Pierre Ménard: Tasting & Drinking
The style here is, as I have hopefully made clear in this profile, precise and expressive, the wines framed by acid and mineral in a very pure style. This comes through especially in the Le Clos des Mailles and Le Quart des Noëls cuvées, making these wines some of the most exciting additions to the Anjou wine scene in years.
The sweet wines should not be overlooked though, as the meticulous work required to ensure such great purity in the dry wines clearly has an effect on the quality of his sweet wines, which show a wonderfully precise and classical composition, with botrytis, fruit, mineral and acid all working together in perfect harmony.
Both the 2018 and 2017 vintages have been broadly successful here, although there is no Le Quart des Noëls in 2017 as the wine would not ferment below 20 g/l, leaving the wine with a firmly demi-sec level of residual sugar, and Pierre was not happy with the balance. I presume he sold it off to a négociant.
As for 2019 he had a little frost, losing some of his crop on Le Quart des Noëls despite lighting candles among the vines. The vines slightly higher up the slope, belonging to his neighbour, were fine, so Pierre’s vines must have been just on the limit of the area affected. Thankfully his vines on the top of the Le Clos des Mailles escaped damage, as did those in La Varenne de Chanzé, whereas lower down the slope of Le Clos des Mailles he lost perhaps 0.2 hectares.
