L'Oustal Blanc Naick Blanc Vin de Table, Languedoc-Roussillon, France

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Although it may not quite reach the impressive potential signaled before bottling by the corresponding 2010, l'Oustal Blanc's 2008 vintage Naick 8 in some ways represents a marriage of the virtues of its two immediate successors. A hauntingly musky florality hangs over the glass. A nutty, rich, lusciously peachy palate akin to that of 2009 is suffused with fresh pineapple, mouthwatering salinity, crustacean shell savor, and seemingly crystalline, tactile mineral elements that help lend vibrancy to an exhilarating, memorably long finish. To a perhaps even greater extent than their best reds, the Fonquerles' examples of Grenache Gris greatness ally generous richness with energy, refreshment, and fascinating detail.While Claude and Isabel Fonquerle - for much more about whose domaine and ideals, consult my report in issue 183 - retain their business address and facility in Creissan (St.-Chinian, where they also have a small Cinsault vineyard) for storage and expedition, crush and vinification takes place entirely at their compact, indeed crowded, vintage 1907 cellar in La Liviniere. I had not previously had opportunity to visit the Fonquerles' vineyards and was impressed with their geological diversity, encompassing elements of sandstone and schiste as well as quartzite-rich, Chateauneuf-like galets roules and iron-rich chalk-clay underpinnings that include blue Marne clay seams of the sort associated with the unique water-management of the best Pomerol terroir. "Especially in 2009," notes Claude Fonquerle, "you needed the diversity of cuvees from different sorts of soil to achieve finesse and complexity," and he certainly succeeded, though at the price of bottling any red cuvee Naick, his Cinsault and other fruit from especially friable, light soils having in his view been needed (as had been the case also in 2003) for blending into upper-level cuvees. I would not have been surprised - and some of Claude Fonquerle's own comments pointed in this direction - to have to have found the vintage character of 2008 better-suited to his proclaimed Burgundian ideals and to tempering any temptation of these wines to flirt with alcoholic overload. In the event, though, the seamless ripeness of this estate's 2009s is compelling and by no means precludes vibrancy or refinement. The refrigerated truck used to chill all of the estate's fruit overnight; stringent selection on a vibrating table (it can take a week to fill a single fermenting tank); and the use of a wooden basket press could all additionally be adduced to account for l'Oustal Blanc's high quality even in drought-stressed, hot, vintages with low juice-to-skin ratio such as 2009. And the Fonquerles' impressive 2010s reflected even lower yields and tinier berries than their 2009s. I tasted not only site-specific and single-cepage components from 2010 but also blends that the Fonquerles' considered close to definitive, and on which I have for that reason - not to mention on account of their high quality - elected to report already. (Malo-lactic transformation here normally follows on the heels of alcoholic fermentation, and did so in 2010.) By the way, the cuvee known as Maestoso (for more about which consult my report in issue 183) has been discontinued.Importer: Weygandt-Metzler, Unionville, PA; tel. (610) 486-0800