Let’s talk about SAVENNIÈRES!!!! 📣📣
Savennières is a small but mighty appellation (AOC), located in the Anjou subregion of the Loire Valley, France and specializes in still, dry Chenin Blanc wines. 🇫🇷
Its growing environment is apt for producing concentrated and ripe fruit, translating into wines with strong aromatic and flavor intensity and higher alcohol potential. 💪🏻 It’s no wonder this appellation is all about Chenin Blanc; Chenin has naturally higher acidity, which can help lend structure and balance to the final wine. ⚖️ 🙌🏻🙌🏻
The combination of these factors sets the stage for winemakers to produce some truly powerful and age-worthy whites that can improve, gaining complexity (and softening) with some time in the bottle. 🤔 🧐 Savennières has a reputation as a more serious, cerebral wine that is meant to be savored, especially when paired with a creamy seafood dish like Coquilles Saint-Jacques! 😋 🥘
🌿This particular wine is the Nicolas Joly, Clos de la Coulée de Serrant AOC (2019) hailing from the prized enclave of Coulée de Serrant AOC (within Savennières AOC), owned exclusively and farmed biodynamically by the renowned Nicolas Joly.
This wine is surely capable of aging for decades but tonight we opted to sip this golden wine during the golden hour with unseasonably warm, summery temperatures here in Minnesota.
🐝 🍯 In the glass, we found concentrated, layered notes of honey, beeswax, yellow apple, ripe apricot, quince, chamomile, dried & crushed white rose petals, toasted almond, hazelnut, cinnamon stick, nutmeg, acrylic paint, wet stones, salted caramel, & butterscotch.
It has texture (and finish) for days and a coating mouthfeel.
🫣 Its alcohol by volume clocks in at 15%!!! But it’s well-integrated and balanced by a crisp acidity and robust aromas and flavors. 👌 — a day ago


La Zeiran Madrid — a month ago
Very good everyday rioja. Very Smooth, especially since it was 8 years old when it was consumed. Pleasant nose with lovely berry taste. Pairs well with a variety of food , especially reds meats. Drank in August 2026 — 2 months ago
Splash decanted and enjoyed over the course of a couple hours. The 2014 “Viña Bosconia” pours a deep garnet/purple with a near opaque core; medium viscosity with moderate staining of the tears. On the nose, the wine is developing with notes of Montmorency cherry, dill, toasted coconut, tobacco, leather and dry earth. On the palate, the wine is dry with medium+ tannin and medium+ acid. Confirming the notes from the nose. The finish is long and elegant. Delicious already in its relative youth and there’s a long, bright future ahead. Drink now with patience through 2044. — a month ago
15 is a vintage I like — a hot year. This time I also drank it in two sessions: half the bottle from a decanter at the restaurant, and the remaining half the next morning.
Right after opening: the floral notes were so beautiful. Violets lingered around the rim of the glass like vines, and the tart plum and red fruit flavors were very sweet. Many people say sandalwood — I didn’t get it.
The next morning: fruit, game, wood smoke, and a savory, saline hint of seafood sauce. Grand Echézeaux still has more structure than Echézeaux. In the same vintage it has earthy and cedar notes; this one is a little lighter, not as muscular — which is the style I like. It has backbone, but the backbone isn’t that hard.
Palate: full-bodied, powerful, and concentrated. The tannins are firm but fine-grained. Even on the second day the acidity was excellent, and the finish was extremely long. Love it. — 20 days ago
R. Lopez de Heredia, Viña Cubillo, Rioja Crianza 2017
This is one of the many bottles we brought back in the trunk of our car from Spain and France after our summer stay over there. The nose shows dark berries, prune, meat juice, autumn forest soil after rain, oak. This is rather complex and layered. The palate is very well made and defined. There is a good acid drive, some nice dark berries and dark cherry notes all along, some width, some spices, a good tannic wall in the rear, disturbing ever so slighlty the mouthfeel by leaving a grippy, drying layer over a long, fruity, spicy finish which goes on for quite a while. The meat juice note that was showing in the nose makes a come back in the very end, adding a savoury, umami touch which is pretty nice, I must say. It's not at the level of the viña tondonia 2011 I tasted a while ago (and it costs only a fraction of the price) but it's very good Rioja Crianza in its own right. Not in-your-face, fresh and balanced winemaking style. Great effort !
90 out of 100 — a month ago
I'm no expert, but I think it will be even better in a few years, but not that much. — 21 days ago
Not quite as great as I was expecting. May be a bit past its prime. Tasted mostly plum and some dark berries. The finish was a bit weak. — 18 days ago
Jeroen Koenen
💯 for the privilige and the scarcity. Incomparable nose of chocolate figs, dates and raisins. Port/sherry notes! On the palate this is very lively, yet quite acidic.
To me, this is more intriguing and interesting than tasty… — 5 days ago