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THE WINE PRESS
ESSEX COUNTY WINE SOCIETY
November 15, 2007
Dear Friends and Fellow Wine Lovers:
Our tasting on November 8, 2007 of 2001 Brunello
di Montalcino Riserva,
presented by Woody Waga, was the highest attended
tasting in several years. We tasted nine wines from the region and I
think all who were present would agree that these wines were
delicious. Woody handed out materials including a series of great maps
and good outlines on each of the wines.
The favorite wines of the tasting were
Collosorbo Riserva, Ucceliera Riserva and Castello di Camigliano
Gualto. Although we had some wines that retailed as high as $124,
these three wines sell for $75, $90 and $85 respectively. Thus, not
only were these the favorites but they also offered very good
quality/price ratio and as we indicated in our last letter, many of
these wines are available currently.
Our next tasting on December 6, 2007 will be
wines from Southwest France lead by Jonathan Sibley. We always like to
have at least one tasting a year from an area that is not familiar to
most of us but one that is starting to generate increased interest in
the wine world. I am not sure that Southwest France truly qualifies
since they were producing wine in this region even before Bordeaux.
Nonetheless, with new techniques of growing and of vinification, this
area has taken on new interest in the wine world.
Although the area is quite big, running from the
Atlantic Ocean to the foothills of the Pyrenees, and produces major
quantities of wine, up until recently, there was very limited
distribution of such wines in the United States. It has been stated
that this held true because they often had little access to close-by
shipping ports. “Jealous merchants of Bordeaux excluded from the port
[wines of Southwest France] until their own wine (sometimes, to
compound the injury, beefed up with sturdier stuff made upstream) was
sold”. (Johnson, H. and Robinson, J. The World Atlas of Wine 6ht ed.,
Michael Beazley 2007
We will taste wines from three of the four major
appellations in the region. These will be Jurancon, Madiran and Cahors.
“Cahors, famous for the depth and longevity,
tends to be fuller and more vigorous, if a little more rustic, than
typical red Bordeaux”. (Johnson and Robinson) Cahors produces almost
exclusively red wines from the Malbec or Cot grape (called Auxerrois
in Cahors).
“Madiran is Gascony’s great red wine . . . the
local red grape, Tannat, is well named for its dark, tannic, tough and
vigorous red wines”. (Johnson and Robinson) Tannat is often blended
with Cabernet Sauvignon and the not well known Pinenc (Fer Servadou)
to soften the wine. New oak and micro-oxygenation (invented here) may
also tame some of these wines. “Madiran can taste like a classed-
growth claret given sort of a Gascon twist”. (Robinson, J. Oxford
Companion to Wine 3rd ed., Oxford University Press 2006)
“Juracon is one of France’s most distinctive
white wines, a tangy, green-tinged essence made in a wide range of
sweetness levels”. (Johnson and Robinson) Wine from the grape Petit
Manseng is more likely to be sweet (and labeled just Juracon) and
harvested in November or even December from grapes which are allowed
to dehydrate on the vine. Wine from Gros Manseng grapes tend to be
dry and are labeled Juracon sec.
There are 16 other appellation controlee wines
from Southwest France which we will not taste, often sourced from
grapes not used for wine elsewhere, including, perhaps the better
known, Bergerac, Buzet, Gaillac, Irougleguy, and Tursan.
The wines we taste will include red and white,
dry and sweet, and will be representative of some of the top producers
in the region including Domaine Cauhape, Montus, Triquedina and
Chateau Richard.
We anticipate a very interesting tasting and
encourage everyone to attend and expand your wine horizons.
The following tasting on January 3, 2008 will be
California Cabernet presented by Ken Brady
NOTE: Our April tasting date has been changed
from April 3 to Thursday, April 10, 2000
The cost of the tasting will be $55 for members
and $69 for guests
A votre sante and in vino veritas
Bob and Howard
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