Les Maisons Brûlées - 'Coco' - Malbec - Loire Valley, FR - 2020

A wonderful wine and certainly more than that damned black grape from Cahors - this is Malbec from the Loire, Friend.
A deeply inky colored wine that one expects to be cloying, a thicket of indiscernible flavors, a mountain of boring... NO IT IS NOT THAT!
This wine hits with intensity, a damn wave of flavor, followed by this incredible tension of structure - High Acidity matched with a light body and yet incredible fruit and herbal intensity matched to a structural tannin that fills the palate. It's glorious, it's so fucking french. I love it.
Pair with fatty foods, pair with barbecues, use as lipstick in a pinch - this wine is deep, dark, and yet racy AF.

-Drew

Who: Paul & Corinne Gillet
Where: Pouillé (Loire Valley, France)
What grapes: Sauvignon Blanc, Menu Pineau, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon, Gamay, Côt, Cabernet Franc, Pineau d’Aunis
Key facts: Les Maison Brûlées, founded by Michel & Beatrice Augé, was one of the very first Biodynamic cooperatives in France. Now owned by Paul & Corinne Gillet, it has been a Certified Biodynamic farm for over 30 years.
“I feel that in almost every photo, Paul is in uniform: a tattered long-sleeve shirt too long, tucked in; a mop of golden haloed hair and a five-a-clock shadow. He is exactly the picture I would draw of Biodynamics personified. His hands are stained with wine and dirt and his eyes are lively. He speaks excellent English, and he knows it. I am equally impressed with his wife (if maybe not more as I have been with all the women we met on this trip). She has a firm hand shake, a steady gaze and I have the feeling that she gets shit done. It turns out that they have been on a fantastic life adventure together for quite some time, starting out as Cavistes in Alsace before moving to Argentina to become restauranteurs.

The estate that Paul & Corinne now call home is the oldest Biodynamic Cooperative in France established over 30 years ago by the previous owners Michel & Beatrice Augé. Paul & Corinne started working with Michel & Beatrice in 2011 before purchasing the property in 2013, keeping all the methods of Biodynamie intact. The French have a subtle sense of humor about all things (just take a look at that label above) and a not so subtle sense of humor (just look at Jerry Lewis). Visiting with Paul right after re-entry was an excellent test of my abilities to get back into the swing of understanding the language. I only wish they had invited us for dinner as we ended up walking the streets of Tour that night disoriented with jet lag and hunger after being turned away from the bistro that was calling our names.
But I am forgetting myself…if you say that in French, it means you have had an “accident”. The vineyards of Les Maisons are extraordinary, soft, carefully plowed so that the soil is loose without turning over the top layer. You can find fossils throughout the vineyards as well as golfball size pieces of Silex. The earth is and the vines rest within. Paul walks us through his two most famous vineyards: “Heardelau” & “Les Maison Brûlées”. The oldest of the Sauvignon Blanc vines around 80 years old are found in “Heardelau”. These go into the captivating and entrancing Poussière de Lune (Moon Dust), but also refers to the style of vine foot.” AZ
-Piedmont Wine Imports