I didn't need to ask my classmates to translate in order to understand Jean Luc Thunevin at this particular moment. As we walked through the chai at Chateau Valandraud, he stopped us, dropped anchor and took a stand. "Ausone et n'a pas de Terroir?! AUSONE et n'a PAS de Terroir?!! Et Bourgogne aussi?" He was shaking his hands, challenging anyone to disagree. At this moment, there were none who dared. Having tasted Ausone last year, I understood and was a believer in Terroir already. But I'm getting waaay ahead of myself. To reach this point of this extended tour of the Right Bank, and to understand exactly who or what stoked Mr. Thunevin's passions, allow me to take you back to a very special day and a tour I have yet to even mention.

Thanks to the generosity of Marie Vayron, I was fortunate to visit a chateau beyond legend on the Right Bank -- Chateau Pétrus.  Pomerol is the smallest appellation producing elite wine in Bordeaux.  And Pétrus is the most elite -- and most expensive -- wine in Bordeaux.  With a surface area of just 11.5 hectares, Pétrus is planted to 95% Merlot and 5% Cabernet Franc, but after a severe selection, the resulting wine is nearly 100% Merlot. 

Located on the crest of a 40 meter butte in Pomerol, the vineyards of Petrus are uniquely situated on a clay bouttoniére, or button-hole, surrounded by ancient gravel beds deposited by glaciers over a million years ago.  The advantages of this site are many: slope for drainage, gravel for deep roots, and iron-rich clay - unique to Pétrus in Pomerol - as a buffering moderation on the ripening Merlot.  A soil that, as we have seen elsewhere, retains moisture during drought.  Indeed, some years Pétrus harvests grapes as much as two weeks before neighboring chateaux, in part out of a stylistic, traditional preference but also doubtless to the unique properties of this vineyard. 

The young oenologist, Olivier Berrouet (left, here with Marie Vayron) is the son of the longtime winemaker Jean Claude Berrouet at Pétrus, now retired.  Olivier spent a few years at neighboring Cheval Blanc before picking up responsibility for Petrus for the 2008 Vintage.  And the regimen at Pétrus is completely traditional Bordeaux Right Bank -- concrete tanks (right), gentle handling of the wine from

vine to vat, and malolactic fermentation in tanks (this second fermentation is really more of a transformation of malic acid into a milder lactic acid undertaken by most red wine producers today).  Malo is a natural occurrence in most cellars due to temperature conditions and the presence of favorable bacteria  But there is a diversity of opinion regarding exactly how to execute Malo, and the results can often be surprising, and controversial. 

There is a school of thought that the En Primeur barrel-tasting in April puts artificial emphasis on wines to show well early in their life cycle.  Higher scoring wines can command higher prices during the important Futures selling season that follows the barrel sample tasting.  Red Bordeaux that have undergone Malolactic fermentation in barrels generally present themselves as a more complete wine at an earlier point in their gestation than wines that complete Malo in vat, or tank.  The Malo-in-barrel wines are typically darker, softer, rounder, and to this taster, bigger and fatter.  These qualities can be readily distinguished in side-by-side tastings common at Primeurs.  A number of very popular and great Bordeaux wines undergo Malo in Barrel, including Pavie, Le Fleur de Bouard, and most wines made by Jean-Luc Thunevin (Chateau Valandraud).  The technique is expensive, however, as it requires new oak barrels, and it’s not without its own set of risks.  Indeed, Malo-in-Barrel is regarded as a Burgundian vinification method rather than Bordelaise.  So it is always an interesting part of the tour to ask a Bordeaux winemaker about his Malo regime.  Here is how it went at Pétrus. 

The following was transcribed from a video tape recording on January 12, 2009 in the cellar at Pétrus, with Olivier Berrouet speaking to a group of students from INSEEC-Bordeaux:

Q.  Do you do your malolactic in  barrel or in tank? (asked by fellow student Ms. Emilie Fastre)

A.  Never in Barrel.  Never in barrel.

Q.  Why is that such a definitive choice?  (I ask this question)

A.  Why?  Because my dad tested it during 50 years.  It’s not a blind choice.  There are many problems, problems with Brett, Malo in Barrels more Brett.  And after, when you are making Malo in barrels, it’s getting more homogeneous.  It tastes the same.  Because Malo in barrels, especially with new wood, it brought a very strong caramel taste, that was identified 10 years ago by Bordeaux University.  And the problem is you can’t make a blend before Malo, you have to wait to the end of Malo to make your Blend tasting.  The problem with malo in barrels is, everything tastes the same.  How can you make the difference between the very good lots, good, average and bad lots.  That’s the question.  And also you oxidize the wine, and you decrease the aging potential. 

