lavish canopy beds they are heralded by smiling, talking statues who repeatedly exclaim how blessed those owners are to be themselves, and how lucky the world’s mortal wine drinkers are to have their glasses graced by even the tiniest drops from the nectar aging in their chai’s barrels.

I imagine this because living in a fantasy land is one of the few logical explanations for how the 2009 Bordeaux wine prices are shaping up. At least, that’s the conclusion I reached after attending the recent Union des Grand Crus de Bordeaux 2009 vintage tasting in NYC.

For sure there were some amazing wines being poured (more on my faves after the jump), but a higher density under one roof of “pretty good” to “errr… uhmmm… not-so-great” wines for $50 and up you are not likely to find anywhere else on the planet. I interviewed Robert Parker a couple of years ago, and in that conversation he told me that Bordeaux wines were dramatically overpriced – the situation appears to have gotten a sight worse since then. As one salesman I met at the NYC tasting told me, when it comes to 2009 Bordeaux prices, “whatever you think it is, add… A LOT!” (that same person hinted that a recent vintage of one of the First Growths was rumored to be $22,000 a case).

But before you start shouting foul play on the part of the Asian wine market being responsible for putting Bordeaux prices out of reach of non-cherub-owning humans, bear in mind that it takes a certain amount of avarice (and probably arrogance) to charge a ton of money for a product that cannot be said be at all a rarity…

As detailed in the excellent book What Price Bordeaux, the Bordeaux “quality pyramid” is now totally inverted, with some of the highest-ranking, and highest-rated producers churning out quite large volumes of wine that they then price stratospherically (hey, those cherubs probably don’t come cheap, right?).

This is the opposite situation from Burgundy, where the most storied wines are made in such small quantities that supply and demand might actually make their enormous prices (somewhat) fair, in market terms, and thus give their quality pyramid a decidedly more upright stance.

If I sound grumpy about all of this, it’s because I don’t want to have to do silly things when it comes to wine; like, say, paying $200 for a bottle of vino that I wouldn’t serve to the horse of which its aromas reminded me. I get that the region of Bordeaux is amazing, and rightfully can be called an historic world treasure. And I get that their wines can be amazing no matter what the production volumes. And believe me, I get that it could be open season on me for going open season on a region with which I have little detailed experience. But as a wine lover myself (hey, that’s how I got into this whole thing, after all!) I don’t really get the insanity of the pricing, or at least I don’t want to face the cold, hard fact that they could just be due to the almighty dollar always-always-always winning out.

And so it’s all the more heartening to encounter a producer like Chateau Lagrange, whose 2009 is, for sure, a deserving “honorable mention” here in more ways than one: it’s peppery, spicy, seductive, full of beautiful red fruits, and is currently clocking in somewhere around $65 a bottle (far from highway-robbery territory).

Now that the depressing exposition is over, and now that I’ve got all that off my wine-soaked chest, let’s talk about some of the stars of the NYC tasting (you’ve already been warned about the prices…):

Fave White

2009 Château Carbonnieux Blanc (Pessac-Léognan)
Price: $45
Rating: B+

A beautiful wine – just mouthfuls of citrus, melon and total gorgeousness. Having said that, this is not a wine for now; only the truly patient need apply, because it will require a few years to really smooth out all that intense, acidic structure. Patience will probably be very much rewarded, but it’s really damn good right now, too, and if you do up some really fancy scallops you might get away with drinking it soon (the thought for sure crossed my mind).

Fave Red (tie)

2009 Château Figeac (St. Émilion)
Price: $250
Rating: A

I am saying it is excellent juice – I am not saying that I’d pay $250 for it. But if you dig truffles, the bouquet on this will wine practically drive you insane with pleasure. I mean, this train has pulled directly into truffle station. The tannins are quite demanding, but not disjointed, and the structure is there for some long-haul aging. My favorite part was the tangy redcurrant action, which made me start to drool in my glass and suggested this will be an amazing food wine after it softens up in, like, a trillion years.

