Domaine des Roches Neuves Saumur-Champigny

Medium garnet color, cherry fruited nose with some alcohol being evident, light to medium bodied as expected from a Cabernet Franc from the Loira, with decent taste. Fair everyday wine.

Light garnet. Red cherry and vegetal aromas on the nose. Light-bodied, lean with weak fruit, o.k. acidity, very soft tannins and virtually no aftertaste. Totally uninteresting.

Cloudy, chalky taste, fine and fresh, a touch of green giiving lift, a hint of funk too - very different from previous vintages in that there's not a hint of new oak - lovely wine

Herbaceous nose with strong bell peppers and notes of tobacco, mint and soil. Medium in mouthfeel with a bit more weight than expected but there is little in the way of extract or flesh. Some reduction among the mostly secondary notes. Medium tannin and a touch of alcohol. There is pretty good balance front to back. I liked this for all of its secondary leafiness of earth tones but I can see it being an anathema for those in search …

Stinky, fruity, spicy. Hit the spot.

Cool vintage Cabernet Franc, complex if a bit short. This is a cerebral wine with a firm mineral core and fine aromatics, not very 'plush'.

More 2007 and 2008 Loires (SF Wine Trading Company) : Medium red center, light edge. Menthol nose. Dry, lightly herbal with very short burst of cherry fruit. Not bad but not much to it either.

Fragrant, lightly flora, delicate yet good body and balance. All three of us tasting it were quite impressed, and we had it with fish, a Striped Bass poached in olive oli and served over braised fennel w/cream. Quite surprising to us that it went so very well with it.

Diverse Loire Wines (My House (Portland, OR)) : Smells like the laundry mat... lots of lint from the dryer. Uninteresting mid-palate. Fairly light finish... not much going on as it is, but then it totally disappears. Quite different from the 2004.

Diverse Loire Wines (David's House) : Smells like a wet dog. Tastes like raspberries and dry wood.