“The wines of the Moselle, on the slopes around Metz, have this quality of being light and leaving a subtle taste on the palate.” – Didier Van Cauwelaert
Château de Vaux – Les Hautes-Bassières
I don’t know whether it’s since I started taking the time to break wines down, but here’s one I’m not about to forget.
A Pinot Noir from the Moselle! Put like that, you might well think: yeah, OK, so what?
This wine will make you forget every preconception about Pinot Noir, and even more so about the wines of the Moselle.
On the nose it will already have you doubting! An impressively woody nose for a Pinot Noir, and the subtle spices will already tell you that this wine wasn’t thrown together in a hurry!
On the palate it’s powerful, and the Pinot Noir only appears in a second wave.
The spices, the wood — I’m astounded by the taste of this wine. I can’t make out the other aromas beyond the wood; it’s ample and wraps around the whole palate.
On the finish it’s quick, and that isn’t its strong point — but the rest more than makes up for that slight lapse. We’ve just been reminded that we have a Pinot Noir in the glass!
Since 2013, Château de Vaux has produced wines with organic and biodynamic certification. Rest assured, this wine is good, very good — don’t let the label worry you, quite the opposite.
Château de Vaux is a wine estate located in the Moselle region of France, near the city of Metz. It’s renowned for the quality of its wines, notably its whites from the Auxerrois variety and its reds made from Pinot Noir and Gamay.
The estate covers 13 hectares, planted on steep, south-east-facing slopes that enjoy optimal sunshine for ripening the grapes. The vines are farmed with respect for the environment and biodiversity, with particular attention paid to the quality of the fruit.
The Château de Vaux estate is also a place to visit, where you can discover the vines and the cellars, as well as taste the estate’s wines: https://chateaudevaux.com
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