Madiran Laplace 2004
Chateau d'Aydie in Madiran and in view of the Pyrenees and Spain
Chateau d'Aydie (pronounced die-dee) Madiran 2005 from Southwestern France where the duck breasts sizzle, the foie gras melts in your mouth and the French paradox rules.
Hey all you out there who think you're wine adventurers. Here's a wine for you. Once you've had this in your glass, you'll say, "What was so adventurous about that? This is just great wine I've been missing out on."
I couldn't wait to get to Madiran (which is in remote territory almost three hours south of Bordeaux - not too far from Spain) because I've wanted to import a Madiran for a long time. One off-site taste of the Laplace Madiran several weeks earlier told me this was definitely the one. I was instantly seduced by that fearless, rich blackberry and currant expression of the Tannat grape.
Incidentally, Madiran is the wine with the most resveratrol which is the stuff that keeps you alive and pumping or so scientists tell me. But, even if you're skeptical, what's the down side? This is very good-tasting medicine and I plan to be pulling a lot of corks from now on just to be safe.
The Laplace family estate is called Chateau d'Aydie.
Here's what Andrew Jefford (The New France) says about d'Aydie:
"This is one of the most immaculately and professionally run domains in the whole of France."
La Revue awards the 2004 Madiran a 16.5!! This is the unique French system and it is a very impressive score. The cepage of this wine is 80% Tannat and 20% Cabernet Sauvignon. The tasters at La Revue are very stingy with their 16s, but they clearly couldn't help themselves.
Chateau d'Aydie is the name of the Laplace family's flagship wine which is 100% Tannat. La Revue hasn't reviewed the 2005 yet, but you can bet when they do they will be effusive with their praise. The wine has extraordinary freshness because of the clay/chalk soil. The vines are 30 years old. The juice is aged for 18 months in French oak barrels, 50% of which are new. The quantity is quite limited.
Chateau d'Aydie is in a utopian spot on a hilltop overlooking a panorama of vineyards sheltered by the curves of the River Ardour. I knew I was in for some good bottle tilting here, but I didn't expect Marie to stage a banquet of white asparagus, slabs of foie gras the size of my TV remote control and duck breasts which must have come from some avian super race.
The large triangle of tarte tatin which appeared at the end will be an indomitable task to finish off, I said to myself, but yet, moments later, I had managed to go the distance and have a crumbless plate. And all washed down with some of the most succulent juice I had encountered in awhile. Lunch was over at 5pm.
Chateau d'Aydie is a family affair. Francois is responsible for the commercial and marketing side. Marie handles all of the administration and a few other things which we've already covered. Bernard is master of the vines and all that goes on outside and Jean-Luc is the wine maker.
Pierre is the pere and still advises. He is ruggedly handsome and I was enchanted to see a black beret atop his pate at a time when that lovely circlet of wool has lost hold in sartorial circles of France. Some things are slow to change in Madiran, but not the wine.
What happened in little old Madiran in the 1990s changed the taste of wine all around the world. Micro-oxygenation was invented here. You know, that thing they talk about in Bordeaux that tames the tannins, coaxes out the fruit flavors, and makes generally unapproachable wine accessible in half the time. You probably thought Michel Rolland invented it. Wrong!
And it's all because of the Tannat grape. You can't have a discussion about Madiran without talking about Tannat. Tannat is Madiran. And it is not an easy-going little breed. It can't be machine-harvested because the machine can't shake those stubborn grapes off the vine. Then, add to that, Tannat takes forever to ripen. All of these things could have been borne with a shrug were it not for the fact that Tannat is very very tannic and will snarl at you unless it has many years of sitting around and mellowing out.
But, as the winemakers of Madiran discovered, a little bit of oxygen inserted at different times during vinification makes our surly little Tannat purr like a kitten. Now winemakers use micro-oxygenation everywhere in the wine-growing world.
So, break out of your molds and give this Southwesterner a try. Get the duck breasts browning and the corkscrew working. This Madiran is fantastic and you'll have a lot of fun serving it. There will be appreciative murmurs around the table and your lucky guests will probably think they're drinking a Bordeaux. They don't have to know that it cost about half as much. Did I mention that the people in Madiran live longer than anybody else in France? I don't think it's the foie gras. Must be the wine. Cynthia Hurley
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