Around the Salon: Monday 2 February

One of several completely empty stands well after the Salon opened at 9am – seems bizarre to pay the fees, which I gather are not cheap, to exhibit at the Salon and not to be ready when the fair opens at 9am

Screwcaps are still quite rare@the Salon

Although many Loire whites are delicate and susceptible to cork taint, It is still fairly rare, particularly away from the large négociant companies, to find producers using screwcaps. If the Loire was in New Zealand, all or virtually all Muscadet, Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé would be closed with a screwcap. The above picture shows the display in front of stand of the Domaine des Herbauges in Bouaye (Muscadet Côtes de Grandlieu). The dynamic and forward thinking Jérome Choblet now puts his entire production in screwcaps.

Elsewhere Jean-Marie Bourgeois (Henri Bourgeois) told me that he had been surprised by how much resistance there still is in France to screwcaps. Not helped by sommeliers who harp on about the magic of drawing a cork from a bottle despite agreeing that the percentage of corked bottles is around 3%. Clearly they are concerned to guard the 'mystique' involved in drawing a cork.

A studious Joël Deniau on the Syndicat de Crémant de Loire stand

Arnaud Bourgeois (above) on the very busy Henri Bourgeois stand. Parts of the fair today were very busy, while others like the Saumur-Champigny section was much quieter. I saw fewer UK buyers than usual and as usual no UK wine writers apart from Loire obsessives like myself and semi-obsessives like Sarah Ahmed (the wine detective), Chris Kissack (the wine doctor,) Neil Fairlamb (Church Times) and teams from Decanter for the Decanter World Wine Awards and William Reed for the International Wine Challenge, there are no other UK-based journalists here.

Over lunch it was good to catach up with John MW and Nelly Salvi, who are based in Bordeaux. "Can you give me a shortish summary of 2008 in the Loire," asked John. "Easy," I replied "better than Bordeaux!" "That wouldn't be difficult," said John. It was also a pleasure to meet Alice Feiring before rushing off back into the fair to try and taste as much as possible and see as many producers as possible. Unfortunately 500/600 exhibitors in two days is not really possible.