Bordeaux 2016 Vintage

There are many things which can define the character of wine: grape variety, soil, climate, timing of harvest, or of course wine making techniques.

Vintage is also a big factor. According to wine journalist Jacky Rigaux, terroir determines the wine's originality and the vintage determines the quality of wine.
However, it is hard for me to grasp the sense of vintage, probably because it changes every year or a relation of a cause and effect involved in vintage is too complicated. Or probably because I'm not good with numbers.

There was a tasting of Bordeaux Grand Cru Classe 2016 vintage in San Francisco. Perfect opportunity to taste wines from the same vintage. It was wet at the beginning of the year and summer was very hot in 2016 Bordeaux. Hopefully I can grasp at least a tiny bit of the idea of vintage.

There were classified wines from all over Bordeaux, and these are the wines memorable to me.

Chateau Giscours Margaux 2016
Cherry, raspberry, chocolate, hints of pyrazine.
Wine is powerful yet decent and approachable.

Chateau Prieure-Lichine Margaux 2016
A chateau founded by monks in 12th century.
Red plum, raspberry, herb and soft tannin.
Pretty wine, makes me feel like dancing!

Chateau Gruaud Larose Saint-Julien 2016
A second growth in 1855 Bordeaux Classification.
Red fruit, coffee candy and spice.
Tannin is smooth and the texture is soft.
The label design might not be modern but gives a sense of old days' elegance, and the wine tastes like its label.

Chateau Talbot Saint-Julien 2016
Pleasant aromas of red fruit, flower and herbs.
The wine is with fine-grained tannin and very approachable.
It is hard not to like this wine!

Chateau de Pez Saint-Estephe 2016
The beautiful chateau was originally a hunting lodge then expanded to produce wine. Now it is owned by the champagne house Louis Roederer.
Fresh aromas of red fruit and flower are backed by notes of coffee.
It is firm wine with strong but fine tannin. Very enjoyable.

Chateau Phelan Segur Saint-Estephe 2016
Aromatic wine with fresh and dried floral, cherry, cranberry characters.
Strong tannin presence, which is more reliable than aggressive.

Chateau Clarke Listrac-Medoc 2016
Listrac is a commune in Medoc, lesser known than other big names like Margaux or St-Julien. High water table in the area and shallow root system as its result work as disadvantage, but this wine proves that great wine can be made under such a condition.

A little unusual for Medoc, majority of the grape in this blend is Merlot.
Notes of ripe red fruit, spice, coffee.
Clean, full-bodied wine with gripping tannin.

Chateau La Lagune Haut-Medoc 2016
A third growth in 1855 Bordeaux Classification.
Beautiful aromas of fresh cherry, plum and purple flower.
Bitter sweet coffee-like after taste.

There were also beautiful white wines.

Chateau Carbonnieux Pessac-Leognan 2016
A chateau of long history with the Benedictine monks as the first owner.
Refreshing citrus and tropical fruit notes with savory characters of lees.
Long, clean finish.

Chateau Olivier Pessac-Leognan 2016
Candied citrus, melon and peach.
Delicate wine with strong finish.

The characteristics of vintage is still vague for me, but I felt a difference.
Overall impression, St-Julian was most memorable for 2016. At the last years tasting, which was the tasting of 2015, I found Margaux most attractive.
Even though I don't understand how, but I must have had detected the difference between vintages.

Wine Bag reform

There are many kinds of events held in San Francisco.
At some tasting events, they give away bags.
This is one of them, from Loire Valley Wine Tasting.

I like the design so I want to use this as a main bag, not a sub bag, but it has a little novelty feel.
To use daily, I want a little more durability since I tend to carry a lot of stuff.
I need to do something to promote this bag to everyday-use main bag.

From my bag making experience, I think the bag handle is one of the critical factors of the quality of the bag, so I decided to remove the fabric handle and change it to leather.

Cut out two leather handles.
Smooth the rough edge with water and sandpaper (do not make water stain!), and polish both front and back of the handles.

Use rivets to attach the handles to the bag.
This hand press is, by the way, one of the best investments I made in my craft life.

I also planned to add a lining for durability and convenience.
Make a pocket and fix magnet to the lining.

Make it into bag shape.
Attach the lining to the bag, baste and machine sew.

Finished!

It's cute, cuter than I expected! 

It possesses some cool, French-feel (I believe!).

Thank you Loire Valley Wines!

Honey Wine

I'm a conservative shopper. When I buy something, I tend to stick to what I already know such as books from my favorite authors, shirts with my favorite color, or wines from my favorite producers.
On the other hand, JC enjoys unexpected encounter.
He is curious, especially when it comes to food & drink.

The other day we happened to find a tasting booth at Whole Foods (organic super market).
I usually just pass by these events, but JC wanted to try, especially when he saw it was a little unexpected drink. It was mead.

Mead is an alcoholic drink made by fermenting honey. It is not a very popular drink now, but has very long history.
I didn't expected a lot from this ancient honey wine, but it was surprisingly good!
It was dry but had the flavour of honey without stickiness.

