Wine Notes. Pouilly-Fume, Domaine Seguin These wine notes were created on 18-Jul-2021.

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Pouilly-Fume, Domaine Seguin 2012

Totally reliable, very fresh, classically styled sauvignon from the Seguin family. Sixth-generation Philippe Seguin's immaculate cellar is at Le Bouchot. There are few domaines where you get to taste every vat; fewer still where every vat is good.

Product Code LO10411 Dominant Grape Sauvignon Blanc

Product Type White Wine Drink Dates 2013 to 2016

Origin Sancerre Pouilly Alcohol Level 12.5%

Style 1 (of 9): Bone dry Closure type Cork, natural

Vintage 2012 Price £ No longer for sale

Producer : Seguin

This 17-hectare domaine is very much a family run affair, just outside the town of Pouilly-sur-Loire in the hamlet of Bouchot. Philippe Seguin and his father Hervé are in charge and along with 3 workers manage all of the vineyards and winemaking operation. The entire property, including cellars, is immaculately kept and the Pouilly-Fumé here is a consistently good expression of fine sauvignon blanc, grown on limestone soils.

Seguin’s wine has been a regular Society wine champion and achieves finesse and minerality even in warmer vintages. Interestingly here, machine harvesting is the order of the day showing just how advanced this wine industry technology has become. Critics say it removes both character and finesse from the resulting wine. Not here, as the excellent ‘house’ white and very special cuvéeprestige display.

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The Society's Exhibition Pouilly-Fumé 2011

Based in the village of Les Berthiers, Domaine Landrat-Guyollot is a family property run with meticulous care and attention to detail by modest and exacting Sophie Landrat-Guyollot. Around two thirds of the blend came from silex (flint) soils, which brings minerality and aromatic lift, with the balance from clay soils which bring body and texture.

Producer : Landrat-Guyollot

Domaine Landrat-Guyollot is situated in the village of Les Berthiers in Pouilly-Fumé, in the central vineyards of the Loire. It has been owned by the same family for ten generations, unusually passed on from mother to daughter. The current owner is Sophie Landrat-Guyollot.

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Half bottle of Chateau Bouscaut Blanc Pessac-Leognan 2008

Classic white Bordeaux with the apricot richness of semillon and full, rounded flavour balanced by a delightful clean finish.

Product Code BW3522 Dominant Grape Sauvignon Blanc Semillon

Origin Dry White Bordeaux Alcohol Level 13.5%

Producer : Château Bouscaut

Dating back to the 17th century, Château Bouscaut is the largest vineyard in the Graves commune of Cadaujac, and has been a Graves Cru Classé since 1953. In 1979, it was bought by the far-sighted Lucien Lurton, whose family also owns several other impressive Bordeaux properties, such as Brane-Cantenac in Margaux and Château Climens in Barsac.

The 1990s saw many major improvements to the Bouscaut estate, such as extensive vineyard replanting and installing a new barrel maturation room and concrete tank room, and in 1999 the family also purchased the neighbouring property, Lamothe-Bouscaut . Since 2005, the properties have been run by Lucien’s daughter Sophie and her husband Laurent Cogombles, and with unassuming charm they have made Bouscaut an original wine well worth following.

The red is slightly unusual for Graves in that – at 55% – merlot makes up the majority of the blend. The remainder is 40% cabernet sauvignon and 5% malbec, and the wine is aged for 18 months in oak, just under half of which is new oak. This rich, full-flavoured red can be enjoyed from five years of age and will continue to mature for fifteen years, sometimes longer.

The white – a 50/50 split between semillon and sauvignon blanc, which matures for 12 months in 40% new oak – also repays keeping .

Lamothe-Bouscaut, which produces both a red and a white, has become the second wine. The 9ha of vines here have an average age of 30 years. The white has a high percentage of semillon, and the red is – like Bouscaut –

predominantly merlot.

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Greywacke Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2013

Round and gentle-textured Kiwi sauvignon made by the master of this style, Kevin Judd at Dog Point Winery, from grapes sourced from mature vinmeyards in and around the Brancott Valley and the central Wairau Plains. A beautiful, mineral and peachy sauvignon blanc which stands out for its purity, class and extremely long flavour.

Product Code NZ6971 Dominant Grape Sauvignon Blanc

Origin New Zealand Alcohol Level 13.5%

Style 2 (of 9): Dry Closure type Screwcap

Producer : Greywacke

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Bellbird Spring Block Eight Waipara Sauvignon Blanc 2012

A really individual sauvignon from a small producer, only 4,000 cases made in each vintage. The grapes are from the family’s own plot, and the use of indigenous yeasts and old oak in the fermentation create a very structured wine, rich in spicy complexity.

