Épiré again

R

Rahsaan

Rahsaan
I've never had great experiences with Épiré, but I hear other people have such experiences, so I figured why not try again.

First it was the 2015 Épiré Savennières Cuvée Spéciale at Rich Table in SF. Started off shy reserved and austere, so I had to remind my dining companion that I don't go in for heavy fruit wines! The sturdy white citrus floral flavors and firm but juicy structure all matched well with their porcini donuts and their take on uni pasta. By the end of the meal it had loosened up and was showing more elements. And it was certainly a fine match to dinner. But it didn't click on too many cylinders. Fair enough. Young wine.

So the next night at home in NC I had the 2006 Épiré Savennières Cuvée Spéciale, hoping for something more evolved and more delicious. Instead, I got a simple citrus apple cider roll of wine in the mouth. Over time it hints at a range of more complex straw waxy hay elements that we love in Savennières but you have to look really really hard, and maybe even start imagining things. Oh well. Closed middle aged wine? Or just dull wine? (I have more, so I guess I'll find out)
 
I seem to recall from Kermit's book that the version he imports is different (and "better") from the one regularly available in France, so in SF you must have drunk the best that this can be...
 
Indeed. According to the KLWM website he blends the Spéciale from their best parcels. Which I always found to be an interesting concept. I guess maybe some winemakers never really cared to distinguish their wines into specific cuvées. But something about the 'importer selection' still leaves a whiff of hucksterism.

I have drunk the regular French bottling and had decent experiences. Nothing memorable. But not really enough to form solid opinions. Which was my motivation for returning to dabble in the wines.
 
I seem to recall from the book that there was something else, like the Kermit version not being filtered (or something like that).
 
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
I seem to recall from the book that there was something else, like the Kermit version not being filtered (or something like that).
Click to expand...

at thivin in cote du brouilly i was told that the wines bottled for kermit lynch were not filtered but, for wines sold in france, they had to filter in order to not offend/confuse the french consumer.
 
originally posted by Rahsaan:

So the next night at home in NC I had the 2006 Épiré Savennières Cuvée Spéciale, hoping for something more evolved and more delicious. Instead, I got a simple citrus apple cider roll of wine in the mouth. Over time it hints at a range of more complex straw waxy hay elements that we love in Savennières but you have to look really really hard, and maybe even start imagining things. Oh well. Closed middle aged wine? Or just dull wine? (I have more, so I guess I'll find out)
Click to expand...

Last night's bottle of the 06 was better, less apple cider roll, more waxy structural complexity. It managed to sustain my attention and pleasure for a decent amount of time. But in the end it was still not persuasive.
 
As I recall, Kermit Lynch has two examples of the Epire, one at about $18-20, and then an upscale wine (closer to $30). I cannot find mention of these on the KL Web site (which is also not searchable as far as I can tell) Neither of these wines see any oak, in contrast to several of those offered at the Domaine by Epire. Anyway, Kermit made (or makes) the right choice here, since the oak on the other wines certainly compromises (or perhaps ruins) their quality.

The 2014 was very good for both the Epire Tradition and Cuvee Speciale or Cuvee Kermit...
 
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