Jeff Grossman
Jeff Grossman
attendees: Brad, Cliff, Dale, Don+Melissa, Jay, Jeff C, Jeff G, John, Lisa, Mike, Sasha
Nineteen ninety-five was a roaring success in the Loire and, at age 30, they're likely to be at or near full maturity. Brad always takes the lead on these 'vintage highlight' events and we are happy to dig around in our cellars to fill the table. These events are also an excuse for great cooking (and great shopping) so there are homemade breads, salads, mains, and cakes, as well as goodies from Rush Creek and myriad excerpts of pigs, ducks, and salmon.
There are a lot of wines so we serve 'em up in three tranches.
DRY and OFF-DRY
Luneau Papin- Muscadet "L D'Or" - I'd heard it was very oxy when opened so skipped it and never went back; I later heard that it had freshened and opened up with a half-hour of air (as several other wines did)
Robert Denis- Azay-le-Rideau Sec "Vignes de la Gaillarderie" - upon opening the nose is great with yellow fruits and vivacious acidity; the palate is a little oxidative, "tastes like whiskey" -John; I complain about the wine's stubbornness to which Jeff C replies, "It's not that it's uncompromising; it has no need to compromise"; some folks said that with air the funk blew off and the palate opened up
Huet- Vouvray Sec "Le Mont" - beautiful, ethereal, classic, and fresh; tastes like it was bottled yesterday; "Did you acidify this yesterday or today?" asks Sasha
Baumard- Savennieres "Trie Speciale" - 13.9% so completely dry, apricots and butter, still cranky from being woken up but a terrific finish, long and full
Robert Denis- Azay-le-Rideau Demi-Sec "Vignes de la Gaillarderie" - nose is similar to the Sec but the palate is in better shape, friendly with "a saline element" -Brad
Huet- Vouvray Demi-Sec, "Clos de Bourg" - amazing acids, too! clean and pure with a juicy finish but, despite all that, it lacks some fire
Foreau- Vouvray Demi-Sec - several folks say this needs air but I think it's doing fine, incredibly long finish and a lucky man is he who drank this with the salmon!
Lucien Crochet- Sancerre "Vendange de 27 Octobre" - full and rich and kinda sweet... and a little sulfury yet, but with air this turns full-on luscious
Mostly pretty good performances: engaging aromatics and long finishes, with a few quirks in-between. I liked the Huet Sec and Robert Denis wines best.
RED
Sourdais- Chinon "Les Cornuelles" - "cornuelles" is a soil type; suave, rather cabby and red-fruited, fine tannins all the way from front to back and start to finish
Bernard Baudry- Chinon "La Croix Boissée" - elegant, long, full, tastes a little of fruit cup (which is puzzling), great anyway
Pierre-Jacques Druet- Bourgueil "Grand Mont" - still tannic, orange pith, clean, beautiful, lightweight or loose-knit texture
Pierre-Jacques Druet- Bourgeuil "Cuvée Vaumoreau" - older vines cuvee; richer nose, less obvious grip, noticeable green pepper (but not obtrusive), slighly glyceral so luscious finish
Breton- Bourgueil "Clos Senechal" - swapped in for a "Les Perrieres"; another suave wine but almost yellow-fruited (maybe a drop of rs?), lightweight texture
Filliatreau- Saumur-Champigny "La Grande Vignolle" - beautiful (yes, I know I'm repeating myself but this was a stellar event), another light-textured wine, a little sous-bois, but the finish ends too simply and too soon
Clos Rougeard- Saumur-Champigny "Le Bourg" - OMG, this is perfect, dark and dark-fruited, strong, coffee?, just-so balance of the cab and franc flavors, medium-weight
Every wine was worth the time spent on it; yet Baudry and Rougeard were the champions.
SWEET
Clos de la Coulée de Serrant- Savennières Moelleux - quite sweet but not tooth-achingly so, minerally nigh unto metallic (in a good way)
Foreau- Vouvray Moelleux - stand-in for a bottle of Reserve that did not materialize... and this is corked
Pinon- Vouvray "Cuvee Botrytis" - two 500ml bottles; amazing, and amazingly sweet!, but so good
Huet- Vouvray 1ere Trie "Clos de Bourg" - sitting atop more fruit than the Joly, pretty and perfumed, acidity is adequate; One person tastes iodine; I like this one a lot
Huet- Vouvray Cuvee Constance - mahogany, I may have tasted this too soon because there is plenty of tingly acidity, even plenty more of sugar, but kinda simple otherwise; Brad thinks I'm nuts (but maybe he got to it later, after it opened)
Clos Rougeard- Coteaux de Saumur "Brézé SGN" - very interesting! rather more vinous than the rest of these sugar bombs; herbal, like a glance from a friendly amaro; wow
Baumard- Quarts de Chaume - two bottles of this, too... cooked and corked, respectively
Pierre Bise- Coteaux du Layon "L'Anclai" - Cointreau-like, sweet (no, make that, very sweet), heavily botrytised, and kinda simple
Papin-Chevalier- Savennieres Doux "La Pierre du Coulaine" - violets! actually like the violet pastilles that wine writers talk about so much; moderately sweet; I also really like this
1955 Huet- Vouvray Moelleux "Clos de Bourg" - well, it ends in a '5' anyway; birth-year wine for Jeff C; bergamot, only slightly sweet by now, would be a great wine in any context other than on this table
The show-stoppers were the Rougeard, the Papin-Chevalier, and the Huet 1er Trie. I also note that this tranche comprised all of the cork failures, which makes me wonder if that happens more among high-rs wines?
