Eric Morgat, 2017 Update
After my report on my most recent encounter with the wines of Nicolas and Virginie Joly, to continue the Savennières theme – and yet to also provide a stark contrast – I now move on to look at two recent vintages from Eric Morgat.
The style here is distinctly different to that chez Joly, and it has evolved over the years. The wines from Eric Morgat I (and perhaps you) have in my cellar, including the 2008, 2009 and 2010 vintages, come from what we might call his Quercus era, when they were often dressed in a heavy overcoat of oak from fermentation and élevage in oak, including some new wood as well as malolactic fermentation on at least part of the blend. The wines demanded cellar time simply so that they could absorb this oak, and I took to leaving them well alone in their youth, hence the maturing vintages cited above. In more recent years, however, Eric’s philosophy changed, as described in this previous report and in my updated Eric Morgat profile. He picks earlier, looking for a more ‘croquant’ level of maturity, in the search for more vibrant acidity and a more convincing minerality, rather than relying on the oak élevage to communicate the worth of his wine. And there’s no more malolactic fermentation (or it isn’t encouraged, anyway).
The wines before were very good, and were picked up by a number of non-Loire-geek critics, who spotted their potential. But the wines he makes now are so much better, as they possess more energy, more essential vitality, and they speak with even greater clarity of their origins. I met up with Eric recently to taste the latest vintages of both the Savennières cuvée, Fidès, but also his high-quality interpretation of the Anjou appellation, Litus.
The Wines
I tasted both cuvées, in both the 2014 and 2015 vintages. Speaking in general terms, the 2015 vintage tends to provide more generosity and texture, while with 2014 the focus is on acidity, mineral and tension, and this broad-brush view of the two vintages seems to hold true here. Looking first to Litus, the 2014 showed an electric acidity and bright minerally seams, while the 2015 showed a softer, more powdery minerality with a solid and sweet fruit substance. The relationship between the two vintages also held true for Fidès, with the 2014 vintage again showing an electric character, although the 2015 was still in possession of a superb saline minerality. There wasn’t a wine here I wouldn’t buy or drink, and I wouldn’t worry too much about which I bought either. The Savennières is undoubtedly superior to the Anjou Blanc, but the difference in quality is more slight than you might imagine.
