Barberry Garden

8.9

Wafting with scents of chamomile, boiled nettle, wet pebbles, marzipan, and yellow fruits, it's herbal, mineral and almost full-bodied. The aftertaste is long and a bit bitter. Demanding style yet not in a good way.

Tasted on 2023-07-08 — 9 months ago

Chris Scanlan

Sales Amy Atwood Imports

9.0

She's temperamental. And expressive. It ain't no a Billy Joel Song; it's a Soings en Sologne, sung by the son of a son of a viticulture (well maybe only the cousin). Very fucking cool wine. Unique for this region. Kind of Sebastian Riffault-like in his rule breaking to Sancerre, but perhaps more... tame. Oxidative for this vintage, maybe that's consistent? Tastes like there's some skin contact on the romorantin, a roller coaster of acidity and sapidity across the tongue, and Menu Pineau, I can find it if I look. If you don't like oxidative wine, you probably won't appreciate this. But I judge a wine whether it's empty or not, and this one didn't stand a chance. Tastes better when it's warmed up and breathed for an hour. vintage is technically 2012 -not on label. Wife (New Zealander) Heidi Kuka makes the eye-catchingly, ornate almost Maori-like tribal tattoos for the labels. Julien Courtois is able to knock it out of the park on occasion, but mostly, he makes very good, expressive and interesting, but most importantly drinkable wine from the western Loire. — 8 years ago

Max Mackinnon

9.3

Breakfast outside the terminal — 9 years ago