Loire Night at Racines

Ever since Racines opened, I've been glued to my social media channels drooling over the pictures of bottles being opened by friends, so it was a real treat to be able to visit in person. The whole team there was great; Arno provided us with amazing table service and Frederic prepared some fantastic dishes.

Highly recommended.

• 2004 Domaine de la Pépière Muscadet de Sèvre-et-Maine sur lie Vieilles Vignes Clos des Briords 92 Points

  France, Loire Valley, Pays Nantais, Muscadet de Sèvre-et-Maine sur lie

  Touch of heat on the nose at first, but that blew off. Talk about a mineral-laden wine, this is from rocks. Palate fleshed out with air (as most Briords do) and produced a perfectly balanced, elegant middle-age muscadet.

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• 2005 Domaine de la Pépière Muscadet de Sèvre-et-Maine Granite de Clisson 96 Points

  France, Loire Valley, Pays Nantais, Muscadet de Sèvre-et-Maine

  On my first whiff, this reminded me of a Raveneau. So much salty seawater, and lemon zest it’s hard to resist. I drank this so fucking fast…and kept trying to sneak small pours, but shit, it was gone. Was this the first Clisson vintage? I think so. Pepiere’s Briords are all about precision and cut, and this was all about power and elegance. A “wow” wine from start to finish.

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• 2002 Domaine Bernard Baudry Chinon Franc de Pied 94 Points

  France, Loire Valley, Touraine, Chinon

  The aromas here were just incredible. Tons of sweet cherry tobacco, cool red fruits, and lots of damp earth. Just fucking perfect. David and I thought this was pushing 100pts on the nose. You like Cabernet Franc? Well, find this…the palate is cool, refined and sleek. Won’t bowl you over with power or presence but shit…it’s like a hot girl chilling in the dark corner of a bar. Seductive…

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• 2003 Domaine Bernard Baudry Chinon Franc de Pied 95 Points

  France, Loire Valley, Touraine, Chinon

  So while the 2002 Baudry was like a Milanese runway model, this was more like the model had moved to Chicago and ate a ton of hot dogs. Still beautiful, still sexy, but with a bit more heft behind it. The aromas were powerful, dense and sappy. Yeah…this was more about the red fruit sap while the 2002 had more airy floral notes. The palate was big, powerful and just oozing with class. Everyone thinks about 2003s in France as being full of glycerin and polish…well the Loire seems to hate the generalizations. Lots of elegance here. I think it outpaced the 2002 by a hair.

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• 2012 Domaine de l'Anglore Sels d'argent 90 Points

  France, Vin de France

  Full of melon and heat. Thought this could have been served a bit cooler (would have calmed the heat down a bit, I thought), but it had some really nice melon and herbal tones to it. With some air I thought the palate seemed to soften up more. Overall, I think this type of wine can be found in many Bandol Blancs on the market…namely La Bastide Blanche.

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• 2012 Domaine de l'Anglore Tavel 90 Points

  France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Tavel

  A hearty rose that had a lot of body and character to it. Like radishes? Good. There’s a lot of that here. The aromas were off the charts (for a rose) with lots of floral notes. Drinks like a red wine (thinking Jura plousard here…).. Dunno what the fuss is here…

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• 2005 Clos Roche Blanche Touraine Cuvée Côt 93 Points

  France, Loire Valley, Touraine

  I really don’t drink enough malbec from the loire. This is one of those perfectly proportioned Loire reds. Lots of beauty, darkness, elegance, intrigue on the nose. Its palate is about as perfect as you could hope for. Fruit is ripe, dark, and dirty. There’s a lot of underbrush, soil, and tobacco in there, too. For the price these go for, I always kick myself for a) not buying more and b) not holding my bottles long enough.

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• 1953 Domaine Huet Vouvray Moelleux Le Mont 94 Points

  France, Loire Valley, Touraine, Vouvray

  nteresting nose of beeswax, almond, vanilla, and wool. The vanilla was quite profound and delicious. The palate was very nice. It had decent balance but the finish seemed a bit, dunno, soft/lacking/boring? I wish I had more experience with these older Huet’s, but for whatever reason this seemed to have everything going for it until that last second when you swallow the liquid. Big thanks to ross for opening this up and sharing it with us.

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