Browse Tag

loire

Pét control

Huet 2002 Vouvray “Pétillant” Brut (Loire) – L02 PSB, for those tracking such things. Sophisticated, with crisp acidity, chalk, aspirin and the faintest prickle…so faint that, were one told that this is not pétillant, but rather just blessed with a little residual CO2, it’d be believed. Like most young Huet mini-bubbles, nowhere near as generous as some of its peers. And like most young Huet mini-bubbles, it would probably outlive and outclass them all. (5/10)

Salt & Pèpière

Ollivier “Domaine de la Pépière” 2008 Muscadet Sèvre & Maine “Sur Lie” (Loire) – Ripe shells, rounded bones. The dryness here is a fulsome dryness, and that makes all the difference in a wine that can, at times, be spare in the tune of void. I like this for drinking now, though I’m sure there’s no real hurry either. Classic Muscadet as it should be, rather than is, and the price is absurdly low for the quality. (3/10)

Pépière steak

Ollivier “Domaine de la Pépière” 2008 Muscadet Sèvre & Maine “Sur Lie” (Loire) – Bony and spare, but with the early-maturing elegance of developed minerality. Look, this is not a wine everyone, or even most, will “get.” I’m not even sure I do, all the time. In a way, that makes it even better than it is. (3/10)

Louis Vatan

Vatan “Chateau du Hureau” 2006 Saumur-Champigny “Tuffe” (Loire) – Classically earthy, dark, and intense, with a stylish black dirt texture and a long, breathy finish. Very young, and very good. Utterly, wonderfully dominated by its soil elements. (1/10)

Oh, Bergerie

[label]Guégniard “Domaine de la Bergerie” 2007 Anjou “Sous la Tonnelle” (Loire) – Ripe, sweaty, and a little lurid. Aromatically sultry, with its bones wrapped in soft velvet and a long, prehensile tail. Very flavorful, not very structured, and while the present is rich with experience, I wonder what the future holds. (1/10)

Touché, Touchais

Touchais 1971 Coteaux du Layon “Réserve de nos vignobles” (Loire) – Oxidizing, but still fulsome enough, and one of the better-performing wines from this producer I’ve had in a long while. (1/10)

Mellot yellot

[bottle]Mellot 2003 Sancerre Rouge En Grand Champs (Loire) – Red cherry fruit, somewhat sticky and confected, drapes like an overweight cat over the palate’s lap. There’s a lot more to this wine, especially in an earthen realm, but the sheer mass of the jammy, very nearly dead fruit is impossible to get past. There’s tannin, but not as much as one often fears from a 2003, and I have to say that this is better than most. Still doesn’t mean I want to drink it. (1/10)

Baudry limericks

B. Baudry 2002 Chinon Les Grézeaux (Loire) – Lovely and so authentic, layering cherry earth on top of fine-grained herbality. Flawlessly balanced. A beauty. (1/10)

50 Cent

Druet 1996 Bourgueil Les Cent Boisselées (Loire) – Peppers (mostly bell, but also seed), green grass, and dirt slowly eroding into a wind that carries the black pepper into oblivion. Strappy, apple skin-textured tannin has been stretched at the seams of this wine, which is holding but about to fall apart, I think. Still, there’s a certain dignity to the wine, and only those who require some sort of identifiable primary fruit to enjoy a wine will fail to see the interest here. (12/09)