The
wines of Tertre Roteboeuf and Roc des Cambes, Bordeaux, France
Meeting François Mitjavile, one of the most interesting wine
personalities in Bordeaux
Last week I attended a wine dinner
focusing on François Mijtavile’s two Bordeaux properties, Roc des
Cambes and Tertre Roteboeuf. He’s an interesting dinner companion,
and has lots to say about his approach to wine. And some of these
ideas were quite new to me, especially the recurrent Mijtavile theme
of ‘degradation’. A bit of this is, apparently a good thing: he
likes to harvest his grapes late, to the point that they are
beginning to degrade a little.
A little context. Mijtavile’s star
property is Tertre Rotebouef, a small 6 hectare St Emilion Grand Cru
that has become one of the cult wines of the region. The vineyard is
85% Merlot and 15% Cabernet Franc on clay over limestone soil,
facing south. The
property previously belonged to his father-in-law; Mitjavile’s
first vintage here was in 1978. In 1987 he purchased a second
property in the Côtes de Bourg, called Roc des Cambes. It has 12
hectares of old vines, mostly Merlot again, but with some Cabernet
Sauvignon and Malbec.
The following quotes are taken from my
notes. The combination of a French accent and hasty note taking may
have led to one or two errors, but I hope I’ve managed to capture
the meaning correctly. I think some of the ideas are really
interesting, which is why I wanted to share them as well as my
thoughts on the wines.
“How do I feel about wine?” asks
Mitjavile. “We have not to mind about structure, power and
alcohol. What is important is the aromatic flavours. If you taste
bread, and compare good bread versus bad bread, it is the quality of
the flavour of the flour that makes the difference. With a good
piece of beef, you can get an emotion from its aromatic music. It is
the intensity of the marvellous fruit in wine that makes the
emotion.”
“The language of the flavours is the
most primitive one, and the most difficult to define. But the
emotion is there.”
“In my wine I don't pay attention to
the intensity of the tannins, but the aromatic music. Which type of
fruit do I harvest? I macerate the fruit, I work on the profound
flavours in the cellars. They have to be slightly degraded to be
charming and aromatic.”
Francois referred to a letter he had from
a sommelier in Kong Kong, back in 1998. The sommelier stated that he
thought Roc des Cambes 1990 was a great wine, but it was too ripe to
age well. Francois maintains that this sommelier confused the
maturity of the fruit from the maturity of the wine. In a warm
summer like 1990, the fruit is extremely mature, in a style he
describes as slightly rôtie. Maturing a wine like this will
result in an explosion of flavours. But at some stage in a wine's
life the flavours come down and the skeleton appears: only then can
you say it is too mature.
“The main mistake is to think that
wines with powerful tannins will age better, but the tannic wines
can actually lack flavour,” says Mitjavile.
François is a fan of difficult vintages,
because he thinks that they can often make the most exciting wines.
“A cycle of rain/sun/rain/sun can give a degradation of the
structure, a tenderness that is better than if the season is simply
sunny. The greatest terroirs can jump over the difficulties of
climate and make the most elegant wines with tender degradation of
the fruit. A strong tannin is poor in flavour.”
2011 and 2012 were both Autumn harvests.
The received wisdom in Bordeaux, says François, is that Autumn
harvests are supposed to make the wines with the most refined
flavours, due to freshness at night and sun during the day.
“Everyone says this but it is very dogmatic. There are no laws of
beauty. Rational people can sometimes be more dangerous than
religious fanatics.”
2011 saw drought in the spring, and warm
temperatures. “The vine couldn't build something to cross the
summer; it was exhausted, went slowly, and was harvested later.”
2011 is therefore an irregular vintage, and some vineyards suffered
too much, losing leaves in August. What makes good fruit is a long
vegetative cycle. Francois was worried that it would also affect
2012, but there was a rainy spring in 2012 which helped. So 2011 has
concentrated fruit, ripening late, with autumnal flavours. The
aromatic dynamic is like and early vintage. It doesn't have the
opulence.
2012 was an even later harvest than 2011
by some 10 days, around 15 October. There's more freshness to the
fruit in 2012.
