Pollux Membership July 2024: Mind the Gap and La Tache Grenache
The village of Marsannay-La Cote, Cote de Nuits, Burgundy. As we’ll discuss below, the vineyards producing our July feature are actually just south of this photo in the village of Couchey.
“Mind the Gap”
Domaine Jean-Michel Guillon Marsannay Blanc “Les Champs Perdrix”
Bourgogne, France 2015
Like any seasoned traveler will tell you, sometimes the best destinations are those far from the limelight, at the very limits of the map. Or, in our July Pollux vineyard’s case, the very map is eliminated altogether. In the latest edition of the seminal World Atlas of Wine by Hugh Johnson and Jancis Robinson, when discussing the appellation of Marsannay in the northern Cote de Nuits area of France’s Burgundy region, there is, to emulate nursery rhyme, a Gap in the Map. Specifically, an entire portion of vineyards in the neighboring village of Couchey, a town that fills the, well, gap between Marsannay-La Cote and its next neighbor to the south deemed worthy of an appellation, Fixin. At Fixin’s northern border, just as the vineyard under discussion today comes into view, the book unceremoniously cuts to the chase-that is, the other side of Couchey, where the vineyards of the village of Marsannay-La Cote begin, leaving the vines of Couchey, which represent over half of the hectares in the overall Marsannay appellation, out of the equation, under the pretext that the wine produced there is of little consequence. But like a Greek drama where the action often takes place offstage…or perhaps the sojourner who wanders off the beaten path and discovers something truly authentic…take your pick of metaphor for overlooking the underdog. In the end, perhaps the best advice for the British wine critics Johnson and Robinson is located at their feet in the nearest of their home country’s Tube stations: when it comes to Marsannay, Mind the Gap.
When you arrive at this sign, your life is about to radically improve-the entryway to Domaine Guillon.
To recap/clarify, the appellation of Marsannay, located in the northernmost portion of Burgundy’s Cote de Nuits, is comprised of a total of nearly 230 hectares of vines, producing white, red, and rose of Pinot Noir that has for decades been so well regarded as to have its own sub-app, Marsannay Rose. Yet a large portion of Marsannay wines come not from the village of Marsannay-La Cote itself, but from the village of Couchey to the south. And why exclude these vines from a fairly all-encompassing look at wine in the world? Broadly speaking, Couchey vineyards are thought to produce fairly insipid Pinot Noir, with the subsequent rose lacking the bite of those made in Marsannay proper. The white wines, when they are written about at all, are almost unfailingly described as “ordinary”. And granted, through most of the Couchey area the soil type is more suited to Pinot Noir (the lower lying areas being more clay-based), there is a site that brings change, a vineyard that is described as being “the iconic vineyard of Marsannay”, even though it is not actually IN Marsannay. At an altitude of 350-390 meters as it stretches across the top of the hillside, pine forests bordering its western edges, stands a sizable testament to the region’s potential, a 22 hectare anomaly of soil and potential: the vineyard known as the “Partidge Fields”, Champs Perdrix.
On the southern edge of Couchey on the border with Fixin, Champs Perdrix is the largest vineyard by far in Couchey, capable theoretically of producing just under 14,000 cases of wine annually of both Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, and indeed, some examples of Champs Perdrix, both red and white, are of good value relative to the rest of Burgundy’s skyrocketing prices but could be described qualitatively (and generously so) as “solid”. The legally permissible yields, however, are left in the dust in the hands of top winemakers, those for whom lessening the amount of fruit they take from each vine and thereby achieving and inverse result in taste and structure is paramount. The true potential of Champs Perdrix lies in its elevation, with excellent drainage (perhaps the name of its neighboring vineyard to the north, Le Desert, is enough of an indication of how little water is retained on the hilltop) from a very unique soil situation: just a scant 10cm of rocky outcropping is found in almost the entire vineyard, underneath of which sits a bedrock of almost pure limestone. For the red Pinot Noir, this is not as exceptional of a newsflash, but for the white Chardonnay grape, limestone is a gold mine, keeping acidity levels elevated while preserving Chardonnay’s trademark rich texture. The vines of Champs Perdrix are also advantageously aged; the entire vineyard averages 40 years old.
