After our blind tasting on sauvignon blancs from all over the world, we all agreed that this grape became uninspiring and a commercial caricature with no depth, elegance or class. Only a handful winemakers can work with this grape and do magic (Cotat, Boulay etc..).
I was lucky enough to recently try one sauvignon blanc who gave me back some hope. When I drunk this bottle, I asked myself what is the trick behind to do such an amazing wine. Well, thing is there's no trick at all: no chemicals as the domain is organic, no sulfur at all (neither during fermentation and bottling), no additives. I told you: no tricks.
The wine is from Les Cailloux du Paradis and its winemaker Claude Courtois who has been working naturally for a very long time. He is located in Soings en Sologne, 150km east of Saumur.
I was lucky enough to recently try one sauvignon blanc who gave me back some hope. When I drunk this bottle, I asked myself what is the trick behind to do such an amazing wine. Well, thing is there's no trick at all: no chemicals as the domain is organic, no sulfur at all (neither during fermentation and bottling), no additives. I told you: no tricks.
The wine is from Les Cailloux du Paradis and its winemaker Claude Courtois who has been working naturally for a very long time. He is located in Soings en Sologne, 150km east of Saumur.
This 2008 cuvée is called Quartz, a vin de France, made from old sauvignon blanc vines and most of them are franc de pied i.e. pre-phylloxera. The very obvious thing is that this does not taste like any other sauvignon blanc. The terroir and winemaker managed to sublime the grape here. This is ripe but has a tremendous acidity and showed pear and spices (the wine is vinified and raised in barrels) and finally the minerality takes over while it keeps evolving in your glass. Only 11.8% (!!!), this is a wine with no sulfur added, and needs time to blossom. Much, much better on day 2. The way the power, acidity and minerality are managed remind me of Francois Cotat.
Do yourself a favor, get out and grab a bottle and let the wine takes you away.
How many Alto Adige and Friuli sauvignon blancs did you include in your blind tasting? Did you have Araujo's as well?
ReplyDeleteThere were none in our tasting but I tried a few including Elena Walch, Novacella and Jermann. My issue is that they're trying too hard and it shows in their wines.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the Araujo, at $45 a bottle, I rather buy a Cotat. No hesitation, not even for a nano second. I'll give it a try if it's in a tasting, otherwise I won't buy a bottle myself.
You right off two regions based on tasting 3 wines in total? (And mediocre examples from the two regions!)
ReplyDeleteWe can talk about this once you taste Miani (2006 might be the best SB of the decade - made anywhere)...and priced like it too ($90-$125). San Michele Appiano's Sanct Valentin is amazing every year (even 2003, unlike F.Cotat's). Movia wins the Under $35.
And then there's Villa Russiz, Cantina Terlan, and well, there are more excellent producers in Italy than in France. But they're harder to find and the US prices reflect this. But in Italy, they are priced similar to prices in France; except these are often more interesting and enjoyable wines.
I did not write off alto adige nor friuli. I just said that if the several example (I'll try to find the other ones I had from there) represents the style of this part of Italy then I don't like it.
ReplyDeleteNow when you say that Italy's produces better SB than in France, well, I don't agree. I still have to read a comment on a 20 years old italian SB.
But the best way to check this out is to get together and throw a SB throwdown!
I'd like to so the big SB tasting. I have in my cellar a good representation of the best SBs in the world. The only place I'm deficient in (well, besides NZ...I don't know if there's even one from there that can stand up to a good F or P Cotat) Austria. Give me 3-6 months advance notice when you're going to be in my neck of the woods (Santa Rosa), and I'll look into putting it together.
ReplyDeleteSounds good. I'm always open to try new wines.
ReplyDeleteSame here, if you happen to travel to Chicago, give me a heads-up and we'll take care of you.