Home > Vintages and Regions > Loire > Loire Update: Nicolas Joly

Nicolas Joly Update, February 2010

It doesn't seem that long since Nicolas Joly last featured on Winedoctor; nevertheless it was more than a year ago, an update prompted by my tasting of his three wines from the 2007 vintage. My Joly profile received a major overhaul, and in it I paid particular attention to the views of other writers on the wines. This isn't something I make a habit of on Winedoctor, but with Joly's wines the opinions are so divergent it is vital that any profile of the man and the estate acknowledge this. Depending on who you read, the wines are either glorious homages to Bacchus or tragic train-wrecks, these seemingly polar-opposite opinions paraphrasing Andrew Jefford or perhaps Clive Coates in the case of the former, and Jacqueline Friedrich or Richard Kelley MW in the case of the latter.

One criticism frequently levied against the wines by the 'train-wreck' crowd is that they show signs of oxidation. Joly would dispute this, stating that tasters are confusing oxidation with maturity, and that the tasters simply don't understand or 'get' the wines, but I don't think this is an appropriate response to experienced tasters and holders of the MW certificate such as those above. Read Kelley's notes and you can sense the experience, thinking and consideration that lies behind them. Admittedly, many of my own experiences have been positive, but that is hardly surprising; if the problem here is random oxidation, with the restricted addition of sulphur in the cellar a possible culprit (perhaps compounded by cork variation) then there will always be some good bottles (which have come my way it seems) and some bad ones too. In addition, oxygen takes time to carry out its destructive work, and many of my recent experiences are dominated by tastings of very youthful samples poured by Virginie Joly. Not only are these bottles too young to show the oxidative degeneration that might await them, they are naturally screened before pouring; this is certain to improve my hit rate of good bottles.

Despite my good experiences, the reports of prematurely degenerate bottles disappearing into an oxidised fug abound, a disheartening read when one considers the exemplary, text-book biodynamic care in Joly's vineyards. If restricted sulphur use is the culprit here, then we should note that Joly is certainly not alone. There is understandably a desire within the natural wine movement to eschew sulphur, but if taken to the extreme the results are inevitable, and all the wines begin to taste the same - oxidised. Although the reduction of the use of chemicals in agriculture and viticulture is laudable, those who turn out such wines have, in my opinion, gone too far. It is a particular bugbear of mine, one which I wrote about in my report of the 2010 Renaissance tasting. Yes, please adhere to your natural winemaking philosophies, but also please note that the end product is to be consumed, and is intended to give pleasure. A glass of sour, cidery, oxidised Chenin Blanc holds no appeal, and is not fit for either purpose. And if you are making wine from one of the greatest terroirs of the Loire, fashioning wines that might need to age for decades to show their full potential, then maybe those wines should be set up for that time period when they go into the bottle. To do otherwise is, in my opinion, to disrespect the land, the terroir if you will, just as much as the rampant application of fertiliser, herbicides and pesticides would do.

With some fingers pointing at practices in the cellar, a number of knowledgeable writers have openly expressed the thought that perhaps a new approach to winemaking might be the answer to the problems at Coulée de Serrant. And, only naturally, many look to the next generation, the aforementioned Virginie (pictured above, at the 2009 Dégustation Renaissance), to provide the solution. I first met Virginie in 2003 at the Château de la Roches-aux-Moines, their property very close to the Clos de la Coulée de Serrant. If I remember correctly she had not long returned home from studying, including some time in Finland. It was a long time before I met her again, perhaps six years; during the intervening years she has gradually taken on more responsibility at the family domaine, both in the vineyard and cellar. As it stands at present, however, her philosophies seem to mirror those of her father, something the medical cynic in me might say was reflected by her studies, which included alternative medicine. But it is the wines that concern us here. Having tasted a number of cuvées in recent vintages I have not seen any dramatic development in the style of the wines, so I am not convinced that Virginie will be the saviour that many feel the Clos de la Coulée de Serrant needs.

Now onto the current wines. I met Virginie again in early 2010 to taste the latest vintage, this time 2008. Still youthful, they tasted very clean and rich; the controversies will come later as these wines fight the vagaries of cork permeability and the effects of oxygen without an adequate blanket of sulphur. It is also notable that they all possess quite marked concentrations of alcohol, although the first wine, Les Vieux Clos, weighing in with 14.5%, didn't display this on the palate. The second and final wines in the trio, however, the Clos de la Bergerie with a prodigious 15.5% and the Clos de la Coulée de Serrant, with just 15%, did show some heat on the finish. My scores reflect my opinion of the wines as they taste now (that is only fair), but suffice to say that there are sufficient warning signs here to make oxidation and alcohol-averse drinkers very cautious with regard to buying these wines, regardless of how appealing they might be to taste at this stage. (4/8/10)

Nicolas Joly, February 2010 - Tasting Notes

These wines were tasted in February 2010. All my notes on the wines of Nicolas Joly and the Clos de la Coulée de Serrant, including those below, are collated under my Nicolas Joly profile. Click to locate stockists.