Gift Guide #2: Five Weighty Whites
In order to take the strain out of your Chrimbus preparations, we’re making suggestive gift guides in addition to our christmas cases we’ve put together. Next up, five Weighty Whites for those who prefer a little more flesh on the bones of their winter drinking. These are wines that all undoubtedly evolve over their time in the glass; and would certainly benefit from decanting (into an actual decanter or simply into the gravy boat* and back into the bottle would do) to let them really strut their stuff.
We use the word ‘weighty’ carefully here; we’re not big fans of a white with more butter than the bread sauce, rather ones that tow the highwire balancing act between a richer texture and a bright line of acidity & savoury salinity.
*please do this before you’ve already filled it with gravy.
‘Weighty Whites’
A young winemaker who has taken over the family vines; Vincent Alexis is working wonders in an area otherwise a little set in its ways. Here he works his Chardonnay gently, pressed directly, aged for 9 months in 3 year old barrels. Nashi pear and flat peaches, body big enough to butt heads with the big dishes over the holiday, but with vibrant acidity and a freshness that’ll come slicing through the bread sauce, singing.
Pelicas comes from a single north-east facing plot of 50 year old Albarino vines, 1 km from the Atlantic. Whole bunches are foot pressed and the majority of stems removed by hand. The wine is then macerated on skins for 3 weeks during the fermentation.
Aged in large, clay amphora for just under a year. No sulphites or filtration. This one sings of its view of the ocean: bristling with salinity & citrus, preserved lemons & limes, tense & fresh initially before opening up and just running across the headland for days.
Biodynamically farmed at the mouth of the Loire valley. One of the top cuvees from Aymeric Hilaire and Mélanie Cunin out in their micro-appellation of Saumur Puy Notre Dame. This wine has quietly emerged over the last ten years as one of the great dry Chenins of Saumur. Rich and full-bodied, with hints of grapefruit, blood orange. Balanced with the saline, mineral acidity for which the region is adored.
A classic St Joseph blend of Marsanne & Roussanne, farmed biodynamically by Jean Delobre in the prestigious Southern Rhone appellation. A treacherous 350m climb from the road to the vines above, hairpins not for the faint of heart. A tense balancing act here between generous, fleshy stone fruits & an earth-bound, fossilised minerality. One to decant and watch change over the evening, an astonishing exercise in bottling energy.
From our Muscadet man Benoit Landron, Champtoceaux is fine and elegant, aged 24 months on the lees. A much more generous expression of Muscadet: notes of almond and ripe peach, a little fennel pollen in on the breeze. Lovely, creamy mouthfeel with bright acidity, almost approaching fleshy mango territory as it opens, with that trademark Muscadet saline line pulling it through.