2005 François Chidaine Montlouis-sur-Loire Les Tuffeaux
I remember fondly the 02 Montlouis from Chidaine and regretted not buying enough of them. This week the 05's were in my local store so I bought one bottle of the 4 available to try, hoping to find something like the 2002s. If this bottle is any indication the 2005 vintage should be very good here.
The wine is aromatically pretty tight on opening. Some lemon rocky scents with air. In the mouth full demi sec sweetness, quite rich and silky, ripe yellow peach and chalky minerals. Long finish. The acidity seems buried under the baby fat. Pretty damn good right now, potentially excellent, try again in a few months.
Overnight the wine really blossoms and opens with honey and quince aromas, and the minerals are more noticeable. Also the wine seems more in balance with a good spine of acidity to accompany the richness of the palate. There is several layers of flavor here. Just an excellent example of demi sec Chenin from the Loire.
2001 Boasso Barolo Serralunga
My third bottle of this and they have been very consistent. Dark red color with clearing at the rim. Aromas of high toned spiced red fruit, slight bitter dark cherry mineral fruit in the mouth with round easy tannins. Not soft, there is plenty of acidity and nebbiolo structure, but very approachable. Best after a 90 minute decant and a killer match with truffled pecorino cheese. This is certainly very young and will improve as it matures, but it is hard to ignore now as it is so very enjoyable. A retailer in Portland is selling this for $25 + change, which is the price of some Nebbiolo D' Alba.
2004 Luneau-Papin Muscadet de Sèvre-et-Maine Le L D'Or
Really outstanding minerality, talc powder and wet rocks abound here. Some lemon lime tonic water flavors, very crisp and overall delicious wine. More open and revealing on day two. Luneau Papin seems to be on quite a roll lately. An internet wine geek quipped recently that we are living in a golden age for Muscadet; it makes sense to me.
2002 Lucien Crochet Sancerre La Chene
Floral perfume, chalk dust, bergamot aromas give this some nice complexity. It seems dry but has a round almost full mouth feel with a just a little acidic edge left that makes me think this is about mature. Very enjoyable. I would drink this up sooner rather than later as I think it has plateaued.
We drank this with chicken in brown butter sauce, sauteed mushrooms, peppers, olives and capers which was an interesting combination.
Cheers,
Marc Davis