Reviewed by John Rozentals.
France’s Burgundy is obviously a large, diverse and highly picturesque, both for its natural and human-created features.
Its cuisine is legendary, and one of its major centre, Dijon, is home to probably the world’s greatest mustard.
With this surfeit of beauty and culinary excellence it’s hardly surprising that the district is a favourite one for tourists, including those on its famous river barges.
Winewise, Burgundy’s fame rests on two grape varieties — chardonnay and pinot noir.
Some of the vineyards are tiny — limited at extreme to just a few hundred vines — and the wines they produce exist in a rare atmosphere of price and quality. Wines such as … can fetch thousands of dollars a bottle on release from a great year.
Yet Burgundy can also produce remarkably good, quite modestly priced wines.
Just how good was recently driven home to me through a bottle of Francois Martenot Grand Pres Macon-Villages Chardonnay, from the south of the district.
Its softness and rich, complex, alluring flavours are simply outstanding and it’s available in Australia for just $20 a bottle.
To me, how that exercise —including packaging and transport to the other side of the world — is at all possible simple demonstrates just how much really good wine the French are producing. The poor, old grapegrower must be feel that it’s hardly worth his toil, but I guess that’s how many Australian vineyard owners feel, too.
WINE REVIEWS
Madfish 2017 Pinot Noir ($18): This wine comes from a couple of vineyards in the isolated Great Southern area of Western Australia, and the label is dominated by a gorgeous turtle illustration by Aboriginal artist Maxine Fumagali. It was an unseasonally cool vintage that shows in a pretty lean wine — but it’s a wine with vibrant flavours that will go well with Asian-style duck.
Madfish 2017 Gold Turtle Semillon Sauvignon Blanc ($25): An exclusive deal with the Dan Murphy chain also guarantees a lower price that the RRP. Sauvignon blanc may be the junior partner in the bland, but it heads the flavour — redolent of tropical fruit, and crisp and refreshing. Would do a treat with quite spicy Thai dishes.
WINE OF THE WEEK
Francois Martenot Grand Pres Macon-Villages Chardonnay ($20): A simply delightful dry white with lovely fruit as the hallmark. It has the subtle flavours of ripe melon and the depth to demand food that is relatively rich, such as creamy-sauced pasta with seafood.
