RSJ Wine Offer April 2017 – Roussely, Billard and Mabileau

The Roussely Case     £128.40

Vincent Roussely is a leading grower in Touraine and his property is close to the famous Château de Chenonceau. He works organically and has a very esteemed reputation in the region.

3 bottles 2015 Touraine Sauvignon ‘Le Clos’ 

3 bottles 2015 Touraine Gamay ‘Canaille’ 

2 bottles 2014 Touraine Chenonceaux Blanc [old Sauvignon vines] 

2 bottles 2014 Touraine Chenonceaux Rouge [old Côt [Malbec] & Cabernet Franc] 

1 bottle  2014 Irreductible Blanc [‘Natural Wine’ from old parcel of Sauvignon] 

1 bottle 2014 Irreductible Rouge[ ‘Natural Wine’ from old parcel of Côt, Cab Franc & Gamay]

 

The Chinon Case        £140.00

Jérôme Billard is rapidly developing a stellar reputation for his wines at the Domaine de la Noblaie. Like Vincent Roussely, who is a great friend, he works organically and his wines are much sort after.

 

2 bottles 2015 Chinon ‘Le Temps des Cerises’

2 bottles 2014 Chinon ‘Chiens-Chiens’

2 bottles 2014 Chinon ‘Les Blancs Manteaux’

2 bottles 2014 Chinon ‘Pierre de Tuf’

2 bottles 2015 Chinon ‘Goutte de Rosé’

2 bottles 2016 Chinon Blanc ‘La Grande Ourse’

 

The Mabileau Case    £172.80

Frédéric Mabileau has for a number of years had a reputation as one of the greatest growers in the Loire. Based in St Nicolas de Bourgueil, he works organically and such is the international demand for his wines that they are on allocation. We are delighted that with our long association with him means that we continue to receive an allocation from him.

 

3 bottles 2015 St Nicolas de Bourgueil ‘Les Rouillères’

2 bottles 2014 Anjou Cabernet Sauvignon

2 bottles 2015 Bourgueil ‘Racines’

1 bottles 2014 St Nicolas de Bourgueil ‘Eclipse’

3 bottles 2015 Chenin des Rouillères

1 bottle 2014 Chenin du Puy, Saumur

 

 

Eastern Loire Case     £150.00

Laurent & Claude Champault make wonderful wines in Sancerre and they also have some vines in neighbouring Menetou Salon. With their good friend Sébastien Treuillet from nearby Pouilly, we offer the following:

 

3 bottles 2015 Sancerre ‘Les Pierris’

3 bottles 2015 Menetou Salon ‘Clos de la Cure’

3 bottles Pouilly Fumé, Domaine Treuillet

3 bottles Sancerre Rouge ‘Les Pierris’

 

To order please contact:

tom.king@rsj.uk.com

Tel : 020 7928 4554

RSJ

33 Coin Street 

London

SE1 9NR

 

RSJ Summer Sauvignon Special

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 Sauvignon Blanc and a few raindrops

 

Mixed case offer: £120.00 per case

We have put together a mixed case featuring 4 different styles of Loire Sauvignon from 4 of our favourite growers – all ideal for drinking this Summer and beyond!

3 bottles 2012 Touraine ‘Le Clos’  Domaine Roussely, Vincent Roussely

Vincent is a dynamic young vigneron based at Angé in Touraine. He did part of his training in the New World and came back to take over family vineyards and works organically. This wine has a lovely freshness and ripe rounded fruit. His wines have been hugely popular since we started importing from him 3 years ago.

3 bottles 2012 Sauvignon, Domaine de Bablut, Christophe Daviau

Christophe was one of the first vignerons in the Loire to work organically and he has since started working biodynamically. Christophe also had a spell working in Australia in the 1990’s. This Sauvignon has a lovely refined elegance.

3 bottles 2012  Sancerre ‘Les Pierris’, Roger Champault et Fils

Roger’s sons, Laurent & Claude, have taken over the running of this family property at Champtin in Sancerre and have scaled new heights with this delicious wine full of ripe fruit and a lovely balance.

3 bottles 2012 Pouilly Fumé, Domaine Treuillet, Sebastien Treuillet

Sebastien has only a few hectares of vines but is rapidly establishing himself as a real star in this famous appellation and this wine has picked up numerous awards and commendations at wine fairs and tastings this year.This wine has a lovely clearcut minerality and is beautifully balanced.

