all wine • all the time
Roussel & Barrouillet “Clos Roche Blanche” 2005 Touraine “Cuvée Gamay” (Loire) – Completely dead. Blame the plastic plug. (10/11)
Roussel & Barrouillet “Clos Roche Blanche” 2005 Touraine “Cuvée Gamay” (Loire) – Not entirely dead, but stripped and battery-acid-ish, with just a hint of linear cranberry lingering. (10/11)
Roussel & Barrouillet “Clos Roche Blanche” 2007 Touraine “Cuvée Gamay” (Loire) – I like these young about 50% of the time, thinking the other half insufficient, and am repeatedly proven wrong by even a little bit of maturation (which is all I’ll allow under this closure), so my generalized displeasure with this bottle should be taken to mean absolutely nothing. It’s the tangy red fruit and earth that make the wine, and the grating, flaky, stale peppercorns and overaged herbs that ruin it. And the next bottle will be spectacular. I’m blaming taster variation rather than any of the usual suspects. (8/10)
Barbou “Domaine des Corbillières” 2009 Touraine Sauvignon (Loire) – A little more exotically-fruited than most Touraine sauvignon I’ve had, but not pushed into full Marlborough territory, or even modernistic Sancerrois experimentations. Still soil-chalky, still pleasantly green, still rindy. Somewhat insignificant, but then again not everything has to be important. (8/10)
Roussel & Barrouillet “Clos Roche Blanche” 2007 Touraine “Cuvée Gamay” (Loire) – Cedar shavings, grey earth, particulate iced pinkfruit, some deeper raspberry/cranberry tones, and needlepoint structure. A very precise wine. It may be showing a little bit of fray due to the closure. (7/10)
Denis 1989 Touraine-Azay-le-Rideau Vignes de la Gaillarderie Sec (Loire) – Dirty – in a good way – and fairly high in acid. Unmistakably maturing chenin, yet the minerality is as much aluminum and tin as chalk. Another slight shift is from honeysuckle to pollen-dusted stone fruit skin. So how, exactly, is it “unmistakably chenin?” I’m not sure, but there’s just something about the weight, palate impression, and generally Touraine-evocative aromatics that announce “chenin” with clarity and decision. It’s never wise to suggest that a Loire chenin’s nearing the end of it’s life, and yet I don’t know that this has all that much more development left in it. (Emphasis, in that last sentence, is on the “I don’t know” more than the rest.) (7/09)
Jean-François Mérieau Touraine “Bulles” (Loire) – 80% chenin blanc, 20% chardonnay, sparkling. A little bigger than average Loire sparklers, a little gauzier than the best Loire sparklers. Chalk and aspirin, yes. A hint of honeysuckle? If so, it’s dried out…more like bee pollen, really, with a little bit of the wax in the mix as well. I’d call this more pétillant than sparkling, but its delicacy is here a virtue, allowing a very quiet wine to state its case. Nice. I wouldn’t really go beyond that, but “nice” is definite. (4/09)
Roussel & Barrouillet “Clos Roche Blanche” 2006 Touraine Sauvignon “No. 2” (Loire) – Muted. If it’s TCA, it’s below my threshold, but it’s the most likely explanation; there’s just very, very little here. (8/08)
Roussel & Barrouillet “Clos Roche Blanche” 2006 Touraine Sauvignon “No. 2” (Loire) – Really enticing in a way I’m not quite sure how to characterize. I’m not the world’s biggest CRB sauvignon fan (though unabashedly a fan of many of their other wines), thinking that the chalky Touraine-ness often overwhelms the sauvignon, making the wine taste like a clumsy, somewhat challenged chenin with less balance. Here, however, it all comes together, with a bright green glow from within that enveloping sheathe of chalk and aspirin, balanced and full-bodied yet with flair and a deft finish. The price might be that it’s not ageable, but that’s just a guess. (6/08)
Roussel & Barrouillet “Clos Roche Blanche” 2006 Touraine Sauvignon “No. 2” (Loire) – Lightly sweet? “No,” says the importer. OK…rich, then. Fat and oily, even. There’s a foundation of chalk, and melon comes into play as well. It’s pure, a bit heavy, a bit short. A slightly perplexing performance. (1/08)
Roussel & Barrouillet “Clos Roche Blanche” 2006 Touraine Sauvignon Blanc “No. 2” (Loire) – Surprisingly thick, and strongly suggestive of residual sugar (true? I'm told not) , though the wine is in overall balance. The classic chalkiness is highly present, and the fruit is sunnily white to the point of near-transparency. I think age will do this wine some good, but it’s immensely appealing in a way the CRB sauvignon blanc hasn’t quite been for a while (which is not to demean previous wines’ quality, only their accessibility). (12/07)
