WTN: Short notes on mostly French.

Short notes with tonight's French dinner at Cafe Ysabel (Moules Mariniere, Cassoulet, Poularde de Bresse en Vessie, Lapin a la Forestiere, and Crepes Suzette).

Dom Pérignon 2008 - Quite a gentle stream of bubbles in a white wine glass. Very pale gold. Bready-ish. Spicy/sourdough/citrus rind. Very long. Young but a very attractive drink now.

Coudoulet de Beaucastel Blanc 2015 - Very silky, buttery, perhaps a bit past peak, but still, a good wine with the mussels and chicken.

Chateau de Beaucastel 2010 - A surprisingly gentle stink for a Beaucastel. Pretty youthful looking color. Roast meat. Soft. About perfect now. A slam dunk with the cassoulet.

Penfolds Bin 389 2017 - Very dark. Disjointed. Oak quite prominent (but then I'm particularly sensitive to oak). Strong acidity as well. Pretty awkward. Keep for a couple more years to let it integrate.

Chateau Tirecul La Graviere Cuvee Madame Monbazillac 1997 - Very dark. Rich, honey, mint at the finish. Still very fresh. If it weren't for the color I would have thought maybe a 5 year old wine. Extremely long. Plenty of life left in this. An excellent drink now but no worries if you want to keep it another decade or two.

[David M. Bueker]

Beucastel has become a lot cleaner over the past couple of decades. Makes it a more comely wine, but I am not sure it has made it truly better.

[Jenise]

Haven't seen a note on a Tirecul in a long time. Used to own a bit of it myself but they're gone as I reached for them more often than the Sauternes I also own. For my tastes Mombazillacs, in general, are just a bit lighter on their feet.

Beucastel has become a lot cleaner over the past couple of decades. Makes it a more comely wine, but I am not sure it has made it truly better.

Oh that explains it. I haven't had any recent vintages of Beaucastel as the price is increasingly prohibitive here. Have to make do with Coudoulet. I kinda miss the stink.

Years ago (1998 I think it was) we visited two estates in Chateauneuf-du-Pape: Clos Mont Olivet and Beaucastel. They couldn't have been more radically different. To get into the cellars at Clos Mont Olivet we had to go through the enclosed patio where grandma was feeding chickens. The mold growing in the cellar could have starred in its own horror film. Beaucastel was huge and industrial and everything was kept immaculately clean. I would not have hesitated to eat off the floors. Our guide showed us the vats where the harvested grapes were subjected to a brief steam-cleaning before being crushed. When I heard that a light went on in my head--they have a brett problem because Brettanomyces has established itself somewhere in their vineyards. They admitted that publicly some years later. Since then they have managed to eliminate, or at least to control, the problem and the wines are cleaner than they were.

-Paul W.

Years ago (2009 I think it was) we visited two estates in Chateauneuf-du-Pape: Clos Mont Olivet and Beaucastel. They couldn't have been more radically different. To get into the cellars at Clos Mont Olivet we had to go through the enclosed patio where grandma was feeding chickens. The mold growing in the cellar could have starred in its own horror film. Beaucastel was huge and industrial and everything was kept immaculately clean. I would not have hesitated to eat off the floors. Our guide showed us the vats where the harvested grapes were subjected to a brief steam-cleaning before being crushed. When I heard that a light went on in my head--they have a brett problem because Brettanomyces has established itself somewhere in their vineyards. They admitted that publicly some years later. Since then they have managed to eliminate, or at least to control, the problem and the wines are cleaner than they were.

-Paul W.

In 2001, we spent a few days in Villeneuve-lès-Avignon and made a number of winery visits. At Domaine du Pegau, we rang the front doorbell and were greeted by Mme. Feraud, who spoke no English but let us know that her daughter Laurence would join us presently. Indeed Laurence Feraud did show up a minute later after having put a dress on and conducted us down to the cellar space under the house for a tasting amid the foudre. Her father Paul and English husband Mark joined us. Paul Feraud's Provencal twang was the strongest I'd ever heard. He was quite enthralled by our rental car, a Lancia, but declined the opportunity to take it for a spin.

At Clos des Papes, we we ushered into the chai, which looked like nothing so much as a Midwest barn. It was set in the midst of the vineyards, which were old and gnarled and planted in the famous galets of the region. Beaucastel was pretty much as you described though this was before the steam cleaning of the grapes. And Chateau Fortia was a trip. Old and somewhat run down, we were hosted by the proprietor, a crusty older woman who was initially quite dismissive of us until I mentioned that I knew her father had been responsible for the establishment of what became the AOC. At this point, she became quite voluble and generous and opened a number of their wines for us.

Visits such as those spoiled us for winery tasting rooms in the US staffed by employees with little knowledge of the wines that they were pouring.

I misremembered the date of my visit to Beaucastel and Clos Mont Olivet. It was 1998. I've corrected my posting. By the time of your 2001 visit Beaucastel may have decided to soft-pedal their unusual steam-cleaning of the incoming grapes and were no longer mentioning it in their tours. Or maybe by then they'd figured out the vineyard bred problem and the steam cleaning was no longer necessary.

-Paul W.