Medium ruby. Forward, black and red fruit with added complexity of green peppers and earthy wood notes. The palate was clean, bright red and black fruit with just a touch of green peppers. Soft, ripe fine tannins surround the fruit. Very long. Very enjoyable. Not sure where it is heading from here so I would drink up. It is that good now.
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Bright, clear, mouth-watering aromas of crunchy blackcurrants and cherries, with a little lemon and lime, also sea-spray, pepper and cigar box. All very winsome and appealing. In the same way, the fruit shines straightaway on the palate, the crunchiness of the dark fruit accompanied by waves of sweet, but not cloying raspberry and sappy cherry. There's a depth to the fruit not present in other Roches Neuves wines and the whole package is extremely impressive.
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Based on notes from others here, we had one of the very good bottles. Beautiful balanced cab franc, hints of green pepper but in no way overpowering, earthy, just a little bit funky, got even better with some time in the glass.
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This is arguably from some of the oldest vines of Cabernet Franc in the whole of France, probably more than 100 years old (claims to be planted in 1904!). And this is so typical of CF from central Loire: Still deep purple, almost black in color, but without any signs of excessive extraction. Typical nose of black, sour cherries, some dark chocolate, and a whiff of green peppers. Medium bodied attack, high acidity, a sour-sweet cherry fruit dominates the mid-palate, while the aftertaste is complemented by minerals (iron and graphite) and some wood. High acidity and a somewhat dry finish tips the wine wine somewhat off balance, but the elegant fruit and minerals still manage to dominate. The second vintage of this wine, so I guess newer vintages will be even better. Drink now or keep for five to ten years.
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Drank this at a virtual wine tasting session with my drinking mates from hardwarezone.com.
Dark purple in colour with very evident herbaceous, eucalyptus, lavendar, cream, and raspberries. Some green and vanilla notes makes this wine interesting and captivating at the same time.
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On the nose, crunchy black fruit, anisette, citrus peel, crushed seashell, smoke, wild game, pepper, and tobacco.
In the mouth, crunchy black fruit, then zooming off into the distance with a really winsome blend of raspberry and blueberry, but not at all sweet, just pure and - sorry - authentic. The finish was equally impressive, accelerating away rather than braking. But again, the lasting impression is the depth of the fruit. This is not the depth of cassis that a Pauillac can have, since the fruit here was ultimately more raspberry than blackcurrant orientated, just a different kind of depth. Also, the purity - the fruit does not have that cloying sweetness you get with other "modern" wines.
2012 is what it is, and this was perhaps a little clipped compared to other vintages from Roches-Neuves, but I was really impressed by my first Mémoires - I can only imagine how good it will be in a better vintage.
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Had this twice now in the past year. Bought this wine because I heard that the domain owner is the former wine maker of Clos Rougeard, enough said. 100+ year old wines. The first showing was really great. Loved this wine. It is young and light, there are some green, whole cluster like notes (CabFranc, what do you expect) but the tannins are very polished and soft, finishes elegant, not drying. That is usually the formula that gives great aged CabFranc (94pt). The second showing was not as convincing. Somehow the acidity was in the foreground and made for a hard to enjoy wine (90pt), with food ok, but not great. May be 2012 is not the ripest year after all. I hear good reviews are coming back from 2018. In any case if this turns out as good as an aged Clos Rougeard than it is well worth stocking up. In ten years your friends will say, whaaaaat, you bought this for less than 50 bucks. Early, best after 2025.
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I hoped that this would be integrated and early in its drinking window, but it's far too young, and I'm not scoring it because of that. This shows raspberry, sweet cherry, and some darker red fruit, with a noticeable green/sour note on the medium finish, with powerful acidity. This needs three to five years, and possibly more.
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Loire tasting - White, Red and Sweet: Fruity dark plum fruit with a huge acidity and great tannin structure. Only a very slight touch of green bell pepper but overall a lovely wine.
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Benefited from decanting (1 hour for me). Nice structure, with healthy tannin. Medium-to-long finish on those tannins. Great mouth feel, with long finish without feeling milky/oily. A lot of red fruit, but healthy black fruit (I echo the black current) to mellow out. Still a bit green in youth (not quite green peppers for me), but ready to drink now. A very lively wine with bright fruit/acidity, health dose of green, with a reasonably strong tannic finish. I am keen to try this wine again in 1-2 years.
