Julien Zernott and sons during construction

We found him at ViniSud in 2007. Then word spread like a Michelin 3-star wildfire from L’Astrance and Robouchon in Paris to arguably the greatest restaurant in the world — Michel Bras in LaGuiole.

Julien Zernott and his Pas de L’Escalette created quite a stir. Most of the noise surrounded a tiny production bottling he simply called “Le Grand Pas.” This blend of old-vine Grenache and Carignane with a splash of Syrah, grown on amazingly fragile, light, crumbling limestone in a forgotten parcel in Languedoc, has something we’ve never seen in the region — Chateauneuf-like concentration with a distinctly northern, almost Cote Rotie-like elegance and vibrancy.

While that first 2004 was superb, and the 2005 a terrifically structured follow-up, the recently released 2006 has it all — deep purple fruit lushness, muscle and a finish that goes on forever. It’s the most startling bottle to date from Zernott. Why? Because in this warm growing season, the old-vine Grenache and Carignane burrowed more than 30 feet (!) underground, searching out precious water reserves. While other vines in the south struggled with thirst, the old vines on these ancient terraces flourished, offering up a wine of tremendous richness and great length. The 2006 is Julien’s masterwork. Read the rest of this entry »

The Vineyards of Red Mountain

When Aryn Morell returned to his native Washington, he had to re-calibrate. The talented young winemaker had spent years in Napa working for Silver Oak before joining a team of enologists at a Napa Valley consultancy. When he took over at Matthews Estate, he was determined to draw the same explosive fruit from Red Mountain Cabernet. On his return, he realized that Washington viticulture was 20 years behind Napa, but he was having none of it.

Over the course of the last three decades, the top producers in Napa have taken vineyard management to an extreme, keeping plants in perfect balance, restricting yields, thus lengthening and rounding out tannins. All of the quality fruit is bought by the acre — not by the ton — often for staggering numbers.

The 2006 Matthews Estate “Claret” is the first wine Aryn finished at Matthews. It’s made from Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot harvested from Red Mountain and the Royal Slope’s most heralded vineyards — all of the fruit was purchased by the acre, not by the ton. Even so, when Aryn first tasted the 2006 wines from barrel, his quality bar remained that of Napa. So, despite the colossal cost of grapes, he couldn’t find the explosiveness he expected from a $50 bottle. So, he went to the owners, his partners, and said. “We can make a tiny bit of great wine and some good wine. Or, we can make a couple thousand cases of some very, very good wine. What will it be?”

The owners at Matthews are in for the long haul. That’s why Aryn took the job. So the answer was simple — even if the math wasn’t.

Here’s the arithmetic. Washington’s growers want to sell by the ton. Crop levels are left naturally high. No green harvest, no restriction of yields. Tannins are often hard (that’s why you find Washington’s Cabernet tough!), but that’s the winemaker’s problem. So, the growers get 4-5 tons at $2,000 to $3,500 per ton. Enter the top winemakers, guys like Bob Betz at Betz Family Winery, Christophe Baron from Cayuse, or Aryn Morell at Matthews. They pay by the acre, but because they are the exception to the rule, they pay through the nose: as much as $14,000 acre?!?! As much as top-shelf Napa fruit.

Aryn won. Matthews made 1800 cases of a single wine in 2006, a wine they simply call “Claret.” This is a beautifully crafted Bordeaux blend that sits somewhere between the solid structure of Medoc and, yes, the opulence that is the benchmark for any winemaker who spent time at Silver Oak. The fruit? Wonderfully aromatic and structured Merlot and Cabernet Franc from Hedges Vineyard and Cabernet Sauvignon from the steep slopes of Stillwater Creek — all purchased for $8,000/acre and up!

Tasting Notes from the WineAccess Travel Log

“Deep purple color. Deep structured cassis and red fruit aromas with a hint of tobacco. Rich and beautifully balanced on the palate. Plenty of mouthcoating concentration in perfect harmony with a solid, sturdy, firm finish. Tannins are present but ripe. Excellent freshness and vibrancy. Drink now for the bright fruit lushness or age for up to 7 years in a cool cellar.”

Domaine de la Ville Rouge

We’re always on the lookout for this. Historically, some of the very best vineyards are tended by growers who don’t bottle their wine. This fruit carries a heavy premium and ends up in the hands of the top bottlers, houses like Guigal and Chapoutier in the Rhone. Just a splash of the juice from these secret sources can completely transform otherwise ordinary cuvees.

From time to time, an unusually talented son returns from enology school and convinces his parents that it’s time for the family to bottle its own. In our experience, this often signals the birth of a “new” great estate. It’s in the very first releases from such estates that we discover unbelievable value. As the wines have no track record, prices are generally subdued. That’s what we discovered this winter when one of the top sommeliers in the region pointed us to Ville Rouge and the Girard family’s prized Syrah holdings on the galets roules of Mercurol. Read the rest of this entry »

Shypoke Charbono

When we first tasted Peter Heitz’s Charbono, we were actually tasting a spectacular lineup of super-concentrated Napa Valley wines from winemaker Bob Foley. Foley’s the guy who pushed Pride Mountain into the Napa Valley 99 point club. But amidst the hugely extracted Foley wines was an absolutely delicious, utterly gulpable red fruit beauty — a wine unlike anything we’d ever tasted from Napa. We did a little research on the mysterious variety and then on the cool, Calistoga vineyard source and noticed that the growers, the Heitz family, made their own Charbono, so we went out looking for the Real McCoy. What we found not only blew us away, it became one of the true cult-wine discoveries in WineAccess’s short history.

Peter and his family farm just seven acres of Charbono — that’s 11% of the world’s plantings! Half goes to Bob Foley, so the entire production of Shypoke Charbono is less than 500 cases. Read the rest of this entry »