Winemaker Notes
A deep and complex nose reveals buttery aromas. The attack - full and plump - is followed by a very beautiful minerality typical of shale soils. Some nice citrus notes reminiscent of candied lemons.
Bastingage is a cuvée of 25-year-old vine Chenin Blanc grown in soils of shale and sandstone. This cuvée is harvested by hand with a strict selection in the vineyard during several passes to ensure only ripe and healthy fruit is sent to the cellar where it sees a traditional fermentation and aging in barrel with indigenous yeasts followed by a few months in vat before bottling.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Dressed in a beautiful white-golden color and sourced from two lieux-dits on schist, the 2016 Anjou Bastingage opens with an intense and concentrated bouquet of ripe fruits and mineral aromas. Full-bodied, round, intense and creamy on the palate, this is an elegant, smooth, and mouth-filling Chenin Blanc with a soft texture but also finesse and very fine and lingering mineral acidity. The finish is long and powerful, displaying very fine tannins.
Note: This vintage was still marketed under the old domaine name Clos de l'Élu.
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Vinous
Fascinating Chenin Blanc that’s almost Jura-like. Deep golden, almost copper in color. Big and rich, with an expressive nose that’s wooly and herbal, offering aromas of ripe golden apple and even sherry notes. In the mouth, lush ripe pear and quince, and a fresh, mineral finish. Fermented and aged in old barrels for 12 months.
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.
Known for its delightful whites and sparkling Pétillant and Mousseux, made predominantly of Chenin blanc, Anjou has a temperate and dry maritime climate. The region's limited temperature variations are admiringly referred to locally as the “douceur angevine,” or “Anjou sweetness.” Fruit forward rosé and red wines from Cabernet Franc and Gamay merit Anjou its success within the Loire subregions.