Moulin Touchais Coteaux De Layon Chenin Blanc 1996

		AC Estate Btld, Loire, France Pin It
		Product #: 707307 Score: 91/100 Price: $37.95 Alcohol: 14%	Drink: Now Bottle size: 750 ml Winery: Moulin Touchais Coteaux De Layon

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Tasting note:

VC: This ‘moelleux’ (semi-sweet) Chenin Blanc is built to last. Moulin Touchais ages it 10 years before release and it can keep in your cellar for 50 to 100 years. This 1996 is a mere youngster. Ready to drink now, it will gain a more caressing mouth-feel, complexity and depth over time. My note: Opens with ripe melon, pineapple and other tropical fruit. Full-bodied but not heavy. The slight sweetness makes it all the richer and able to marry with dishes that have a touch of sweetness or spiciness. Food matches: potato rosemary rolls, candied sweet potatos, sushi, artichokes, Indian dishes.

More Reviews:

Tyler Philp rated this wine as 92/100 with the following review:

This Loire icon is for the serious wine enthusiast. Still in its youth in terms of approachability right now. Notes of petrol are not unusual with this style of wine but it fades with age bringing honey, almond extract, and apricot. The wine is not as sweet as you might expect and if you do open the '96 anytime soon, do so the day before you intend to drink it. You will be amazed by the difference 24 hrs will make.

Reviewed February 14, 2009 by Natalie MacLean

Serve this wine between 55-60 degrees Farenheit or 12-16 degrees Celsius. Tip: If your bottle is at room temperature, put it in ice water for about 30 minutes or in the fridge for about three hours to chill it.

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Blanc

The French word for white.

Chenin Blanc

Chenin Blanc has an incredible stylistic range among white wines, including light and dry, crisp and sparkling and luxuriously sweet. However, it's often accused of being a forgettable, bland jug-wine, especially when it's over-irrigated and overcropped. Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc remain far more popular grape brands in North America.

Careful pruning and vineyard attention though can produce spectacular, long-lived wines with zesty acidity and notes of honeysuckle, melon, quince, cantaloupe, flint, straw and hay. The wine usually isn't oaked, but if it is, it also has notes of vanilla, wood and smoke. Dessert styles, affected by botrytis, have rich, honeyed notes.

France's Loire Valley is best known for Chenin Blanc, particularly the sub-regions of Saumur, Savennières, Anjou, Vouvray, Montlouis, Coteaux du Layon, Quarts de Chaume and Crémant de Loire. It's also known as Pineau de la Loire and Pineau d'Anjou. Almost a third of South African vines are Chenin Blanc, where it is known as Steen. California, Chile, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil (Pinot Blanco), New Zealand and Australia also make this wine.

Chenin Blanc does well in warm climates because of its early bud break and late ripening. It grows quite vigorously in many soils, especially the calcareous, chalky soils found in the Loire, and resists most diseases.

Drink Chenin Blanc as an aperitif on its own or pair it with Chinese, Indian, Thai and Mexican dishes, Tex-Mex, peanut sauce dishes, spring rolls, sushi, fish in creamy sauces, mussels, oysters, crab, lobster, camembert cheese and game birds. Dessert styles go well with almond and fruit-based desserts.