To ensure the grapes 0f Champs Perdrix coming full circle from vine to wine, a deft touch is required, and thankfully for Burgundy fans a portion of the large vineyard is owned outright by one of the true masters of Bourgogne winemaking, now in his fifth decade: Jean-Michel Guillon.
Copies of the prestigious Guide Hachette on display at Domaine Guillon, chronicling the estate’s rise to recognition and consistency in quality; the empty spaces are reserved for vintages to come, reflecting the unwavering ambition of Jean-Michel and Alexis to remain one of the top producers in all of France. In the last year featured here, 2020, the Guide named Jean-Michel their winemaker of the year nationwide.
If the pricepoints of Burgundy allowed me, I’d probably feature a wine from Domaine Guillon every month (in fact, it’s better that they do not). Founded in 1980, former Air Force pilot and engineer Jean-Michel Guillon has seen his domaine evolve over 40+ years; by the mid-2010s when our featured vintage of Champs Perdrix was being produced, Jean-Michel was working hand in hand with his son Alexis crafting wines with an almost maniacal attention to detail. I’ve written about Jean-Michel’s journey previously, so in focusing on Champs Perdrix specifically, the hillside parcels that Guillon owns are hand-harvested and the yields are strictly controlled through a rigorous assortment process, which includes a hand-sort in the vineyard followed by another table sorting upon arrival at the winery, utilizing a computerized machine called The Tumbler; for a cool $100,000, this mechanical marvel evaluates each berry by its must weight, dropping those who do not make the cut, and leaving the winemaker with nothing but his best chance of success. In the case of the Champs Perdrix, this leaves Guillon father and son with an astoundingly low yield in the neighborhood of 15 hectoliters per hectare (the Marsannay appellation approves 57 (!) hl/ha for white wines). The concentration of this fruit, particularly in the stellar 2015 vintage that is featured here, proves a much better companion to Domaine Guillon’s noted oak regimen, which sees 100% new barrels used across the winery’s entire range, from regional Bourgogne wines to Grand Cru vineyards. Noted cooper Cavan manufactures the barrels from trees hand-selected by Jean-Michel to his specifications, and both the toast level and time under flame are adjusted for balance, so the oak serves as a complimenting factor rather than the dominant force it can be in so many Chardonnays.
At nearly a decade of age, the 2015 Champs Perdrix still showcases the best of this singular vineyard, with the aged fruit yielding some honeyed and preserved notes but the limestone soil rendering the acidity fresh and the texture lively. Hopefully in future editions of the World Atlas, Mr. Johnson and Ms. Robinson will illuminate the village of Couchey and eliminate “The Gap”; if they simply made note of where Jean-Michel and Alexis’ parcels of Champs Perdrix are located, that would be just fine too-D.
Domaine Jean-Michel Guillon Marsannay Blanc “Les Champs Perdrix”
Bourgogne, France 2015
Country of Origin: France.
Places and People: Jean-Michel Guillon is a former air force pilot who created his eponymous winery in 1980 with nothing-no vineyards of his own, no space to vinify or age. In fact, it was a monk in Gevrey-Chambertin, Pere Galland, that first leased him vineyards and a space to make the wine, simultaneously teaching him many time-honored monastic techniques that are still in use at the winery to this day. Fast-forward 44 years and Jean-Michel now is a scion of his home village of Gevrey-Chambertin (and former long-time president of the appellation), with holdings spread across several villages, including Grand Cru parcels in Mazis-Chambertin and Clos de Vougeot. In 2020, France’s prestigious Guide Hachette (equivalent to the Michelin Guide for wine) named Jean-Michel their winemaker of the year for all of France.
Soil: The soil of Champs Perdrix is special in that its topsoil is tiny-less than 10 cm of rocky dirt exist on the hilltop before the presence of an outcrop of pure limestone, certainly one of the largest examples of this in the Cote de Nuits.
Grape Varieties: 100% Chardonnay.
Winemaking: Hand-harvested and rigorously assorted. 2014 was the first vintage for the Domaine to carry their prestigious “Haute Valeur Environmentale” certification, an achievement that few in all of Burgundy can claim. The extended fermentation length and employment of ancient monastic warming techniques contributes to a richness and concentration of fruit in the Marsannay, elevating it above other more entry-level examples. Batonnage (stirring of the lees in barrel) has been avoided since the 2012 vintage in Jean-Michel’s white wines as a way of balancing the techniques described above.
