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About the Wine
Highly mineral expression of Côt (Malbec) that is really benefitting from time in the cellar. The name translates to two ways with the same grape - half de-stemmed, half whole bunches, that are layered up one on top of the other and vinified in the style affectionately known as mille-feuille, for a gentler extraction of tannins. The resulting pomace following the pressing does indeed resemble a gateaux of crushed grape skins.
This is a spicy, sanguine wine - bloody and iron-rich, full of nimble, freshly-picked bramble fruits, white pepper and petrichor minerality. Tannins are fine-grained and frame the light body neatly, and in a different method to Noëlla's usual élevage, there is a purity that is emphasised by the omission of barrel-ageing, this spends one year in steel tank only. Bottled in autumn 2022, this time has brought clarity and depth, making this an ideal bottle to reach for on cool autumn and winter nights.
About Noëlla Morantin
Since starting to make wine in 2001, Noëlla has trained with and worked alongside some of the great names of the Loire. A couple of years with Agnès and René Mosse in Anjou led to her becoming the vineyard manager at Les Bois Lucas after becoming friends with Junko Ara, then on to renting parcels of the feted Clos Roche Blanche estate in Touraine from Catherine Roussel and Didier Barrouillet. She now makes wine with fruit from a mixture of owned and rented parcels at her beautiful cellar carved out of the hillside in Thésée; a testament to her hard work and determination over the last 20 years. Noëlla chooses to work under the more general VDF denomination rather than AOC and her wines stand apart from the perceived notion of Touraine. “If it doesn’t smell like cat piss, you don’t get the appellation” she quips - but only half-jokingly. She refers to early picking and the prevalence of industrial yeasts used in the area to enhance supposedly typical flavours in the wine. Noella ferments with native yeasts and seeks a longer maturation period in old barrels than is usual, meaning her wines are released much later than many other producers nearby. This patience is rewarded with sublime depth and texture in the wine; her unique and varied expressions of Sauvignon Blanc range from the zippy to the tropical and often confound expectations of the grape. Her red wines, made with Gamay, Cabernet Franc and Côt are deep-fruited and velvet smooth.