Commemorate Bloomsday with a Sample of 2011 David Moreau Santenay Cuvée ‘S’ (and a Gorgonzola Sandwich)

Price: $39/bottle SOLD OUT

“Mr Leopold Bloom ate with relish the inner organs of beasts and fowls. He liked thick giblet soup, nutty gizzards, a stuffed roast heart, liverslices fried with crustcrumbs, fried hencods’ roes.”
– James Joyce, Ulysses

Leopold Bloom is clearly a man of appetites. As the fictional protagonist of the James Joyce novel, Ulysses, Bloom spends a day kicking around Dublin, Ireland as a kind of contemporary Odysseus. In a passage that made the non-fictional establishment Davy Byrne’s Pub famous, Bloom orders a Gorgonzola sandwich and a glass of Burgundy.

So what better way to observe Bloom’s June 16th, 1904 wanderings, and one of the most important works of Modernist Literature, than with Burgundy? We won’t sell you any cheese or bread, because we’re a wine shop. But this Saturday we will have a small spread of complimentary Gorgonzola sandwiches to go along with samples of 2011 David Moreau Santenay Cuvée ‘S’.

Santenay is the southernmost appellation in the Côte de Beaune, where the limestone ridge of the Côte d’Or begins to thin. Although wine from Santenay is sometimes considered rustic compared to more northerly appellations, earthy and wild might be more appropriate descriptions. The best can be captivatingly aromatic, and priced far more reasonably than more recognized regions. Young winemaker David Moreau seems to be harnessing every bit of his talent there to create wines of distinction.

You could say that David Moreau practically breathes wine. He began his vocational training as a youth at the Lycee Viticole de Beaune, a boarding school focused on wine studies. After graduating with an oenology diploma from the Institute Jules Guyot at the University of Burgundy, he completed numerous internships with the likes of François Perrin of Beaucastel in Châteauneuf-du-Pape and Aubert de Villaine of Domaine Romanée-Conti, to name a couple. He even did a stint in New Zealand to wrap his brain around New World wine.

Now he manages nine hectares, formerly known as Domaine Jean Moreau, taking over for his grandparents and making his first vintage in 2009. David is currently labeling the produce of five hectares under his own label, and the remaining four under the label of his grandparents. He aims for as little intervention as possible in the cellar and describes his methods as sustainable viticulture.

Santenay Cuvée ‘S’ is named in honor of David’s grandmother, Simone, who still assists in winery operations. It is comprised of 100% Pinot Noir from 50-year-old vines that produce small and highly concentrated millerandés grapes. The fruit is hand-picked and sorted both in the vineyard and cuverie. Aging takes place for 12-18 months in 33% new oak. Total production of the cuvée is a scant 10 barrels, or 250 cases.

The resulting juice is full of luscious fruit aromas that develop with time in the glass. Over the course of a few hours, our tasting team picked out macerated raspberries, strawberries, rhubarb, and at one point the wine smelled like a fat, Michigan four-berry pie in the most positive sense. A sip bursts with juicy acidity that turns into a complex and persistent finish. We’ll be keeping an eye on this domaine and young winemaker. We suspect that after you have a taste of David Moreau Cuvée ‘S’, you will too.

If Burgundy and Gorgonzola sandwiches at our shop aren’t enough to satisfy you, on June 20 the Gaelic League of Detroit is hosting a Bloomsday event that includes music, spontaneous audience recitations of favorite passages from Ulysses, and other “insightful” fun.

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Or you could even come into the store for some real, live human interaction

Cheers!

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Posted on 2013.06.14 in France, Saturday Sips Wines, Burgundy