TOP

Philippe Tessier Cour-Cheverny Porte Dorée 2020

This week we head back to Cour-Cheverny, undoubtedly one of the Loire Valley’s less famed vineyards. Here, nestled within the bosom of the broader Cheverny appellation, we find barely 60 hectares of the rare Romorantin variety, tended by just a handful of local vignerons, each one fashioning a wine – or often several wines – of eager energy and acid vigour.

Of all the more peripheral Ligérian appellations, from the Fiefs-Vendéens to the Côtes du Forez, from Valençay to the Côtes d’Auvergne, it is undoubtedly Cour-Cheverny which I know best. Many years have now passed since I was first seduced by Romorantin’s wily charms, its ability to intertwine crystalline threads of fruit, its flavour profile – in youth, at least – not dissimilar from that of Chenin Blanc, combined with its trademark, electric, mouth-watering acidity. As it ages notes of blanched almond are characteristic, a hint of white nut which is presumably why some who dip their toe into the Cour-Cheverny waters occasionally describe Romorantin as having a proclivity for oxidation. It is not a view I subscribe to myself.

While I have been checking in on the wines of this appellation for many years, I have tended to return again and again to a handful of growers whose wines I know well. François Cazin is a favourite, and notable as one of the vignerons regularly producing – when the vintage permits it – a sweeter version, in which a gentle thread of residual sugar, the style much more akin to a moelleux Vouvray than a Coteaux du Layon, dances around that taut acidity. Domaine des Huards is another one I look out for. Philippe Tessier is a third name of some renown, although I am much less familiar with the wines.

Time to put that right, perhaps.

Philippe Tessier Cour-Cheverny Porte Dorée 2020

The Tessier domaine dates to the early 1960s, when Roger Tessier planted a few vines on his polycultural farm, in place of asparagus, his usual crop. It was in 1981 that he passed control to the next generation, Philippe Tessier, and it was under Philippe that the Tessiers began to accrue some renown. He shaped the domaine into what it is today, a significant move coming when, after fifteen years of traditional viticulture, he began embracing organic methods. By the turn of the century the domaine was fully organic, and Philippe secured certification, from Ecocert, in 2002. He also stepped back on his use of sulphites, shifting towards less intervention in the cellars.

Today the domaine has been handed down once again, with Philippe’s son Simon Tessier now taking hold of the reins. After completing his studies in 2019 Simon returned home to work alongside his father, and by 2020 the domaine was essentially his. The work remains organic, with a focus still on the Cheverny and Cour-Cheverny appellations (also look out for the Romorantique cuvée, still Romorantin, but Vin de France). There are three cuvées of Cour-Cheverny, a domaine-level wine taking fruit from young vines, a Sables cuvée from slightly older vines, and the top-of-the-range Porte Dorée.

Porte Dorée takes fruit from the domaine’s oldest vines which are aged between 40 and 90 years and planted on soils of silty clay over limestone. After picking by hand and pressing, the juice is fermented in demi-muids and barrels, and the wine sees an élevage in same, lasting ten months. With a less interventionist approach in the cellar it will perhaps come as no surprise to learn that the wine goes through full malolactic fermentation during this time. After ten months the wine is blended and bottled.

In the glass the 2020 Cour-Cheverny Porte Dorée from Domaine Philippe Tessier presents a shimmering lemon-gold hue, looking fresh but with admirable depth of colour and concentration. There is a corresponding suggestion of density on the nose, one suggesting peach skin, apricot and yellow plum, with side-notes of honeysuckle and fresh straw bales. The palate continues with delicious texture and a fine phenolic frame, the texture immediately seductive and sinewy, all underpinned by a deliciously bitter grip and backbone. Give it time on the midpalate, because it writhes with sweet and fibrous orchard fruits and, despite Romorantin’s reputation, rather modest acidity, surely a marker of the extreme warmth of the 2020 vintage. It concludes with a little length, but it is the sweet fruit and dry, grippy, pithy substance which rolling through the midpalate which defines this wine, a very successful interpretation of a warm and distinctive vintage. The alcohol, in keeping with this, is declared to be a rather heady but ultimately undetectable 14.5%. 92/100 (18/11/24)

Read more in:

Find Philippe Tessier Cour-Cheverny Porte Dorée 2020 on Wine Searcher:

Find all Philippe Tessier wines on Wine Searcher: