Clos de La Coulée de Serrant, 1999, Appellation Savennières-Coulée de Serrant Controlée, white wine from France

8 points

I stored this wonderful wine for sixteen years until I opened the next bottle. I am always hesitating if I should open it since I can imagine the fascination and satisfaction drinking it and only one or two hours later it is over….

It is amazing and unique that white wine matures so long.  I know that German Riesling can be stored very, very long and some other types probably, too. Comparable with some outstanding red wines, Clos de La Coulée de Serrant even becomes better the older it gets.

Although the story of Nicolas Joly who is a kind of pope of biodynamic and organic wine making at the Loire is worth studying, I simply would like to say that he, his family and team are fantastic and passionate winemakers. Connected to “Loire” names you may hear first time are Pouilly Fumé or Sancerre. These are names of towns or villages and not names of grapes. First identification of French wine is the place of origin beginning with the region and followed by villages (and its surrounding). But of course within these districts there are plenty of winemakers, wineries and appellations. This is what makes selecting the right French wine sometimes so challenging. Loire is a river in the mid-western part of France and “the” valley of French white wine. It is probably one of the most impressive areas in Europe dotted with smaller or larger castles. To every third belongs some winery.

Nicolas Joly’s estate lies above the river. He treats his land in the real sense of old-fashioned and very agricultural. You taste it when you enjoy this wine. Although sixteen years old, the wine is very fresh, has almost a young approach. The color of course is like golden Bernstein. The first impression of the taste of wine is hay. Herbal dry late summer grass: this herbal notes give the wine even some spice. Yet there is a lot of wonderful fruitiness of preserved dry apricot and apple. The sweetness is described somehow by liquid caramel with an occasional swirl of crème . There is an enormous richness of aromas among which I also would list honey and even some lemon. I would immediately agree if someone detects even some additional notes!

chenin

Honestly the wine is almost too good for any dish it would accompany. I mean it as I am writing it: dish as something on the side of this wine as it will dominate every tasting experience. Certainly seafood fits, I assume many intensive cheeses but also some condimental south East Asian composition with veal or chicken (white meat).

Since I like polarization I always say French cannot make white wine this is the first white wine of my recently started blog I give

8 points!

This is hard to top!

Interestingly I found a pretty straightforward but also agreeable review about this vintage on a website I had never visited before. And this is related to Asia which makes me smile since I thought about some Asian cuisine as an “entourage” for this tasting experience. So I am not alone. Here is the review: http://www.luxury-insider.com/features/2007/savennieres-clos-de-la-coulee-de-serrant-1999/.

But as I mentioned before the winemaker himself has an interesting biography and is a passionate missionary of biological wine and perhaps of himself as little bit as well. The homepage of the winery is really rich and informative and worth spending some minutes with it. http://coulee-de-serrant.com/fr/

Precisely France ……

In Germany you may get this wine at http://viniculture.de but I am not sure if you would get still these older vintages. If you buy this wine somewhere make sure you can store it. And truly speaking this isn’t a cheap wine. Younger vintages cost between € 70 and € 100 per bottle – which in my mind usually is too much for a wine, but in this case I admit and say that each drop makes you easily forget about the money.