Aromatic white wine tasting with Denis Doubourdieu and the wines of the Cave de Ribeauville

So I spent a very enjoyable Monday afternoon over at the Bibendum offices in Chalk farm. First was a quick lunch with Valeria (our rep) and her good friend Mariela Molinari who’s the assistant winemaker at Bodegas Catena, which gave me a good opportunity to talk about tannins (a current sidetrack), and more specifically ask whether she knew of any research into the thorny issue of tannin, protein and lipids and their interactions – basically I’m looking for some sound science with which to base food and wine recommendations, as what seems currently to be the case is a lot of anecdotal evidence, and what I’m going to call the locality fallacy, i.e both food and wine come from very close to each other, there for they must complement each other. Now I’m aware that co-evolution of food and wine within a region would suggest that very tradition styles of wine might work, but my gut feeling is that given the changes wrought over the last decades even if this was the case it no longer really applies. Anyway, enough of my digressions.

Denis Doubourdieu is a very interesting person, a professor of Enology, and also a well travelled consultant. He’s particularly know for his work with aromatic white wines, growing up on the Sauternes Estate of Chateau Doisy Daene, sweet wine runs in his blood. But increasingly Doisy Daene Sec is the wine people get to know first, as he’s made it one of his tasks to get Bordeaux Sauvignon back on the map. You’ve probably tried at least the Dourthe no 1 white, which was one of his major commercial wines.

The aim of the tasting was to look at the relationship between sugar, acidity, and perceptible sweetness in wines, particularly apt as Doubourdieu has recently started working with les Caves de Ribeauville in Alsace, an area beset by issues of sugar and sweetness levels.

We started with a short flight of Doubourdieu’s Bordelais wines;

Chateau Reynon 2008, Alc: 12.69%, Sugar:0.9g/l, T/A:4.57g/l, pH:3.18. 100% Sauvignon Blanc grown on limestone covered with thick clay and matured in very large old oak barrels. A ripe nose some hay, lemons, hints of peach, quite elegant ripe fruit, underlain with some white bread notes (lees characteristics). The acidity in the wine was quite noticeable, but as was the ripe fruit on the palette giving an impression of sweetness but with effectively no residual sugar, oh and there was a lovely peach guava like finish. 82

Doisy Daene Sec 2007, Alc:12.5%, Sugar: 1.4g/l, T/A:4.85g/l. From Barsac, this is Sauvignon Blanc from a limestone base covered with very thin top soil, also this has seen 10% new oak. Slight grassy herbal character, white pepper and a touch of medium browned toast. A somewhat muscular palette, there is an interesting persistence of body to the wine, the ripe slightly peachy fruit working very well with the creaminess of the lees characters and the oak, the grassy character of the Sauvignon Blanc manifesting itself more as a peach skin scent, then a lime and peach finish. 84

Clos Floridene 2007, Alc: 13%, Sugar:1.7g/l, T/A:4.53g/l, pH:3.15. Clos Floridene is from just next to Doisy Daene, but the macro climate is somewhat cooler, also Clos Floridene has 50% Semillon, of which 30% sees new oak. Sticky apricots and a much more mineral tang. Very fresh and direct acidity with a real lemon citrus character, some ripe fruit but an odd stickiness to the fruit on the finish. 81

Clos Floridene 1998, Alc: 13%, Sugar: 1.4g/l, T/A 3.49g/l. This was shown to prove that well made wines can age, Dubourdeieu is of the opinion that so long as you don’t damage the wine in their youth, i.e. expose them to excess oxygen, whether through unnecessary fermentation times, of bad handling then they have the potential to age well. Bread, beeswax, and oxidative characteristics, citrus and some bruised apple notes. Still fresh acidity some fine tropical fruit notes mixed with a nutty brioche palette. Lengthy with a nutty and tight mineral finish. (not scored as it was more interesting than a serious drinking wine)

 

We then moved to a flight of Rieslings from les Caves Ribeauville, Ribeauville is pretty central in Alsace and is located pretty much at the heart of the geological fault that gives Alsace such a grab bag of different soils and terroirs. Les Caves themselves are the oldest coop in France having formed in 1895, and have been pretty forward looking ever since, taking things up a notch in the 90’s when they inaugurated their quality charter for members. No dusty wineries and disinterested semi peasant growers here.

