Puglia - day 2

 

Cantina Coppola - near Gallipoli

On day 2 I  visited 4 wineries. Copolla was the first one. It turns out it's been around since 1489 and it has nothing to do with the Copolla winery in Napa. I usually try to avoid wineries that are 100% marketing and 0% good quality wine and I was afraid that was the case here.

They, like many old wineries, used to sell their wine in bulk to be blended by winemakers in the more northern part of Europe until after the 2nd World War. And then they started bottling their rose wine. And then the rest.

And a few very interesting points.

First, they have better Negro Amaro than Primitivo (at least according to my taste). They have a Negro Amaro that is 100% done in stainless steel, with no oak, which they start serving after 3 years of aging. And it turns out, as for many wines from the region, that after you take the time to let the wine open, it's a very nice aromatic, not too acid (despite the grape and stainless) wine. Name Doxi.

And even more interesting, they actually recommend aging it, even if it has not touched oak, for 10-20 years. I bought a bought of 2012 one as well. I am curious to do a vertical testing.

I also bought a few more whites, which they also recommend aging, also verticals. And some oaked wines as well, and as usual for this winery, a few verticals. 

For each of their wines, they still had 2012, 2013, 2014, and for some of them even 2007 or so.

100% worth the visit! Must go. Very nice people too.

Cantina Fiorentino

Here the wines I tried were ok. They also had a "port" like wine, but I thought it was closer to a sherry. However, the fun part was that they were serving wine wholesale using pumps that looked like gas station pumps. They had 4 wines by the pump: White, Rose, Primitivo and Negro Amaro.

The most interesting part? their bulk wine is 1.5EUR per liter. At the time of writing gas here is about 2 EUR per litre. So wine is cheaper than gas. I wonder if you can run a vehicle with wine ;)  While I was there for 30 min or so 3 or 4 local people came in with 5L plastic transparent jugs and bought their wine... I wonder what they do with it that they buy 5L at a time in 1 container. No way you can finish it before it turns sour unless it's for an event perhaps? Or for their pools? ;)  Have you ever bathed in wine yet ?

Origano - wine tasting and lunch

I really recommend this little restaurant for lunch. They also offer wine pairings ( more than just tasting) but the pairings of course match the food. They had quite a few nice whites. I didn't get to try their reds because of what I ordered for lunch. Perhaps a future time.

However, the lunch alone is worth the drive. Beautiful, clean, hard to find LOL, And a lot of charm in the backyard. 

And last but not least 

Castel di Salve

Also, an older winery that was purchased by the present family in the 1920s I think. I understood that the present owner has a Duke title. 

I also strongly recommend to visit! 

First and most pleasant: the owner, the father, stopped by at the beginning to say hi and chat. They used to sell the wine in bulk. Then via distributors, for 1 or 2 EUR per liter. And then they said: why not just sell it directly to consumers for a whooping 8.5EUR a bottle? And here they are.

The son, who did our tastings, was very nice, and of course very knowledgeable. He did some training in Champagne and brought some fun ideas ( check their brochure that has pictures of the wine bottles with the items that give the aromas that are in the wine). And between him and a charming lady who gives tours, they can do tours in English, French, Italian of course, Spanish, Portuguese, and German! Very well-organized tours. With pens, water, light snacks. Exactly like in the US. Must visit!

Oh and of course great wines. I particularly liked a few things here :

1. Their usage of the Verdeca is very interesting. You can see the aromas and the flavors this grape gives very cleanly and intensely.

2. And the same style exercise with the Malvasia Nera. They make it pure. They blend it. And you can learn and understand it very clearly.

Very reasonable prices as well. Must visit!

Puglia - Lecce

Foreward

We came to Puglia very excited after trying many red thick, flavorful, deep, and smooth Primitivo and Negro Amaro in various places (mostly New York). 

We were surprised by a few things:

1. Italian wineries, at least in Puglia, at least in the second half of September, make trying their wines difficult. Many only organize tastings by appointment. And when you walk in there can be any number of employees on their phone-instagram at the front desk. If you didn't set an appointment you can't taste their wines. And if their appointment schedule is full, with 2 appointments per half day, they are too busy.

