2022 St Nicolas de Bourgueil, Les Rouillères, Frédéric Mabileau, Loire
Critics reviews
The 2022 Rouillères is a wine with easy red fruit flavors. Hailing from sandy-gravel soils, it is a light-bodied, early-drinking style emphasising freshness. This is clean and sappy.
Drink 2023 - 2027
Rebecca Gibb MW, Vinous.com (January 2024)
About this WINE
Frédéric Mabileau
Situated in the village of Saint-Nicolas-De-Bourgueil, Domaine Frédéric Mabileau is a byword for biodynamic and organic viticulture. The estate was created by Frédéric and his wife Nathalie when they struck out separately from Frédéric’s parents in 1991. Beginning with just 3 hectares of rented vines, the couple built up the estate over several decades until the tragic death of Frédéric on the eve of the 2020 harvest.
The locals rallied around to help with picking that vintage, and his sons – Rémy, who had been working by his side for several years, and Charly, who was running a restaurant in Bordeaux – along with Frédéric’s wife, Nathalie, took over the reins permanently. The spirit of Frédéric’s inexhaustible enthusiasm for experimentation and progressiveness lives on. For Frédéric, the choice to farm biodynamically was not an end; instead, it allowed the wines to reflect the terroir more effectively.
This also meant no yeasts were added in the cellar, relying only on naturally occurring yeasts to start fermentation. In their view, this enhances the “sense of place” of these wines. New parcels have recently been added to bring the holdings to 35 hectares, of which 11 are in Anjou and 24 in Saint-Nicolas and Bourgueil. An ambitious new cellar project was completed in 2020, along with an on-site restaurant, Chez Odette, run by Charly.
Touraine
Located around the central city of Tours, Touraine is famous for the Cabernet Francs of Bourgueil, Chinon and Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil, as well as for the dry, sweet and sparkling Chenin Blanc wines of Vouvray and Montlouis.
The bulk of the region's wines are produced under the Sauvignon de Touraine appellation, a good-value Loire Sauvignon Blanc produced on sandy, undulating clay flats between the Cher and Indre tributaries. Reds are also made from Côt (Malbec), Cabernet Franc and Gamay.
Recommended producers: Domaine Jean-Marie Penet, Jacky Blot
Cabernet Franc
Cabernet Franc is widely planted in Bordeaux and is the most important black grape grown in the Loire. In the Médoc, it may constitute up to 15% of a typical vineyard – it is always blended with Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot and is used to add bouquet and complexity to the wines. It is more widely used in St Émilion, where it adapts well to the cooler and moister clay soils.
Cabernet Franc thrives in the Loire, where the cooler growing conditions serve to accentuate the grape’s herbaceous, grassy, lead pencil aromas. The best wines come from the tuffeaux limestone slopes of Chinon and Bourgueil.
When is a wine ready to drink?
We provide drinking windows for all our wines. Alongside the drinking windows there is a bottle icon and a maturity stage. Bear in mind that the best time to drink a wine does also depend on your taste.
Not ready
These wines are very young. Whilst they're likely to have lots of intense flavours, their acidity or tannins may make them feel austere. Although it isn't "wrong" to drink these wines now, you are likely to miss out on a lot of complexity by not waiting for them to mature.
Ready - youthful
These wines are likely to have plenty of fruit flavours still and, for red wines, the tannins may well be quite noticeable. For those who prefer younger, fruitier wines, or if serving alongside a robust meal, these will be very enjoyable. If you choose to hold onto these wines, the fruit flavours will evolve into more savoury complexity.
Ready - at best
These wines are likely to have a beautiful balance of fruit, spice and savoury flavours. The acidity and tannins will have softened somewhat, and the wines will show plenty of complexity. For many, this is seen as the ideal time to drink and enjoy these wines. If you choose to hold onto these wines, they will become more savoury but not necessarily more complex.
Ready - mature
These wines are likely to have plenty of complexity, but the fruit flavours will have been almost completely replaced by savoury and spice notes. These wines may have a beautiful texture at this stage of maturity. There is lots to enjoy when drinking wines at this stage. Most of these wines will hold in this window for a few years, though at the very end of this drinking window, wines start to lose complexity and decline.
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Description
The 2022 Rouillères is a wine with easy red fruit flavors. Hailing from sandy-gravel soils, it is a light-bodied, early-drinking style emphasising freshness. This is clean and sappy.
Drink 2023 - 2027
Rebecca Gibb MW, Vinous.com (January 2024)
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