Overall, what an amazing night. Two dozen plus wines from all over the region and all over the sweetness spectrum. The heavyweights brought it home, as expected, but all the lesser-known houses turned in noteworthy performances, too. I'd be happy to buy the Lucien Crochet, the Sourdais, and the Papin-Chevalier wines.
---
Extra notes:
A few bottles were followed the next couple of days...
Don:
Pascaline came over on Monday to taste the Coteaux de Saumur and loved it. Pascaline and I also revisited the Druet Grand Mont. On Sat I thought it was still tight and austere, but by Monday it was open for business and quite good. A nice surprise!
Sasha:
Same for the Sourdais by Sunday night, and I was wondering if the Grand Mont would follow the same path as both were somewhat angular at the start while showing tremendous dirt. Les Cornuelles filled out considerably, but the fruit that emerged the following day didn’t submerge all that Senonian clay with flint, and if anything amplified it. Curious what the white tuffeau equivalent of this evolution was in the Druet. Cab Franc rules, and we are not worthy.
Jeff G:
The Vaumoreau continued to develop for two more days, showing more and more cab franc fruit, pyrazines (gently), and wet earth. The flavors rose above the acidity but, per their age, never shouted as loudly as they might have 28 years ago.
---
A wineaux on another bored responded to my wond'ring aloud about the Rougeard and Coulee de Serrant sweeties:
"I can tell you for Coulée de Serrant. Many years ago I asked Virginie Joly about it. She said that in 1995 the grape ripeness was exceptionally high and there was also a rather large share of botrytis grapes (Coulée de Serrant always uses around 15% botrytis grapes, but apparently in 1995 the proportion of botrytis grapes picked was higher). Therefore, they decided to produce a sec version and a moelleux version, which is actually rather demi-sec. By the way, also in 2022 there are both versions.
I'm not 100% sure, but I think also the Clos Rougeard Brézé was produced in a dry and a sweet version and I would presume that the reasons for producing a sweet version were similar as for the Coulée de Serrant - very high grape ripeness and a lot of botrytis."
Nineteen ninety-five was a roaring success in the Loire and, at age 30, they're likely to be at or near full maturity. Brad always takes the lead on these 'vintage highlight' events and we are happy to dig around in our cellars to fill the table. These events are also an excuse for great cooking (and great shopping) so there are homemade breads, salads, mains, and cakes, as well as goodies from Rush Creek and myriad excerpts of pigs, ducks, and salmon.
There are a lot of wines so we serve 'em up in three tranches.
DRY and OFF-DRY
Luneau Papin- Muscadet "L D'Or" - I'd heard it was very oxy when opened so skipped it and never went back; I later heard that it had freshened and opened up with a half-hour of air (as several other wines did)
Robert Denis- Azay-le-Rideau Sec "Vignes de la Gaillarderie" - upon opening the nose is great with yellow fruits and vivacious acidity; the palate is a little oxidative, "tastes like whiskey" -John; I complain about the wine's stubbornness to which Jeff C replies, "It's not that it's uncompromising; it has no need to compromise"; some folks said that with air the funk blew off and the palate opened up
Huet- Vouvray Sec "Le Mont" - beautiful, ethereal, classic, and fresh; tastes like it was bottled yesterday; "Did you acidify this yesterday or today?" asks Sasha
Baumard- Savennieres "Trie Speciale" - 13.9% so completely dry, apricots and butter, still cranky from being woken up but a terrific finish, long and full
Robert Denis- Azay-le-Rideau Demi-Sec "Vignes de la Gaillarderie" - nose is similar to the Sec but the palate is in better shape, friendly with "a saline element" -Brad
Huet- Vouvray Demi-Sec, "Clos de Bourg" - amazing acids, too! clean and pure with a juicy finish but, despite all that, it lacks some fire
Foreau- Vouvray Demi-Sec - several folks say this needs air but I think it's doing fine, incredibly long finish and a lucky man is he who drank this with the salmon!
Lucien Crochet- Sancerre "Vendange de 27 Octobre" - full and rich and kinda sweet... and a little sulfury yet, but with air this turns full-on luscious
Mostly pretty good performances: engaging aromatics and long finishes, with a few quirks in-between. I liked the Huet Sec and Robert Denis wines best.
