Lyle Fass moves on to some whites in this latest installment of Real Wine for Hard Times.
2007 Domaine de la Pépière (Marc Ollivier) Muscadet de Sèvre-et-Maine Sur Lie Vieilles Vignes Clos des Briords $15.99
2007 Fontezoppa Verdicchio di Matelica $12.99
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April 10th, 2009 at 2:25 am
Great to see you drink the des Briords on camera. I just love this wine, as well. Good stuff. Is it as good in other years?
April 10th, 2009 at 7:54 am
Enjoy your wine reviews. Would like to see you taste all the wines, instead of cutting off in the middle to be continued.
April 10th, 2009 at 11:19 am
Hey Susan, we shot the first few that way but the rest will not show wines that aren’t being reviewed in that segment. Thanks for watching.
April 10th, 2009 at 2:26 pm
Thanks Adam–looking forward to further reviews!
April 10th, 2009 at 6:35 pm
John and Susan B.
Thanks for watching. I was waaaaay too long-winded in the first shoot so that is why we divided it up. As Adam says the future ones will be tighter.
This is how I rank the recent Briords bottlings.
2002 (I still have a bottle!)
2004
2007
2005
2006
2001
April 15th, 2009 at 10:23 pm
Lyle – Really enjoyed your review… and your style. Completely disarming, as it should be. This was my first introduction to OWJ so I immediately felt welcome. Nice job.
Also appreciate your candor and ability to describe these wines in a way I can understand them. Swimming pool, dirty, mineral, rain, etc. I was right there with you as you were experiencing the wine.
I’m looking forward to seeing more of your reviews, and continuing to be educated and entertained.
One quick note about ‘aging on the lees’. As the yeast complete their mission and fall to their death, they preciptate down, not up. You may have been thinking of grape skins in red wine fermentation that travel to the top of the tank to form the ‘cap.’ During fementation, the yeast burp out CO2 as they convert sugar into alcohol and that CO2 causes the grape skins in red wine to travel to the top of the tank. In white wine fermentation, there are no skins present so no cap forms. In both red and white wine fermentation the dead yeast cells fall to the bottom and become ‘the lees’. (The lees look and feel like a sandy, silky sludge). In white wine, the lees may get stirred from time to time to impart more of a yeasty flavor to the wine – totally the winemakers decision. Similarly, the cap in a red wine will get ‘punched down’ two or three times a day to impart taste, color and mouthfeel (phenols).
One thing is for certain – if you like the smell of bread baking, imagine that smell with your favorite apricot, cherry, or blueberry jam already mixed in and that is the glorius aroma that grapes and yeast give us during primary fermentation. Everyone should smell it at least once in their lives, either by making their own wine at home or visiting a winery during fermentation. But beware the CO2 – it’s been known to knock people unconscious.
April 15th, 2009 at 10:33 pm
This is the first time I’ve watched this and I’ll be sure to be back to watch all the others. I’ve had a different vintage of the muscadet and really liked it. It must have been at a wine tasting in Tokyo so I forget the year but remember the acidity, the character, and (as you said) how freakin’ awesome it would be with oysters.