I’m pretty excited about this vintage of Les Grézeaux. After a string of warm and dry years, 2015 through 2020, looks like we finally have one with more character. Easily my favorite since the utterly classic 2014 vintage. I think 2014 is more archetype Chinon, higher red fruit acid, but this 2021 has a dank earth, rustic, almost feral profile to it that is really intoxicating. I won’t throw out the nuanced bretty note, but under cross-exam, might acknowledge it. It also shows more on the darker spectrum of fruit than the 2014, but nowhere near as ripe as the prior six vintages. Palate has that mix of fresh red fruits even cranberries to deeper darks, even plums. That’s a pretty impressive range for a red wine. Throw in some tobacco, leather and smoke, and you have the full package here. Some chewiness on the finish, lots of structure to this one, definitely can handle some aging.
I had been wondering about the 2021 vintage in Loire so appreciate this tasting note. I will definitely pull the trigger and, at €20,50 here in Lisbon, there is not much downside.
So far, I have only tasted 2021s from Germany and Burgundy. I have found the few wines I have had from those places to be fascinating. Interesting that the vintage also seems fascinatingly different in Chinon. I am really looking forward over the years to taste more 2021s from different places in Europe.
I have tried so far two German wines, a Reinhold Haart Goldtropfchen and a Merkelbach Ürziger Würzgarten Kabinett. I liked the Merkelbach but the Haart wine was just on another planet. Reinhold Haart is one of my very favorite German wine producers and I generally love his wines anyway (his 2010s, for example, are to die for). But his 2021 Kabinett is not just outstanding but it tastes different from most of his other wines - more saline and minerally and leaner, taking German wine down to its very essence.
Then, when I was in Burgundy this summer, I tasted mostly 2022s (from barrel) at Rossignol-Trapet. Excellent wines, really liked them. But, then they gave me a taste of a 2021 Chapelle Chambertin. I don’t know yet whether the wine will be better than the 2022 or other vintages of RT wines I have had. But, they certainly are different in a good way - higher acidity, a real freshness, fascinating. [I have some Falkenstein and other 2021 German wines but have not opened them yet.]
The next day we went to Domaine Amiot and tasted a range of 2021s (theirs had already been released, but the RT 2021s had not been (should be this month???)). Don’t have that much experience with Amiot (and they have changed with their son Leon joining the estate), but these were the best wines I have had from them. I don’t have any 2021 Burgs in my cellar at the moment, but that will change when shipping season comes and I get the ones I bought while in Burgundy this summer from Cote D’Or Imports (Including whites).
I will second or third the above opinions with my affection for the '21s I have had (limited for the most part to Piedmont and the Loire for regions I tasted enough to make an opinion). The wines have tension, old school structure without heaviness, savory notes, excellent depth and cooler fruit profiles. They seem classic and what I want to drink. One caveat is I suspect '21 is a vintage where terroir shines and historically better vineyards tended to give the best of everything. Some of the easy drinking red wines in '21 were a little thinner. I particularly liked the whites. FWIW I did don’t enjoy the majority of the “important” '18 Loire reds I tried. Often large scaled, usually heady, with fruit turning brown, lacking character. I am bummed I had already bought many of them. That said some lesser wines in '18 were quite nice. This is not a hard and fast opinion, but certainly a trend I noticed. YMMV.
I think going forward this pattern is going to be more the norm with historically finer terroir suffering vis a vis cooler sites with similar geologic substrate. I’ve certainly noticed this in Piedmont where I have more history and experience. I doubt it is a phenomenon limited to the Langhe.
I really like the 2021s I’ve tried, Grezeaux, Granges, and Domaine.
Also think that Grezeaux on sale @ $25 is one of the great bargains of the world.
And, FWIW, while I haven’t loved many 2018s across the Loire, someone much wiser and more experienced than me predicts Baudry’s 18s will grow into something special, urged me to age them for years.
Tried the ‘21 tonight. I almost want to pull the cork on one of my remaining ‘20s (which I went through at speed) just to do the side by side but am exercising restraint and doing this from memory. Right off the bat note that at least my bottles of the ‘20 have shown more Brett than this ‘21, which was fairly clean.
The ‘21 is all crisp and savory, where the ‘20 offers a counterpoint of nearly sweet fruit to offset the stern tobacco, herbs, and barnyardy brett. The ‘21’s aromatics are a little more austere at this point, just a little red fruit and otherwise herbs and Virginia tobacco. By contrast the ‘20 is more generous with some red and black fruit that at least hints at the fact that it’s in the Cabernet family, though as noted before the ‘20 has a pretty solid funk factor.
On the palate the ‘21 is lighter and more agile, a bit more acid and more delicate body. The ‘20 has a fuller midpalate that, as the bottle warms, can tend sweet. The ‘21 does not appear to have that weakness. Both solid wines that I will struggle to keep my hands off long enough to forget and revisit in maturity.
This wine simply is sublime 2014. Such gorgeous red raspberry cherry fruits (both ripe and unripe), poured over light cedar planks, filtered through mossy wet dark earth. The balance is textbook. The tannins are high but are leaning towards silky, the acid is high but awash in this red fruit robe. The mouthfeel is intense and full…yet light and refreshing. It is getting close to silky—but still full and round. You find a bit of brett, but only because you know it is supposed to be there in the glass! The finish is long. There is no reason to think this will do nothing but improve for the 10-15 next years plus+…but it is so very lovely now.
I went strong on the 2019’s…need to go find those 2021’s.
