We have been big fans of Petit Manseng since the first time we tasted it at Jones von Drehle Vineyards and Winery some years ago. This small grape can produce a full bodied high alcohol wine. It’s often called the red drinker’s white wine.
We did a Spotlight on Petit Manseng in North Carolina in July, 2017. In that post, we had tasted through the 2013, 2014, and 2015 vintages of Petit Manseng from Jones von Drehle in addition to giving a bit of information about Petit Manseng itself. This time around, we were fortunate enough to add the 2012 vintage, the first vintage, and the 2016 vintage to the mix, so we tasted 2012 – 2016. And we should note, all bottles were purchased for this tasting.
We decided to change things up this time. We did this tasting blind. We also added a wine from the Southwest of France to the mix. This wine was a 2011 iLori Les Jonquilles from Domaine Brana. Made from fruit grown in the Irouleguy appellation, it is a blend of Petit Manseng, Gros Manseng, and Petit Corbu. Bottles were covered in foil by one of us. The other randomly assigned a number. Friends arrived and the tasting began.
We used a chalk board to record feedback on the wines. We discussed the nose, palate, and finish. We tried to guess the year or whether the wine was the French one. We didn’t do so well on the guesses of the vintages, but the last wine was clearly different than the others. This was a big clue that it was not solely Petit Manseng. Interestingly enough, that wine was by far the least favorite of the group. Our impressions of it did improve when we paired it with a savory tomato cobbler.
Our group thought wine 1 was young with notes of apricot, citrus, and pineapple. We guessed it might be the 2016 vintage. It turned out to be the 2013. It seems this wine might have a few years to go.
Wine 2 had more notes of pineapple and apricot. We found banana and an herbaceous note along with a hint of minerality. We incorrectly guessed this to be the 2014. It was in fact the 2012. This wine is still showing beautifully.
Wine 3 had a subtle nose. The palate gave us mandarin orange and pineapple. We found the finish was hot. We thought, for that reason, it might be the 2015 which clocked in at 15.6% alcohol. It was in fact the 2016.
We missed numbering wine 4 on the chalk board. This one was different than the others. There was lots of stewed stone fruit notes. Think peaches or nectarines. Someone got a crème brûlée note on the finish. A few thought this might be the French wine, but we weren’t so sure. It turned out to be the 2014.
Wine 5 presented a yeasty note with pear and green apple. It was silky and soft. We thought it might be the 2012. It turned out to be the 2015. We were surprised by this. We didn’t feel it was hot at all which is surprising given that 15.6% alcohol. This one was a definite favorite.
We finally made it to the last wine, #6. This one was clearly different. It was green and seemed old. The finish was astringent. We were pretty sure this was indeed the French wine. And we were right. This was the least favorite of the group.
Once we finished tasting through all the wines, we did the reveals and then enjoyed some food and a bit more of our favorites.
We look forward to exploring more Petit Manseng in the future!
To learn more about Jones von Drehle, check out our first episode of Cork Talk where we sat down with Chuck and Diana Jones.
Cheers!
