Wine & Spirits - April 2013 - (Page 106)

Year’s Best LOIRE WInEs Our blind panels tasted 282 new-release Loire wines for this issue. Joshua Greene, our critic for the Loire, rated 52 as exceptional (90+) and 41 as Best Buys. Find a complete list of wines tasted and all reviews at wineandspiritsmagazine.com. S PA RK L I N G CoteAux du Loir 92 | Domaine La Grange Tiphaine 89 | Domaine de Bellivière 187321 $24 2010 Montlouis-sur-Loire Nouveau-Nez ^ Damien Delecheneau makes this wine from his family’s estate vineyards, where he farms old-vine chenin under organic and biodynamic practices. This pétillant is tight and juicy, with a gentle mousse and touches of lanolin in the aroma. It’s the finish that drives home chenin’s delicacy, clean and dry. A mouthwatering wine for oysters. § Jenny & François Selections, NY 188040 90 | François Pinon $22 88 | Ampelidae $18 Vouvray Non Dosé Brut ^ A flowery release of Pinon’s pétillant, this has sweet scents of rosewater and a waxy, honeycomb flavor even as it finishes dry. This would make a fine aperitif to serve with cracked crab. § Louis/ Dressner Selections, NY 187778 Val de Loire Amance B. Brut (Best Buy) ^ A blend of chardonnay (80 percent) and folle blanche, this sparkler has a pale apple simplicity and mineral stoniness. It’s refreshingly dry, a clean pour with anything from the raw bar. § Integrity Wines, Atlanta, GA 187554 88 | Château de L’Aulée $17 Crémant de Loire Brut (Best Buy) ^ This wine’s fragrant quince and pear scents come with brisk, cider-like acidity that will rough up the brininess of clams or oysters. Balanced with a hint of sweetness in the end. § USA Wine Imports, NY W HI T E $17 2011 Anjou Blanc (Best Buy) ^ Soft and pleasantly sweet, this is a broad chenin with bright orange flavors and spicy length. For braised pork. § USA Wine Imports, NY WINE & SPIRITS 2010 Coteaux du Loir Vieilles Vignes Esparses ^ Grown on “sparse old vines” with 50 to 80 vintages in the ground, this has chenin’s spicy beeswax character as well as fresh scents of apple and pear. It’s severely acidic, balanced by touches of sweetness, creating an intriguing, taut finish that will take some age, or take on a rich brandade. § Louis/ Dressner Selections, NY Cour-Cheverny 188065 92 | Hervé Villemade $33 2009 Cour-Cheverny Les Acacias ^ Villemade tends romorantin vines that range from 14 to 46 years old for this Cour-Cheverny, offering up a cloudy wine that pulses with energy. The overall impression is cool and spicy, the texture sculpted from a tannic grape-skin character to lend the wine saltiness (think fresh Marcona almonds). Youthful and riveting, this is all potential for now, needing cellar time to grow majestic. A match for woodroasted clams with parsley. § Louis/Dressner Selections, NY 188064 90 | Hervé Villemade $33 2010 Cour-Cheverny Les Acacias ^ The sweat of a Loire princess might smell like this intriguing, earthy white, or, if you prefer, the scent of fresh almonds, white peach, saffron and, perhaps, acacia. It’s gulpable, however you look at it, a romorantin with the potential to age. § Louis/Dressner Selections, NY MontLouis 90 | Domaine La Grange Tiphaine 187751 106 187531 $57 187308 Anjou 87 | Domaine des Deux Vallées MusCAdet 188045 APRIL 2013 $24 2010 Montlouis-sur-Loire Clef de Sol (Best Buy) ^ A gentle chenin, this wine’s broad, leesy scents tighten up around subtle limestone acidity. It’s round and clean, a lovely wine to serve this summer with panroasted sole and fresh almonds. § Jenny & François Selections, NY 95 | Louis Métaireau $30 94 | Louis Métaireau $20 94 | Louis Métaireau $23 2010 Muscadet Sèvre et Maine Cuvée One Sur Lie ^ Marie-Luce Métaireau and Jean-François Guilbaud grow this wine at their 57-acre estate in Saint Fiacre, where the gneiss soils include garnet mica and amphibolite. Cuvée One is a selection from their oldest vines, planted in 1937. This is a pure, satisfying, glorious coastal white. Rouge Tomate’s Pascaline Lepeltier, who grew up in the Loire and studied in Angers, commented on tasting this wine, “Muscadet can be at the level of Chablis. It shows a relationship to chardonnay—the ability of both grapes to translate the briny, salty character in a similar way.” If Muscadet had a grand cru, this is how it would taste: pear flavors exploding on the palate into flinty mineral scents, their fatness cut by razor sharp acidity, oceanic and mouthwatering. § Martine’s Wines, Novato, CA 187530 2010 Muscadet Sèvre et Maine Carte Noire Sur Lie ^ Grown at Métaireau’s property in Maisdon-sur-Sèvre, Carte Noire is as dark in tone as its name would suggest. The fruit character is close to exotic, with scents of quince paste, almond paste, citrus and white pear. All of that fruit is integrated into savory mineral character, pale notes of truffle and heady mushroom scents of the soil. Those elements combine in a wine that’s completely dry, savory and brilliantly complex. § Martine’s Wines, Novato, CA 187529 2010 Muscadet Sèvre et Maine Grand Mouton Sur Lie ^ From 50-year-old vines at Métaireau’s main estate vineyard, this comes across as the most powerful and gripping of the domaine’s wines. The ripeness builds in green apple and Kaffir lime scents, smoky and compelling, coastal and clean. It’s mouthwatering and grand, a wine to pour with sashimi, particularly fluke or giant clam. § Martine’s Wines, Novato, CA 188050 http://www.wineandspiritsmagazine.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Wine & Spirits - April 2013

Wine & Spirits - April 2013
Editor’s Note
Happenings
Contents
Fined & Filtered The Digital List
Cognac: The New Wave
The Funky Bits: Alice Feiring on terroir expression in Comté
Pouilly-Fuissé Premier Cru
Pinot Noir’s Nerve Center
Where Tuscany Meets Liguria
Insider Chianti
Where to Eat & Drink in New York
24th Annual Restaurant Poll
Introduction
US Pinot Noir
Austria
Portugul Reds
White Burgundy
Loire
Tuscan Reds
US New Releases
Imported New Releases
Extreme Values

Wine & Spirits - April 2013