Domaine des Pothiers, 2018 Update
Although I have been exploring the very upper reaches of the Loire for a few years now, it was only last year that I first tasted the wines of Domaine des Pothiers. The wines at the top end of the portfolio, all Gamay in a wonderfully delineated, perfumed, confident and yet floral style, were simply excellent. This seems to be what the Côte Roannaise excels at; something about the climate, and perhaps more importantly the degraded soils of various shades of granite, engenders the wines not only with texture and substance, but with a rarely encountered sense of honesty in their fruit profiles – the confected berry fruits seen in numerous less interesting examples of Gamay give way here to the scents of dry black cherry and a pretty peony perfume – framed by a definition, substance and elegant structure rarely seen with this variety.
In short, if you haven’t invested in a bottle or two for drinking, you need to. And Domaine des Pothiers is as good a place to start as any.
The Wines
On this most recent encounter with Romain Paire (pictured) and his wines I tasted through the 2017 and 2016 vintages, complementing last year’s set of tasting notes which looked at 2016 and 2015. I took a quick detour into the strange world of Vin de Pays d’Urfé, which allows the vignerons of the Côte Roannaise to add a white to their portfolio, using either Pinot Gris or Chardonnay. Both are Loire varieties of course, the former permitted in the Reuilly appellation, the latter all over the place but especially around Anjou where it is utilised by sensible vignerons in the production of some top class Crémant de Loire. Here on the slopes of Roanne, however, I can’t help feeling the latter variety is also a nod to Burgundy, which lies close by, to the east.
