Monday Night Wines (but I drank it on Tuesday)

So this week Shauna and I tasted two bottles on wine on Monday night. The first wine was a Soave from Remo Farina and was totally boring. Unsatisfied we opened a Pinot Noir from Alma Rosa Vineyards of Santa Barbara. We enjoyed this wine and that is what I was going to write about, but last night I had dinner at a great local restaurant, NOPA, and had a wine that was great!

Winery: Domaine Chandon de Brailles
Vineyard: Aux Fourneaux 1er Cru
Grape: Pinot Noir
Region: Savigny - les - Beaune, Burgundy France
Vintage: 2005
Approximate Retail: $45.00
Website: N/A 
Fun Fact: Family has been running winery since 1834
Tasting Notes: When two wine geeks go out for dinner together, choosing a wine can be quite arduous. My friend John Bates and I both chose dishes that would work well with a variety of wines. John decided on the roasted pork chop and I the roasted lamb with cranberry beans. My first inclination was to look to the northern Rhone. Home to Syrah based wines like Cote-Roti, Hermitage, St. Joseph, and Crozes-Hermitage, but we could just not decide which one we wanted. Our reasons were due to youth and the fact that John sells some of the wines and wanted to try something he had not had before, so we looked to the good ol' stand-bye of Burgundy. There were about eight selections of Burgundy and I believe (if my memory serves me right) our choices of vintage were either th 2004 or 2005. Though I love the 2004 vintage for its acidity the selections were out of the price range I was willing to pay. The two wines that caught my eye were both from Domaine Chandon de Brailles. I have only had one of their wines before, a 1990 Corton Blanc Grand Cru (that was sublime), and decided that we should give one of their reds a try. Both selections were Premier Cru one from Savigny-les-Beaune and the other from Pernarnd Vergelesses. We asked our server which she preferred and was torn. She told us the Saigny was more "wild" and the Pernarnd more linear. So, based upon what our dinner choices were we went "wild".

Though young, the wine was beautiful and as it opened it showed us more of its promise. The wine was not decanted but in retrospect I should have asked for it to be. The wine is one of the most beautiful shades of red I have ever seen. The aromas of the wine were shy at first but still held all the classic nature of Pinot Noir and Burgundy. Scents of wild cherries, strawberries, red plums mixed with dried brush, crushed rock and cinnamon all  gently wafted from the glass evolving every few minuets. The "wild" component on the nose that was described to us was two fold in my opinion. First, the nose had the aromas not of juicy, fat and ripe fruits but fruits that you would pick if you were walking through the forest. Secondly, there was an animalistic quality to the wine, a roughness and edge that toyed with our senses. The greatness of this wine is not in it drink-ability right now but that this wine will evolve and develop into an even more beautiful wine over the next five to ten years. If you find this bottle buy three to six and open one every so often to see how it changes. I look forward to having this wine again.

Comments

[darya]

Hi Jeff, great blog! I've been curious about Nopa, but getting your nod on a wine from there makes me want to go even more. Maybe their food will make it onto my blog :)