June 24, 2022 - PNP into Zalto Universal glass (“Fruit” day): Medium golden to the eyes.
First pour impressions: Lemon oil and golden grapefruits with peels and oils. Deep vegetal notes that is like a backward version of the classic green bell peppery notes. Superbly minerality like liquid stone on the nose.
Still backwards on palate but heavily driven by minerality. Great balanced acidity. Satisfying finish but takes time.
94-95 points easy.
Second pour, 30 minutes upon opening with time in glass: lots more exotic fruits like pineapples.
Third pour, 1 hour upon opening: Falling back a little with more white spices.
Final pour, 2 hours upon opening: Golden apple and quince notes. Very subtle and complex minty notes.
July 4, 2021 - Shit...Maderized!
January 30, 2021 - Nice very fruity nose with lots of grapefruit
The palate is pure but dense at the same time. A lot of energy in the wine brought by a tension which does not alter the balance of the wine in particular thanks to a beautiful substance. It's rich, crystalline and tense at the same time. It just lacks a little relief, because the wine remains very compact. The finish is especially felt, sensation of a wine somewhat constricted for the moment
Very good, but deserves to be waited for so that it takes volume.
July 9, 2020 - After an introverted and even austere adolescence, Vatan's 2011 Sancerre Clos la Néore is just beginning to drink really well, opening in the glass with classic aromas of gooseberry, citrus oil, crushed chalk, rock salt and a delicate top-note of petrol. Medium to full-bodied, muscular and textural, with an incisive spine of acidity, prodigious levels of chalky dry extract, and a searingly mineral finish, it will be even better in five more years.
July 30, 2019 - Another smashing good lunch session at Tippling Club. Poured from bottle slowly over 3 hours. Drank in Gabriel Standart.
Appearance is clear, pale intensity, lemon yellow colour. Legs.
Nose is clean, medium+ intensity, with aromas of flint, wet saline stones minerality, green peas, deep citrus lemon. Soky gunflint as it warms up with more air. Developing.
On the palate, dry, high acidity, medium+ alcohol (14%), medium body. Medium+ flavour intensity, with flavours of deep citrus lemon-lime, touch of green pea and green mint leaf, flint, wet stones minerality. Smoke and honey with more air. Long slow burn finish.
Very good quality Sauvignon Blanc that seems to have the necessary for long ageing. But at the asking price? - really more for education than for real enjoyment, unless your pockets are deep. Francois Cotat's stuff offers a lot more QPR.
Clos La Neore is a parcel within the Mont Damnes vineyard in Sancerre.
May 19, 2018 - I'm just not crazy about sancerre, so I think this one isn't for me. Others liked it much more than I did.
April 23, 2018 - brett, not cork. That feature seems to go across the local set of Vatan '11s that I've encountered since release. But... It's a thriving mess of fatty herbs; and green crabapples; and Ardbeg 10. Too accomplished for school is too cool too. And so this here is one of the more challenging vintages, but I'd trade for more of the same. Devoid of canned pea sensations.
January 21, 2018 - Vatan Vertical (TDS): The runt of the 9-vintage litter tonight. I actually quite liked the nose as it had the orchard fruit and mineral, but also added a unique musk/smoke component that was interesting. The palate was a bit closed in and felt under-ripe. Just a bit awkward, and likely closed down in some way.
January 21, 2018 - Vatan-a-thon at TDS (Chicago, IL): I liked this more than others, though this doesn't have the "sui generis Vatan" sense to it - it's excellent Sauvignon Blanc, but the minerality and mintiness that makes Vatan stand out is dialed back quite a bit here. Instead there's a lot more grassiness on the nose and bright lime, grapefruit, and green apple beneath on a lighter frame. Still very nice, but this felt slightly out of place alongside the other Vatans.
January 21, 2018 - Vatan (2002 rouge, 2004-12) (Chicago, IL): Right after the height of the 2010, is the low of the 2011. I thought this was the weakest wine at the table tonight. It had a bit of a thin meanness to it, but without a lot of the racy acidic drive of something like the 2004 or 2008. The nose showed, uniquely, smoke, and the palate had a slight unpleasant stemminess to it that also started making me think of the greenness in 2011 red burgundy (though nowhere as offensive). Don't get me wrong, this is a good wine, but just a bit of a runt in context.