Maranges. Who knew? This is the most southerly appellation of the Cote de Beaune and it doesn't get too much respect. However, being big on the underdog, I have loved the ones from Camille Giroud and a few years ago I found Domaine Chevrot through their then importer, Mike Petrillo. The wine was delicate and pretty and delightful. At the time it was about $15 retail. I bought a bunch. I had no idea how it was made.
Maranges in June felt like Dorset, Vermont in August...sleepy, dusty, hot with lots of greenery flapping about. Motoring through Cheilly Les Maranges, I passed a great deal of chemicalized vineyards and then hit a patch of well tilled soil and even though the weather in
France was not being very friendly to vines, these seemed happy. It turns out that they belonged to Chevrot.
That's Pablo in back of the domaine where the limestone stops and he produces Haute Cotes de Beaune instead of Maranges.
Pablo Chevrot, 31, is a happy puppy of a winemaker and it's easy to see him as a five- year- old boy. He seems so excited with making wine I felt he was about to start boinging up and down. His first vintage was the one I first discovered, the lovely 2002. Proud Pablo told me how he took the domain organic. He tells me that he sprays fenugreek for powdery mildew (a big problem this year because of all of the rain) as if he just told me about discovering extra virgin olive oil for the first time. As if on some crazy cue his father came in while we were tasting and told his son that the helicopter (which sprays anti-fungals) was in town and ...wouldn't he please reconsider this organic nonsense? Pablo was firm. Dad walked out convinced he has a crazy son.
In our tasting, the wines were good but not exciting as the ones I remember. It turns out that he is 'not against using yeast,' and this revelation greatly disappointed me. Alice, I said to myself, have an open mind. The wine I did love turned out to be unyeasted and it was gorgeous. As was the 2004 "Sur le Chene." But the 2005 was indeed yeasted. Was it my imagination that it wasn't as complex? But, I give him four years before he ditches the wine school logic about those yeasts and goes natural whole hog in every year. He is so enthused, he won't be able to avoid it.
After that visit it was a short stop in Givry, back to Marsannay where I confirmed my love for Domaine Bart's wines and then off to Paris for the weekend.
Saturday night included a fun dinner party at my friend Ann's in Paris. I picked up the wine at Caves Aug. One in particular I was hot to try, a Vin de Pays des Collines Rhodaniennes from Jean Michel Stephan. I never saw it but I recognized the Cote Rotie producer's name. I asked the sales person, "Syrah?"
"Oh no," she insisted it was grenache. OK. I bought it anyway. Opened it up that night and all of that young, horsey syrah bounced out of the bottle. There was no denying it.
There was plenty of more wine at that party and in the morning on far too little sleep I headed out to Bordeaux.
That's Pablo in back of the domaine where the limestone stops and he produces Haute Cotes de Beaune instead of Maranges.
Pablo Chevrot, 31, is a happy puppy of a winemaker and it's easy to see him as a five- year- old boy. He seems so excited with making wine I felt he was about to start boinging up and down. His first vintage was the one I first discovered, the lovely 2002. Proud Pablo told me how he took the domain organic. He tells me that he sprays fenugreek for powdery mildew (a big problem this year because of all of the rain) as if he just told me about discovering extra virgin olive oil for the first time. As if on some crazy cue his father came in while we were tasting and told his son that the helicopter (which sprays anti-fungals) was in town and ...wouldn't he please reconsider this organic nonsense? Pablo was firm. Dad walked out convinced he has a crazy son.
In our tasting, the wines were good but not exciting as the ones I remember. It turns out that he is 'not against using yeast,' and this revelation greatly disappointed me. Alice, I said to myself, have an open mind. The wine I did love turned out to be unyeasted and it was gorgeous. As was the 2004 "Sur le Chene." But the 2005 was indeed yeasted. Was it my imagination that it wasn't as complex? But, I give him four years before he ditches the wine school logic about those yeasts and goes natural whole hog in every year. He is so enthused, he won't be able to avoid it.
After that visit it was a short stop in Givry, back to Marsannay where I confirmed my love for Domaine Bart's wines and then off to Paris for the weekend.
Saturday night included a fun dinner party at my friend Ann's in Paris. I picked up the wine at Caves Aug. One in particular I was hot to try, a Vin de Pays des Collines Rhodaniennes from Jean Michel Stephan. I never saw it but I recognized the Cote Rotie producer's name. I asked the sales person, "Syrah?"
"Oh no," she insisted it was grenache. OK. I bought it anyway. Opened it up that night and all of that young, horsey syrah bounced out of the bottle. There was no denying it.
There was plenty of more wine at that party and in the morning on far too little sleep I headed out to Bordeaux.
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