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1989 Joël Taluau St-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil Vieilles Vignes

1989 Joël Taluau St-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil Vieilles Vignes

Aaron Hughes
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Review Date: 06/2025

This is such a gorgeous wine, when we first opened it up it had a really surprising amount of soft red and black fruits on the nose, but as it has opened up the nose has definitely gathered more pyrazines to go along, so there's a lot of savory green notes to accompany. It's really gorgeous, the palate is deep but not overly rich, with still amazing acidity. It's not often you taste a wine this old and think about how it definitely could even go longer, continue to develop in the bottle - which makes sense, since we've been selling this same vintage for a number of years. The palate is dark and earthy, with lots of savory mushroom, touches of soy umami, some barrel spices, and a tarry tobacco. This is impeccably aged Cabernet Franc and just something truly special, while there's a lot of green notes that I might not like in other wines, in Cabernet Franc they all fit into place perfectly. Well integrated and harmonious, we wouldn't want this wine to be anything else. For what it is, it is absolutely perfect.

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Price: $44.99

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Staff Reviews

Review Date: 12/2021
Email Scott
A nice contrast to the 1987 version of this wine. A fragrant nose of tea leaf, pomegranate, chalk and cherry. On the palate, a slight gaminess, with bright cherry fruit, blood orange and truffle. Very complex and what I'd expect from Cabernet Franc of this age. Interesting and complex!
Review Date: 12/2021
Email Dejah
This is another perfectly aged Cab Franc from the cellar of Joel Taluau. Crushed black peppercorns, dried blue berries, cedar box spices and Thai basil leaf. In this bottling the acidity is medium plus and length is vibrant. Still a very fresh and youthful wine and would be enjoyable with five spiced Peking duck.
Review Date: 04/2017
Email Lilia
This wine is showing classic aged Cab Franc characteristic. It’s all earthiness and subtle savory “sous bois”. Bright red fruit that is so typical for younger Bourgueil is gone, and palate is heavily dominated by mushrooms, slight herbaceous flavors and soft tannins with light cherry notes. It’s a great example of perfectly aged Cabernet Franc - elegant and serene.

Notes

Joël Taluau was a fabulous grower in St-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil known for making some of the purest expressions of Cabernet Franc in the Loire. All his hand harvested cuvées are based on vine age and soil composition, and the wines are fermented and aged in stainless steel with a light fining and no filtration before bottling.

Product Details

Origin: Loire, France

Type/Varietal: Cabernet Franc

SKU: #1275757