Pollux Membership September 2023: Meet You in the Middle and Rosso Relativo
An aerial view of Mont de Milieu 1er Cru, Chablis, France. Mont de Milieu was the historic boundary line between Champagne and Burgundy.
“Meet You in the Middle”
Domaine Gautheron Chablis 1er Cru “Mont de Milieu”, France 2020
The playwright David Mamet once wrote that whether they knew it or not, prospectors in the Gold Rush didn’t endure the worst of nature and man for the promise of immense riches-their true love was being outdoors, and anything else that came of it was ancillary. Mamet’s point about humanity’s base needs was directed at actors looking for their character’s motivation in a particular scene, but this concept can be thrown at many trades, winegrower being one of them. Most of the growers and vineyard owners that I have known in my career come across as incapable of fathoming a life beyond their own hillsides, and it is that intense focus which so often manifests itself in truly compelling bottles.
When I visit wineries, a common train of thought is how physical the work is, but as with anyone who is fortunate enough to truly love what they do, the best growers and winemakers seem to take this in stride, and even embrace it. The end result of their labors-what’s in the glass-is often seen as the winegrower’s raison d’etre, but like Mamet’s aspiring actors, I think these winegrowers are misread, and that they continue to do what they do-many of them returning to their family’s plots after trying a “normal” life elsewhere-because there is much to be said for a life built around fresh air and beautiful country.
And what if your particular patch of freshness and beauty happened to historically intersect the county of Champagne and the duchy of Burgundy? I, for one, would not take much convincing.
This is the story of a plot of vines whose recorded history has surpassed 800 years, and a family who today gets to spend their time walking among them.
Chardonnay on the vine in Chablis.
As wine regions go, you’d be hard pressed to find one more singular than Chablis. Closer to Champagne in distance, but nevertheless falling into the classification of Burgundy, this area north of Dijon benefits from the same band of Kimmeridgian subsoil that entrenches the vines of Sancerre to the south and west in France’s Loire Valley, but even the similarities in the substrata don’t serve to illuminate Chablis’ unique expression of its sole grape variety, Chardonnay.
Chardonnay as produced in Chablis is just…different. Melding the heightened acidity and rocky non-fruit flavors of the Kimmeridgian soil with Chardonnay’s natural tropical flavor profile, Chablis feels expressly produced to answer the conundrum of “I want to pair a white wine with shellfish or seafood yet have it possess the body and weight to carry through an entire meal and/or move seamlessly to a red-what should I drink?” As with most wine regions, the terroir and microclimates of each vineyard site in Chablis possess a seemingly endless array of minutiae that can vary the resulting bottle of Chardonnay, and that’s before the wine even reaches the cellar, where the level of existential choices becomes downright Hamlet-like (“To oak or not to oak?”). And while the debate of aging Chablis in barrels rages on, I find the more interesting discussion is one that is held outside in the fresh air, examining the unique character of the vineyards.
As mentioned, Chablis is closer to Champagne than Burgundy, and so it has always seemed to straddle the two entities (the soil of the southern part of Champagne, the still wines produced more evocative of Burgundy). In point of fact, the border of the jurisdiction of Chablis (part of the county of Champagne, and inside which a lord or town had special rights) and the duchy of Burgundy (where all privilege came from the Duke’s palace in Dijon) once ran right through a single vineyard on the east side of the Serein river. The 44-hectare vineyard faced south and southeast over looking the valley of the Serein on an open, airy stretch of the countryside. Due to its bifurcation by the neighboring governments, this vineyard was known as early as 1218 as “the Mountain of the Middle”, Mont de Milieu.
