Puligny's overlooked gem

Puligny-Montrachet is considered by many to be the finest village in Burgundy for producing vin blanc, but there are surprising few domaines based within its limits. Listing the high quality domaines of Meursault can take up a full page, but Puligny only needs a small paragrah. It does not help that the great premiere and grand crus of Puligny have been carved up by various domaines from throughout the cote, leaving little for the locals to care for. With so few top producers, you would think that all the best estates of Puligny would be on the radar of every collector. Yet, outside of the Domaines Leflaive and Sauzet, few estates have attracted cult followings. Writers have long praised the wines of Domaine Louis Carillon, but despite this, the producer has not become fashionable. Today, some of Burgundies best valued great wines emerge from this estate.

Arranging an appointment at domaines like Leflaive can require a blessing from the Pope, but our visit to Carillon last July took no more effort then faxing a request for a visit. Jacques Carillon runs the domaine today and was extremely pleasant. This estate may be one of the best producers in one of Burgundies most prestigous villages, but there is no sense pretension to found at Carillon. The wines did not need any help in illustrating their worth.

Puligny-Montrachet, 2006 - (barrel sample) Rich in mouth, but also racy and mineral. Rich feel in mouth.

Puligny-Montrachet, 1er Cru, Champs Canet, 2006 - (barrel sample) 40 year old vines.
Richer texture. The fruit is tropical and very long. Very good/outstanding.

Puligny-Montrachet, 1er Cru, Les Combottes, 2006 - (barrel sample) 15 year old vines. Mucher richer in the mouth. Great minerality. Very good.

Pulingy-Montrachet, 1er Cru. Les Perrieres, 2006 - (barrel sample) 31 year old vines. Great minerality. The body is very rich, but still elegant. Awesome wine.

Puligny-Montrachet, 1er Cru, Les Referets, 2006 - (barrel sample) 42 year old vines. Very rich and very Meursault-like. Excellent, long banana flavored fruit. Excellent length.

Bienvenues-Batard-Montrachet, Grand Cru, 2006 - (barrel sample) 43 year old vines. Very refined nose. Elegant and long on the palate. Great piercing minerality on the finish. Holy cow this is good!

Puligny-Montrachet, 2005 - Rich texture and nice length. Very good, but not as defined as the 2006.

Puligny-Montrachet, 1er Cru, Champs Canet, 2005 - Very rich and ripe. Nice texture. The fruit is peachy with tropical notes. Excellant wine.

Puligny-Montrachet, 1er Cru, Les Combottes, 2005 - More complex and mineral. Full bodied with excellent length.

Puligny-Montrachet, 1er Cru, Les Perrieres, 2005 - Great fruit on the nose. Rich in the mouth with ripe peach flavors. Really nice minerality. Awesome.

Pulingy-Montrachet, 1er Cru, Les Referets, 2005 - Rounder than the preceeding wines. Very good, but more one-dimensional.

All the wines tasted were very pure and great expressions of their terroir. It is refreshing to taste young white Burgundies that are not dominated by a wave a new oak. Each wine in Carillon's portfolio is outstanding and I would not hesitate to say that Carillon's Bienvenues is the reference point wine for this vineyard. For whatever reason, the wines from Domaine Carillon are not chased down by collectors and therefore remain good values. I recently picked up a 2002 Puligny-Montrachet at a retail shop for $35. The wine was still very young, but it was the definition of Puligny--elegant and mineral. Bottles with Domaine Leflaive on the label may be more sought after, but those from Louis Carillon et Fils should be no less cherished.

A sip of Criots

A view of Criots-Batard-Montrachet from Le Montrachet

I only tasted a small sip of this wine, but it has left a long impression. The 2006 Fontaine-Gagnard, Criots-Batard-Montrachet, Grand Cru combined grand cru richness with tremendous minerality. A couple months ago I sampled a 2006 premiere cru from this domaine and was equally impressed. Fontaine-Gagnard appears to have hit a home run in 2006.

Chateau Guiraud, Sauternes, 1989

The wine's deep amber color had me salivating as soon as the bottle appeared from the ice bucket. Over the past few years I have consumed several bottles of the very good 1990 Guiraud Sauternes, which most recently tasted off dry and honeyed . This bottle of the 1989 Guiraud Sauternes was also off dry, but the flavors resembled orange rind and nuts. There appears to have been only a little botrytis in this vintage, at least in Guiraud's vineyards. When first opened, the '89 showed none of the honeyed flavors associated with this noble form of rot. The wine did reveal some honey after 24 hours of airing. Guiraud is a very good producer, but the estate's wines never seem to possess the power or complexity of the best Sauternes, such as Suduiraut and Rieussec. I would drink the wines from Guiraud within 25 years of the vintage. After 10 years or so in the bottle the wines begin to dry out and seem older than the year on the label.

