Burgundy's Abuzz About Their 2012 Reds

by Paige Donner

The excitement is all around and the consensus is in - Burgundy 2012 Reds are going to be great.

Speaking from Sunday's Press Conference Podium at Beaune's Hotel Dieu, just before the beginning of the 152nd Hospices de Beaune Wine Auction that is at the heart of the Great Bourgogne wine tradition, acknowledgment of the difficult weather conditions of 2012, including three hailstorms, tinged with wonderment the BIVB's revelation that 2012 is going to be a great year for their reds and a really good year for their whites.

PHOTOS

The Hospices Auction confirmed their conclusions.

See the full gallery on Posterous

 

This year's Hospices de Beaune Charity Auction sale set a record:

5,909,276 Euro

[The previous highest was in 2000]

That breaks down to: 407 barrels of red wine

111 barrels of white wine

Total: 5,631,410 Euros

+ President's Barrel or La Pièce des Présidents = 270,000 Euros

The Domaine des Hospices de Beaune offered 31 cuveés of red wine - whose overall sale value saw an increase of 68.85%.

They offered 13 cuveés of white wines whose overall value is up 18.11%.

The Auction was presided over by First Lady (former) Carla Bruni-Sarkozy whose foundation is the recipient of the charitable sale proceeds from La Pièce des Présidents along with the Fondation Idée, French footballer Guy Roux's foundation that benefits people suffering from epilepsy.

New this year to the auction is the Grand Cru from the Côte de Nuits, Echézeaux Cuvée Jean-Luc Bissey. All six barrels sold for a total of 300K Euros. For La Pièce des Présidents this year it was a “tonneau”of 350 liters of the lovely minerally Grand Cru Corton, Cuvée Charlotte Dumay.

Most Expensive White (2012) : Dames de Flandres, Batard-Montrachet Grand Cru 55,333Euro (barrel)

Most Expensive Red (2012) : Clos de la Roche Georges Kritter 55,667Euro (barrel)

"2012 Whites are Rich and Exceptionally Well-Balanced" - 2012 Domaine des Hospices de Beaune Manager - Roland Masse

*Note about the Whites [Domaine Hospices de Beaune] - While the reds are being heaped with all the praise, the Whites, to this taster's palate, are rich and exceptionally well-balanced. For such young whites, my inkling is that in a year and onwards these will be superb drinking Burgundy whites. With a good number to cellar as well.

“Many records were broken at the 152nd Hospices de Beaune auction. Star Cuvées amongst the red wines included (with average price per barrel and percentage increase compared to 2011): Clos de la Roche Cuvée Georges Kritter €55,667 (without premium +94.2%) and Mazis-Chambertin Cuvée Madeleine Collignon at €38,318 (without premium +57.7%). Thanks to a recent generous donation, a new Grand Cru from the Côte de Nuits was offered for the first time. This was Echézeaux Cuvée Jean-Luc Bissey, and all six barrels sold for a magnificent €50,000 (hammer price) per barrel, raising €300,000 for the Hospices.

The superb quality of the 2012 vintage wines, combined with the reduced quantity and the progression of demand for great Burgundy in many countries, not just Asia, contributed to this astonishing, record result," declared Anthony Hanson, Master of Wine, Senior Consultant of Christie’s

@♥Chérie Du Vin

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Madame Champagne Duval-Leroy

by Paige Donner

Upon closer examination, you will find many extra-ordinary elements to the Champagne House Duval-Leroy. For starters, there are the champagnes. In Wine Spectator's Top 100 list of 2008, their Brut NV was the only champagne to make the cut.

FULL SLIDESHOW HERE

Then there is the amazing team that Mrs. Carol Duval-Leroy has assembled around her to create their award-winning champagnes in an atmosphere of joy - truly;  And also an atmosphere of groundbreaking innovation while still maintaining firm roots in tradition. And then, last but by all means not least, there is the local legend of Asti, Carol Duval-Leroy's little dog who is never far from her feet. Little Asti is this family-owned Champagne House's Ambassador, albeit he wears the title unofficially. At any rate, I can't help thinking of my favorite Colette quote, "Our perfect companions never have fewer than four feet." My own dog evokes similar feelings in me... And reigning over Côte des Blancs vineyards in Vertus, Champagne - well, it's difficult to imagine a happier life for a dog. 

