From: Coteaux du Giennois, Loire, France
Varietal: 100% Sauvignon Blanc
Taste: Overall, this Sauvignon Blanc is a gorgeous, everyday gem that’s immediately pleasurable and shows off the kind of freshness and minerality you wouldn’t necessarily expect from a bottle of this price point. You’ll find notes of ebullient, rounded citrus like grapefruit and lemon and a hint of quince and white flowers. It’s zesty on the palate with a mineral core and a clean, lingering finish that gives hints of gunflint and a craving for Parisian bistros.
Pairing: This will happily pair with smoked fish, a seafood platter, or a Crottin de Chavignol (we highly recommend looking for the cheese!). Additional ideas for pairing include serving this with something like a Smoked Trout Salad, Cucumber, and Roasted Pepper Sandwich (check out the recipe below), smoked trout with a lemon-chive sauce, asparagus frittata, asparagus served with a mustard vinaigrette, a classic tart made with goat cheese, tarragon, and asparagus, fish cakes, fish tacos, fried halibut, sushi, seared scallops and herb-marinated seared tofu.
Smoked Trout Salad, Cucumber and Roasted Pepper Sandwich
By Martha Rose Shulman
About. Emmanuel Couet is the 5th generation to run this estate, taking over from his father in 1998. Coteaux du Giennois is a smaller, less prestigious appellation directly north of Pouilly-Fume and across the river from Sancerre. Here, they produce Sauvignon Blanc much like their neighbors, but in a fashion less dense and more approachable. There is a small amount of red and rose produced (usually of Pinot Noir), however the dry crisp whites as we see here are the hallmark.
This wine comes from hillside vines with clay-limestone soil strewn with pebbles and sharp, abrasive flints. The wine is made from Sauvignon Blanc grapes between 10-50 years old. During the harvest, the grapes are harvested naturally at 12 - 13 ° then gently pressed; the juice thus obtained is statically settled for about 24 hours. Then comes alcoholic fermentation, which is carried out under strict temperature control (15-18 ° C) thanks to the thermoregulation of the tanks. The wine is then aged for a few months on its fine lees until bottling.
About the vintage.
From Decanter’s Jim Budd regarding the 2022 vintage in the Loire Valley. (June 5, 2023)
‘2022 is a very good quality vintage across the board. Some are hailing it as one of the great years – time will tell.’
