WTN: José Michel, Loew, Amirault, Masini, Čotar

Today I was invited to taste the range of a new importer in Finland, the aptly named (for my tastes) Funky Wine Imports. All the usual caveats of tasting hurriedly in a crowded environment do not apply because I am infallible and can provide utterly unreliable TNs in any condition at all. :rolleyes:

Champagne José Michel & Fils, Moussy was an interesting Champagne house, that I hadn’t even heard of before! I’ve been missing something very interesting. Though these are a weightier style than I usually like in Champs, these were exciting and interesting in that Meunier brought such a unique character to these wines.

Brut Carte Blanche NV is a mix of 70% Pinot Meunier and 30% Chardonnay. It is a rather generous style of Champagne with much earthy fruit, but good supporting structure. Very nice, though it is a heavy style (I tend to prefer Bl de Bl).

Pinot Meunier NV smells of red apples and earth – a rather unique profile for Champagne in my experience, but I guess that’s because I have hardly ever before tasted so many where the Meunier is the dominant force. The wines don’t go through malo, which I am sure partly explains how such a full bodied, and potentially even cumbersome wine stays so crisp and manages keeps the exuberant fruit in check.

Extra Brut NV 60%PM, 40%Ch; 2g/l dosage. The nose is one of the earthiest I have smelled in a Champagne (but not mushroomy in the way that old Champagne can be) with lots of red fruit. This is again a very full bodied wine but is also very lively. It seems to be true of all the Champagnes on show, that they provide a very exciting drinking experience because they bring together opposites into a very harmonious package.

Blanc de Blancs 2001 is, as seems to be the house style, a very weighty wine and though it is crisp I don’t find it elegant and understated as the best BdBs are, but rather a sweetly fruity and opulent wine. I’m glad this didn’t go through malo as I imagine that would have been too rich for me.

Brut Rosé NV 50/50 PN/PM – is this the only Champagne of Michel’s that uses Pinot Noir? This is attractively earthy and opulent like all their wines, but very clean and floral (I just love the paradoxes of having a clean and earthy scent, lol, but I guess such paradoxes are what makes the most interesting wines!). This was also a very palatable Champagne, but I do find that the dosage might have been a bit high as there was a faint touch of sweetness which I felt would ideally have not been there. But I’ll never turn down a glass of this if someone wants to give me one!

Millésime 1998 60% Ch + 40% PM. Something was a bit off, but it was too fruity to have been cork. Nice structure, though. I’ll have to try a good bottle some day.

Spécial Club 2000 PM/Ch 50/50, from over 70yo vines. A deep, red toned and earthy nose with some nice nutty and citrussy aromas – the PM doesn’t overwhelm the Chardonnay elements. Weighty but lively, this is a delightful drink.



Etienne Loew, Westohoffen, Alsace is also a new name for me and I fell in love with the wines. I think I like this importer!

Riesling Muschelkalk 2006 was a very pure style, floral, ripe but citrussy, elegant. Dry but with good fruit, pure and long. Very nice!

Muscat Les Marnes Vertes 2006 was true to the grape, but it was a very elegant and mineral variant of the theme and not as weighty as some can be. Dry, mineral, delightful.

Pinot Gris Cormier 2006 is spicy and glue-like, red toned and mineral. It might have a touch of RS but I still think it would be versatile on the table. Great stuff if you like PG!

Pinot Gris Bruderbach Clos Marienberg 2006 was a more elegant, more poised, drier seeming variant of the Cormier. Wonderful.



Yannick Amirault, Bourgueil & St. Nicolas de Bourgueil, Loire

La Mine 2006 was a delightfully vibrant yet ripe wine, juicy and very true to the grape.

Le Grand Clos 2006 smelled a bit barriquey (is it really?) but not even that could destroy the lovely Cab Franc aromatics. Not bad, but I’d go for La Mine right now as I didn’t sense new oak in that one.



Cosimo Maria Masini, San Miniato, Toscana

Annick 2006 is a blend of 80% Chardonnay and 20% Sauvignon Blanc. The SB dominates the nose now, with a grassy freshness. The palate is a bit more plump than SB might make but is still very refreshing. No oak. Attractive!

Nicole 2005 is 90% Sangiovese and 10% Cab Sauv. This is delightfully red toned in fruit, with a warm Sangiovese character, a bit rusty, but lively and juicy. Very enjoyable.

Nicolò 2004 is almost totally Cab S, with a tiny bit of Cab F mixed in. It smells of Barrique and ripe fruit with a touch of herbaceousness. Nicely tannic, but I’m not sure why all that oak and why make Cab in Tuscany? It is a well made wine, but I find it a bit pointless for my tastes.


Čotar, Gorjansko, Kras, Slovenia

Dražna 2005 is 40% Malvazija, 30% Vitovska and 15% each of Sauv and Chard. It is quite an intriguing wine, a bit cloudy (”natural” winemaking), with a rather wild character despite a great purity of fruit. Vibrant, acidic, a bit tropical but very refreshing. Great stuff!

Malvazija 2003 is again a pretty wild wine, funky but with a deep yet savoury scent of rose-water. Minerally and vibrant and shows little signs of the overly hot summer. Quite wonderful.

Sauvignon Blanc 2004 is a touch tropical, but earthy and funky, yet paradoxically very clean and pure in its aromas. It is hard to find much Sauvignon character in it, but it is a unique wine that I find immensely interesting and satisfying. I wish all SB were as interesting as this!

Teran 2006 is the name for Refosco. This smells like wet earth, tobacco, herbs and dark fruit. Juicy, lively, exhilirating, life reaffirming. Low alcohol (11,5% iirc), too, which is nice.