The Team

All three of Carol Duval-Leroy's sons are part of the Champagne Team. The eldest, Julien, works on-site at Headquarters in Vertus. These are no ordinary champagne headquarters, mind you. The newest building is the only one in Champagne that has a Living Wall, photovoltaic panels incorporated all along the sides and even a rainwater retrieval system. Her two younger sons, Charles and Louis, are partners in a communications agency specialized in, you guessed it, champagne. 

Two more key players in the house are Michel Oliveira, Deputy Managing Director, who has been with the house for 35 years, and Sandrine Logette-Jardin, the only female winemaker/ Chef de Cave at one of the big champagne houses (I have come across one other in the Côte des Bars, but their production is nowhere near the 5 million bottle annual production of Duval-Leroy's). 

The Champagne Trinity

This Champagne Trinity, Carol, Michel, Sandrine, each have made their significant marks on the house. A few top-notes are Carol's championing of champagne and gastronomy pairings with her Official Sponsorship of the Sommellerie section of France's Meilleurs Ouvriers de France contest, an annual contest that distinguishes France's best chefs, sommeliers and other professionals. This was one of the aspects of her work that won her, in 2008, the medal of Knight of the French Legion of Honor (Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur).  You can find Duval-Leroy Champagnes served at 150 Michelin-rated restaurants in over 50 different countries worldwide. She is also the President of the Champagne Viticultural Association. 

Environmentally-friendly Policies

In 1994 Duval-Leroy Champagne was the first champagne house to receive ISO 9002 certification standard. One of the ways to focus in on one of the more innovative and groundbreaking contributions that Michel Oliveira has made to the house, and indeed, champagne as a region, is to examine their Clos des Bouveries, the House's oldest vineyard plot. The environmental policies Oliveira has implemented over the decades have started here, where they use the Clos as a "test-bed" for environmentally-friendly policies and techniques that they then can apply to their other vineyards and also recommend to their grower-partners.

For example, since first implementing these policies, they have reduced by 70% the use of herbicides and vine treatments by 30%. And don't even get him started on the topic of greywater run-off and winery effluent... Not to mention that Duval-Leroy champagne bottles are made of a minimum of 70% recycled glass and come from a locally-sourced factory...And the list of the House's green initiatives goes on...

Vinification And Blending

Sandrine is fond of likening her winemaking methods to that of a fine watchmaker. Each year, of the approximately 250 cuvees she tastes, she blends the House's 15 champagnes from only the best ones. Refinement and elegance are the hallmarks of Duval-Leroy Champagnes and malolactic fermentation helps to develop their brioche aromas and characteristic smoothness. She also helped plan their new vinification facilities in Vertus to optimize single vineyard batches for smaller volumes of must. This gives her the freedom to play and experiment with rarely seen AOC Champagne varietals such as Petit Meslier. The House of Duval-Leroy is invested in preserving snapshots of the Champagne Terroir by vinifying these singular harvests which is something they've done now for decades with the Clos des Bouveries. 

As a last note, for such a big house with production of 5 million bottles annually and a global export reach, the family part of the family-run champagne house is very present in the house's ambiance. And you truly get the sense that these people have found their joy in what they're doing. 

List of Duval-Leroy Champagnes and Tasting Notes

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@ ♥Chérie Du Vin

Champagne Ernest Remy

If you ever find yourself for a day, or, better yet, a weekend, in Champagne during the Autumn season, use this as a sample daytripping itinerary and you won't go wrong.

Make your main destination Champagne Ernest Remy which is a long-held family champagne house located in Mailly, in the heart of the gracefully sloping hills of the Montagne de Reims. During the Fall, the play of colors - auburns, oranges, eggplants, deep reds, rusts, yellows, golds - is breathtaking so be sure to stop along the way and take pictures of the fleeting richness of nature while you're witness to it.