Robin Quivers does Beaune

A view from the window through which Robin was spotted.

Robin Quivers, of Howard Stern fame, spent a week this past July tearing up Beaune. I know because I was there. Everywhere I went, Robin was right in front of me. It all started one morning at the Hotel Le Cep front desk. I was waiting for my car to be retrieved when I heard a familiar voice standing next to me. Before Howard Stern went to satellite radio, I would listen every morning to Robin laugh her way through the role as Stern's sidekick. Our paths almost crossed once before, back in 1991. As an aspiring radio jock, I traveled five hours by bus for an interview at the Howard Stern show. The show was conducting its annual search for summer interns and I was more than willing to be humiliated at the feet of America's number one radio host. In my world at the time, Stern was God and Robin an angel. I walked into the skyscraper that housed the radio studio, but Howard and Robin were long gone. Gary Dell'Abate (aka Baba Booey), however, was still hanging around. Stern fans have made Gary famous while pranking various t.v. and radio hosts. Many of the pranksters finish their hoaxes by shouting, "Baba Booey."

That brings me back to Beaune. My wife had not been in the lobby that morning and did not believe that Robin was staying in the same hotel (I always mistake people for someone else). In an effort to prove my sighting, I sat by the window that evening hoping to spot the SUV Robin had left in that morning. By 11pm I had givin up and jumped into bed. Moments later, I heard a car engine under our window and that familiar laugh echoed through the quite streets. My wife and I raced to window. Standing next to the vehicle was the woman I saw earlier that day. "Say it," I thought. Robin walked along the sidewalk and into the hotel enterance.

"It really was Robin!," my wife said, excitedly.

"I should have said it," I replied.

"What?"

"She would have talked about it on Howard....I should have said it," I bemoaned.

"What?" A feeling of depression sank over me. "What are you talking about?"

"I should have yelled, Baba Booey!"

Domaine Maume, Charmes-Chambertin, 1988

A pristine bottle of Domaine Maume 1988 Charmes-Chambertin, Grand Cru (from vines in Mazoyeres-Chamerbertin, which can be and often is labeled as Charmes) was a fascinating lesson in how a wine can evolve while sitting in a glass. When first opened, the wine showed a high level of acidity and biting finish. The texture began to soften after a half hour or so and all the elements seemed to come together. A beautiful red cherry fruit appeared and the wine really seemed to speak of its origins. The last third of the bottle tasted drastically different. The once charming fruit turned toward orange rind and the finish became coarse. I enoyed the ride as this wine took one turn after another and in the end this proved to be a fascinating bottle.

A 1989 Maume, Mazis-Chambertin, Grand Cru (from 70 year old vines in Mazis-Bas) drunk in November supplied an entirely different experience. Big and wild are two descriptors that pop to mind regarding this wine. The fruit played a secondary role to the burly tannins and chunky texture. I would like to think that the wine was just too young, but it may be the case that it will never settle down (I feel the same way about a bachelor friend of mine). Regardless, I throughly enjoyed the experience of working through this bottle. The only other wine I have tasted from Maume was a 1999 Gevery-Chambertin, 1er Cru (a blend of 85 year old vines in Les Cherbaudes and 50 year old vines in Le Perriere), which was interesting, but very tight and hard to enjoy.

I have been told that the Maume cellar was classically old school in appearance (i.e. dirty and full of character), but I am not sure if that is still true. Bertrand Maume took over from his father Bernard back in the early 90's and has apparently refined the style of the wines from this domaine (the '99, however, seemed typical). The Maume bottles may contain a more elegant and polished product these days, but there was something unique about those made by the old man. Perhaps the wines I tasted were not great, but they were one of a kind. In other words, they were special.

The mysterious wines of Dugat-Py

The color was nearly black and the aromas were just as dark. This big, firm wine wrestled with our palates, refusing to open up. "It must be a northern Rhone," commented one taster. I knew they were wrong since I had served the wine blind in a decanter. "No, it might be a syrah from California," stated another participant. The bottle was presented and everyone stared in shock. This was our first Dugat-Py.

