Alphonse Mellot, 2016 Update
After my report on my visit to meet Alphonse Mellot Senior in July, published earlier this week, I chanced upon these tasting notes jotted down during a meeting with Emmanuelle Mellot in London earlier this year. My first thought was that there was little point publishing them, as they were likely to have been superseded by notes made on my whirlwind tasting around the Alphonse Mellot cellars. On closer inspection, however, it was clear this wasn’t true. And indeed, there was one cuvée encountered here which I had never tasted before.
The Wines
I tasted several wines from the 2015 vintage, including the white and rosé La Moussière cuvées, and these two notes I have already published in my Loire 2015 report. Here I focus only on those wines not previously described, including other cuvées from 2015, and wines from other vintages.
This leaves just three whites and two reds, and the first was a new cuvée, Le Manoir, in the 2015 vintage. This cuvée is sourced from a flint parcel, with 2 hectares of vines planted, on the hill of Sancerre. The vines are attached to a château which was purchased by friends of Alphonse Mellot Junior; having acquired the vineyard, they promptly turned over its management to Alphonse and his team. This is therefore really a négoce wine, but in reality Alphonse is in full control, directing the management of the vineyards, choosing when to pick, and looking after the vinifications. The juice is vinified 50% in 600-litre demi-muids and 50% in stainless steel and the result, based on this encounter, seems to be worth the effort.
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