100% Chenin Blanc, Savienneres, Loire Valley, France

My first wine from banker-turned-biodynamic-zealot Nicholas Joly. This wine was offered as a great price from local wine-bar that seems to be doing things really right, Chalk. The also had the big brother, one of my ‘grail’  wines, the Coulée de Serrant - which is known for improving over the span of a week in the decanter.

The ‘03 Clos Sacres was born on a warmer year in the Loire, which typically means more exhuberance and ripe character than the classical ‘02 and ‘04. The color was a striking gold portenting richness and maybe some (good in my book) oxidation. On the nose, honey and flowers all over the place - chamomile, acacia, orange blossom - held together with a lemony core.

The palate, seductive and tricky - the nose pointed towards a more unctuous, sweet style, but the palate clearly maintained a central nerve of acidity and lift. Medium weight but altogether fresh, with some almond  nuttiness and some tropicalia coming through on the midpalate.  Finished long and dry, as Savennieres typically do. Beautiful pairing with sweetbreads or heartier fish dishes.

This is a living, evolving wine, which demands attention. I was crazy about it- and most of my friends enjoyed it and had to take a pause to think about how unusual it was.  Superb.  I hope I have the opportunity to try its big brother soon…

~$20US, 100% Chenin Blanc, Coteaux du Layon, Loire Valley

Classic Chenin nose, floral, with yellow peach and some woody aromas. Sweet and oily palate, left an overall cloying and flabby impression - just too much residual sugar and too little acidity to balance it. Not a bad dessert wine by any means - the fruit here is delicious and peachy clean but simple, just a little unbalanced. A good introduction to this producer that may improve with cellaring. If im going for a sweet Chenin, I’d rather lay down the extra cash for the more refined and age-worthy Baumard Clos Ste. Catherine, or Foreau’s Moelleuxs.

  ~$10US, 100% Chenin Blanc, Vouvray, Loire Valley  Refreshing, tropically-fruity, simple, and perfect with Indian curries.  A great value Vouvray with a riper balance, but enough acidity to keep it from cloying. Wines like this would be no-brainer additions to Asian and Indian restaurant wine lists, if more people got the word out. Worth putting one in the cellar for 3 years to see what happens. The bottle was gone before we expected it to be… 

~$25US, 100% Chenin Blanc, Savennières, Loire Valley.

Bright gold. Immediately engaging nose - pulled me in like a Ken Burns documentary with a dazzling array of aromas; Fresh-cut grass, quartz landscaping rocks, a creamy goat-cheese component, bok-choy, wet leaves and pavement after a summer rain, seashells, fresh peaches, toast, fresh-cut flower stems, not-quite-ripe strawberries - it just kept giving and evolving…The palate was as dry as the nose complex and subtle, but with razor-sharp tartness and brightness.

The wine manages an elegance and suaveness despite the acidity with a mouth-coating body, and a seamless transition through a long, minerally finish. With 6 years of age, this is just singing, and I believe it will continue to improve for at least another 4-5 years. It rocked with Korean fair and I’m seriously temped to sneak a bottle into the dim-sum joint next time. There is both subtlety and intensity, and working together they blow my mind. It’s my favorite kind of wine; one that is serious, but doesn’t take itself too seriously - it begs you to enjoy it without diving too deeply into it, but rewards you if you do.

~$8US - 100% Chenin Blanc, South Africa

Very pale straw in the glass - almost clear. Really pleasant fresh aromas of pear and apple cider, with a little seaweed and rockiness that integrated nicely. Kind of ‘coastal’ feel in the mouth - like Oban or Clynelish whiskies with some saltiness, but the Chenin Blanc’s acidity really balanced the overall feel and kept it crisp. Creat complexity for an under-$10 wine. Where the Dry Creek brought an abundance of fruit to the table, the Teddy Hall had some fruit, but was overall more diverse with the rockiness and briney flavors and a cleaner, drier finish. Peaches and dried floral notes on the finish. A perfect weeknight white for lighter fare and seafood - it accented some of the subtler flavors in the pan-seared sea scallops we enjoyed with it. Solid.

~$US20 Montlouis sur Loire, Touraine, Loire Valley, France

The Chenin Blanc grape is really something special. In the Loire valley, this grape can do just about anything - be dry, be sparkling, be sweet, be demi-sec, be fortified, be affected by noble rot, etc. But, like Riesling, sometimes you don’t know what you are going to get, unless you know the winemakers, the styles, the areas, and the vintages…The Tuffeaux is a blend of several of Chidaine’s vineyards - typically using the select (sometimes riper) grapes to make the best wine possible. I chilled this in the fridge, and popped it - not sure exactly how sweet it would be.

On the nose the complexity is dazzling - especially after it warmed up and had time to open. Apples, pears, flowers, rocks, grass, honey and asparagus (?!) On the palate it was equally beguiling - my wife and I couldn’t decide on how sweet or dry it really was. The facts were thus - there was definitely some sugar, and definitely a firm acidity. How these were proportioned is a mystery (and it changed through the course of the sip, glass, and bottle). Medium-to-full-bodied. There was an ghostly taste just after the swallow that exploded into my nose and reminded me of toast and broccoli. Very persistent finish - but dry. The finish reminded me of a red wine (flinty and Priorat-like).

All and all - a strange wine, but immediately lovable in that it was alive. Not a light, summertime-sipper. This is a versatile food wine - wonderful with exotic asian fair with spice (dim sum, korean seafood soups, spicy grilled squid, etc). An A+ effort and a great value.

Meadowlark Cabernet-Syrah 2005 - Napa Valley: Black currant, green peppers, wet sticks and tree bark. Some petrol notes after some air-time. Juicy and fruit forward, full-bodied and well built. This is good wine - no doubt, but this point in my wine-journey, I’m realizing that I’m just not down with green-pepper in my Cabernet…I know it shows up often, but I can’t do it. Just a personal thing (being allergic to them). Probably wont rebuy.

Baumard Clos de Ste. Catherine 2002 - Loire - Coteaux du Layon (Chenin Blanc): Complex noise of marzipan, peach nectar, baking spices, honey. SWEET! Dessert style. Biting acidity to keep things in balance - but the tongue-coating sweetness won. Viscous. Some unpleasant bitterness right before the finished tainted the overall experience for me. I would rebuy another vintage only if I had some more friends interested in trying it too.

Amisfield Pinot Noir 2004 - New Zealand - Central Otago: Wow. Dr. Pepper, ripe and black cherries, strawberry jam, wild mushrooms, and plush velvet. Expansive and deep, but not over-the-top. Silky. Simply wonderful - a serious effort from NZ showing that they have something unique to say about Pinot. Love it. Rebuy.

~$12US %100 Chenin Blanc, Saumur, Loire Valley, France

Color: Medium Gold
Nose: Bracing and complex - green apple, lime zest, pineapple, under-ripe strawberries, honey
Palate: Medium-bodied, citrus freshness, river-rocks, piercing acidity in the midpalate
Finish: Fairly lengthy - tart, appetizing grapefruit and mineral water

A complex wine, not easy (for me) to like at first - but definitely finely crafted. A ‘grower’. While I appreciate fresh acidity, this was straight-up sour right after I popped the bottle. But, even at 5 years old, the wine really rounded out over the course of a few hours, making me think it could use another 2-3 years to continue improving. With some air-time, it became more integrated and nuanced - especially on the nose. Stylistically, this wine must be paired with food you’d squeeze a lemon on - I could imagine it being magic with with fresh oysters and shellfish. A specialized wine, well done.