Domaine Cady, 2021 Update
I have followed the Cady family, based in Saint-Aubin-de-Luigné, and their wines, for more years than I can remember. Looking back I think it has always been (understandably, to my mind) the family’s sweet wines that drew me in. The cuvée Les Varennes, sourced from a vineyard situated opposite the domaine, is frequently magnificent, and I have good memories of the Harmonie and Les Bruandières cuvées, although I have seen neither for more than twenty years. Top of the tree, however, has always been Cuvée Volupté, made from 100% botrytised fruit, and which is very long lived. In some years it goes by a different moniker, being renamed for different Cady family members; hence there was Cuvée Anatole in 1990, Cuvée Eléonore in 1995 and Cuvée Alexandre in 2003.
While I will always obsess over these very special sweet cuvées, it is the dry wines that provide the Cady family with their bread and butter. In what has been a catastrophic year for them, their cellars having burnt down in April 2021 (as reported in this blog post, and again in this report on the 2020 Domaine Cady Résilience), I was honoured to have been able to taste some of Alexandre Cady’s most recent creations, with a focus on the dry and entry-level sweet wines. Tragically, as a result of the fire, some of these cuvées may be very difficult if not impossible to track down. But for those wishing to get a glimpse of the Cady style, there is of course always that 2020 Résilience.
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