2009 Château Pichon-Longueville au Baron de Pichon-Longueville (Pauillac)
Price: $145
Rating: A-

Now this one… this one I would pay $150 for. So much tension and release is going on here, with excellent grip and structure but also tart fruit and an enticing floral edge. I loved it. I did not want to spit it. I wanted to take it to my bosom, and steal away with it while it whispered to me about its flowers. But that didn’t happen (though I may have seen cherubs when I tasted it).

Fave “Sticky” (tie)

2009 Château Climens (Barsac)
Price: $115
Rating: A-

Welcome to the lighter side of Bordeaux dessert wines. Lilting and pretty, this is a wine that sneaks up on you with its subtlety. But it doesn’t lack power in its funky yeasty-ness. It’s like a lovely, soft-spoken Barsac ninja. There’s a grapefruit edginess and plenty of citric lift to this wine, and it really dances on your tongue; so it’s a lovely, soft-spoken, dancing ballerina Barsac ninja.

2009 Château Suduiraut (Sauternes)
Price: $100
Rating: A

Su-Su-Suduiraut… Somebody call Weird Al Yankovic, I’ve got a killer idea for a song parody here…! Ok… sorry… Anyway…  Overall, this was the best and most complete wine I tasted among the 2009 Bordeaux lineup. Classic Sauternes: nuts, honey, vinyl, citrus pith, apricot, peaches… And it’s nearly the polar opposite of the Climens, muscular and powerful (and unctuously sweet – bring the toothbrush, you’re gonna need it). BUT… the key thing with this wine is the finish, which started when I tasted the wine in NYC and I think will go on until the 2012 Bordeaux grapes are harvested. That finish is like an extra treat after dessert, a meringue that is at once creamy and feather-light, and melts its way through your olfactory cavities after making you its beeeeatch.

Cheers!

Copyright © 2011. Originally at 2009 Bordeaux To Wine World: “Surprise! We’re Overpriced!” (Thoughts From The Union des Grand Crus NYC Tasting) from 1WineDude.com - for personal, non-commercial use only. Cheers!

The travel could mean some slightly interrupted service here on 1WD, most likely the week after I return while I’m catching up on the three-to-four thousand things to which I will need to attend when I get back (such as hitting the treadmill overtime after indulging in what the French consider a relatively normal volume of dietary fats). I’m hitting Napa very soon after my return from France (for a ton of producer visits and my annual coverage of the madness that is Premiere Napa Valley), and the space in between those trips will largely be occupied by, I hope, sleeping. All of which is a (very) long way of saying that your patience, as always, is most appreciated!

I’d tell you more about the Salon, except I don’t actually know too much about it because their website is, putting it mildly, in the running for the least useful Internet destination in the history of the known Universe. So I thought that I’d offer up a few interesting facts about the region instead, embellished slightly 1WineDude style for your edu-tainment…

Some Loire Did-You-Knows:

1. Peasant-turned-religious-icon Joan of Arc first presented herself to the Dauphin in the Loire town of Chinon, where she imprudently demanded both that they put her at the head of the army, and that Chinon stop making stinky, Bretty red wines. Only one of those demands was met (obviously).
2. In 2009, the Loire was not only #1 in white wine production volume in France, it was also the #1 wine region requested in French restaurants (and the #2 region for sparkling wine production in France, second only to (duh) Champagne.
3. One of the world’s most interesting regions for white wines, Vouvray is an unique spot in that its entire acreage is devoted pretty much only to Chenin Blanc. What it lacks in varietal diversity it more than makes up for in stylistic diversity, however: just about every sort of wine is made here, from dry still whites to (various sweetness levels of) sparkling to dessert wines.
4. In the Triassic era (when Coelophysis roamed the earth, and when Wine Spectator was founded), the Loire was at the bottom of an ocean. Sea fossils are relative common finds here, and its pre-history history is responsible for the area’s gorgeous tuffeau stone soil – which is used not only to carve out wine caves, but also to build some of the most impressive chateaux in the area and beyond (including spots like London’s incredible St. Paul’s Cathedral).
5. The world’s most translated author is Agatha Christie, who was not from the Loire. But the world’s second most translated author was – Jules Verne. Verne was from Nantes, and as most people know predicted submarines and space travel in his sci-fi novels long before they became viable from an engineering perspective (he’s also rumored to have been the first wine blogger…).

