2018 Pouilly-Fume, Les Cocques, Domaine Patrick Coulbois, Loire
About this WINE
Domaine Patrick Coulbois
Patrick Coulbois' domaine is set in rural Pouilly-sur-Loire. His father Gerald is a prominent local vigneron but for many years they have cultivated separate vines and produced different wine. His 8 hectares of vineyards come from his late wife`s family (land to the north of St. Andelain) and from his father`s holdings (to the west of St. Andelain). Patrick practises lutte raisonnée and believes in little chemical interference in the vineyard.
The area known as Les Cornets lies on slopes overlooking the Loire to the west of the RN7 and the best soils and exposition in Pouilly-sur-Loire. Patrick works the vines himself and makes the wine in tandem with a local oenologist. He is so dedicated to his vines that he only takes 3 days holiday a year!
Pouilly-Fumé
Pouilly-Fumé is a famous white Sauvignon Blanc appellation located on the right bank of the Loire River.
Compared to Sancerre on the opposite bank, the Pouilly-Fumé appellation is approximately half the size at 1,200 hectares, and tightly-focused around the villages of St Andelain and Les Loges on a fairly homogeneous, south-west facing slope. The appellation's soils are divided between limestone-rich Kimmeridgean and Portlandian (less active calcium) clay, with the cherry on the cake being the red, flinty clay soils clustered around the St Andelain knoll.
Top vineyards in Pouilly-Fumé include Les Cocques, Les Bois and Les Cornets. The result is a floral, finely-poised yet powerful nose, with a noticeably limestone-like dry palate kept taut by a fine structure. Indeed such is the stony intensity of a good Pouilly-Fumé that an increasing number of producers are ageing their best crus in French oak, to good effect.
Recommmended producers: Didier Dagueneau, Alain Cailbourdin, André Dezat and the up-and-coming Nicolas Gaudry
Sauvignon Blanc
An important white grape in Bordeaux and the Loire Valley that has now found fame in New Zealand and now Chile. It thrives on the gravelly soils of Bordeaux and is blended with Sémillon to produce fresh, dry, crisp Bordeaux Blancs, as well as more prestigious Cru Classé White Graves.
It is also blended with Sémillon, though in lower proportions, to produce the great sweet wines of Sauternes. It performs well in the Loire Valley and particularly on the well-drained chalky soils found in Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé, where it produces bone dry, highly aromatic, racy wines, with grassy and sometimes smoky, gunflint-like nuances.
In New Zealand, Cloudy Bay in the 1980s began producing stunning Sauvignon Blanc wines with extraordinarily intense nettly, gooseberry, and asparagus fruit, that set Marlborough firmly on the world wine map. Today many producers are rivalling Cloudy Bay in terms of quality and Sauvignon Blanc is now New Zealand`s trademark grape.
It is now grown very successfully in Chile producing wines that are almost halfway between the Loire and New Zealand in terms of fruit character. After several false starts, many South African producers are now producing very good quality, rounded fruit-driven Sauvignon Blancs.
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Description
The urbane Patrick Coulbois is semi-retired but continues to farm a couple of hectares of vines adjacent to his house in the village of St Andelain. The soil here is rich in flint, producing a classic, mineral Pouilly-Fumé, aged exclusively in stainless steel tanks, with around six months on its fine lees prior to bottling. Yes, it's a fabulous accompaniment to shellfish, but it also dazzles with more quotidian fare, including fishcakes and tuna pasta bake. Drink now to 2022.
Will Heslop, Burgundy Buyer (April 2020)
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