avec ... ou sans ...errr? The damnd mountain

S

Saina Nieminen

Saina Nieminen
Vincent Gaudry Sancerre La Tournebride 2008
I am usually indifferent to Sauvignon Blanc: it is a boring grape and even the best wines very rarely transcend its inherent limitations. Yet I have had a handful of examples that made me sniff the glass again and again. This is one of the few.

It has all those typical, pleasantly greenish aromas mixed with citrus and mineral that are expected; but there is a depth to it that I have rarely seen in this grape. It is complex - and this is a word I have hardly ever used with this grape.

But the marvel of this wine isn't its unusually complex nose, but the palate. It starts out rich - more so than I expected from this year - but an almost tannic sensation ensues that really perks up the mid-palate. After this initial richness, the end becomes more and more elegant and mineral and citric. But it is wrong to call it the end or finish, because it doesn't.

It is surely ok to say positive things about a small, "real wine" producer like Gaudry, but just to publicly humiliate myself I have write about another Sancerre that I recently tried and liked.

Henri Bourgeois (shall I stop here already?) Sancerre Le MD de Bourgeois 2008 where the MD stands for Les Monts Damns.
The other Bourgeois I have had have seemed like NZ Sauvignons with their mix of over- and under-ripe aromatics. This seemed to me mineral, ripe but not tropical, delightfully grassy; crisp, greenish (smells like peas to me) but still full bodied for Loire SB - yet it manages to still be moreish. Like the Gaudry, it seems to me almost tannic with its grippy structure. I liked it.

But I do admit that generally I still dislike this grape (even in the Loire) and that my positive experiences with these two might simply be due to inexperience.
 
The Bourgeois MDs (and that's the junior partner; there's another) can be decent enough with age. I've had a few at a restaurant in Chavignol that used to carry a pretty large vertical thereof. But there's obviously much better from the site. And Vatan can be otherworldly.
 
Had 2 bottles of 2004 Vatan this past week with family.

As they would say on another bored, it was rockin. Or in Iversonian, otherwordly. Minerally fruit, long long long. Many prongs.

Have not had the H Bourgeois MD, but the Petit Bourgeois was pleasantly simple.

Franois Cotat is another one that gets it right, but they are best with some age on them.
 
Thought this was a comment on the Pyrennes leg of the Tour de France.
Stymied again. Where's Bueker when we need to stab sauvignon blancs?
 
Don't make too much fun of the Bourgeois lesser bottles: I have a recipe for moules marinieres that it does splendidly in. And the recipe leaves over enough wine for two glasses.
 
Have you tried the Clos Roche Blanche Sauvignon Blanc? While I prefer the reds I still have a soft spot for the SB as that was the first CRB I ever had.
 
Henri Bourgeois has over a dozen cuvees mainly SB, some with some oak, some without but also several Pinot Noir roses and reds.

We really like their wines and buy a range each year but then we like a lot of the best SB from Sancerre, Pouilly, Menetou-Salon and the Touraine. Most recently a Bourgeois 2007 d'Antan - crisp, structured and very tasty wine that can be drunk alone or with food. We were nibbling goat's cheese - a natural partner.

The MD is fermented in stainless steel and AFAIK doesn't see any oak [or if it does it would only be old oak] which I assume would be a plus for you Otto since your dislike of overt oak is well known.

Francois and Pascal Cotat's Sancerres [La Grande Cote, Les Monts Damnes and Les Culs de Beaujeu] all three from Francois, the first two from Pascal are also very fine but then again we drink more of the much less expensive but still very good Andre Dezat Sancerre and Pouilly Fume [the latter under the Domaine de Thibault name]. We also enjoy some of Alphonse Mellot [probably too much oak for Otto] and Vacheron's Sancerres.

Edmond Vatan's Clos La Neore [his vineyard on Les Monts Damnes] is a splendid wine; now made from the 2008 vintage by his daughter Anne, Mrs Nady Foucault of Clos Rougeard, but is much more difficult to find and certainly expensive. I have only ever found it in France.

Didier Dagueneau's Pouilly Fume cuvees [Pur Sang my favourite], made by his son and daughter since his death in September 2008 in a microlite crash, are special wines but even the basic cuvee is very expensive. My last purchases were of the 2004s and I see the latest vintage is at the same high prices. Ladoucette's Pouilly Fumes can also be very good, particularly the Baron de'L but the latter is also expensive.

We also like the Minchin's much more reasonably priced La Tour St. Martin, Menetou-Salon SBs: the oaked Honorine and the unoaked Morogues and the even less expensive Barbou's Domaine des Corbillieres Touraine SBs: the oaked Justine and the unoaked Fabel - the latter cuvee named after Grandfather Barbou who was awarded the Legion d'Honneur for his services to French viticulture with particular reference to Sauvignon Blanc.

