Bernard has 25 hectares of vines planted exclusively with Chenin Blanc and his wines are a delight. Cuvée Silex is his entry level wine - full of pear fruit with a wonderful freshness it was probably the most popular wine we showed at our Loire wine tastings during 2009. This wine is wonderful young but has the capacity to age, gain more complexity over time. Our problem has been holding on to it and we have barely half a dozen bottles left. If this wine doesn't convince you of the charm of Chenin Blanc, nothing will.We drank Les Girardières 2008 last night which has 25g per litre of residual sugar on the palate. The fresh honey pear quality on the nose and sherbet freshness on the palate means that this residual sugar just fades into the background giving a wonderfully refreshing fruity wine that is delicious young but it should get better and better over the next 10 years.
A strange choice you might think for a beef curry, but as it was poached in sweet coconut milk, lemon grass and galangal a red seemed out of the question - and it worked well.
We just need to leave what we have left well alone.
Bernard is bottling his 2009 vintage Cuvée Silex under screwcap which is great news. We didn't have the time to catch up with the new vintage at the Salon des Vins in Angers but will report back on this as we'll be making a trip to stock up shortly.
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