2. Italian wineries, at least in Puglia, have hours that vary depending on ... the mood of the owner? Some are open only in the morning 10am to 12:30 or 1pm. Some are open only from 4:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Some are open from 10am to 3pm only. Some are open 10am to 1pm and 4:30 to 7:30pm. Anyway, you see the pictures, combined with the scheduling problem above, especially if you don't have appointments.

3. Oh, sometimes your hotel concierge forgets to do any calls. I guess it doesn't happen at all hotels. 

4. Perhaps also very important: locally, at the winery, an average bottle of wine (that's good!) is 5 EUR. And an amazing bottle of wine? 35 EUR. So yes, the prices are unbeatable.

5. But most importantly, the rose and white wines are actually really good as well!

And thus, the visits started.

Annibal -

Some of the nicest and most accommodating people and winery we have seen. We had no appointment. In fact they were serving a wine tasting to a couple from Bologna. And they welcomed us.

(The name: apparently Hannibal Barca, THE Hannibal, after getting tired of beating the Romans in every bottle but not winning the war, spent time in the region thinking what to do next. Hence the name of the winery).

Here we discovered, as I already mentioned, good whites, mineral and flavorful, equilibrated. Good Rose. And we also appreciated their Primitivo. All except 1 of their wines were never in oak barrels, just metal tanks (stainless). To be honest the 1 wine that had been in the barrel didn't taste that much different to me.  Entry level bottles 10EUR. Their high end 20EUR. 

As part of the (25 euros for 2) tasting, they also provide quite a nice assortment of cheese, meat, vegetables, and bread. Don't be shy to eat it. It's covered by the fee.

Agricola Dell'Arneo -

After trying, unsuccessfully to have a taste at Coti Zecca, where everybody in the shop was too busy to have a tasting with us, we ended up in another small family winery, Agricola Dell'Arneo. Once again, very welcoming and very nice.

Here they forgot to charge us anything for the tasting and when I reminded them they round up 1.5 eur "for the tasting".

The average bottle here was 5EUR. Once again, great white, great rose, and as nice Primitivo and Negro Amaro as in Annibal. But the wine price was 1/2 the price of Annibal for the wine. Their cheapest bottle was 4EUR and their most expensive was 5EUR. For the same quality, I will take 1/2 price :)

Really little family-owned, and didn't speak English, but really nice. 

Apollonio

And after trying a few more wineries that either didn't exist (despite Google's information) we finally got to one we have earmarked (based on previous tastings) as a must-try!

We didn't have an appointment, again. However, we were lucky to arrive as another tour was finishing and it was great. We got a really nice quick tasting. And as expected worth every km we did to get there. And the wine is up to our expectations.

One of the oldest wineries around. One of the most celebrated. And one with the best wines.

Got a case. And honestly, they were all better than each other. The most expensive 30EUR was from 2012. Their regular Apollonio brand ones are 20EUR (2021 vintage I think).

They also have other brands, cheaper, which we didn't taste. 

Professional. Straight to the point. Even helped us with packing boxes for the plane. All you would expect from a world-famous winery. And their wines also show the quality of their care. 

We can't wait to drink all of this one and order more from them with the first opportunity.

Burgundy January 2020

After Cote Rotie and on the way to Paris we had to stop in Burgundy.

For the record we stopped for lunch in Macon, in an amazing castle, very authentic. It felt really old and had a lot of charm. I recommend:

The restaurant "Un Passage au Château" in Varennes-les-Macon

In Burgundy, unfortunately, most winemakers were on vacation (gone skiing?).

We were however extremely happy to taste wines at 3 different properties :

This trip again I convinced myself that there is a big difference (in price) and in quality between the white 1er Cru from Burgundy and the "village" ( aka no-cru version). The price is double but the quality is totally worth the price difference (usually 50-60eur a bottle though).

On the other side I am not certain the Grand Crus ( about 100 EUR and up) are worth the price difference vs a 1er Cru. Perhaps as I age (like a wine ?!) I will be able to tell the difference more between the 1er Cru and Grand Cru, who knows. 

