2009 Fanny Sabre Bourgogne Rouge

2009 Fanny Sabre Bourgogne Rouge

One of the darlings of the hipster wine bar set in Paris & New York and now here in Horsetrailya…. thanks to a bit of re-jigging of our archaic liquor licencing laws that has seen some snazzy wee wine bars springing up across our sunburnt land…..I spent an evening at 10 William Street in Sydney recently plundering their wine list and eating some amazing food (the best vongole pasta I’ve ever had)….I only wish that those sort of venues had existed when I lived in Sydney…..but I digress.

Fanny Sabre is a young winemaker who by herself, runs a 4.5ha estate in the Côte de Beaune and is one of the few estates to still have their tasting room and wine-making facility in the centre of Beaune…..Phillipe Pacelet springs to mind also. In fact…Phillipe Pacelet made the Sabre wines for some time after her Father passed away and Fanny learnt a great deal under Phillipe’s watchful eye…..wild yeast fermentation’s, no additives and even a bit of semi-carbonic action at the start of the ferments….totally different wine-making techniques to how the wines had been made in the past.

Philiipe Pacelet has since moved on to concentrate on his own domaine and Fanny, who was studying law before stepping up and taking over the estate, now does the majority of the work in the vineyards and cellar by herself….the vineyards are run using organic methods and the techniques in the cellar are very much hands off, which instantly tick all the boxes with this particular wine geek.

She produces Savigny-lès-Beaune blanc & rouge, Beaune blanc & rouge, three different Beaune 1er crus (Chouacheux, Vignes Franches & Sceaux), Pommard, Pommard 1er cru (Charmots), Aloxe Corton rouge, Meursault 1er Charmes, Volnay, Passetoutgrain and the Bourgogne rouge we are about to tuck in to here…..the wines are imported into Australia by Terroir Wines.

A slightly turbid, vinous purple/red in the glass with aromas of  ripe cherry and satsuma plum. There are hints of roasted game meats, Turkish delight, Asian spice, violets, earth, mocha and licorice with some macerated strawberry hig tones. The wine initially opened up a little reductive but quickly settled down as some air got into the glass and revealed a perfumed wine that is instantly appealing aromatically.

In great vintages, Bourgogne level wines can shine and that is certainly the case here where the wines texture, extract and drive on the palate belie its humble classification. It quite suave in the mouth with velvety cherry, plum and dark fruits with just a slight reductive edge. There is plenty of spice, espresso, meaty facets and floral flicks to provide interest and complexity….all set against a textured backdrop of fine, slightly gravelly tannin….no issues with ripeness and the finish lingers persistently. Fantastic drinking at his level and super value.

Price: $38 – Closure: Cork – Alcohol: 12.5% – Source: Sample

For a  Bourgogne rouge….the 2009 Fanny Sabre has flow….and that is a very good thing indeed at this level.

A Bourgogne rouge with great flow