2000 Joly Becherelle Savennieres

[VouvrayHead]

$30 13% abv
After an hour or two, this wine opened up beautifully.
A really terrific nose that's very hard to describe except as savennieres-like. I guess I'd say it had a certain floweriness, but not a flower I recognize, with honeyed and lightly oxidized notes.
I really can't describe it better than that, but I just loved the nose on this wine.
Tasting it, there is still a lot of acidity, but it's tempered by dry honey notes and waxy linden notes, maybe a bit of fig and lots of minerality. The finish is remarkably long.
This bottle certainly could hold up much longer, but I also really enjoyed where it is at right now.
Claire and I were discussing the wine. She found it interesting, and enjoyed it, but not nearly as much as I did. She says it just doesn't "taste as good" as say a good quality riesling with similar age on it. I think that's probably true in a hedonistic sense, but I just find these wines sooo "interesting," probably because they are so difficult to describe and so unusual.

I first tried this bottling in 2005, and it is such a different beast right now. Back then it this purely focused laser-beam of mineral and citrus. It's so different now.
That, too, adds to the fact that for me savennieres encapsulates why wine is so stimulating to the mind as well as the tongue and nose.

[TheEngineer]

I've like this wine too and I always serve it well chilled. I was surprised that when Nicolas Joly himself served it in Boston, it was also served very well chilled.

If you like this wine, you will like his Coulee de Serrant too. It is perhaps less refreshing but more dense and complex but it is a bit of a step up in price.

[VouvrayHead]

Tat's interesting... I had it very cold initially, but liked it much better at red wine serving temps. Then again, I tend to drink all my wine (red and white) too warm for most people. Tastes, I suppose.

What was Joly like? Seems a bit insane, though I do like his wine!

[TheEngineer]

Joly was a very engaging person, almost too enthusiastic. For a guy that does this all the time, he was a bit unprepared but just all high energy. Nice person to talk to.