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Wednesday, 13 March 2013

2010 Pouilly-Fumé Tinel-Blondelet + 2009 Chinon Château de la Grille

2010 Pouilly-Fumé, Domaine Tinel-Blondelet

Two recent samples tasted: 2010 Pouilly-Fumé from Domaine Tinel-Blondlet and the 2009 Chinon from Château de la Grille (Baudry-Dutour).

2010 Pouilly-Fumé, Domaine Tinel-Blondelet
Attractively fresh, citric and yellow plum character – mid-weight wine. Not particularly complex but agreably refreshing was a good match with an open prawn sandwich.  Should not be served too cold. From Jascots – £16.20 a bottle or £14.58 for case of 12. 
 




The 2009 Chinon, Château de la Grille (Baudry-Dutour) is the first vintage made by the Baudry-Dutour team having bought the estate at the beginning of 2009. Full of softly textured, ripe black fruits this is a mid-weight Chinon and while easy and enjoyable to drink lacks that extra complexity that would make it more memorable. The tannins are certainly riper, softer and rounder than in previous vintage of La Grille, which have always tended to be rather angular. It will be interesting to see how subsequent vintages show when the Baudry-Dutour team have had a chance to work more fully on the vineyards.   

Christophe Baudry and Jean-Martin Dutour have chosen to keep the estate's traditional bulbous bottle. I'm afraid I think this bottle very impractical the lip is too small to allow a traditional waiter's friend to pull the cork. The bottle is heavy and difficult to hold unless you have very large hands.       



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3 comments:

  1. Hervé LALAU14 March 2013 at 08:36

    I like the La Grille 2009 also (much more than older vintages, too). And for your info, last week, at In Vino Veritas, at week, we selected the Tinel-Blondelet Sancerre 2011 La Croix Canat for our Sancerre special.

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  2. Jim's Loire14 March 2013 at 09:14

    Thanks Hervé. Although I enjoyed the 2009 La Grille I wouldn't call it a Grand Vin de Chinon as its label claims. Good certainly but Grand?

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  3. Hervé LALAU15 March 2013 at 07:44

    I agree.
    But what is the definition of grand?
    In French, this magnifique language, so subtle, it can mean tall, big, impressive, prestigious, extraordinary, or simply "not small".
    "Un homme grand" is not necessarily "un grand homme" (although de Gaulle was both).
    In English, you tend to use the adjective in the sense of ominous.
    I would not say La Grille is "grand" in this acception, rather jolly good.
    But would you put "jolly good wine of the Loire" on a label? ;-)

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