Shining Chenin part umpteen and sundry lovelies
Some more wines in the pink of perksomeness.
At home I’ve been on a Chenin cruise. I’ve always had a soft spot for Savennieres since I was weaned on Domaine des Baumard’s demi sec Clos des Papillon. Since that introduction I have learned that Savvy (as we northern hemispheristas call it, is wildly vintage variable. One year it can prise your teeth for their moorings, another it can sing harmoniously of sweet honeydew. Damien Laureau gives you a Savvy in full autumnal regalia, golden, shaggy, a barrel load of ripe apples and pears (and leaves and hay and pollen). It is unctuous and sweeps the senses away on waves of flavour, but, my goodness, it is honest with acidity and a core of minerality.
Vouvray sec from Domaine Champalou has that classic apple compote fruit, enhanced by fine lemony acidity in the 2008. This is lovely wine, a Chenin that you can drink by itself as well as with a simply cooked piece of fish.
In restrained vein the Goutte d’O refuses to give up the goodies until you have intellectually and spiritually engaged with it. Strikingly pure, with a bleached almond fruit and flint-flecked minerality, this wine takes you into monastic orders and makes a luxury out of austerity.
2008 Anjou Blanc, Rene Mosse. I had previously made the acquaintance of magnificently upholstered BB (Bonnes Blanches aka Brigitte Bardot – more like DD) before assaying this young vines version. Straw yellow in colour and aromas of apples, herbs and hay with a provocative palate that is rich without being heavy.
La Sagesse Gramenon.The brawny 2007 specimen is liquorice on a stick and a medley of black and red fruit flavours overlaid with spice. I then drank the a bottle of Sierra du Sud later than day with the Terroirs signature dish of Roast Landais with 40 cloves of garlic.
Clos du Gravillas – Sous Les Cailloux and Lo Vielh. You can almost hear the cicadas chirping in the Sous Les Cailloux. This wine combines irresistible fruitiness with medicinality and represents excellent value. Lo Vielh is the most impressive pur Carignan I have tasted. Warm cassis fruit with velvety texture and notes of mocha envelops your tongue. A serious wine, but in a friendly way.
2008 Pacherenc du Vic-Bilh vieilles vignes, Domaine Berthoumieu
2005 Madiran Haute tradition, Domaine Berthoumieu
It is salutary to revisit wines after a long absence. The Pacherenc, from old vines, has always been a big bird with burly pear-and vanilla fruit. The 2008 has some grapefruit zing and more of a mineral core to complement the pear tatin notes. The very purple Madiran has shed its tannic overcoat, not that it could be accused of being an easy wine. Black fruits dominate with notes of vanilla and stewed berries and handful of pepper and dried herbs.
2001 Cahors, Clos de Gamot
I’ve tried the regal 85 (we were not worthy) and the sublime 88, now to the current vintage. This Malbec is so unforced with its vivid acidity and tea-scented, heather-clad fruit flavours, arcing effortlessly across the palate that it captures in a single sniff and a casual swig the essence of terroir itself.
2007 Marcillac Cuvee Lairis
Jean-Luc Matha, the clownish high-priest of Fer-funk, will have you man-swooning over this fer-al red. Red berry fruit rootling around in the earth and rumbling in the thundergrowth, a mineral cocktail of iron, slate and wet stone finishing moreishly with a bitter-sweet pomegranate twang. As I have said before, these reds wear their guts for garters.