2018 Frederic Mabileau - Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil Les Rouilleres
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The 2018 Rouilleres hails from the sandy gravels of Saint-Nicolas de Bourgueil, yielding a light-bodied, crunchy style that has fresh red currant and black currant fruit as well as pencil lead aromas. While this is a ripe vintage, it remains bright and fresh with gentle, fine tannins. A raspberry fragrance provides a scented, lengthy finish.
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Tamlyn Currin, jancisrobinson.com
Stephan Reinhardt, Wine Advocate
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From 25- to 40-year-old vines on warm gravelly soil, the 2018 Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil Les Rouillères opens with a pure, fresh and elegant, fruity and floral bouquet with notes of dark fruits, crushed stones and flowers. Medium-bodied but intense and elegant, with a juicy, well-balanced texture, this is a lovely, accessible, clear and refined but also intense Cabernet Franc with fine tannins and a good, intense finish. 12.5% alcohol. Tasted in May 2021.
Certified organic and biodynamic. 39-year-old Cabernet Franc vines on sand and gravel. Spontaneous fermentation in stainless steel, aged eight months, no oak, racked twice. Total SO2 23 mg/l. Wild strawberries and crushed plums and a wonderful spine of pencil graphite and laurel leaf and tarragon. Seems to have a dark inner glint: obsidian dropped into a bowl of morellos; the long layer-lines of black tourmaline interleaved with eucalyptus. Stratified, slender tannins running in parallel. And then, on the lingering finish the richness and ripeness of those wild strawberries and plums come back to seduce. At The Wine Society price, VGV . (TC)