Tasted in Denicé with Jean-Frédéric Sambardier, 19 February 2021 – his birthday!
Manoir du Carra Sambardier
Le Carra
69640 Denicé
Tel: +33 4 74 67 38 24
www.manoir-du-carra.com
More reports for Domaine Manoir du Carra Sambardier
Jean-Frédéric on 2019:
“Frost brought important losses in our whites – 70% losses! There were also losses in Moulin à Vent – so you can see that we didn’t have a big harvest in 2019. Though 2019 follows 2018 and that was a full vintage – you can’t have it every year! It was still a hot year but it seemed hotter to me in 2020 – we were harvesting for the crémant already 13 August. I did a bit longer elevage with the 2019s and it helped round the aspect of the tannins and structure – one wine is still waiting in tank – it helped because I found the vintage a little irregular in places.”
The wines…
All ways a very good range – sometimes with great wines, worth a search – as is the case in 2019…
2019 Beaujolais Blanc
Denicé and Montblain for the grapes – both argillo-calcaire. Harvested a little early – ‘I didn’t want the acidity to drop too low.’ This with tank elevage.
A width of fruit – there’s ripeness but also a greener-fruited style to the fruit. Wide, bright, nicely fresh with a grain of tannin. Long too – there’s no rigour here just a very easy wine to drink.
2019 Bourgogne Blanc Le Soly
From Denicé, 1-year elevage, part in barrel – a mix of 228 and 300-litre barrels. Sells for a higher price than the Beaujolais – it’s not the same clients.
A round nose – nice purity – supported by plenty of barrel references. Wide a little more attack and more saline complexity. Particularly well finishing. A bit too much oak for me today, but that’s a super wine.
Normally there’s a third cuvée in white – also labelled as Bourgogne but there wasn’t enough volume in 2019 after the frost.
Les Rouges:
2019 Beaujolais Villages Cuvée non-filtre
Two bottlings usually for this. Vines in Rivolé – quite close to here – all granite and schist – ‘a very Lantignié style of geology.’
Wide – fresh, darker-red fruit – a fine clarity of aroma. Volume in the mouth – good attack and plenty of energy. There’s concentration here though – plenty of wine, fine intensity. The finish slowly fading with a little minerality in the mix. That’s a delicious wine…
2019 Brouilly Combiatys
Here the nose needs a little air – faintly reductive and powdery to start – but quickly improving in the glass. Wide – there’s a presence and weight of flavour here. Saline, direct in the finish – holding very well indeed. Deliciously and impressively finishing. Very good wine…
2019 Fleurie Le Clos de Deduits
A little more than a hectare of vines all within walls. Bottled in December.
Wide very perfumed nose – that’s a great invitation. Like the Brouilly there’s lots of energy here, mouth-watering and more overtly mineral in this case. Always with a depth of fine fruit, accented with salinity and a faint touch of finishing tannin. An absolutely excellent Fleurie.
No added sulfur cuvée. Elevage in 600-litre barrels and assembled into cement tanks before bottling – three lieu-dits assembled here. Was bottled in April, using inert atmosphere.
Plenty of colour. The nose starts a little timid but grows more and more perfumed with air – that’s very pure fruit for a no-sulfur wine. Love the shape and energy of this wine – the finish is completely great – that’s a highly successful debut cuvée.
Another wine bottled in December.
This wine’s aromas are directly open for business, easy, pure-fruited and attractive – there’s a certain extra silk to this wine too that makes for a fine invitation. Mineral, clarity of flavour more direct than wide, but slowly, with mouth-watering flavour there’s a growing fruit component – which becomes the equal of the minerality – almost juicy in style, faintly grained in the finish and with super length. That’s another great wine – one that grows and grows in the glass – never fat or over-concentrated, just delivering…
And to finish:
2020 Beaujolais Blanc
In bottle – for 1 day – this the Spring bottling – there is usually a second done in April/May…
Open fresh, almost an impression of CO2, certainly a wine with energy. Nice direction and freshness – a fruit that’s a mix of more exotic and citrus. A tiny accent of rigour in the minerality – but barely – finishing once more with a small grain of tannin.
2020 Beaujolais Rosé
Also just bottled.
Pale colour. An airy nose but implying some depth too. Easy over the palate nicely open and pure – easy and delicious wine.