WTN: 2004 Philip Foreau Vouvray Sec

Didn't feel like bicycling today, so instead my dogs and I did a three hour "city hike." (Basically South Park to UC Mission Bay to Dogpatch to Portero Hill to Showcase Square...to the wine bar )

Half glass drunk at Terroir Wine Bar this afternoon. Should have drunk a whole one.

This is a fascinating white wine to me. I've had a few Chenin Blancs-one nice one from Mendocino (Elizabeth Spencer) and another decent quaffer from South Africa. Similar piercing acidity and almost a saline character which I enjoyed quite a bit.

This Vouvray, however, was in another league. Not sure I have the language to really describe the layers of saline, minerally goodness. Alcohol could have been absent, it was so well integrated. Maybe not a lot of fruit, but I tasted rock, salt, steel???? all wrapped in a peircing but enjoyable acidity. I really loved this wine. Sadly, I overspent already (I wanted another bottle of Pacalet Pommard!) so this goes on my list for future investigation. (Terroir also has the 2004 Clusel Roch that I loved so much in stock!)

Glad you liked it. I had a bottle 5 or 6 weeks ago and found it pretty flat and in an awkward shutdown phase.

But, such are the ups and downs of these wines.

Hmmm. Interesting. Maybe the lack of obvious fruit means this wine was also shut down? I can count on one hand's fingers the number of Chenin Blancs I've tasted (heck, with both hands' fingers, French whites in general) so I have nothing to compare it to/judge it with. It certainly had plenty of acidity and didn't taste like my definition of "flat" (flaccid, acid-free,bad California whites ) I tend to like this kind of bone dry minerally almost salty white, so I enjoyed it whatever state it is in

These are ten/twenty year wines, I understand.

Hmmm. Interesting. Maybe the lack of obvious fruit means this wine was also shut down?

Well, tough to know exactly what you mean by obvious. Everytime I taste these CA wines, I realize that even exuberant fruit from my favorite Northern European regions is restrained in comparison to them. But, yes, my bottle was showing a lot of acid structure, and not very much fruit. And, more importantly for me, the wine was not very expressive, the fruit that did exist just sat there, dumb, which is why I considered it closed down. But, I wouldn't swear with my life that all bottles are shut down now, until tasting more that it.

These are ten/twenty year wines, I understand.

Yes, in so-called 'off' years like 2004, they will need 10-20 years to strut their stuff.

Interesting, Rahsaan. This suggests to me that I may need to buy this wine and cellar it. If I STILL enjoy it in now in its hard, minerally, salty, non-fruity state, I wonder what it will be like in ten years when the fruit and terroir is more expressive?

It would be educational, at least. My cellar is probably 98% red...so....

Interesting, Rahsaan. This suggests to me that I may need to buy this wine and cellar it. ..

Cellaring Vouvray from Foureau and other top producers is one of the biggest No-Brainers in the wine world..

Enjoy!