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Pascal Pibaleau Touraine Azay-le-Rideau Moelleux 2009

Welcome back to another episode in my long-running series entitled Ligérian Vinous Archaeology, in which I dig up long-forgotten bottles from long-extinct domaines and try to wax lyrical about them.

Don’t worry if you have never heard of this series before; it is possible that it is nothing more than a figment of my imagination, alongside other wild imaginings such as affordable classed-growth super-second Bordeaux and zero-added-sulphite cuvées that are free of mouse taint (yes, I know clean examples exist, I just seem to have encountered a lot of mousiness recently).

While my imagination occasionally goes into overdrive, rest assured there is nothing imaginary about this week’s Weekend Wine choice. This week I return to the wines of Pascal Pibaleau, for many years one of the most highly regarded vignerons of the Touraine appellation, specifically the little cluster of communes entitled to the Touraine Azay-le-Rideau designation.

I would guess the vast majority of white wines from the Touraine appellation are consumed young, and perhaps rightly so. Pick up a bottle of white wine from Touraine and you can safely bet on it being Sauvignon Blanc. And a good Touraine Sauvignon can be absolutely delicious; cool, crisp and mouth-watering, with punchy fruit flavours leaning towards pungent lime and green apple, they are often a touch more varietal in style than the more terroir-driven wines of Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé, and delicious with it. They come into their own with a platter of goat’s cheese on a summer’s day; a little Valençay, perhaps, or a Sainte-Maure-de-Touraine. Or even a little round Crottin de Chavignol.

Please, I implore you, do not tell the vignerons of Chavignol I am eating their cheesy jewels with Touraine Sauvignon. Not unless you want my inbox to be swamped with polemics on the superiority of all things Chavignol. Again.

Having said that, not all Touraine whites are Sauvignon. And not all Touraine whites are dry.

Pascal Pibaleau Touraine Azay-le-Rideau Moelleux 2009

Looking back in time, more than a century ago, and white varieties other than Sauvignon dominated in Touraine, especially Chenin Blanc of course; this variety was not limited to famous vineyards such as Vouvray and Montlouis-sur-Loire but was planted far and wide. There was also Menu Pineau (or Orbois, if you prefer to use only official names), Romorantin and other curiosities such as François-Saint-Meslier. It was only after phylloxera that Sauvignon began to dominate. Just as the slopes of Sancerre turned from red to white, the dominant variety Pinot Noir usurped in favour of the firecracker variety, so too Sauvignon began to oust Chenin Blanc and friends from the Touraine vineyard.

The three original Touraine geographical designations – Touraine Azay-le-Rideau, Touraine Amboise and Touraine Mesland – were all created to preserve the cultivation of these other varieties, especially Chenin Blanc. This is a role they continue to fulfil today, even if their purposes have broadened, Touraine Amboise now a home for some of the Loire Valley’s top examples of Côt, while Touraine Azay-le-Rideau now has a decent reputation for its rosé.

If you pick up a white from any one of these three appellations, however, it is going to be Chenin Blanc, not Sauvignon Blanc. And wherever there is Chenin Blanc in the Loire, whether it be from the banks of the Layon or the vineyards of Touraine, there is the potential for residual sugar. Pascal Pibaleau clearly saw this in 2009, and the vintage gave him a moelleux cuvée the likes of which I have never tasted before. A classically formed and truly Ligérian style, this is a wine which impresses not just with residual sugar, but with its sense of delineation, its drive and its acid freshness.

This episode of Ligérian Vinous Archaeology is a great discovery; the finest Touraine Moelleux I have ever tasted.

The 2009 Touraine Azay-le-Rideau Moelleux from Pascal Pibaleau presents an intense and rather bronzed orange-gold hue in the glass. Coming back to this wine at 17 years of age it has a quite remarkable nose, smoky with suggestions of crushed stone and an array of dark and concentrated flavours, little hints of orange and apricot yielding to layer upon layer of black liquorice, black tea leaves and prune. The palate is no less striking than the aromatic profile, combining an intense core of Dundee cake and dried oranges, with black tea leaves, bitter apricot skins and fresh star fruit, all set within an amazingly dynamic frame and drive. What really knocks me for six here is just how fresh and energetic this is, the rather modest residual sugar cut through by remarkable acidity and a powdery grip, all of which support that complex and evolved flavour profile. This is a superb wine from Pascal Pibaleau and while it is drinking well now, it surely has decades in it yet. Drink or hold. The alcohol is 13% on the label. 96/100 (27/7/26)

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