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Bu a l'aveugle, ce vin deployait une tres belle elegance, un nez d'une grande pureté et des tanins tout aussi fins. Rien de végetal dans ce CF (très vieilles vignes ), mais une fraicheur subtile, une energie qui l'étire sans bousculer le palais, meme si a ce stade, le vin semble encore étriqué et aura besoin de temps (ou d'une bonne aération) pour offrir la complexité qu'on en attend. Tres jeune dans son style, précis, il annonce une tres belle bouteille d'ici qq années. 92+
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From 110-year-old vines (50% original rootstock). For the sake of science, I opened one of these now. Almost purple in colour. The nose is incredibly muted, and there are only some slight aromas of bell pepper and earth. I feel that there might also be a bit of cherry as well, but right now, the nose is not showing anything at all. The palate is also very restrained and not giving anything up, though I'm not sure behind what the flavours are hiding. There's the typical cabernet franc greenness, with a good amount of earthiness and a slight hint of cough syrup on the finish. On the other hand, this wine is a real textural pleasure -- unctuous but with none of that high-alcohol, fruit-bomb garbage that accompanies most wines of this texture. Lovely acidity and freshness combined with that rich texture... I just wish that there was more to the palate, but I'm going to give this the benefit of the doubt and chalk it up to being so young. I'll revisit this note over the next day or two. This has significantly loosened up after one day. There's a bit of a blackcurrant and plum character that comes through now on the nose in addition to all the peppery aromas. The fruit is also a bit more prominent on the palate now, with some blackberry character. The tannins, somehow, seem to have hardened a bit, but this is a much better drink on day 2 and I'm very optimistic about its ageability. I'm ticking the score up a notch.
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10/7/2023 - Milos Likes this wine: 93 Points
Medium ruby. Forward, black and red fruit with added complexity of green peppers and earthy wood notes. The palate was clean, bright red and black fruit with just a touch of green peppers. Soft, ripe fine tannins surround the fruit. Very long. Very enjoyable. Not sure where it is heading from here so I would drink up. It is that good now.
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7/3/2022 - Julian Marshall wrote: 94 Points
Bright, clear, mouth-watering aromas of crunchy blackcurrants and cherries, with a little lemon and lime, also sea-spray, pepper and cigar box. All very winsome and appealing. In the same way, the fruit shines straightaway on the palate, the crunchiness of the dark fruit accompanied by waves of sweet, but not cloying raspberry and sappy cherry. There's a depth to the fruit not present in other Roches Neuves wines and the whole package is extremely impressive.
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5/30/2022 - KingSlacker999 Likes this wine:
Based on notes from others here, we had one of the very good bottles. Beautiful balanced cab franc, hints of green pepper but in no way overpowering, earthy, just a little bit funky, got even better with some time in the glass.
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9/27/2021 - Vas19 wrote: 91 Points
It's a nice bottle of cab franc. Good acid, a bit of bright red fruit but also some darker earthy notes. Solid, but not special.
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8/4/2021 - dagij Likes this wine: 90 Points
This is arguably from some of the oldest vines of Cabernet Franc in the whole of France, probably more than 100 years old (claims to be planted in 1904!). And this is so typical of CF from central Loire: Still deep purple, almost black in color, but without any signs of excessive extraction. Typical nose of black, sour cherries, some dark chocolate, and a whiff of green peppers. Medium bodied attack, high acidity, a sour-sweet cherry fruit dominates the mid-palate, while the aftertaste is complemented by minerals (iron and graphite) and some wood. High acidity and a somewhat dry finish tips the wine wine somewhat off balance, but the elegant fruit and minerals still manage to dominate. The second vintage of this wine, so I guess newer vintages will be even better. Drink now or keep for five to ten years.
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6/15/2021 - Remedy Likes this wine:
Zoom session with my wine mates for 9th Year Anni of our group
Very interesting wine I will like to drink again some day
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6/11/2021 - stayhappy21 wrote: 88 Points
Drank this at a virtual wine tasting session with my drinking mates from hardwarezone.com.
Dark purple in colour with very evident herbaceous, eucalyptus, lavendar, cream, and raspberries. Some green and vanilla notes makes this wine interesting and captivating at the same time.
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12/19/2020 - Julian Marshall Likes this wine: 91 Points
On the nose, crunchy black fruit, anisette, citrus peel, crushed seashell, smoke, wild game, pepper, and tobacco.
In the mouth, crunchy black fruit, then zooming off into the distance with a really winsome blend of raspberry and blueberry, but not at all sweet, just pure and - sorry - authentic. The finish was equally impressive, accelerating away rather than braking. But again, the lasting impression is the depth of the fruit. This is not the depth of cassis that a Pauillac can have, since the fruit here was ultimately more raspberry than blackcurrant orientated, just a different kind of depth. Also, the purity - the fruit does not have that cloying sweetness you get with other "modern" wines.
