|
Paul Marcus WinesOakland, CA 94618 e-mail: info@paulmarcuswines.com |
|
|
At Paul Marcus Wines, we work with a handful of importers who have unique visions. It's one aspect of the world of wine that customers don't always notice but that makes the wines we taste daily, sell, and drink ourselves much more interesting. The back label of every bottle of imported wine is printed with the name of an importer, and if one starts paying attention to that information, it's possible to find similarities between completely different wines from the same importer. Charles Neal's selections are a perfect example of that. He has a definite style, and it's apparent in all of his wines.
I toured France with Charles earlier this year and got some insight into his tastes and how he chooses his wines. It's useful to know that Charles started his business by importing Armagnac. While Gascony's excellent brandy might not have much direct bearing on our situation (we can't sell spirits at PMW), it does provide an entryway into the world of Charles's wines and a basic understanding of his tastes.
For a time, Charles and his wife lived above his brother-in-law's restaurant Chez Simone in Montréal du Gers (between Bordeaux and Toulouse). The restaurant has a sideboard displaying dozens of vintage Pots Gascogns (2.5 liter bottles of Armagnac). One night a few years ago, Charles sat up until 4:00 am tasting back through at least five decades until he'd tried every bottle. Now, Armagnac is powerful stuff - its cask strength is over 50% alcohol - and tasting brandies like that is not for the faint of heart. Charles is anything but faint, and it does seem that deciphering the intricacies of these distinctive spirits helped fortify Charles with a discerning palate. After he started importing Armagnac and Cognac, it seemed only obvious to import the table wines of the Gers and environs, whose growers and producers he saw every day.
Chez Simone is probably the best restaurant in Gascony, and Bernard (Charles's beaux-frère) has some strong bonds with lots of the local winemakers - and an excellent wine selection to prove it. I loved sitting at the bar of the restaurant, watching Charles and Bernard rib each other while Bernard forced glasses of wine upon us. Charles tells of learning French at this very bar by conversing with the village idiot (because he was the only person who'd talk to Charles).
For me, sitting down to a meal with local winemakers and Armagnac producers at Chez Simone offered a glimpse of Charles's entry into the world of wine - and a better understanding of what wine means to the people who make it. For all of our flowery descriptors and talk of how long a certain wine can age, the response from a winemaker who's asked about his wine is often as simple as "it's good." These are the people who spend every day with their wines, who remember every season of every vintage, and who have tasted these wines during every step of their evolution. To them their wine is not a poetic muse or a status symbol. It's not even a "way of life"; it just is life. I saw that in the farmers of Gascony, but also in Champagne, the Rhône, the Loire, Alsace - people for whom wine wasn't a great mystery, but just a simple fact.
Charles tells stories of drinking wine simply because it was the cheapest and most accessible buzz while he was writing his novel in Madrid, and that makes perfect sense to me. Most Americans didn't grow up with wine, and even as we develop an interest in the stuff, we often forget its utilitarian nature. During our trip, we ate at several fine restaurants with impressive cellars, and the wine was good, even great. But, sitting down to a meal with a winemaker and his family, having his wife serve up wild rabbit, or potatoes studded with truffles, or stewed bull was not an experience of luxury. It was a chance to spend some time with real people, eating and drinking part of their regular life. And while the meals we were offered may not have been daily fare, the presence of wine on the table was taken for granted. We weren't drinking wine because it was a special occasion; we were drinking wine because there was wine to be drunk.
That's what the wines Charles imports have in common. They're real. They're honest. They're often simple and inexpensive, but even his prestigious offerings share this earnestness. Though we at the shop might use fancy adjectives and talk about "balance" and "age-ability," some wines cut through all the BS and get to the heart of the matter - having a bottle of wine with dinner and friends and family makes life a little bit better. From simple Marcillac, to brooding Madiran, from Côtes de Gascogne to Grand Cru Chablis, Charles Neal's wines can do that, if you give them the chance.
by Chad Arnold
In any wine shop, a great selection of wines doesn't just happen. It depends on three crucial groups of people:
Importers form the vital link between producers and merchants, and one of the vital links for us at Paul Marcus Wines is Charles Neal Selections.
