Category: Wine Lesson

This is our final post on the Women Winemakers of Chablis. We’d like to thank all of the women who participated, as well as Marguerite de Chaumont-Quitry, who went to the enormous trouble of setting this all up for us. We asked all nine women the same three questions and Ms. de Chaumont-Quitry got the answers translated for us.

Our final winemaker is Athénais de Béru of Château de Béru.

1)    What makes Chablis different from other wines made from chardonnay?

Chablis is not only the name of a charming city in North Burgundy. The terroir of Chablis is unique. The soils of Chablis have a unique geological composition dating from the Jurassic era, named Kimmeridgian. What is Kimmeridgian? Complex limestones full of marine fossils, oysters concentrated salt and iodine. This very unique terroir brings a very unique typicity to the wines produced on Chablis land.
Of course, our grape variety is 100% Chardonnay which is one of the most planted grape varieties in the world. Chardonnay has a very interesting characteristic: it reveals the perfect image and tipicity of where it grows. In a rich and warm soil, it will produce a rich, fat and warm Chardonnay. In a stony, mineral soil with cold temperate weather, it can produce an amazing stony mineral pure and crystalline Chardonnay: a Chablis!

2)    If my reader sees Chablis on the label of a bottle of wine, what should she expect to taste in the wine?

Chablis is a huge appellation with many different soils, expositions, many winemakers with many different styles.
Personally, I am against standardization, so I would say there is not one only taste in a Chablis or in any other wine. I am located in Beru, my vineyards are above 300 meters altitude, the personality of my wines cannot be the same as the other lands from Chablis. Each wine is unique. But, generally speaking, a wine from Chablis revealing the best of its Terrroir will be pure and mineral with delicious aromas of citrus fruits like lime or orange and sometimes ripe white fruits like pears or peaches… and with intense saltiness, which brings freshness, salinity and complexity to our wines. The limestones and the chalk also bring nice flinty stones, smoky aromas.

3)   Finally, how are things changing for women winemakers in France? In the U.S., making wine is still very dominated by men. Are there more women becoming winemakers? Do women make wine differently than men, and if they do, what do they do that’s different?

I think most of the working world is still more masculine, but it has changed a lot and more women are involved. I am not a feminist. We need both men and women in a project. Making wine is an adventure which also needs both men and women.
To the question “is a wine made by a woman more feminine?” My answer is no.
Wine depends on the land, on the grape variety, on the climate, on the terroir, on the personality of the winemaker. We are all unique. Our wines are unique.

 

We first came across Wrath Wines several years ago at a Rhone Rangers trade tasting of mostly syrah wines. We got in free, although we can’t remember now if tickets were sold or if the event was even open to the public.

However, most of what the participating wineries were pouring were syrahs from 2011, a particularly challenging year for California wine, and those wines were, well, pretty lousy.

Except for the syrah from Wrath Wines. So when we decided to do a lesson on syrah, we naturally thought of Wrath’s winemaker, Sabrine Rodems.

Rodems told us that she had been a stagehand, then decided to go back to school in a pre-med program. However, when she decided that medicine was probably not her thing, after all, her sister told her that the family needed an enologist.

“It was a joke,” Rodems said, adding that her family was mostly scientists of some sort. “We were all into food and wine. The beauty of being a winemaker is that it’s both art and science.”

The thing to remember about syrah, she said is that it can be strong.

“It has a huge amount of flavor,” she said.

But how much and what kind of flavors tends to depend on where the syrah grapes are grown.

“Cool-climate syrah tends to be more plummy,” Rodems said.

Syrahs from Paso Robles, which has a warmer climate, tend to be meatier, with hints of bacon. Hers tend to have lots of spice, fruit such as black cherry, nutmeg, cloves, sometimes even a hint of juniper.

As for what to serve with it?

“It just depends on your mood,” Rodems said. For example, if it’s a Friday night, you can uncork one to relax with before dinner gets to the house. “You can drink them by themselves.”

That being said, syrahs are still great with food.

“It definitely goes with meat,” Rodems said. “Lamb and syrah, you can’t go wrong there.”

 

This is our second to the last installment on the Women Winemakers of Chablis. We’ve got nine total. Today, we’re featuring Catherine Poitout of L&C Poitout, in the Chablis region of France. Chablis is also the delicious white wine made from the chardonnay grape (remember, European wines are usually named after where they’re made, rather than by what they’re made of). This series is from a group of email interviews with nine women winemakers from the Chablis region, translated from the original French by someone else because Anne’s French is in terrible shape. We asked each woman the same three questions.

1)    What makes Chablis different from other wines made from chardonnay?