The wines made by Bernard Dugat are sold under the Domaine Dugat-Py label in order to differentiate them from his cousin Claude Dugat. Both producers are known for a the dark, large scaled and some say, over extracted style of their wines. Dugat-Py is a true modern day Burgundian super star, but the domaine is also controversial. I was once told by a prominent critic that he puts very little few bottles from Dugat-Py in his own cellar, but this critic lavished a near perfect score on Dugat-Py's Le Chambertin. And he is not alone. Just about every critic who tastes in Dugat's cellar raves about the wines and scores them on par with DRC and Leroy. Yet, almost everytime I see Dugat-Py's name mentioned on Robert Parker's bulletin board, the person writing has been recently disappointed with a bottle and can not understand why there is so much hype surrounding the domaine. Why do the wines from Dugat-Py draw such a discrepancy in opinions?

Recently, I tasted two wines from Dugat-Py that made me think about the way this domaine is viewed and also made me wonder if Bernard has been slowly evolving his style.

Dugat-Py, Vosne-Romanee, Vieilles Vignes, 2005 - (suggested retail: $210) Dark color. Red fruits in nose with spice. Big and spicey on the palate, but also tannic. Very young. Hard to read at the moment.

Dugat-Py, Charmes-Chambertin, Grand Cru, 2005 - (sugested retail: $600) Very dark in color. Softer, sweeter nose. Same on the palate. Very pretty. Long finish. Excellent.

Tasting a wine from Dugat-Py for the first time, a wine industry professional commented that he was surprised by the style of the two wines listed above. I responded that I was also not expecting the Charmes to be so soft and accessible. The Vosne Romanee was more similar to wines I have tasted from the domaine in the past. My first experience with Dugat-Py had been a bottle of the 1999 Gevrey-Chambertin, 1er Cru tasted a few years ago and described above. I had expected to love this wine, especially after reading a quote from the Revue du Vin de France that said Dugat-Py's wines had a color that is "indescribable; of a blue-black that resembles the great Hermitages; the amplitude of their flesh, their fabulous velvetiness of texture, recall wines from legendary vintages of 1945, 1947 or 1959 without any of the defects of those vintages. Never in the past thirty years have we found an expression of terroirs of Gevrey so powerful..." I have since tasted several wines from Dugat-Py and none of them have been really enjoyable, usually just firm and unyielding. The quote from the Revue du Vin de France keeps ringing in the back of my head, however.

The late British writer Harry Waugh said the Burgundies were never the same after a large amount of replanting occurred following WWII. His theory being that the old rootstocks had much lower natural yields and this resulted in more concentrated berries with thicker skins. The wines from the pre-war era were said be very powerful in the best vintages and required many years of bottle age to be enjoyable. The same could be said of the wines being made today at Dugat-Py. Through a combination of pruning and very old vines the average yield for Dugat's wines are usually under 30 hl/ha; in 2003 they were below 20 hl/ha. The resulting wines are very dark, almost black, and very full in the mouth. A 2005 Morey-Saint-Denis, 1er Cru, Clos Sorbe from Jacky Truchot was tasted next to the two Dugat wines reviewed above and the difference in color was startling. The Truchot, whose yields were closer to 50 hl/ha, was ruby and one could see through the wine. This was not so for the Vosne or Charmes.

I visited the Dugat-Py domaine in July of 2005 and was struck by the seriousness of Bernard, whose stocky build and rough hands hint at the long days spent in the vineyards. The 2004's tasted from barrel had not yet gone through their malolactic fermentation and were very difficult to judge. Every cuvee smelled and tasted like grapefruit. However, just being in the cellar was a great experience. Dugat has one of the coolest, in both senses of the word, cellars in Burgundy. This former chapel, built in 1075, is pictured on the estate's labels and I can see how a journalist could become enchanted when tasting there. After the barrel tasting we sat in Bernard's kitchen and tasted two wines. The 2003 Gevrey-Chambertin, Coeur du Roy was still very tight and firm, but the 2003 Pommard, La Levriere, VV was full of super ripe fruit. Many of the 2003's I have tasted are very ripe, but this seemed extreme. While tasting the Pommard, I asked Bernard which wines are his favorite to drink, other than his own. He reponded "Zinfandel". Indeed, the wine in my glass was the closest thing to Zinfandel that I had ever tasted in Burgundy.

