Introduction to Charles and Philippa Sydney’s 2009 Loire vintage report

Chenin Blanc@Le Puy Notre Dame early October 2009

Charles and Philippa Sydney have been based in the Loire since 1988 working as courtiers to supply the UK wine trade with Loire wines. Every year they produce a vintage report. Here are their introductory remarks to the 2009 edition.

'You'll see that we're actually quite excited: 2009 is looking really good. Perhaps not the vintage of the century - hail across chunks of the eastern Loire and a desire for higher yields on the part of less dynamic growers saw to that, but we're very, very happy.

The quality is there right across the board - to over-simplify, we're seeing the ripeness of our beloved 2003 vintage with the freshness of the 2005s, hence this year's name : The Smiley Vintage.

In some ways better still, many growers have understood that they need to help their importers survive the economic mess and have either held prices (sometimes for the 7th year running...) or reduced them. Not easy when you're sitting on the second small vintage in a row, as is the case in places like Pouilly, where they are again around 25% below normal yields.

Do remember, though, that whatever you read in the press (!), the mass of price rises over the last couple of years comes not from the greed of the growers but from a deliberate policy of a weak pound and an iniquitous tax system that seems designed to redistribute wealth from the poor to the rich. (how else do you describe 47% tax on a £5 bottle and 18% on a £50 bottle?)

As I've noted before, in 2006, we calculated an ex-cellar price of 2.25 €/bt to retail at £5.99. Today that's more like 1.50 €... and we expect 1.30 € after the budget. That includes bottling costs of 50 cents or more. *

And as for 'a minimum price per unit of alcohol', that already exists - it's called duty.

Sorry. I'll get off that hobby horse!'

(* Difficult to see how a price of 1.50 €/1.30 € a bottle to the producer starts to cover the cost of production of a drinkable Loire wine let alone to make a profit, so as to be able to invest in the business. If the exchange rate remains as it is and it shows few signs of getting much above £1 – 1.10 € we will just have to get used to paying more for our wines from the Euro zone.)

The Sydney's 2009 vintage report is here.