WINESCENE

Drinking Up Some Aupilhac Wines

Image via Wikipedia

Image of Domaine d'Aupilhac via Snooth

Del Mar California may be about as far as anywhere from the town of Montpeyroux, France, but as far as I'm concerned, Montpeyroux and the wines of Sylvain Fadat, and Domaine d'Aupilhac is only as far as my cellar is. 

Last night as part of the dual birthday celebrations of Castella Banfi's National Accounts Representative Rita DeLillo and long time wine pal Rick Caras, I pulled out a sampling of the d'Aupilhac wines to showcase what Sylvain has been doing all these years. Rick, along with winepal Ray McKewon both have visited Aupilhac and taken part in some memorable dinners with Sylvain and Desiree, so the wines are not strangers to them. 

We opened the night with the 2010 Aupilhac Rose, a blend of Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre, Carignan and Cinsault. Unlike the bone dry rose's from Tavel or Bandol, the Aupilhac is a big rose, loaded with bright strawberry and raspberry flavors. It's a wine and not an aperitif, but that was how we approached it, as right behind it came the 2004 and 2005 Les Cocalieres Blancs. Talk about difference. The 05 was a deep golden color, that at first blush you would have taken for maderization. But it wasn't. It just looked that way. The blend of Roussanne 25%, Marsanne 25%, Rolle (Vermantino) 25% and Grenache blanc 25% was rich and silky, perfect with crab cakes the size of hamburgers. In many ways it was like a Napa Valley Chardonnay while the 04 Les Cocalieres Blancs was a polar opposite in color and flavor. It was steely, crisp and angular, but yet, it possesed the kind of flavor and style that a well made Chablis would offer. 

Next up from Aupilhac was a trio of 2002, 2005 and 2006 Coteaux du Languedoc Montpeyroux AOC reds. Of the three, the 2002 was head and shoulders the favorite. It was and continues to be a shining example of great winemaking. Jammy fruit flavors about, while the silky and fresh structure of the wines serves as a backdrop for the herb and spices from the Garrigue that make Languedoc wines so special. While the 05 and 06 were both very good, the 02 took the flight hands down. 

We followed up with what may have been the two best wines of Aupilhac ever served side by side that were exported to the USA. The 1998 Les Plos de Baumes and the 2004 La Boda. Sadly, Sylvain only made Les Plos for a few years, and unfortunately for collectors who like wines of in the Napa Valley trophy category, there isn't a lot of it left. The Les Plos was "delightful", showing that Bordeaux varieties can do very well in the Languedoc when in the hands of a talented winemaker. The 04 La Boda, which is a combination of grapes from both the Cocalieres and Aupilhac terroirs was a head turner too. Easily as rich as the 2003 Screaming Eagle Cab, the sensual side of La Boda was most evident as it's restrained power and grace and encased in a velvety rich wine made it stand out so well. Ripe black grapes, rich blueberry and black raspberry and a hint of wild cherry all came through. The good news is neither of these wines is in any rush to be drunk up. They are both very youthful examples of wines that will easily live another five years or more.

The last flight of Aupilhacs were the reds from Sylvain's youngest vineyard. I have had the good fortune to have been with Sylvain a few weks after he purchased the land and over time have watched this empty part of the Languedoc get cleared of the boulders and rocks, some of which are on the back wall of the Aupilhac Gites that I helped name as Maison des Cocalieres (and suggested the use of the rocks for the wall.)

The vineyard holds an even more sentimental memory, as back in 2007 I was married there to my now ex-wife in what was the party of all parties (watch the video which stars the vineyard and Sylvain along with a cameo from Willi's Wine Bar founder Mark Williamson), but my love for the vineyard goes back before that year and the wines the vineyard can produce.

The 2001 Les Cocalieres was the first of the reds from the vineyard and last night perhaps the best. To call it an ethereal wine would not give it its just due. It was mre than that. I have not had a bottle of this in many years and almost forgot that I owned some, but have to admit that it may rival any of the best wines to ever come out of the Languedoc, including the wines of La Grange de Peres which is not far over the hill. The elegant blend of Syrah, Grenache and Mourvedre is like a well woven and knitted fabric. Not too much of one or the other, but a wine in harmony. The 2007 showed the same bones but is in need of time, while the 03, 04, 05 and 06 wines are moving along at a pace to be drunk over the next ten years. My view on these wines is to find a reason, heck, an excuse to open them as they just go so well with venison and beef.

