2011 COTEAUX DU LAYON BEAULIEU Les Rouannières Château de Pierre Bise, Lea & Sandeman

COTEAUX DU LAYON BEAULIEU

2011 Les Rouannières Château de Pierre Bise

Grapes Chenin Blanc
Origin France, Loire
Sub-district Anjou
Village Coteaux du Layon Beaulieu
ABV 11%
Vineyard Les Rouannières

The 2011 Coteaux du Layon Beaulieu Les Rouannières, comes from the Rouannières vineyard, which is planted with Chenin Blanc for this cuvée as well as for the Anjou Blanc Les Rouannières, and there is Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Gamay here as well. The terroir is spilite, or pierre bise, so to my mind it is a wine that should be regarded as emblematic of the domaine. Enough waffle, on with the wine, which in the glass shows a bright mid-gold hue. It has beautifully pure and very primary aromas, a textbook Coteaux du Layon, with notes of honeyed apricot, blood orange freshness, and grey-smoke mineral edges. It suggests a fine concentration of fruit and botrytis, imposing but also fresh, bright and complex. On the palate it has a full and yet very poised texture. It is rich in pithy citrus-fruit character, with a slightly creamed, polished sweetness cut with a wonderful minerally bite. This is tense, and it shows superb acidity as per the vintage, with a long, clean finish. Super energy here. A stunning result, and one that I will enjoy revisiting with future bottles. That is, with my non-elephant memory, if I remember I even have them, I suppose. Rating: 18 Chris Kissack, www.thewinedoctor.com (Nov 2015)


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The Papins are rightly reputed for their range of sweet wines from the Coteaux du Layon and this 2011 shows why. Light gold, rich nose with ripe apricot, seductive texture and long finish. Jim Budd, jimsloire.blogspot.co.uk (Mar 2015)

Château de Pierre Bise

Claude Papin has been joined running this famed estate by his son Rene and the team seem to be seamlessly continuing the great work at the Château de Pierre Bise that has rightfully built their great reputation. They like to focus on getting the ripest and most botrytised grapes possible by harvesting non-stop for two months, fri the sweet wines only taking the rot-affected grapes on each of several passes down each row of vines. For the dry wines they are looking for fully mature polyphenols and thin mature skins to add complexity and a pure intensity. The Labour intensive process continue and also in the winery, in prolonging the fermentations for as long as possible to achieve the greatest purity and freshness of expression in the wines. (If you ask Claude he will explain that it is all to do with the correct polymerisation of the polyphenols). In doing this he completely avoids the wet-sheep smell that dogs many Chenin wines in the Loire, and produces a range of wines from different terroirs which are among the great sweet wines of the world at some of the lowest prices for this style.

This wine isn't currently part of a mixed case, but you can always browse our full selection of mixed cases here.
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