Wine of the Week: 2011 Domaine Trotereau Quincy

"Come, come, good wine is a good familiar creature if it be well used; exclaim no more against it." ~ William Shakespeare

Many of you may have at one time, or the other has celebrated and/or promoted Sauvignon Blanc Day? Sure I had my invites to do so, but as I've said before, this is not one of those faddish wine blogs, with a big splash in the pan, only to fizzle out a few months or a year later, silently falling below the glittery limelight. That said, while my participation in the process has slowed a bit, my passion for extolling the virtues of drinking well has assuredly not. So if you fancy yourself a 'swirler'  or the garden variety sipper of Sauvignon Blanc, then you'll be sure to want to give this gem in today's dusted off review of a wine that will knock your socks off, don't doubt me.

I'm not sure when it happened, each and every varietal having its own 'day' but it's an irritating trend, driven no doubt by PR firms desperate to get their clients a bit of social media attention. Now that said, I hope that after reading this review, that this wine will become a new favorite. Especially so, when searching for a Sauvignon Blanc, that is as far off the 'commodity' wine reservation as it could possibly get and the reason I'm so excited about this fantastic expression of Sauvignon Blanc.

The wine in today's spotlight really had my attention from the first whiff to the last drop [which I spit out], and even though I wasn't drinking that day, I was only there to taste [In my opinion, an important distinction] this wine still "wowed" me.

As I was sampling this wine for the first time, it really struck me as the kind of wine I want to bring to your attention, something completely different [from my perspective] and off the beaten path, far away from the usual suspects on commodity wine row.

It's with that idea in mind that this unique wine comes from an area in France, one of which I was utterly unfamiliar to me before sampling this wine. I will confess there's no way I couldn't have pointed it out on the map either. But what I do know is that this very inexpensive bottle of wine from the tiny appellation of Quincy in the Loire Valley, a dry white wine will wow you at each turn and twist in the road. You won't be able to put it down, it's exciting fresh and most likely as new to the average vino-sapiens as it was to me on a warm Wednesday afternoon.

If you've been reading this blog for any length of time, you know I'm not much of Sauvignon Blanc fan [excepting cooking] by any stretch of the imagination. This is precisely why you may find it quite ironic that I'm jumping up and down with excitement about this beautiful expression of Sauvignon Blanc, oozing with a honeyed, full-bodied texture and a just a pinch of lemon-peel oil component.

Oh, you could just keep on drinking the garden-variety domestic Sauvignon Blanc or the same hackneyed kiwi Sauvignon Blanc or perhaps you could step outside the box only this once to experience something entirely new? Consider this your invitation to do so. This wine selling most places for $16 to $17, a wine I've rated 93 points, its wine you need to try for yourself to see what all the fuss is about.

While I was at work a gentlemen came in looking for the owner, I asked if I could be of service? Yes, of course, he said and introduced himself as Mr. Malk [who no doubt many of you are very familiar with his wines] and asked if I could recommend some [other than his own of course] Sauvignon Blanc. I knew the wine I had in mind [the Quincy] was not what he was looking for, but I took the risk introducing him to the Quincy instead. He took one bottle that day, and then days later he came back to acquire more I'm told.

I like to think of myself as charting a course of wine-diversity, I want to discover all that the wine world has to offer a thirsty vino-sapiens, and I want each one of you to join me on that path to discovery; I want you, my readers, to drink better as well.

I'm told that the appellation of Quincy was the 2nd appellation in France to be recognized in 1936, second only to Châteauneuf-du-Pape, where many of the vines are over a century old, while some have been more recently planted in the mid-eighties.

One of the more compelling reasons for adoring this wine so much is because it really didn't have many of the usual suspects in the nose or on the palate. I was immediately surprised by the nose, aromas of white flowers, honeysuckle, white peach, sweet-quince and whiff of bell pepper which quickly fades into the background.

Then jumping into the wine itself, wow, again the mouth-feel is flamboyant, intense aromatics, honey, wet-stone, [the whisper of lemon oil] is followed by a full-bodied, exuberant, dry white wine that must be tasted to be believed. I suspect this offering has some aging potential, but why to risk it when this wine is drinking ever so nicely right now.

In fact, I wondered silently if the wine I tasted was Sauvignon-Blanc at all, seeing it's so far afield from most other new-world Sauvignon I've come accustom to despising. How could a wine raised in stainless steel and enamel tanks and had its fermentation kicked off with indigenous yeast have this much body and substance to it and yet not have the typical lean flavors which will typically drive me away like a pack of ravenous hyenas?

I just kept looking at the bottle, snapping the picture you see above and tasted it twice just to confirm my impressions and flummoxed with my own delight. But there it's, gives this beauty a go for yourself soon, I look forward to hearing thoughts and reactions. Until next time sip long and prosper cheers!