Alain & Loïc Cailbourdin: Tasting & Drinking
The wines made by Alain Cailbourdin are on the whole attractive. The range opens with Les Racines (known as Cuvée de Boisfleury until it was abbreviated to just Boisfleury in the 2014 vintage), a cuvée in which I see perhaps a bit too much varietal character at times, but there is no doubting the vibrancy and vigour within it. I find Les Cris more interesting, a wine that shows some fairly typical smoky, gunflint character in my experience.
Looking back more than a few years I was less familiar with Les Cornets, since 2019 known as Nanogyra, but I have no such excuse today. This is a really good example of the Kimmeridgian style, with drive, finesse and delicate citrus fruit intensity. Contrast came in the shape of the Triptyque, in more ways than one. First, this cuvée originates from vines on flint, and secondly the vinification results in the finished wine being heavily marked by oak. I wasn’t always very generous with my scores in early encounters, although I soon learnt that this style of Sauvignon Blanc really deserves to be reassessed with more bottle age to understand its true purpose.
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