by Tim York » Sat Oct 06, 2007 3:24 pm
Until now, I have rated this as perhaps my most disappointing wine purchase in the last ten years. In about 1998 I visited the well known Château d’Epiré in appellation Savennières and purchased some three dozen assorted bottles of 1995 and 1996 both in the basic cuvée and the cuvée spéciale along with some demi-sec. Naturally I tasted and liked them on the spot in their youth and I also tasted from the “cuve” and greatly liked the 1997 (reportedly indifferent in bottle).
None of these bottles which I have opened subsequently at home, except the first year or so, have given much pleasure. At best they have been closed, inexpressive and dull and at worst oxidised. The 1995s have overall been even less satisfactory than the 1996s. Consequently quite a lot of the bottles remain, although I think all the basic wines and most of the 1995 cuvée spéciale have gone either down the gullet or the sink. So it was with some trepidation that I opened the following keeping a reliable bottle of Chidaine’s Vouvray in reserve.
Château d’Epiré AOC Savennières Cuvée Spéciale 1996
To give the bottle the best chance, I decanted it about 45 minutes before the meal and placed the decanter in the fridge. (The importer of Coulée de Serrant recommends decanting that wine 24 hours before serving!!??). It seems to have contributed to the first real pleasure which I have got from any of these bottles.
C: Disturbingly deep yellow but no brown.
N: At first, reassuringly clean albeit subdued aromas of round white fruit tinged with honey emerged but, as the wine reacted to air in the glass, attractive notes of wax and burnished, slightly spicy apple and pear pie also developed.
P: The development in the glass mirrored that of the nose. At first quite subdued though round, quite deep, burnished and expressive but a little short with bitter notes on the finish. With air, perhaps aided by further mild cooling for about a minute in an ice bucket, the wine seemed to freshen, broaden, lengthen and grow more complex taking on the aromas from the nose whilst the bitter notes on the finish were transformed into an attractively structured minerality.
At last, a fine if not great bottle which I rate 16.5/20 “a very attractive wine suitable for offering to friends”. None of the others in the last seven or so years was better than 13.5/20 “fair”.
Tim York