Monday, February 19, 2007

Mind opening

I am back from a 15 days trip to Singapore and Japan, and this after 24 hours of taxi, waiting room, flight (14 hrs!).

During my trip to Japan, and with the team of a small chain of gourmet stores specialized in wine, I promoted a wine I don’t speak much about: Château Jacques Blanc L’Apogée 2000 and 2001. This wine was, for 2 vintages, my foray into the world of biodynamic and in Bordeaux, with our oceanic wet climate, it is a challenge.

To make my point clear, I said that these wines were 100% biodynamic.
In fact, this property was for a long time organic before becoming biodynamic and the people running it were quite serious about it. In addition, we were able to chose a neutral room for cellar which had never been used for wine, and put our full attention into cleanliness, purity of the grapes, 100% new barrels, vinification without adding sulphure dioxide (natural yeast, malo in barrels), no filtration, no fining… all of that allowed us to say with a bit provocation that it was 105%, for in our society of performance, we always need more! And as I was answering a question which implied that often organic and biodynamic wines were deceiving despite (or more because of) being made by “fundamentalist” winemakers, the manager assured me that he chose this wine not for the label Demeter but simply because he liked the wine. Bravo to distributors capable, still today, to function without needing a lower price or an established notoriety to buy and sell well our wines. This same distributor also carries: Valandraud, Virginie de Valandraud, 3 de Valandraud, Clos Léo 2004 and Caroline de Clos Léo 2004.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I have not tasted l'Apogee but was a big admirer of the 2000 Jacques Blancs Cuvee du Maitre -- delicious. Unfortunately, the distributor who brought this wine to Chicago discontinued importing it. I hope to taste it again, as well as the l'Apogee.