More to come from Angers!

Cheers!

Copyright © 2011. Originally at Joan of Arc, Jules Verne And Vouvray (At The Salon des Vins de Loire) from 1WineDude.com - for personal, non-commercial use only. Cheers!

Yet that’s more-or-less where I’ve found myself when it comes to France’s Burgundy, home of both ethereally-exquisite, mind-blowingly-good wines and overpriced, cabbage-in-the-bathwater bad swill, with little to guide the consumer from choosing one over the other apart from painstakingly acquired detailed knowledge of the region’s négociants… and we’ve all go those guys’ details committed firmly to memory, right?!??

Ahem…

And so, when you get invited to a vintage tasting in NYC for a Burgundian producer with whom you have no prior experience, even as a critic-of-sorts you steel yourself for what is surely to be the inevitable dropping of the other shoe; as in, having to taste wines that smell like the other shoe dipped in someone’s droppings.

And then, when you’re not only pleasantly surprised by the outcome – as I was at Blue Fin last week, after going through the 2009 lineup from Père & Fils’ Domaine Chanson – you’re practically blown away… Well, then you have to endure the odd-paired painful pleasure of watching your personal assessment of both that producer’s abilities and your own douchebag rating simultaneously skyrocket. [ Editor's note: This pain was salved slightly by the fact that Père & Fils’ was pouring bubbly from Champagne producer Bollinger, which they also own, and which I can now tell you from personal experience washes down the taste of crow with elegant, floral appeal. ]

Much of Domaine Chanson’s rise to within-spitting-distance of Burgundy’s upper-echelon (and therefore arguably the wine world’s upper-echelon) can be attributed to the hard work of its President, Gilles de Courcel – an amicable guy with thinning brown hair, a quick smile and eyes that light up when he gets a chance to exercise his borderline-obsessive passion for describing the tiny geography from which Chanson’s top-tier, tiny production Grand Cru wines originate…

The only real problem in meeting Gilles and tasting his wines is the stark realization that the Capitalist laws of supply and demand will almost certainly assure that even if you could find those tiny production Grand Cru wines, you almost certainly won’t be able to afford them. It’s like seeing a great movie and then minutes later contemplating the sadness of the human condition and the tragedy of your own worthless mortality in the grand Universe.

And it mostly hurts because really, really good Burgundy wines are a bit like crack cocaine for wine geeks; they just might reset the bar for you on Chardonnay and Pinot Noir and leave you fruitlessly chasing those initial highs for the rest of your miserable-ass life.

But I’m gonna tell you about them anyway, because misery most certainly loves company when it comes to this kind of pain:

2009 Domaine Chanson Corton Vergennes Grand Cru
Price: $114
Rating: A

From a tiny hillside vineyard that once belonged to Louis XVI’s counselor. At first sniff, this comes off as lemon water, not Chardonnay. There’s literally almost nothing there. Then the waves start rolling in – limes, spices, wet rocks, tropical fruits… and keep coming until the whole thing aggregates into a sense of total, elegant indulgence, which keeps on going even seconds after you swallow the stuff, after which you will feel like storming the Bastille on horseback, banners flying wildly in the wind, while trumpets herald your attack. Of course, you’d probably be shot instantly by the French police but another sip will take you right back to fantasy land.

2009 Domaine Chanson Chambertin Clos de Bèze Grand Cru

Price: $215
Rating: A

From relatively prime real estate in tiny Burgundian terms, in an upper part of an Eastward-facing hill in Gevrey Chambertin. A wonderful balancing act of structure – acidity, minerality, tannins, spices, ripe and dried fruits, blah-blah-blah… And that’s all just on the nose of this Pinot. Something like twenty-seven different red berry fruits then present themselves, delicately lifting up your will and then crushing it and playing with it like a cat toy. Which you won’t mind so long as there’s still another sip in the glass (which their won’t be, at least not for long).