Mont de Milieu is not a mountain by any practical definition; the vineyard’s height averages around 200 meters above sea level. The measured nature of the slopes, however, along with its view of the river below does give off a more imposing impression. For purposes of grapegrowing, Mont de Milieu is a virtual paradise, as its exposure (some southeast but often just straight south) leaves it drenched in sunlight for most of the day; forested land just to the north of the plot also serves to shield chilly Northern breezes. The soil of Mont de Milieu is often described as homogenous, as limestone clays and small white limestone rocks represent a harmonious and unbroken line that brings consistency to the vineyard’s many owners (individual vineyards in Chablis tend, as in Burgundy proper, to be parceled out piecemeal among vignerons). The beauty of Mont de Milieu Chardonnay is just this juxtaposition of generous terroir conditions and the overall appellation character, meaning that Chablis 1er Cru from Mont de Milieu can lack the raciness of the seven Grand Cru vineyards that hug the river to the north, but can sometimes best them with vibrant, even juicy, Chardonnay fruit that still maintains an overall balance, particularly compared to Chardonnays produced in other parts of the world.
Among the stewards of this “Mountain of the Middle” is a family that can trace its own history in Chablis back seven generations, the Gautherons.
Domaine Gautheron’s current winemaker, Cyril, son of Alain, with his wife in the family’s cellar.
Alain Gautheron, representing the 6th generation of his family in Chablis, joined his father Jean at the domaine in 1977 and quickly worked to grow their 8-hectare, 10,000 bottle-a-year operation. Upon Jean’s retirement in 1991, Gautheron’s holdings had grown to 14.5 hectares, and currently number 25, with Alain’s son Cyril having joined the family business in 2000 and today controlling the day-to-day operations.
Domaine Gautheron is based in the town of Fleys, directly to the east of Mont de Milieu 1er Cru. The family’s various sites contain both Kimmeridgian and Portlandian soils, with the town of Fleys particularly recognized for its high density of fossilized snails (Gautheron’s tasting room is adorned with some fun examples). All of Domaine Gautheron’s vines are farmed with an eye toward both the health of the site and the quality of the resulting wines; that means using natural vineyard treatments that stimulate the vines to self-guard against pests and disease, encouraging groundcover between vineyard rows, and (my favorite as always) controlling yields by meticulous pruning and green harvest. This last element is particularly evident in their ebullient 2020 Mont de Milieu, which bursts with melon and lemon, along with being the best example I’ve tasted in recent memory of a wine conveying honey. Normally used in wine writing as a diplomatic glossing over of a wine’s having aged a bit too much, here the notion of honey truly is one of freshness, a honey gleaned from flowers like acacia or orange blossom, a descriptor that permeates the nose and palate of Gautheron’s Mont de Milieu for a richness that belies Chablis. To combine the mineral drive and steely texture typical of Chablis with a honeyed flavor profile and lush texture? That’s a breath of fresh air…no, better still, it’s a middle I’m happy to meet in-D.
Domaine Gautheron Chablis 1er Cru “Mont de Milieu” 2020
Country of Origin: France.
Places and People: Domaine Gautheron is a family producer that goes back 7 generations; the domaine is located in the eastern Chablis town of Fleys, and their 25 hectares of vines are farmed sustainably by current winemaker Cyril Gautheron. One of the more famous 1er Crus in Chablis, Mont de Milieu is located at approximately 200 meters of elevation, facing south-southeast on an overlook above the region’s Serein river. The sunny exposure combined with forested land that stops cold breezes, along with a consistent terroir that stays homoegenous throughout the vineyard’s 44 hectares makes for a vibrant, fleshed-out take on Chablis.
Soil: Mont de Milieu is planted on limestone-clay and white limestone pebbles, with the region’s famed Kimmeridgian subsoil running underneath.
Grape Varieties: 100% Chardonnay.
Winemaking: The 35- year old vines in Gautheron’s 1er Cru Mont de Milieu are hand-harvested and fermented in temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks. Malolactic fermentation is undertaken, following which the wines are left on their less (spent yeasts leftover form fermentation) for a period that varies depending upon the vintage.
Aging: The Mont de Milieu rests in stainless steel tanks as well (no barrel aging). The 2020 vintage was only lightly filtered and then allowed to rest in bottle for about 12 months prior to release.
