Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Almost 15 years old now, the golden-yellow colored 2008 Vouvray Le Mont Demi-Sec opens with a clear and elegant, wonderfully aromatic and fruity bouquet of ripe and stewed yellow-fleshed stone fruits intermingled with delicate honey and also flinty notes. Full-bodied, rich and also savory on the palate, with a gorgeous concentration of dried apricots and highly delicate acidity, this is a mouth-filling, very elegant, refined and charming, tight and tensioned Le Mont with fine but firm tannins and a seriously saline, crystalline acidity that gives grip and vibration at the same time. The finish is long, tight and aromatic and stimulatingly bitter. The 2008 is neither young nor already really matured but combines the vitality of a young wine with the texture of a matured Chenin. Best After 2030
Unquestionably one of the most diverse grape varieties, Chenin Blanc can do it all. It shines in every style from bone dry to unctuously sweet, oaked or unoaked, still or sparkling and even as the base for fortified wines and spirits. Perhaps Chenin Blanc’s greatest asset is its ever-present acidity, maintained even under warm growing conditions. Somm Secret—Landing in South Africa in the mid 1800s, today the country has double the acreage of Chenin Blanc planted compared to France. There is also a new wave of dedicated producers committed to restoring old Chenin vines.
Stretching east along the steep banks of the Loire River, Touraine is a major part of the Middle Loire. Soil variations of clay, sand, tuffeau and gravel throughout its subregions support both white and red varieties. Chinon and Bourgueil remain the source of Loire’s finest Cabernet Franc; various styles of the most outstanding Chenin blanc come from Vouvray and Montlouis.