Riesling Prestige 2008, Alc 12%, Sugar 3.5g/l, T/A 10g, pH 3.00. All were agreed that Prestige was a stupid name, as it wasn’t a tete du cuvee, but moving on, this was from a 10km spread and was sourced from the best parcels from their growers. It showed delicate white flowers, minerals, some slight tropical fruit hints and some fresh ripe pear characters. Tight and sharp on the palette, the very low residual sugar and quite high acidity were just about kept in balance by the freshness of the varieties fruit, this wine is apparently aimed at the UK market. 83

Apparently one of the first things Doubourdieu did  on arrival at les Caves, was enquire as to whether they knew Riesling was an aromatic varietal, so often in their youth Alsatian Rieslings are somewhat mute and austere, which makes them rather hard to market to countries like the UK who are increasingly weaned on fruit salad bombs from the new world. Yes he understands that given a few years they can show fabulous complexity and tertiary development, but this is isn’t worth toffee if you’re trying to shift volume in a modern market.

Riesling Terroirs Reserve 2008, Alc 12.5%, Sugar 3g/l, T/A 10.1g/l, pH 3.00. This wine had a similar sugar : acidity balance, but much more body. Citrus, mineral nose, a tough of leesiness with a hint of peach, full bodied and very minerally with touched of citrus and mandarin peel. A slight roundness from the lees takes you to a direct and minerally finish (authors note – it’s worrying how much quite and shite look the same in my handwriting – as a shite minerally finish isn’t so nice). A good wine that’s very expressive of what Alsace can do, but it lacks the focus that single site and terroir specific Rieslings can bring. 85

Riesling Grand Cru Osterberg 2007, Alc 13%, Sugar 5g/l, T/A 7.35g/l, pH 3.15. West of Ribeauville, the Osterberg (East Hill) is an east facing slope with clay over limestone. The Ribeauville estate is in the centre of the hill. Citrus, rose petals, a touch of some exotic asian spice, very minerally. On the palette there is some ripe citrus characters intertwined with the creamy mineral core, all wrapped round a good core of acidity. The Osterberg had much lower acidity, and consequently was vinified to a lower level of residual sugar to maintain the balance of fruit and sweetness that Dubourdieu was aiming for. For me the wine showed exactly the kind of ripe exotic aromatic characters that speak of Riesling grown on a mainly clay terroir, exactly the kind of focus that was lacking in the terroirs selection. 88

Dubourdieu explained that what drew him to working in Alsace was getting to work with Riesling at the edge of it’s climatic range, as he feels that grape varieties do not express their full potential unless there is a degree of struggle in ripening them. This applies across the board, where it might be difficult getting full ripeness in Aglianico in southern Italy, Merlot achieves it far too easily, so it’s no surprise that Aglianico produces the better wines from the region.

We finished up with a quick tasting of the other Alsatian varieties.

Muscat Prestige 2008, Alc 12.5%, Sugar 7g/l, T/A 7.4g/l pH 3.2. Now I don’t normally like dry Muscat as it usually flatters to deceive with too much on the nose, then a disappointingly flat palette and a slight bitter finish. So I was intruiged to find Dubourdieu make reference to working to reduce the bitterness on the palette. On pressing he linked it to tannins in the white wine, which in turn were strongly linked to water stress in the vines. So in the vineyard they keep yields very low, remove the cover crops and plough the rows between the vines to increase Nitrogen availability for the vines. This is followed by gentle pressing and gentle handling in the winery to make a wine that keeps the aromatics but does so with a balanced and complete palette. Grapey, floral, elegant nose, showing crisp acidity, bright floral and slightly tropical fruit, but keeping a degree of continuity between expectation and delivery.

