2016 Savennieres Les Genets
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Tasting notes
Mainly from aeolian deposits and silts on sandy schists, the 2016 Savennières Les Genêts opens with an intense, pure and elegant, wonderfully matured bouquet of ripe and healthy Chenin fruits, pear and quince aromas intertwined with schist and floral aromas. Full-bodied, very intense and powerful yet pure and crystalline as well as salty on the palate, this Chenin reveals a remarkable drama combined with finesse and vitality and a long and tensioned, firmly structured finish with refreshing acidity and lime bitters. This is a very long and complex Chenin whose tannins are well interwoven with the crystalline acidity and lingering salinity. This powerful and structured wine should be great with zander or pan-fried Saint Jacques scallops, as Damien suggests. Tasted May 2021.
Critic scores
Average Score
Tamlyn Currin, jancisrobinson.com
Stephan Reinhardt, Wine Advocate
More reviews and scores
Chenin vines on mainly aeolian sands and silts on sandstone schists. Aged in French oak barrels for 12 months then four to six months in tank. Damien Laureau is, according to Jim Budd, a rising star. His father had a farm in Versailles which his brother took over, so he went to work for his uncle in the Loire, became fascinated by wine, found a 5.5-ha parcel and began making wine. Smells of dried quince, dried apricots, smoked almonds. Tense, grippy, astringent, and so bone dry your jaw aches. This has so much power it’s like a punch in the solar plexus. Magnificent and even a little terrifying. Crab apples and cider apples with their grip and intense flavour and astringency and wonderful bitterness pulled into a shaft of monastic austerity. Andrew Catchpole commented during the tasting that Loire Chenin needs a lot more time to really show at its best, and Jim Budd added that the other thing we don't always takes into account is that the best Loire Chenins, like white burgundy, have a closed-up period. Worth bearing in mind, especially with a wine like this. (TC)