Aging: The 2015 “Champs Perdrix” is nurtured for one year in 100% new French oak barrels that were specially made for Jean-Michel by the cooper Cavan (the barrels, called “Aphrodite”, are toasted at a medium level for less time than is standard to provide greater balance).
Flavors and Foods: The 2015 Guillon “Champs Perdrix” is a mature white wine that drinks the way a Burgundy that’s nearing 10 years old from a strong vintage should: a nose of still-ripe pineapple, golden delicious apples, and gentle aromas from the oak aging (fresh grated nutmeg, cedar). The palate shows off the still-ripe acidity that underscores the importance of this vineyard’s limestone soil, and the present primary fruit still sings: grilled pineapple, baked yellow apple, and orange marmalade all make an appearance. The weight of the wine is full and the texture creamy, a surprising feature given there is no lees stirring. Enjoy the 2015 “Champs Perdrix” with skate wing in brown butter and served with capers, fresh lobster meat or lobster bisque/lobster sauce, marinated chicken breasts with wild mushrooms, or after dinner with a wheel of Epoisse cheese.
Service and Cellar: The “Champs Perdrix” benefits from a short decanting (30 mins), as the flavors will open and the wood notes meld with the rest of the wine. Serve the wine on the higher side of the white wine temperature spectrum (50-52 degrees F). The structure and acidity of the 2015 vintage are both bold, but I don’t believe the “Champs Perdrix” will benefit from further cellaring-that work has been done for us already. Enjoy this year.
A photographer channels their inner Ansel Adams while capturing the vineyards of Dani Landi, in the Sierra de Gredos southwest of Madrid.
“La Tache Grenache”
Comando G by Dani Landi and Fernando Garcia Garnacha “La Bruja de Rozas”
Vinos de Madrid, Spain 2022
Grenache. One of the most irresistible words for a red wine drinker, conjuring up a slew of famous places and people, and a plethora of styles in the glass. For all of its proliferation (over 160,000 hectares planted worldwide), Grenache still is a bit of an enigma as a varietal. The grape’s propensity to be blended with others (Syrah, et al. ) leaves the consumer with an idea of what Grenache is about, but a real understanding of pure Grenache for both laypeople and wine pros is muddled by the character of other grapes, even when Grenache is leading the blend in terms of proportion. This dilemma is borne out when sommeliers serve a client a 100% Grenache from old vines in Chateauneuf-du-Pape, elegant and perfumed, and watch as the guests turn it over on their palates in curiosity, before nodding appreciatively (begrudgingly?) and saying, “It’s good…it’s…light”. To hear the stories of my peers, this scene has played out on restaurant stages on a nearly continuous run, leading to an issue of a grape that everyone knows and yet remains hidden. To knock off the flowery prose: just what the hell is Grenache, anyway?
Grenache is, for me, first and foremost about ripeness. Like Marilyn Monroe, this grape likes it hot- with early budding but late ripening of the actual berries, Grenache is quite at home in stiflingly warm and dry conditions, its abundant fruit coming through in viscous waves of red berries and currants. Ripe fruit does mean alcohol content, which in most examples of Grenache routinely pushes past 14% to 15% and beyond. Grenache is, also, an aromatic grape, showcasing beautiful notes of freshly ground sweet baking spices that aren’t necessarily derived from oak barrel aging. What Grenache is not, as evidenced by the centuries of blending its been part and parcel to, is overly tannic-the grape is almost singular in its ability to possess ripe, lush fruit and alcohol and yet structurally offer medium tannins and weight. The logic for blending Grenache, then, is obviously sound, and responsible for some of the best red wines in the world (Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Priorat, and bottlings in California and Australia are just a few examples), but what if a winemaker chose to lean into the light, so to speak? If Grenache is naturally ethereal, and made without an eye for over-extracting the fruit and turning the wine into a brochure for bombast, could it be something elegantly subtle, like a riper Burgundy? It would take special conditions: a region of high altitude to mitigate the alcohol content, a distinct terroir that would allow non-fruit and earth notes similar to Grenache’s bedfellow, Syrah, and a detached presence in the cellar to resist turning the wine into an overripe fruit bomb.