Chablis’ location and soils make its Chardonnay stand out compared to other Chardonnays.  It is in at a very northern latitude, with extremely cold weather, and planted on chalky soils from the Kimmeridgien and Portlandian eras, full of fossilized sea animals.  This results in very mineral-driven wines that are bright and refreshing, yet complex.

2)    If my reader sees Chablis on the label of a bottle of wine, what should she expect to taste in the wine?

Your readers should expect a beautiful white wine, with very bright fruit and high acid.  These wines can be very complex and elegant, skewing more towards finesse than power.  They are perfect for shellfish, light white meats and cheeses.

3)   Finally, how are things changing for women winemakers in France? In the U.S., making wine is still very dominated by men. Are there more women becoming winemakers? Do women make wine differently than men, and if they do, what do they do that’s different?

Wine-making is still very dominated by men in France as well.  Currently, most women involved in wine-making rarely start wineries, but take over inheritances.  While they are less present in the fields due to the intense physical labor required, we do see more and more women in the winery as winemakers or wine-making  Speaking in generalities, women seem to seek out more elegance and finesse than power when making wine, and have a very positive impact on the design of the labels.

When you want to talk about food and wine together, it’s hard to do better than talking with someone who works with both every day. Amanda Martin is the sous chef at Leoness Cellars in Temecula, California, and part of her job is coming up with dishes to serve with the wines made there.

We literally stumbled into her at a restaurant show last year and couldn’t resist doing a quick interview.

Q- What’s it like working at a winery as opposed to a restaurant?

Martin – With the winery, we have a little bit more flexibility, as far as the type of food, we get to serve because it is independent. With corporate restaurants, it’s a little bit harder because you’re told what to produce and how much and so forth. We create our own menus there, our own dishes there.

Q- So how much liberty do you have? Do you always have to include the wines?

Martin – No, I chose to include the wines. As far as in the cooking process? Obviously, when you’re cooking sauces, or preparing sauces in certain dishes, or pastas, you’re going to want a wine to deglaze. So I choose to use our wines in the process.

Q – How do you create a dish with a specific wine in mind, one that’s not necessarily going into it, but to go with it.

Martin –  We just try to, uh, as far as what’s made with the wine? We try to have it complement the wines.

Q- So do you taste the wine first?

Martin – We taste the wine first and then go from there.

Q – And what flavors go with what – the idea being how to tell what goes with what wine? And since you’re creating dishes to go with a wine all the time, you can tell us.

Martin – A lot of the times, people try to associate reds with meats, whites with fishes. That’s not always necessarily the case. You have to get the tannins, the sweetness behind the wine and then compare it that way. Like with a scallop dish, if you have something that’s salty within it, I would go with a sweeter wine, just so it plays harmoniously with your palate.

Q – Is this something you just have to test, doing trial and error?

Martin – Yeah, it’s just trial and error. Unless you have your sommelier, you know.  Also, wine and food is just more of a personal preference. It’s hard to pin point. What I enjoy, somebody else might not like. We can make our recommendations for it. Absolutely, but at the end of the day, it’s what you enjoy and that’s what we want it to be. It’s your experience.

Q – So what do you recommend? Just trying a bunch of different wines, such as different cab sauvs with a bunch of different foods? Or a Riesling with a bunch of different foods.

Martin – A Riesling would go excellent with the scallops, with fish. Halibut, surprisingly, we serve it with a port reduction. So you wouldn’t think a red wine sauce with a fish, but it goes beautifully with it. It’s trying. Have fun with it. That’s what food is, it’s fun. And wine. After a few glasses of wine, everything’s fun though.

And here’s another installment on the Women Winemakers of Chablis. We’ve got nine total. Today, we’re featuring Lyne Marchive – Domaine des Malandes, in the Chablis region of France. Chablis is also the delicious white wine made from the chardonnay grape (remember, European wines are usually named after where they’re made, rather than by what they’re made of). This series is from a group of email interviews with six women winemakers from the Chablis region, translated from the original French by someone else because Anne’s French is in terrible shape. We asked each woman the same three questions.

1)    What makes Chablis different from other wines made from chardonnay?

Its subsoil, the Kimmeridgian from the Jurassic period, allows Chardonnay to express itself here like no other place.

2)    If my reader sees Chablis on the label of a bottle of wine, what should she expect to taste in the wine?

They should expect to taste a fresh and relaxing wine, with a cheering liveliness.

3)   Finally, how are things changing for women winemakers in France? In the U.S., making wine is still very dominated by men. Are there more women becoming winemakers? Do women make wine differently than men, and if they do, what do they do that’s different?

In my opinion, this topic isn’t an issue: a lot of professions have opened up to women, not just the wine industry (justice, police forces, sciences, mechanics, etc.). The most important thing is to remain extremely professional.

A woman does not make wine in a similar or different way from a man: she can also make it differently from another woman. It is just a matter of conviction and sensitivity.