Wine Cellar

Wine:  Sancerre Blanc

Aged on the lees - brilliant pale yellow in colour - very pure nose reminiscent of citrus and white blossoms - refreshing and full-bodied on the palate - typical and elegant, well-balanced with good length.

Wine:  Reuilly Blanc les Pierres Plates

Lime-rich Kimmeridgian soil. Lovely freshness. Very precise, mineral, transparent and with lovely purity. Great balance with nothing sticking out. Lovely purity of fruit: mineral and clear. Jamie Goode 91/100

Wine:  Vouvray Le Clos du Bourg Demi-sec

Wine:  Vouvray Le Clos du Bourg Moelleux

Wine:  Vouvray Le Haut Lieu Demi-sec

Wine:  Vouvray Le Haut Lieu Sec

Wine:  Vouvray Le Mont Demi-Sec

Wine:  Vouvray Le Mont Moelleux

Wine:  Vouvray Le Mont Sec

Wine:  Sancerre Les Monts Damnes

The Francois Cotat 2011 Sancerre Les Monts Damnes went entirely dry, with 14.5% alcohol recognizable primarily in sheer volume conveyed on a polished, richly lees-endowed palate, but also in a bit of finishing heat. Scents – and thereafter, bitter-sweetly pungent palate presence – of coriander, cardamom, caraway and sage, are allied to succulent Persian melon and lightly cooked apple. There is a faint suggestion of sweetness, reportedly a function of the alcohol and fruit personality rather than above-threshold residual sugar. This finishes with impressive persistence, even if – as already noted – with a touch of heat. It is another Cotat wine of its vintage whose evolution I would be very curious to follow, but for which I am not prepared to predict the sort of long life-span that one normally associates with wines from this address. As with elsewhere in Sancerre, 2011 was a precocious vintage at Francois Cotat. After an early onset of intense ripening Paul Cotat decided that this year, getting the grapes in quickly was key. Within a week all his holdings had been harvested. The musts showed sugar and acidity levels that were lower than 2010, less extreme but beautifully balanced. The resulting wines are some of the driest we've seen from Paul Cotat in recent years. Mont Damnés for instance, whose harvest started on the 13th September, the earliest since 2003, has ended up with a mere 1g/l of residual sugar. The others aren't too far removed. Yet still they retain that characteristic Cotat intensity, power and textural richness. Francois Cotat remains one of the most interesting and charismatic estates in the Loire. His wines, which delight in being aged, offer something over and above most people's expectations from the appellation. In 2011, he has turned out another fascinating set of wines which we would expect to age for up to a decade

Wine:  Muscadet

Wine:  Cotteaux de Layon

Within the confines of the Coteaux du Layon in the Loire Valley lies the vineyards of Moulin Touchais. It is renowned for being one of the world’s longest lived and well-priced wines. Picked at various stages of maturity, this is a Chenin Blanc made in a sweet, late-harvest style where noble rot doesn’t play a large role. It is released a decade from vintage in order to benefit from tertiary complexity, but still possesses wonderful freshness and purity. The sugar level is around 80g/litre, but as the wines mature they tend to taste drier and the high acidity creates wonderful balance. The older and especially tougher vintages show some nutty, almost rancio characters that as Richard Kelley puts it, are for ‘proper’ Chenin lovers only! The great vintages such as 1971 and 2002 have decades of maturation ahead.

Wine:  Cotteaux de Layon

Within the confines of the Coteaux du Layon in the Loire Valley lies the vineyards of Moulin Touchais. It is renowned for being one of the world’s longest lived and well-priced wines. Picked at various stages of maturity, this is a Chenin Blanc made in a sweet, late-harvest style where noble rot doesn’t play a large role. It is released a decade from vintage in order to benefit from tertiary complexity, but still possesses wonderful freshness and purity. The sugar level is around 80g/litre, but as the wines mature they tend to taste drier and the high acidity creates wonderful balance. The older and especially tougher vintages show some nutty, almost rancio characters that as Richard Kelley puts it, are for ‘proper’ Chenin lovers only! The great vintages such as 1971 and 2002 have decades of maturation ahead.

Wine:  Cotteaux de Layon

Within the confines of the Coteaux du Layon in the Loire Valley lies the vineyards of Moulin Touchais. It is renowned for being one of the world’s longest lived and well-priced wines. Picked at various stages of maturity, this is a Chenin Blanc made in a sweet, late-harvest style where noble rot doesn’t play a large role. It is released a decade from vintage in order to benefit from tertiary complexity, but still possesses wonderful freshness and purity. The sugar level is around 80g/litre, but as the wines mature they tend to taste drier and the high acidity creates wonderful balance. The older and especially tougher vintages show some nutty, almost rancio characters that as Richard Kelley puts it, are for ‘proper’ Chenin lovers only! The great vintages such as 1971 and 2002 have decades of maturation ahead.

Wine:  Cotteaux de Layon

Within the confines of the Coteaux du Layon in the Loire Valley lies the vineyards of Moulin Touchais. It is renowned for being one of the world’s longest lived and well-priced wines. Picked at various stages of maturity, this is a Chenin Blanc made in a sweet, late-harvest style where noble rot doesn’t play a large role. It is released a decade from vintage in order to benefit from tertiary complexity, but still possesses wonderful freshness and purity. The sugar level is around 80g/litre, but as the wines mature they tend to taste drier and the high acidity creates wonderful balance. The older and especially tougher vintages show some nutty, almost rancio characters that as Richard Kelley puts it, are for ‘proper’ Chenin lovers only! The great vintages such as 1971 and 2002 have decades of maturation ahead.

Wine:  Cotteaux de Layon

Within the confines of the Coteaux du Layon in the Loire Valley lies the vineyards of Moulin Touchais. It is renowned for being one of the world’s longest lived and well-priced wines. Picked at various stages of maturity, this is a Chenin Blanc made in a sweet, late-harvest style where noble rot doesn’t play a large role. It is released a decade from vintage in order to benefit from tertiary complexity, but still possesses wonderful freshness and purity. The sugar level is around 80g/litre, but as the wines mature they tend to taste drier and the high acidity creates wonderful balance. The older and especially tougher vintages show some nutty, almost rancio characters that as Richard Kelley puts it, are for ‘proper’ Chenin lovers only! The great vintages such as 1971 and 2002 have decades of maturation ahead.

Wine:  Cotteaux de Layon

Within the confines of the Coteaux du Layon in the Loire Valley lies the vineyards of Moulin Touchais. It is renowned for being one of the world’s longest lived and well-priced wines. Picked at various stages of maturity, this is a Chenin Blanc made in a sweet, late-harvest style where noble rot doesn’t play a large role. It is released a decade from vintage in order to benefit from tertiary complexity, but still possesses wonderful freshness and purity. The sugar level is around 80g/litre, but as the wines mature they tend to taste drier and the high acidity creates wonderful balance. The older and especially tougher vintages show some nutty, almost rancio characters that as Richard Kelley puts it, are for ‘proper’ Chenin lovers only! The great vintages such as 1971 and 2002 have decades of maturation ahead.