Pinot Blanc Vielle Vignes 2008, Alc 12.5%, Sugar 7g/l, T/A 7.75g/l, pH 3.05. Minty citrus , apples, quite delicate with a subtle dessert apple character. Lovely fresh applpyness on the palette with medium acidity and a delicate fresh apply finish.

Pinot Gris Prestige 2008, Alc 13.5%, Sugar 8g/l, T/A 8.1g/l, pH 3.10. Ripe exotically spiced apricots, a hint of minerals, on the palette some spiced peach and citrus, showing dryish.

Finally we looked at the Clos du Zahnacker 2008, Alc 14%, Sugar 7.5g/l, T/A 8.95g/l, pH 3.10. This is an extremely ancient spot of vineyard in the middle of the Osterberg, records going back to the 14^th century record vines being planted here. Traditionally the site was interplanted, les Caves have continued this, so the Clos du Zahnacker is a field blend of Pinot Gris, Riesling and Gewurztraminer. Rather like Marcel Deiss they report that the ripening of the vines is all remarkably consistent between the varietals, though for the 08 the Pinot Gris was harvested a bit later, the grapes were all crushed then the must blended for fermentation. The site dips slightly in the centre giving a range of different aspects so the different varietals can all be placed in suitable expositions. The wine was complex showing at various moments, citrus, mineral, lees notes, apricots, and tropical fruits, with great length and a nice balance of acidity and fruit. 89.

Final words to Doubourdieu, (not quite exact) “Some of my famous colleges give advice to producers on how to produce Bordeaux in Bordeaux and to producers who want to produce Bordeaux style wines outside of Bordeaux, I’m interested in helping producers make the most of their regional varietals and styles.” Can you guess who he might have been talking about?Aromatic white wine tasting with Denis Doubourdieu and the wines of the Cave de Ribeauville:

 

So I spent a very enjoyable Monday afternoon over at the Bibendum offices in Chalk farm. First was a quick lunch with Valeria (our rep) and her good friend Mariela Molinari who’s the assistant winemaker at Bodegas Catena, which gave me a good opportunity to talk about tannins (a current sidetrack), and more specifically ask whether she knew of any research into the thorny issue of tannin, protein and lipids and their interactions – basically I’m looking for some sound science with which to base food and wine recommendations, as what seems currently to be the case is a lot of anecdotal evidence, and what I’m going to call the locality fallacy, i.e both food and wine come from very close to each other, there for they must complement each other. Now I’m aware that co-evolution of food and wine within a region would suggest that very tradition styles of wine might work, but my gut feeling is that given the changes wrought over the last decades even if this was the case it no longer really applies. Anyway, enough of my digressions.

Denis Doubourdieu is a very interesting person, a professor of Enology, and also a well travelled consultant. He’s particularly know for his work with aromatic white wines, growing up on the Sauternes Estate of Chateau Doisy Daene, sweet wine runs in his blood. But increasingly Doisy Daene Sec is the wine people get to know first, as he’s made it one of his tasks to get Bordeaux Sauvignon back on the map. You’ve probably tried at least the Dourthe no 1 white, which was one of his major commercial wines.

The aim of the tasting was to look at the relationship between sugar, acidity, and perceptible sweetness in wines, particularly apt as Doubourdieu has recently started working with les Caves de Ribeauville in Alsace, an area beset by issues of sugar and sweetness levels.

