Pouilly Fume Wine Tasting

Gary Vaynerchuk: Hello everybody welcome to Wine Library TV. I am your host, Gary Vaynerchuk and this, my friends is Wine Library TV. And we’re doing a very interesting episode today. Mott, we’ve switched places, you look very cute in the original thunder chair. I've got your angle now, Vayniacs, you now get to see what the Chris Motts or actually what I get to see every single day. I don’t know. There's a dark horse chance and I'm not kidding. We’ve done it a long time, it’s good to change it up once in a while. Mott, what do you think? I think this should be the new set Chris Mott: I think we’ve thrown in every once in a while so basically— Gary Vaynerchuk: I disagree. This is where we’re going. Okay, and today, what we are focusing on my friends is Pouilly-Fumé. A Sauvignon Blanc-based wine from Loire Valley about 2100 Acre area of land that produces very interesting Sauvignon Blancs. You know, the Fumé Blanc is you know—which is what some people call it in California also Sauvignon Blanc Pouilly- Fumé, a very significant wine in the market these days. A wine that I think goes tremendous with shellfish, lobsters, a lot of fish placed Greek wines, Mediterranean fair and completely overshadowed by Sancerre by New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc and by so many other categories. I mean, this is a very, very intriguing part of the world, very impossibly awesome, impossibly awesome. Just tremendous—sorry—tremendous Sauvignon Blancs that I think go well with so many different foods but also, and this is why I think this is a special episode, wines that rock the house by themselves. Some of these three wines today, they really range that $15.00 to $25.00 range. We’ve got $20.00, $18.00 and $17.00 a bottle on this. So I'm really kind of excited about this. Now, I'm also excited about a couple of things. I want to give a whole bunch of shout outs. I've been traveling—missing a bunch of you. Happy belated birthday to Jerome, to Rich Razatano, who is a great Vayniac, Blake—happy belated birthday and a very special anniversary to Jay Hanshen who is celebrating—I don’t know how he is, you know. We should really celebrate him, 13 years spinal injury at the air force, Mott. So let’s give a big ups to Jay. Thank you so much for watching The Thunder Show. We appreciate it Jay on a much more global level. So, I'm excited about this new—and I’m also excited about one other little thing, we are not announcing the Oscars Pack, the Oscars Secret Pack, Sunday the 20, something coming up we’ll link it up in a minute. We’ll air that episode on the Friday before the Oscars so you can definitely watch it that Sunday night with your friends. So Mott, link it up, the Oscar Pack is in the hizzy. We’ll give some free shipping too, why not? That’s how we roll. There has a lot of people who have been asking if we’re going to do an Oscar Pack. We decided to go there, not a lot of time for people to order. So, I'm sorry. It was kind of you know wasting a little time there so I apologize. All right, three very serious Pouilly-Fumé wines. Let’s get into the first one Mott, the Domaine Marcel Langoux 2007 Pouilly-Fumé, 12% alcohol for $5.20 US. Again, remember, these wines are really interesting. I mean, you could find them in a lot of French piece coast around the country. You know, we always talk about how much I love the Loire Valley. I'm a big Sancerre fan. I'm a big Chinon fan, Bourgueil—I mean, just think of the Loire Valley as a whole. Let’s call a spade a spade. Maybe the single most underappreciated area that produces wines that are appreciated. Make any sense? Makes sense, because when I think about Cahor or Madiron, they're not appreciated at all anyway. Let’s give this a sniffy sniff because remember, you know, I'm feeling a lot of people have been watching for the first time. Remember, smelling the bouquet, the nose is a big factor when drinking wine. Way too many people just skip it, a little foreplay with your vino never hurt anybody. Let’s give it a sniffy sniff. Great lemon peel coming through on the nose, which I like quite a bit. Enjoying a little hint of like lime peel as well on the nose, which I like. Slight pepper components coming through like a light green pepper kind of thing going on, almost like basil as well. So why—I mean, kind of almost like you know Mexican fair. I just got back. So I’ll probably think about it but like guacamole, except without the guacamole, get a little pepper, get a little lime, they're all coming through, very zesty on the nose. Let’s see what this Sauvignon Blanc brings the table. Wow, this is extremely, extremely driven by vegetables. Heavy dose of green peppers and oregano flavors on the mid-palate. Why? High acid, little subtlety of like pure lemon juice but this is a tangy, tangy little tangster. And I'm going to tell you something right now. The acid is extremely well positioned to go well with a lot of different foods but you're thinking of a fried calamari, kind of an interesting play with—do you like that Mott? Chris Mott: Uh-hmm. Gary Vaynerchuk: Do you like a little fried calamari? Chris Mott: I love fried calamari. Gary Vaynerchuk: Oh, you love it. Oh, you must have great taste. Yeah, I think this could be a calamari little play believe it or not. I also would probably pair this—God, this is a lot of acid almost like a—and as you hardcore Vayniacs know, I'm a huge fan of the acid to cut through. I have to tell you though I dislike this wine. It’s so disjointed. The green peppers are like so upfront, which are fine, basil on the back and it’s almost like a cucumber peel, very vegetal. I mean, this is a vegetable garden of a wine, which is normally a great play for me but the acid is not pairing well with it. I'm just kind of disjointed with this wine myself. I'm going to score this wine 80 points. I am not a fan, good thing with the 85, I don’t know how you're going to pull it, were you thinking the same thing? Are