La Taille Aux Loups Venise Cuvée Parcellaire Monopole 2021

The nose comes across as sweet, but the wine itself is strikingly salty.

A second view of a bottle of La Taille Aux Loups Venise Cuvée Parcellaire Monopole 2021.

Producer

Domaine de la Taille aux Loups was started by Jacky Blot, previously a wine broker, when he acquired 8 hectares of old vines in 1989. The domaine's own pages describe 25 hectares of very old Chenin vines on south-facing limestone slopes beside the Loire and the Cher, with wines made in Vouvray and Montlouis-sur-Loire.

Site

The Clos de Venise is a walled, single-hectare clos on the Première Côte in Vouvray, with woods to the north and east and a steep slope facing due south toward the Loire. The soil is clay with flint (argile à silex) over limestone bedrock. The bottle is labelled Vin de France, and the source explains that wine from this Vouvray site would need to be made in Vouvray to carry the appellation.

Vinification

This wine is made in oak barriques. At the domaine, almost all wines are vinified in barriques the domaine puts into service itself, each barrel is kept for only 8 to 10 years, and about 10% of the barrels are replaced every year. Blot avoided malolactic fermentation.

In the glass

The nose shows green grape with a faint touch of bubblegum, yet the palate is intensely salty. It has a slight spritz. The colour is somewhat deep and the acidity is very high, and I could think of nothing but Loire Chenin.

Sources

Korean page