We get along well with Charles because he recognizes the cultural and practical value of real wines - wines that reflect their place of origin and vintage. This San Francisco-based importer's well-chosen selections are a veritable course in terroir, particularly for southwest France. Charles Neal also happens to be a great guy - like the wines he selects, he's real and down-to-earth, without lacking flair. (Just check out those faux-snakeskin boots that he wears sometimes!)
When I asked Charles how many producers he has, he said, "around 40, but I've never counted." He thinks he has nearly 80 different wines. He may not be good at math, but Charles has written a novel, Sumac, and a book on 1980s rock, Tape Delay, and is arguably America's leading authority on Armagnac.
We didn't taste all 80 wines for this article, but John Brooks, Mark Middlebrook, Rebekah Wineburg, and I did spend two nights drinking and talking through a box of wines, a few aperitifs, and an organic beer with a goat on the label. They were fine evenings indeed.
[CA] I set this tasting up so we could taste through some of Charles Neal's wines, discuss the wines' particular merits, and better understand the role of the importer - the vinous sensibility that brought together the wines - and us.
[JB] 'Venus sensibility' - huh? Anyway, how did Charles get into the wine business?
[CA] Charles was living in London in the 1980s, drinking beer, and working in a record store when he met his future wife, Nathalie, in 1987. They were pursuing similar interests in alternative rock and experimental music. He says that after his book Tape Delay, a compilation of interviews, came out, he and Nathalie moved to Madrid. He has yet to satisfactorily explain the relationship of these two events.
[MM] So how did Charles get into the wine business?
[CA] I'm getting to that.... While in Madrid he worked in various restaurants and taught English. Madrid as it happens is a lot closer than London to Nathalie's home of Montréal du Gers, a small town a few kilometers west of the town of Condom, in the departement of Gers in southwestern France. And so begins Charles' serious forays into wine and the connections between the wine and the local culture. Marry love with fermented grape juice and voilà; you too can become a successful Armagnac and wine importer.
Not too far south of Bordeaux, in the true heart of southwestern France, lie the often-overlooked vineyards of the Garonne River. Here, France's most varied collection of indigenous grapes run their roots deep into the earth. And many of the people who live here follow suit, as they work the vineyards by hand.
If the major appellations of Cahors, Côtes de Duras, Gaillac, Jurançon, Madiran, and Pacherenc du Vic-Bilh don't roll off your tongue, then you have some delicious research ahead of you (as do we tonight!). From these regions come some astonishingly fine wines that truly embody the notion of terroir. This might be a good time for one of your famous maps, Mark.
[MM] (With a flourish of the pen.) Happy to oblige.
[JB] Great map Mark. And no, I'm not sniggering!
[CA] This is a region that does not rely on fancy winemaking techniques and new oak barrels ("barriques") to render the voice of the land. (Although some producers are beginning to use new oak on some of their wines - when the fruit and the longevity of the wine merit it.) The idea of exporting many of these wines is relatively new. It used to be that the locals would make enough wine for themselves, and then share some with the distant neighbors throughout the forests of the Landes.
[JB] But Charles Neal's wine portfolio is not limited to the wines of the southwest. He has some amazing Burgundies and Loire valley wines.
[MM] Yes, and he also has some terrific producers in the Rhône Valley.
[CA] So let's taste some of these wines, wherever they're from. Let me first throw the steak and sausages on the grill.
[MM] Excellent - I brought some parsleyed potatoes and an array of desserts.
Domaine Saint-Amant 2001 Beaumes de Venise 'La Tarbardonne' Viognier-Rousanne ($17).
This is not the well-known dessert wine from Beaumes de Venise, but rather a dry white wine from the same region in the southern Rhône. It's a blend of 95% viognier and 5% rousanne - both indigenous Rhône white wine varietals. The wine comes from a vineyard named La Tarbardonne, which sits at a relatively high altitude of 350-500 meters and thus enjoys slightly cooler than average weather for the southern Rhône. (We learned most of this stuff by peeking at the back label - after we tasted the wine, of course. Charles typically includes some informative - and often amusing - information on the back labels of his wines.)