Meadery Forest Flower
Honey, caramel, dried fruit, herb and rancio-like quality, which reminds me of the oxidized wine from south France, or even Koshu (aged sake).
It feels rich but smooth,

Another good thing is that it would last for a month in a fridge after opening the bottle, in case if you want to enjoy this slowly.

Slow Roasted Chicken

Ever since he came back from a trip to northern Italy, JC's been into slow roasted meat.

He stayed at the Meroi Estate in Friuli-Venezia Giulia.
The restaurant adjacent to the winery offers great local food, even chefs from Michelin Star restaurant come dine at the restaurant to get inspired.
He can't forget the food he had there, especially the simple yet flavourful slow roasted meat.

This is JC's recreation.
No sauce, no brine. Simply roast chicken with low heat for one hour.
Tender, juicy and delicious!

Wine is Starlite Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon 2009 (Meroi wine is sleeping in the cellar).
Ripe fruit, dried fruit, smokiness of oak and freshness of herb.
Kept its pleasant quality even several days after we opened it. Great wine.

Gevrey-Chambertin tasting

Gevrey-Chambertin is red wine producing village in Cote de Nuits, Burgundy. Their wine is made exclusively with Pinot Noir.

The village of Gevrey-Chambertin used to be called just Gevrey. The prestageous vineyard "Le Champertin" was added to the village name. This set the trend and other villages followed (Puligny and Chassagne Montrachet, Vosne-Romanee, etc.).
Wines from this village are generally full-bodied with good structure and ageing potential.

There was a tasting event for this beautiful red wine.

Domaine Marc Roy Gevrey-Chambertin Clos Prieur 2016
Pronounced aromas of violet, raspberry, red cherry and plum, cedar.
Soft texture.

Domaine des Beaumony Gevrey-Chambertin Premier Cru Les Cherbaudes 2015
Raspberry, cherry, plum, herb, incense, with silky texture.
This producer is moving towards organic.

Nuiton-Beaunoy Gevrey-Chambertin Premier Cru Clos du Chapitre 2015
Raspberry, plum, cherry, strawberry, coffee, mushroom.
Silky texture and long finish.

Domaine Harmand-Geoffroy Gevrey-Chambertin Premier Cru Lavaux St-Jacques 2016
Apple skin, strawberry, plum, spice like clove or cinnamon, cedar, charred wood.
Good wine, would be even better with tamed tannin after further bottle ageing.

Domaine Henri Magnien Gevrey-Chambertin Premier Cru Les Champeaux 2016
Pronounced aromas of strawberry, raspberry, ripe cherry, liquorice candy, sandalwood.
Fine-grained velvety tannin.
Fluid-like texture with long finish.

Domaine Henri Magnien Gevrey-Chambertin Premier Cru Les Cazetiers 2016
Aromas of coffee candy, fresh coffee beans and cedar first, then fresh and ripe fruit of strawberry and cherry.
Tannin is high but not aggressive.
Rich wine with concentration and long, pleasant finish.

There are 9 Grands Crus in this village and some of Premier cru sites are said to match Grands crus with its quality, and this Lez Cazertiers is one of them.
It was indeed a great wine with complexity and depth. Definitely my favorite of the day.
However, other people had other favorites. They all were beautiful wines.

Christmas sewing

This time of the year I somehow feel the creative impulse.
What works for me is that it's Christmas time!
I made men's shirts x 2 as Christmas gift.

Fabric I chose is NANIIRO, double gauze from Japan.
Double gauze is hard to work with because it's soft and frays easily. However, NANIIRO's double gauze is relatively easy to sew so I use this fabric for garment making often.

I use books or magazine as a weight to fix a pattern on fabric as I cut them. It is heavy and wide enough to keep the pattern in place.

The pattern is from a book "Otoko no Shirts no Hon (Men's Shirts Book)" by Ryuichiro Shimazaki.
I made maybe more than twenty shirts from this book and always get praised. I highly recommend this book!

Freeman Vineyard and Winery

Freeman Vineyard and Winery is a winery in Sonoma.

They specialize in Pinot Noir: in fact, to start the winery, they traveled and searched for a land which could produce their ideal Pinot Noir. They found this area and Ken and Akiko Freeman established this winery in 2001.

The winery is in mountains but only 30 minutes or so scenic drive from Sebastopol.

They showed us the small but beautiful and functional winery.

Inside the fermentation vessel. Dry ice is used to control the temperature.

This is pneumatic press.
A bag inside is inflated and presses grapes against the wall of the cylinder.
Grapes can be pressed gently with this machine.

Then we got to taste wines in the cellar.

The wines were beautiful. They were big but elegant.
Concentrated fruit, herb and spice, with gentle and reliable structure.

JC's favorite was Yu-ki Estate.
My favorite was Akiko's Cuvee.
Yu-ki Estate was tender and Akiko's Cuvee was more complex.

Akiko studied art history but became winemaker to support her husband.
It is sweet of her, but tasting her great wines, I think she was destined to become a winemaker anyway.