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返回 Learning About Wines Through Their Interaction With Food: A Review On Domaine Dublère Dinner

於 2018年11月15日刊登

© Alexandria Rae Cubbage

On Tuesday, 23 October, we joined special guest from Burgundy, Blair Pethel, the proprietor and winemaker behind Domaine Dublère, to co-host with us an in-depth discussion and tasting of his wines thoughtfully paired with the cuisine of Chef Chris Ma and his team at Fish School. 

Blair began the evening by way of background about himself and his philosophy on winemaking. He was a political journalist for twenty-five years and in 1999 decided to take a sabbatical and learn winemaking. Blair apprenticed with several winemakers in Burgundy including Patrice Rion and Jean-Marc Pillot and attended oenology and viticulture studies at Beaune’s Lycée Viticole. The love of wine, Blair explained, comes from his love of food. He didn’t grow up in a wine drinking household, but he did grow up in a home where good food was made and appreciated. He makes his wine always with food in mind. Thus, for the whites, he wants them to have natural acidity and linearity. Then, with the reds, he wants delicacy, nothing big and powerful. In 2003, Blair moved his family to Burgundy, and in 2004 he started making his own wine.

Back in early July, Francois, Linden, Mike, Anthony Hanson MW and I visited Blair at his domaine. It’s located on Chemin des Planchots in Savigny Les Beaune right beside the vineyards where he makes his Savigny-les-Beaune ‘Les Planchots du Nord’. The winery is a converted tractor shed, and a quite tanned Blair greeted us in shorts and a T-shirt, explaining he had just been out on his tractor that morning. From the moment you arrive and meet Blair you can feel his dedication to his craft; he doesn’t just own a winery, he’s involved and passionate about every aspect of the business from working in the vineyards early every morning on his ultra-light weight tractor to working in the winery and thinking about ways to prevent pre-oxidation prone in white Burgundy. He presses his Chardonnay grapes very hard, minimizes the introduction of oxygen during the fermentation process and uses the natural preservative qualities in the lees (using more lees than most), to help protect his wines against premature oxidation.

For the wines, 1/3rd of the fruit comes from vines he owns, 1/3rd comes from vines he leases and 1/3rd is purchased fruit. Blair believes great wine is made in the vineyard, so he is out in his vines every day and even hands on in the vineyards he doesn’t own or lease. He farms the vineyards with respect and care for the environment at the forefront of his practices, so no chemical fertilizers, weed killers, insecticides or anti-botrytis treatments are used. All the Domaine Dublère wines are farmed and vinified exactly the same, as Blair wants the expression of the terroir to show through in the wine. He dedicates a lot of time to sorting as he believes healthy grapes are key. Blair does punch downs twice a day by foot and little pumping over. The grapes are 100% de-stemmed. Since 2013, he doesn’t use any new oak barrels for ageing his wines. He uses at least 1 year old barrels. All the wines are aged between 18 to 20 months. Blair uses natural yeast and a low sulphur regimen.

At the dinner in October, the first pair of wines were two 2016 whites from Chassagne-Montrachet: 1er Cru ‘Cuvée de la Gelée Noire’ and 1er Cru ‘Les Chaumées’. Blair described the 2016 vintage as very challenging as he lost a lot of grapes due to frost. Specifically, he didn’t have enough grapes in two of his premier cru Chassagne-Montrachet vineyards to make wine, ‘Les Chenevottes’ and ‘Les Vergers’, so he blended the two and created a special cuvée called ‘Cuvée de la Gelée Noire’ referring to the frost. He hopes he never has to make this cuvée again. While I feel for Blair and the other vignerons who lost so many of their grapes in 2016, the wine they produced is some of my favourite wine since 2010.


Flight 1 - Wine 1

2016 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru ‘Cuvée de la Gelée Noire’

This wine delivers aromas of lemony-lime citrus, crunchy pears, Golden Delicious apple, and Granny Smith apple. The fruit expression is pure, and there is a linearity to this wine with bright acidity.

In terms of the pairing, I found myself enjoying this wine most with the bouillabaisse. I liked how the acidity in the wine cut through the richness of the saffron foam and along with the minerality highlighted the seafood flavours. The wine and the soup were contrasts that worked.

