Meeting 443 - -"Tour de France"
Friday 19th November 2021 Neville Hall, Waltham St Lawrence
This month we were pleased to welcome back one of our regular presenters,
Tony Hill from Bordeaux and Beyond. At the start of the tasting Tony gave us a detailed account of the problems that small
independent wine merchants were encountering post-Brexit, in particular the difficulty of finding hauliers and the trebling
of transport costs.
Tony's theme was a Tour de France as we tasted wines from almost all the major wine regions of France apart from Alsace.
After a very drinkable Blanc de Blancs champagne from the Domi-Moreau family, we tasted three whites,
all from the 2019 vintage: a Sancerre from Domaine de Carroir-Perrin, a Pouilly-Fuissé from Domaine Charmond,
and a Viognier Cosy de Cause from the Côtes du Lot. After we had tasted the very enjoyable Sancerre,
Tony produced a bottle of the 1993 vintage, which was still very drinkable despite some oxidation (although not obviously a Sauvignon Blanc!).
The Viognier was a powerful 15% and was reminiscent of a dessert wine on the nose. The Pouilly-Fuissé, which would be
classified as 1er Cru from the 2020 vintage, had been fermented half in partly new oak and half in tank and was full,
rich and creamy and obtained the highest score of the three whites).
We then moved on to two southern reds: a 2017 Château de Bagnoles Majelus
from the relatively new Cabardès
appellation north of Carcassonne, which with its unusual combination of Syrah and Merlot, together with
Grenache Noir, was described as a cocktail of Bordeaux and Languedoc; somewhat more complex and powerful
was a 2016 Domaine Vintur Cuvée "Le Gentleman" from Côtes du Ventoux which showed ripe forest fruits and
notes of liquorice and was the most popular red of the evening. The final two reds were
from Bordeaux: a 2016 Château de Lauga from the Haut Médoc, a blend of predominantly Cabernet Sauvignon (55%)
and Merlot (35%) with 12 months in oak and still very obvious tannins, and a 2016 Château Bardins from Pessac-Léognan,
5o% Merlot plus equal amounts of Cabernets Sauvignon and Franc and an appellation which Tony said was not well
known in the UK but offered excellent value.
The final wine, a 2018 Domaine Belles Courbes from St-Chinian, was served with the supper cooked by Mark,
a venison pie with a red currant jus followed by tarte tatin with vanilla ice cream. T
he supper was very well received, as were Tony's wines, all of which achieved good to very good average scores.(Ian Roe)
| Aperitif: Champagne, Dom. Moreau, Blanc-de-Blanc NV | 24.00 | 8 |
| (1)Sancerre, Dom. de Carrroir Perin 2019 | 16.50 | 8 |
| (2) Pouilly-Fuissé, Dom. Charmond, Sur la Roche 2019 | 20.00 | 8+ |
| (3) IGP Cotes du Lot Viognier, Dom. de Cause 2019 | 14.00 | 7+ |
| (4) Carardès, Ch. de Bagnoles, Majélus 2017 | 13.00 | 7+ |
| (5) Côtes de Ventoux, Dom. Vintur, Le Gentleman 2016 | 15.00 | 8 |
| (6) Haut Medoc, Ch. de Lauga 2016 | 16.00 | 7+ |
| (7) Pessac-Léognan, Ch. Bardins 2016 | 16.00 | 8 |
| The supper wine : Saint-Chinian, Dom. Belles Courbes, Vieilles Vignes 2018 | 14.50 | 7+ |
** Price to Members