It is not that often these days that I get to drink a 1969 Coteaux du Layon and this Clos de Sainte Catherine from Jean Baumard was both a lovely wine and very instructive. As so often tasted blind it would have been very difficult to say that this was a 40 year old wine: the colour was light gold with fresh honeyed flavours and clean, precise minerality. By no means super sweet – perhaps 50-70 gms of residual sugar but difficult to estimate precisely. It would have been a disaster with a dessert but was absolutely perfect with cheese: Roquefort, a Cornish brie and a Swaledale ewes milk cheese. The match with the Swaledale was particularly good.
It was instructive because the 1960s, 1970s and some of the 1980s was generally not a great time for Coteaux du Layon with corners being cut but Jean Baumard's 1969 showed that there were exceptions. In many ways this less sweet style of Layon is more versatile than the super-botrytised, super sweet cuvées, which can be a wonderful vin de contemplation - soit meditation but difficult to match with food.
It was instructive because the 1960s, 1970s and some of the 1980s was generally not a great time for Coteaux du Layon with corners being cut but Jean Baumard's 1969 showed that there were exceptions. In many ways this less sweet style of Layon is more versatile than the super-botrytised, super sweet cuvées, which can be a wonderful vin de contemplation - soit meditation but difficult to match with food.
