WTN: 2009 Clos Roche Blanche Touraine Cabernet

YUM!

[David M. Bueker]

Cool.

Yes!

Details?

[David M. Bueker]

Superfluous.

Details?

"Slurpable" "Gulpable"

The Gamay from CRB is pretty awesome, too.

Details?

Lightweight Cabernet (mostly Cabernet Franc, not sure if it's 100% or if there's a little Cabernet Sauvignon in there as well) from the Loire, really fresh cassis and red fruited flavours seasoned with freshly cracked green and black peppercorns and some light herbal/stalky notes that give it a faint forestal green edge which only adds to the sense of freshness. Relatively low alcohol, nice acids, fantastic stuff and I will have some difficulty keeping my hands off this.

I really like this wine most vintages, and usually kick myself for not buying more. It's usually most CF, but with some CS.

I'll offer an alternate view, just because I found the 2009 Gamay and Cabernet both slightly atypical, marked by the ripeness of the vintage. The Gamay has some distractingly dense fruit which is concealing much of the trademark CRB minerality. The Cabernet is far more enjoyable right out of the bottle showing lush fruit which gradually melts away with air to reveal a more typical CRB nose and minerality just as it, unfortunately, shuts down hard.

Of course I still bought a case of the Gamay and 8 bottles of the Cabernet as I expect both to come into better balance with just a few years and with Catherine and Didier in the process of retiring who knows how many more chances we'll get. But anyone expecting them to drink as well as the 2008s at this point might be disappointed. I'll sample again next year.

Of course I still bought a case of the Gamay and 8 bottles of the Cabernet as I expect both to come into better balance with just a few years and with Catherine and Didier in the process of retiring who knows how many more chances we'll get. But anyone expecting them to drink as well as the 2008s at this point might be disappointed. I'll sample again next year.

Hmm, they're retiring? I hadn't bought any 09s yet, better get my butt in gear. Though just the Cab, somehow I just never love their Gamay as much as others (or as much as I do Beaujolais gamay).

Of course I still bought a case of the Gamay and 8 bottles of the Cabernet as I expect both to come into better balance with just a few years and with Catherine and Didier in the process of retiring who knows how many more chances we'll get. But anyone expecting them to drink as well as the 2008s at this point might be disappointed. I'll sample again next year.

Hmm, they're retiring? I hadn't bought any 09s yet, better get my butt in gear. Though just the Cab, somehow I just never love their Gamay as much as others (or as much as I do Beaujolais gamay).

Yes, they've already turned a lot of their vines over to Noella Morantin. 2009 was the last vintage of the gamay.

I'll offer an alternate view, just because I found the 2009 Gamay and Cabernet both slightly atypical, marked by the ripeness of the vintage.

Don't have much experience with CRB, but they certainly showed quite ripe/rich - that said, I still stand by my earlier "YUM!". And having no other CRBs in my cellar, will happily keep drinking this one.

Hmm, they're retiring? I hadn't bought any 09s yet, better get my butt in gear. Though just the Cab,

CSW got some more in, but there isn't much 2009 to go around. Hail got a lot of the grapes.

Of course I still bought a case of the Gamay and 8 bottles of the Cabernet as I expect both to come into better balance with just a few years and with Catherine and Didier in the process of retiring who knows how many more chances we'll get. But anyone expecting them to drink as well as the 2008s at this point might be disappointed. I'll sample again next year.

Hmm, they're retiring? I hadn't bought any 09s yet, better get my butt in gear. Though just the Cab, somehow I just never love their Gamay as much as others (or as much as I do Beaujolais gamay).

Yes, they've already turned a lot of their vines over to Noella Morantin. 2009 was the last vintage of the gamay.

We're off to the Loire this Sunday for two weeks of visits, including CRB, so will try to get the scoop.

On Thursday we visited Catherine Roussel and she said that they had leased almost half of their 18 hectares to Noella Morantin because they were getting older and it wasn't fun for them anymore to have to make so much wine every year. But they are happy now with the reduced scale and intend to continue, with no prospect of retirement. Because of the plot configurations, she said, the only "unfortunate" consequence was that 3 of their 4 hectares of Gamay had gone to Noella, so they would be continuing to make Gamay every year, but only 25% of their previous output. We tasted their 09 Gamay from barrel and, later that night, drank a glass of Noella's 2009 Gamay at L'herbe Rouge. But for a comparison, you'll have to wait for the trip report, which I should get to sometime next week (the tease).

We tasted their 09 Gamay from barrel and, later that night, drank a glass of Noella's 2009 Gamay at L'herbe Rouge. But for a comparison, you'll have to wait for the trip report, which I should get to sometime next week (the tease).

Hope you're both having a good time, and look forward to the report. Thanks for CRB info. They still have 09 Gamay in barrel?

they were getting older and it wasn't fun for them anymore to have to make so much wine every year..

Lest we forget, winemaking can be very taxing.

Thanks for the update. Must have been a great trip!

Yes, terrific trip, Rahsaan, sorry you couldn't make any part of this one. Yes, Dale, 09 still in barrel. they will only be making about 1200 bottles, so let's pray to St. Joe.

I know this is out in US, and has been for a while, so they have a late release barrel?

I checked my notes and the 09 Gamay was tasted among the barrels, but was from an unmarked half bottle that Catherine Roussel opened because we had speaking about it ealier.

Speaking of late release, during our visit to one well-known producer, he said he was going to Paris the next day to deliver some cases of a wine he didn't think was yet optimal for bottling because of pressure from the wine bars and the need to generate cash, so perhaps staggered release is not uncommon for artisanal producers, and may explain some of the bottle variation that we puzzle over.

I checked my notes and the 09 Gamay was tasted among the barrels, but was from an unmarked half bottle that Catherine Roussel opened because we had speaking about it ealier.

Speaking of late release, during our visit to one well-known producer, he said he was going to Paris the next day to deliver some cases of a wine he didn't think was yet optimal for bottling because of pressure from the wine bars and the need to generate cash, so perhaps staggered release is not uncommon for artisanal producers, and may explain some of the bottle variation that we puzzle over.

I beleive that at a CSW charity tasting Joe Dressner was saying that Marc Olivier had to bottle one lot of the 09 Muscadet earlier than optimal due to cash pressures (it actually tasted pretty good to me)