I suspect the occasional disdain/dislike expressed for the grape [most notably trivial, IMO, diatribes like Steinberger's] is a natural function of the very different ways we all taste wine and indeed food. IMO the chemistry of the grape seems likely to provoke the same sort of highly variable and polarised reactions to things like coriander/cilantro - but like anything done well there will always be some who will find real merit. Others will simply find it not to their taste which is perfectly understandable as long as their dislike is not articulated as though it should be universal and failure to agree implies poor taste as opposed to simply different taste. I know Otto does not fall into that category

We are in the Loire every year for a week or so staying at our favourite hotel/restaurant, the Domaine des Hauts de Loire at Onzain between Blois and Tours. We are there again in a couple of weeks time and will be visiting our favourite producers of Chenin, Pinot Noir, Cabernet Franc and of course SB. We probably won't get across to Muscadet this year but their wines are more easily found here.
 
I find Didier Dagueneau's wines to be a bit polarizing...I happen to like them quite a bit, however...
The Cotat Sancerres are very nice as well and are to be recommended...
 
Between Italian versions, Loire, Sancerre and NZ, I've found the grape to be fairly shape-shifting, depending on location and treatment. The textbook type versions on the lower end haven't really grabbed me a whole lot lately, though none have been undrinkable (although for "textbook" NZ sb, it's hard for me to get through a glass of Cloudy Bay these days). I'd be curious to hear sb lovers thoughts on how it takes to different elevage treatments, and wood, esp.

Of the sb's I've had that I liked (which are obviously different from the Sancerre style):

Friuli producers doing skin contact style
Puzelat's white blends - Loire
Donati: Otto, if you haven't tried, and can find it, I'd recommend Donati's sb's (esp. the frizzante, for a grower champagne-like high toned elegant minerality). For that matter, with your interest in lambics and other left and right of center type wines, the whole Donati line is worth trying...esp. the Malvasia frizzante, which is as lambicky as wine gets.
 
originally posted by nigel groundwater:
We are in the Loire every year for a week or so staying at our favourite hotel/restaurant, the Domaine des Hauts de Loire at Onzain between Blois and Tours.
Click to expand...

Looked this up, since we're going in October, and was totally shocked when I saw the room rates.
 
Note that the rates are all-inclusive full board, including wine. It's a really lovely place. Food is very high quality, with a modern flair. I'm not over-fond of their Brdif fetish, but you'll eat very well, and sleep better.
 
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
originally posted by nigel groundwater:
We are in the Loire every year for a week or so staying at our favourite hotel/restaurant, the Domaine des Hauts de Loire at Onzain between Blois and Tours.
Click to expand...

Looked this up, since we're going in October, and was totally shocked when I saw the room rates.
Click to expand...
Oswaldo, all the Michelin 2 and 3* hotel/restaurants in France are expensive but this one has the widest price range of rooms [from 150 to 550 Euros for the largest suite IIRC] is the least expensive and, most importantly, we enjoy it the most which is why we stay for 8-9 days every year.

The equivalent rooms to the one we now always take at the Domaine are 135 Euros more at Cote St. Jacques, Joigny; Les Crayeres, Reims; and Les Trois Gros, Roanne. Only at Lameloise, Chagny is the equivalent room only 60 Euros more. I know these are the latest prices because we are staying at those 4 for one night each before going to the Domaine.

While I think the prices at the others except Lameloise are pretty shocking, particularly with the pound declining again, IMO the Domaine is nowhere near as bad and for France and this type of establishment the best value available.

Of course there are many less expensive, very good hotels with decent restaurants in the Loire and I have gone to look at many of them over the years but we have found the combination that suits us best.

We used to stay at Jean Bardet at Tours for years before we swapped to the Domaine and decided we liked it even more. However Jean Bardet/Chateau Belmont is no more and the last time we drove past it was being converted into what looked like an up-market retirement home.

p.s. I see the Domaine also has support from Thor.
However I should point out that all my price comments above relate to room rates only. The Domaine does an inclusive half board rate which might be worthwhile but the last time I did the numbers the difference [between half board and room plus what you eat and drink a la carte] was small. That might have changed in recent years so it is worth considering. Perhaps I should take another look :-) Another look tells me there is also a full board quote but no way could we eat 3 meals a day:-)
 
Perhaps, since it is the Loire we're talking about, I should rethink my usual lodging strategy. Normally the hotel is just a base from which to mount guerilliform incursions into the countryside, pillaging choice wineries and restaurants, returning in the evening to gloat over spoils or lick wounds, rather than ransack the place of sleep itself for its depth of talent.
 
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