Susan & I tried these w/ our MrsButterworth's/Mustard/Rosemary Glazed Grilled Pork Tenderloin:
1.AuBonClimat Chard SantaBarbaraCnty (13.5%) 2008: Med.gold color; very attractive clean/melony/Chard bit floral/carnations lighht toasty/oak quite perfumed nose; tart bit lean/appley light melony/Chard light floral some toasty/oak pleasant flavor; med. pleasant melony/Chard bit spicy/nutmeg/toasty/oak slight earthy light melony/appley/Chard finish; not a profound Chard but an altogether attractive/pleasant/perfumed/good-drinking Chard that we drank w/ gusto until we noticed all-of-a-sudden the btl was empty. Very fairly priced at $19.00
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2.CortiBros Mondeuse AtlasPeak/NapaVlly (TW) P&B by NapaCllrs 2009: Very dark/near black color; somewhat herbal/rosemary/thyme/garriguue rather earthy/dusty/minerally quite Savoie-like/rustic slight plummy/black cherry/boysenberry light vanilla/oak complex very/very interesting nose; tart/hard/rough/rustic w/ fierce tannins slight plummy/black cherry very earthy/mineral rustic/coarse flavor; long very tannic/hard/rough rather earthy/mineral some plummy/black cherry finish; needs much age, maybe 10-20 yrs; very/very un-Calif-like and a dead ringer for a great Savoie Mondeuse. Not at all attractive in its current state but very/very interesting and something I expect will age into something remarkable. Or it may always be a fierce tannic beast...beats heck out of me. A steal if you find the wine something you like. $10.00
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And a wee BloodyPulpit:
1. ABC: I have followed JimClendennen's AuBonClimat wines from the very start, when they were made in MaryVigarosa's barn over in LosAlamos (the lesser one). I was a charter member of the ABC (AnythingButChardonnay) Club, followed it from the very start, but resigned in disgust several yrs ago as I started to find a lot of really nice/attractive Chards are being produced these days in Calif and they are not all the soft/flabby/overoaked/buttersotchy/tropical fruit wines that all the bloggers ad wine press like to characterize them as.
But I had not had a Clendennen Chard in many a year and thought I'd try this when I saw it on the shelf. Not a profound Chard...but it offered up plenty of good drinking at a more than fair price.
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2. Mondeuse: Also known as MondeuseNoir, as distinguished from MondeuseBlanche. The two varieties apparently have very little genetic relationship in their background. SteveLagier refers to MondeuseNoire as the bastard uncle of Syrah, since the parents of Syrah are Deureza and MondeuseBlanche.
For many yrs, it was thought that Mondeuse and Refosco were the same grape and many (not-so-authoritative) WebSites still claim that identity. But CaroleMeredith's DNA work at UCDavis showed they are not at all related. To add to the confusion, Mondeuse is the name in the Jura for the Syrah grape some Sites report. If you read it on the InterNet...must be true!!
When PieroAntinori helped found the AtlasPeak vnyd, along w/ DickPeterson, they were mostly interested in making great Sangiovese. But they also planted a small plot of (then called) Refosco. This as since been shown not to be Refosco, but Mondeuse. In the early '60's, ProfGoheen took plantings from the abandoned Jackson UC vnyd that were thought to be Refosco. DNA typing has shown that it matched the Mondeuse brought in to UC from Montpellier. They have since brought authentic Refosco from Raucedo vnyd in Italy.
In the '92-'94 range, AtlasPeakWnry produced a tiny bit of Refosco for DarrellCorti/CortiBros label. It was sold as Refosco/Mondeuse (the Mondeuse upside down under the Refosco name) from the mistaken belief they were the same variety. The wine, as I recall, was altogether a lovely wine, more in the style of Italian Refosco, maybe WashState Lemberger. It aged quite nicely and I last had it about 2000. Darrell gifted Steve&Carole a btl of that '94 and they reported that it was still drinking quite well.
Mondeuse finds it's home in the Savoie region of France. I've had maybe 15-20 over the yrs. This CortiBros rendition rings true to the Savoie versions I've had, especially the rough/rustic character they tend to show. This CortiBros version was probably the most tannic one I've had, but it was fresh off the boat and perhaps needs some rest to show better.
There's very little Mondeuse planted in Calif. MikeOfficer/Carlisle has made occasional Mondeuse off his TwoAcres vnyd. It is, to my mind, the world's greatest rendition of the variety.
Steve&Carole/Lagier-Meredith have planted a tiny plot of Mondeuse on a slope in their MtVeeder vnyd right below their home and showroom for Chester's anvil (which is, indeed, a wonderous sight to behold in all its rustic glory) and produced their first one in the '09 vintage. Carole reports that it's developing quite nicely. Not yet tasted it but would someday like to have the braggin' rights of "followed it from the very start".
JimClendennen also has Mondeuse planted at BienNacido and makes a Mondeuse/PinotNoir blend. Which, of course, the PinotPurists find a sacrilege and makes them enflamed w/ righteous indignation. It's actually quite a nice blend.
This Corti '09 is the last crop of Mondeuse off the AtlasPeak vnyd. So sad. It is quite a bit different than the versions I recall from the early '90's. Those seemed much softer on the palate, a bit more oaked, more along the lines of an Italian Refosco, maybe a Calif PetiteSirah.
It is not a wine that will appeal to everyone. It is very much like Savoie Mondeuse and not much like any other Calif red that I can recall. It is a wine that is sure to appeal to the AFWE. It is not a wine that will appeal to Monktown attourneys. It would probably be scored in the low-80's, or even upper-70's. FWIW. Because of its flavor profile, it's probably the kind of wine AliceF***ing would go ape$hit over. However, it was made at NapaCellars in Rutherford, a Trinchero property. So not a native yeast fermentation, probably even filtered, certainly not minimal or zero SO2 usage...the very antithesis of the "natural" wines she espouses. So she would not like it on philosophical grounds.
Nonetheless, it's available in the latest CortiBros newsletter and their WebSite (http://www.CortiBros.biz). A wine only for those who can think outside the box. And, if you order, I'd highly recommend the Melgarejo Spanish olive oils...one of the best olive oils I've had. And...hesitantly..I'd recommend the Erin's popcorn...one of the most damnably addictive things I've ever put in my mouth...very/very corny and totally different from any at the movie theatres.
Tom
PS: Carole offers up the following correction:
Quick correction on the Mondeuse noire / Mondeuse blanche relationship (so
you can edit your post before too many people see it). They are not color
clones (like the Pinots blanc and noir are) but they are quite closely
related. Perhaps siblings (or maybe parent:progeny but I prefer the sibling
notion). That's why Steve and I call Mondeuse noire 'Syrah's Crazy Uncle'.
Because Mondeuse blanche is Syrah's mother and M. noire is probably mom's
sibling. (And Syrah's dad is spelled Dureza.)
