2017 Domaine Valette - Macon Chaintre V.V.

This is the earlier picking/younger-vine selection from the Grand Cru Halenberg. For those of you twisted enough to understand German wine law and the VDP, this would be the estate’s “Spätlese Trocken” if they were allowed to label it as such.

As with the Grand Cru, the wine is powerful and dense, supremely mineral and forceful. As with the “Frühtau” it is also not a wine to underestimate. This is a wine that one can cellar and with 5-10+ years it shows the depth of its material.

This is the new Romorantin, decidedly not what was generally found a generation ago (which tended to be an acid, austere wine often with oxidative notes). This cuvée has a remarkable nose, akin to high-toned Riesling for some and Loire Chenin for others—a dense wine with layers of flavors reminiscent of apricots and baked apples and other autumn fruits. Bracing, lifted, long, and altogether distinctive. Vines average 35 years of age; the wine is raised in tank on its fine lees and bottled in the spring following harvest, usually before malolactic has a chance to take place.