Francois Cotat, Sancerre, Monts Damnes

Facts speak louder than words.

2020 vintage

Pnp with mentaiko pasta at home. A pale golden yellow in the glass. Fresh with well integrated acidity but also complex with some herbal notes, some candied lemon, beeswax and a steely touch. Good length. For me this is at peak or slightly past and I would not cellar much longer

2007 vintage

Swing and a miss in this Covid vintage. The pickers must've shown up late if at all as this is way too ripe and high in alcohol and the fruit is sickeningly sweet. Really stood out as easily the worst vintage on the table.

2020 vintage

Lemon lime and herbs on the nose. Palate seems to lack acidity and has a sensation of sweetness. Very concentrated, viscous feel. Very different Sancerre.

2020 vintage

Powerful structure and well balanced. Nose of apple pie and opens up to little oak. Long finish.

2020 vintage

First time drinking this. Clearly a unique style of Sancerre. Rich, powerful. Paired with a chicken ballottine with cream sauce and mushrooms. Absolutely perfect.

2020 vintage

Shiny, medium pale greenish gold. Faint gooseberry, lemon, pear, citrus peel, white peach, white flowers, crème brûlée, butterscotch, glue, ginseng and minerality. Medium-full bodied, high acidity, medium-high structure, medium alcohol and very long mineral finish with residual sugar. Complex, structured and layered. A fantastic effort, and resembled a dry Sauternes. I drank the 2015 Les Monts Damnés and 2020 Les Culs de Beaujeu a few days apart. Both 2015 and 2020 were fresh, off-dry and minerally. When I tasted this …

2010 vintage

Sample tasting at work (Oinoscent) : corked !!

2010 vintage

I was so excited to open this as I’ve had some really tasty and unique young Cotat bottles…but this was undeniably corked. I gave this all the opportunity to be great, but the longer it was open, the more sharp (and chemical?) it got. Typical notes of green everything initially but they were all in the background to an odd chemical funk. Eventually, TCA showed up. Too bad, as the texture and mid-palate were really nice. Tropical and herbaceous but …

2010 vintage

13%. Pale yellow gold. It took quite a long time to really open up and show of its best. Almonds, tinned pineapple, tarragon, lemon, fennel, lobster, lime, and some chalkiness - such complexity. A wonderful mineral wine. There is lovely structure and richness. It has completely thrown off its early sauvignon blanc characteristics and now is a fully formed, mature wine. It has great balance, length and persistence. There is no rush to drink this.

2007 vintage

Medium yellow. Fresh tropical fruit with the barest amount of varietal pungency. Fantastic rich texture and feel. Underripe pineapple attack without the sweetness of some vintages, then equally compelling white grapefruit, acidity, and stone. A great wine that shows little in the way of development, much less decline.

2010 vintage

Tasted alongside Dagueneau Months D and Cotat Culs 2010, this was stylistically somewhere in between the two, having the greater texture of Cotat, but with the minerality of Monts Damnes shared with Dagueneau. Perhaps not the perfect bottle, this had a slight haziness to the finish. Very good still

2010 vintage

A forgotten bottle in the cellar, colour still very bright, nose is almost peachy and tropical, certainly exotic. Palate is precise and very long but after 30 minutes started to exhibit a bot of oxidation. Over the years I have had some breath taking bottles from Cotat but this one, whilst delicious in so many ways, was a bit more advanced than I anticipated - still, no slouch and a lovely glass of wine.

2010 vintage

This bottle had haziness and small fuzzy cotton ball-like floaters that looked liked colonies of yeast in the lab, similar to a number of flawed bottles of 2008 Cotat I have had, so I passed it through a rinsed neutral paper filter and hoped for the best, all the while thinking that this was headed for the kitchen sink. Lo and behold, a beautiful dull medium yellow color, and gorgeous, completely untainted aromas of lemon and grapefruit. Medium weight with …

2010 vintage

Heater week; 3/26/2023-4/3/2023 (Chicago, IL) : Next to the Pascal, which was showing slightly advanced and probably not totally up to scratch. This didn't have the typical green notes of sauvignon blanc (or at least, not prominently), but I loved the racy, mineral acidity reminiscent of Chablis on this.

