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French Case, Wine Club, March 2012

French Case, Wine Club, March 2012
Product: W00195 Wine Club Exclusive Mixed Case
Cellared Case Size: 1
French Case, Wine Club, March 2012
Wine Club Members' exclusive. Find out more about the benefits of a Wine Club membership.
This mixed case is available for delivery to Wine Club Members from the week commencing 19th March 2012.
Pack Contents
Unit Size Qty
2008 Red, keep
Le Haut Medoc de Branaire Ducru -- Château Branaire-Ducru -- France
Cab.Sauvignon Blend, 13% alc.
It would seem at the moment that every wine the team at Ch. Branaire Ducru produce is a star! Showing as much St Julien characteristics on the nose as Haut Medoc. The palate is endowed with enough fresh, juicy, ripe fruit to feel modern and approachable on the palate but not too much so as to feel it has to make up for lacking structure. The frame of this wine is quite fine and the tannins are malleable. Drinking well now but with the acidity and weight to see three or four years in the cellar.
(Gary Owen, BBR Fine Wine)

Château Branaire-Ducru is situated on the opposite side of the road from Château Beychevelle in the south of the St-Julien appellation. The estate makes a second wine, Ch Duluc, and now also makes this Haut-Médoc, drawn from young vines and from plots just outside the St Julien appellation. The objective is to make a wine which shares some of the attention to detail and the sheer class of Branaire Ducru, but in a much more approachable style which can be drunk young.
(Alun Griffiths MW - BBR Buyer)

Bottle
75 cl 		2
2008 Red, drink-or-keep
Beaune, Les Pertuisots, 1er Cru, Domaine Jean-Yves Devevey -- Jean-Yves Devevey -- France
Pinot Noir, 13% alc.
Beaune providers terrific value premier cru wines, thus far escaping the inflation in prices of the Côte de Nuits.

From humble beginnings, Jean-Yves Devevey has developed a small but perfectly formed domaine making both red and white wines. Jean-Yves started with a small holding of basic Bourgogne Rouge and Aligoté from modest locations and nothing but a shed behind the house to work in. Through hard work and considerable skill he has built up a successful business, part vigneron, part merchant, with a properly equipped cuverie and cellar to hand.

Since 1999 he has also owned half a hectare of Premier Cru Beaune Les Pertuisots where exemplary farming methods have steadily improved quality each year. Les Pertuisots, which means ‘the little drains’, lies on a gentle slope about halfway between the city of Beaune and the border with Pommard.
The wine is aged in barrel for 18 months before bottling.
(Jasper Morris MW - BBR Buyer)

Bottle
75 cl 		2
2008 Red, drink-now
Crôzes-Hermitage, Cuvée Les Galets, Domaine Des Hauts Chassis -- Domaine Des Hauts Chassis -- France
Syrah/Shiraz, 12.5% alc.
This is such an archetype of quality Crozes-Hermitage wine that all other examples will have to be marked alongside it on the bench. Tapenade, blackberry, hints of violet, black pepper and wood smoke… it’s all there, and all perfectly balanced. We are delighted that M. Faugier has had the confidence to stop selling grapes to a prestigious négociant, and started to make wine himself.

Frank Faugieris a vigneron of the old school, only modestly successful at self-promotion. He used to sell all his grapes to the local co-operative and also to a certain M Jaboulet. This was a shame, because the location of the vines means that the grapes are inevitably of superior quality. Now he makes his own wine from his own grapes and the results are impressive indeed.
(Simon Field MW, BBR Buyer)

Bottle
75 cl 		2
2010 White, drink-or-keep
Sancerre Blanc, André Dezat -- André Dezat -- France
Sauvignon Blanc, 12.5% alc.
Compared with the warm 2009s, 2010 has bestowed all the qualities one would hope for in a fine Loire Sauvignon Blanc vintage, and of course the Andre Dezat family have yet again performed.

Drawn from a total of 15 ha (of which 6 is in the home village of Verdigny), across an array of soils of 'terres blanches', 'caillottes' (and smaller 'grillottes')  and 'silex', Dezat's holding all boasts thigh-like vines planted in 1967. Tasting in the icy conditions of January 2011 I perceived notes of nettle, mint, spice even, lime/lemon zip, crystalline freshness along with a waxy texture and fabuolous ripeness. This is definitely a vintage in which Dezat's Sancerre & Pouilly-Fume shine brightly. Drinking now but will improve.
(David Berry Green, BBR Buyer) 

Bottle
75 cl 		2
2007 Red, drink-or-keep
Domaine Pichard, Madiran -- Domaine Pichard -- France
Tannat, 13.5% alc.
A blend of Tannat and Cabernet this is an intriguing wine, its tannic soul in no way compromising its dark-fruit core; dense and pure, long and rich. Benchmark Madiran, with a gentle gloss of modernity (50% Tannat, 45% Cabernet Franc & 5% Cabernet Sauvignon)

The South-West vineyards of France, generally located between Bordeaux and the Pyrenees, are amongst the most original and fascinating in France, yet in the international market have fallen way behind areas such as the Languedoc. This is an approachable Madiran, which, we assure you is not, in this case at least, an oxymoron!
(Simon Field MW, BBR Buyer)

Bottle
75 cl 		2
2009 White, drink-or-keep
Chablis, La Forêt, 1er Cru, Jean-Claude Bessin -- Jean-Claude Bessin -- France
Chardonnay, 13% alc.
One of our favourite Chablis suppliers, still flying below the radar but providing quality well above the norm. Crisp, bright acidity and a medium body with a little earthy mushroom fruit and some crunchy green apple. Pure, elegant fruit and plenty of poise on the long finish.

Jean-Claude Bessin has been bottling his own wines in the hamlet of La Chapelle Vaupelteigne, just north of Chablis itself, since 1992. Though trained as an architect Jean-Claude Bessin preferred to take over the vineyards of his Tremblay father-in-law who belonged to the co-operative.

As well as Chablis vieilles vignes, Jean-Claude has vines in the premiers crus of Fourchaumes, Montmains, and La Forêt - which may also go under the Montmains name, but he bottles his separately because he finds them stylistically different. There is clay of all colours in the soil, which heats up slowly but retains the heat very well. There is a rich character to the fruit of Forêt wines and notable complexity, due to the variations in the clay and the multiplicity of stones which render drainage very effective.

Evolution in Jean-Claude’s cellar in recent years has been towards more natural winemaking. The majority of the crop is now harvested by hand, with natural yeasts preferred for fermentation. The wines have a long élévage on fine lees, the crus being bottled after 15 to 18 months, with a proportion of barrel fermentation and maturation for the top wines.
(Jasper Morris MW - BBR Buyer)

Bottle
75 cl 		2
Tasting Notes French Case, Wine Club, March 2012 --

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12 Bottle Divider (DIV345X262X360) --

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12 Bottle Outer, Wine Club (CSW353x267x360-WC) --

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