Guillemain Reuilly Pinot Gris 2021

Description

An exciting new wine! We first encountered it at a wine fair back in January 2023, unlabelled and introduced to us as a new project from our man in Menetou-Salon Antoine de la Farge. On tasting, both Robert and I knew we were onto something special. Quantities would be very low, would we like some? Yes please! Fast forward, and the wine, now labelled and finished, is on its way. Did I say I was excited?

When thinking of Reuilly, which I am sure we all often do, it is sauvignon blanc, not pinot gris, which comes to mind. However a little research soon show that pinot gris is traditional in the appellation, often used to make a pale rose. What I find remarkable about this wine is that it doesn’t taste like a pinot gris from Alsace, much less an Italian pinot grigio. In fact, it is closer to some of the fine loire whites like Sancerre, Pouilly-Fume, or Reuilly itself- direct, crisp fruit, a chiselled structure and a sense of flinty minerality at its core. The vineyard sits on Kimmeridgien Clay, the soil which gives us Chablis and Sancerre, so it is perhaps no surprise that it gives the wine such finesse and focus. As it sits in the glass, it does put on weight and develop the grapes classic texture, but this is a wine which conveys as much about where it is grown as what it is made from.

And it is delicious, energetic and full of interest, the nose a basket of citrus, while the palate develops in the glass, developing rich texture and layers of fruit and spice, lemon, lychee and peach, all buttressed by a flinty mineral edge which seems to bring the vineyard soil into one’s glass. My kind of wine. Yes, I am excited!