The other thing we learned (reminded ourselves in fact) is that in Burgundy referencing to a domain by the last name is confusing. Often the entire family lives in the same village. Each cousin has the same last name. And therefore there are multiple Chavy domains. And in fact more often than not there are multiple domains with the same last name. You HAVE to remember the first names in order to properly reference a domain you want to visit or try.

Domaine Quentin Jeannot

Quentin has joined his family in 2015 and started working with his parents on the property.

Quentin welcomed us at his house on Saturday at 5pm. It turned out it was his birthday that day! So Happy Birthday to Quentin ( January 11th).

We loved his wines. His 1er Cru Reds are very well priced around 25eur ( particularly cheap for Burgundy !). We, however, preferred his 1er Cru Whites. We got a case. (My particular taste is that I prefer New World Pinot Noirs vs the old world Pinot Noirs. However the Burgundy whites I think are the most elegant and refined and I usually love them. )

(We were also lucky that for Quentin's birthday he had a friend over who works with the Domain Rayas owner and after chatting for an hour his friend opened and had us taste also a Rayas Chateau-Neuf-du-Pape from 2004 and WOW, what a wine !!

 He also opened a Domaine des Tours, Vaucluse village. It is a wine also made by Chateau Rayas winemaker but with no particular AOC and honestly for 60-70$ it's probably one of the best prices-to-quality I ever tried. You have to try it !

Here is how to buy it at your own risk : https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/rayas+dom+de+tour+rsrv+rouge+igp+vaucluse+pays+france

We also tried a Bandol, after all of these wines. Unfortunately, after the Rayas it was hard to keep up with the Bandol)

Cave de Chassagne Montrachet

On Sunday not many places were opened so we tried some wine at the Chassagne-Montrachet village wine shop, called Cave de Chassagne Montrachet. Most of them were uninteresting, I think not worth the trip. Got some 1er Cru. 

Domain Philippe Chavy

Here we met with Philippe who was also very kind to welcome us on a Sunday morning at 10am. He is mostly focused on making wine and he honestly told us he is not great with people. However, he was extremely nice to us and we had a great tasting. I think he is great with people. 

We loved his 1er Cru wines again, some more than others. We will certainly go back to get more.

What stood out to me was his barrel in which he had changed the end wood piece for a piece of plexiglass:

I find it fascinating to see what is happening inside a wine barrel while it matures. You can see on the bottom of the yeast and deposits. And you can see the color. Phillippe Chavy changed the wood end for plexiglass at both ends and put a light behind it. He said the wine quality was not affected enough for him to notice (he keeps it mostly in the dark and oak amount is probably similar. 

And last but not least here are a few more useful charts I got from various walls, for general wine culture and reference:

Cote Rotie

We have liked Cote Rotie wines for long time. They have this amazing smokey, roasted taste to them. In general, we really like Cote du Rhones but Cote Rotie stands out as a particular terroire.

In the US they are very expensive. So we decided to go to the source. We have tried a few over the years, and we kept track via Vivino which ones were the best, and we went straight to the winery to taste and buy our favorites.

Cote Rotie is around the little town of Ampuis, about 30 min by car from Lyon. ( We recommend taking the TGV, high-speed train, from Paris to Lyon. Careful, make sure you chose gare Perrache if you want to arrive in the center of Lyon. And in Lyon, we loved the restaurant, Jeremy Galvan! A MUST try! It is very reasonably priced for what it is (50% cheaper than in Paris ?) and it is extremely creative and interesting. ) We rented a car from the train station to go to Ampuis.

 A map of the vineyards of Cote Rotie from Gerin, with the Gerin wine provenance.

 Cote Rotie is interesting because the vineyards are on the steep granitic slopes of the Rhone river. They are extremely steep and can only be cultivated by hand (hence the wine price). And because they are also in full sun in very rocky soil, in southern France, they get a lot of heat. It is a very particular terroir.

In Cote Rotie we visited:

Domaine Gerin  https://www.domaine-gerin.fr/
It is one of the best rated Cote Roties. It is a familial business. We tasted with one of the 2 sons (and the father, the wine maker who built the property was also around working.). They were very nice and easy to get an appointment.
They have 4 different Cote Roties.

