Domaine des Forges, 2013 Update
I first encountered the wines of Domaine des Forges in a serendipitous auction purchase; in a tactic I refer to as bottom-feeding, my usual practice at auction is not to hoover up all the Petrus and Château Latour (if you’re going to spend that sort of money, why not look to the merchants for better provenance and probably better prices too?) but instead to look around for older, more obscure lots, sometimes a mixture of oddments and orphans. Such motley assortments, unloved by the label drinkers, can sometimes be secured with a rock-bottom bid, and yet they often yield some real charmers. In this fashion, one day I ended up with nine bottles of Coteaux du Layon Onnis from Domaine des Forges; the wine was extraordinarily good, far outweighing my expectations. A little research soon suggested why; the lieu-dit Les Onnis is directly contiguous with the Quarts de Chaume vineyards, in particular the lieu-dit La Poueze, at the western edge of the appellation. Les Onnis has, unsurprisingly, been a favourite of mine ever since.
The portfolio here is not limited to the sweet wines of this famous vineyard though; Domaine des Forges is an Anjou generalist, turning out a rather smart range of wines under the Anjou Blanc and Rouge appellations, Savennières, Crémant de Loire and more. I recent had the opportunity, in a tasting with Séverine Branchereau (pictured), to take a look at some of the latest releases, all but two from the 2011 vintage.
The Wines
The first exception to the 2011 vintage was the very first wine, the 2012 Anjou Blanc L’Audace, which was a very embryonic ball of primary fruit. Sourced from Coteaux du Layon vineyards (it is likely to be the product of one of several successive tries) the wine displayed a very typical Chenin-fruit perfume and mineral character. It has promise, although this was a barrel sample, and naturally I will have to reserve final judgement until I have tasted the finished wine from bottle. I haven’t included my tasting note on this wine below, as I already published it in my Loire 2012 vintage report.
