Domaine Filliatreau

Domaine Filliatreau Wine Tasting
www.filliatreau.fr

Our second visit to the tastings rooms of this highly regarded domaine just a few minutes outside Samur. Regardless of the wines, the trip is worth it just to see the troglodyte dwelling above the Loire that forms their tasting rooms and cellars. The quality here at the top end remains high. The availability of mature vintages is noteworthy, and overall value is excellent. This was an excellent tasting, jumping around a number of vintages and concentrating on the reds.


Domaine Filliatreau - Samur blanc 2008
15/20 Drink now

Pale, dry, crisp, fruit dominant. Has some of the typical mineral austerity underlying this. Needs to be cold on a hot summers day. Modern in style. Short term keeping.


Domaine Filliatreau - Cabernet de Saumur 2008
14-15/20 Drink now.

Not as much red fruit as one might expect. Very drying on the palate. Refreshing, and clearly meant to accompany food – this is no TV wine. To be served lightly chilled, a good picnic wine. Short term keeping.


Domaine Filliatreau – Château Fouquet “Bio” 2007 (Saumur)
15/20. Short term keeping.

Blackcurrent character, very classic. Some grip and density to this but easy drinking nonetheless. A summer evening red, to drink lightly chilled and young. Light, fruit dominated finish.


Domaine Filliatreau – Cuvée Lena 2006 (Samur-Champigny)
15+/20 Medium term keeping

From magnum. 20-30 year old vines, mainly bought in fruit since 1986. Not particularly dissimilar from the previous wine tasted, maybe just a little more gamey in character belying its age and better vintage.


Domaine Filliatreau – La Grand Vignolle 2007 (Samur-Champigny)
15+/20. Medium term keeping.

Vineyard from the top of the hill – the roof of the caves and tasting room! This wine was targeted at the American market originally, but did so well it has been released in Europe too … with one big difference. Counter-intuitively, the American bottling is not filtered, where as the European bottling is! Meaty, animal character. Altogether a more serious wine, palpable tannin with supple fruit and a more rigid structure. Will keep.


Domaine Filliatreau – La Grand Vignolle 1995 (Samur-Champigny)
16+/20. Plateau, will keep medium term.

Perhaps a useful reminder at this point how well these wines can age and develop in the right years. This is fully mature now, and lovely. Rather rustic Bordeaux-like, all cedar on the nose. Tannins are still ample and edgy but with sufficient developed red fruit body and plentiful acidity to balance this out. Long finish.


Domaine Filliatreau – Vielles Vignes 2007 (Samur-Champigny)
15-16/20. For dinking in the medium term.

Not a great year for their flagship estate wine. It still maintains the classic Cabernet Franc character with ample structure but lacks the concentration of greater year. For drinking younger than previous vintages.


Domaine Filliatreau – Vielles Vignes 1996 (Samur-Champigny)
16+/20. Will keep ~5+ years.

Gamey, meaty, smokey. Tertiary characters seem to take about 10 years to develop in these Cabernet Franc wines, and this has certainly reached that stage now. Good levels of acidity and firm tannin indicates this still has some years ahead of it, though I think this is approaching its peak. A complex fine wine. Partner with some mature hard cheese.


Domaine Filliatreau – Vielles Vignes “Affutée” 2005 (Samur-Champigny)
16++/20 now, with significant future potential. A 20-year wine.

The outstanding 2005 vintage of this wine has only just been released in the past few weeks. Eighteen months ageing in oak barrels, 4 months new, 4 months 1 year old and 4 months in 2 year old. Oak unsurprisingly dominates the nose currently and is not yet fully integrated into the wine, with a bitter cherry character. However, there are layers of sweet red fruit behind this giving considerable weight and depth. Very ripe tannins, but in balance with the wine. This is clearly a wine with huge future potential, and given it is already 4 years old without a hint of age I would imagine it will see its 20th birthday in with ease. To put away and forget about.


Domaine Filliatreau – Château Fouquet “12 Fûts” 1995 (Saumur)
17/20. Keep a further 5-10 years.

In my opinion, “12 Fûts” is the best Filliatreau wine, and this is a wonderful bottle from an excellent year. It originally spent 18 months in barrel. Very open, intense, classic mature characters of cedar and tobacco. Tannin beautifully balanced, substantial opulent mature red fruit core. A wine of significant complexity and weight, with large tears still running down the inside of the glass. Years of enjoyable drinking ahead of it. Best accompanied by a fine cigar. Bargain price (€15.50).


Domaine Filliatreau – Lena 1989 (Côteaux de Samur)
16-17/20. No hurry to drink.

What a wonderful surprise to finish the tasting – a fine example of a mature sweet Chenin Blanc. Pale gold colour, pure crystalline aromas of peach and marzipan. Sweet palate but with high acidity, I suspect this may well have been even sweeter than it tasted in residual sugar terms. Not overly cloying or luscious, but a great palate cleaner at the end of such a tasting. Long, complex finish. Harvested on the last day before Christmas, simply because the workers were all due to leave on holiday! Wines like this from Chenin Blanc and sufficient acidity (as in this case) tend to be relatively immortal. Again, a relative bargain at €18.80/75cl bottle.