Older vintages from Dugat-Py are hard to come by, so my experience is limited, but a 1993, Gevrey-Chambertin, Coeur du Roy I drank a couple of years ago was hard and devoid of fruit. 1993 was a difficult year, so maybe this is not the right bottle from which to place judgment. The owner of the restaurant Ma Cuisine in Beaune told me that he likes the newer vintages from Bernard as they seem be less extracted. As a side note, Bernard claims that he does not do alot of extraction in his winemaking, which he refers to as "very natural and non interventionnist." The color and concentration, he says, are simply results of the low yields. The 2005 Charmes, with its soft texture and beautiful fruit, hints that maybe Bernard Dugat has tweaked his appraoch over the years.

As you can tell by having read this far, the bottles that emerge from domaine Dugat-Py are mysterious. Are the wines overworked creations or has Bernard Dugat found the secret to making great Burgundy as it might have tasted a century ago? I feel that some of the wines were too concentrated in the past, but not from overzealous winemaking. Rather it was obsessive vineyard work and yields that were too low. It might not be possible to produce a balanced wine from fruit harvested in the 20 hl/ha range when the source is a village level lieu-dit. That approach may be fine in the best vineyards, but perhaps not at the commune level. This may explain why there are excessive tannins present in the 2005 Vosne Romanee, but not in the 2005 Charmes-Chambertin.

Debating issues such as this are part of what make Burgundy and domaines such as Dugat-Py so interesting. It is all about personal taste and no one can be proven to be right or wrong. Bernard Dugat's wines may not be for everyone, but they are clearly made by a vigneron with a lot of passion, and that alone makes them worth tasting and debating.

Vincent Girardin, Chassagne-Montrachet, blanc, "Abbaye de Morgeot", 2004

This bottle of Girardin's Chassagne-Montrachet, blanc, "Abbaye de Morgeot", 2004 must have been a left over from the annual bake sale held by New Jersey's largest distributor. Every year I fall for a deal that seems too good to be true and end up buying a Burgundy that inevitably gets dumped down the drain. I bought this bottle for the wholesale closeout cost of $15, a great price if I had been able to drink the wine. The flavors had turned towards caramel and honey, two characteristics that I associate with exposure to excessive heat. It is no secret that many large wholesalers routinely abuse fine wine in hot warehouses, but why do importers, in this case Robert Hass, allow this practice to continue? The wines produced by Vincent Girardin seem to get destroyed and closed-out on a yearly basis. Really sad.

Chandon de Briailles, Savigny les Beaune, rouge, 2004

Day 1: Sour cherry fruit on the nose, very sour. Tannic and hard in the mouth. Very firm.

Day 2: A bit softer, but still firm and tannic in the mouth. Sour fruit in the mouth.

I have tasted many older bottles from Chandon de Briailles and I admire how they slowly develop into beautiful wines. Those experiences encouraged me to dig deep and find a hidden charm in the 2004 Savigny les Beaune rouge from this historic domaine. The wine's appeal is not on the surface, but in the understanding of how it is made. Chandon de Briailles is one of the few estates in Bourgogne practicing traditional winemaking and one of the essential elements of this style is the inclusion of a large portion of the stems. Many winemakers today destem 100% in order to produce wines that are soft and fragrant from day one, but these wines can seem rather simple 10-15 years down the road. The wines from Chandon often show hard tannins out of the gate, but develop a beautiful sweetness after a decade or so in the bottle.

Does this mean that the 2004 Savigny will come around and be really enjoyable in the future? Maybe, but I think the wine will always show some bitterness due to the vintage. Traditional winemaking has its disavantages, one of which is the so called 'off vintages.' In years when the weather is less then ideal, the inclusion of stems can render the wine tough and astringent in its youth. Drinking this bottle felt like a trip back in time. A more modern style winemaker might have achieved a wine with a riper palate, but would that wine be as interesting at 15-20 years of age? The wines from this domaine are usually not delicious at the start, but they are true treasures when mature. 21st century wines in a 19th century style.

A beautiful Bourgogne

I opened a bottle of Robert Arnoux's Bourgogne, Pinot Fin, 2005 this evening and really enjoyed it. The Arnoux domaine is located in Vosne Romanee and the grapes for this cuvee must come from that appellation. Most Bourgognes tend to be a little rough around the edges, but this wine was smooth and full of red fruits. I have not had a wine from Arnoux before tonight, but I imagine the higher level cuvees are outstanding (Les Suchots, Echezeaux, Clos Vougeot, Romanee St.-Vivant). This basic bottling is produced from 60 year old vines that are Pinot Fin, which is the term for the original Pinot strain that many believe produces the best fruit.