Fortuately in a few weeks I'll be at Vinisud the every other year wine trade event just outside of Montpelleier, in Lattes, France where I'll be able to enjoy more of the excellent wines of Domaine d'Aupilhac and some 2500 other winemakers starting on February 21st.

A Birthday Night With Wines Fit for Friends

Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia

Last night a few friends and I gathered at Pamplemousse Grille, the local restaurant of choice for us because of our friendship with Jeffrey Strauss and his outstanding staff. Jeffrey is kind enough to allow us to BYOB with our personal gems so in keeping with our promise to never not reciprocate we tip the amazingly polished staff very, very well and always share the bottles with his entire team. The food is always as great matching up so well to the wines, and regardless of the pace of the evening, nothing is ever left to chance.

For last nights dual birthdays of two long time wine loving friends a variety of wines came from the collections of three of us, including a 2003 Screaming Eagle and both 1999 and 1984 BV Private Reserve George De Latour Napa Cabernets. The Screaming Eagle was everything you have ever heard or read about. A trophy to be appreciated. It's got power, grace, structure, balance and yes it does cause envy. The 84 BV was something of an anomoly. The cork showed hardly any aging. It was to say the least, pristine. The wine was aged. Not old and not tired. But aged. Having gone through now the last of the 18 bottles I accumulated back in 1989 when in a trip with Doug Kaplan across Napa Valley it was a testiment to what the winery was doing well for so many years. Gone was the bright cherry flavor that was there when young. Instead it was briary with hints of leather, sweet cigar tobacco leaf, some sour cherry. But as the bottle opened, and then was decanted the wine showed me once again why the 1984 BV was the better bet over the more heralded and far shorter lived 1985.

There were two other wines of note that blew us all away. The 2001 Le Petite Cheval and the 2002 Cheval des Andes, all made by the same wine family behind Cheval Blanc were stunning examples of Cabernet Franc. Both were balanced, rich and almost sublime in their flavor profiles and showed no signs of aging, nor any signs of anyone not wanting to finish the entire bottles. They were each in their own way perfect examples of winemaking done right.

How To BYOB (Bring You Own Bottle)

Image via CrunchBase

Ever since some friends got me into the wine world I've been a BYOB type. Why? It's all about the collection baby. Once you assemble a wine collection, you don't just have it to look at. You want to enjoy and share it.

Well, over at SNOOTH, one of the trendy, what's hot, happening and you need to know web sites for all things decadently YOU, had Gregory Del Piaz come up with the seven tips to being a good BYOB'er

I happen to agree with all seven, and can't find fault with a one. The only suggestion I have is to those folks foolish enough to show up with "Two Buck Chuck" or "Salmon Creek" expect to get charged the price of the most expensive wine on the list....

Absent While Present from Blogging World

Image via Wikipedia

Image of Margerum Wine Company via Snooth

Image via Wikipedia

Over time, largely since my wedding, and now with my divorce, I've not been blogging as much about wine as I used to. My friends who know of my passion, interest, friendships in the wine world, and of my collection, know that my love of wine has never died, I just got too busy. But thanks to a good swift kick by pal Ken Rutkowski, who knows almost nothing about wine, but is smart enough to ask, and a few others I've decided to put some more effort back into this starting now.

Part of the problem is that my desire with wine writing has always been to be pioneering, not following. Back in the 80's and 90s I had a email newsletter called Road Reports that were also published on the now long gone Compuserve Wine Forum. That turned into a Yahoo email list called WinePals, and then this blog's earlier and now long gone string of wine posts, wine region tours, and winery visits. It also included highlights of some very fun events that as the "ultimate wine insider" as coined by my winemaker friend (and co-conspirator on the Double "AA" Cuvee") Doug Margerum, I've had a viewpoint and perspective not usually seen by consumers. But, since I wrote my first Del Mar Times wine column sometime back (before they paper downsized) I've gone from "amateur" to "professional" and with a wine now made, the recognition it's starting to receive (ask Bernard Bardou of Mas de Soporta) or read the post and review below, you'll find that I'm hard pressed to just write wine reviews beyond the "what I'm drinking today" types of reviews. And, even those are rather like everyone else.

