NV Vouette et Sorbee - Extra Brut Saignee de Sorbee

Gautherot’s all-2010 NV Extra Brut Rose Saignee de Sorbee R10 – more a pale red than pink in color – offers a very different picture of Pinot from his Brut Fidele that I tasted alongside. Vivid wild cherry, toasted hickory (nuts), sourdough yeasts, and bittersweet floral perfume fill the nose, which also registers an aura of reduction. Rose hip, cress and at once incisive and musky rose radish inflect this impressive fruit on a both substantial and buoyant palate, leading to a sappy, faintly chewy finish. The price differential here is so extreme as to remind me of that which exists among certain grande marque luxury cuvees, and I simply have to ask myself: why is such a premium being asked for the rose vis-a-vis what is (more or less) its white counterpart. Bertrand Gautherot was imbued by (among others) Alsace’s Jean-Pierre Frick with a passion for viticulture in a biodynamic vein, and was convinced by Anselme Selosse to take back from negociant contracts his at the time roughly ten acres of producing vines, a figure that, since Gautherot’s inaugural 2001 vintage, has risen only marginally, even as he has gained a grand reputation among wine lovers, especially those of self-described “natural wine.” The estate is named for its most prominent vineyards, Vouette being on grand cru Chablis-like Kimmeridgian and Sorbee on related Portlandian chalk. Gautherot prides himself on what Germany’s Hans-Gunter Schwarz liked to call “activism in the vineyards; minimalism in the cellar,” and his ambient cask-fermented young wines are never fined, filtered, or cold-stabilized, minimal sulfur being applied solely when the grapes are pressed, as a consequence of which Gautherot – and who am I to disagree – recommends that one enjoy his highly distinctive wines within two years of their disgorgement. Imported by Domaine Select Wine Imports, New York, NY; tel. (212) 279-0799

100% Pinot Noir from 2006. Uncrushed whole bunches macerated for six days in an open wooden cuve before pressing. Aged 10 months in new to eight-year-old 400-litre barrels. Disgorged in Jan 2010. No dosage. Quite deep colour – closer to red than pink. Earthy and fragrant with raspberry fruit, quite rich and solid and muscular, though somehow not awfully refreshing... (TC)

Big and beefy and a bit like raw roast beef on the nose. Lovely delicate little bubbles. Lightly beery. Falls away a lttle on the finish. You clearly need to have been there to fall under the spell of this wine! Chewy end. (JR)