Terra Rossa 2000 40% each of Teran and Merlot, 20% Cab S. Aged in big barrels for many years, this smells delightfully oxidative like an old style Rioja, yet is darker in fruit (in fact seems rather Merlot-dominant just now). Like their other wines, it is vibrant and juicy and cries out for food and is very moreish.

What a fun tasting, and great to see someone import such marginal but genuinely interesting stuff.

-O

Otto,

I overlooked this thread until you drew attention to it in another. Perhaps it was because all the headlined names were completely unfamiliar except for Amirault, an old standby.

I looked up Moussy in my Michelin atlas and discovered that it is just south of Epernay. Do you know if José Michel is a négociant or récoltant manipulant? If the latter, his wines presumably come mainly from Moussy where the slopes are less famous than at Cramant, le Mesnil, etc. I wonder if the weighty style comes from the high proportion of Pinot Meunier or from the Moussy terroir. The Pinot Meunier NV (100% presumably) must be close to unique and sounds unusual; I would love to experience what PM gives on its own.

The other three newbies (to me) all sound well worth looking out for. This looks like an enterprising importer. Are any of these likely to find their way onto Alko's shelves or will they be confined to restaurants?

P.S. I have found the French only website of José Michel http://www.champagne-jose-michel.com/ and infer, though it is not actually stated, that he is indeed a récoltant-manipulant producing from his own vines in Moussy.

I looked up Moussy in my Michelin atlas and discovered that it is just south of Epernay. Do you know if José Michel is a négociant or récoltant manipulant? If the latter, his wines presumably come mainly from Moussy where the slopes are less famous than at Cramant, le Mesnil, etc. I wonder if the weighty style comes from the high proportion of Pinot Meunier or from the Moussy terroir. The Pinot Meunier NV (100% presumably) must be close to unique and sounds unusual; I would love to experience what PM gives on its own.

Wow! A reply! Michel is a r-m.I thought at first that the weight would be the house style, but Champagne aficionado Steven Pritchard said that that is what is expected from Marne. I know of only one other 100% PM: Jerome Prévost La Closerie Les Beguines NV. That also had a slightly earthy/deliciously dirty (oxymoron, I know, but I can't think of how else to describe the scent) notes that I found in these Michels. It is certainly an interesting grape, and as a bit of a funk-head I would like to see more of it!

The other three newbies (to me) all sound well worth looking out for. This looks like an enterprising importer. Are any of these likely to find their way onto Alko's shelves or will they be confined to restaurants?

I talked with the importer and he might be able to list some in the special order selection. I would be very happy even with that, though it does mean the wines will be even more expensive than they would be otherwise in the normal selection.

-O

Otto: Those Slovenian wines sound intriguing!

My sister married a man who is 1/2 Pakistani via London and 1/2 Slovenian via Kentucky. As the economy tanks and things look grim here, they always talk about taking advantage of his EU passport. He is a techie executive, so he can travel.

[David M. Bueker]

The fact that there is a Pinot Meunier Champagne in there gets my interest (again the producers meant nothing to me, so in my haste I had passed this thread by). I will look for it.

The Cotar wines sound really interesting, Otto. I thought the same about Movia until I had 2 corked bottles of the Ribolla!!
I think I posted elsewhere on some new-name champers I have just come across? No reaction from anyone.

Otto

Like others it was only Amirault's Loires that I knew but was attracted by the description of the grower champagne.

We buy a 100% Pinot Meunier champagne from Chateau de Boursault, the estate that La Veuve Clicquot bought for herself and her family - very pretty, at Boursault, outside Epernay.

Oddly Alain Bernot, who is very helpful and pleasant and runs the champagne operation [and is the brother-in-law of the current owner], does not show it on their website alongside the rest [6] of his range including an interesting Brut Rose de Saignee which is 50/50 PN/PM. His wines feature in the Guide Hachette and have been starred. We like them..... along with too many others of course.

We buy a 100% Pinot Meunier champagne from Chateau de Boursault, the estate that La Veuve Clicquot bought for herself and her family - very pretty, at Boursault, outside Epernay.

Good to find yet one more name for Meunier Champagne! I have become very intrigued by this and the other lesser known grapes of the area after tasting these champagnes and a lovely Arbanne.

For potential Slovenia fans, here is Tom Cannavan's article + TNs on a number of Slovenians including Čotar.

-O

José Michel's wines are absolutely bizarre [in a young wine, that Pinot Meunier can taste like sparkling pine sap].

And apparently they have a reputation of being able to age just about forever.

We stock the 100% pinot meunier from Michel, and we love it. I find it lacks the focus of a "normal" cuvee, but it is also wonderfully soft. Whenever I taste it I develop a sudden craving for a really good roast chicken.

Major hat-tip to Michel for making this wine from the grape whose presence seems to embarrass most Champagne houses.

NB: Pinot meunier may be called "obscure," but it is nonetheless the most widely planted grape in Champagne.

Hey Otto, re: Cabernet in Tuscany:

As written on another board, good question, I guess it has a lot to do with enologic consultants, the success of the so called super-tuscans and many (re)planted vineyards with the support of eu-subsidies in the period of 2000-06.

I can't speak for others, but when I ended up taking care of our vineyards in southern tuscany we had two plots planted with, you guessed it right, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon (although the major surface is planted with Sangiovese).
Seeing the capacity of well-grown Malvasia Nera and Mammolo I was prone to regraft. Too much work in putting the abandoned vineyards back to shape and financial restrictions kept me from it, however.

Nowadays, I am quite happy now that we didn't do so. We cuddle our microbes in the vineayrds as good as we can because we depend on them and their capacities during the winemaking. Together with keeping interventions as low as possible during the winemaking we hope that the soil will mark the variety and not the other way around.

Time will tell how good this works in our place with our vines, but seeing how the wines develop I am quite confident.