As it’s been warm enough to eat outside this week we enjoyed a simple dinner of home made burgers, roasted garlicky plum tomatoes and a fresh green salad. L’Envolée from Gérald Vallée was our wine of choice. His top wine, L’Envolée is fermented in big oak casks and has around 2 years of ageing in smaller barrels. The 2011 vintage was warm and grapes were picked early giving wines with lovely fruit character. It’s a while since we drank one of the 2011’s and this was tasting exceptional.
Packed with beautiful ripe dark fruits and with lovely concentration, it reminded us of why this vintage was so successful commercially. This wine was always the favourite when we showed it during our tastings and it’s easy to understand why. We are currently showing the 2014 vintage and will move on to the 2015 shortly (again a nice sunny vintage). Luckily for us we kept a dozen behind to see how it would develop. I’d be surprised if anyone identified it as a St Nicolas de Bourgueil on blind tasting. A really classy wine from a top organic producer in the appellation.
