Some recently enjoyed Loire bottles .....

We opened the 2005 Mi-Pente, Bourgueil from Domaine de la Butte to welcome one of the new members of our French group. She had first visited us in the Cher Valley in 2005. her stay included a visit to Jacky Blot and she was very struck by Jacky's explanation of the terroirs of La Butte. Naturally it felt appropriate to mark the occasion with the 05 Mi-Pente, which is currently drinking very well. Lovely soft, developed fruit, supple structure – all in all the 2005 Mi-Pente seems much younger than its 13 years.

Château de l'Aulée's Crémant de Loire Crémant de Loire Brut Zéro is our house Loire sparkler. Made from 100% Chenin it is very clean, pure and precise. Despite having no dosage, the finish is attractively austere but never acidic. A fine sparkler, which spends between 24 and 36 months sur latte, for less than 10€ from the domaine!

Bought on Sunday at the latest edition of the Bios Jours de Bourgueil attended by organic producers from the Pays Nantais, Saumur and Touraine. This well-made 2017 Bourgueil cuvée printemps from Domaine du Rochouard offers great value at 6.50€ the bottle.  Ripe fruit, some fairly soft structure, this entry level Bourgueil can be drunk now with pleasure but should improve over the next two or three years in bottle.

In contrast with many of the other wines on sale at the Bios Jours Jean-Luc Duveau's Bourgueil was offered at a very good price. Many of the other exbibitors had wines that started at around 10€ without the quality found in this 2017.

A magnum of 2012 Negrette bought from Jérémie Mourat's domaine in the Fiefs Vendéens. A magnum is an ideal size if you have a number of people around the dinner table. Negrette is the majority grape of Fronton, to the north west of Toulouse. It is also found, however, in the Fiefs Vendéens. Mourat's Negrette has lovely juicy black fruits – the 2012 slipped down without a struggle. Time to buy some more!

The 1989 Grande Année is a lovely classic from Bernard Fouquet's Domaine des Aubuisières and it was wines from this great Loire vintage that established Bernard's reputation. Less rich than his 1989 Le Marigny, Grande Année has lovely delicacy, finesse and balance with potential to continue to age brilliantly as on close to 30 years old it has lovely freshness.

An unknown 1989 Demi-Sec Vouvray – Gérard Nouzillet

 1989 Demi-Sec Vouvray, Gérard Nouzillet, La Vallée Coquette 

The title of this post needs to be clarified – the producer is unknown to me. I'm also trying to remember exactly how we acquired it. I think someone kindly brought it round to a dinner we had in the Loire in October and we brought it back to London via Brescia and the European Wine Bloggers' Conference.

Gérard Nouzillet is certainly a producer I have never come across, although I have doubtless driven past his property on a number of occasions as he is based in La Vallée Coquette. This valley is on the west side of Vouvray and runs north-south towards the Loire. Vouvray's cooperative is based here. 

We chose to drink the 1989 demi-sec on Sunday as I was pot-roasting a chicken with an apple and cream sauce (poulet à la Normande) as the base. The dish is finished off with a decent dose of Calvados and more crème fraîche. Although both of us rather fancied red, we knew perfectly well that the dish would be too rich and sweet for a red, so demi-sec Vouvray it was.

Nouzillet's 1989 was a deepish gold – certainly a deeper colour than many Vouvrays from that year, which have tended to remain quite a light gold, while the 1990s in contrast have often ceased to be light golden and instead are a mid-gold, burnished gold. A little musty on the nose – not corked – and with some oxidation, hence the colour, it had some good honeyed weight and a clean finish. Not a top Vouvray but it worked well with the dish. The little that was left over went into the fridge and we drank it as a small apéro the next day but it had certainly faded considerably.  

Richard Kelley: assessment of the 1989 vintage and continued work on Douro reports

Richard Kelley has just published on his site an assessment of the 1989 vintage based around a tasting in several flights of 70 wines from this fine vintage. Click here.

Cristiano van Zeller@the Douro Boys tasting, Lisbon 30th October 2009

I'm still continuing to write up the trip to the Douro and have now finished here my report on the excellent vertical of Cristiano van Zeller's Quinta Vale D. Maria vertical from 2001 to 2007. Niepoort yet to come but in a separate post.