The Montagne de Reims is one of the most classical viticutural areas in France, famous for its Pinot Noir. The house of Ernest Remy Champagne makes its champagnes using only Grand Cru Pinot Noir from Mailly, harvested from their 15 hectares. Interestingly, for this harvest year 2012, Mailly enjoyed an abundant harvest, according to Ernest Remy's Tarek Berrada, who explained that it was perhaps due to the village vineyards' north- northwest sun exposure. In any event, they did not experience the limited harvest that most of the rest of Champagne did this year.

As with many wineries, this is a husband-wife team who have taken up the family business. But here is where any "typical" winemaker background ends, as both husband and wife come from the world of Art and Art history. It just so happens that she was born into a land-owning Champenoise family.

Evidence of these artistic leanings can be discovered in the labeling, packaging and design of their champagnes. For example, when you buy a bottle of their Rosé de Saignée Blanc de Noirs Grand Cru there is a small pink metallic medallion embedded into the top of the cork, hidden just under the champagne cap. A keepsake and a souvenir - for a memorable champagne whose hints of violet reveals itself on the long finish, after it has flirted its delicate wild strawberry and raspberry aromas before you. This Mailly rosé has a mere 6g. of sugar for its dosage and is aged a minimum of 20 mos. It is a rosé that could accompany meals, such as roast chicken, duck, lightly spicy asian dishes as well as red fruit desserts. It's available in Magnums and bottles, and in cases of 3 Magnums and cases of 6 bottles. *Tip: "Saignée" in French means that this rose has acquired its color through maceration and not blending.

With the rest of the day ahead of you, you have any number of wonderful restaurants nearby, all located in storybook beautiful little Champagne villages, one as lovely as the next. Top choices for lunch (or dinner) are L'Assiette Champenoise in Tinqueux, a two-Michelin starred restaurant that has a set menu starting at about 150 per person. Champagne Ernest Remy is on their menu.

Other choices in the vicinity include Le Relais de Sillery, Le Grand Cerf (Michelin starred), Le Château de Rilly (also a hotel) and then there's the small local favorite that you can easily pass if you drive along the Route du Champagne just a bit too fast - so be sure to keep a scenic pace and watch out for Le Mont Joly in Rilly, big steaks served on wooden cutting boards and very reasonable prices.

Lastly, it wouldn't be a trip to this Montagne de Reims region if you didn't stop in at Le Phare de Verzenay, an old windmill that has since been turned into a museum. But I'll let you do your Tourist Office legwork for this one as it's one of those sites you'll see displayed and described in most guidebooks and certainly at all the tourist offices.

Champagne Ernest Remy

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@♥CHÉRIE DU VIN

The Douro Is Not To Be Observed, It Is To Be Felt

Okay. So I didn't come up with this great saying...

The Douro is not to be observed. It is to be felt.

In fact, I took it off of the press materials of Domingos Alves de Sousa who is a 3rd generation Port Wine producer in the UNESCO World Heritage region of the Douro, Portugal.

The Douro, by all accounts, is one of the wonders of the wine world. It not only reflects the exquisite heritage derived from man and nature working together but is also home to 350 flora species of the 450 total that are native to Portugal. In other words, it's a treasure trove of biodiversity as well as the nesting ground for over 80 varieties of grapes.

And, most famously, it's the birthplace of Port Wine. Port wine, the sweet, usually deep ruby red (sometimes tawny), fortified wine, wasn't always so. In fact, the history of port wine's evolution is one of those "Happy Accidents."

The short version is that the Douro, though hauntingly beautiful, is one of the world's most inhospitable terrains for cultivating vines over its vast 927 sq. kilometers of land surface that sits between Portugal and Spain. So several hundred years ago, when the English importers, along with their Portuguese growers, were trying to figure out how to get the originally dry red wines to market in England without first oxidizing, they hit upon the genius idea of adding brandy and making the wines sweet. Success!

