Lately,
I've been posting photos and a few details about my recent forays into wine critic-dom, telling you about the amazing experiences I've been having. Well, I have to say it's not all great. While I've been tasting the wines of Gigondas, Vacqueyras, Tavel, Lirac and so on, I've also been tasting lots and lots of "generic" Côtes du Rhône. You can imagine that
they'd send someone like me to wade through the masses of wines, weeding out the not-so-great ones, so that the big guys don't have to taste through 111 different bottles of 2005 Côtes du Rhône Rouge. I can definitely understand why they wouldn't want to do it themselves.
It is interesting though, and encouraging to find that the overall quality of generic Côtes du Rhône is really quite good. Keep in mind here, that I, myself, produce a Côtes du Rhône, so I am definitely not
trying to knock the appellation, but 111 is quite a lot, even for me!
So, it's always nice when there are a few perks thrown in. This one was in the form of a visit to the very well-known négociant Tardieu-Laurent, located in the picturesque Provençal village of Lourmarin in the heart of the Luberon Valley. Lourmarin is not exactly where you'd expect to find cellars full of Hermitage, Côte Rôtie, Cornas, Châteauneuf du Pape, etc., but there hidden away at the entrance to a housing development are the cellars of Tardieu-Laurent. Thierry Desseauve, Guillaume Puzo and I had an appointment there last week, and let me tell you, this was definitely a perk. These are the kinds of winery visits that don't happen every day. These are special visits, reserved for the press and for old friends and otherwise important people. I have been very lucky in my life to accompany Michel Bettane on several of these visits, albeit many years ago, we visited Domaine de la Romanée Conti, Zind Humbrecht, Marcel Diess and the Faller sisters all of them unforgettable, all of them normally inaccessible to someone like me. Well that is say, that the kind of tastings that occur when Michel Bettane or Thierry Desseauve come for the day, aren't the same tastings that occur when you and I call up and make an appointment. You know what I mean?
Let me start out by saying that I was very skeptical about the visit to Tardieu-Laurent. Having lived in Burgundy I was
well aware of the excellent reputation of Dominique Laurent, but my impression of him was that he bought already excellent Burgundies, threw them into 100% new oak and made them into 100 point wines. Far from being my preferred style of wine. I know that Tardieu-Laurent had set out to do much the same thing, but this time in the south. Desseauve told me not to be hasty with my judgement, but to wait and see, knowing that I would find much, much more. Apparently Michel Tardieu has come a long way in his winemaking evolution, calling himself a purist when it comes to terroir, well, in the end it's true his wines do express their terroirs, and now he uses much less new oak than in did in the early years. (Pictured from left to right are: Philippe Cambie, Thierry Desseauve and Michel Tardieu)
We met Michel Tardieu and his enologist Philippe Cambie, over 2 hours late at the cellars of Tardieu-Laurent. They had spent the morning tasting barrels of the 2005s , and were more than ready for us to arrive. We went straight to the cellars and started tasting the 2004s. We started with their Côtes du Rhône, worked our way north through Rasteau, Vacqueyras, Gigondas, Châteauneuf-du-Pape and then further north to Crozes-Hermitage, Saint Joseph, Cornas, Côte-Rôtie and finally ending with the mighty Hermitage. It was an amazing lesson in terroir, each wine as we tasted through the series, was true to it's geographic origins. The Chateauneuf was sunny, concentrated grenache, the Saint Joseph was full of northern Rhône characteristics including pencil lead and licorice, the Cornas smoky and mineral, and the Côte Rôtie truly had a floral aspect reminiscent of violets. It was simply an eye-opening tasting.
Almost more interesting than the wines though, were the people, Michel Tardieu and his wife Michèle. (yes, they have the same first name!) They are as passtionate about good food as they are about good wine and their enthusiasm bubbles over. Michel is even the French importer for one of the best iberico hams from Spain. They spend their holidays eating and drinking in some of the worlds best restaurants, but they also revel in the simple, perfect quality of traditional French country food.
Immediately following the tasting of the 2004s we headed to their house where Michèle, was putting the finishing touches on our lunch. We had a Daube Provençal that had been cooking on their La Cornue stove for 3 days. The flavors were so concentrated and complex, it made your mouth dance with pleasure. Whole spices like juniper, black peppercorns, cloves and others mingled with the orange and cinnamon flavors that permeated the beef. I haven't had a dish that good at a restaurant in eons. The plates were cleared and we were then served a plate of Purée de pommes de terre (mashed potatoes really, but in France they use the cooking water to thin the purée instead of milk or cream so it comes out lighter and more potato-y). The purée was flecked with lots of little bits of black truffle. Then came more truffles! This one was easily the size of a child's hand, it was passed around the table with a grater and we greedily shaved truffles all over the potatoes. We all ooed and awwed and Michel came out of the kitchen with a container full of truffles! All of them, that they had gathered themselves in the woods around their house. Amazing. Using our bread to swipe up every last bit of truffly potatoes we all looked around at each other with satisfied grins. But wait, there's more truffles to come! Next Michele brought out a simple frisée salad dressed with olive oil that they get from their wine importer in Spain and fleur de sel de camargue (a very special sea salt from the Camargue) Then came the next truffle that Michel shaved onto the salad, the whole thing. I've never had truffles in a salad, and never would have thought that it would be a good way to eat them, but it was simply perfection. The olive oil had a very rich quality with low acidity so it blended with the truffles seamlessly. We all fought over who got to use their bread to clean out the salad bowl! In the end the bowl was passed around the table and we all took a swipe. We then proceeded on to a platter of perfectly aged local cheeses, including a Saint Marcellin that was completely liquid, and a Banon that melted in your mouth. Dessert, then coffee, then quickly to the train station so that Thierry and Guillaume wouldn't miss their train back to Paris. What an amazing experience. Now that's what I call the perks of the job!
