I had the privilege of visiting this winery in 2019, which is located not far from the Chinon castle. I’m a big fan of their reds, but I had never tried their white, which is small production. They are organic and make terroir driven wines. Clay, limestone and sand soil. 10-20 year old vines. 100% Chenin Blanc. Fermentation in 500l barrels. Quite round at this age, minerality. Honey. Medium-low acid. More evolved and softened at the same age than the Foreau Vouvray Sec, but still no tertiary notes.
https://winediplomats.com/
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Just a hint of waxy chenin fruit on the nose, love the slightly heavier weight of this version, nice texture enveloping the flavorful fruit palate, with a hint of mouthwatering tartness, beautifully subtle complexity, just a little savory saltiness. A touch more round and fleshy than, say, Foreau, not the piercing depth of Huet, just a lovely example of it’s own.
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A delicious Chenin with excellent richness of green and yellow fruits balanced by a perfect cut of acidity. The finish is succulent and complex with notes of salty minerals and spices. I like this for drinking right now.
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I really like where this is now with crisp, mouthwatering acidity combined with developed flavors of lime, grapefruit, cumquats and fresh green veggies. Good pinpoint intensity which leads to an elegant finish with lovely complex notes of seawater, green apple and chalky minerals. A perfectly balanced wine.
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The Great Grapes of the World Tasting (New Jersey, USA): Last of six dry white served this evening. Maybe a little palate fatigue but this didn’t shine quite as bright as the last time I had it. Great medium golden color, plenty of richness but a slightly muted nose. Perhaps attributable to the lack of time to breathe due to my neglecting to open it in advance. So, it was PnP. Flavors framed in a mineral casing with a melange of fruit like apricot, light citrus and peach. Moderately long finish but not as long as I remember the last bottle. I really think this suffered from the lack of air and with the group in "high gear" it didn't last very long.
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91 Precioso color dorado verdoso intenso. Nariz delicada, camomila, floral, cera de abeja. En boca es muy elegante, untuoso, con notas salinas y amargas. Está en su mejor momento, como siempre, entre el tercer y el quinto año desde la cosecha.
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Tasted blind. Apples, almonds, baked pear, apple tart. Nice acidity with minerals, apples, and more pear on the palate. Good balance and finish. I first though this may have been slightly advanced, but it got better with air and didn't show any real oxidative notes.
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Wow, this is good now and has really come together since I last tasted it 2 years ago. Very fresh with delicious flavors of grapefruit, lime and passion fruit with the beginnings of a honeyed texture combined with crisp juicy acidity. Really quite complex already for a wine of this ilk with succulent notes of limestone minerals and acacia flowers. A fabulous food wine to boot. Love it now but won't be surprised if it's even better in another 2 years!
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Delightful light to medium lemon yellow color. Really delicious and balanced with a great texture and mouth feel. Luxurious stone fruit and florals on the nose. Palate is bright with acidity and features white peach, minerals and grilled pear. I just love good Chenin Blanc...this will age effortlessly for a decade. Layered and deep with lots of potential. Really excellent with Brie and an olive rye bread.
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Very Burgundian, but also clearly cut from a different cloth. Lots of green apple, spiced pear, lemon curd. Honeyed, waxy on the palate. Ends with a warm-spiced, crisp finish.
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Was almost totally closed on opening-- at first thought it might be flawed. Left overnight in the fridge and it really transformed. Lively notes of pear, apple and minerals. I think this has a fairly long life ahead of it.
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From the basic Chinon blanc to this bottling, Matthieu seems to be mastering this grape. From a part of Croix Boissée where it was so full of limestone that the franc wouldn't grow. The 2016 is rich and dense but framed with stones. Sometimes this wine can be thrustingly mineral, but this is more rock walls around a yellow fruit stream with flowers and honeysuckle growing on the banks. I still haven't figured out the aging curve for these, but who cares, really?
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Lovely, elegant Chenin with flavors of pears, limes and tangerine. Silky and flinty with plenty of minerals. At this stage, this is very subtle and could use a bit of time to deepen. 90+
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Beautiful wine. A little closed in and underwhelming at first, but it opened up nicely over an hour. Honeyed Chenin nose. Quite oily texture, full mouthfeel, beautiful balance, and very long finish. This should have the structure to live a long life. A different and affordable alternative to higher end Chablis.
