Domaine FL, 2011 Update
Well, this is confession time. For too long now a handful of notes from the 2010 Salon des Vins de Loire have been lingering on my hard drive, advancing in age, sadly having never seen the light of day. Unhappy with the fact these vignerons poured their wines for me, and then never having managed to get around to publishing the notes I so diligently scribbled and then typed up (these days I have moved onto typing up as I go along – it is so much easier), I have been meaning to put them online for some time now. The main stumbling block has been a feeling that they were simply too dated.
What has spurred me on to publish these notes, especially those presented here, was the recent publication of the Decanter World Wines awards. I sit on the Loire panel with regular chairman Jim Budd, and during this year’s judging there were two examples of Savennières that were particularly impressive. One was polished by wood, but with an elegant result, and as it turns out that was the 2009 Clos de Perrières from Château Soucherie. It picked up a silver medal, although I was pushing for gold, only to be outvoted by the rest of the panel. The other more minerally and expressive wine, which really impressed the entire panel, was the 2008 Savennières Chamboureau from Domaine FL. This was a clear gold medal winner, and by virtue of a unanimous decision it was subsequently elevated to a regional trophy. Well deserved too, in my opinion.
As it turns out, thanks to my regular visits to the Loire, I have tasted both of these wines before. And no, before you ask, I didn’t recognise either, although it all seemed so obvious – especially the Soucherie wine – when the identities were revealed with the publication of the results last month. The Château Soucherie wine I tasted this year, but the Domaine FL wine was one of those tasted last year, my notes still languishing unseen. Realisation that more than a year on my very positive opinion of the wine had been confirmed tasting blind seems to have provided the impetus I needed to finally publish these notes. (3/6/11)
