Recent Releases from Bouvet-Ladubay, 2012
After last month’s Bollinger tasting, which touched – rather tangentially, admittedly – on one of Saumur’s leading sparkling wine houses Langlois-Chateau, it perhaps seems only fair to turn the spotlight the other way for a short moment to one of its leading contenders, in this case Bouvet-Ladubay. Here I taste three of this house’s latest releases featuring the 2008 and 2009 vintages, including one cuvée with celebrity credentials.
I kicked off with the Saumur Brut Saphir 2009, probably as good a starting point as any for entering the world of single-vintage cuvées from Bouvet-Ladubay, beyond the value Mademoiselle range intended for supermarket shelves which has a track record of throwing up some remarkably good bottles considering the price point. The Saphir is a blend of Chenin Blanc and Chardonnay, the fruit pressed at the various domaines contracted to Bouvet-Ladubay before the resulting juice is then delivered to the cellars in Ste-Hilaire-Ste-Florent. The handling thereafter is fairly standard, with thermo-regulated fermentation in stainless steel cuves, cold stabilisation and then second fermentation in bottle as per the méthode traditionnelle. I have always found it to give a fairly classic interpretation of what a Saumur should be, with a vibrant suck-a-pebble character on the palate. Even in a vintage such as 2009, where there was no doubt some capacity to produce a much richer wine, it maintains this very typical feel.
Perhaps Bouvet-Ladubay’s most widely appreciated cuvée is Trésor; here the principal difference is that the must, once received into the cellars, is fermented in oak. Although I have had vintages in the past that displayed this too plainly, in rather a negative way, in other vintages a taste of this wine has been a very pleasant experience. While it may still not be at the level of the Cuvée du Millénaire Instinct, perhaps my all-time favourite release from Bouvet-Ladubay, it is nevertheless usually one of the best wines in the range.
