3 | Wine | Loire | Page 2

"A stunning, dry Vouvray (although I suspect there is a touch of residual sugar), this 2011 possesses a flamboyant nose of peaches, orange marmalade, lemon custard and spring flowers. Medium-bodied, elegant, and totally satisfying both intellectually and on the palate, this white wine should drink nicely for several years." -Robert Parker

"Lean and light with apricot and red currant aromas. Pairs well with poultry and spicy food."

"Crisp, stony, grapefruit and citrus notes are present in this light-bodied, dry, mineral-laced Muscadet. Wines such as this are the perfect foil for freshly shucked oysters. Enjoy it over the next 1-2 years."

"Bursts from the glass in an exuberant bouquet of buddleia and apple blossom; quince and intimations of wet stone. This transcends the poise and clarity exhibited by several immediately preceding Clos du Papillon bottlings and suggests that – chronologically speaking – we have moved up into a new echelon of expressiveness. The bitter, piquant notes of toasted nut, quinine, white pepper, and fruit pit here are extremely subtle and integrated into a matrix of lusciously juicy pear, white peach, and quince. A salvia-inducing salinity and scallop-like sweetness ally themselves to the stony mineral elements in this wine’s long finishing colloquy with flowers and fruits, and there is a levity and refreshment – a sheer drinkability – that I have not noticed in previous Baumard Savennieres – particularly pre-2007. Yet there is still ample sense of glycerin-richness and subtle oiliness. The combination of roughly a half percent less alcohol and more expressive acidity renders this drier-tasting than its 2006 and 2007 counterparts. Florent Baumard admits that a lesser percentage of his 2008s went through malo-lactic transformation than in most vintages, though I did not have chance to check precise analytical data on that. This sensational value is a delight to drink now. Whether it will “suffer” on that account a reduced “life span” must remain to be seen, although if anything my intuition is that this will be lovely for a decade, but that you would be foolish to deprive yourself of its short-term pleasure."