Loire Valley
Domaine Philippe Alliet Chinon Tradition 2022
"The young 2022 Chinon is reductive and needs some breathing time—ideally, time in bottle. It's rather raw and uptight due to its youth. It reminds me of someone scrunching up their eyes and hunching their shoulders, as if waiting for something bad to happen. But underneath all that tension of youth, there is creamy, juicy red fruit and spice, and evidently less crunchiness than in 2021. While it needs time, its level of concentration and modest tannins suggest this is one that would be best consumed before the decade is out." - Rebecca Gibb MW, Vinous
Domaine Philippe Alliet Chinon Vieilles Vignes 2021
"Crafted from old vines (70 to 80 years old) on clay, gravelly soils, the 2021 Chinon Vieilles Vignes is instantly brilliant in the glass. Despite a slight reduction, it offers up aromas of blueberries, cassis, flowers, violet, rose petals and cedar. Medium to full-bodied, layered and structured, it’s seamless and enveloping with powdery tannins and delicate notes of violet and blueberries on the finish. It's approachable now but also built to evolve with grace." - Yohan Castaing, The Wine Advocate
Domaine Philippe Alliet Chinon Coteau de Noiré 2021
"This site is known to produce relatively dense, powerful wines in ripe vintages, yet the 2021 Chinon Coteau de Noiré stands out as exceptional. It unfolds in the glass with aromas of lead pencil, licorice, dark wild berries and cassis. Full-bodied, dense and chunky, it’s seamless and velvety with a layered core of fruit framed by powdery, generous tannins that segues into a long, mineral finish framed by perfectly controlled power. I appreciate wines like this that purely express the terroirs and are capable of long aging. Keep it over the next decade." - Yohan Castaing, The Wine Advocate
Domaine Philippe Alliet Chinon L’Huisserie 2021
"The 2021 Chinon L'Huisserie is derived from 23-year-old vines planted on flinty clay soils. Offering up a reduced, complex bouquet of violet, blueberries, cassis, cedar and licorice, it’s medium to full-bodied and perfectly balanced with a layered, structured mid-palate complemented with bright acids and a penetrating, mineral finish that is a hallmark of this cuvée in recent years." - Yohan Castaing, The Wine Advocate
Thibaud Boudignon Rosé de Loire 2022
François Cotat Sancerre Grande Côte 2020
"The 2020 Sancerre La Grande Côte is a fine wine with a piercing nose of floral and flint. While it may be dry, it offers a sensation of sweet fruit and high alcohol (14.5%), which Cotat compares to the ripe 2009 and 1990 vintages. Being late-picked and on a south slope, these grapes get ripe, and in this vintage, I can't help but think that the balance has been slightly knocked by this ripeness. That said, it offers delectable texture and sinew and remains an impressive wine. Tasting the 2009 Cul de Beaujeu soon after, high alcohol (15%) remains evident with bottle age." - Rebecca Gibb MW, Vinous
Domaine des Closiers Saumur-Champigny Les Coudraies 2020
"Vinified in stainless steel tanks and then aged in barrels, the 2020 Saumur Champigny Les Coudraies comes from the low-yielding limestone slopes of Parnay that were cropped at 40 hectoliters per hectare that year. The Coudraies offers a deep and concentrated, spicy and fruity bouquet of dark fruits such as sour cherries and blackcurrant along with mint and dark chocolate. Full-bodied, round and intense on the palate, this is a substantial, dense and generous but structured Cabernet with very intense and juicy fruit, good mineral freshness, spicy tannins and a long and intense, very promising finish that is still a little astringent. 14% stated alcohol. Natural cork." Stephan Reinhardt, The Wine Advocate
Domaine du Bel Air Bourgueil “les Marsaules” 2018
"The wine reveals its intense red colour. The nose is distinguished by aromas of crushed black berries or wild strawberries with slightly earthy and smoky notes. The palate is rich in tasty fruit but also firm and balanced. The wine lingers on the palate on a thread of freshness and spices. An impression of gluttony continues during the tasting. No greenness, but a pure and elegant fruit that lingers in the mouth." - Winemaker's notes
Domaine du Bel Air Bourgueil “les Vingt Lieux Dits” 2020
"This wine reveals an intense and deep ruby color. Scents of intense black fruits accompanied by slightly earthy notes delicately fill the senses. The mouth is full, frank and concentrated. No heaviness or sourness appears. Here everything is pure fruit, intense, fine and delicate. The sapid and persistent finish gives an incompressible desire to return with relish to this bewitching Bourgueil." - Winemaker's notes
