What seems rather a long time ago now , when Empty was taking its baby steps and I hadn't developed such a venomous hatred for Sauvignon Blanc, there was a quaintly labelled wine that had caught my eye in the local. This little beauty was, Petit Fumé (Old Review Here). With sun blaring last week, something rather odd happened, I wanted a bottle of Sauv Blanc. Here's what happened.
Needless to say, anyone that witnessed my five minute explosion at the New Zealand Trade Fair about my intense loathing of Sauvignon Blanc due to it's fantastically stupid market share and the vast volumes of terrible examples which shroud good wines made from the grape out there, may find this review a surprise. Then again if you like Empty, then you may already know one of our top whites of last year was none other than a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc.
So, who, what, and where? Who are we dealing with? Well we have one Mr Michel Redde and his son Thierry, the fith and sixth generation owners of the 85 hectares Redde estate of "La Moynerie". What are we dealing with? Well the Irish importers, Mackenway, describe the Redde family as one for the “terroirists”. So, what we have is a well bred frenchie white from the ever so "chic" Loire. Well we've almost covered the details of where, but to batter the nail into the coffin, here's a bit more information. The vineyards sit in on a deservedly noble home on the crest of a hillside for the large part kissed by the sun owning to its to the southern facing aspect. Soil profiles are for for the want of words a bit mad and all over the shop, yet beautifully so, providing a vibrant patchwork of chalky clay to silicas offering quality growing conditions for the vines. As one might perhaps have duly noted, this rather is a wet-dream for the militant "terroirist". For everyone that doesn't have wine-jargon permeating from very conceivable orifice, worry not, this all cumulates in what you want to see, a bloody nice wine.
Appearance:
Clear, with an what could only be conveyed by shouting pale lemon over and over again. Really a rather beautifully transcendent colour.
Nose:
Clean, with brilliantly distinct, and clean fruits lime at first, opening into more typical Sauvignon notes, with a grassy freshness lifting the wine and a "gooseberry" and passionfruit combination adding to the bones of the wine. What distinguished the wine however was the way in which it was carried by a certain restrained elegance while being well pronounced simultaneously. Overall a really well defined wine, that avoids the pitfall Sauvignon Blanc trademark trying to packing too much in and failing, becoming a hulking badly played out line- muddled and not offering anything in the end. This however walks a knife edge, dancing with complexity and distinct fruit. Something else to note is the about this, and I wanted to leave this to last, and that's the minerality of the wine, which acts as an alluring perfume to the nose.
Palate:
Opens up firstly with some a kiwi, and subtle and controled notes of passionfruits. Concretration of the fruit is excellent, the wine hold a light body but does very well to pronounce itself. On the palate the minerality really shows up. Elegant wine. A very stylish example of what sauvignon can do. Terroirs impact is huge, minerality the whole way through, with a refresh jolt of cleaning acidity. Clearly designed to match food.
Comments:
A fantastic wine, clean and crisp, when or if the sun ever comes out again, really one to hunt out in celebration.
Score:
(B+) 88
Price:
€16.95 (Mill Wine Cellar)
Value (Out of 5):
4
Appearance:
Clear, with an what could only be conveyed by shouting pale lemon over and over again. Really a rather beautifully transcendent colour.
Nose:
Clean, with brilliantly distinct, and clean fruits lime at first, opening into more typical Sauvignon notes, with a grassy freshness lifting the wine and a "gooseberry" and passionfruit combination adding to the bones of the wine. What distinguished the wine however was the way in which it was carried by a certain restrained elegance while being well pronounced simultaneously. Overall a really well defined wine, that avoids the pitfall Sauvignon Blanc trademark trying to packing too much in and failing, becoming a hulking badly played out line- muddled and not offering anything in the end. This however walks a knife edge, dancing with complexity and distinct fruit. Something else to note is the about this, and I wanted to leave this to last, and that's the minerality of the wine, which acts as an alluring perfume to the nose.
Palate:
Opens up firstly with some a kiwi, and subtle and controled notes of passionfruits. Concretration of the fruit is excellent, the wine hold a light body but does very well to pronounce itself. On the palate the minerality really shows up. Elegant wine. A very stylish example of what sauvignon can do. Terroirs impact is huge, minerality the whole way through, with a refresh jolt of cleaning acidity. Clearly designed to match food.
Comments:
A fantastic wine, clean and crisp, when or if the sun ever comes out again, really one to hunt out in celebration.
Score:
(B+) 88
Price:
€16.95 (Mill Wine Cellar)
Value (Out of 5):
4
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