Chris Kussak describes the wine rather differently to Bibendum's panel of tasters. He likes it though, but his statement is a bit more inline with your soft soap comment: which always shows a very soft, rather feminine minerality. It calls to mind perfumed chalk touched with citrus leaves
Sadly one vineyard that doesn't receive a mention is La Moussière, a very expansive lieu-dit covering at least 35 hectares in many different parcels next to the main road between Sancerre and Bourges. The terroir here is largely Saint Doulchard marl, of Kimmeridgian origin, and there are a variety of favourable south and southwest-facing exposures. Alphonse Mellot own approximately 90% of the parcels in the Moussière vineyard, all managed using biodynamic methods, and it is a significant source of fruit, the harvest here contributing to the entry-level La Moussière cuvée, as well as Génération XIX and Cuvée Edmond, two of the domaine's top wines. The most commonly encountered cuvée is most certainly La Moussière though, and this weekend's top wine was the 2013 Sancerre La Moussière. This is not quite a gin-clear wine, but it certainly has a very pale hue. The nose is very typical of this cuvée, which always shows a very soft, rather feminine minerality. It calls to mind perfumed chalk touched with citrus leaves, tangerine zest, with a lemon-lime-sherbet edge. It is certainly minerally but also rather effusive in style, with a lightly bitter, pithy hint of fruit wrapped around it all. There follows a gentle and supple palate, with good sense of bitterness to the fruit as suggested by the nose, with some textured substance and grip around the edges. Plenty of firm acidity keeps it lively. A long and pithy wine, with good character, and a success in what was - in the final stages at least - a rather challenging vintage. 16/20 (12/1/15)
A challenging vintage at the end. Friends on the Loire near Angers, quite a way down stream, said 'thankfully', that September into October was drier and brighter than the previous 2 years !
Indeed from the link, I was expecting a bubbling stream minerality, of the taste you may get on the steeper slopes on the heritage coast and crossing paths in Dorset.
Hmmmnnn - dunno. Seeping / wet cork ?
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