I don’t think I’ve ever used this descriptor before. Opened a bottle of the 2017 Taille Aux Loups Montlouis Clos de Mosny to have a glass or two with dinner on my own. The bottle now seems mostly gone. Beautiful penetrating PEAR on the nose and palate, with ginger, lanolin, green apple, acid, remarkable length. Wow, this is a great wine. It’s not all just about Chardonnay and Riesling.
Thanks a lot for the note! I’ve only had the Montlouis-sur-Loire Remus which I thought was just terrific with a really great style for a dry Chenin. I think I need to try more wines from Blot.
I’m surprised no mention of oak. It’s fermented and aged in barrel, 20% new, 80% 1-4 yo barrels. That’s my big issue with Jacky Blot and his wines. Just doesn’t work, imo, except with some of his sweeties, but, even then it pales in comparison to just about any other Chenin sweetie without oak. YMMV, of course.
Yeah–I know that’s been your beef about the Blot wines, but I really didn’t get much oak sticking out on this one. Have you had the 2017 Blot secs, or are you commenting based upon past experience? To me it would like complaining about oak in the current Fevre wines. (FEvre had a history of oaking their wines somewhat, but I don’t get much of that influence in their wines these days.)
John, I’m sure Brad will respond, but in my mind oak flavors work better with certain grapes/regions. I don’t like any perceptible trace of new oak on Chenin, Nebbiolo, Riesling, and normally Syrah (I’ve had a few exceptions). To me it works better (but still limited amounts for me) on Cab, Merlot, Pinot Noir, and Chardonnay.
Yep and Yes on the '17s from Blot, John. I find oak terrible on Chenin. Fwiw, I still find the Fevre oaky.
Thankfully, I’m not super-sensitive to the amount of oak that’s in this wine, or in Fevre for that matter, so I can really enjoy a wine like this. For my instruction, what components in this wine’s profile come from oak (aside from the obvious vanillin, which i’m not really getting)? What other Chenin producers use oak, and who is pretty oak free?
Geeze, I hate learning that I shouldn’t like something that I really enjoyed! (I’m kidding a bit here). I’m actually fairly new to Loire Chenin (say 6-10 years) in relation to Chablis, Burgundy, the piedmont (30-40 years), so I’m still getting my bearings. I’m moderately oak intolerant elsewhere–I don’t want to taste or smell much of any oak, and I’m don’t want the wine smoothed out or flattened by oak influence. I don’t mind a little oak spiciness if it doesn’t do other things to the wine. So most “modern” Piedmont producers are out, Guigal is out, Burgundy is too big of a minefield to start naming producers, … Who knows, maybe Taille Aux Loups will eventually be out, but for right now I’m still enjoying the wines.
I suppose it could also be that it’s just not that black and white - some people might really struggle with oaky notes in Chenin completely regardless of how they feel about oak in other styles of wine? I am very much with you re: Syrah and Nebbiolo and while I found the oak notes on the 2013 Remus obvious I felt like the whole was completely harmonious still.