Filliatreau 2005 Saumur (Loire) – The usual crapshoot of a wine under plastic. This one’s OK, which is an improvement on most. Chewy, dirty, herbal, dark, with a hint of cough drop and that nasty, scraping, abrasive tannin that is almost a signature of synthetic cork failure (though the particular chemistry involved eludes me; it’s not how oxidation usually works). (1/12)
Browse Tag
loire
Big lamb, little lamb
Métaireau “Domaine du Grand Mouton” 2010 Muscadet Sèvre & Maine Sur Lie “Petit Mouton” (Loire) – Muscadet-by-the-numbers. Abraded shells and slightly saline acidity, light-bodied, clean and soon absent. Frankly, I expect more from this producer. (11/11)
Take it on the Chêne
Saumon 2009 Montlouis-sur-Loire Le Clos de Chêne (Loire) – I struggle with this wine, which seems surly and imbalanced…not in conception, necessarily, but as if it’s throwing a kind of tantrum. Waxed minerals, pollen, white petals, tenderness, but not one of these elements is willing to play with, or even look at, the others. I’ll wait for a bottle that’s had its nap, or is at least free of colic, before saying more. (11/11)
Rising Gorges
Brégeon 2004 Muscadet Sèvre & Maine Gorges (Loire) – Wow, is this good. It’s a lavish, showy, almost – but not quite – lush expression of Muscadet, everything very nearly oversaturated and just shy of lurid. Yet it keeps its poise and its nerve. As full-bodied as I think the appellation can get, but in no fashion overdone. Will it age? I have no reason to doubt it. (12/11)
Guion, guioff
Guion 2009 Bourgueil “Cuvée Domaine” (Loire) – Hard. Surprisingly hard. There’s some barely-viewable blackened herbfruit behind the barbed tannic fencing, but this wine is under maximum security at the moment. Some extended aeration might have helped, but I lacked sufficient opportunity. (12/11)
Position next
Lemasson 2009 “Gama-Sutra” (Loire) – Corked. (12/11)
Well-worn Touraine
Roussel & Barrouillet “Clos Roche Blanche” 2004 Touraine Sauvignon (Loire) – Probably too old. Then again, maybe not. It’s a little pre-oxidized, but the fulsomeness of it is richly appealing, and while there’s precious little that could be tied to the variety here, there’s rather a lot of Touraine-ity. Wet chalk, mostly, but also a sloped minerality that flows always-downward in a very linear sort of way. I love this, but its appeal is clinging to a slender thread. (12/11)
Second Cazin, once-removed
Cazin “Le Petit Chambord” 2009 Cour-Cheverny “Cuvée Renaissance” (Loire) – Presents as quite sweet, and I’d be surprised if there wasn’t an above-threshold level of residual sugar in this wine. It doesn’t detract at all, but it’s good to know before trying to set the wine up on a date with any particular food. Aside from the ripe, round sweetness, there’s honeyed brass, white peach, and a suffusing inner glow of summery warmth that seems…well, almost un-Loire-like, in the sense that most of the region’s wines tend to present as being of just about any other season. Fulsome and long. I can’t quite decide if it lacks sufficient acidity or if the fruit is just so generous that it seems like there’s a lack. In any case, history is on this wine’s side regarding future development, and while it’s immensely appealing at the moment, the appeal is like a more sophisticated version of the fresh, youthful appeal of South African chenin blanc. The things that make this wine potentially great, rather than just appealing, will not be apparent for a while. (12/11)
The riveter
Janvier 2010 Coteaux du Loir “Cuvée du Rosier” (Loire) – Pineau d’aunis, which means it’s likely that I’ll hate it. Which I do. It tastes like an ash-dusted vinyl fetish suit. (Well, I mean, so I hear.) Look, I fully agree with anyone’s objection that this is my personal issue with the grape rather than some external truism, but an issue it is, and unfortunately this is the exact opposite of pleasurable for me. If pineau d’aunis was the last grape on earth, well…I’d be a very sober man. (11/11)
Can anybody find me Saumon to love?
Saumon 2010 Vin de France Romorantin (Loire) – Open two days, and I don’t know whether to credit or blame that time for the wine’s current performance, which is jumbled and uninviting. Shrouded and closed in on itself, this is a wine that doesn’t invite introspection, but wishes to conduct same on its own terms. (11/11)