We loved Champin le Seigneur, their entry-level Cote Rotie.
La Vialliere was sold out.
Les Grandes Places was also amazing but more expensive.
We also liked their Saint Joseph.
I strongly recommend a visit.


The view from Gerin's winery door in Ampuis, towards some Cote Rotie vineyards behind Ampuis.



Domaine du Monteillet

After Gerin we went to visit the Domaine du Monteillet, about 30 min south following the Rhone in Chavanay. Their Cote Roties were also excellent ( but I preferred Champin le Seigneur at a similar price level). They are also known for the Cuvee du Papi wine. Many people in Burgundy and Cote Rotie have mentioned to us this wine later when we mentioned this domaine. However, not sure if we tasted wrong, but it didn't stand out to us at all.
To me the domain stands out though for the view, a must visit and see!

We have lunch at the Bistro de Serine in Ampuis. Decent meal but maybe avoid the deer.

Guigal
After lunch, we had a meeting with Guigal. Guigal is probably the largest and the most famous winery and wine merchant in the region. We had tried a few famous wines from them before but most people don't appreciate large operations and prefer family wineries.

We, however, went in with an open mind.  We had set up the meeting some time prior. Guigal only welcomes professionals but we are all in luck: Guigal is opening an American-style wine tasting room in a few months. We had the privilege to visit it while it is still under construction:

I believe this is a particularly good move for the winery. People will be able to make their own opinions on their wines, first hand. And of course, you will be able to buy it directly from them.

Overall we were extremely impressed with the Guigal winery in a few different ways.

1. Most important: the wine quality. Yes, they make a lot of wine (4 million bottles alone of their 7eur Cote du Rhone. They buy the juice from different wineries and assemble it through a long process where the Guigal patriarch himself works daily from 5am until the end of the day). But it is by far the best 7eur wine we tried in a long time. ( We love Cote du Rhone, so maybe we are a little biased.). We were lucky to try about 30 wines from Guigal, with one of their winemakers. And honestly, they had amazing wines at all price ranges.
   
2. Their operation: they do everything with 25 full-time employees! The winery is as automated as can be. And when the grapes arrive from the trucks during harvest, Mr. Marcel Guigal, the patriarch personally checks every grape bundle, while his son operates the sorting machine.
    
3. For the longest story, the present owner's father, Etienne Guigal, had started working in Cote Rotie for another family (Vidal-Fleury) at pure entry-level. And he raised through the ranks, started his own winery, and bought out his first employer later on (when Vidal-Fleury's own family didn't want to continue the business). Guigal has therefore bought slowly, when it made sense, a lot of other wineries in the region.
4. And recently they acquired Chateau de Nalys, a Chateau Neuf du Pape. This winery was owned by a French insurance group, and we had the privilege to also taste their 1st wine, I believe 2017, under the Guigal control. And we loved it.
   
5. Some insider knowledge: they keep their wines in 85% humidity at 13 degrees C.
   
6. They keep all their wines at least 3 years in barrels, in their wine cave, without opening the barrels. Their opinion is that properly capped with a wood cork and a cotton rag, once the barrels lose a little bit of volume via evaporation, the vacuum created will create an equilibrium and no more will evaporate and no oxygen will get in.

Long story short, we loved their wines. 

Wine tasting in the Guigal wine cellar.

We really found great ratio of price to quality in:

• Lieu-Dit Saint Joseph 30eur ( it's Saint Joseph from the Saint Joseph town).
• Chateau de Nalys 50eur ( like the Janasse) white
• Chateau de Nalys 50eur, red also. A lot of olives and black fruits. An old vineyard!/
• La Dorian 62eur, 5 nicest vineyards in Condrieu blend.
• Cote du Rhone 7eur (the 7eur one, yes ! we got a case). 50% Syrah, 5% Mourvedre, 45% Grenache
• Chateau d'Ampuis 75eur ( we tried a 2009 and we loved it, it has to age!) assemblage of 7 vineyards.