[CA] The color of the wine says weight, and because the nose is initially muted it is not surprising that the initial sips say wait. Wild concentration indicates low yields. A chalky subtext supports the heroine of the story. Hints of new oak raise further questions about the geography. Can't place the wine in a place exactly. (A few minutes later....) Slowly opening to round stones, not rocks, for there are no sharp edges here.
[MM] Big gray stones after an early spring shower?
[CA] Uh, sure, whatever. (A few more minutes later....) Wow, here are the famed flowers of viognier! Honeysuckle and grapeseed. And after 20 minutes, the 1/3 new oak regimen is integrated. A great deal for viognier at $17.
[MM] I agree. The wine is getting more comfortable with itself now - more relaxed nose especially. Here's another argument for not drinking wine too quickly.
Domaine de Colette 2002 Beaujolais-Villages ($8.99).
Beaujolais is the perfect light red for summer sipping - or slurping. Those who want to know more should read Paul Courtright's article, "Beaujolais - Nouveau and Not" in our November 2002 newsletter.
[MM] Medium-dark cherries, earth sprinkled with pepper. After a couple of minutes those sexy, precocious cherries are coming on strong, but ol' man pepper is doing his best to keep up! "Rambunctious" comes to mind - this is not a buttoned-down wine; it's got dirt under its fingernails.
[CA] This wine was allowed to be light and light on its feet, feet that tromp through the mud and muck. Real gamay I say. Oyster mushroom, cola, and earth notes weave between clusters of Bing cherries that function as exclamation points!
[JB] Sheesh - you poets.... Hey, do I smell the steak burning?!
[CA] I'll check it....
[MM] (Later...) The wine is getting fleshier - more fruit, and the pepper is hanging in there. It's okay with sausage, good with parsleyed potatoes.
Jean-Luc Matha 2001 Marcillac 'Cuvee Laïris' ($8.99).
Marcillac is a tiny appellation in the Aveyron between the Rhône and Gascony. The wine is 100% mansois, better known outside the region as fer servadou (better known to whom, we wonder!).
[CA] Cayenne, cocoa and Serrano chili. Then white pepper and Hungarian paprika. Medium body with excellent fruit tied together with laces of more pepper.
[MM] Big bell peppers, black pepper, chile peppers. After a couple of minutes, the parts are filling in - there's fruit, but still, I smell roots and vegetables more than fruit. This wine is not about fruit. There's a lot of character here, though I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this character! This wine is not a crowd-pleaser, but it is compelling.
[CA] Agreed - it's terrific with the mildly spicy sausage. After 45 minutes, the wine is still spice and riddle.
[MM] Yep - peppery in all possible senses of the word "pepper"! Hmm - Creole?! Try it with gumbo/jambalaya/paella/spicy rice.
[CA] And would be good with goulash, methinks.
[JB] How's the meat?
[CA] It's resting.
Domaine Laffont 2001 Madiran 'Cuvée Erigone' ($17).
Madiran is a region midway between Biarritz and Toulouse with a reputation for inky, full-bodied, and often rustic reds. Winemaker Pierre Speyer, a native of Belgium, has fine-tuned the madness of Madiran and produced one of the region's best. He named this cuvée "Erigone" after a sultry beauty seduced by Dionysus. It's made from 80% tannat and 20% cabernet franc and sees some new barrique (which makes it more modern, full-bodied, and glossy than many of Charles's wines).
[CA] Deep. Deep, dark, dark - ink pit with hard walls. An amazing wine if you wait a dozen (or a baker's dozen) minutes to get started. Massive structure and layers upon layers of saturated fruit swell with framboise punctuation that reminds me of Faulkner and Hemingway.
[JB] There goes the poet again. Hey, what about the steak?!
[CA] (Serving the steak...) Great idea! This is the perfect wine for medium-rare-to-rare steak. And don't trim the fat off or your teeth will fall out, which is expensive.
