Beaujolais Bistro

We are very pleased to have Beaujolais Bistro buying vast amounts of wine. Currently they are carrying the likes of Walter Hansel pinot noir, Tempier Rose, Mas Saint-Jospeh etc... If you want traditional french food in Reno this is the only game in town. Please head down for lunch or dinner, drink some real wine (they have 2005 Marcel Lapierre on the list*), and support Bill. Beaujolais Bistro, and a couple other places, are Reno's only true restaurant culture. Let's all do our best to keep them successful! 

*If you truly want to experience the splendors of Gamay you have to try this wine. I worn you, Cépage and its ilk will drink it all up very soon. In fact we might just order every bottle tonight and then dance on the tables.

Vittorio's Skyline Cafe hearts Emmanuelle Houllion

Vittorio Rossi, owner and namesake, of Vittorio's Skyline Cafe now features Emmanuelle Houillon's crazy chardonnay from the Arbois in the Jura. It's a furry no sulphur bomb that is totally unique. We got a total of three cases and never planned on selling it (except of course to Washoe Wine who moved a few bottles, all of which were returned); we were just going to drink them all ourselves. Then the irrepressible Vittorio asked about chardonnay from the Jura! He bought five bottles. That probably makes Vittorio's Skyline Cafe a top ten account for Houllion chardonnay.  

Lutte Raisonnée

Yesterday we had the chance to sample two wines from Mollydooker, an Australian estate that has created a stir in the wine industry. The wines were not to our preference. The important thing to note here is that our judgment of Mollydooker is simply a subjective opinion. It's not a diatribe on style or craft. Too often, and very unfortunately, the wine world is polarized into two camps, the old world and the new world. The old world camp looks at Mollydooker as a manipulated milkshake, a cocktail that tastes nothing of a grape. The new world camp looks at Mollydooker as an exemplar of fruit and fullness, a wine that truly pushes the limits. What people fail to notice is that Mollydooker is the extreme of the new world camp (hyper-manipulation) just as Radikon and Gravner are the extremes of the old world camp (no manipulation). There are moderates in the wine world, people without pure theory and agenda, people who are not jingoistic. The old world camp says that all new world wines taste the same and mask terrior, yet they fail to notice that many old world wines done under semi-carbonic maceration and without sulfur also tend to taste the same. Here at Cépage we sell wine that we like to drink and have with food. Those tend to be European wines, wines that are lighter in color, weight and fruit, be we also sell some California wines that are darker and richer and unmistakably Californian. That is what we're concerned with: authenticity of place and not dogmatic theory. We feel that all our wines are distinct of their place and enjoyable to drink on their own or with food. We also know that our winemakers are conscious of their land and the land around them, meaning they are trying to create living ecosystems instead of drowning the soil in chemicals. We're not saying that organic or sustainable viticulture make 'hands down' better wine, we're just saying that it's better for the environment. Just because most of the wines in our book come from the old world and are grown organically doesn't mean we're fully of that camp. We're just selling wine we like tho drink from farmers we respect. As in wine, and just about everything else in the world, the most prevalent color is gray and few things are black and white.

This Just In

Whispering Vine is blowing through record amounts of Texier Cotes-du-Rhone. This can be interpreted two ways, either there is a God or we have more than one reader! Not to mention, Whispering Vine just picked up Michel Tete's 2005 Julienas. This is monumental Gamay from a great Cru. If its not drinking like burgundy in eight to ten years you, our pacifist readers, can storm and ransack our global headquarters on Plumas Street.

Eric Texier

Eric's 2005 Cote-Rotie was open a week before we got around to tasting it again. It was on the table with the cork in it and about 2/3 full. The wine showed no sign of oxidation. It was delicate with aromas of red fruits and very light hints of bacon. The acid was still jumping. This is Cote-Rotie at its best, never as animal or wild as Cornas or St. Joseph, nor should it ever be. Cote-Rotie is the Burgundy of the Rhone valley and nobody exemplifies this more than Eric, with all of his wines! They slowly unravel in the glass and are absolute pleasures to drink. Plus he's a hell of a nice guy that's doing great work in old vineyard areas like Chusclan and Brézeme! 

