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Grape Expectations
The Wine
Who among us loves a good Bourgogne Passetoutgrain? 99.9% of us, that's who. Nothing is better with rillettes at a French Bistro (or at your kitchen counter if we have the rillettes in stock!)
But Passetoutgrain's delicious blend of Pinot Noir and Gamay is facing some headwinds since its explosion on the marketplace in the early 2000s.
Burgundy shot themselves in the foot with new regulations that ended up ruining the category. Classification changes in 2011 created the Coteaux Bourguignons AOC, which allowed the use of sourced far outside of the traditional Passetoutgrain boundaries, resulting in the use of inferior grapes.
At the same time, top producers reacted by uprooting their Gamay vineyards altogether. And then there's the fact that Passetoutgrains is hard for consumers to pronounce, as is the new Coteaux Bourguignons AOC. But one region's error is another region's opportunity, and the folks in South Wales, Australia have come up with a gem recently described like this:
"It's spicy and savoury on the nose with red berry, raspberry, apple and anise characters, along with a lifted herbaceous overtone. The palate delivers elegant weight and a linear mouthfeel, well supported by bright acidity and fine tannins. A lovely expression of skin-contact wine, making it a delightful food partner. At its best: now to 2027. 92 points" - Sam Kim, WineOrbit
Pairings: Charcuterie boards, roasted herb chicken, turkey (either as a dinner or even a simple sandwich), pork, even grille salmon. Cheese-wise, reach for Gruyere, Comte, Tomme-style cheeses, or a young Gouda.
The Winery
Today, the demise of the Bourgogne Passetoutgrain category leads us to New South Wales, Australia, specifically to the slopes of Mount Canobolas. The talented Monica Gray has for some years now been making the most delicious example of "passetoutgrains-style" wine that you'll ever find outside of Burgundy. She calls the wine "Marge." With a core of organically-farmed high-elevation Pinot Noir, a touch of Gamay, and a brief initial Carbonic Maceration period.