[MM] Yeah, that protein and fat really soak up the tannins. This wine is a great California cabernet substitute, because of its good ripeness and decent structure. It even smells a bit Cabernet-y.
[CA] This is also the wine for the cellar, because it's relatively cheap and will benefit from three to five years of age to allow the sure-to-be wonderful secondary flavors to come out from behind the thick cloak of oak and the daggers of acid. For the brave and durable (or those with false teeth) drink now! It is A LOT of wine for the euro - or even for the weak dollar.
[MM] (Later, over dessert...) Hey, it's also great with chocolate cake - quelle surprise!
Brasserie Lebbe, Organic Beer, 'L'Amalthee' ($7.99, 750 ml).
Charles was introduced to Pierre Lebbe by one of his wine producers. Pierre is a goat cheese producer whose family hails from Belgium, which of course has a great beer-making tradition. So he decided to make beer - from organic barley that he grows and malts himself.
[JB] I like beer.
[MM] This one is a cloudy, yellow-gold. I smell a wheaty note, and it tastes malty rather than hoppy. Also lemony. After I swirl it a bit, the aromatic hops start to emerge from behind the barley. There's a little mint/cilantro in there, and a distinct whiff of pine.
[JB] I like beer.
[CA] I definitely get the lemon and the pine and the wheat-esque flora. But better bet is barley. To me, that green bit suggests Italian parsley. It's got great length. Aromatic hops, wild yeast, and a goat on the label - what's not to like?!
[JB] Ummm...Beer.
Confit de la Colline 2001 Côtes de Bergerac Moelleux ($16, 375ml).
Bergerac is one and a half hours by car (unless Charles is driving) from the Sauternes region of Bordeaux and home to the famed Cyrano de Bergerac. This stunning wine is 100% semillon grown on 80 year-old vines. Yes 80!
[CA] Absolutely smashing wine and spectacular value. Sauternes for less! Hot honey, aroma of honeycomb, and heated orange rind. 2nd note: Spectacular value. Sweet fruit with a long, long finish! Cut a Mission fig in half and stuff with a Cambozola or Stilton and warm. Or forget the dessert and just drink the wine. This is the one to buy. It will age gracefully for many years and is only $16.
[MM] Yeah - great balance and persistence. It's good with the Cambozola cheese, tres leches cake, and almond frangipane. Gets a bit lost with lemon tart and a lot lost with chocolate.
[JB] This isn't beer.
Domaine de Semainville NV Aperitif Normand 'Pommeau' ($37).
This stuff is an intriguing blend of Calvados (apple brandy) and apple cider from Normandy, which of course is famous for both. The blend is aged in oak barrels of various sizes.
[MM] Orange appearance. Apples, then oranges, then pear skins. A quick blast of fruit on the palate, then brandy. This is not wine. (Duh!) Very apple-y. (Duh again!)
[CA] A children's aperitif for adults. "Orange-apple apple-apple apple." Gorgeous color. An apple wrapped in a pear skin with a jot of spiced marmalade on top. Yes it is odd, but striking in the glass. Has a wine nose, but drinks like Calvados. Though labeled as dessert wine, it is not sweet. Therefore it should be drunk as an aperitif, as the label also says.
[JB] Is this beer? It doesn't taste like beer. I like beer.
For the second evening of tasting, we were joined by the elegantly technical (and technically elegant) Rebekah Wineburg. Mark provided sautéed some sole and grilled some steak, so that we would have some food to bounce the wines off of.
Chateau Briat Skerzo Vin de liqueur a l'Amagnac ($17).
We tried Skerzo in two glass types and at two points along the tasting trajectory. We first poured it into a short tumbler and added a few ice cubes and a lemon twist. This recipe made for a smashing before-wine-tasting-and-dinner aperitif. Then after we'd tasted all the wines and eaten all the food, we poured Skerzo into Riedel Burgundy glasses and drank it neat. In this capacity, it worked well as a digestif, and the Burgundy glasses really showed off Skerzo's aromatics.
[RW] "Skerzo?" Whazzat?!
