Red Wines of Irancy

It’s been more than a year since the shelter in place order took place.
As more and more people have been vaccinated, slowly and carefully shops and events are starting to open in San Francisco.

Last week I attended one of these socially distancing tasting events.

Irancy is a red wine AOC in Burgundy, France.

It’s lesser known comparing with other Burgundy red wine regions since there is no premier or Grand cru.
Its isolated location doesn’t help its recognition either. It’s just south-west of Chablis and away from the famous Côte d’Or.

However, wine producers of Irancy believed in their wine as good, and worked hard to create higher quality wine, like keeping yields low to produce concentrated grapes.

Years of their effort resulted in attaining the AOC status in 1999.

Their red wine is based on Pinot Noir but little different from the ones from Côte d’Or: it is allowed to use up to 10 % César, a red grape variety with dark color and high tannin.

Domaine de Mauperthuis Les Mazelots 2017
Pinot Noir with little Cesar.
Aromas and flavors of fresh cherry, raspberry and strawberry with spices and forest aromas in the background. 

Silky tannin.


Domaine Colinot Les Cailles 2017
Complex aromas of dark cherry, clove, coffee beans, pepper and tar. 

There is savoriness in this wine.


Domaine Clotilde Davenne 2016
2016 was a challenging vintage with frost and hail.
Fruit-driven aromas of fresh and tart cherry, raspberry and cranberry. 

Body is light.


Domaine Jean-Louis et Jean-Christophe Bersan Cuvée Louis Bersan 2016
Fragrant wine with aromas of decayed rose, strawberry and black tea. 

Powdery tannin supports the delicate flavor.


Domaine Verret Palotte 2015
Year of 2015 had hot, sunny and dry summer, but wine is still refreshing.
Red fruits aromas which is ripe but not cooked. 

Rich fruits are balanced with fine tannin.


Domaine Christophe Ferrari La Bergère 2015
Dark fruits like black cherry, black berry and cassis. 

Fruits are so concentrated, almost like Coca-Cola. 

Spices like anise and orange peel add complexity to it. 

Well structured wine with strong tannin.


These wines are exactly what the wine makers say: they are complex but easy to drink. It's good as aperitif and also good with food.

Winemaker’s Cut Grüner Veltliner 2018

Winemaker’s cut is a winery in British Columbia, Canada.

The name Winemaker’s cut sounds more like a music or movie title than the name of a winery and the impression is not quite deceiving. 

Music plays a big role in this winery as vines and wines are tended with classical music constantly played in vineyards and the winery. 

They say that the frequency of classical music helps to make better wines. 

I don’t know the theory behind it but as a matter of fact vines closer to the speakers grow faster in their vineyards. Interesting.

Their Grüner Veltliner 2018 is from the vineyard in the southern part of the Okanagan Valley.

The wine has the aromas and flavors of apple, peach, slight bitterness of citrus zest and sweet pea. 

Nice, soft texture with clean finish.

We had this with corned beef and potatoes.

Wine was interestingly good with both sweet vegetables and the strong flavor of corned beef and mustard. Even good with horseradish.

It was definitely a great food wine but also good just by itself. 

It was so good that we almost finished the wine before dinner. I’m grad that we managed to save some to have with the meal.