2010 François Chidaine Montlouis-sur-Loire Les Bournais - France, Loire Valley, Touraine, Montlouis-sur-Loire (10/29/2014)
Fabulous nose of sea spray, then a beautifully layered palate of reserved fruit, hints of saline and a streak of minerality through the finish. Terrific wine. (92 pts.)
And good enough to get the Giants the win in Game 7!
This is an amazingly good bottle of wine, for a surprisingly good price.
Agree with your findings. I have already drank a case of these (no, not today).
Chidaine is doing great stuff in those Montlouis single vineyards. I have not tried the Bournais 2010. Got to chase it. Here in NZ, not an obvious proposition!
I’ve gone through about six bottles of the Les Tuffeaux 2010 from Chidaine. Lovely chenin, probably in a demi-sec style.
You really can’t go wrong with any 2010 Chidaine line-up. I’ve tasted the '10 Clos du Breuil, Clos Habert, Les Bournais, Les Choisilles, Clos Baudoin, Les Argiles and they are all sensational.
I backfilled with a half a case of the '10 Clos Habert a few weeks ago for something like $24.99 per. Ridiculous QPR.
Thierry, maybe we should see if Caro or MV can bring them in?
Sounds like a description that could be applied to all top loire producers (even Rougeard in my view).
I’ve had a good look around… Next bet, Australia.
Looked around to see if there is a more recent thread on this vintage, but didn’t find one, so resuscitating this one:
2010 François Chidaine Montlouis-sur-Loire Les Bournais - France, Loire Valley, Touraine, Montlouis-sur-Loire (1/7/2019)
A bit of medium hay color, nose is pretty crisp, with light fruit; nice moderate/medium depth on the palate, clean, fairly fresh fruit without any particular signs of age or oxidation; hint of saline umami kicks in on the finish. Drinking nicely, though fairly tame, no real fireworks like this bottling could show early on. (90 pts.)
Hit the link to see how many left in the cellar. Ordered 13 back in 2014. How many left? Big zero. Drank them all. I recall really enjoying these. Thanks for the reminder.
Another bottle tonight, not holding up very well. Definite golden color, moderately oxidized, drinkable but not particularly enjoyable. Between premox and a doubling in price, sadly Chidaine is off my buy list.
Alan, sorry to hear about that bottle. I opened a 2010 a month or two ago that showed well. I love them when they are on, but unfortunately I have had quite a few misses with the 14 vintage.
I have 1 or 2 2010 Franc de Pieds, which was brilliant when I drank my first bottle early on. Now I’m a bit fearful of what this has become. There’s only a single recent CT note, a year ago, then goes back to 2014.
Alan, I would say you like this better than I do. I saw your note from January, as well as Jeff’s from March, so I figured I would open my final bottle. I just find the acidity to be out of synch with the fruit here.
Posted from CellarTracker
Interesting notes. I don’t have a lot of experience with Chidaine, but I did stop at their wine tasting counter/retail outlet in either Montlouis or Vouvray many years ago when I was visiting Jacky Blot. I remember thinking the wines were a little “fat” and not likely to age particularly well. I have a lone bottle of 2010 Clos Baudoin that I will open tonight while watching Roger Federer’s first round match. Fingers crossed.
Many Chidaine oxidize pretty early. Or even can just kind of get flatter and lose their joy.
I stopped buying these for those reasons, but if it did buy them, I’d buy recent releases and drink them very young.
Paul, I am a pretty huge tennis fan, moreso WTA with some interest in ATP. Watching tonight too, which was when I wrote the TN as Williams was really rolling over Sharapova. What the hell happened to Giorgi this weekend? She lost in 3 over in the Bronx for the final there, and then gets rolled over with nearly two love sets against Sakkari in the first round today? I dig watching both of them, as they’re both strong athletes, but Giorgi needs to figure out how to play at the highest level. Sakkari is figuring it out and will be Top 10 soon, I expect. I’m about to turn it back to watch Federer so post a TN on the Bournais this week if you can make time.
Counselor, I don’t buy the wines anymore, and I am starting to work through them now to see how age has treated them. The recent older Huets have held up well.
The 2010 Chidaine Clos Baudoin performed better than Roger Federer tonight. Admittedly not a high bar. Let’s hope Roger shakes off the rust in his next match. As for the Baudoin, no sign of oxidation, quite fresh actually. Low to medium acidity, some noticeable but not intrusive residual sugar, sort of a classic old school Vouvray in style. If this bottle is representative, it could go for many more years, but I’m not sure it would improve. It has a streak of minerality, with some grassy/herbal notes, and stone fruits predominant. Not my preferred style of chenin blanc, but very good for what it is.
Frank, see my May post a few up from yours on a bottle that wasn’t holding very well. Should have put it in CT, but just did a quick post here. I haven’t bought a chidaine since 2014 vintage, and those didn’t hold up very well. Kind of sad, because we drank a lot of these in earlier vintags that were pretty great, particularly for the prices at the time.