Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/12827
Blonde et Brune en Côte-Rôtie Stéphane Ogier, Domaine Michel & Stéphane Ogier S téphane Ogier is a young Frenchman on a mission. Before he was born, in the quaint village of Ampuis in the northern Rhône’s Côte-Rôtie region, the grapes grown on the “roasted slope” soils at his family’s estate were primarily sold to legendary wine producer Marcel Guigal. But in 1980 the family’s focus changed when Stéphane’s father, Michel, started making his own premium wines with the estate fruit. Inspired by the vintages that followed, Stéphane went to enology school in Burgundy and eventually joined the winemaker team in 1997. Since then, Domaine Michel & Stéphane Ogier has become one of the superstar estates of the northern Rhône. Stéphane Ogier says his personal maturity is a continuing process. In Côte-Rôtie, Ogier works with Syrah grapes grown in the calcareous soils on the Côte Brune hillside to the north and the pale granite, schist and clay soils on the Côte Blonde hillsides to the south. Among the new releases featured at the 2010 HdR was the 2007 Lancement Syrah, a surreal wine featuring gamey notes of dried meats, herbs, earth and mineral. Another dazzling example was the elegant 2007 Belle Hélène Syrah (named after his mother), with flavorful notes of cola, dark berries, cured meats, smoke, spice and long smooth finish; the Syrah vines were planted by Stéphane’s grandfather over 70 years ago. Like aging fine wine, Ogier says his personal maturity is a continuing process. “Every vintage is different, so I tend to work a little different each year,” he remarks. Same is true in the vineyards, where he tends to drop more fruit and leaves and uses the green harvest to increase the quality of the individual berries. “All the work we do is geared towards making the difference in the end.” Daring to be Different A Duncan Arnot Meyers and Nathan Lee Roberts, Arnot-Roberts Wines s young children growing up in Napa Valley, future winery pro- prietors Duncan Arnot Meyers and Nathan Lee Roberts meet in third grade. But it wasn’t until their early twenties that the two began tasting wine together on a serious level. On personal quests for more wine knowledge, Roberts began crafting world-class barrels with his father, a highly respected cooper, and Meyers worked as a cellar rat at a series of swanky Napa Valley wineries, including Caymus, Groth and Kongsgaard, and later became the assistant winemaker at Pax Wine Cellars in Sonoma County. With sparse funds but big ambitions, Meyers and Roberts founded the Arnot-Roberts in 2001 and today make a series of delicious vineyard-designate Syrahs in a refurbished pre-Prohibition winery in downtown Forestville, Sonoma County. In northern Mendocino County, they source intensive fruit from Stu Bewley’s Alder Springs Vineyard, an isolated property known for its decomposing sandstone soils and high elevation of 2,500 feet. Further south, they work with grapes from Hudson Ranch in Carneros and special blocks at Griffin’s Lair Vineyard and Clary Ranch in the windy Petaluma Gap at the southern end of the Sonoma Coast appellation. Through the years, the winemaking team has become more judi- cious with use of new oak and much more judicious about picking grapes too ripe. As a result, alcohol levels in the finished wines have decreased dramatically as well; the first release from Hudson Ranch had an alcohol level of 15.1 %, whereas the scrumptious 2008 vintage has a moderate 12.2 %. “The progression to this style didn’t happen overnight,” said Meyers. “But the more I pick earlier, the more I realize that picking for sweet, raisiny flavors caused by too much hang time is highly overrated.” Duncan Arnot Meyers and Nathan Lee Roberts of Arnot-Roberts Wines were childhood friends. july 2010 / the tasting panel / 85