2007 Carte D'Or

LL called the Renaissance Carte d’Or 2007 “a gift to vegetarians,” and indeed the wine’s striking fruity, herbal nature would make it appropriate for all sorts of vegetable-based dishes, including risottos (which don’t have to be made with chicken broth) and pastas. The wine is a blend of 60 percent semillon grapes and 40 percent sauvignon blanc that ages six months in neutral German oak ovals. It opens with herbal-grassy scents with touches of apples and figs and smoky dried pear. Carte d’Or ‘07 is very dry, spare, clean, crisp and tart without being citrusy (read: no grapefruit), and it brings up hints of celery, ginger and melon, a bit of riesling-like honeyed peach, a wafting of jasmine. Don’t mistake this for an aperitif wine; it’s too serious, too thoughtful for that blithe purpose. Drink through the end of 2009. Excellent. About $20.
 

Thursday, February 18, 2010
Winter Releases from Renaissance

By the by, I recently drank a bottle of the 2007 Carte d'Or white Bordeaux blend, which I last drank a year ago, and it's showing brilliantly. The melon fruit is luscious, generous, and layered with crushed white stone and gingery spice, and it was a great with the smoky, tangy, earthy flavors of middle eastern cuisine. I can't imagine anything pairing better with the smoky, umami flavors of middle eastern cuisine than any dry white from Renaissance; but now that I think about it, maybe I should consider a good cru Beaujolais...

Thursday, February 26, 2009
Sémillon My Way

Since Eric Asimov recently complained about the dearth of sémillon in the US, I figured this would be a good time to check in on two sémillon-based whites from Renaissance: a varietal bottling and a Bordeaux style blend of sémillon and sauvignon blanc.

I share Eric's complaint. Yep, I've been subjected to candied, stanky, pineapple-rotting-on-rainforest-floor white Bordeaux and faux Bordeaux, but in its minerally and elegant forms, I dig the way the creamy body of sémillon joins the grassy attack of sauvignon. And done right, a touch of aging in oak enhances rather than masks these qualities.

It would be absurd to compare a Pessac-Léognan with these Sierra Foothills wines. Vines planted in humid, gravelly Graves will of course yield something quite different than vines planted in decomposed granite marl in the high elevation, semi-arid hills northeast of Sacramento. Besides, Renaissance aims for balance, restraint, and transparency on their own terroir's terms, and that's just what we get.

Renaissance Carte d'Or 2007
Though a year younger than the below varietal bottling, this blend of 60% sémillon and 40% sauvignon blanc is easier to appreciate in its youth, thanks to a fruitier attack, a rounder profile (at 14.2% abv, it's two degrees above the sémillon), and the immediacy of the sauvignon. Part of the immediacy is conveyed to the nose, which like the 2006 Carte d'Or shows soft, grassy notes. But you might be surprised that the sauvignon also delivers white pepper and ginger spice to the palate, a quality that was obvious when I tasted young, unblended sauvignon from barrel last fall. As with the 2006 bottle that I liked so much, this marries sweet juicy peach flavors with savory herb notes, medium body with a round mouthfeel, and minerals and spices that last quite nicely on the tangy finish. It's a nice wine to drink with simply prepared fish.