Here is what we have in stock:

2004 Cotes du Rhone (limited) -These are grenache/mourvedre blends

2005 Cotes du Rhone 

2004 Cotes du Rhone Brézeme (limited) -syrah

2005 Cotes du Rhone Brézeme

2005 Cotes du Rhone Chusclan grenache/syrah

2005 Cote-Rotie (limited)

2005 Chateauneuf-du-Pape Rouge (limited)

2006 O Pale (limited)- viognier 

This Just In

Sezmu Restaurant is blowing through record amounts of Francious Cazin's Cour-Cheverny! Reno is on to Romorantin!

Blowout Weekend

VLM, a friend of Cépage and purveyor of Robert Denogent's wines, was in town this past weekend. There were many wines to be had and we couldn't help but rank the top fifteen because everything is best in groups of fifteen. 

1. Domaine de la Pepiere Muscadet 2005 (2 bottles)

2. Bernard Baudry Chinon La Croix Boissée 2004    

3. Bruno Giacosa Barolo Falletto 1996

4. Domain de la Pepiere Granite de Clisson 2005  

5. Domain Fourrier Les Gruenchers 2001

6. Clos Rougeard Les Poyeux 1999

7. Wiengut Prager Riesling Bodenstein 2004 (purchased at Sezmu) 

8. Valentini Montepulciano d'Abruzzo 2000 

9. Harmand Geoffroy Lavaux Saint Jacques 2002

10. Bernard Baudry Chinon Domaine 2004

11. Albert Boxler Brand Riesling 2001

12. Clos Roche Blanche "Pif" 2004

13. Oddero Vigna Rionda 1996

14. Ghislaine Barthod Les Fuées 2002

15. Clos de Goisses 1996 

Some brief interconnected comments:

Pepiere is for sale, from this company, for eight dollars. Buy it. Baudry makes the everything of cab franc. The great poet ee cummings said "i don't know what it is about you that opens and closes" he should have been talking about nebbiolo, Giacosa opened, Oddero closed. Marc Olivier is a God! Fourrier's wines have different colors. Rougeard is a great enigma, sublime yet blocky. We should drink more Austrian wines. We'll probably never see another bottle of Valentini MdA. This one was interesting but very much a moving target, like a cherry bomb floating in the ocean. Geoffroy is a serious producer for old men with harry nostrils, wearing vests. It's not for hipsters. No one drinks Alsatian riesling, including us. Clos Roche Blanche, buy it. Barthod is a piece of iron, iron on a building not in a garden. Clos de Goisses is the Fois Gois of champagne: pure fat with the texture of a slug. Not listed were countless bottles of Hudelot-Noellat, and though we had our best bottle (Beaumont 2004), we still don't see the it of the it in these wines. In closing: Buy Pepiere. And vote for Kusinch.

Jungle Vino Picks Up Two Wines!

We are very happy to say that Jungle Vino has joined the revolution. They now offer Domaine de Cadette Bougoune Blanc and Clos Roche Blanche "Pif." These are two of the better values in our book.

Cadette is in the Vézelay appellation of Burgundy but its soils are like that of Chablis, Kimmeridgian clay. Jean Montanet, a good friend of Bernard Raveneau, works his vineyards orgaincally, hand harvests, uses only indigenous yeast and old barrels. This is chardonnay in its purest form. 

Clos Roche Blanche is, perhaps, the producer we're most proud to work with and support. It's an estate in the Touraine (loire valley) run by two of most passionate and kind people you will ever meet: Didier Barrouillet and Catherine Roussel. They've worked orgaincally since the mid-ninties and their vineyards are incredible, surrouned by forest therefore allowing a distinct and complete ecosystem to develop. They are like no other. Many vignoron talk of their vineyards as ecosystems but Clos Roche Blanche has truly achieved it! "Pif" is a blend of cabernet franc and cot and is a true terrior wine, warm, earthy and fragrant.

Please go down to Jungle Vino and try these wines. Support them for selling wines that are made by farmers who care about keeping their products, and the world around them, as authentic as possible.