Fortuitously, a winemaker from the center of Spain saw that magical alchemy in his hometown, an opportunity to make, for lack of a better term, Grand Cru Grenache.
The Guru of Grenache, Dani Landi, examining the harvest.
Daniel Landi grew up in a winemaking family and knew from an early age that he wanted to follow the path tread before him. A bit of travel around Spain could not avail him of the obsession with his homeland-the serenely rugged mountains of the Sierra de Gredos, southwest of Madrid, and the small villages that abut them; the chief town is also Dani Landi’s birthplace, Mentrida. Mendtrida as a winemaking community is almost Burgundian in its focus; white and red winemaking is based almost entirely on two varietals-Albillo for the whites (one of the most planted grapes in the world because of how much it is grown in and around Madrid), and Garnacha (Grenache) stands virtually alone for the reds.
Historically, the Sierra de Gredos was not immune to Spain’s nationwide view of Garnacha as a workhorse grape; plantings on higher mountain slopes were ignored and left to decline, while lower-lying, higher-yielding areas were pushed to the limit, aiming for Garnacha’s sweet red fruit rather than any sort of structure or complexity. The high ripeness of the Garnacha berries belie the relatively thin skins of the variety, and these high-yield grocery store bottlings often had a translucent color content and drank like cough syrup. Dani Landi saw his homeland as the frontline of a culture war for Grenache, one which he and several like-minded young winemakers could win by revitalizing high-elevation vineyards with techniques such as wider spacing between plants. Forming Bodegas Jimenez-Landi with his cousin, Dani had the advantage of his family’s existing vineyards to work with, but in 2008 he yearned for more control and left to form his own label, as well as the offshoot project Comando G in the nearby Alberche Valley with friend Fernando Garcia. Garcia and Landi have been friends since their collegiate days and soon found themselves working at neighboring vineyards in the Sierra de Gredos. Inheriting some of his family’s sites along with a few that he and Garcia leased or purchased themselves, Landi soon began to utilize another of Grenache’s special traits, long-lived vines, by ecologically farming small plots of 60–80-year-old vines, planted in freely-draining soils of sand, slate, granite, schist, and clay. All harvesting across his projects is done by hand. In the cellar, Landi continues his hands-off approach: fermentations are whole-cluster with indigenous yeasts in open-top French oak casks, and aged in larger French barrels, foudre, and clay amphorae. All harvesting across his projects is done by hand.
The results of this work are, as US importer Eric Solomon puts it, startling. Mentrida’s mild and fairly humid climate sees the parameters of Garnacha change: the long ripening period perists but the milder climate keeps the alcohol levels modest and retains more non-fruit in the finished wine, evoking, incredibly, comparisons to Pinot Noir from Burgundy or the Northern Rhone Valley’s more complex, tempered take on Syrah. To pour a bottle of Comando G across any of the wines in the range is to be a bit taken aback by the color: the old vines of Garnacha appear pale in the glass, with a vibrant salmon pink that moves to ruby and is not unlike the wide contrast you’d see in a Cote de Nuits Pinot Noir. La Tache Grenache? Maybe not, but with Comando G, it certainly is not from lack of ambition.
Ancient history reborn: some of Daniel Landi’s vineyards in the hills of the Sierra de Gredos.
As of 2024, the availability of the Landi wines along with Comando G and his project showcasing his hometown of Mentrida, Mentridana (featured on this month’s Castor Membership) have been drastically reduced in the US. The DMV was one of only six markets that got an allocation, and that has even been opened up, as in past years the higher-level bottlings, beginning with the “La Bruja de Rozas” featured here, were the strict provenance of Jose Andres’ Thinkfood Group. It has been a pleasure to take the opportunity and run with it, with Pollux members looking more closely at the town of La Rozas de Puerto Real in the wine that Landi and Garcia describe as Comando G’s “village” wine, “La Bruja”.
Harvested from several vineyards around Las Rozas, the purity of “La Bruja” is unmistakable: granitic sand soil, older vines of between 40 and 65 years of age, and and an average elevation of 900 meters have the small-production “La Bruja” (less than 5,000 cases annually) showcasing power in terms of tannin and structure that Garnacha doesn’t typically possess, despite the overall alcohol being lower. The density of the wine (viscous texturally with darker fruits than are typical for the grape) is as astounding as the complex earthiness, both of which contrast with the color of the wine and serve to create a new kind of Grenache which, honestly, you rarely are going to see and taste.