It took another hundred years or so to decide that Sweet Fortified Wine would be "Porto's" official identity as a wine. In fact, heated discussions raged throughout the region for about 50 years before it was decided that Porto would be codified, if you will, as the sweet fortified wine that we know it as today.

Port wine and the Douro is a region I've studied extensively - in books. And not had much occasion to taste. So it was with great enthusiasm I attended a recent Porto Wine Tasting. All these different styles of Port Wine - Lagrima, Tawny, Vintage, Late Bottled Vintage, Colheitas - would be available for tasting. 

My greatest takeaway from this tasting experience is that studying these historic and epic wines without spending time in the region and without meeting the people whose generations of families have made the wines, is little substitute for doing the legwork and actually visiting the region. It's sort of akin to trying to describe to a blind person what colors look like.

So, having little depth in my repertoire of what Portos taste like, but a lot of wine facts about the region in my head, I can simply say that all of the Port Wines I tasted at the event were extra-ordinary. Even the dry red wines the producers opened and had us taste were noteworthy.

This experience is a real case in point that true wine appreciation is a tandem endeavor - visceral and intellectual. The experience is just not complete, the one without the other.

@♥Chérie Du Vin

Producers:  Quinta Do Vale D. Maria

Quinta do Sagrado /  Quinta da Gaivosa / Quinta do Vale Meao  

Wine & Soul

Bollinger's 002 for 007 and It's Global Champagne Day!

Fill the buckets with ice, get out those flutes and get ready to POP! that champagne cork. Today is Global Champagne Day!!
Timed perfectly with Global Champagne Day is the worldwide release of the newest James Bond installment, "Skyfall."

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the James Bond film franchise, Bollinger has released a special edition of their vintage '02 (an Excellent Year) named a fittingly Bollinger JamesBond 007. According to Mathieu Kauffmann, cellar master at Bollinger, La Grande Année 2002 is "the most exceptional vintage of the past decade."

Believe it or not, the English actually drink more champagne than even the Americans do. Here are some interesting numbers, as recorded by the CIVC, the official Champagne Bureau who has offices in Champagne, the U.S. and other strategic geo-political points throughout the world.
France:  181.6 Million Bottles Per Year (of Champagne Consumed)
UK: 34.5
U.S. 19.4
Germany: 14.2
Belgium: 9.6
Japan: 7.9

One thing's for sure, Bond has good taste in champagne.

@♥Chérie Du Vin - You Will LOVE My Wine Picks!

Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction

Oct. 26th is Global Champagne Day!!!♥♥♥♥♥♥Chérie Du Vin. You will LOVE my wine picks!

The French Wine Society earns mention within the pages of a murder-mystery written by award-winning author J. Michael Orenduff.

[Re-posted from The French Wine Society- visit their site for Wine Education Info]

Yes, truth is stranger than fiction!

While our Education Director was vacationing in New Mexico last summer, she picked up “The Pot Thief Who Studied Escoffier” at a bookstore in Albuqueque. It was a fabulous read especially since its main character was a Gruet-guzzling treasure seeker with a keen eye for ancient Indian pots…that weren’t his own.

The only thing “wrong” with the book was the constant reference to Gruet sparkling wine from New Mexico as “champagne”.

A friendly email exchange followed…along with a newly released sequel, “The Pot Thief Who Studied D.H.Lawrence”. In Chapter 10, as the main character shares a post-prandial drink with a friend …

Suzannah said,”The restaurant got an email blast today from the Education Director of the French Wine Society explaining that you shouldn’t refer to Gruet as ‘champagne’.”

“She mentioned me by name?”

“No silly. And she didn’t mention Gruet by name either. She said we shouldn’t call American sparkling wines champagne.”

“Why not?”

“Because true champagne comes from Champagne, France. Everything else is sparkling wine. It has to do with authenticity. You know, truth in advertising.”

“But the Gruet family is from Champagne.”

“But the sparkling wine they make here in New Mexico is not.”

