1986 Vouvray , Domaine Champalou , La Vallee Chartier
起標價： 47 Euros (請以歐元計價) , 增值：2 Euros
Champalou: A History
This is not an ancient domaine, at least not under the name of Champalou. Didier and Catherine acquired the estate in 1983, having just graduated from the agricultural college at Montreuil-Bellay, to the south of Saumur. They both came from families of vignerons, so it is perhaps no surprise that they both followed the same path into viticulture and winemaking although neither, it seems, were content to follow in the footsteps laid down by their parents on this path. Determined to gain independence they started out by planting half a hectare of Chenin Blanc close to Vouvray, and from this embryonic beginning their estate began to grow. Today it covers an area more than forty times larger than this initial plot.
It did not take long for the Champalou's to make their presence felt within the appellation. Just a few years later, helped by some great vintages at the end of the 1980s, they were producing some of Vouvray's most stunning wines. Writing in A Wine and Food Guide to the Loire (Mitchell Beazley, 1996), Jacqueline Friedrich ranked the estate on the very top tier of her appellation hierarchy alongside Huet, Foreau and Fouquet, just thirteen years after they planted their first vines. Today Didier and Catherine, now joined by their daughter Céline following the completion of her oenology degree and the now common-place acquisition of experience in foreign lands, including New Zealand, South Africa and Canada, they remain one of the most reliable sources of Vouvray. Didier's main concern remains the vineyards, whereas Catherine - once principally concerned with activities in the cellar - now spends more time at that kitchen-table-desk of hers, dealing with administrative matters, as well as travelling to foreign markets to show their wines. Today it is Céline that oversees processes in the cellar. Occasionally Catherine and Didier's other daughter Virgine may be around to help out, but she is mostly occupied running her own business, a wine and spirits shop in South London.
Champalou - The Vines and Wines
Although not formally organic or biodynamic, the Catherine and Didier Champalou profess to tend their 21 hectares of vines along sustainable lines, minimising the use of chemicals, reducing carbon emissions where possible. It is reasoned viticulture rather than organic, perhaps more akin to lutte raisonnée than anything else, with a little added astrology for good measure, with many of the common vineyard tasks timed to coincide with the phases of the moon. Perhaps lutte lunaire would be a more appropriate description? Their approach has been certified as 'sustainable' by Terra Vitis, an association of vignerons which promulgates the virtues of environmentally sensitive viticulture throughout France. The vines are naturally 100% Chenin Blanc, this being Vouvray, pruned in a gobelet fashion; the ripening is encouraged by leaf-thinning in the summer, and the harvest is manual, the decision to pick made on the basis of tasting the fruit in the vineyard.Unlike a number of their peers in Vouvray the portfolio of wines is brief; whereas a tasting of the latest releases from any one of François Chidaine, Jacky Blot or Noël Pinguet at Domaine Huet might take half the morning, the range of wines here in each vintage runs at most to half a dozen, and that is only if the year is sufficiently blessed for the sweetest, most exalted cuvées to make an appearance. Hence these meetings and tastings are usually brief affairs, flying vinous visits if you will. But they are usually worth it; the quantity may be small, but the quality can be very high. The range of wines opens with a non-vintage sparkling Brut Vouvray, made from morning-harvested fruit fermented in stainless steel and allowed to rest on its lees in tank before bottling for the second fermentation. The wine then typically rests for 20 months sur lattes before disgorgement.
As for the vins tranquilles, these start with the entry level Vouvray Sec, which like the sparkling Brut comes from clay-limestone terroirs. Again morning-harvested fruit is pressed and then fermented in stainless steel followed by 11 months en cuve before bottling. A step up from this generic cuvée is Le Portail which originates from the vines directly adjacent to the Champalou cellars, planted on clay-rich soils. The fruit is pressed and then fermented in 500-litre oak barrels where it rests for perhaps 15 months (it can certainly be longer) before going into bottle. It is a cuvée which can be heavily marked by oak in youth, particularly the 2008 tasted recently which was raised in 100% new oak; as such it won't be to everybody's taste, at least not in its youth.
With a rise in residual sugar we move up to Champalou's demi-sec cuvée La Cuvée des Fondraux. This is also fermented in oak, in barrels originally used for Le Portail, and this older wood has much less impact on the style of the wine. As such this cuvée has a pure and elegantly mineral character which not only appeals greatly to me but which also showcases the style of the domaine most effectively. At the top of the tree there are two sweeter cuvées, both from sandy, flinty, clay-rich terroirs. The first is La Moelleuse (previously called Cuvée Moelleuse) made from grapes concentrated either by passerillage or botrytis, and then the even more concentrated Trie de Vendange (or Les Tries, previously also known as Cuvée Catherine or Cuvée CC), made from the richest hand-selected botrytised grapes picked on sequential passes (tries) through the vineyards, only in the most favourable vintages. These last two wines can be easily confused, as the Trie de Vendange label and the old-style Cuvée Moelleuse label (on the right, above) are very similar, and both have a dramatic calligraphed CC at their centre; I have seen a number of merchants list a wine as Cuvée CC only for it to turn out to be the Cuvée Moelleuse and not the Trie de Vendange. If shopping for these older vintages, look for the Trie de Vendange and Cuvée Moelleuse designations at the top of the label to tell them apart.
Provider : Dr.Serge
Note:
Very good Vintage for sweet wine in Loire , Chenin
between ten and fifteen dollars on my house wine, and I'm constantly picking up random bottles at that price point just to see when I'm going to discover the next greatest version.
