2013 Chinon has good colour@Jourdan & Pichard + @Noblaie

2013 Chinon in creation

Yesterday we had a quick stop at Jourdan & Pichard (Cravant-les-Coteaux, Chinon) and were impressed by the colour of their 2013 Chinon, which is busy fermenting. It is a small vintage – they have made 30 hl/ha – because of hail and problems during flowering resulting in losses through coulure and millerandange, but there should be some attractive wines made.   

Philippe Pichard checking a tank

New storage facility 

Domaine de la Noblaie, Ligré 

 Bunch of 2013 Cabernet Franc@Noblaie

At Domaine de la Noblaie we saw Jérôme and his father, François. Picking for the whites and rosés was on Thursday and Friday. They started to tackle the reds on Monday. They are now keen to get the grapes in as quickly as possible as rot is beginning to arrive. Normally everything is picked by hand but this year Jérôme has borrowed a picking machine to speed things up. The grapes are coming in at between 11˚ and 11.6˚ – the Cabernet picked that morning for the red. As elsewhere this will be a short vintage with a considerably reduced yield.

François Billard cleaning up in the new chai

Checking the top of a tank

Jérôme Billard – a busy few days in prospect

Logroño (Rioja)@night 

Now about to head south to Sauternes for a couple of nights before continuing to Logroño for the 2013 Digital Wine Communications Conference. 

2013 Loire Vintage: back to Bourgueil and Chinon

Today we will be headed back to Bourgueil and Chinon to catch some of the last of Cabernet Franc being picked. Here are some photos from the early days of picking at Domaine de la Butte (Jacky Blot, Bourgueil) from last Saturday. 

 The grapes are still generally healthy although rot is being to appear in places. 

Will be less Haut de la Butte made in 2013; more will go into 

Pied de la Butte as some parcels don't meet the required standard

The destemming station directly above 

the vats down in the cellar

In the destemming station

Destemmed grapes heading through sorting table

Grapes on their way down to the vat below

 Down in the cellar: conveying the grapes and juice straight into the vat

Arrival of the grapes in the vat

2013 Loire vintage: a dérogation in Quarts de Chaume? + a peek@Savennières

Friday was a gloriously sunny autumn day with temperatures around 20˚C and a good drying east wind. If the Loire had been blessed with more days like this we would be hailing 2013 as a good vintage here.

Savennières
After spending the night in Angers at L'Hotel du Mail, my hotel of preference there, we headed to Savennières.

First stop was to Damien Laureau in Savennieres. "We started picking on Monday 7th with a small tri with our main picking starting on Thursday 10th. It's been a complicated year. At the moment I'm waiting for the grapes to become more concentrated. Our potential degrees have been between 11.5 to 12. It is a year with high acidity."

 Catherine Ogereau picking: 18.10.13

Ogereau Savennières from 4th tri 

Emmanuel Ogereau, Catherine and Vincent's son

Close up of Emmanuel picking

Up at Le Moulin de Beaupréau (Savennières) we found Catherine and Emmanuel Ogereau with a small team of pickers busy on the fourth tri of their parcel here. They told us that the first tri here had been on Monday 13th. They had picked Cabernet Franc yesterday and would pick again tomorrow (Saturday). Apart from a small parcel, all of their Cabernet Sauvignon was rotten. "It was no good waiting any longer – just a question of picking what was still good."  

We bumped into Patrick Baudouin in the small centre of Savennières, who told us: "Yes it's another difficult year but 2013 is better than 2012. Talking to my parents, it reminds them of some vintages 30 to 40 years ago, when the degrees were low. At 11˚-12˚the fruit is ripe. We finished the reds yesterday – they are at 11˚-12˚ potential."

Quarts de Chaume

The Ban des Vendanges for Quarts de Chaume has yet to be declared, although it has for the Coteaux du Layon. This is because of the stricter ripeness requirements for Quarts de Chaume. The grapes have yet to reach the required level of potential alcohol – 18%.

Domaine des Baumard has requested a dérogation to allow them to start picking early as enough of their grapes have reached 18.2%. In order to get a dérogation the vines have to be inspected by someone from the INAO to check that the grapes do indeed meet the appellation's rules and so can be picked early.  

 Edge of Baumard's vines on flatter ground above terraces 

(above and below)

 Examples of bunches from these Baumard vines

Some look the part but is the necessary concentration there yet?

From Savennières we crossed over the Loire to have a look at the Quarts de Chaume, to see how the grapes had changed since we were there on 3rd October. I had thought they might be adversely affected by the rain earlier this week. However, I was very pleasantly surprised as they still look promising with botrytis developing rapidly, although, from the individual grapes I tasted, mostly without any great concentration. But they do have more concentration than any I have tasted during our visits throughout the Loire this autumn. They have also come on very considerably in the last 15 days. See report on visit on 3rd October.

Driving down to the hamlet of Chaume we passed Guy Rochais (Château de Plaisance) who was testing a parcel of Chenin (at the entrance of the driveway to Plaisance) that would be going into making Anjou Blanc Sec – the degrees were between 14.5˚ and 15˚. He added that there is a move to create a Chaume'Anjou appellation for dry whites from here. The aim would be to give producers a hopefully more prestigious appellation than plain Anjou Blanc sec, which could be particularly useful in difficult years like 2012 and this year.   

