Real Wine Road Rage Highlights It is always great to get out of a salon, on the road, into the vines and into the cellars. Somehow, all these salons reduce wine to product, it is as if you are buying used cars or widgets, as you are surrounded by 100s of booths and 100s of vignerons wearing ill-fitting tweed jackets to make them look fit for international export. So, we took off Wednesday and dove into the Clos Rougeard cellar, where parts of the cellar and much of the vines date to the early 17th century. Those vintages are sold out and they have had to replant since. This estate believes in long elevages and the 2003 are first coming into the market. So we tasted through a range of hot vintages....2003, 1997 and 1990 to get an idea of the possible development of these wines. The Foucault brothers have vines which have been ploughed and worked for a few centuries and they, like many of the other best growers, did not have the problems of stress and low yields that many of their neighbors had in 2003. Taste the 1997s now, or the 1990s and you see where these 2003s will go. There is material and generosity, and although acidity is technically lower, there is still the backbone for these wines to last. Maybe not 70 years, but they will certainly age well over the next 34 years. Then we were off Wednesday night to the Clos du Tue Boeuf to eat the same menu served at the harvester's meal featured this past October in the New York Times. A delicious boeuf bourguignon, a great range of local goat cheeses, and a beautiful range of magnums from the estate's wine library. I've never seen their wine library, but I only hear great things about the collection. The evening's highlight was when three sheep broke into the dining room and ate the crumbs gathered on the floor under Bay Area restaurateur John Mark. The French countryside is a fascinating place. Next day, up nice and early for a morning tasting at Tue Boeuf. Jean-Marie and Thierry Puzelat guided us through the range of 2005s available in bottle and the 2006s which will be bottled over the next few months. There is a range of crazy grape varieties and vineyard sites which make unique, tasty and natural wines. These are wines to slurp and for celebration. From there we went across the street to Thierry's negociant business, where his team does the hand harvesting in the plots he vinifies. Great stuff, great cot, great menu pineau, great pineau d'aunis. Thierry Puzelat and Didier Barouillet have helped lead a renaissance in this area and every year there seems to be a new hipster vigneron in the Touraine and Cheverny. So, next we were off to the Clos Roche Blanche to taste with Didier Baroillet and Catherine Roussel. The 2006 whites have both high acidity and high alcohol, and Didier said he has never seen a vintage like this before. They are wines which will keep and just the right balance to age beautifully. The reds are lower in acidity and at normal alcohol and you want to put a straw in the glass and take them down in one long sip. They may not be long agers but they will provide great immediate pleasure. We ended the day by eating at a local ferme auberge which will soon be featured in Food and Wine Magazine.
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