Other wines we loved but were out of our price range:

• Hermitage Ex Voto 2017, 180eur, very long in the mouth
• Chateau D'Ampuis 2009 - probably one of the best wines I EVER HAD!
• La Turque 2015, I think it needs to age longer but it's already amazing. It's one of their famous 4 vineyards.

Guigal keeps most of its wines in barrels for 3 years.

Guigal uses bigger and bigger vats to assemble the Cote du Rhone.

Bonserine

We also visited Bonserine but their wines are not much my style.

Condrieu
We also discovered Condrieu, which I didn't' know about. It is a little south of Ampuis, same type of terroire as Cote Rotie, but it is a white wine. All Viognier grapes. Apparently, Viognier would make it very soft and round , and this is why most wine makers chose to make Condrieu more acidic, mineral. We haven't tried a Condrieu were the strengh of the Viognier was used and I wish we had. Somebody should try this.

By the way, Condrieu nearly dissapeared after the Second World War. The terroire being steep it can only be cultivated with difficulty by hand, which makes the bottles very expensive (50eur + ). And after the Second World War people didn't know about Condrieu and the wine wasn't selling. Luckily it was saved :)

The best Condrieu we had was at Guigal though :) Note taken!

Rioja

We tried a few amazing Riojas in New York so we decided to go to the Rioja region to try these amazing wines. I thought that in New York we could only have had a small sample of Rioja wines and therefore there were a lot more amazing Rioja wines to discover. What did we visit?

We stayed at the Marquis de Riscal hotel. An amazing hotel I strongly recommend in Cenicero.

What wineries did we try?


Bodega Tritium - open on Sunday
A more modern Rioja winery. We tried their various wines and we thought that as a mix it was overall the best wine set/mix.  We got a bunch of wines mostly reserva and blends. Also, you get a tour of a traditional winery set up in the center of a small town.

Bodega Ostatu - traditional Rioja
To compare with the modern and innovative Tritium wines we then went to Bodega Ostatu in Rioja Alavesa. It is a family winery with a nice tasting room. We personally preferred the more modern Riojas. Howeve,r the drive from Guardia to Ostatu was beautiful with the snow mountains in the back, certainly worth a drive.



Bodega Benjamin de Rothchild & Vega - they don't take visitors
We had the opportunity to try their wines at the Michelin starred restaurant at the Marquis de Riscal hotel and we loved it. The concierge told us that they unfortunately don't take visitors. Perhaps a next time we can try to leverage this blog to get their doors to open.

Lunch in Guardia
We had a great lunch in La Guardia where the view was really nice. Quite a lot of small restaurants. We strongly recommend a reservation though as it is very hard to get in otherwise.

Marquis de Riscal - extremely commercial to an unpleasant point
After lunch, and a nap, as we were staying at the Marquis de Riscal hotel we of course got in the wine tour and tasting of the Marquis de Riscal winery. For the first 20 minute,s we were sat down in a movie theather and we were shown all kind of movies without much substance all to the glory of the winery. It reminded me a lot of the communist propaganda movies. Als,o they spent a lot of time talking about their hotel architecture, plans, moneys spent, etc. We were there for the wine. So we snicked out of the tour, went to the tasting room, where we tried 3 wines that felt very average to us. And then we paid extra to have 2 or 3 glasses of their more expensive wines which, we also felt in the moment, were just ok at best. We didn't try their ridiculously most expensive wine though. I really believe that at comparable prices La Rioja Alta Reserve 904 or Roda kicks the ass of the Grand Reserva Riscal for example.

Haro
Most of the large wineries are in Haro and closed on Sundays. We did a few wineries there:

La Rioja Alta - large commercial and nice tasting room
We had some older Rioja Alta, which is what we had in New York too. And it turns out they are probably my favorite Rioja wines. A lot of nose and flavors. And reasonably priced for such old wines. We took the number of the New York importer for them : Michael Skurnik Wines + 1 516 677 9300 www.skurnikwines.com

Roda - at the entrance in Haro
The other amazing Rioja we had in New York. Larger winery as well but maybe more boutique. The tasting room was nearly empty and small. We also loved their wines. Dark and fairly strong. We loaded on Roda I from there.