“Terroir is an agronomic
performance,” says Mitjavile. “It is a way of behaving, not an
agronomic reality.” I think his point here is that the terroir is
a vineyards tendency to behave a certain way in each vintage. The
vintages will all be different, but the terroir is recognizable in
each.
“We confuse security with quality.
Quality is not security: quality comes from working in a more
dangerous manner. The greatest wines in Bordeaux have low acidity.
Acidity is marvellous for Champagne, which has no structure. When
you go south you work with different wines, you need a low acidity,
or you get a violent grip on the structure. A great wine has to have
low acidity to be voluptuous, and to have an aromatic dynamic to
make it alive. There are so many parodoxes in making something
beautiful. It has to be slightly degraded, yet fresh. Low acidity,
yet aromatic aliveness.” This is a very interesting idea: that to
make a great wine you have to flirt with danger, in this case high
pH. François is not dogmatic about pH, but his pH levels range from
3.75 to 3.9. He points out that Cheval Blanc 1947, a very famous
wine, had a pH of 3.9, but he adds that this is effectively a
Pomerol terroir, and you can work with slightly higher pH in Pomerol.
Of 2003: “Robert Parker slammed our
2003, but it has an incredible graceful richness. It is more than
15% alcohol, yet it seems light. Richness in a graceful manner.”
What about the wines? I wasn’t
expecting to like them as much as I did, because I am not a fan of
late harvested Bordeaux. But these wines were pretty good, and avoid
spoofiness. They are certainly modern and ripe, but they retain
freshness and definition.
UK
agent for these wines is Corney & Barrow
THE
WINES
Tertre Roteboeuf Saint-Emilion Grand
Cru 2012 Bordeaux, France
Dense, and with some structure, but dominated by smooth, pure,
ripe black fruits. Fresh with good weight. It's a little primary,
and there's some red fruit character mixed in with the black. I like
the freshness, and I reckon it will develop nicely. 94/100
Tertre Roteboeuf Saint-Emilion Grand
Cru 2011 Bordeaux, France
Very ripe, full and fresh with sweet black cherry and
blackcurrant fruit, backed up by nice structure. It's quite grippy,
but the fruit is pure, sweet and expressive, complemented by notes
of cedar, chocolate and spice. 93/100
Tertre Roteboeuf Saint-Emilion Grand
Cru 2003 Bordeaux, France
Fine, expressive, elegant nose with lovely poise. Herbs, spices,
red berries and blackberry on the palate which has a soft texture
yet still has good definition. Sweet, stylish, and quite elegant in
this warm style. 94/100
Tertre Roteboeuf Saint-Emilion Grand
Cru 1997 Bordeaux, France
Sweet, ripe and autumnal with spices, cherries and herbs, as
well as some sweet blackcurrant fruit. Mature notes of earth and
herbs in the background. 93/100
Tertre Roteboeuf Saint-Emilion Grand
Cru 1995 Bordeaux, France
Ripe, tarry and spicy with some smoothness, too. There's a bit
of clunky grip on the palate with some green notes as well as a bit
of tar. Nice weight, though. You'd expect this to have been a little
better. 92/100
Roc des Cambes 2012 Côtes de Bourg,
Bordeaux, France
Lovely freshness here, with bright focused cherry and plum
fruit. Supple and quite elegant with delicious, linear, pure fruit
the key theme. 93/100
Roc des Cambes 2011 Côtes de Bourg,
Bordeaux, France
Quite rich and generous with nice black fruits. Sweet and
textured with lush black cherry and plum, plus a bit of grip.
Autumnal warmth, too. Generous. 92/100
Roc des Cambes 2005 Côtes de Bourg,
Bordeaux, France
Taut and dense but sweetly fruited, with ripe, smooth black
fruits. Seductive and ripe, yet showing nice precision. A stylish
effort. 93/100
Roc des Cambes 2003 Côtes de Bourg,
Bordeaux, France
Very ripe and sweet with spice, chocolate and raisin notes.
Supple, smooth, pure palate with mineral and cake notes as well as
sweet fruit. 91/100
See
also:
Chateau
Pontet Canet vertical
Chateau
Kirwan
Wines
tasted 11/13
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