WINE
IN a week when I saw an ale house being reopened as a ‘terroir-pub’, because it will stock local ingredients, I thought I’d include some wines with a definite sense of place.
Terroir is word that may be in danger of being used too much. In reviewing a restaurant with the word terroir in its title, food critic Jay Rayner (a reverse wine snob if ever there was one) declared the term nonsense; a mere marketing tool created for the ailing French wine industry.
But terroir doesn’t really mean anything much more than the idea that wines can be some kind of expression or even just a product of the place where they are made.
The soil, the weather and the cellar where the wine was fermented could all legitimately be part of what terroir is.
It is something that can’t necessarily be said of beer or whisky, for example, which can be made pretty much anywhere so long as you have the ingredients.
There are some wine writers who doubt the usefulness of the term and they put the accent on the skills of the winemaker without whom the wine wouldn’t exist.
Nevertheless, people are prepared to pay large sums of money for wines that come from particular places.
Recently I tried three Beaujolais wines, all from the stellar 2015 vintage, which carry a ‘lieu dit’ on the bottle – literally said-location.
Rather than just identify an appellation, these lieux dits are very specific, denoting small plots of vines.
Like Alsace, Beaujolais is interesting in terms of soil types which can contain higher levels of minerals and more granite.
A Cru Beaujolais from, say Moulin a Vent, can taste radically different from bog-standard Beaujolais. ALEXANDRE Burgaud Beaujolais-Villages ‘Lantignié’ 2015 (Berry Brothers & Rudd £10.95) Alexandre Burgaud is the cousin of Beaujolais legend Jean-Marc Burgaud and has old vines in the lieu dit of ‘Lantignié’. Growers regard it highly and it may become a cru of its own one day, partially due to its exceptional soils which are similar in composition to that of the Côte de Py in Morgon.
There’s a big note of cherries, violets and a little graphite on the nose. There’s most definitely a mineral aspect to the fruit which is, as with most 2015 Beaujolais, fullbodied. BROUILLY ‘Pisse Vieille’, Domaine Lathuilière-Gravallon 2015 (Corney & Barrow, £12.95)
The title of this lieu dit is derived from the legend of an old woman who went to confession but misinterpreted the new priest’s command to ‘sin no more’ as ‘pee no more’ – pecher and pisse sound similar. Her husband tried to clear the confusion up by going to see the priest and yelled to her in the street: ‘Pisse Vieille’ – ‘pee old lady, the priest said it’s okay.’
The French ones are always the best.
As to how this wine tastes there is no clue in the name. In fact, the nose is very floral around the blueberries and raspberries while the palate is sweetish and rounded. FLEURIE La Roilette “Cuvee Vieilles Vignes”, Dom Métrat et Fils 2015 (Twelve Green Bottles, £14.99)
Fleurie is often noted for its linear supple style but this example from the lieu dit La Roilette still packs a punch with a spicy nose and fullbodied fruit.
Historically the Roilette cru was actually part of Moulin-à-Vent, to which it borders, but was moved to Fleurie when the Fleurie appellation was established in 1920. These old vines were planted in the 1920s and 30s.
Wines can be some kind of expression of the place where they are made...