Vines@Domaine de la Noblaie, Ligré, AC Chinon
Report on June 2011 visit to Domaine de la Noblaie now complete. See here.
Showing posts with label Chinon Blanc. Show all posts
2002 Chinon Blanc, Christophe Baudry
Time for a round up of recent bottles starting with this very attractive 2002 Chinon Blanc from Christophe Baudry, which must have been made prior to the tie up with Domaine de la Roncée and the founding of Baudry-Dutour. Nicely evolved with honey and tufa (the aromas of a dry, clean limestone cellar), this has the typical balance of the 2002 vintage. Enjoyed it as an apéro over several nights and if anything it got better and fuller with time.
2007 Les Millerands, Côte Roannaise, Domaine Robert Sérol
Two reds from Domaine Robert Sérol that I visited last August. The 2008 Cuvée Troigros (name of the famous 3-star Michelin restaurant in nearby Roanne) is a typical easy drinking Gamay, which can be drunk on its own or with a light lunch. Rather mistakenly I tried with a magret de canard and as I should have realised it was too light for the duck. Les Millerands, even though it was a 2007, would have been better as it has more structure but we had opened that a couple of nights previously with cold chicken – a good match.
2008 Cuvée Troigros, Domaine Robert Sérol
2008 Touraine Sauvignon, Antoine Simoneau
Antoine Simoneau is a family estate in Saint-Georges-sur-Cher. This 2008 has a few grams of residual sugar that rounds the wine out making attractive and easy to drink with ripe grassy and goseberry scents.The domaines whites tend to be more successful than the reds. Unfortuntaely there is a reliance on the use of weedkillers, which in some vineyards with a slight slope causes some erosion. It would be good to see a reduction in their use.
2003 Anjou Villages, Domaine de Bablut, Christophe Daviau
Domaine de Bablut in Brissac-Quincé is biodynamic and this rich and powerful 2003 is very typical of this heatwave vintage. Lot of concentrated black fruits giving the impression of coming from somewhere well to the south of the Loire. Still very much on good form and looks to be good for a number more years.
Yesterday there was this telling comment on the wine-forum of Tom Cannavan’s wine-pages about some 2007 Vouvrays that he bought from Bernard Fouquet:
‘Mark Henderson: I bought a mixed case of Aubuisieres but my only reservation has been that both the Silex and the Girardieres (demi-sec) are under plastic cork.’
I certainly agree with Mark’s reservations about putting plastic corks into good quality Vouvray that is capable of aging well over several decades. Pull the cork on either of these two wines in 10-15 years they may well be badly oxidised under these plastic corks. Even after five years this may well be the case. Surely the better option to avoid the problem of corked bottles would have been to go to screwcaps.
Unfortunately the take-up of screwcaps in the Loire, outside of the big groups, has been slow despite many of the white wines being ideally suited. The opposition of many French sommeliers to screwcaps may have played a significant role here. During the Salon des Vins de Loire Jean-Marie Bourgeois told me that he was surprised by the sommeliers’ continued opposition, while Pierre Sauvion (Château du Cléray, Muscadet de Sèvre-et-Maine) said he would move to screwcaps if there was less resistence to it from sommeliers in France.
Fed up with the incidence of corked wines, a number of Loire producers have opted for plastic corks – not really a problem for wine to be consumed young, although these corks can still be difficult to remove from the bottle – but certainly a mistake for wines capable of medium to lomg-term aging.
I suspect the sommeliers’ opposition is largely about protecting their roles by guarding the mystique that can be built up around extracting a cork from a bottle and checking that the cork hasn’t spoiled the wine. If I am right then they will have much to answer for if good Vouvray turns out to have been oxidised because of the use of plastic corks.
I certainly agree with Mark’s reservations about putting plastic corks into good quality Vouvray that is capable of aging well over several decades. Pull the cork on either of these two wines in 10-15 years they may well be badly oxidised under these plastic corks. Even after five years this may well be the case. Surely the better option to avoid the problem of corked bottles would have been to go to screwcaps.
Unfortunately the take-up of screwcaps in the Loire, outside of the big groups, has been slow despite many of the white wines being ideally suited. The opposition of many French sommeliers to screwcaps may have played a significant role here. During the Salon des Vins de Loire Jean-Marie Bourgeois told me that he was surprised by the sommeliers’ continued opposition, while Pierre Sauvion (Château du Cléray, Muscadet de Sèvre-et-Maine) said he would move to screwcaps if there was less resistence to it from sommeliers in France.
Fed up with the incidence of corked wines, a number of Loire producers have opted for plastic corks – not really a problem for wine to be consumed young, although these corks can still be difficult to remove from the bottle – but certainly a mistake for wines capable of medium to lomg-term aging.
I suspect the sommeliers’ opposition is largely about protecting their roles by guarding the mystique that can be built up around extracting a cork from a bottle and checking that the cork hasn’t spoiled the wine. If I am right then they will have much to answer for if good Vouvray turns out to have been oxidised because of the use of plastic corks.
2007 Chinon Blanc, Baudry-DutourGood to see that leading Chinon producers, Baudry-Dutour, have put their 2007 Chinon Blanc into screwcapped bottles – an admirably modern and stylish presentation. Screwcapped bottles do not have to look cheap.
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Elsewhere pertinent comments by Michel Smith about blending white and red to make rosé on Hervé Lalau's blog.
