The Wine Importer

Tomorrow the Sancerrois

Got to get up at 6 am and it is already 12:54 here in Poil Rouge. So much to do. So much to blog.

I'll be touring the Loire for about two weeks so I don't expect to be posting anything here. But do feel free to call me on my mobile phone during my trip.

Now, if I could only find a Pouilly-Fumé producer who harvests by hand....

Classic Cult Champagne and Coteau Champenois from David Léclapart

Léclapart is a young guy in biodynamie, not to be confused with cosmoculture, who makes some of the greatest Champagne I have ever tasted. Léclapart works out of the tiny 1er cru Trépail in the Côtes du Blanc. And that Coteau Champenois....

Great work in the vineyards, a vineyard that is on the scale of a little garden. No dosage, minimal sulphur, no industrial yeasting, real wine vinification, completed malos, and gobs and gobs of finesse, elegance and class.

This is not a mainstream Champagne, nor similar to all the récoltants-manipulants flooding the market. This is best of Selosse taken to the extreme! If you understand what Selosse taken to the extreme might mean then you will want to get a hold of some of this wine.

There will be three cuvée of Vintage 1999 -- Cuvée l'Amateau, Cuvée L'Artiste and the sensational Cuvée l'Apôte. There will also be L'Eden Coteau Champenois Rouge, an absurdly beautiful expression of Pinot Noir from 51 year old vines. All of which are vintage 1999.

This is a new estate and despite its size, 80 percent is still sold to négociant. We are delighted to be working with David Léclapert and expect the wines to make their way to America by late November. The quantities are tiny, we are paying the producer up-front, and the pricing is sky-high.

Make Mine Cosmoculture

Why stop at biodynamie when you can have Cosmoculture?

Domaine Viret has built a Romanesque Abbey of a Wine Cellar in the middle of splendid vineyards in St-Maurice Côtes-du-Rhône Village. The picture does not do the structure justice -- it is breathtakingly beautiful. Beautiful, compelling and strange.

Yes, there are Menhir in the vines to direct energy.

Yes, the placement and architecture of the cellar are designed to maximize cosmic forces using well known principals of cosmoculture.

Yes, the Grenache reaches ripeness and this is an estate to watch.

The wines will be available on August 21st at retailers near you.

Be the first geek on the block to imbibe cosmoculturally.

The Domaine Viret Côtes-du-Rhône St. Maurice Cuvée Renaissance 1999 will run about $15.99.

The Domaine Viret Côtes-du-Rhône St. Maurice Cuvée Maréotis 1999 will run about $19.99.

What the difference between the two cuvées? Varietal composition and vine age.

You've probably never heard of this appellation. Fear not, no one has. The entire AOC is dominated by a coop that makes standard stuff. Viret's 1999 is their first vintage and hopefull St. Maurice will soon be as well known as Cairanne, Rasteau, etc.

The only Americans who have tasted these wines (prior to Vinexpo) are myself, Robert Callahan (a long-time supporter of Cosmoculture), Peter Vezan, some Canadian wine agent who lives in Paris, and various other wine business flotsam and jetsam.

For better or worse, Louis/Dressner Selections is the first to import the wine.

Available at a retail shop near you on August 21st.

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