I have scant experience with Loire Chenin Blanc, but having heard such incredible things about Jacky Blot, who sadly passed away in May this year, I have been eager to try his wines. I love South African Chenin, so I suppose that was my benchmark while trying this.
What a tremendous wine this is. From a single vineyard in Vouvray (but raised in Montlouis), it opens up almost immediately but benefits from decanting, with exuberant aromas of lime, melon, orange marmalade, burnt butter (odd, with no malo fermentation), truly a wine you can happily sniff for ages! But there’s something sweet in there, and it entices you for a sip. It’s that marmalade again, forthright on the palate, a fleck of sweet ripeness amidst an acid-driven palate that’s utterly engrossing and really quite elegant in spite of the obvious power. It finishes very long. This is brilliant stuff. Minerality is important to Jacky Blot, but he notes how minerality on its own “makes the wine hard to drink. The slowness of fermentation gives fatness and roundness to the wine, and the long fermentation is like a permanent battonage”. And on malolactic fermentation, which he avoids, Blot notes how malic acid “is the spinal column of the wine, giving structure, adding relief and vibrancy to the wine, whereas weight and body, roundness and flesh are coming from old vines, restricted yields, ripe grapes and the long fermentation.” Minerality and acidity provide a colossal backbone for this powerful wine.
Enjoyed with scallop & samphire pasta; soundtracked by Lonnie Liston Smith’s ‘A Garden of Peace’.
I have scant experience with Loire Chenin Blanc, but having heard such incredible things about Jacky Blot, who sadly passed away in May this year, I have been eager to try his wines. I love South African Chenin, so I suppose that was my benchmark while trying this.
What a tremendous wine this is. From a single vineyard in Vouvray (but raised in Montlouis), it opens up almost immediately but benefits from decanting, with exuberant aromas of lime, melon, orange marmalade, burnt butter (odd, with no malo fermentation), truly a wine you can happily sniff for ages! But there’s something sweet in there, and it entices you for a sip. It’s that marmalade again, forthright on the palate, a fleck of sweet ripeness amidst an acid-driven palate that’s utterly engrossing and really quite elegant in spite of the obvious power. It finishes very long. This is brilliant stuff. Minerality is important to Jacky Blot, but he notes how minerality on its own “makes the wine hard to drink. The slowness of fermentation gives fatness and roundness to the wine, and the long fermentation is like a permanent battonage”. And on malolactic fermentation, which he avoids, Blot notes how malic acid “is the spinal column of the wine, giving structure, adding relief and vibrancy to the wine, whereas weight and body, roundness and flesh are coming from old vines, restricted yields, ripe grapes and the long fermentation.” Minerality and acidity provide a colossal backbone for this powerful wine.
Enjoyed with scallop & samphire pasta; soundtracked by Lonnie Liston Smith’s ‘A Garden of Peace’.
Aug 19th, 2023
France
