WTN: Normandy: a new home for Pinot Noir?

2013 Les Arpents du Soleil Rouge - France, Normandy (6/13/2016)
This is a very nice PN fix showing medium depth colour, medium/light body and pretty Pinot fruit with a fresh cherry tinge, spice and tobacco hints, minerals, juicy acidity and light but sufficient backbone. I'm tempted to drive 25km right now to buy a dozen from the estate if the grower asks a more reasonable price than the €15 for 50cl which I paid at a caviste. Good+.

Posted from CellarTracker

A visit to the estate's website seems to indicate that the PN can only be had in mixed cases averaging about €12 for 50cl alongside whites from Auxerrois, Pinot Gris and Melon de Bougogne, which IMO are much less interesting .

Fascinating . . . . I had always understood that successful viticulture was difficult in Normandy, and that's why they stick with Calvados and cider. Thanks for bring this to our attention!

Wine is so CHEAP in France. A $20 pinot from California would be sweet cherry koolaid!

Fascinating . . . . I had always understood that successful viticulture was difficult in Normandy, and that's why they stick with Calvados and cider. Thanks for bring this to our attention!

Ryan, owner Gérard Samson, claims that his soil and sub-soil are very similar to those in the Côte d'Or, particularly Chevalier-Montrachet. He also says that he enjoys an exceptionally dry micro-climate for mostly wet Normandy. Link http://www.arpents-du-soleil.com/fr/un- ... l-gc4.html for those who can read French.

As you probably know, the UK, even further to the North and in general just as wet as Normandy, is having quite a lot of success with fizz from Champagne grapes and from Champagne type calcareous soil on the North and South Downs in Kent and Sussex.

Pleasant reading, who would have thought eh!

Wine is so CHEAP in France. A $20 pinot from California would be sweet cherry koolaid!

It's hard to get high-level refined wines for 20euros in France, but lots of stuff that is very good.

Wine is so CHEAP in France. A $20 pinot from California would be sweet cherry koolaid!

Brian, the cheapness of wine in France depends a lot on where one buys it. Supermarkets are quite cheap and have quite a good line in Bordeaux but great care is needed in selection from other regions where their emphasis is on large quantities and driving a hard bargain with the producers. Independent cavistes (wine merchants) usually offer a much better choice as well as good advice from the owner but prices are much higher, routinely up to 50% more than at the grower's cellar door. Buying from the grower means that one is limited to his/her wines only and, on quantities (mixed or not) of less than 12/18 bottles, the transport add-on is significant.

At €15 for 50cl, Arpents du Soleil is shooting it out price-wise with lesser Burgundy appellations like Bourgogne, Bourgogne Côtes Chalonnaises, Bourgogne Côte d'Auxerre, Irancy, Marsannay, Rully, Saint-Aubin.........Gérard Samson would probably claim that his quality is in a higher league. I heard him mentioning Nuits St.Georges during my visit; I need to do a side by side comparison with, say, a Rully from Jacqueson. For me he also has the advantage of proximity.