It is getting rather tiresome that we cannot travel easily from the UK to France to visit our friends and family and buy wine. Even though we both have French passports and cannot be refused entry, we have to have a Covid 19 test before travelling to France and fill in forms to show where we are going. When we come back we have to go into quarantine and provide a negative test. Travel within England and from England to other countries is now banned. It is pointless to try going away. My wife is pulling her hair out to travel to her original home in Troyes and visit Burgundy where her father came from and where she still has lots of family.
Luckily, we can still find a taste of France and Burgundy, by ordering our favourite wines directly from the vineyard. We had pre-Brexit worries that our wine ordered in December would not get through. Domaine Alan Mathias delivered a case of Epineuil perfectly packaged in very strong cardboard at a price not much more than visiting the property. They are brilliant and so is their wine.
Epineuil is difficult to find in the UK and most wine drinkers have never heard of it. It is one of our favourite wines from Burgundy. It is produced in the very North of the region where the climate and soil are different from the more famous wines from the Côte de Nuits such as Nuits-Saint-Georges, which every wine lover in the UK has heard of.
Alain Mathias produces Epineuil red wine which reflects the true nature of the area, as the grapes are well matched to the soil, weather and climate. Only the best wines are instantly recognisable by their smell and taste as being from a particular area. Many wines from bulk producers are shipped to the UK and other countries in huge tanks and are bottled locally and marketed with brand names. The wines are usually perfectly acceptable to quaff back in a wine bar, or at a party or barbeque; but at a blind tasting you have no idea which country or even region they hail from. You have got no idea how the grapes were grown; the brand name could be from wines blended from many different vineyards and regions. The varietal brand names are meaningless - Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot or Sauvignon Blanc - because they all taste the same; even different brands of Baked Beans taste different.
There is so much snobbery and myth attached to wine appreciation that sometimes it makes my heart sink. It is only possible to tell where a wine comes from if you are completely familiar with that wine and other wines from the region. Luckily, my wife and I are so familiar with the wines from Tonnerre and Chablis and their surroundings that we can recognise them. We would not be able to pick out Domain Alain Mathias wines from other good quality producers of the same area, at a blind tasting, but we are getting close to it. This all we can expect from ourselves or profess to others.
What makes Domaine Alain Mathias wine so special in my view. They are small producers and are members of the Vignerons Indépendant. Members must respect the terroir of the region, grow and make wine from their own grapes on their own property, bottle the wine themselves and respect wine traditions. These are quite stringent conditions to ensure the quality and authenticity of the wine.
We tasted Alain Mathias Bourgogne Epineuil Tradition 2018 during the Christmas period. The wine tasted and smelt exactly as described on the bottle.It tasted of cherry and plums and of grilled bread and roasted coffee or torréfaction. It is also described as charnu or fleshy. To me it was dry and of medium to full body with tannin which was only beginning to soften. The wine was concentrated, complex and the taste lingered long on the palate. It was well integrated and balanced for tannin and acidity. It had all the hallmarks of an exceptionally good wine. The wine is matured in the vat and in oak barrels.
This wine should be consumed with food. We drank it with rib eye steaks but it would go well with pheasant and other game birds or guinea fowl. The wine needs to be cellared for a few years more to reach its peak and we shall be saving the bottles for several years. Alain Mathias wines have all the attributes and qualities of good quality wine which reflect the unique character of the terroir. The soil in this region is based on Kimmeridgian geology and this is reflected in the wine which is produced from the pinot noir grape - there is no need for varietal labelling and brand names. I highly recommend this wine.
If ever you are in Tonnerre it is worth visiting the cellars which are situated on the Route de Troyes on the left as you pull out of the town towards the ancient city of Troyes.
http://www.domainealainmathias.com/
https://www.vigneron-independant.com/
https://dico-du-vin.com/torrefie-vin-arome-de-torrefaction-degustation/
http://www.winereviewonline.com/Wayne_Belding_on_Kimmeridgian.cfm
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