RED
Sourdais- Chinon "Les Cornuelles" - "cornuelles" is a soil type; suave, rather cabby and red-fruited, fine tannins all the way from front to back and start to finish
Bernard Baudry- Chinon "La Croix Boissée" - elegant, long, full, tastes a little of fruit cup (which is puzzling), great anyway
Pierre-Jacques Druet- Bourgueil "Grand Mont" - still tannic, orange pith, clean, beautiful, lightweight or loose-knit texture
Pierre-Jacques Druet- Bourgeuil "Cuvée Vaumoreau" - older vines cuvee; richer nose, less obvious grip, noticeable green pepper (but not obtrusive), slighly glyceral so luscious finish
Breton- Bourgueil "Clos Senechal" - swapped in for a "Les Perrieres"; another suave wine but almost yellow-fruited (maybe a drop of rs?), lightweight texture
Filliatreau- Saumur-Champigny "La Grande Vignolle" - beautiful (yes, I know I'm repeating myself but this was a stellar event), another light-textured wine, a little sous-bois, but the finish ends too simply and too soon
Clos Rougeard- Saumur-Champigny "Le Bourg" - OMG, this is perfect, dark and dark-fruited, strong, coffee?, just-so balance of the cab and franc flavors, medium-weight
Every wine was worth the time spent on it; yet Baudry and Rougeard were the champions.
SWEET
Clos de la Coulée de Serrant- Savennières Moelleux - quite sweet but not tooth-achingly so, minerally nigh unto metallic (in a good way)
Foreau- Vouvray Moelleux - stand-in for a bottle of Reserve that did not materialize... and this is corked
Pinon- Vouvray "Cuvee Botrytis" - two 500ml bottles; amazing, and amazingly sweet!, but so good
Huet- Vouvray 1ere Trie "Clos de Bourg" - sitting atop more fruit than the Joly, pretty and perfumed, acidity is adequate; One person tastes iodine; I like this one a lot
Huet- Vouvray Cuvee Constance - mahogany, I may have tasted this too soon because there is plenty of tingly acidity, even plenty more of sugar, but kinda simple otherwise; Brad thinks I'm nuts (but maybe he got to it later, after it opened)
Clos Rougeard- Coteaux de Saumur "Brézé SGN" - very interesting! rather more vinous than the rest of these sugar bombs; herbal, like a glance from a friendly amaro; wow
Baumard- Quarts de Chaume - two bottles of this, too... cooked and corked, respectively
Pierre Bise- Coteaux du Layon "L'Anclai" - Cointreau-like, sweet (no, make that, very sweet), heavily botrytised, and kinda simple
Papin-Chevalier- Savennieres Doux "La Pierre du Coulaine" - violets! actually like the violet pastilles that wine writers talk about so much; moderately sweet; I also really like this
1955 Huet- Vouvray Moelleux "Clos de Bourg" - well, it ends in a '5' anyway; birth-year wine for Jeff C; bergamot, only slightly sweet by now, would be a great wine in any context other than on this table
The show-stoppers were the Rougeard, the Papin-Chevalier, and the Huet 1er Trie. I also note that this tranche comprised all of the cork failures, which makes me wonder if that happens more among high-rs wines?
Overall, what an amazing night. Two dozen plus wines from all over the region and all over the sweetness spectrum. The heavyweights brought it home, as expected, but all the lesser-known houses turned in noteworthy performances, too. I'd be happy to buy the Lucien Crochet, the Sourdais, and the Papin-Chevalier wines.
---
Extra notes:
A few bottles were followed the next couple of days...
Don:
Pascaline came over on Monday to taste the Coteaux de Saumur and loved it. Pascaline and I also revisited the Druet Grand Mont. On Sat I thought it was still tight and austere, but by Monday it was open for business and quite good. A nice surprise!
Sasha:
Same for the Sourdais by Sunday night, and I was wondering if the Grand Mont would follow the same path as both were somewhat angular at the start while showing tremendous dirt. Les Cornuelles filled out considerably, but the fruit that emerged the following day didn’t submerge all that Senonian clay with flint, and if anything amplified it. Curious what the white tuffeau equivalent of this evolution was in the Druet. Cab Franc rules, and we are not worthy.
Jeff G:
The Vaumoreau continued to develop for two more days, showing more and more cab franc fruit, pyrazines (gently), and wet earth. The flavors rose above the acidity but, per their age, never shouted as loudly as they might have 28 years ago.
---
A wineaux on another bored responded to my wond'ring aloud about the Rougeard and Coulee de Serrant sweeties:
"I can tell you for Coulée de Serrant. Many years ago I asked Virginie Joly about it. She said that in 1995 the grape ripeness was exceptionally high and there was also a rather large share of botrytis grapes (Coulée de Serrant always uses around 15% botrytis grapes, but apparently in 1995 the proportion of botrytis grapes picked was higher). Therefore, they decided to produce a sec version and a moelleux version, which is actually rather demi-sec. By the way, also in 2022 there are both versions.
I'm not 100% sure, but I think also the Clos Rougeard Brézé was produced in a dry and a sweet version and I would presume that the reasons for producing a sweet version were similar as for the Coulée de Serrant - very high grape ripeness and a lot of botrytis."