Product Code NZ6881 Dominant Grape Sauvignon Blanc

Origin New Zealand Alcohol Level 12.5%

Style 2 (of 9): Dry Closure type Screwcap

Pouilly-Fumé, Château de Tracy 2011

The challenging conditions of 2011, in particular its cool, wet summer, are not apparent here. Poised and racy, but with plenty of stuffing. A lovely sauvignon nose, infused with citrus and blackcurrant leaf, leads into a richness on the palate, perfectly offset by fresh acidity.

Producer : Château de Tracy - See next page.

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Producer : Château de Tracy

An historic estate with records dating back to 1396, the Château de Tracy is owned by the Comtesse d'Estutt d'Assay, whose ancestors, the Stutt family came from Scotland in the 15th century to help the future King Charles Vll of France during the Hundred Years War.

The imposing fairytale château is situated at Tracy-sur-Loire and would not look out of place in the Médoc and is certainly the grandest in these Central vineyards of the Loire. The estate has been thoroughly rejuvenated in recent years and is producing an excellent range of wines.

The late renowned consultant and Professor of Oenology, Denis Dubourdieu was winemaking consultant here for many years and his influence shows in the purity of the wines and in their more lifted aromatic profile.

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Château La Garde Blanc, Pessac-Léognan 2011

A tiny production of 100% sauvignon offering lovely fresh tropical fruit bouquet and instant appeal.

Product Code BW4491 Dominant Grape Sauvignon Blanc

Producer : Château La Garde

This Pessac-Léognan property dates back to the 18th century, with viticulture practised here since the 19th, and from 1990 it has been under the control of highly respected négociants, Vignobles Dourthe.

Of the 53 hectares of vineyards, 50 are dedicated to red grapes: mostly merlot, on sandy clay, and cabernet sauvignon, which is planted with a little cabernet franc and petit verdot on deep gravel soils. There are also 3.6 hectares of sauvignon blanc and sauvignon gris grown on clay in a cooler section of the vineyard. All grapes are hand picked.

The white is both vinified and aged in barrels, whereas the red is fermented in stainless-steel tanks before being aged in oak for 12 to 14 months. The result is an impressively reliable modern claret with velvety concentration and dense, dark fruit flavours.

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Château La Garde Blanc, Pessac-Léognan 2011

A tiny production of 100% sauvignon offering lovely fresh tropical fruit bouquet and instant appeal.

Producer : Château La Garde

This Pessac-Léognan property dates back to the 18th century, with viticulture practised here since the 19th, and from 1990 it has been under the control of highly respected négociants, Vignobles Dourthe.

Of the 53 hectares of vineyards, 50 are dedicated to red grapes: mostly merlot, on sandy clay, and cabernet sauvignon, which is planted with a little cabernet franc and petit verdot on deep gravel soils. There are also 3.6 hectares of sauvignon blanc and sauvignon gris grown on clay in a cooler section of the vineyard. All grapes are hand picked.

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Sancerre Les Monts Damnes Cotat 2007

30-year-old vines and the steep south/south-west facing slope contribute to the concentration in this wine. Very mineral, almost austere, on the palate, with tremendous depth, poise, and length. Decant now to show it at its best.

Producer : François Cotat

To place François Cotat in Sancerre is geographically accurate but unhelpful. The vines he inherited from his father, Paul, lie on the chalky, mineral slopes of the lugubriously named Monts Damnés in the village of Chavignol, deep in the central vineyards of the Loire.

Here the neo-Chablisien soil yields unique-tasting, complex, long-lasting sauvignons, not remotely redolent of the gooseberries or pear-drops more associated with the region.

Now and again, they are considered too ‘atypical’ even to be labelled as Sancerre. Nevertheless these are among the Loire’s hottest cellaring prospects.

Minimal intervention is the mantra in this tiny, unglamorous cellar. The wines are fermented and matured in old oak tonneaux, and neither cold-settled, fined nor filtered before bottling, which is done according to the phases of the moon.

The wines crave oxygen, so don’t be afraid to decant, even well in advance, and try to keep a little back to sample over subsequent days for a taste of future potential.

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Château Carbonnieux Blanc, Pessac-Léognan 2011

The classic dry white Bordeaux with a particularly lovely bouquet. Carbonnieux is one of the best known properties in the district. We think it is at its most delicious in the freshness of youth.