Over the last week I've been drinking from two of my favorite producers in the Loire, Baudry and CRB, with simple meals at home.
The 2010 Baudry Domain has a little less exuberant fruit than last outing and so maybe the structure makes this a hands off for a year or two. Still, I love the dark earth and red fruit qualities as well as the rustic elegance of the structure and mouth feel of the wine. I've always thought it was an exemplary vintage for this cuvée and it continues to be so.
The 2013 CRB Pif continues to be a gem. Rough and tumble to start with blue and black fruits smashed on rocks so it splatters in your face. It has that pasty tannin from the côt that hits you right up front, but recedes a bit with air. It sort of demands food, so I oblige. For this particular bottle, I didn't finish it the first night (gasp!) so I was able to follow it a second when the fruit became much more confiture like without ever becoming clumsy. I also love the woodsy and herb notes that dance across the top of this wine.
The first time that I opened a bottle of the 2009 CRB Côt for my GF she liked it, but didn't get the big deal, "it's OK, not great". We were at a bustling restaurant drinking from bistro glasses so I decided to drop another bottle on her. This time I decanted it and only had the decanter on the table. The wine is deeply pitched and dark but not brooding. Strong dark pitted fruit with some sort of tree bark and forest thing laced with pungent minerals and dark earth. Enveloping. Strong but not fierce tannin demand food. Interestingly, grilled bread smeared with Humbolt Fog cheese and just roasted peppers makes the tannin melt and the fruit come right to the front. Drinking this wine makes me sentimental and nostalgic for lots of reasons. For the last vintage of the Côt from these 120 year old vines, which this certainly is, for the retirement of Didier and Catherine, such wonderful, dynamic, intelligent, humble vignerons, and most importantly for two dear friends that I miss very much. The CRB wines, and this wine in particular, are life affirming.
The 2010 Baudry Domain has a little less exuberant fruit than last outing and so maybe the structure makes this a hands off for a year or two. Still, I love the dark earth and red fruit qualities as well as the rustic elegance of the structure and mouth feel of the wine. I've always thought it was an exemplary vintage for this cuvée and it continues to be so.
The 2013 CRB Pif continues to be a gem. Rough and tumble to start with blue and black fruits smashed on rocks so it splatters in your face. It has that pasty tannin from the côt that hits you right up front, but recedes a bit with air. It sort of demands food, so I oblige. For this particular bottle, I didn't finish it the first night (gasp!) so I was able to follow it a second when the fruit became much more confiture like without ever becoming clumsy. I also love the woodsy and herb notes that dance across the top of this wine.
The first time that I opened a bottle of the 2009 CRB Côt for my GF she liked it, but didn't get the big deal, "it's OK, not great". We were at a bustling restaurant drinking from bistro glasses so I decided to drop another bottle on her. This time I decanted it and only had the decanter on the table. The wine is deeply pitched and dark but not brooding. Strong dark pitted fruit with some sort of tree bark and forest thing laced with pungent minerals and dark earth. Enveloping. Strong but not fierce tannin demand food. Interestingly, grilled bread smeared with Humbolt Fog cheese and just roasted peppers makes the tannin melt and the fruit come right to the front. Drinking this wine makes me sentimental and nostalgic for lots of reasons. For the last vintage of the Côt from these 120 year old vines, which this certainly is, for the retirement of Didier and Catherine, such wonderful, dynamic, intelligent, humble vignerons, and most importantly for two dear friends that I miss very much. The CRB wines, and this wine in particular, are life affirming.
