Domaine de la Taille aux Loups Triple Zéro NV

Tasting notes

One of Jacky Blot most striking creations is his TRIPLE ZERO. This wine is unique amongst sparkling wines as only fully ripe, healthy grapes are used. This allows master winemaker Jacky Blot to never add sugar during the winemaking process.

Triple Zero refers to the fact that no sugar is added during the three traditional times that sugar is usually added for sparkling winemaking: zero chaptalization, zero tirage, zero dosage.

This methode traditionelle wine Blot describes as “above all a natural wine, that happens to have some bubbles.” The story of how it is made is interesting in its own right, and also for how it illustrates Blot’s dedication to quality and originality. Exceptionally for a sparkling wine, the TRIPLE ZERO begins with fully ripe Chenin Blanc grapes from low-yielding, 50+ year old vines. The grapes are all harvested by hand. Any fruit insufficiently ripe (i.e., under 12 degrees natural sugar) or showing any sign of rot is eliminated. The grapes are gently pressed in a pneumatic press and the two-stage fermentation begins slowly in barriques with only native yeasts.

Blot bottles the wine after about 3 months, when the fermentation in barrel has proceeded to the point where the natural sugars have almost fully fermented and only about 14 grams per liter of sugar remain. It then finishes fermenting in bottle; the delicate bubbles develop in these bottles while resting on their sides, or sur latte. At this phase, Blot does not add liqueur de tirage, or sugar syrup, as is it commonly practiced in Champagne. Once the secondary fermentation is completed (after about 30 days) and the wine develops on its lees for about 15 months, the temporary capsules are removed (degorgé) from the bottles, and they are topped off with the wine itself. At this last stage before final bottling, Blot does not add liqueur d’expedition or dosage with sugar rich juice.

The result is a sparkling wine with unsurpassed elegance, purity and expression of fresh, soft citrus and pear flavors.  

A.O.C. Montlouis sur Loire

Vinification

Bright gold with floral and fruit notes. Creamy bubbles, delicate natural sweetness, with a plump and fresh taste.