We started with a short flight of Doubourdieu’s Bordelais wines;

Chateau Reynon 2008, Alc: 12.69%, Sugar:0.9g/l, T/A:4.57g/l, pH:3.18. 100% Sauvignon Blanc grown on limestone covered with thick clay and matured in very large old oak barrels. A ripe nose some hay, lemons, hints of peach, quite elegant ripe fruit, underlain with some white bread notes (lees characteristics). The acidity in the wine was quite noticeable, but as was the ripe fruit on the palette giving an impression of sweetness but with effectively no residual sugar, oh and there was a lovely peach guava like finish. 82

Doisy Daene Sec 2007, Alc:12.5%, Sugar: 1.4g/l, T/A:4.85g/l. From Barsac, this is Sauvignon Blanc from a limestone base covered with very thin top soil, also this has seen 10% new oak. Slight grassy herbal character, white pepper and a touch of medium browned toast. A somewhat muscular palette, there is an interesting persistence of body to the wine, the ripe slightly peachy fruit working very well with the creaminess of the lees characters and the oak, the grassy character of the Sauvignon Blanc manifesting itself more as a peach skin scent, then a lime and peach finish. 84

Clos Floridene 2007, Alc: 13%, Sugar:1.7g/l, T/A:4.53g/l, pH:3.15. Clos Floridene is from just next to Doisy Daene, but the macro climate is somewhat cooler, also Clos Floridene has 50% Semillon, of which 30% sees new oak. Sticky apricots and a much more mineral tang. Very fresh and direct acidity with a real lemon citrus character, some ripe fruit but an odd stickiness to the fruit on the finish. 81

Clos Floridene 1998, Alc: 13%, Sugar: 1.4g/l, T/A 3.49g/l. This was shown to prove that well made wines can age, Dubourdeieu is of the opinion that so long as you don’t damage the wine in their youth, i.e. expose them to excess oxygen, whether through unnecessary fermentation times, of bad handling then they have the potential to age well. Bread, beeswax, and oxidative characteristics, citrus and some bruised apple notes. Still fresh acidity some fine tropical fruit notes mixed with a nutty brioche palette. Lengthy with a nutty and tight mineral finish. (not scored as it was more interesting than a serious drinking wine)

 

We then moved to a flight of Rieslings from les Caves Ribeauville, Ribeauville is pretty central in Alsace and is located pretty much at the heart of the geological fault that gives Alsace such a grab bag of different soils and terroirs. Les Caves themselves are the oldest coop in France having formed in 1895, and have been pretty forward looking ever since, taking things up a notch in the 90’s when they inaugurated their quality charter for members. No dusty wineries and disinterested semi peasant growers here.

Riesling Prestige 2008, Alc 12%, Sugar 3.5g/l, T/A 10g, pH 3.00. All were agreed that Prestige was a stupid name, as it wasn’t a tete du cuvee, but moving on, this was from a 10km spread and was sourced from the best parcels from their growers. It showed delicate white flowers, minerals, some slight tropical fruit hints and some fresh ripe pear characters. Tight and sharp on the palette, the very low residual sugar and quite high acidity were just about kept in balance by the freshness of the varieties fruit, this wine is apparently aimed at the UK market. 83

Apparently one of the first things Doubourdieu did  on arrival at les Caves, was enquire as to whether they knew Riesling was an aromatic varietal, so often in their youth Alsatian Rieslings are somewhat mute and austere, which makes them rather hard to market to countries like the UK who are increasingly weaned on fruit salad bombs from the new world. Yes he understands that given a few years they can show fabulous complexity and tertiary development, but this is isn’t worth toffee if you’re trying to shift volume in a modern market.