Flavors and Foods: As mentioned in this month’s feature, the Gautheron Mont de Milieu 1er Cru’s defining character (once you’ve enjoyed the brilliant lemon straw color in the glass and the aromas of saline/limestone on the nose) is honey-lots of it, and not the sort of honey that is typically mentioned in wine writing-where it typically serves as a stand-in for tougher terms like “oxidation”- but rather a beautifully vibrant, rich flavor honey derived from flowers like acacia and orange blossom. This honeycomb and flowers element is balanced by fresh oats (I swear I’m not eating breakfast cereal while writing this, it’s in there), bright lemon confit, melon and pineapple-derived tropicality, limestone and wet rock. Tasting the Mont de Milieu is very transportive; you can really feel the additional sunshine hours that this particular 1er Cru vineyard receives, and as such it is not bound to typical Chablis pairing suggestions (oysters, shellfish, etc.). Meatier, non-flaky fish (Gautheron’s website suggests monkfish, which is an excellent call), lobster tails in drawn butter, or tart, lemony cheeses would head my list, although the elevated acidity is still present enough to enjoy shellfish, too. Although I typically prefer a contrasting style to food and wine pairings, with the Mont de Milieu I would also feel comfortable leaning into the wine’s honeyed aspects and pairing it with a dish that featured the ingredient, even as part of a rub on a piece of white meat (whole chicken, pork tenderloin).
Service and Cellar: The Mont de Milieu 2020’s freshness and power are best experienced at the upper end of white wine cellar temperature (50-52 degrees F), allowing the wines expansive body and texture to come alive. Avoid letting it warm further, however, as the crackle of the typical Chablis acidity becomes a bit astringent. The concentration and depth of the Gautheron Mont de Milieu mean the wine will benefit from cellaring; the 2020 can stretch comfortably through the end of the decade.
A quintessential pic of Tuscany in autumn-the Sesti estate.
“Rosso Relativo”
Sesti Rosso di Montalcino, Toscana, Italy 2021
Have you ever had a trip that was defined by music in general, or a specific song in particular? My studies in Tuscany, perhaps not surprisingly given that I was there for a music program, were very much in this vein. In addition to all of the classical offerings that I and my colleagues were working on, running the gamut from fully-staged opera to chamber instrumentals, there also happened to be an outdoor music festival taking place in Lucca’s main square at the time. Despite the fact that we at times were literally singing for our supper, the very Italianate enforcement of the festival’s physical boundaries (a series of flimsy guardrails and complete lack of perimeter ticket-checking) meant that we were often able to finish our own rehearsals or performances and head to the square to stand in the back right next to ticketed patrons and revel in the sounds of, among many, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jamiroquai, Oasis (this list dates me), and Italian singers like Zucchero and Tiziano Ferro. Ferro, in particular, had a hit that year with a catchy little pop number about a girl named Paola whose love was a “relative red”: the song was called “Rosso Relativo”, and this particular earworm was everywhere that summer, from the late-night concert we caught in Lucca to the Ferro’s music video being played ad nauseum on RAI.
When I returned to school that fall, the wine bar I worked at had a new dishwasher: a fellow student named Bobby. Bobby was an Italian-American study in contradiction: so talented with the Italian language that he worked at the university as a TA in the Italian department but preferring, however, to spend his nights and weekends not reading Dante in the library but washing dishes in a quagmire of steam and used-up flatware, I think primarily so that he could listen to Italian pop music on our cheap back-of-house boombox (complete with the “shuffle mode” of the early 2000s, the CD changer). So naturally, Bobby and I struck up a friendship that let me practice Italian and let him regale me with often substandard bubblegum pop music from his ancestral homeland-one that we agreed on, though, was “Rosso Relativo”, which had just enough kitschy catchiness to clear the bar. Conveniently enough, our wine bar’s program gave us plenty of reasons to annoy patrons and fellow staff with our hearty rendition of the song, because our wine list had more than a few “Rossos” on it: Rosso di Toscana, Rosso di Valtellina, and of course our favorite “Rosso”, from a small hilltop village in Tuscany that possessed its own unique and famous clone of Sangiovese: Montalcino.
