CWD: Loire wines

V

Vincent Fritzsche

Vincent Fritzsche
Got together last weekend with disorderly scottfrank and the man behind Sec Wines here in Portland, Eric Pottmeyer. Great dude by the way with a great palate and a disorderly friendly palate.

The excuse - to drink good Loire wines. I brought the 2001 Pepiere Muscadet Clos des Briords. A wine I've had since release. No longer razor sharp, it's aged beautifully and still relatively young. Nice honeycomb roundness, cotton or wool, great freshness and length, as good as I hoped it might be. Eric commented that the notion about older Muscadet tasting like chenin makes sense with a wine like this.

Scott had a 2007 Pepiere Muscadet Granite de Clisson. Holy god this is Muscadet like I've never tasted. I should get out more often. Yellow color, strongly mineral but full of ripe fruit and wax. A white burg drinker's Muscadet, without the barrel. A bit of sweetness to the finish but so long and precise. Really good.

The impetus for the gathering was to try older Huet. Admittedly, this isn't older for many disorderlies. Still, the '96 Huet Vouvray Le Mont Sec was tasting older than its years. Maybe premox, maybe from crossing the Atlantic, it opened a little cidery but freshened up a fair bit. Never finished sour, but clearly not at its best. Good enough.

Finally the 1996 Druet Bourgeuil Grandmonts, another wine I brought that I hadn't tried in years. Wow, beautiful maturing Bourgeuil. Fragrant, open, tobacco and gravel and flower aromas. Silky in the mouth, some bottle sweetness from age. Lovely soft, lingering finish. This one has really opened up. Can't wait for my last bottle.

Question for the crowd - whatever happened to Druet? haven't seen anything from the producer in years. I can imagine succession may have happened, but did it? Who got what? What happened?
 
originally posted by Vincent Fritzsche:
What happened?
Click to expand...
A quick Google shows that he had a harvest last year: click

I found a photo of him from 2008 in this large and lovely set of Loire pix, including many vignerons: click

I did not find anything from 2010 nor anything catastrophic. Perhaps someone closer to the ground, ahem, can say more.
 
Too bad about your '96 Le Mont. Recent bottles here have been great, one only a couple of weeks ago.
 
So clearly this was not just a little off. Good to know. Seemed too advanced for sure, but also far from great and fabulous. That Clisson was exceptional though.
 
originally posted by SFJoe:
Too bad about your '96 Le Mont. Recent bottles here have been great, one only a couple of weeks ago.
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I think the bottle you are referring to could have been interpreted both ways. Very unusual showing for the wine.
 
originally posted by .sasha:
originally posted by SFJoe:
Too bad about your '96 Le Mont. Recent bottles here have been great, one only a couple of weeks ago.
Click to expand...

I think the bottle you are referring to could have been interpreted both ways. Very unusual showing for the wine.
Click to expand...
You should elaborate for those who weren't there, as well as for those who were a little frantic and inattentive.
 
originally posted by Vincent Fritzsche:
Scott had a 2007 Pepiere Muscadet Granite de Clisson. Holy god this is Muscadet like I've never tasted. I should get out more often. Yellow color, strongly mineral but full of ripe fruit and wax. A white burg drinker's Muscadet, without the barrel. A bit of sweetness to the finish but so long and precise. Really good.
Click to expand...

This is god wine. And Marc Ollivier looked upon them and said, "Let them drink Granite."

The impetus for the gathering was to try older Huet. Admittedly, this isn't older for many disorderlies. Still, the '96 Huet Vouvray Le Mont Sec was tasting older than its years. Maybe premox, maybe from crossing the Atlantic, it opened a little cidery but freshened up a fair bit. Never finished sour, but clearly not at its best. Good enough.
Click to expand...

My last bottle of this was superb. I've had cranky ones too.

Finally the 1996 Druet Bourgeuil Grandmonts, another wine I brought that I hadn't tried in years. Wow, beautiful maturing Bourgeuil. Fragrant, open, tobacco and gravel and flower aromas. Silky in the mouth, some bottle sweetness from age. Lovely soft, lingering finish. This one has really opened up. Can't wait for my last bottle.

Question for the crowd - whatever happened to Druet? haven't seen anything from the producer in years. I can imagine succession may have happened, but did it? Who got what? What happened?
Click to expand...

Wow, my last bottle of this was tired. The Vaumoreau is still interesting, but not as much as it promised in youth. The Grandmont seemed like generic oldish wine.

Druet is still at the Loire show under the big tent with Marrionet and Taluau.
 
originally posted by SFJoe:
originally posted by .sasha:
originally posted by SFJoe:
Too bad about your '96 Le Mont. Recent bottles here have been great, one only a couple of weeks ago.
Click to expand...

I think the bottle you are referring to could have been interpreted both ways. Very unusual showing for the wine.
Click to expand...
You should elaborate for those who weren't there, as well as for those who were a little frantic and inattentive.
Click to expand...

the bottle itself was OK - it was a mess on the nose, kind of reduced and fruitless, but it had a long clean finish, so one could assume it was "in a state". The problem was that it didn't fit the curve. I bought this one in sufficient quantities to do some fatmonitoring. Two years of fruit, then roughly six years not much beyond chenin funk, and then more recently it seemed to be gradually opening for business. So not sure where this fits in.
 
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