VineBuzz

On the evening of Friday, March 23, 2012, Grégoire Pissot, Chief Winemaker from Cave De Lugny, Lugny, Mâcon, Burgundy, France came to San Francisco to introduce his wines to the Facebook friends of his company's U.S. importer, Pasternak Wine Imports which was hosted on their behalf by Lush Life Productions in the Blanc Et Rouge SF Wine Bar. 



As I was already impressed with many of the wineries that PWI works with in  Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Languedoc-Roussillon, Tavel, and Côtes-du-Rhônes Villages, it was an honor to receive a few passes for the Cave De Lugny meeting to share with the members of the Facebook Wine Aficionados private discussion group.  Some of the other attendees were the friends and associates of Nirvino.com, one of the oldest and finest of the online wine sites.


Grégoire Pissot, as a living national treasure, goes beyond the reach that most winemakers are capable of in engaging existing, new, and prospective enthusiasts in the flair that they have for sharing their brand.  Few can convey as he does the responsibility of making Chardonnay in the Mâcon conform to generations of tradition, while bringing out the best expression from the terroir through winemaking in the vineyards, and then producing distinctive products from very nearly identical soil conditions/micro-climates. 

• in Rosé (which is not exported)
• in still wines of many AOCs (Savoie, Côte de Nuits, Côte de Beaune,
  Puligny-Montrachet, Meursault, and Chassagne-Montrachet, which are among my favorite AOCs)
• in Cremant Bourgogne with Maison Boisset (Jean-Charles Boisset, offspring [and
  now CEO] of that estate as a component in BFE, is a local friend of wine aficionados everywhere).  That Grégoire was able to accomplish so much with sparkling wine within the excellent Boisset estate is a greatly appreciated
  achievement by all those who know the high standards of culture that BFE embraces in the pursuit of making wine more enjoyable.  It is in this cultural approach to winemaking strategy at Cave De Lugny that Monsieur Pissot brings a kind of greatness which is found in but a tiny minority of large winemaking enterprises.
• and as an educator.

Fifteen friends from the Facebook Wine Aficionados group attended the tweetup. 
They especially loved La Carte, as it is closer to the style with which we have become enamored, hopeless fat bastards that us Californians might, at times, become.  More to the point, La Carte is endowed with greater body, better floral aroma, deeper minerality, and broader stone fruit structure than the other two Cave De Lugny products.  

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In conversation with Grégoire and Fred Swan (aka @NorcalWine), we shared with each other the fact that we prefer La Carte for the reasons mentioned.  It was a happy moment.

Thea Dwelle, author of Luscious Lushes had barely returned from an assignment in Spain with Seguras Viudas in time to get to our meeting on Friday night.  Thea also serves on the Board of Directors for the North American Wine Bloggers Conference, and travels frequently on contract at the behest of european winemakers to taste and to describe their wines, as well as to help communicate the stories of many wines in stateside presentations.  Thea warbled her praise for the La Carte Lieu-Dit '08: @winebratsf  Enjoying the 08 really like the balance on this #CaveDeLugny #wine.

Our good friend, Ward Kadel (aka @DrXeNo, a leading wine blogger, site entrepreneur, and reviewer for CIV Bordeaux) helped us prepare for the evening by reviewing on WineLog.Net (where he is a regular contributor) the three Cave De Lugny wines which we would experience in the tasting seminar:  

• Mâcon-Lugny La Carte 2009
• La Cote Blanche 2010
• Mâcon-Lugny Les Charmes 2010

Mr. Kadel is greatly assisted by his wife and business partner, Beth Fontaine, in tasting, reviewing, scoring, and report publication for many wines.  Our friend Philippe Jeudy was successful in enticing his aficionado spouse to participate in the fullest capacity of her senses.  


Ward, Fred Swan, Philippe and I concur with many reviewers that our better halves are endowed with the finer palates and olfactory senses.  We were fortunate to have Beth, Eva, Sasha and Lupe with us in this adventure.

Summer Scarbrough (co-owner, Ellessco) & Christophe Smith @Cork_Dork (Director of Sales and Marketing, Titus Vineyards) enjoy the whole party with new friends from Nirvino