Succession: Giuseppe’s only child Elisa Sesti joined her father at the winery full-time in 1999, and together they maintain and further their vision of uncompromising quality.
Montalcino is a hallowed name in the wine world. The hilltop village in the center of Tuscany sports its own clone of Sangiovese called Sangiovese Grosso; the Grosso also has another name that means “little brown one” and became synonymous with iconic Sangiovese from the area: Brunello. Brunello di Montalcino is one of the most famous wines in Italy, rivaling Piemonte’s Barolo for the title of finest red wine in the country in the hearts of many an oenophile. Unlike other well-known Tuscan appellations (Chianti, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, the coastal Super-Tuscan producing Bolgheri, etc.), Brunello is required to be produced from 100% Sangiovese. Its aging requirements are also the strictest in the region: regular Brunello di Montalcino must be aged for a minimum of two years in wood and 4 months in bottle, and cannot be sold until January 1st of the fifth year following that particular vintage’s harvest (for example, the Sesti Brunello that just arrived along with the Rosso featured here is 2018). Brunello Riserva sees these rules and raises them, tacking on 2 more months of mandatory bottle age (six in total) and another year of aging in the cellar before a potential release. If these measures sound intense, consider that the traditional style of Brunello involved aging in large, neutral Slovenian oak for years and then decades in the bottle prior to the wines being placed on a truck.
The reasoning behind these laws is sound in nature; Brunello in the hands of the finest producers is a behemoth that needs every second of this time (and often much longer) to resolve itself and be anything near approachable, and yet the new DOCG requirements allow it to be released while there is still primary fruit to counteract the tannic structure, especially now that many producers are experimenting with new oak. It does, however, present a problem for the wineries who farm the 1,915-hectare Brunello DOCG, one of time, storage, and economic investment. The fairly restrictive maximum yields that the appellation allows have done wonders in maintaining quality as the DOCG has grown in size, but when you factor relatively small production (consider that Barolo, while possessing only around 100 more hectares of vienyards, produces almost 1/3 more bottles of wine!) and the fact that your limited quantities of juice is tied up in aging for years at a time, the appellation needed a cash-flow-friendly solution, and in 1983 it made one: Rosso di Montalcino.
The rows of vines behind the estate in the heart of Montalcino.
Rosso di Montalcino comes from the same delimited area as Brunello, and is likewise mandated to be made from 100% Sangiovese. The difference? The release date: Rosso di Montalcino can be sent out into the world a scant one year after the harvest. Curiously, the original setup of Rosso vs. Brunello in the appellation law did not allow Brunello to be produced from higher-elevation vineyards, which always went to youthful Rosso, and arguably provided many bottlings of Rosso di Montalcino with some excellent elevated terroir. This rule has since been abandoned, both for the previously mentioned economics (it makes no sense for vineyards to be dedicated to the less-expensive Rosso di Montalcino when they could be producing Brunello), and one imagines also the influence of climate change, as winegrowers have to search for higher elevations than were historically considered sought after to combat rising temperatures.
So does Rosso di Montalcino taste like a wallflowerr in comparison to its bigger brother? It depends on the producer, but the short answer is, not really-many Rosso di Montalcino still sport amazing structure and tannin content-the key difference is the absolute purity of the fresh red cherry fruit the wines typically possess, which obviously in the longer-held Brunello begins to dissipate. Also consider the scarcity factor: because it makes more sense for producers to use as much of their holdings as they can afford on Brunello, Rosso di Montalcino is bottled in roughly half the quantity of its more expensive sibling. The number of cases sent into Virginia of the Sesti Rosso di Montalcino that Pollux members will enjoy this month: that would be all of three-a minute 36 bottles of deliciousness, now the property of GWC and soon heading to your door.