So, with WineScene I'm going to try something different..what it is? I'm not sure yet. It will come to me, the same way that the Nokia Blogger Relations Program I created did, and the same way some 25 youth hockey programs that I either conceived or designed and executed on did for the Philadelphia Flyers did as far back as 1976 that still run today (ever hear of the Pepsi Shootout, or the Flyers Cup).

Winescene...is back. I'm back and you'll be back tasting, learning and experiencing along with me.

Related articles

• My Wine Wins-2009 Comunicano Wine Company "Double AA" Cuvee (andyabramson.blogs.com)

First Ever Review of Double "AA" Cuvee

I now know how famed Parisian, well actually worldwide, chef Guy Savoy felt when he earned his first every three stars and broke down and cried. I felt the same way this morning after former client and friend Ray Haddow of Nokia forwarded me a link to the first ever review of the 2009 Comunicano Wine Company "Double AA" Cuvee, a wine that was first poured at the 2010 IT Expo in Los Angeles, back in 2010 just after it was bottled. Boy has this wine grown up, and it keeps growing.

To my dear friends I wrote a short note which I feel compelled to share here as so many of you have seen, heard or participated (some would say put up with) my wine exploits for so many years.

Last week at CES at the party which Jeff Belk and I now annually host I brought along two bottles of the Double "AA" Cuvee, a wine that I worked along side my very good friend of 20 years Doug Margerum back in the late summer of 2010 at his small but very efficient winery in Santa Ynez. It may be the one place in the world where I can go, and not easily be reached as the cell coverage is non-existant and the WiFi comes from the Curtis Winery down the hill.  

Never in my wildest dreams was I ever expecting the wine to be reviewed by a wine blogger so while I remain always pleasantly surprised at comments from my friends like you who have tasted the wine as far back as when it was first released to today, I did not expect  the comments from New Orleans based food/wine/travel and tech blogger Shannon Lane to be so emotionally flattering. To say I'm blushing like a bottle of Doug's or my friend Sylvain Fadat's Rose would be an understatement.  Since September the accolades have been rolling in about the Double AA Cuvee, and even my wine menu line up for the International Grenache Day dinner from global organizer Nicole Rolet, when the Double "AA" Cuvee was deemed to be one of the best, and best in its flight overall besting another Margerum collaboration by a nose at our 28 bottle, all Grenache wine dinner at Pamplemousse Grille with red, rose, grey and whites.

Then in October, long time wine trade sales director for the Languedoc Roussillion tasting room at the AOC's Mas De Soporta, Bernard Bardou organized a tasting of French Syrahs, all served blind and the Double "AA" Cuvee come out on top. But this review, and knowing what it was poured alongside in Las Vegas, and who made those wines, including some of my true longtime winemaker friends, on top of how a very dear friend selected this same wine at a dinner with two winemaker friends as her favorite recently while up in Santa Barbara, all are bringing the kind of feeling a musician, novelist, filmmaker or athlete gets when they first see their name in lights or in print. It does feel great and as another dear friend who loves wine as much as I do, Ray McKewon, once proclaimed, reading this, I have to echo that statement, "life if good."

But I don't come from the world of "your only as good as your last........"  It wasn't that way in my years in hockey. Nor in my agency. You see, I come from the world as your only as good as your next, not your last, so this spring I'll head up to Santa Barbara and work with Doug to make another wine, and maybe a second with palDavid Corey. It will be a fun event, and one that friends may even enjoy being a part of. 

So, as one of my dear friends who have played a part in my wine world in various ways for so many years, especially winemaker and friend Sylvain Fadat who has taught me so much about wine, please savor the moment with me, as I present the first real review of something I'm really very proud of....The 2009 Comunicano Wine Company "Double AA Cuvee."

Thanks Shannon, for making my week start off the right way!