To order please contact: 
tom.king@rsj.uk.com 

RSJ Restaurant, 33 Coin Street , London , SE1 9NR
Tel: 020 7928 4554

Autumn tasting and dinner dates

 Autumn colours in the Layon Valley

Wine tasting with three course dinner  

Both events start at 7.15pm

 

Part of the cellar...

Monday 10th October ‘Cellar Raid’ £48.65

We will be looking at both red and white wines from our archives from the past two decades including:

1997 Vouvray Sec, Catherine and Didier Champalou

1995 Cuvée Moelleuse, Catherine and Didier Champalou

2000 Saumur Champigny, ‘Terres Chaudes', Thierry Germain

1989 Chinon, Vieilles Vignes, Domaine de la Perrière, Jean & Christophe Baudry

Jean-Paul Mabileau picking Chenin Blanc for Frédérick Mabileau's Saumur Blanc

Monday 21st November  ‘ Touraine East to West’  £48.65

An opportunity to taste some really interesting wines from this attractive region of the Loire including wines from Bourgueil and St Nicolas de Bourgueil as well as exciting growers such as Vincent Roussely and Thierry Puzelat who are lifting the wine making in the region to new heights. Amongst the wines to be tasted are Puzelat’s ‘In Cot We Trust’ and Jean-Paul Mabileau’s 1997 St Nicolas Cuvée Prestige.

For reservations, please contact:

Tom King

RSJ Restaurant

33 Coin Street

London SE1 9NR                   
Tel: 020-7928 4554  e-mail: tom.king@rsj.uk.com

Vincent Roussely's Touraine wines now@RSJ

Vincent Roussely

We are delighted that our first order from young and exciting Touraine producer, Vincent Roussely, arrived today. Following a visit by Jim to Vincent just before Christmas 2008 (see Jim's Loire here), I tasted Vincent's wines during the 2009 Salon des Vins de Loire at Angers in early February and was impressed both by the wines and by Vincent.

We included his 2008 Touraine Sauvignon in the Sauvignon Blanc tasting on 11th May and it was well liked as was his 2008 Gamay that we bought out for the main course to see how it would match with the salmon. This confirmed once again that a lightish, slightly chilled Loire red is a good match for meaty fish like salmon. Following this tasting we placed an order with Vincent.

He has vines in the Cher Valley at Saint-Georges-sur-Cher and Angé. His 2008 Sauvignon Blanc is on the restaurant list at £18.50 a bottle and 2008 Gamay at £18.95.

These two wines will normally retail at £8.25 a bottle but as a special introductory offer we are currently selling them at £7.50 a bottle.

Sauvignon Blanc tasting@RSJ 11th May 2009

The main focus of this tasting was on Sauvignon Blanc away from the classics of Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé.

2007 Sauvignon Blanc, VDP du Val de Loire, Domaine de Bablut

Aperitif: 2007 Sauvignon Blanc VDP Val du Loire, Domaine de Bablut, Christophe Daviau

There was a welcome glass of Christophe Daviau’s Sauvignon Blanc. Coming from the western part of the Loire in Anjou this tends to be richer, rounder with an accent on tropical fruit – certainly less citric and mineral than the examples from Touraine and the Central Vineyards.

As we were a small group this evening we all sat around one large table in the basement of the RSJ. This was certainly a format that worked well on the evening with people feeling that they were able to contribute more easily to the discussion than when we have larger numbers. It may well be that this is an alternative format that we can offer from time to time, although the price may have to be a little higher to cover costs.

We started with three wines served blind. Not with the intention to challenge people to identify the wines but to answer one question – which of the three wines do you prefer.

2007 Les Pierris, Sancerre, Roger Champault et Fils

The three wines served blind:

2007 Les Pierris, Sancerre, Roger Champault et fils
The Sancerre had attractive weight and richness with the wine benefiting from a year in bottle.

2008 Sauvignon Blanc, AC Touraine, Domaine Sauvète
This was quite aggressively catty aromatically – some tasters also smelt elderflower – with a lean and lemony palate.

2008 Le Petiot, AC Touraine Sauvignon, Vincent Ricard
A little more concentration and weight than the previous wine with grapefruit flavours.

Of the three wines there was a preference by one vote for Le Petiot followed by the Sancerre and only one supporter of the Sauvète. All of the 2008s in the tasting are likely to take on more weight over the next three to six months. Most of them have only been in bottle for a short time.

•••

Then we served the next three with the first course.

2008 Clos Roussely, AC Touraine Sauvignon, Vincent Roussely
This turned out to be the favourite Sauvignon Blanc of the evening with good richness balanced by a clean, grapefruit finish. This further confirms that Vincent is making some very good wines.