we on the same place Mott? 80-point wine, $20 bones, disaster area, get away from this wine, write it down, say you’ll never buy it. I am not happy with this effort. I think it is a ripped off and I think we’re going to move on. Yeah, it wasn’t good out there. All right, let’s move on to the Francis Blanchet Pouilly-Fumé Cuvee Silice 2007. Blanchet is a great producer. This is a 90-point David Schildknecht, $18.00 US. David is writing for Robert Parker’s wine advocate now and doing a really good job covering you know the war, Provence. He’s doing a nice job. I'm actually pretty fond of his critiquing, 90 points is a good score from him. He is a tough cookie $18 bones on the color, it’s a little bit lighter, a little bit more interesting. Let’s give it a sniffy sniff. Also pretty grassy. I mean, this is like an interesting play. I mean aromatically, they’re coming across kind of similar to New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs for me right now except of the little less grape fruit on the nose. It is definitely grassy. Subtle peppers again. A little chalkiness coming through on this wine though adding to the layer of complexity, which is kind of getting me excited about this wine. Let’s give it one more sniffy sniff. Good deep fruit, a little bit of like a melon play. Let’s give it a whirl. I’m in a weird place today. I like the body. It’s a little bit more fuller. It’s definitely got a good acid balance. Again, a nice little star fruit play. This is wow, out of all the wines, and you know what Mott, this is why going to Mexico pays off. You should go to Mexico just to eat star fruit, because I ate a lot of it. And I really honed in. That was like my homework that week. I feel like I’ve totally now honed in on what star fruit taste like, that sourness, this has loads of star fruit. Star fruit is bursting through this wine, which I kind of like a cantaloupe component on the backend now as I'm tasting through this wine. This wine would pair very well with your classic—just like you know, if you go to a Greek restaurant and they probably have a lot of Greek wines and if they have a couple of French wines, and if you’ve never had a Pouilly-Fumé before, this will be in order to play. Just a classic, give me the fish, don’t put any butter on it or give me a little lemon, no salt, real healthy. Go to town on that grilled fish, whole fish, eat the eyeball the whole mind and try this wine because I think it would pair well. That being said, I'm a little bit disappointed with it a little bit. I think it’s underdeveloped at some level. I feel like it’s lacking a little interest. It’s like that person you really like and if they knew one other little hobby and talked about that, that would be great because one dimensional I feel like that—on this Blanchet a little bit, a little bit. I'm going to score this wine 88 plus points. I like it, $18 bones, kind of get a wine from—or from just Loire Sauvignon Blanc for 14 to 15 to a place like this probably that’s where I'm getting hurt a little bit. But it is a good wine. I'm going 75 over here. I just deducted five points just on the basis. All right, and finally, the Michel Bailly Les Loges ’07 Pouilly-Fumé, $17.00 US, and let’s see what's going on here. Now again, the fun facts today are these, probably one of the best place for fish in Loire Valley and Sauvignon Blanc base, that would be a fun fact. If you don’t know that Pouilly-Fumé is Sauvignon Blanc, now you know and not knowing, I don’t want to get sued by G.I. Joes, so let’s give a sniffy sniff. Good nose, a little apricot fruit on the nose, which I like. A little bit more golden Mott wouldn’t you say than the last two which is nice to know. Also, vegetal and grassy and green peppery, but definitely a little bit more calm on the aromatics, I wouldn’t call it aromatically challenged but aromatically subdued I would say and so, I like that. Let’s give it a whirl. Creamy, good bright pear, good bright pear on the backend, like baby pears, if you have ever ordered any of those, I really like that on the backend. But I got to be honest with you, again, lacking some of the excitement that I've seen in Pouilly-Fumé in the past and I got to tell you it looks like it. Yeah, these are all 2007s. I'm getting a little—about the ’07 Pouilly-Fumés right now because this underwhelms me as well. I'm going to give it a little 86 plus points on this wine and again, at the price point, $17 bones. I'm not going to recommend it. Let me give it one more shot. Let me be fair. Little baby pears surrounded by maybe a little basil. Again, that green pepper, all three of them, it’s there. It is right there. Unfortunately, it’s just not doing that well. The weights are off, the balances are off and I'm not feeling any of these efforts at the end of the day and to do a whole show on a category to educate and go over three—that’s what Mott and I talked about all these, it’s just the worst. I mean, I hate it, I'm devastated right now, I know that there’s a lot of people like, “Well, I don’t like Pouilly-Fumé now.” And everybody’s palate is different. You should never listen to a word I say or anybody else. Trust yourself. And if you like Sauvignon Blancs and you are a Sancerre fan but you like the vibrance of the green grassy green peppers that you sometimes get in New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs, these wines can be fantastic for you. For me, I don’t know if it’s a vintage thing. I haven’t done enough homework on the ’07 white Loire Valley wines yet to really know but I’ve got to tell you, this is a very disappointing show for me even though I'm on a new setting that I love so much, I've got to be honest with you, I'm pretty pissed off. Question of the day, when is the last time a wine or a series of wines pissed you off? I hope you joined me in the Oscar Pack, the Academy Award Secret Pack is announced, it’s down below. You, with a little bit of me, we’re changing the wine world.