2018 Domaine de Bellivière Coteaux du Loir Le Rouge-Gorge

Community Tasting Notes (4) Avg Score: 94 points

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  2/24/2024 - Putnam Weekley Likes this wine: 96 Points

  What a reliable arc of progress showing in this bottle. In 861 days, temper turned to faded denim. The plumb depths of the object is a withholding and suggestive core—of mint/licorice, pipe resin, and glaring briar pollen. One mark of this producer is a specific embodiment: glossy and gripping in mass, always surrounded by uncompromising structure; as exemplified here. Tannins are posed directionally fetal. Seekers of aloe, agave, and smoldering black pepper will wait until 2028 before 2018 offers it. Lewd, status boysenberry jams smoke cigarettes in the shade of old bricks, in earshot of fresh paved basketball court.

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  10/17/2021 - Putnam Weekley Likes this wine: 97 Points

  NOSE: restrained, refined, deeply luxuriant. Subterranean cure. A kettle of peppered berry pulp. Spices and chocolate. Candied ginger. Slate butter. MOUTH: there’s an immediate contrast of fine weave and impulsive expression. The texture is broad and black with oil. Sweet, over-ripe berries, fresh with pointed acidity. Pepper, certainly. And a massive wave-front of impeccable tannins. There is an opportunity here for childlike, playful joy in excavating sheets of mineral strata. Each layer yields scented comic book pages of new flavor and insight. Glorious. Serious. 97 points.

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  9/11/2021 - cfk49 wrote:

  Something off with this bottle, but I can't readily identify it. A mustardy tone to the wine.

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  1/22/2021 - forceberry wrote: 92 Points

  100% Pineau d'Aunis from 14 different biodynamically farmed parcels aged 10-50 yo. Fermented in stainless steel, aged for 12 months in barriques. Bottled with a minimum amount of sulfites. 13,5% alcohol.
  
  Youthful black cherry color that permits quite little light through. Fragrant, somewhat sweet-toned and subtly perfumed nose with seductive and slightly sauvage aromas of blueberries and ripe black cherries, some purple wild flowers, a little bit of crushed rosé pepper and exotic spices and a barnyardy hint of brett. The wine feels somewhat funky, medium-bodied and very slightly tingly on the palate with the tiniest amount of CO2. Vibrant and somewhat wild flavors of ripe bilberries, some leathery notes of brett, light crunchy notes of crowberries and fresh raspberries, a little bit of subtly bitter phenolic spice and understated peppery tones, a ferrous hint of blood and a bretty touch of stable floor. Even though the wine is relatively light and quite funky, it comes across as surprisingly serious and structured as well, thanks to its moderately high acidity and relatively firm and grippy medium-plus tannins. The finish is long, moderately tannic and rather bretty with persistent, layered flavors of leathery funk, tart lingonberries, some phenolic spice, light barnyardy tones a little bit of crunchy crowberry, a sweeter hint of ripe black cherry and a perfumed touch of purple flowers.
  
  A very nice and rather sauvage Pineau d'Aunis with a healthy dose of brett, yet the wine doesn't come across as overtly natty - even though there was a slightest touch of CO2 when the wine was opened! I think that upon opening the wine felt a bit more funky and it started to express the varietal characteristics more once all the CO2 had disappeared, i.e. after 30 minutes or so. Normally these lighter-bodied, bretty wines tend to feel like simple bistro wines that drink best upon release, but this wine was surprisingly structured and serious for the style - although the wine drink really good this young, the overall feel seems to hold much potential for further development. I wouldn't be surprised if this wine actually continued to improve for the next 7-10 years. A very positive surprise - although perhaps not for people averse to bretty funk - and very enjoyable both with and without food. Hopefully the wine doesn't turn mousy if left open for too long - at least we didn't have problems with this, because the wine basically evaporated from our glasses. Priced according to its quality at 24,90€.

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