2014 Domaine Guiberteau Saumur Blanc Brézé- France, Loire Valley, Anjou-Saumur, Saumur (1/27/2021)
– popped and poured –
– tasted non-blind over 2.5 hours on Day 1; revisited on Day 2 and Day 4 –
NOSE: much more expressive from Grassl Liberté than the Mineralité. rich; reductive; oak; banana Runts candy; still oaky/reductive at the 2.5 hour mark.
BODY: medium maize-golden yellow color; medium-light to medium bodied.
TASTE: Day 1: medium-light to medium concentration of fruit; oak; lots of mineral; hint of buttered popcorn; improved over a couple hours (less oaky, less reductive), but still more oak than I prefer; alc. not noticeable (labelled at 13%); Hold.
Day 1 score: 50, 5, 11, 16, 7 = 89
Day 2: pretty much the same as Day 1, but a bit less oaky.
Day 4: clearly the best yet: still rich, but oak has drawn-back and it now has an attractive salty element. Perhaps this is a Strong Hold situation.
A few years ago, Jason, I had a 2012 that was showing fairly advanced — some degree of premox on that bottle, which, unfortunately, seems to be a problem others have sometimes experienced with this producer, too.
Have your unfortunate experiences occurred across different bottlings? The premoxed Breze was not fun (although it wasn’t really over the hill, rather just showing much further along the curve than it should have; a premoxed Carmes would be even worse.
