Vincent Carême Retrospective, 2018: 1999 to 2015
Looking across the two decade of Vincent’s wines it seems clear to me that there have been at least two step changes in quality during this time. The first is a little difficult to pin down, simply because in Vouvray different vintages tend to engender different styles of wine, and after ten years in bottle it is not unlikely that a demi-sec or moelleux cuvée might show a more convincing character than a sec cuvée. In the case of the second it is somewhat easier to point to a specific vintage where quality rocketed.
The first major shift came some time between 2002 and 2006. In the early years Vincent was working with less prestigious parcels of vines, and he was dealt a poor hand when it came to vintages. The 1999 harvest, his first in the appellation, was a notoriously difficult one, with rain and a tidal wave of rot which swept through the vineyards at picking. The 2000, 2001 and 2004 vintages also each presented their own challenges. The 2002 vintage was more benevolent, and the wine is good, but it is noteworthy that the 2006 Vincent poured – from an inferior, wet and rather miserable harvest – was the better wine. I suspect this is partly due to Vincent’s increasing experience, but the 2006 does also represent the first showing from Le Peu Morier in the tasting. A wine from the première côte is always going to do better in the long run.
If there were any doubt about this shift up a gear some time around the 2005 or 2006 vintages, the quality found in the 2008 vintage will soon put it to bed. From this point onwards Vincent’s wines are hugely convincing, leaving those earlier vintages bobbing in their collective wake. The 2008 Le Clos is a striking wine, one of the best in the line-up in fact, and certainly the best up to this point in the tasting. The 2008 Le Peu Morier, not tasted here but I have my own personal stock, is also performing well, as I also noted in last year’s 2008 Loire Valley at Ten Years tasting. Of note, both are firmly into demi-sec territory, with 20 g/l (or more) residual sugar in each wine.
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