2010 vintage

Agree with ThijsV, this is not downhill and definitely still within the lower 90 point range. Gooseberry (without that ol' cat pee), pear, lemon, flinty minerality, with none of those green sauvignon blanc notes that I so detest.

2010 vintage

Francois Cotat tasting 1999-2020 (Utregs Wijnhuis, Utrecht, NL) : Getting close to peak drinking. I don’t understand other CT notes that it is going downhill, this bottle was singing with great complexity. Very expressive on the nose with ripe gooseberry, floral, honey, baked pear, some flinty notes, minerality. High acidity and long and lingering finish

2010 vintage

surprisingly clear and yellow hued. nose with a lavender like scent plus citrus and herb. wonderfully acidic and light, yet with a nice oily mouthfeel. lemon, tropical fruit, more of that lavender taste, and a tense mineral note on the palate. time to drink, well enjoyed.

2010 vintage

While still enjoyable, it is definitely on the downhill slide. The acidity was most predominant with some citrus notes.

2010 vintage

This is still a very nice bottle of Francois Cotât Sancerre. However, it is showing its age in that the fruit is fading. Nevertheless, there is nice citrus and pineapple fruit, lots of minerality and balance acidity. Time to drink up this vintage.

2010 vintage

After seeing quite a few different notes on this wine, I figured it was time to crack a bottle and check in. Upon first opening, the wine was quiet and not showing much aside from acid and muted citrus notes. Sat in the bottle for 7 hours and started showing some signs of life. Oro Blanco, key lime zest, kumquat, brine, and slight custard. Acid was in check, medium bodied, but the finish was medium length at best. Signs of …

2010 vintage

Just like the 2009 Cotats, over the top, and to my taste, undrinkably so. Overripe with rotting pineapple and residual sugar despite 13.5% alcohol. Time to rethink that "long hang time" approach. Warming climate has overtaken the Cotats (tho I've read that the 2017s may have turned this around). Sorry I have so many of the 2010s. To anyone here who likes them, I'll willingly sell at a loss.

2010 vintage

Medium yellow. Wintergreen and citrus aromas. Something surprisingly Riesling-like on the entry in the directness and clarity of fruit, but then denser and more herbal later. A rich texture that sets it apart from most Sancerre, just a little residual sugar, ripe orange rather than grapefruit, excellent acidity, and limestone on the back end. Superb and fresh at age 10.

2010 vintage

Typical Sancerre, still youthful but the acidity is a bit painful.

2007 vintage

Pnp. Blind tasting. Nice exotic nose, with rhubarb, fresh fruit mango guava, (like a petit manseng). Mouth much more calm than expected, oily, compotée, mature, low acidity for a sauv', finishing on light bitter. A bit to old for me. Still a rare experience, a reknown produceur in a nice vintage.

2010 vintage

Blind tasted on my guests, none of whom guessed correct. I held on to this one a bit too long for my guests who search far and wide for acidity and minerality. Only I noticed the struck match notes hiding behind the lovely, almost softly tropical notes. It is more subtle with floral notes than fruit-driven, though with some white peach notes. Great producer, incredible year but time to finish your bottles!!

2010 vintage

A beautiful expression. Still in a good place.

2010 vintage

Very subdued nose but the palette opened up to citrus (and rind) and some peach pit balanced by nice acidity. The finish was long with a little tartness. Overall it was not as expressive as I anticipated but it was a pleasant wine regardless.

2010 vintage

This wine has a lot of minerality, flint, chalk, stony fruit, kieffer lime, and it is bone dry. It does not exhibit any herbal notes. The finish is long and quite enjoyable. I wish I could buy this producer locally again.

2010 vintage

Citrus aromas with minerals and some asparagus notes. Not the wet wool aromas as in a bottle tasted a year ago. Dry and clean, and not as powerful as for example the 2008.

2007 vintage

Sherry-ish.