2008 Touraine Sauvignon No2, Clos Roche Blanche
Although well-balanced this has softer acidity than the other Sauvignons having gone through a malolactic fermentation.

2007 Quincy, Domaine des Ballandors
Once again we could see the benefit of a year in bottle giving the wine additional weight and texture with a refreshing citric finish.

First course: Goats cheese, asparagus and red onion tartlet

The voting showed the Clos Roussely as the clear favourite, followed at a distance by the Quincy and then the Clos Roche Blanche. However, there was a general feeling that these three wines found it difficult against the sweetness of the red onion.

•••

We paired two Sauvignon with the main course.

2007 Oneiros Domaine Sauvète and 2008 Trois Chênes, Vinccent Ricard

2007 Oneiros, Touraine Sauvignon, Domaine Sauvète
Oneiros is a step up in the Sauvète range from the straight Touraine Sauvignon. It has attractive gooseberry flavours and some richness.

2008 Les Trois Chênes, AC Touraine Sauvignon, Vincent Ricard
Recently bottled this needs time to open up, although concentration is apparent along with a mineral finish.

Main course: roast organic salmon, samphire, pink fir potato, roast courgettes and beurre blanc.

In the voting Les Trois Chênes was the clear favourite with several fence sitters in this round.

2008 Canaille, Gamay, AC Touraine, Vincent Roussely

Also tried with dinner 2008 Canaille, Touraine Gamay, Vincent Roussely. One of our frequent tasters remarked that a light red would be good with the salmon. By luck we had a bottle of Vincent’s Gamay that we had opened earlier to taste, so we were able to put this suggestion to the test. Indeed Vincent’s juicy, brightly red fruited and spicy Gamay went well with the salmon.

Dessert; iced ginger parfait, poached pear, chocolate sauce and almonds

Glorious harvest weather in Cher Valley

The Cher at Thesée

The weather over the past two days has been sensational. Cool overnight, sun and blue skies during the day with just the odd fluffy cloudy from time to time. The forecast is less promising for later this week. It is so dry at the moment that a little rain would be good.

Happy pickers: Catherine Roussel waving

Clos Roche Blanche
Busy picking Gamay at La Tesnière by hand with a group of experienced pickers, who include some over 70 years old as well as Laurent, a former restaurateur from Brooklyn, New York. “The Gamay is coming in a 12˚ potential,” said Didier Barouillet, co-owner and winemaker. “Overall the level of acidity is a degree higher than last year. The Cabernet is at 13.2% potential alcohol but the acidity is still too high at 7.5. There is a lot of tartaric acid this year because temperatures during the growing period have been lower than the average for the last 30 years. The Côt is at 12.3% with a similar level of acidity. We’ll pick those next week – possibly the Cabernet before the Côt, which is most unusual – normally we always pick the Côt first.”

Small bunch of ripe Gamay

Hope to see Jean-François Merieau, Domaine des Bois Vaudons later this week.

Picking machine in the vineyards of Pouillé.

More news of the 2008 harvest

Harvesting Sauvignon Blanc

Christophe Daviau: Domaine de Bablut, Anjou

Went round the vineyards with Christophe on Thursday. They were harvesting the Sauvignon Blanc for the vin de pays de la Loire. Despite the poor summer the Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon are looking promising, especially with this current spell of generally fine weather. “It will be another 10-14 days before we can start harvesting them,” said Christophe. “At the moment they have about 10˚ potential alcohol and the acidity levels are high.” Next Monday they will have the Grolleau Noir, a local variety, to make Topette, Christophe’s easy drinking, screwcapped red, which is sold in the French market.

Catherine Roussel and Didier Barouillet, Clos Roche Blanche, Touraine
Picking started on Monday 22nd. When I saw them yesterday they had finished the Sauvignon Blanc – unfortunately a tiny harvest this year. Friday morning they started on the Gamay. “The Gamay is really good – very healthy and almost no rot,” said Catherine. When Didier sorted through the grapes he only found five bunches that were rotten.” On Monday morning they will be again be picking Gamay – I hope to get some shots of them harvesting.

Frédéric Mabileau, Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil and Saumur Blanc
Fréderic and Thomas are both very optimistic. “For the Chenin at Le Puy Notre Dame we’ll do the first picking on 6th and 7th October and then the second through the vines 10-14 days later. We’ll start picking the Cabernet Franc on Wednesday 8th October."

Jean-Marie Bourgeois, Henri Bourgeois, Sancerre
“The weather is great at the moment. We will be starting in earnest on Wednesday/Thursday of next week.”

Look out for further updates soon.