A beauty of bevvies

Saumur Brut Roche Neuves Bulles de Roche NV
… is sparkling Chenin with zero dosage. Actually, the blend is Chenin 90%, Chardonnay5% and Cabernet Franc 5% but who’s counting. The primary fermentation is in used Insolite barrels, whilst the traditional secondary fermentation occurs in bottle. The process of remuage and disgorgement takes twelve months. Not the honeydew and lemon curd notes of our Vouvrays but a drier, more austere Champagne-style grippiness.

1999 Savennieres Les Genets, Domaine Laureau
How good is this wine, he asks rhetorically, playing for time. We bought a seriously thick chunk of this vintage so you could have the pleasure. It is very evocative: the colour is golden moving towards bronze, the nose conjures the honeyed warmth of a late summer/ early autumn, there are rich smells of forest carpet, leaf and humus and apples warming on a windowsill, and the texture is somewhere between gold top and cream cheese. The mellow medlar fruit leads into a toasty, nutty finish bequeathed by bottle age and the telltale note of white truffle indicating the wine is reaching the point where the fruit will be replaced by secondary and tertiary aromas.

2003 Bressan Pinot Nero
Bressan’s PN comes from yields of less than 1.00 kg per vine. The grapes are destalked, softly pressed and then macerated with the skins and the ferment is cooled. After racking the wine continues fermenting for another 30 days and is stored in stainless steel tanks. After that it is aged for two years in 2000 litre oak barrels before bottling. The flavour components come together after several years. “Pinot Noir should be cooked slowly – like soup”, saith the man. Raspberries and wild blackberries, a hint of tar and sweet smoky wood and secondary musky notes.

2007 Bruno Gottardi Blauburgunder
Another Pinot from the Gottardi’s elevated vineyards above Mazzon. Bressan’s wine is deeper and more hedonistic, this is more elegant and delicately perfumed with fine red fruits and beautifully lifted acidity.

2009 Maupertuis Gamay d’Auverge ‘Guillaume’
Simple and fantastically drinkable. This wine from the volcanic terrain of the Auvergne is from relatively young vines (compared to the Pierres Noires) but still has the trademark smoke-meets-reduction, wild raspberry fruit and beef stock notes. Must be served chilled.

2007 Cousin-Leduc Cabernet Franc vieilles vignes
Le true Breton. Another natural wine that flaunts its guts for garters. Aged in a big old barrel this Cabernet Franc has aromatic meaty flavours and a certain pepperiness. There is something and very moreish about the wine.

2004 Enzo Lonardo Taurasi
Never been entirely convinced by the Aglianico and I’ve tasted enough Taurasis in the “jam-bam-no-thanks-ma’am! vein.  But this is delightful. The wine is composed, fresh and elegant and the heat is converted into ripe purple fruit with balanced tannins and pleasurable acidity.