Bruno Cormerais, 2025 Update
Much has changed since I was first introduced to the wines of Bruno Cormerais. And I don’t just mean my recently announced move to join The Wine Independent (making this one of my final Winedoctor-exclusive reports). Nor am I thinking of the Covid-19 pandemic, the genesis of which is already more than five years in the past. Or the Brexit vote, back in 2016, for that matter. Or even the London Olympics, back in 2012.
Yes it really has been that long.
It was in a restaurant in Angers in February 2012 that a glass of the 2004 Bruno 7 Ans was thrust into my hand, to be assessed blind. From that moment on I was hooked. I sought out Bruno the next day to taste through his range, and I soon found myself scratching my head; here was a vigneron turning out fabulous classically styled Muscadet Sèvre et Maine, as well as some gorgeous long-lees-aged cuvées like the one I had drunk the evening before (yes, 7 Ans really did refer to the seven years the wine had spent relaxing sur lie before it was bottled) – and yet the domaine did not seem to have the reputation or renown it deserved.
At the time I promised myself I would follow this domaine more closely, but in that I think I have failed, as I have not been able to keep as close an eye on the wines of this domaine as much as I would have liked. I finally managed to put that right earlier this year, when I tasted through the current range with Bruno’s son Maxime Cormerais. Happily, despite the passing of more years than I care to admit, not to mention the transition of the domaine from father to son, I was just as impressed today as I was when I first encountered these wines.