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Not getting much on the nose, which is consistent with the palate, where there is quietly reserved fruit, decent mid-palate flavor, but not a lot of intensity or length; just enough acidity for balance, but overall comes across a skosh flat. There's some decent minerality on the finish, but overall this is a tame, more elegant Chenin. It's just kind of there, in a pleasant way.
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Fairly golden color. Beautiful nose of quince, peach and gooseberry. The texture is oily and silky with lovely flavors of grapefruit, peach, almonds and lime. Then zingy acidity kicks in to keep it fresh and tangy. Finishes with excellent intensity and complex notes of minerals and stones. An ethereal wine that really dances on the tongue.
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5/13/2024 - Wine Diplomats Likes this wine: 91 Points
I had the privilege of visiting this winery in 2019, which is located not far from the Chinon castle. I’m a big fan of their reds, but I had never tried their white, which is small production. They are organic and make terroir driven wines. Clay, limestone and sand soil. 10-20 year old vines. 100% Chenin Blanc. Fermentation in 500l barrels. Quite round at this age, minerality. Honey. Medium-low acid. More evolved and softened at the same age than the Foreau Vouvray Sec, but still no tertiary notes.
https://winediplomats.com/
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5/30/2022 - alanr wrote: 93 Points
Just a hint of waxy chenin fruit on the nose, love the slightly heavier weight of this version, nice texture enveloping the flavorful fruit palate, with a hint of mouthwatering tartness, beautifully subtle complexity, just a little savory saltiness. A touch more round and fleshy than, say, Foreau, not the piercing depth of Huet, just a lovely example of it’s own.
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12/19/2021 - dream Likes this wine: 92 Points
A delicious Chenin with excellent richness of green and yellow fruits balanced by a perfect cut of acidity. The finish is succulent and complex with notes of salty minerals and spices. I like this for drinking right now.
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6/9/2021 - dream Likes this wine: 92 Points
Brilliant Chinon Blanc drinking at peak now.
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4/3/2021 - dream Likes this wine: 92 Points
I really like where this is now with crisp, mouthwatering acidity combined with developed flavors of lime, grapefruit, cumquats and fresh green veggies. Good pinpoint intensity which leads to an elegant finish with lovely complex notes of seawater, green apple and chalky minerals. A perfectly balanced wine.
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3/13/2021 - oldwines Likes this wine: 91 Points
The Great Grapes of the World Tasting (New Jersey, USA): Last of six dry white served this evening. Maybe a little palate fatigue but this didn’t shine quite as bright as the last time I had it. Great medium golden color, plenty of richness but a slightly muted nose. Perhaps attributable to the lack of time to breathe due to my neglecting to open it in advance. So, it was PnP. Flavors framed in a mineral casing with a melange of fruit like apricot, light citrus and peach. Moderately long finish but not as long as I remember the last bottle. I really think this suffered from the lack of air and with the group in "high gear" it didn't last very long.
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3/13/2021 - gallu wrote: 91 Points
91 Precioso color dorado verdoso intenso. Nariz delicada, camomila, floral, cera de abeja. En boca es muy elegante, untuoso, con notas salinas y amargas. Está en su mejor momento, como siempre, entre el tercer y el quinto año desde la cosecha.
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2/23/2021 - MJReb wrote: 91 Points
Apple and pear, some citrus, salty notes. The wine has a nice density and length, drinking well, has been unfortunately my last one.
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2/15/2021 - glou.sf Likes this wine: 91 Points
Tasted blind. Apples, almonds, baked pear, apple tart. Nice acidity with minerals, apples, and more pear on the palate. Good balance and finish. I first though this may have been slightly advanced, but it got better with air and didn't show any real oxidative notes.
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9/9/2020 - dream Likes this wine: 92 Points
Wow, this is good now and has really come together since I last tasted it 2 years ago. Very fresh with delicious flavors of grapefruit, lime and passion fruit with the beginnings of a honeyed texture combined with crisp juicy acidity. Really quite complex already for a wine of this ilk with succulent notes of limestone minerals and acacia flowers. A fabulous food wine to boot. Love it now but won't be surprised if it's even better in another 2 years!
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8/29/2020 - MJReb wrote: 91 Points
Same impression as with the last one 4 weeks ago: apple, pear, grapefruit and even some exotic notes (passion fruit), excellent!
