REVIEW - 2009 Balland Chapuis Sancerre Le Vallon

REVIEW - 2009 BAlland Chapuis Sancerre Le Vallon 

SKU: 1090247  

Origin: France  |  Loire Valley
Agent: Nobilis Wine Importers Ltd.

In the Glass – This wine has a pale to medium lemon colour

On the Nose – This clean, medium intensity wine is fresh. With lots of citrus, specifically green apple, lemon zest, grass and hay. It has undertones of mushroom, with a stony/steely minerality.

On the Palate – This dry wine has a medium body with strong medium acidity. It sits on your palate with flavors of mint, pungent green pepper, and oyster minerals. Finishing long and with a grassy quality. Over all its well balanced and has a great "ocean breeze" quality to it. This comes from the chalky soils its grown in. I would call this wine very good. Especially to those out there who can appreciate the acidity.

According to their website Balland-Chapui has been owned by Guy Saget and his family since 1998, and it remains a historic name in Sancerre. Domaine Balland-Chapuis name has existed in Sancerre since the 17th Century.

With a Sancerre what you need to know is that this isn't a Sauvignon Blanc that is full of tropical new world fruit. Its grown in the Loire River, which, while being the longest river in France, is full of very stony limestone soils, known as “caillottes”, and chalk soils. It's easy to see why this wine pulls all that minerality.  

The Saget family boasts that they stick to "excellent vine growing and wine making principals using older vines, cropping at lower yields and letting nature speak for itself". Very much a "if it aint broke don't fix it" king of thing. This is a ideology that I think many producers who have come into winemaking with a preexisting and  historic label tend to leave behind because they are eager to make a unique name for themselves.  Dont get me wrong, I'm sure Saget family has made some changes to the way Domaine Balland-Chapuis was crafted prior to 1998 but they still stick to the same tried and true methods. And really, you're in the Loire, making Sancerre. What can you really do to change it?  

Now, it's been said that the 2010 vintage was the best they have produced yet but this is still one fine wine. I would pair this with any fish or a dish with goats cheese in it. The high acid will go with salt, other acid (as it will mitigate) and will also cuts through fat and oil. Over all fruit goes with spice so it would be great with wasabi peas too. This one will run less than $35 in most liquor stores

Cheers!

REVIEW - CHATEAU THIEULEY BORDEAUX BLANC

 REVIEW - Château Thieuley Bordeaux Blanc 2009

SKU: 726194  

Origin: France  |  Bordeaux
Agent: Beverage International Distributor

Well holy smokes guys, I'm finally back on the wagon.. the writing wagon that is. Over the last month I've had the chance to try a lot of different stuff so let's kick this off with some white Bordeaux. This is the 2009  blend from Château Thieuley is 50% Sauvignon Blanc and 50% Semillon. 

In the glass - this wine is a clear, pale lemon colour with just a hint of green round the rim

On the nose - it has a medium intensity floral aroma to it, I could pick out notes of honey suckle passion fruit, guava, melon, lemon zest, peach. I noted that  even though its half sauvignon blanc it had no vegetal or herb quality to it. Just fresh and fruity

On the palate – It was dry, with medium acid. It had a medium body to it; this I found a bit surprising as I didn't expect it to be quite that big, but the two grapes together worked very well together. It had clear green lemon flavors, moving into a tart grapefruit, and  ripe citrus fruit, this was all held together with a fantastic light honey flavor.

I would say that this is a good wine, especially because it retails for around $21 in most retail shops. I would Drink this with any kind of spicy tomato sauce, or some New Orleans style gumbo

If you go to the Château Thieuley website you can read al labout the story of how this very cool family vineyard got started but let me sum it up for you.

In 1950, André Courselle bought Château Thieuley In the 1950's In 1972 His son took it over and started buying more land, they went from 4 to 30 hectares over 3 properties. They are known as Château Thieuley, Clos St Anne, and Château St Genes .  Today it is run today by the founders granddaughters, Marie and Sylvie. Together  they have split the tasks of running a winery, Marie has the technical aspects of winemaking, and Sylvie looks after commercial side. togewther they produce about 550,000 bottlesa year. It's an inspiring little story of family, and tradition in a slightly untraditional way.

Cheers!

REVIEW - Greywacke Sauvignon Blanc 2011

REVIEW - Greywacke Sauvignon Blanc 2011

SKU: 738965  
Origin: New Zealand

Agent: Pacific Wine & Spirits

So some back story on this little brainchild wine. It is the solo product of Kevin Judd, a leading and widely renowned NZ wine maker that got his start and his name from doing 25  years with Cloudy Bay and is attributed with putting NZ on the map for their wines. In Mr. Judds spare time he has also made a name for himself as one of NZ finest wine photographers and has published a book of his country's wine industry

In the glass – this wine is pale, like SUPER pale,  with just a hint of lemon and green

On the Nose - it is clean and  pronounced, with fruit flower, fresh cut grass, asparagus, and green pepper.

On the palate – it was dry, with medium acidity. It was medium body, I think this was due to its higher alcohol content, a whopping 13.5%. The flavors were clearly  those of a  hotter climate vineyard with big fruity tropical notes, great acidity that let it stand up against others in the sauvignon blanc flight I was doing. It has a medium finish

Normally I don't do ratings or post ratings but this one deserves it. It was rated by Jancis Robinson, leading UK wine critic, as the top Marlborough Sauvignon of the 2011 vintage. 

This wine would was very good in my opinion. There is a lot of NZ SB out there and I find that they all tend to blend together but this one has a solid minerality structure to its acidity and will hold up in a cellar for a few years, but why bother? Its ready to drink right now. It retails at around $28 and is pretty easy to find

I would pair this with any white meat with heavy sauces. And Spice, it will do very well with spicy foods too.

Cheers!