Domaine de Bablut: Tasting & Drinking
It has now perhaps twenty years since I first tasted the wines of Christophe Daviau, but I have frequently been impressed. The dry wines, in both white and red, show tension, concentration and character. I have been particularly taken with the Rocca Nigra, a wine which immediately places Christophe within a small cohort of Loire Valley vignerons who enjoy real and tangible success with Cabernet Sauvignon in Anjou. This is a very select club, with other notable members including Domaine de la Bergerie, Domaine Ogereau and, to be frank, not many others.
The sweet wines are also worthy of our attention, and we should not let the less familiar appellation dissuade us from buying and drinking these wines; I learnt long ago that the best wines made from fruit along the course of the Aubance easily match up to those with the more familiar Coteaux du Layon appellation. Christophe Daviau is premier league in this appellation, as over the years he has undoubtedly produced some of the best examples, wines which are delightful young but which age surprisingly well.
Despite this evident quality, the quietly-spoken and humble Christophe and Antoine Daviau remain largely under the radar. This is not a domaine that has garnered the sort of praise frequently lavished upon other Anjou stalwarts such as Château Pierre-Bise, nevertheless the wines are frequently no less impressive than those of these other domaines. I have particularly fond memories of the Rocca Nigra, drank with entrecôte-frites (what else?) during dinner one year in Le Relais in Anjou. How Christophe manages to extract such concentration and ripeness from Cabernet Sauvignon, even in a lesser vintage, in the Loire Valley, is a testament to the commitment of the man as well as the warmth of the schist from where this fruit comes. (10/8/10, updated 3/12/14, 20/9/24)