2012 is what it is, and this was perhaps a little clipped compared to other vintages from Roches-Neuves, but I was really impressed by my first Mémoires - I can only imagine how good it will be in a better vintage.
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8/3/2020 - LWI wrote: 88 Points
Blind. Anonymous nose, angular, bell peppers, perhaps promising, difficult to tell.
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5/31/2020 - dnnk88 Likes this wine: 91 Points
CB Wine Night #12 - CT 91 and up!: Notes to come.
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2/15/2019 - Collector1855 wrote: 92 Points
Had this twice now in the past year. Bought this wine because I heard that the domain owner is the former wine maker of Clos Rougeard, enough said. 100+ year old wines. The first showing was really great. Loved this wine. It is young and light, there are some green, whole cluster like notes (CabFranc, what do you expect) but the tannins are very polished and soft, finishes elegant, not drying. That is usually the formula that gives great aged CabFranc (94pt). The second showing was not as convincing. Somehow the acidity was in the foreground and made for a hard to enjoy wine (90pt), with food ok, but not great. May be 2012 is not the ripest year after all. I hear good reviews are coming back from 2018. In any case if this turns out as good as an aged Clos Rougeard than it is well worth stocking up. In ten years your friends will say, whaaaaat, you bought this for less than 50 bucks. Early, best after 2025.
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2/5/2019 - ikileo wrote:
Popped and poured. Need a bit more time. Fruit came across as pretty thin. Hope my next bottle is better.
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4/21/2018 - RichardP wrote:
I hoped that this would be integrated and early in its drinking window, but it's far too young, and I'm not scoring it because of that. This shows raspberry, sweet cherry, and some darker red fruit, with a noticeable green/sour note on the medium finish, with powerful acidity. This needs three to five years, and possibly more.
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5/20/2017 - canan wrote: 93 Points
Loire tasting - White, Red and Sweet: Fruity dark plum fruit with a huge acidity and great tannin structure. Only a very slight touch of green bell pepper but overall a lovely wine.
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10/16/2016 - SARED Likes this wine: 92 Points
Benefited from decanting (1 hour for me). Nice structure, with healthy tannin. Medium-to-long finish on those tannins. Great mouth feel, with long finish without feeling milky/oily. A lot of red fruit, but healthy black fruit (I echo the black current) to mellow out. Still a bit green in youth (not quite green peppers for me), but ready to drink now. A very lively wine with bright fruit/acidity, health dose of green, with a reasonably strong tannic finish. I am keen to try this wine again in 1-2 years.
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5/18/2016 - Raage wrote: 91 Points
Bu a l'aveugle, ce vin deployait une tres belle elegance, un nez d'une grande pureté et des tanins tout aussi fins. Rien de végetal dans ce CF (très vieilles vignes ), mais une fraicheur subtile, une energie qui l'étire sans bousculer le palais, meme si a ce stade, le vin semble encore étriqué et aura besoin de temps (ou d'une bonne aération) pour offrir la complexité qu'on en attend.
Tres jeune dans son style, précis, il annonce une tres belle bouteille d'ici qq années. 92+
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3/21/2015 - 560 B&W Likes this wine: 92 Points
Delightful. Ready. 12.5%
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1/11/2015 - acyso wrote: 93 Points
From 110-year-old vines (50% original rootstock). For the sake of science, I opened one of these now. Almost purple in colour. The nose is incredibly muted, and there are only some slight aromas of bell pepper and earth. I feel that there might also be a bit of cherry as well, but right now, the nose is not showing anything at all. The palate is also very restrained and not giving anything up, though I'm not sure behind what the flavours are hiding. There's the typical cabernet franc greenness, with a good amount of earthiness and a slight hint of cough syrup on the finish. On the other hand, this wine is a real textural pleasure -- unctuous but with none of that high-alcohol, fruit-bomb garbage that accompanies most wines of this texture. Lovely acidity and freshness combined with that rich texture... I just wish that there was more to the palate, but I'm going to give this the benefit of the doubt and chalk it up to being so young. I'll revisit this note over the next day or two. This has significantly loosened up after one day. There's a bit of a blackcurrant and plum character that comes through now on the nose in addition to all the peppery aromas. The fruit is also a bit more prominent on the palate now, with some blackberry character. The tannins, somehow, seem to have hardened a bit, but this is a much better drink on day 2 and I'm very optimistic about its ageability. I'm ticking the score up a notch.
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