Riesling Terroirs Reserve 2008, Alc 12.5%, Sugar 3g/l, T/A 10.1g/l, pH 3.00. This wine had a similar sugar : acidity balance, but much more body. Citrus, mineral nose, a tough of leesiness with a hint of peach, full bodied and very minerally with touched of citrus and mandarin peel. A slight roundness from the lees takes you to a direct and minerally finish (authors note – it’s worrying how much quite and shite look the same in my handwriting – as a shite minerally finish isn’t so nice). A good wine that’s very expressive of what Alsace can do, but it lacks the focus that single site and terroir specific Rieslings can bring. 85

Riesling Grand Cru Osterberg 2007, Alc 13%, Sugar 5g/l, T/A 7.35g/l, pH 3.15. West of Ribeauville, the Osterberg (East Hill) is an east facing slope with clay over limestone. The Ribeauville estate is in the centre of the hill. Citrus, rose petals, a touch of some exotic asian spice, very minerally. On the palette there is some ripe citrus characters intertwined with the creamy mineral core, all wrapped round a good core of acidity. The Osterberg had much lower acidity, and consequently was vinified to a lower level of residual sugar to maintain the balance of fruit and sweetness that Dubourdieu was aiming for. For me the wine showed exactly the kind of ripe exotic aromatic characters that speak of Riesling grown on a mainly clay terroir, exactly the kind of focus that was lacking in the terroirs selection. 88

Dubourdieu explained that what drew him to working in Alsace was getting to work with Riesling at the edge of it’s climatic range, as he feels that grape varieties do not express their full potential unless there is a degree of struggle in ripening them. This applies across the board, where it might be difficult getting full ripeness in Aglianico in southern Italy, Merlot achieves it far too easily, so it’s no surprise that Aglianico produces the better wines from the region.

We finished up with a quick tasting of the other Alsatian varieties.

Muscat Prestige 2008, Alc 12.5%, Sugar 7g/l, T/A 7.4g/l pH 3.2. Now I don’t normally like dry Muscat as it usually flatters to deceive with too much on the nose, then a disappointingly flat palette and a slight bitter finish. So I was intruiged to find Dubourdieu make reference to working to reduce the bitterness on the palette. On pressing he linked it to tannins in the white wine, which in turn were strongly linked to water stress in the vines. So in the vineyard they keep yields very low, remove the cover crops and plough the rows between the vines to increase Nitrogen availability for the vines. This is followed by gentle pressing and gentle handling in the winery to make a wine that keeps the aromatics but does so with a balanced and complete palette. Grapey, floral, elegant nose, showing crisp acidity, bright floral and slightly tropical fruit, but keeping a degree of continuity between expectation and delivery.

Pinot Blanc Vielle Vignes 2008, Alc 12.5%, Sugar 7g/l, T/A 7.75g/l, pH 3.05. Minty citrus , apples, quite delicate with a subtle dessert apple character. Lovely fresh applpyness on the palette with medium acidity and a delicate fresh apply finish.

Pinot Gris Prestige 2008, Alc 13.5%, Sugar 8g/l, T/A 8.1g/l, pH 3.10. Ripe exotically spiced apricots, a hint of minerals, on the palette some spiced peach and citrus, showing dryish.

Finally we looked at the Clos du Zahnacker 2008, Alc 14%, Sugar 7.5g/l, T/A 8.95g/l, pH 3.10. This is an extremely ancient spot of vineyard in the middle of the Osterberg, records going back to the 14^th century record vines being planted here. Traditionally the site was interplanted, les Caves have continued this, so the Clos du Zahnacker is a field blend of Pinot Gris, Riesling and Gewurztraminer. Rather like Marcel Deiss they report that the ripening of the vines is all remarkably consistent between the varietals, though for the 08 the Pinot Gris was harvested a bit later, the grapes were all crushed then the must blended for fermentation. The site dips slightly in the centre giving a range of different aspects so the different varietals can all be placed in suitable expositions. The wine was complex showing at various moments, citrus, mineral, lees notes, apricots, and tropical fruits, with great length and a nice balance of acidity and fruit. 89.

Final words to Doubourdieu, (not quite exact) “Some of my famous colleges give advice to producers on how to produce Bordeaux in Bordeaux and to producers who want to produce Bordeaux style wines outside of Bordeaux, I’m interested in helping producers make the most of their regional varietals and styles.” Can you guess who he might have been talking about?