[MM] It must be a weirdo spelling of "scherzo", which is Italian for something playful and slightly humorous. This playful "wine from liqueur" is a blend of Armagnac and unfermented grape juice. Before your time at PMW, young lady, we carried a similar southwestern French playful rarity called Floc de Gascogne. Vin de liqueur a l'Amagnac is similar, but it's aged in oak barrels after distillation.
[RW] Who're you calling young?! Anyway, let's try it. (To the clink of ice cubes...) Reminds me of Negroni. The twist of lemon dominates the nose. An ever so slightly bitter note is appealing, and it's not too alcoholic. Some EtOH (editor's note: that's alcohol, for us civilians), but the mouth is surprisingly mellow, with no apparent volatile acidity. Vanillin and honey show evidence of oak aging. Brilliant.
[MM] Ooh, I smell darkness, old barn...venerable, old wood. It's very balanced on the palate - doesn't seem super-alcoholic. There's a touch of sweetness. (Then after the meal, in a Burgundy glass.) Dried apples and applejack. Viscous and full, but light on its feet.
Château de l'Hospital 2001 Graves Blanc ($17).
Okay, we've heard all the "Hospital to Graves" jokes by now. (Around PMW, we just say that this wine is good for what ails ya'.) Graves is in southern Bordeaux, just south of the city of Bordeaux, and d'Hospital is the name of the family who originally owned the château. The white wines from Graves are a blend of sauvignon blanc and semillon - in this case 23% and 77%, respectively.
[CA] Earth and Meyer lemon. Bigger than last year's model, with more leg room. This semillon-dominated wine is decidedly unctuous and plump in the mid-palate and long on the finish.
[MM] Yeah, it's amazing how much more serious of a wine this is than in the 2000 vintage. I smell flowers and perfume, then citrus and a slight smoky note. Definite wood. Loads o' body, viscosity, and complexity. It's too heavy for the sole - maybe I shoulda got scallops.
[RW] ...or fois gras!
Domaine Pinson 2002 Chablis 1er Cru 'La Forêt' ($25).
Chablis, being in the northern-most and therefore coolest part of Burgundy, makes the most steely, minerally, and pure of chardonnays. Domaine Pinson has vineyards in all three Chablis classifications: village (Appellation Communale), Premier Cru (La Forêt), and Grand Cru (Les Clos), and we are lucky to carry them all.
[CA] Initially compact and concentrated, this wine needed only a dozen minutes to show off the great fruit.... lemon oil in a coconut shell, poured through an oak straw and garnished with wet minerals - no, you wouldn't want to eat this - but drink it absolutely! A great bargain in Premier Cru white Burgundy.
[RW] "Wow" was the first thing I wrote. Full nose of creamy caramel, ripe pear, and condensed milk. Opulent, yet with all this, a crisp acidity maintains the balance. "Wow" was the last thing I wrote, too!
[MM] Now this is the wine for Petrale sole!
Domaine Pinson 2002 Chablis Grand Cru 'Le Clos' ($50).
[CA] Smoky. Brooding in its golden hue. Few wines are this closed and simultaneously promise so much. After 30 minutes, this glass finally opened. Spearmint fronds help aerate the whirls of ripe lemon sorbet and honeyed corn that extend this amazing Grand Cru white Burgundy. If this wine were a weather pattern, it would be a distant hurricane, and instead of causing disaster, it would cut your front lawn and trim the hedges with perfect authority and precision. Hold this wine for up to 20 years, or drink now and say 'wow'....
[RW] Middle of the Oreo cookie. This wine developed more wet mineral components as the night progressed and showed great structure and tannin that will allow it to age gracefully. (The next day...) I picked up a few bottles of each Pinson for my cellar!
Château la Clotte-Fontaine 2001 Coteaux du Languedoc 'Mathiérou' ($9.99).
