I’m continuing to catch up on posts, and while I’m cleaning up tasting notes, let me mention that in June I was able to taste through my friend Nathan Grandjean’s new releases from the Loire and Languedoc regions of France. Nathan is the well know proprietor of Yavine wines and is also responsible for bringing us the Vins de Vienne line as well as the Hurlivent CdP’s and many others.
A friend of mine was in France in June and brought back Nathan’s new wines, and so I had the opportunity to taste through whatever made it back (two were lost in transit).
Charles Jouget – Chinon
For a nice write up in English on this producer, see this. In short, these Chinon wines are coming from a very well-known producer, and being Kosher, this is truly nice to see. Unfortunately, the reds are 2021 – and have much in common with Bordeaux wines of this vintage – crazy green notes. I do hope that Nathan makes these again in a better vintage, as I think we are only scratching the surface here.
2022 Charles Joguet, Les Petites Roches, Blanc, Chinon – When we talk about white Chinon, the grape variety used will univeraslly be Chenin Blanc. On the nose, very nice profile of citrus, hay, and green apple. In the mouth, we get a hit of stone fruit, apple, quince, lemon, and some tropical notes. Now that sounds like quite a mix and it is, but it has some very nice acidity to balance it out, along with a finish that really take it up a notch, with flinty minerality and a hit of saline that I really liked. 90
2021 Charles Joguet, Les Charmes, Blanc, Chinon – This wine I really enjoyed. The nose is really complex with great flintiness, hay, citrus, and some floral notes. Thankfully this complexity is basically replicated in the mouth with those hay notes that I love followed by some ruby red grapefruit citrus, nice flint, and mineral backed up by some really excellent acidity. The finish is long with mineral, lemon, and more hay. A really nice bottle. 91.5
2021 Charles Joguet, Les Petites Roches, Rouge, Chinon – With reds, Cabernet Franc is the grape used in Chinon. Although a small percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon may be added, this is rarely done in practice and is not the case with any of the Joguet wines which are all 100% Caberet Franc. This is a simple wine with red and green notes on the nose and more of the same in the mouth. There are some nice earthy notes in there, but they get lost in the green wilderness. It is a one-dimensional wine with very little depth. It’s not bad per se, just nothing special. The only real flaw is the finish, which becomes watery and thin. What can I say – this one is basically a miss. 86
2021 Charles Joguet, Les Charmes, Rouge, Chinon – This wine is more complex and has some of the herbal notes that one really craves in a Chinon. But, ultimately, outside of that addition and perhaps a better core of acid and tannin, the note here are nearly identical to the wine above with a ton of green pepper in the middle. The finish is better though – with more earth and herb showing through with some nice white pepper as well. Not great – but really, not bad. 88
2021 Charles Joguet, Les Varennes du Grand Cru Clos, Chinon – The nose here still has that core of green, but there are other aspects that come in, like bright raspberry, earth and herb, which balance that out. In the mouth, this starts off as an acid bomb. It really needed some time in the glass to open and develop and for things to calm down and balance out, but when they do (and it did take a LONG time), you end up with a really nice wine. You have rich earth, herbs, tart red raspberry, some green fruit (but balanced and in place) and some nice black pepper. Finally! A red Chinon I can get behind. The finish is full of earth and dark red fruit, followed by some toasted herb. Really nice. 91.5
Château La Baronne – Languedoc
For a nice write up of this producer in English, see here. Overall I am a fan of Languedoc wines, and these are some high-quality wines indeed. I will say that this tasting was not optimal, as it was a group setting that did not allow for me to really watch the wines develop. Had I been able to taste these in France, I likely would have come away happier. But beggars can’t be choosers, and I was able to get deep enough into these wines to write them up fairly.
2022 Château La Baronne, Les Chemins, Blanc, Corbières – On the nose, you get a very strong hit of peach followed by some floral notes. In the mouth, while there is a peach core, thankfully it is balanced out by nice quince, pear, and really great mineral. The finish is long and mineral driven with nice ripe apple and pear and some hay. Good stuff. 90
2022 Château La Baronne, Roussanne de Las Vals, Vins de France – This is a very interesting skin macerated “orange” wine – and should be treated as such and not as a straight white wine. On the nose, you get hay, floral notes, and nice mineral. In the mouth, this wine presents almost full bodied with a great mouthfeel. You have a very nice core of fruit with quince, hay, and lime in an envelope of great minerality, balanced out by wonderful acid and even a touch of tannin. Very nice finish as well with hay, lime, and mineral and a little bit of smoke. Really nice stuff. 92
2021 Château La Baronne, Les Lanes, Corbières – This is a blend of Carignan and Grenache (50/50). On the nose, you get crazy floral notes followed by typical big red and blue fruits, with some nice herb and earth. In the mouth, the ripe fruit takes center stage but is really balanced out by the herb and earth, and you don’t really get those floral notes present on the nose. It’s ripe and simple but balanced and overall nice enough. 90
2021 Château La Baronne, Les Chemins, Rouge, Corbières – This wine is a blend of Carignan, Syrah and Grenache (50/40/10). The nose is nice with tart red fruit, some nice earth, and good mineral. In the mouth, you have more of the same with good structure and a palate that is nicely laid out, with tart red cherry, some meaty notes, minerals, nice roasted herb, and earth. For me, the finish was a little lacking and sort of petered out, but really it’s nice enough. 90
2021 Château La Baronne, Mourvedre de Las Vals, Vin de France – On the nose, you get some red and blue fruit, nice earth, and some floral notes. In the mouth, you get near sweet cherry, raspberry, sweet herb, and rounded oak notes. There was just enough acid to keep this going, but for me the wine felt slightly out of balance. The wine finishes more green than red with more cherry and some nice chocolate and espresso and finally earth. I gave this some time to develop, but it never really got there for me. Again, nothing bad, just nothing particularly great either. 89
2021 Château La Baronne, Piece de Roche, Vin de France – This was a tough one. It was decanted prior to tasting – I do not know for how long. The wine still showed very closed but had absolute potential. On the nose, you get black fruit, charred meat, tar and tasted herbs. In order for me to extract those notes, I basically made a huge mess by vigorously shaking the wine with my hand on top of the glass – a method that I never seem to be able to pull off without embarrassing myself – but it does the trick. In the mouth, I first got – nothing. I mean nothing other than tannin and vague black fruit. Even with the decanting and the shaking it needed more time. Eventually it did start to open with rich black fruit – plum, and blackberry mostly – with roasted meat, earth, tar, and lead. There is a crazy amount of tannin here, but you can tell that this is doing its job of protecting the wine and letting it develop. While I didn’t have enough time to ever really get the finish to open up (the evening sadly came to a close), you could tell that this one has the potential to develop into something. 92
Overall, this was a very interesting showing and kudos to Nathan for bringing the kosher world a number of French wines from outside of Bordeaux to explore. Now if only he could get his distribution outside of Europe sorted out, we’d all be happier.
Now, I still have that Benyo post that I have to get to – but it is festive and so I will hold back for now and hope for better times soon. My next few posts will be about my recent trip to France and tasting through all the new releases there – and that will basically catch me up. Stay safe, be strong.