Domaine du Bel Air Bourgueil “Jour de Soif” 2021
Domaine du Clos Naudin Vouvray Moelleux Réserve 2018
"This cuvée has a residual sugar of 130 g/l, with an acidity of 4.5 g/l, and it was bottled just one month before tasting. Youthful purity on the nose, an aromatic profile which suggests finesse, with notes of white peach, freshly crushed pear and crisp white apple flesh. The palate carries a delicious intensity, showing the same pure and finessed style, as well as wonderful complexities redolent of vanilla, wild red fruits, mango and peach too. This is delicious. A pretty amazing wine with astonishing potential." -Chris Kissack, The Wine Doctor
Domaine Moreux-Corty Pouilly-Fumé Artisan La Loge aux Moines 2019
This is the flagship wine from a domaine whose history stretches back to the 17th century and which is being revitalised by the current (14th) generation of owners, brothers Arnaud and Julien. These are serious wines, an incredible expression of Pouilly-Fumé. The 4.5ha south-facing parcel of vines that make La Loge aux Moines (The Monks' Lodge) is planted on Kimmeridgian marl with a very high proportion of active limestone. Wines from this plot are characterised by great precision, minerality and structure. It's an austere style, with faintly smoky, herby aromas that hint at great concentration beneath. A delicious expression of Pouilly-Fumé, made with great finesse.- Amy Wislocki, Decanter
Domaine Moreux-Corty Pouilly-Fumé Artisan La Loge aux Moines 2020
"From a, or even the, top site of the appellation, which was planted on Kimmeridgian marl soils a thousand years ago by Benedictines, the 2020 Pouilly-Fumé La Loge aux Moines Monopole opens with a deep, clear, refined and fresh bouquet of ripe white fruits intermingled with iodine notes that represent exceptional mineral complexity and depth. Dense and seriously structured, this is a full-bodied, complex and sustainable Pouilly with lots of expression, finesse, iodine flavors and mineral tension. This is doubtlessly a great Pouilly whose dimensions are already palatable, though the wine is still very young but oh so promising. I preferred a Burgundy glass to taste and appreciate this full-bodied, dense, persistently salty and tensioned Pouilly that is on the quality level of the Mont Damnés Sancerre from the domaine. Arnaud Moreux says, "The Loge aux Moines always shows the minerality of a grand cru from Burgundy but with the freshness of Sauvignon Blanc. It is a unique cuvée that is hard to classify. It's not really a Pouilly-Fumé but always a Loge aux Moines." 14% stated alcohol. Natural cork. Tasted in January 2022." - Stephan Reinhardt, The Wine Advocate
Domaine Moreux-Corty Pouilly-Fumé Artisan Silex 2020
"The straw-yellow colored 2020 Pouilly-Fumé Silex is sourced in Saint-Andelain and opens with a fruit-intense but pure, elegant and terroir-scented nose with thyme and lime notes. Pure, tight and fresh on the palate, this is a tensioned and minerally fresh Pouilly with a straightforward and fine phenolic character (pneumatic pressing) that reveals intensity as well as fine tannins for a long distance run. Already indicating its class but far too young to be uncorked this year. 14% stated alcohol. Natural cork. Tasted in January 2022." - Stephan Reinhardt, The Wine Advocate
Domaine Moreux-Corty Pouilly-Fumé Artisan Caillottes 2020
Domaine Moreux-Corty Pouilly-Fumé Artisan Caillottes 2020, "From Les Loges, the 2020 Pouilly-Fumé Caillottes opens beautifully pure and subtly intense as well as mineral or even flinty on the nose but also reveals fine, ripe, white and refreshing fruits with a hint of gooseberries and leafy notes. Elegant, refined and sappy on the palate, this is a dense, sustainably mineral and structured Pouilly with a long, intense and powerful finish that is still a bit phenolic and extract-sweet and needs another year or maybe two in the bottle to start singing. Fine tannins and richness of this elegant 2020 Pouilly indicate good aging potential. 14% stated alcohol. Natural cork. Tasted in January 2022." - Stephan Reinhardt, The Wine Advocate
Domaine François Crochet Sancerre Blanc Exils 2020
Domaine François Crochet Sancerre Blanc Le Grand Chemarin 2019
"There's a tenderness to the 2019 Sancerre Les Grand Chemarin, filling the mouth with a silken texture. Expect pure lemon, apple cream and croissant-like flavors from 18 months on lees and malolactic conversion. A zen-like expression, yet fresh, with a fine structure that clasps the front of the mouth, providing reassuring grip. Medium-long length." - Rebecca Gibb MW, Vinous
