Sunday Business Post: Three wines recommended

Tomas Clancy recommends three of our wines in this weeks Business Post. The Sunday Business Post – Sunday February 19, 2012 Tomas Clancy 3 Wines to try, buy and put by. To Try: Domaine Olivier Leflaive, AC Saint-Romain 2007 (90) Millions of years ago, Saint-Romain in Burgundy was a 100ft deep lake with a small island at its centre. Today, the water is gone, the edges of the lake are cliffs-and the island is an odd cylindrical mountain in the middle of a small canyon. Unfortunately, the area`s wines have never matched the brilliance of the landscape - until now. Biodynamic winemaker Olivier Leflaive is admired for his brilliant Puligny-Montrachet and his class-leading Meursault wines. The Leflaive family have been producing wine in Burgundy for 16 generations, across five centuries, and so have an intimate knowledge of the land. They have found a Meursault-lite sweet spot in Saint-Romain, the golden, toasty brioche notes flicker among evident minerality and a touch of nuttiness in this medium-bodied wine. It is startlingly familiar, with a tiny twist. Well worth investigating for a glimpse of Leflaive genius at decent prices. To Try: Guy Allion, Touraine Sauvignon Blanc, Val de Loire 2010 (89) This wine is produced under the Terra Vitis ethic that began in the Beaujolais region 20 years ago as part of the general French movement, Lutte Ralsonnee (`reasoned struggle`). Terra Vitis takes a global view of the vineyard, its management of waste waters, wildlife and air quality. It is an, approach based on reason, not faith. Guy and Dorothée Allion`s small estate minimises strategic intervention in the vineyard and studiously avoids chemical additives. The results speak for themselves here - this is a super smart sauvignon blanc that is crisp to the point of steely sharpness, bursting with gooseberry, peanut and nettle notes. A clear and startlingly well-priced competitor to New World sauvignon, TO PUT BY: Domaine Meyer-Fonne, Riesling Katzenthal 2009 (91) At 100 years old, Meyer Fonné is an infant in Alsace terms where, after 400 years of ownership you are regarded as still getting to grips with the region. While Burgundian winemakers may be seen as picky about understanding their terroir, Alsace winemakers are close to mania. Thus Alsace winemakers are at the forefront of many natural, biodynamic and lutte raisonée approaches to wine. One of Alsace`s finest estates, Meyer-Fonne is a hand-crafted, meticulously organic, natural yeast ferment hotbed. The results on their own should provide converts. This is a strenuously organic; gloriously dense, complex Riesling.There is incredible minerality, then touches of nut, a hint of lime and licorice, then a floral waft, before diving into the flicker of paraffin. All this in a three-year-old wine, meaning the 2006 is now on fire. Another two or three years and we can hope to see a similarly triumphant evolution.