Loire – a few recently enjoyed bottles

Last night we had our first meal at Le Lézard Vert (Epeigné-les-Bois) under the new ownership. We were favourably impressed by the food and happy with the limited choice of wine where the Closerie de Chanteloup in Touraine Amboise features strongly. I have long been impressed with these wines. We tried their 2014 Sauvignon Blanc that has good concentration of fruit along with ripe acidity – typical of good 2014. 

We were particularly impressed by the 2014 Cuvée François Touraine Amboise. All too often this Cuvée is light, weedy and of little interest. In contrast this example is very attractive with a long concentration of rich black fruits – just lovely to drink. 

 This evening we enjoyed a couple of wines from Château de Villeneuve starting with 2009 Les Cormiers, Saumur Blanc with rich evolved fruit showing the benefit of a few years in bottle as well from this ripe vintage. Ready to drink now but can certainly be kept for a number of years yet.  

We followed this with a couple of bottles of 2005 Vieilles Vignes, Saumur Champigny also from Château de Villeneuve. I loved the wonderfully textured, succulent black fruits and now very soft tannins. The 2005 VV went perfectly with a simple roasted Barbary Duck that we had bought this morning in Montrichard Market.