Clos de la Neore - looking for help

WINE TALK
1

I am having some friends over for a wine and cheese pairing dinner.

The plan is to start with a few sauvignon blancs from the Loire, as these supposedly pair well with lighter goat cheeses. One wine is settled, the 2010 Dageneau Silex. For the other two, the options are, due to the lack of option in the cellar, basically Clos de la Neore 2012, 2013, 2014 or 2015. Does anyone have any idea which ones would be most approachable right now - all are probably very young…? Couldn’t really find anything on these vintages in the Loire (or maybe I didn’t look at the right place).

On another topic, it will also be curious to compare the Dageneau and Clos de la Neore. I believe both are made in the same way?

PS what surprise me is how expensive these are on wine-searcher…

2

I opened a bottle of the 2013 Clos la Neore a couple weeks ago for a special occasion dinner. Ended up wishing I hadn’t, since it was quite mute and not showing much of anything.

My brief CT note:
Rather closed and mute at this stage, both on the nose and the palate. Curled up inside itself with chalk, minerals, some long, lemony acidity. Didn’t budge much after a night in the fridge.

My experience seemed quite different than other recent reviewers however who suggested their bottles were quite open…

3

I’d trust KBI’s palate over mine, but I thoroughly enjoyed the 2013 last month, but found a bottle back in December 2016 to be tight still. Ironically, Frank Murray and Charlie Carnes, two guys with excellent palates for white, loved it. We shared that bottle. My guess is that the 2013 could be the most approachable of the 4 vintages you note, but I’m guessing here.

4

Hmm. Well for my palate, there’s not much that can match up to a good Barrymore Pinot Grigio [wink.gif]

Your experience with the wine is def. more in-line with other recent reviews that I’ve read. My bottle of Vatan maybe suffered in comparison to a 2010 Cotat Les Mont Damnes that I opened alongside – which was much more showy and dynamic.

Vatan is beyond my price comfort zone now anyway, esp. when QPR is taken into account…

5

Eventually, we went for the 2012 and 2014. 2014 was super tight, extremely mineral. 2012 a bit more open and round. 2010 Silex had the benefit of some more age (more depth in my view, a more expressive nose as well).

FWIW, the Revue des Vins de France had a blind tasting of Sauvignon Blanc around the world and ranked the top 50 in their view: the Domaine des Corbillieres Fabel Barbou came out as 4th - not sure whether it is imported the US, but I was already struck by its quality about 5 years ago when it was being sold at 8 EUR. Now it’s around 12 EUR.

6

I wanted to jump in on this, but was too busy last week.

I would have suspected the 2013 would have been showing well, given that it was a vintage of a lot of triage. 2012 was a riper year, but Clos Neore usually plays in to that well, and ages great. The 2015 may not have shut down though. I would have suspected the 2014 to be super tight.

7

Too bad I didn’t see this sooner! We did a vertical of Vatan a few weeks ago with every year from 2005 through 2014 (plus 2002).

8

General thoughts on the vintages? Did you do food pairings? I just started talking with some friends about pulling together a vertical in Chicago. Between a few of us we have 2004-14, along with a bottle of the '02 rouge.

9

I won’t speak for Scott but I was at the tasting and the 2002 Rouge is a curiosity at this point. I “sell” Vatan but never sold the rouge