Holiday wines

Domaine des Forges – Bourgueil Cuvee Vielles Vignes 1996 (Loire, France)
16/20 Drink now - 2014
Decanted immediately beforehand. An interesting example of a fully mature Bourgueil, from a producer that I haven’t encountered before. Light orange rim, retaining a dark core. Open nose reminiscent of a rustic Bordeaux – cedar and tobacco notes. Tannic palate, balanced, with a seam of black fruit remaining underneath. Mature and slightly smokey in character. Drying finish. It is an interesting wine, but more for academic interest. I’m not sure this is the best example, despite the good vintage. Served at room temperature, which was perhaps a little too warm (the reds of Samur and Bourgueil are usually served a degree or two cooler than this, even when mature). Given the level of tannin remaining, I think this is a wine for the long haul but I find it difficult to see it developing into anything finer than this. It’s certainly not going to fade in a hurry. The rusticity in the tannins needs to be carefully matched to food and personally I felt this was the perfect foil for the fromage!


Château de Varenne – Savennières 2004 (Loire, France)
17+/20 Drink 2014 – 2020+++?
This was undoubtedly the wine of the week, and more than anything made me determined to revisit the wines of the Loire. Served just cool, I swear that many would mistake this as a red wine in one of Reidal’s opaque tasting glasses such was the depth of concentration and flavour. Pale gold in colour, with a nose overlaid by a touch of dark oak. Underneath this was a wine with considerable momentum, and concentration – controlled power, of the like I have only ever previously encountered in Grand Cru Chablis or Burgundy. Weighty, and majestic with intense minerality. This is already five years old but seems like an infant. The oak is subtle, but could yet marry into the wine better. The fruit is monolithic and yet kept light by the high acidity, with hints of peach and marzipan on the palate. The finish is suitably long and piercing. 14% alcohol, hidden very well and particularly high for such a cool climate. I wouldn’t touch another bottle of this for at least another five years and given the ability of Chenin Blanc to age I’d wager this wine has a decade or two of development ahead of it. Very fine.


Domaine de la Rectorie – Col del Bast 1999 (Collioure, France)
16.5-17/20 Drink now-2014
With dinner at Château Cocove. Not decanted. Mature rim and core beginning to lose some colour too. Wonderful open nose, deeply impressive. Tertiary (Mouvedre?) characters of dried meats, game, light spices – reminiscent of Banyuls, it’s fortified brother from the same vineyard area. Palate almost as impressive, fine grain tannins with a rich core if drying somewhat. Good acidity keeps this fresh and very good length on the finish. This is very fine, and evolved over the evening before fading a little. I think this is fully mature, probably in the middle of its plateau and although it may keep up to another five years, I can’t imagine it will improve any further, and why would you want to keep it? Enjoy it now – this is easily comparable to a good Mouvedre-based Châteauneuf-du-Paper or Bandol in its own way. Fine.


Domaine Weinbach – Pinot Gris, Cuvée Ste Catherine, Clos des Capucins 2006 (Alsace, France)
16.5-17/20 Drink now – 2014(+)
With dinner at Château Cocove. Not cold, cellar cool and just the right temperature. Certainly the best Pinot Gris tasted so far this year, quite monumental. Although 2006 was a poor year for Alsace, this wine just goes to show what a top producer can do with their top vineyard. Light gold colour, very open, classic and pronounced varietal nose. Pure, delineated. Palate concentrated, deep, balanced and pure. None of the mushroom character from the rot that so troubled this vintage of Alsatian wines. Fleshy, almost (but not quite) oily weight on the palate. Very pure classic fruit character, this would be a great varietal wine for a blind tasting. Good medium length finish. 15% alcohol, but hidden quite well. Given the quantity of tartaric acid crystals in the bottom of this bottle, I would say that there will be ample freshness to keep this wine going for many years to come. This is a great example of the grape, but so heavy and powerful it will divide drinkers and those not accustomed to it may find this character too much for them. Fine.

Cahors History

Clos de Gamot 1978 (Cahors, France)
16.5/20, mainly for curiosity and longevity! Drink now.

Birthday dinner at Gee’s, Oxford. Not decanted. Clos de Gamot has historically been the most distinguished domaine in Cahors, making very traditional Malbec wines from ancient vines. I’ve been familiar with the estate since the mid-1990s, but this was a rare and wonderful opportunity to try a vintage from the era that put this estate on the map (from when they first auctioned off old vintages over a decade ago). A real piece of vinous history. I didn’t have very high expectations, but was very surprised at how well it showed.

Mature orange rim with very pale core. Open nose, surprisingly so, very akin to a rustic, mature Bordeaux. Complex, gamey and cedar notes. Palate thinning out, little fine tannin left and just an anaemic softness remaining. Dry and delicate. Opened up then faded away in the glass over the evening. Difficult to match to food, probably would have been best with some plain beef or light/medium hard cheese. Well worth tracking down. One bottle remains. It is fading but isn’t going to fall off it’s plateau in a hurry. Fine.

Châteauneuf-du-Pape

Domaine Bois de Boursan - Châteauneuf-du-Pape 1999 (Rhône, France)

16.5/20 Drink now 2012

Still maintaining a deep colour with very open nose of rustic, meaty notes with a good dose of Brett. To my mind that adds to this wine, but I know it won’t be to everyone’s liking. Full bodied, ample drying tannins with a dusky finish to it. Very good. On the plateau, drink up.Wonderful value given this was picked up for under 10 Euros at a French supermarket a few years ago. I recently saw a younger vintage of the same wine for sale through Adnams for twice this. Given the high standard of this generic Châteauneuf, I'd be very interested to try their top wine "Cuvée Felix".