2004 François Pinon, Cuvée Tradition, Vouvray, France
The rolling hills and riverbanks around the city of Tours in France play host to beautiful chateaus and electric white wines. Head east from the city to Château de Chenonceau for sightseeing or to the town of Vouvray for wine tasting.
The Vouvray AOC allows the Chenin Blanc and Arbois grapes, but most producers restrict themselves to the former. They don't limit themselves in any other way: You'll find still and sparkling Vouvrays that range from dry to sweet. Few wine regions produce so many different wines from a single grape. The best of these wines quiver with acidity and flavor.
Tasting Note
Funky and alive, complex and well-balanced. This crystal-clear wine's potent minerality mingles with funky, musty notes and a hint of peppercorns. The wine tastes of apples and evergreen forests with a steely acidity and a long finish. Melissa and I enjoyed it with Vietnamese food, but the wine would complement any number of dishes. The price hovers around $15 and based on the older bottles I tasted that day, the wine will age for decades.
How much do I like this wine? Here's an idea. I found it at a Louis/Dressner tasting of biodynamic wines. The small tent was hot and overly crowded with amateur tasters: I noticed two women wearing perfume in the pressing throng, and no one seemed to understand why you might have spit buckets on a table. I sat through an hour and a half of traffic to get there. I was in a foul mood, and the constant assault of the drunken masses made it difficult to appreciate any of the wines.
This wine made up for the entire experience. Well, almost.
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