In wine, we often talk about the phrase “relative value”: I don’t want to always hear about a wine that’s “less expensive”, because that doesn’t necessarily denote quality (and neither do crazy high-end price points either, to be fair). What I want is a wine that is priced well for what it is, and the 2021 Rosso di Montalcino from Giuseppe Sesti and his daughter Elisa, produced according to the lunar calendar and practicing biodynamic principles from 15-year old vines and a tiny 2 hectares of holdings, fits the bill. Incredible fruit concentration and authenticity, judicious use of neutral oak botti, and a true sense of the family’s terroir (oceanic sediment that helps the family craft an elegant, aromatic style of Montalcino wine) make this a Rosso with incredible relative value…a true “Rosso Relativo”. Well, better than the early 2000s pop version, anyway-D.
Sesti Rosso di Montalcino, Toscana 2021
Country of Origin: Italy.
Places and People: Giuseppe Maria “Giugi” Sesti grew up in Venice, became an astronomer, met his wife in North Wales while writing a book on said topic, and then packed his young family up in 1975 and moved to Tuscany, purchasing a ruined, abandoned castle in the hamlet of Argiano (the castle had once been the town’s noble fortress). Sesti’s winery is south and west of Montalcino, with the family’s holdings at 350 meters altitude and producing a scant 5,000 cases annually of all of their wines put together. Giuseppe became famous for putting his astronomy training to use in the form of lunar cycle-derived vineyard and cellar work; today he and his daughter Elisa, who has worked with him since 1999, apply this knowledge along with a lack of chemical products to produce natural wines of the highest integrity. The vines for the Rosso di Montalcino are 15 years of age and come from a tiny 2-hectare plot; only 3 (!) cases of Rosso 2021 were brought into Virginia.
Soil: Oceanic sedimentary rock.
Grape Varieties: 100% Sangiovese.
Winemaking: Lunar vineyard and harvest cycle; ecological harvest and pressing of the highest standards. All fermentation and vinification occurs in stainless steel to preserve the purity and freshness of the Sangiovese fruit (this is also Sesti’s procedure for the Brunello).
Aging: The 2021 Sesti Rosso di Montalcino goes through 18 months of elevage in 30-hectoliter oak botti (large oak vats), so the overall influence of the oak is minimal-more of a gentle aeration that keeps this wine accessible from the outset.
Flavors and Foods: A stunning wine from the first scents of red cherries and rose petals, the Sesti Rosso di Montalcino 2021 has a resplendent nose chock full of descriptors: red plums and pomegranates, hen o’ the woods mushrooms, warmed potting soil, potpourri, and organic earth notes of forest floor and truffle. The palate of the Sesti ‘21 is decidedly and expectedly youthful, but the wonderfully inviting freshness of the fruit serves to allay fears of immaturity. Red cherries that are at once bright with acidity and inky in their viscosity dominate the fruit, with brief stopovers from red plum and pomegranate. Red rose petals and potpourri continue to lead the nonfruit on the Sesti’s palate, joined by grenadine notes, lifting aloe, and a distinct lack of oak flavors, making the overall texture and mouthfeel equal parts delicate, soft, and silky smooth. Very open and accessible even at a young age, the 2021 Sesti Rosso can stand up to Bistecca Fiorentina but would probably do best at this point with chicken (cast iron, coq au vin) and pasta (Bolognese or basically any red sauce that isn’t overly spicy-save the Arrabiata for a different wine).
Service and Cellar: The 2021 Sesti Rosso di Montalcino is best enjoyed on the lower end of the red wine cellar temperature spectrum (56-58 degrees), which keeps its youthful freshness while stymieing any youthful tannic elements. The 2021 opens well now with a brief decant (15-30 minutes) and can be cellared for the next decade or more; I anticipate its ideal window to begin in 2025.