Flight 1 - Wine 2

2016 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru ‘Les Chaumées’

This Chassagne was a contrast to the first wine with richer flavours. The nose was more expressive with floral notes of white flowers and flavours of peach, other stone fruits, and mandarin orange citrus. This wine had more body too. Again, I enjoyed this wine for its contrast to the oysters and how it seemed to fill in those flavours that were not present giving more complexity to the dish. The oysters were served raw with hawthorn granita and horseradish cream. Then, the homemade rice wine lees sourdough bread with butter also complemented this wine nicely with the rich sourdough notes bringing out the peach and mandarin notes of the wine, almost like a jam complementing the bread.

Homemade Rice Wine Lees Sourdough Bread and Butter © Fish School

Flight 2 - Wine 1

2014 Nuits-St.-Georges Blanc 1er Cru ‘Les Terres Blanches’

Blair described the 2014 vintage as a cooler and wetter year that Chardonnay thrived in. I agree and love this vintage for white Burgundy. This wine is a blend of 85% Chardonnay and 15% Pinot Blanc that is co-fermented. It delivers aromas of tropical fruits including mango along with flavours of baked pear, peach and lemony acidity. There is more fruit character in this wine with a richer mid-palate. It is minerally too which worked well with the Sea Bream with cooked spinach and seaweed butter. 

Steamed Sea Bream with Spinach Cooked with Seaweed Butter

Flight 2 - Wine 2

2015 Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru

This grand cru delivered bigger flavours and expression all around. In fact, Blair said that in 2015 and 2016 he picked a little early to ensure the grapes would have good acidity. The 2015 vintage was a warm year, so the wines show ripe, juicy fruit character. The wine delivered a hint of vanilla with aromas of yellow peach, nectarines and other stone fruits. It was full in body but it’s riper notes were balanced by lemony acidity. Blair stirs the lees every 10 days during the malolactic fermentation which likely brings the extra richness and body felt in this wine. It was especially nice with the creamy texture of the fish. The spinach and seaweed butter brought out an herbal element in each of the wines in this flight which was quite pleasing and added another layer of complexity.

Flight 3 - Wine 1

2015 Savigny-les-Beaune ‘Les Planchots du Nord’

This Savigny-les-Beaune is one of those happy, friendly, easy drinking wines. It’s one you can have all on its own over good conversation with friends. The nose delivers florals aromas, bright red fruits including raspberries, cranberries and cherries. The tannins are moderate and integrated, and the weight is medium plus in body.

Smoked Pigeon © Fish School

Flight 3 - Wine 2

2015 Nuits St. Georges 1er Cru ‘Aux Bousselots’

This Nuits-St.-Georges showed aromas of plums, red and dark cherries and raspberries. It also displayed a bit of spice notes, herbal flavours of sage along with earthy aromas of mushrooms, forest floor and autumn leaves. The tannins were present here, so it’s a more structured wine than the Savigny-les-Beaune. Those tannins and its medium plus weight on the palate proved well with the pigeon that accompanied it. 

Both reds were served with smoked pigeon which is aged for three days and then smoked. It was accompanied by plum jam and blackberry vinaigrette. I think we all agreed that night that this 1er Cru ‘Aux Bousselots’ was singing with the pigeon; it was our favourite pairing of the night. The gamey notes and savoury flavours of the pigeon brought out those notes in the wine. The dark cherry and red raspberry aromas intertwined well with the smokiness and aged quality of the pigeon while the acidity of the wine cut through the richness of the meat. The wine seemed to elevate the pigeon with the pigeon bringing out greater complexity and range of flavours in the wine too.

Candied Banana, Coconut and Lime Snow, Burnt Yogurt

Thank you to all of those who joined Kat, Florian and me for this special evening with Blair Pethel. I hope the food offered another vehicle through which you were able to gain a greater understanding of these wines. For me, that was my big take away from the evening. I found the food offering me the opportunity to experience more flavours and layers in the wines. And I think we all saw that Blair is doing exactly what he sat out to do - creating wines for food.