Loire 2019 at Four Years: Tasting Notes
Coming back to these wines at four years of age I was taken with the evident quality in the vintage, with – on the whole – a slightly fresher style than was found in the 2018 vintage. That is certainly not to say, though, that this is a vintage rich in vibrant acidity in the same manner as, for example, the 2014 vintage. While I find a number of the wines to be impressive, they are predominantly in what we might call the ‘modern’ Loire style.
This means white wines with well-developed and complex aromatic profiles (the joy of ripe fruit), with backbones formed from tangible threads of phenolic substance (again, ripe phenolics reflecting the modern Loire climate) rather than from the acidity, which tends to be softer in recent vintages. As for the reds, these show ripe expression and translate their terroirs well, something I seek out in Loire reds, but the greener herby notes some Loire fans enjoy and seek out, but which I find far from essential, are not part of the modern Loire profile.
The Whites
Having said that, how these elements work together, and which of these characteristics feels dominant, naturally varies from one domaine to the next, with some very obvious successes. And it also varies within a portfolio, as we can see with the wines of Domaine de la Pépière, which are well represented in this report. The 2019 Briords, for example, seems to translate with honesty the warm conditions of the vintage, and while the aromatics are delightful and present an intriguing intertwining of traditional and more exotic scents, the rather soft and easy-going definition of the wine speaks of the heady dog days of summer.
But then we come to the other wines from Rémi and Gwénaëlle, starting with the 2019 Les Gras Moutons, and even this provides a significant step up in terms of energy and harmony. Although this then pales into significance when set against the exciting sense of dynamism offered by some of the domaine’s crus communaux wines. Both the 2019 Clisson and 2019 Gorges are exciting and desirable wines, but to my surprise (because I think I tend to favour Clisson and Gorges over most of the other crus) I found even greater drive in the 2019 Monnières-Saint-Fiacre, while the 2019 Château-Thébaud has to be one of the most thrilling examples of cru communal Muscadet I have tasted in recent years.