Fans of Spain’s most well-known exponent of Garnacha, Catalunya’s Priorat region, will no doubt argue that their wines are superior, and I am certainly a fan of the well-made bottlings that reach our market. There is little doubt, however, that Priorat wines are more in keeping with our normal expectations for the Garnacha grape, what with a hotter, drier climate pushing alcohol levels well beyond 15% and the Garnacha almost always blended with Carinyena, Syrah, and others. What Dani Landi and his friends and colleagues are doing in the Sierra de Gredos is an endeavor unto itself, showing that this ancient variety, so often the forward-facing facet of a blend, can be reinvented into an introvert, a wine that beckons you to spend time with it in true contemplative enjoyment. Cheers to Landi imbibing Garnacha with a little class; I call trademark on “La Tache Grenache” though-you know, just in case it ever comes up-D.
Comando G by Dani Landi and Fernando Garcia Garnacha “La Bruja de Rozas”
Vinos de Madrid, Spain 2022
Country of Origin: Spain.
Places and People: Spanish wine connoisseurs will know the name Dani Landi; a native of Mentrida, near the Sierra de Gredos Mountain range southwest of Madrid, Landi first took over his family’s vineyards prior to starting his own label in 2008. Farming old vines clinging to steep sites in the mountains, Landi almost single-handedly changed the way Garnacha (Grenache), a workhorse grape throughout Spain, was perceived. With his Commando G line of wines, Landi produces ethereal, elegant Garnachas that can rival the best Burgundies in terms of fruit and finesse. The vineyards for “La Bruja de Rozas” is meant to approximate a Burgundian village-level wine, with the juice coming from several vineyards in the vicinity of Las Rozas de Puerto Real, in Sierra de Gredos’ Alberche Valley. Vine age is between 40 and 65 years at an elevation of 900 meters, contributing to the lower alcohols and ethereal mouthfeel of “La Bruja”.
Soil: Sand and granite-two dynamite terroirs for the growing of Grenache.
Grape Varieties: 100% Garnacha (Grenache).
Winemaking: Hand harvesting is followed by an indigenous fermentation employing native yeasts, carried out in open-top French oak casks. The key to “La Bruja de Rozas” is in the maceration period-the wines are slowly macerated over a period of 40-60 days depending on the plot, which leads to incredible concentration.
Aging: The 2022 “La Bruja” spends 9 months in oak vats of varying large sizes (15-60 hectoliters each), for gentle aeration rather than to impart any flavor.
Flavors and Foods: It’s not hyperbole to say that if you’ve never had a Dani Landi wine, you’ve never tasted Garnacha (Grenache) like this before. The perfume level on “La Bruja” ‘s nose is astounding (dried roses, acacia blossom, lavender) and the color is, while not as light as the “Mentridano” featured on the Castor Membership, still a bit of a shock, with a ruby center that fades quickly with wide variation to the rim of the glass. The palate shows plenty of fruit (raspberries, red apple skins, Santa Rosa plums) but has a structure and secondary notes not unlike that of a Syrah from the Northern Rhone Valley in France, with notes of pepper, granitic rock, and fine tannins that appear more on the front-mid palate than on the wine’s smooth finish. The complexity factor here is high, with each sip and taste bringing a new wave of descriptors. My advice? Enjoy “La Bruja” over an extended period, with a daube of stewing beef and roasted vegetables, wood-fired lamb or dry-aged steak, and regional cheeses like Northwest Madrid’s Zamorano along for the ride.
Service and Cellar: The 2022 “La Bruja de Rozas” is excellent at the lower end of red cellar temperature (56-60 degrees); this temperature may seem like a slight chill but lets the unctuousness of texture brought on by the month-plus long maceration of the fruit shine. The 2022 vintage can certainly be enjoyed now (I think letting this wine open in the bottle rather than with a decanter is sufficient), and the “La Bruja” ‘s acidity level and balance apparent in the secondary earth notes suggests to me that the 2022 vintage will reach its 10th anniversary with ease.