Two selections from Chanson’ slightly lower-tier Premier Crus stood out for me at the tasting – so much so that I thought offering them as somewhat-easier-to-possibly-locate and somewhat-more-affordable alternatives:

2009 Domaine Chanson Puligny-Montrachet Hameau de Blagny Premier Cru
Price: $65
Rating: A-

From clay and limestone soils near Meursault (not that you care, probably). Sensual, textural, floral, elegant, but almost biting in its acid as its still in the Puligny-Montrachet version of wine diapers. Visions of scallops will likely appear at first sip. I’d suggest this Chardonnay for a hot date, but then that date would expect this kind of wine every date night and then eventually the only thing that will get screwed will be your bank account.

2009 Domaine Chanson Beaune Clos des Fèves Premier Cru
Price: $66
Rating: B+

This is Burgundy Pinot Noir from a “monopole” vineyard with an eye looking slightly towards the Sonoma Coast. It’s seductive and juicy, and isn’t shy about dishing out raspberries and baking spices towards your nostrils. The vanilla and oak here come off more like a cleverly-applied hint of perfume and less like, well, vanilla and oak: drawing you in for a closer look rather than turning you off in sneezing fit.

Cheers!

Copyright © 2011. Originally at Song Of The Happily Depleted Burgundian Bank Account (Domaine Chanson’s 2009 Grand Crus Hit High Notes, And High Prices) from 1WineDude.com - for personal, non-commercial use only. Cheers!

By some minor miracle, I may actually be able to attend the New York Wine Expo in March.

For the last few years, I’ve had to miss this vinous shin-dig held at the ginormous Jacob K. Javits Convention Center because I’ve been roughly 2,898 miles away from it when it’s been held. But this year, I’ll be just getting back from the Left Coast when the NYC Wine Expo gets going… so there’s a good chance that I might see YOU there, since 1WineDude.com readers get a $15 discount on the Friday March 2nd grand tasting event, now through March 1st!

Why? Because you’re all totally bad-ass, that’s why!

The expo will be taking place March 2 – 4, 2012 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center (trust me, it’s big enough that if you get reasonable close, you can’t miss it). Over 700 wines (dang!) will be poured from nearly 200 wineries, and there will be a few wine-related seminars outside of the tastings.

From now until March 1st, 2012 when you purchase NYC Wine Expo event tickets on-line you can get your $15 discount off the Friday night grand tasting event by clicking “Enter promotional code” at the bottom of the event form (directly above the “Order Now” button), and using the code “WINEDUDE” (without the quotation marks, of course).

If you’re going (and you should, if you want to give your wine tasting IQ a serious – and quick – boost), check out my mini survival guide for getting through these big tasting events alive (Hint: Spit. A lot).

Cheers!

Copyright © 2011. Originally at New York Wine Expo 2012 Is Nigh (And YOU Can Get $15 Off Through March 1st!) from 1WineDude.com - for personal, non-commercial use only. Cheers!

The first month’s quizzes will focus on trivia about Champagne, in the hopes that it will help lighten the serious hangover that the stuff gave you during your libation-filled New Year’s Eve celebrations.

I’ve long admired LWE founder & CEO Eric Orange (and not just because he’s a local PA guy!), and was a subscriber to The Juice back when 1WineDude.com was just a twinkle in my Riedel stemware. So I’m excited to be helping him out, and I’m very much looking forward to all the flaming I will get from The Juice readers telling me that my Quiz answers are actually all wrong interacting with The Juice faithful!

If you’re not a subscriber to The Juice, then you’re missing out – it’s one of the best ways to zero-in on wine events happening in your area, or wherever your travels might be taking you during any given week; and the website and newsletter have become invaluable resources on wine happenings for hundreds of thousands of wine geeks across the world. So, go sign up already!

I’ve not finalized the Quiz themes going forward, so if you’ve got great ideas for topics/themes on which to focus for future editions of The Juice, please shout ‘em out!

Cheers!

Copyright © 2011. Originally at Getting All Juiced For 2012 from 1WineDude.com - for personal, non-commercial use only. Cheers!