Muga
We also stopped at Muga. Also large commercial but more traditional winemakers. It turns out we prefer modern Rioja wines.

Overall it turns out from this trip that I am more intrigued by the Ribera Del Duero wines on average.
In Rioj,a my favorites were older La Rioja Alta Reserve 904 of 10+ years of age. My wife preferred the Roda I, also older bottles. And the other wine worth a mention were Tritium and The Rothchild & Vega wines which unfortunately we didn't get to try extensively.

After visiting Rioja we went to San Sebastian for the food and the surf. We strongly and entirely recommend San Sebastian, staying at the hotel Maria Christina, as an amazing next step from Rioja.

Australia

Lethbridge Wines

Australia is dry.

But it has amazing surf :


And even more amazing wine!
I first tried the Lethbridge Pinot Noir 2014 at the Langham hotel in downtown Melbourne. They have a very nice selection of wines with a gas system which allows them to serve you by the glass unique expensive wines. I was so pleased that I decided to go visit the winery.

At the winery, I was welcomed by the wine marker's themselves Maree and Ray. Both have PhDs, one in biology and one in chemistry. And you can tell from the wines.
It turns out that the wines are among the best in Australia. They are served at the most prestigious restaurants and hotels. And they are far from cheap.

I had an idea that Australian wines, because of the lack of regulation, are mostly made in stainless steel vats with wooden chips, at industrial scale. This is quite the opposite: Ray gave me a tour of the back room and we sampled wines from the barrels and even the fermentation barrels (yes, he ferments them in oak vats or barrels depending on the size of the harvest).

Also, I was very impressed with the variety of grapes they make wine from: I would say at least about 20 different grapes. And the styles go from Ripasso to Amphora Aged! I don't think I have ever seen such a diversity in grapes, and winemaking techniques. I would typically be afraid that a winemaker can't possibly excel at such a diversity of grapes and techniques but everything I tried made me think that they, in fact, do excel at all of them. Not to mention that they nearly always have about half a dozen young winemakers or interns from Europe and other parts of the world visiting to learn their art.

Anyway, I sampled all their production. And I strongly recommend trying the aged Chardonnays. They are unbelievable. I really loved, as expected, the Pinot Noirs. The single vineyard pack made from 4 different soils were extremely interesting but it is the blend of the 4 that I like the most.
I discovered the Aglianico. Very impressive as well.
And last but not least their Syrah was also very unique, a little salty.

I left with a case, via Indonesia, on the way home. And guess what? In the Bali airport, they threatened to confiscate my entire case after I properly declared it. Luckily, but still very sad, I managed to negotiate to leave 3 bottles only and keep 9. I am sure the customs officers "destroyed" the wine as soon as practicable.

Helen & Joey

While I didn't have time to visit more wineries around Lethbridge, the following day we went to Healesville Animal Reserve and on the way back home we had to stop at some wineries. There were so many of them! We picked the one with an interesting name and, we were told, a beautiful view. And indeed the view was really fun.

We were served a variety of wines by the charming front desk girls. The winery has 3 levels of wines:
1. Entry level. Inara. Un-oaked, very young. And honestly, I really don't like this style of wine. Very acid.
2. A mid-level that turned out to be our favorite. Layla.
3. The Alena, their high end.

And they also make a "unique wine every year", a wine that is made as experiments by the winemaking team. Each year a different experiment.

And we left with 12 bottles, which were shipped home. But honestly, I don't remember what we bought, lets see what arrives in the mail.

And the obligatory Australian picture:

Cotes de Provence

The last day in Cannes I visited 3 Cotes de Proven wineries.
I strongly believe that they are wrong to focus on rose wine and that their reds and whites are underrated.

1.  Château Sainte-Roseline
I really liked their whites and reds. They have a particularly good red who beat some amazing Bordeaux at blind tastes. They even have old vintages still in stock surprisingly.

2. Chateau Font du Broc
Amazing view and garden, worth a visit but I didn't end up buying any wines.

3. Domaine des Planes
One of the oldest, in a much wilder set. I found their roses to stand out for their taste and diversity.

Short article, but to the point. It's late in Beijing and I need to sleep :)