1995 Coteaux du Loir, Cuvée de l'Effraie, Eric Nicolas
Enjoyed a fabulous bottle of 1995 Coteaux du Loir, Cuvée de l'Effraie from Eric Nicolas at the RSJ Restaurant tonight in the company of Nigel Wilkinson, the owner, and Jérôme Billard of Domaine de la Noblaie (Chinon). 100% Chenin from a small appellation in the Valley of Le Loir, which is an eventual tributary of much larger La Loire to the south.
Brilliantly fresh tasted blind I would be amazed if someone was able to pick out that this wine is nearly 20 years old now. Beautifully precise, wonderfully balanced and long, it had touches of honey and citric notes. All in all an unexpected treat! Had we not pulled the cork this evening it would doubtless have lasted at least another 20 years.
Brilliantly fresh tasted blind I would be amazed if someone was able to pick out that this wine is nearly 20 years old now. Beautifully precise, wonderfully balanced and long, it had touches of honey and citric notes. All in all an unexpected treat! Had we not pulled the cork this evening it would doubtless have lasted at least another 20 years.
4 comments:
Do you remember, way back in the '80ies and even '90ies, the very sharp, crisp and fresh Loir wines, especially Jasnières (from Joël Guigou for instance)? Sometimes, they were at the edge of thorough "acidity", not to everyone's liking. Now, most have kept the freshness, but abandonned the oversharp side. Why is that (you know them so much better than I)? Is the ripeness better, do they allow MLF to proceed, are they less concentrated? I'm sure they will be better accepted by the overall public than was the case then.
Great to read!
Hi Luc. This 1995 from Eric Nicolas certainly still had a backbone of acidity. Certainly some of the Gigou wines (which like), from some vintages from the 1990s were lean with very crisp acidity. On the other hand his 1992 was delicious young.
Much I think depends upon the vintage and perhaps increased ripeness through improved viticulture and riper years.
Thank you, Jim. Wish I had more time to scout your region again. By the way, I have always loved Gigou's wines myself, but not many among my compatriots shared my enthusiasm, then. Some chenins can exhibit s'thing similar to riesling's "Petrolgeschmeck", probably for the same reason. They then become a bit "mouldy", with an aftertaste of creamy cheese. Montlouis used to do it often and I found that in Joel's production as well, given time.
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