by Tim York » Fri Mar 26, 2010 11:58 am
Two leading Touraine growers were presenting their wines at TGVins’ Sunday tasting. 2007 seems to be confirmed as an exciting white wine vintage here and in the Mâconnais and the one 2008 was also excellent. Alliet is pleased with his red 2008s and the one he showed was certainly promising; I look forward to tasting more.
Domaine de Bellivière, Éric Nicolas
These Chenin blanc wines followed the Mâcon and Jura Chardonnays of Rijckaert and surprised me by showing greater fullness and flesh from their northerly sites whilst yielding nothing in focus and minerality. A lovely range.
Jasnières Prémices 2008 (€13) showed roundness, hints of sweetness (some RS), brisk acidity, quince notes and stony minerals; 15.5/20.
Jasnières Les Rosiers 2007 (€17) was dry analytically with crisp acidity but was at least as rich seeming as the previous with greater fleshiness in both texture and flavour, white fruit and minerals and good length; 16/20++.
Coteaux du Loir Vieilles Vignes Éparses 2007 (€21), also bone dry with crisp acidity, was denser and more mouth-filling but also aromatically more closed; needs time with 16/20+++ potential. I complained to Nicolas that the cigar ash aromas on the 2004 did not seem to be integrating; “give more time” he said.
Jasnières Caligramme 2007 (€29) seemed fully dry with 4g of RS only showing as an element of burnish on the aromas. Lively acidity, attractive minerals and riper, richer and even longer than any of the previous; 17/20+.
Coteaux du Loir L’Effraie 2007 (€15) with its 15g of RS seemed noticeably sweeter than the previous but it was finely focussed and well balanced by lively acidity, stony and flinty minerals with burnished white fruit and flesh aromas; 16/20+.
Domaine Philippe Alliet
He is one of the top three at Chinon IMO alongside Bernard Baudry and Charles Joguet. He practices low yields and his wines tend to be more robust, even from gravel sites, and somewhat more “modern” than theirs. The 2007s here showed more body than most I have tasted.
Chinon Tradition 2008 (€12), from gravel, showed nice aromas of red fruit, pencil shavings and wet leather with full round substance and tangy fruit; 15.5/20++.
Chinon Huisserie 2007 (€20), from clay and silex , was surprisingly slightly lighter than the previous certainly due to the difficult vintage, but nevertheless showed attractive fruit and sufficient roundness with perhaps just a suspicion of hollowness in mid-palate; 15/20.
Chinon Vieilles Vignes 2007 (€16), from gravel, showed aromas of tangy plum and wet leather on robust body with good mouth-fill. Alliet attributes the wet leather on this and the Tradition to the gravel terroir but I would not recommend them to the brett-phobic; 16/20+.
Chinon Coteau de Noiré 2007 (€24), from calcareous clay and matured in 50% new wood, was noticeably more refined but not IMO better than the previous with aromas veering to cherry with liqueur touches. The new wood was not obtrusive as sometimes with young Noiré; 16/20+.
Last edited by Tim York on Fri Mar 26, 2010 3:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Tim York