France Wines

wines

(Vouvray “la Goutte d’Or”- Domaine François Pinon) I had never previously tasted the 1990 Vouvray “la Goutte d’Or” from Domaine François Pinon and this has to be one of my absolutely favorite wines from the vintage! This is not as heavily botrytized as say, the 1990 la Goutte d’Or from Domaine Foreau, but it is so deep, intensely flavored and precise that it has to be ranked at that same exalted level, despite it not being as rich and powerful. In fact, this has more of a 1989 character than a 1990 one, which is as high a praise as I can come up with for Vouvray, as 1989 is unequivocally my favorite vintage in the Touraine in the last forty years! The wine offers up a stunningly beautiful and vibrant bouquet of apricot, tangerine, tea leaves, salty soil tones, barley sugar and a topnote of orange peel. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and laser-like in its focus, with a great core, bright, zesty acids and stunning complexity and balance on the refined and endless finish. Sheer brilliance! (Drink between 2019-2070)John Gilman | 97 JG

The new releases of the Crus from Domaine de la Pépière fully underscore just how brilliant the finest examples of Muscadet are today. The 2020 vintage of Clisson shows beautiful depth and precision in its aromatic constellation of lemon, breadfruit, orange peel, a complex base of granitic minerality, white flowers and a topnote of lemongrass. On the palate the wine is bright, full-bodied and rock solid at the core, with a fine girdle of acidity, superb focus and grip, lovely mineral drive and a very long, seamlessly balanced and youthfully complex finish. At three years of age, the 2020 Clisson is just starting its journey and is clearly at least a decade away from its plateau of peak maturity, but if you are shrewd enough to have more than a few bottles in the cellar, it is hardly a crime to drink one or two in their beautiful youth. (Drink between 2023-2065)John Gilman’s A View From The Cellar | 95 JG