The Languedoc sweeps southwest from Nîmes, just west of the Rhône River, to the Pyrenees Mountains. This part of France is close enough to Spain to engender a passion for bullfighting - a passion that Château la Clotte-Fontaine proprietor Philippe Pagès has fed to the point of raising fighting bulls. Philippe and his wife Maryline bought this 15th century château in the 1990s, and immediately set out to make first-rate, Rhône-style wines from grenache and syrah. They unquestionably have succeeded - la Clotte-Fontaine wines are among the most elegant inexpensive wines in Charles's portfolio.
[MM] Red fruits, excellent mid-palate acidity. Root beer and sweet fruit. Too wimpy for the New York strip steak, but just right with the lighter fillet mignon.
[CA] Use this baby like you would a Rhône. Hey Middlebrook, send some more sausages down this way!
Château La Coustarelle 2001 Cahors 'Cuvée Normale' ($9.99).
Cahors sits north of Toulouse, midway between Bordeaux and the Languedoc. The grape varietal here is malbec - currently trendy from Argentina, but they've been doing it in Cahors since Roman times! The Cuvée Normale has 20% merlot, which softens out the rambunctious malbec just a touch.
[MM] Red and black fruits, grass and hay, with oak notes. Balanced, with a moderate amount of well-integrated tannins. Have with a steak and steer clear of seriousness spiceness.
[CA] Weren't we talking about Hemingway a few nights ago? And here we are drinking his favorite wine....
Clos Lapeyre 2001 Jurançon 'Sélection' ($15, 375ml).
Jurançon is in the southwestern corner of southwestern France - go much farther southwest and you're in the Spanish Basque Country! Here they make dry ("sec") wines from gros manseng and sweet dessert wines from petit manseng - two variants of the same grape varietal. We tasted the sweet version.
[RW] Candied tropical fruits, in which pineapple dominates.
[CA] Candied papaya and honeycomb. Pineapple Rex. I want to serve this wine in magnum to be sure that everyone gets some and that everyone "gets" it. This is a wonderful departure for those of you who love Riesling and Chenin Blanc (I am wholeheartedly in that group too!), but this wine is bizarrely compelling and so fits with Charles's eclectic but fine-tuned palate. A rebellious glass to be sure.
Charles Neal and his portfolio of wines are moving targets, as are the selection of Charles's wines that we stock in the store. We currently carry these additional wines from Charles Neal Selections:
Château la Clotte-Fontaine 2003 Coteaux du Languedoc rosé 'Louise' ($8.99): Classic inexpensive, dry, southern French rosé.
Château la Barbanau 2003 Côtes de Provence rosé ($11.99): Superb bone-dry, minerally, light, Provencal rosé.
Domaine de Pellehaut 2003 Côtes de Gascogne ($7.99).
Château Tour de Mirambeau 2003 Bordeaux Blanc ($9.99): Sauvignon blanc-based white Bordeaux.
Château de la Colline Bergerac (rouge) ($10.99): Full-bodied merlot/cabernet blend with some oak.
Domaine des Coteaux des Travers Rasteau ($11.99): Côtes du Rhône.
Château la Clotte-Fontaine 2001 Coteaux du Languedoc 'Crémailh' ($13.99): A cuvée with more syrah and more oak than the Mathiérou described earlier in this article.
Domaine Berthoumieu 2001 Madiran 'Cuvée Charles de Batz' ($17): Another great steak wine by another leading producer from Madiran.
As always, we invite you to come into the store and ask us about the wines mentioned in this newsletter. Charles has matched the wines from his producers to our store (with some additional editing on our part). Now it's our job to match the wines to your palate and meal.
For more information about Charles Neal Selections wines, Armagnacs, Cognacs , and Calvados (as well as Charles's books), visit his Web site: http://charlesnealselections.com/.
We publish newsletters approximately once per month (or sometimes every other month, or occasionally every few months...) and send them out via e-mail. In addition, we post all issues of the newsletter, plus maps and photographs, on paulmarcuswines.com. If you like what you've read so far, then sign up for e-mail delivery of future newsletters. Send an e-mail message to info@paulmarcuswines.com or use our sign-up sheet next to the cash register in the store. And don't worry - we will never, ever sell, rent, or give away your e-mail address.
Our next issue will feature the great wines of Piemonte: Barolo and Barbaresco.