My dad did some tests of Malo in barrels.  He took tanks  from four vineyards:

1. 1.Clay vineyard plot in Petrus
   

2. 2.Clay from Trotanroy
   

3. 3.Gravel plot from Lafleur Petrus
   

4. 4.Limestone plot Magdeline.
   

For each vinification tank, he separated the lots in two: one malo in tank, one in Barrel.  So we did some tasting in several vintages.  When you are tasting Malo in Tanks, you recognize the wines. The one in Barrel, you don’t know where it’s coming from.  You don’t know if it’s clay, gravelly or limestone.  You don’t know.  It tastes the same. It’s boring.

Understand, this is a young enologist speaking quite simply, with certainty, and largely objectively and without emotion, to students, many who are familiar with oenology, about a particular wine making choice.  This struck me as entirely logical, as my own tasting, limited though it is, seems in line with this result.  Malo-in-barrel wines (many of the huge, elite California Cabs are produced this way) are delicious, but not always distinct.  At least not to me, not yet.  More tasting is in order here.  But there is general agreement that these wines are very well made, they score well, and they are priced high enough to recoup the investment costs.  And certainly the pedigree of the Malo-in-barrel wines is also without question, particularly when one considers the vast range of Burgundy wines from so many specific vineyards and sites. 

That said, it was a visit with Mr. Thunevin (left and below) himself a couple of weeks later that revealed the depth of passion surroun

ding this particular issue.  As we walked with Jean Luc Thunevin through the chai at Chateau Valandraud, he kept up a rapid-fire discussion about the grapes he grows, and the properties of each.  As my French is relatively poor, I relied on Marie and two other colleagues to translate -- Mr. Thunevin covers a lot of ground quickly.  When the subject of Malo came up, as it always does, I relayed the story from Pétrus to Mr. Thunevin.  He walked on for a few minutes, pondering this, then stopped us, and launched into a 10 minute passionate explanation, in blazingly fast French, about terroir, and Malo.  I quoted the most passionate lines at the beginning of this piece, and I have them on tape.  But his spirited defense of Malo in Barrel took everyone by surprise.  I thought perhaps we insulted him by mentioning this.  He later wrote about the issue in his own blog in a humorous way, so I think he’s over it by now.

(And I just had to work this picture of Mr. Thunevin’s favorite chicken, Fifi, into the story.  After all, “we are farmers”, as I have been informed many times in Bordeaux!)

For my part, however, it was a great lesson. In wine-making, certainly, because in this case, both Thunevin and Pétrus make fantastic wines that rank among the very finest expressions of the craft, albeit in small quantities and at very high prices, and their approaches work well.  Beyond that, it illustrated to me the personal passion of a Garagiste, now famous consultant, Jean-Luc Thunevin, willing to “stand up” to even the mighty Pétrus and declare emphatically that his way was best.  Not that he had to, because at this point his success is beyond question.  And well, Pétrus is Pétrus.  But certainly he chose to stand up.  This sort of personal strength can only be good for an area where change can come slowly, glacially as it were.       

“So how was the wine?”  Here is my tasting note from this incredible day in Bordeaux.

2006 Pétrus (Pomerol)    1/13/2009    Redirector    95 

Tasted at Chateau with oenologist Olivier Berrouet, whose father produced over 40 vintages of Pétrus (including this 2006). Supremely balanced, round, elegant. And, with air & time, wonderfully fragrant. Very long - "driving away from the Chateau 20 minutes later" long! Delicious. Terroir, profile and structure will provide extended battery life. Now reading the professional notes after tasting, my experience corresponds more in the Neal Martin note ("full-bodied with sublime balance, very harmonious with silky smooth texture") than Robert Parker's -- it did not present itself in a way that suggested it was backward, tannic and powerful. Even if both critics end up in the same score range, to my taste this vintage reinforces the ultimate objective embraced now by the young Olivier -- balance. I would love to cellar this wine (speaking as if I owned a case, lol, well I can dream), to see how well this early showing of extraordinary balance is preserved over time, and to wait for secondary aromatics and flavors to emerge. But I can also appreciate the temptation it would present early in its evolution. Gorgeous wine.

1. -- - - - - - - - -
   

2. -INDEED!