Firstly, I want to apologise - reading my last post again, it implies that if someone doesn’t like Roches Neuves, they only like sweet, rich and über-ripe wines, so something spoofy. I’m sure from reading your posts over the years that this is not the case, far from it, and even if it was, it sounds arrogant and dismissive, which was not my intention at all and which I am hopefully not!
This thread got me thinking over the weekend. I don’t think you’re off base in the least. These are wines made in a different style of which I am not really certain about myself, something confirmed by one I tasted last night:
I opened a Clos de L’Echelier 2015.
The nose was great - floral, but especially dark fruits, with quite rich blackcurrant and soya beans. The first sip on opening showed it was a bit tight, so I decanted it for four hours. The attack was full of blackcurrants, followed by a broad, quite rich wave of dark cherry and then some dark raspberry on the finish. The fruit was crunchy, as usual with these wines, but for once it was black fruit rather than red, and the colour was a lot deeper than usual. So far so good.
The fruit sensations do, however, differ from other wines - they taste as if the sugar has been extracted. Therefore, the fruit tastes very sappy, but also quite astringent, leaving a lip-smacking feeling which is a bit odd. It was rich, but not sweetly rich, on the contrary, a strangely dry richness.
It was quite hard work to drink and at the moment, I admired it rather than liked it. There is a definite silky elegance and the way the quite deep richness is offset by crisp acidity bodes well.
Obviously the Echelier 15 was still very young and needs another five years at least, but I’m not sure where it is going. I really have no idea if this wine is an outstanding wine in the making or the Emperor’s New Clothes. At the moment, I’m cautiously optimistic!