Low concentrations of sugar has been a feature of 2013 throughout the Loire. It has been rare to find sugar levels about 12% potential alcohol and even rarer for them to be over 13%. It will be very interesting to see what the INAO representative finds in the grapes of Domaine des Baumards. 

I looked at some of the Baumard vines on the parcel on the flatter ground above the terraces. Of the vines I saw in Q de C on Friday these certainly are amongst the most advanced in the appellation (see photos above). I deliberately didn't taste any of the Baumard grapes. Instead tasted a few at the same stage from a nearby plot. They were becoming concentrated but I doubt if any were at the required 18˚ still with some dilution from the recent rain (Tuesday and Wednesday), although I didn't have a mustimeter so have no actual readings. However a few days of weather similar to Friday would I think concentrate sugars very quickly.

Unsuprisingly grapes in the opulently green leafed vignes larges at the top of the terraces overlooking the Layon are considerably less advanced. So, too, are grapes on the terraced vines either side of the rough track that leads down to the Layon. As you walk down from the entrance to Château de Bellerive to the small road alongside the Layon (laid on the old railway track that ran beside the Layon towards Chalonnes and then across to Savennières), it is noticeable that this part is more sheltered, so grapes here benefit less from the drying action of the wind. I suspect also that here there are shorter hours of sunshine than for the vines higher up. 

Grapes from just above the hamlet of Chaume 

 Vines by the entrance to Château Bellerive

+ grapes below

Lower part of QdeC terraces by road  along Layon

 Erosion in terrace on left hand side of track as you descend from hamlet of Chaume

 

 

 Lower part of Baumard's terraces on right hand side of track

 Baumard grapes on these terraces – 

less advanced than those on flatter ground

(above and below)

If the weather gods behave themselves there could well be the potential for some good Quarts de Chaume this year. There is plenty of rot – all that is needed is some favourable weather to concentrate the sugars. By the 19th October 2012 the weather station at Beaucouzé (just west of Angers) had recorded 187 mm of rain – for 2013 it's 43mm. The average for the whole of October (1981-2010) is 71.8mm.

Update: 22nd October 2013
The INAO inspected the Q de C vines of Domaine des Baumard on Friday and have granted a dérogation. I understand that the premier tri has now been done.     

2013 Loire vintage: Jean-Pierre Chevallier (Château de Villeneuve) attacked by sacked picker

Jean-Pierre Chevallier, Château de Villeneuve 
(photo taken a few years ago)

2013 has been a difficult and complicated vintage for many in the Loire. It has been particularly difficult for Jean-Pierre Chevallier, Château de Villeneuve, as he was physically attacked a couple of weeks ago by a disgruntled 20-year grape picker, who Jean-Pierre had just sacked.

Although he was hit on the forehead and around his left eye, fortunately Jean-Pierre does not appear to have sustained any permanent physical damage from the attack, although the bruising beside his eye is still obvious. However, J-P spoke movingly of the understandable loss of morale following the attack.  

J-P explained that on the first day of the harvest, this picker had not responded to the instructions on what to pick and what should be left aside. Instead he included rotten grapes. J-P said that he was relaxed about this initially as it was the first day and the young man might not have fully understood the instructions. However, this continued on the second day and the picker spent a considerable time standing around and smoking. J-P concluded that he wasn't taking the job seriously, so he told him he wasn't wanted any more. The picker reacted by attacking J-P and trashing the office.

Although the police were called, they are apparently taking no action as J-P wasn't incapacitated for more than three days. Had J-P been incapacitated for eight days or more  then the police would have taken the assault further! So J-P has had to lodge a civil complaint. 

I'm shocked that this has happened to J-P, a very gentle person, and am surprised and appalled that the police are taking no action and that it is down to Jean-Pierre to take civil action.   

News of 2013@Château de Villeneuve
JP: "We finished picking on Friday. The Ban des Vendanges for Saumur-Champigny was given on Thursday 10th October. We had started picking Chenin the week before. The upper limit for chaptalising for Saumur Blanc has been lowered to 12˚. Degrees for our Chenin were between 12.5˚ - 13˚. The acidities are high ranging between 6-7, whereas normally they are between 5-6. Normally my whites don't go through malo but this year I will do a partial malo to reduce the acidity.     

Yield on the Cabernet Franc is 30 hl/ha. I thought it would be higher but the berries were small. They will have a short cuvaison – to keep and emphasise the fruit. 2013 is not a year to push the extraction."

Richard Desouche tasting 2013 juice 

News of 2013@Château de Chaintré
Richard Desouche: "2013 is another difficult and complicated year! Harvesting finished on Friday morning. We have a tiny crop because we were frosted on 29th April, so only 15 hl/ha this year. This follows the short 2012, which was 50% down on a normal crop. The frost hit here, Chacé and Varrains. The vineyards to the north closer to the Loire were not affected."

This is often the case: the vineyards on the south west of the appellation are more prone to frost. We tasted various juices for Crémant, Saumur Blanc and Saumur-Champigny, which were clean and seem promising. 

Richard: I hate cameras face!