2002 vintage

I just opened this wine about 20 minutes ago and had a short glass, so now I am on my 2nd “short” glass in order to evaluate it before I have a some chèvre to go with it. This is the best example of the 2010 that I have drunk since I purchased this upon release. It is hitting on all cylinders. It has a lot of minerality, flint, chalk, stony fruit, kieffer lime, and it is bone dry. It …

2010 vintage

Peculiar reductive like aromas of wet wool, but also plenty of minerals and some citrus. Dry, as opposed to some other Cotat wines that have appeared rather sweet. Intense. More terroir than varietal here.

2007 vintage

Aggro mineral with streak of lime juice. Really good, but a bit too intense.

2002 vintage

No letting up from my previous note last summer, this was entirely delicious but with a tad more mature notes, in particular a hint of candied pineapple which I get from mature Chablis and which I didn't note in July of last year. The length and persistence on this is really something. This has miles to go - it would be fascinating to taste it again in 10 years. Glorious wine and again a highlight of the year so far.

2007 vintage

This and the prior bottle have shown better the previously. The medicinal notes are now subsiding a great breath of flavour is now coming out. This has tipped the balance from being actually distasteful to a solid, even great, wine. Lots going on, on the nose and palate. At last this was worth waiting for.

2007 vintage

While I think this is a very nice Sancerre, I am not rating it as highly as my last bottle. This time it has more herbal notes to it. Nevertheless, it has keefer lime, chalk, minerality galore and good acidity on the finish.

2010 vintage

Very mineral and a touch of grapefruit on the nose. Clear flavours, a very transparent wine with mineral and fruit both showing equally. Fully ready and pretty good.

2007 vintage

Medium yellow. Floral tones and ripe citrus right out of the bottle-took a few hours to develop more pungent Sauvignon aromas, and even then, these remained in the background. Glorious, succulent, layered Cotat texture. Orange much more so than grapefruit, good acidity, some stone. Excellent length. Seems close to full maturity.

2010 vintage

Full and richly styled, but solid acidic backbone. Apple and white peach with a touch of grass and orange zest, long finish, very satisfying A-

2007 vintage

Opened in desperation after 2 flawed bottles of 2008. Ironically, deeper in color than those wines. Beautiful, pure citrus aromatics, slightly pungent but not overly so. Gorgeous glycerine accompanied by nice structure. Pineapple and grapefruit. Complete, time in hand. Marvelous wine.

2010 vintage

Full, minerally, ripe apple with some citrus zest, a pointe B+/A-

2007 vintage

Medicinal Unpleasant flavours continue to dominate 10 years on.

2007 vintage

No formal notes taken but this was just delicious, with chalk, minerality and citrus. Beautifully balanced with fruit and acid on a tightrope and terrific energy. This is early in the zone but with plenty of upside. I think it's the best white wine I've had this year. Drink or hold.

2007 vintage

So pleasing.

2002 vintage

Lunch au Quartier Général : Un nez parfumé, menthe verte et lime, c'est envoûtant.Texture tendre et très sèche à la fois, pierreux et assez mûr, avec de l'élégance et une belle profondeur. Superbe. 92-93 pts

2007 vintage

Pale yellow. Explosive aromas of grapefruit pith, lime peel and surprisingly petrol. Nice mineral and acid on the palate with a powerful jolt of salinite on the long finish. A powerful wine with the best of Sancerre, but an almost Chablis like finish. Still fresh and young.

2007 vintage

My wine, showing well (couple people thought too ripe), full bodied , minerallly, long. A-

2007 vintage

At Jay's. Apparently I really disliked this a few years ago, finding it one dimensional and boring. This bottle was anything but. Very vibrant and fresh, with layers of fresh grapefruit, lemon, herbs, and chalky mineral notes all carried over a spine of bright acidity. Gets more stony and herbal with air, and each sip is incredibly refreshing and invites another.

2007 vintage

Some Wines from a Spring Trip to France; 4/4/2015-4/11/2015 (Paris and Burgundy) : Full yellow/medium golden. Incredible nose of honey, tropical fruit, citrus, and cut flowers. Rich entry, lively fruit, little or no residual sugar. Great back end acidity. Continued to open and show more in the glass. Fascinating wine that is fully mature at this point.

2002 vintage

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Francois Cotat, Sancerre, Monts Damnes

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