 

Thank you J. Michael Orenduff for setting the record straight! And for the record, if you haven’t read one of  Mike’s murder-mysteries…you are missing out on some authentic good fun.

J. Michael Orenduff is a “Lefty” national award winner for best humorous mystery. He has won two “Eppies” for best eBook mysteries and is winner of the New Mexico Book of the Year Award.

 

@♥Chérie Du Vin -You will LOVE my wine picks!

Cognac Charity Auction Raises €136,800 ($177,046)

[From Press Release]

The prestigious annual Cognac Awards were presented before the auction, going to two Americans. Ann Tuennerman, Founder of Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans, was presented with “Cognac Personality of the Year Award”, and acclaimed spirits writer David Wondrich was awarded “Cognac Writer of the Year Award.” The Cognac Awards celebrate personalities in the trade and media who have championed Cognac through their work.

The 7th Annual “La Part Des Anges” Cognac charity auction raised a record sum of €136,800 ($177,046), donated entirely to charity.

This new record perfectly illustrates the loyalty of collectors for Cognac, a spirit that embodies the values of passion, generosity and solidarity shared by its growers and merchants. All proceeds went to the Order of Malta—France.

 

The auction took place on Thursday, September 20th, in the magical setting of the Château Chesnel in Cherves-Richemont near the city of Cognac. 650 people from around the world gathered for the special event. Under the hammer of auctioneer Vincent Gérard-Tasset, 26 rare bottles of Cognac, along with a sculpture, were sold for a record total of €136,800 (last year’s sales totalled €100,600). A Martell lot received the highest bid of €21,000, followed by lots from Hennessy and Prince Hubert de Polignac (€14,000 and €10,500 respectively). See Appendix below for a complete list of sales.

PART DES ANGES – THURSDAY 20 SEPTEMBER 2012 

LIST OF SALES

 

COURVOISIER, Réserve Edward VII : 4 500 € 

LOUIS ROYER, Cognac Grande Champagne Reserve Royale : 900 € 

HARDY, Caryota / Privilège : 6 000 € 

CHÂTEAU DE MONTIFAUD, Millésime 1972 : 2 200 € 

FRAPIN, Frapin Baccarat Aigle Royal : 6 200 € 

MEUKOW, Nec Plus Ultra : 4 500 € 

LEYRAT, "Partage" - Exemplaire n°01/52 : 4 800 € 

DELAMAIN, Cognac Grande Champagne 1972 40 ans d'âge - Bouteille n°1/1 : 6 200 € 

PIERRE FERRAND, Memorable : 3 200 € 

HINE, Monnet Extra Capiello Collector : 3 700 € 

REMY MARTIN, Coupe Historique Extra Porcelaine : 5 000 € 

MARTELL, Coffret Martell Cordon Bleu - Edition du Centenaire : 21 000 € 

DUPUY - BACHE-GABRIELSEN, Borderies Millésime 1971 : 2 500 € 

A.E. DOR, Vieille Réserve Limitée - N°9 et N°10 : 2 500 € 

BRAASTAD, Stetangen : 4 800 € 

PRINCE HUBERT DE POLIGNAC, 888 Trunk : 10 500 € 

HENNESSY, Hennessy "Réserve Spéciale" : 14 000 € 

LEOPOLD GOURMEL, Petite Champagne 1972 : 2 200 € 

NORMANDIN-MERCIER, "La Péraudière" : 1 300 € 

OTARD, Exception - La Part des Anges : 2 000 € 

A. DE FUSSIGNY, Vintage 1970 : 1 400 € 

ABK6, Famille" - Carafe N°01/27 : 4 000 € 

CAMUS, Cuvée 2.105 - Family Legacy - N°1228/1228 : 4 200 € 

GODET, Trésor de Guerre : 4 700 € 

LA COGNATHEQUE, Collection Privée : Millésime 1840 Pinet Castillon : 8 000 € 

DE LUZE, De Luze Extra Single Barrel Finish Grande Champagne : 2 000 € 

ELEVATION : 4 500 €

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