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7/31/2020 - MJReb wrote: 91 Points
Green apple, pear, grapefruit, mineral, very dense with good length, excellent wine of a very good vintage at Chinon.
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7/14/2020 - retired_and_roving Likes this wine:
Wine in the time of Corona Virus - Quarantining in NYC & NH; 3/7/2020-9/1/2020 (NYC/NH): Beautiful summer Tuesday night by the firepit for sipping wine. This was drinking really well - probably a bit too young but still very enjoyable. Lots of mouth watering acidity here with a rich mouthfeel and mineral undertones. Yum!
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6/12/2020 - oldwines Likes this wine: 92 Points
Delightful light to medium lemon yellow color. Really delicious and balanced with a great texture and mouth feel. Luxurious stone fruit and florals on the nose. Palate is bright with acidity and features white peach, minerals and grilled pear. I just love good Chenin Blanc...this will age effortlessly for a decade. Layered and deep with lots of potential. Really excellent with Brie and an olive rye bread.
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4/13/2020 - Jason Stein wrote: 91 Points
Very Burgundian, but also clearly cut from a different cloth. Lots of green apple, spiced pear, lemon curd. Honeyed, waxy on the palate. Ends with a warm-spiced, crisp finish.
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4/7/2020 - cjsadler Likes this wine: 91 Points
Was almost totally closed on opening-- at first thought it might be flawed. Left overnight in the fridge and it really transformed. Lively notes of pear, apple and minerals. I think this has a fairly long life ahead of it.
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3/5/2020 - MJReb wrote: 91 Points
Pear, grapefruit, lemon and oranges, salty, pretty long with the nice density of a great vintage. Excellent right now.
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2/22/2020 - vulgar little monkey wrote: 92 Points
This is moving along nicely. Love the acidity that is starting to shape the density a bit more.
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1/12/2020 - MJReb wrote: 90 Points
Ripe yellow fruit, salty, good density and length, drinking well with upward potential.
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3/31/2019 - Omar Khayyam wrote:
DBYOB The revenge of the final Titan (Farsta): Tasted double blind.
Lots of minerals, steel tanked, but ripe yellow fruit. More fatty texture than the others in the flight. A little short finish.
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3/15/2019 - MJReb wrote: 90 Points
Still young, the things are not yet totally together: yellow fruit, mineral (salty), good now with potential upwards.
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11/1/2018 - vulgar little monkey wrote: 92 Points
From the basic Chinon blanc to this bottling, Matthieu seems to be mastering this grape. From a part of Croix Boissée where it was so full of limestone that the franc wouldn't grow. The 2016 is rich and dense but framed with stones. Sometimes this wine can be thrustingly mineral, but this is more rock walls around a yellow fruit stream with flowers and honeysuckle growing on the banks. I still haven't figured out the aging curve for these, but who cares, really?
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8/22/2018 - alanr wrote: 91 Points
This has some nice medium intensity, good overall balance, some saline, and a touch of mineral through the finish, quite nice.
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7/20/2018 - dream Likes this wine: 90 Points
Lovely, elegant Chenin with flavors of pears, limes and tangerine. Silky and flinty with plenty of minerals. At this stage, this is very subtle and could use a bit of time to deepen. 90+
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6/20/2018 - ekallio wrote:
Beautiful wine. A little closed in and underwhelming at first, but it opened up nicely over an hour. Honeyed Chenin nose. Quite oily texture, full mouthfeel, beautiful balance, and very long finish. This should have the structure to live a long life. A different and affordable alternative to higher end Chablis.
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5/2/2018 - alanr wrote: 88 Points
Not getting much on the nose, which is consistent with the palate, where there is quietly reserved fruit, decent mid-palate flavor, but not a lot of intensity or length; just enough acidity for balance, but overall comes across a skosh flat. There's some decent minerality on the finish, but overall this is a tame, more elegant Chenin. It's just kind of there, in a pleasant way.
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2/26/2018 - dream Likes this wine: 92 Points
Fairly golden color. Beautiful nose of quince, peach and gooseberry. The texture is oily and silky with lovely flavors of grapefruit, peach, almonds and lime. Then zingy acidity kicks in to keep it fresh and tangy. Finishes with excellent intensity and complex notes of minerals and stones. An ethereal wine that really dances on the tongue.
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