2008 harvest in Montlouis@Jacky Blot

Looking back through a few photos – here are some from the 2008 vintage at the Taille aux Loups (Jacky Blot) in Montlouis. 

 Grapes on the sorting table

 Bunches of Chenin awaiting sorting

 Pickers among the golden vines

Hired vans are always of feature of the vendange 

 A big variation of ripeness is 

always a feature of Chenin Blanc

Signs of noble rot and perhaps passerillage, too 

A fine day in Pouilly and Sancerre

Sauvignon Blanc in Château de Tracy's Haute Densité vineyard

Sauvignon Blanc@Château Tracy

A full day in Pouilly-Fumé and Sancerre has further confirmed that the quality of the fruit in 2008 is remarkably good, especially given the cool summer. This, however, may ultimately have been beneficial because the grapes have ripened slowly with the fine weather of the last part of September and the drying north wind that has concentrated everything: sugars, flavours and acidity. Potential alcohols range from around 12 to 14 with acidities from a little over 5 to 7 for both Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc.

On the whole the producers of Pouilly-Fumé are less content than those of Sancerre – not over the quality but of the quantity as some were very badly hit by the hailstorm at the end of June.

Visits to:
Pouilly-Fumé: Château de Tracy, Domaine Chatelain, Serge Dagueneau et Filles, Landrat-Guyollot, Benjamin Dagueneau@Domaine Didier Dagueneau, Michel Redde, Château de Favray and Masson-Blondelet.

Sorting table at Château de Tracy

Henry d’Assay, Château de Tracy
“We have been badly affected by hail with 20 ha hit. But what fruit we have is very good with potential alcohol up to 14.2% and acidities between between 5.4 and 6.2. We started on Thursday last week. Stopped over the weekend and started again on Monday. We won’t harvest tomorrow (Wednesday) and I expect we will finish sometime next week. I expect we will make about 400 hl this year whereas in a normal year we make between 1500-1900 hl. The grapes have very little juice.”

A reflective Henry d'Assay in his Haut Densité vineyard (Pouilly-Fumé)

Henry d'Assay: stressing a point

Sorting@Tracy

Jean-Claude and Vincent Chatelain
Vincent: “We started on Monday with the young vines – 11.5% and 6 gms acidity. We had hail at the end of June and the flowering was difficult. Yields where we had no hail are around 65 hl/ha and 35 hl/ha where there was hail. Fortunately we have parcels of vines over a wide area, so only 10% of the vineyard was affected by hail."

Les Chatelains celebrate the 2008 vintage,

despite some problems with hail

Serge Dagueneau et Filles
The winery of Serge Dagueneau is right next door to the Chatelains. Serge is busy reversing a trailer of Sauvignon into the grape reception area. Everyone is busy. “We started on Tuesday 30th, says Florence Dagueneau. “We have been badly affected by the hail.” Once their Pouilly vineyards are finished they will pick the Coteaux Charitois. As we leave Serge gets down from the tractor, the delicate reversing manoeuvre complete. “Superb,” is his pithy comment on he 2008 Sauvignon.

Serge Dagueneau: unloading the grapes

Landrat-Guyollot
Then it’s just up the road to Domaine Landrat-Guyollot where Sophie Guyollot and her father, René, are also busy dealing with a delivery of grapes. I ask Sophie a couple of quick questions while she is busy checking the grapes over.

Sophie: “We started on 2 October with the vines that had been hit by hail. About a third of our vineyard has been affected by the hail but what remains is good.”

Sophie and her team checking over the grapes
as they go up the conveyor belt into the press

Domaine Didier Dagueneau

Off up the hill into Saint-Andelain, one of the highest point in the area and about the same height as the old town of Sancerre, to 3 Rue Ernesto Che Guevara. Inevitably there is a sense of sadness and a subdued air so soon after Didier’s death. Harvest time must be particularly difficult with constant reminders of Didier and how he would have run the harvest. We see Charlotte, Didier’s daughter, briefly before going into the winery where Benjamin, his son, is now in charge. Despite being obviously busy Benjamin is generous with the time he spends with us. First we taste the 2007s in vat starting with the Blanc Fumé de Pouilly, which has very precise, mineral and grapefruit flavours and will be bottled in January 2009. “This is the type of wine that I’m looking for,” says Benjamin. Next the weighter and beautifully balanced Pur Sang and Buisson Renard. Then across the Loire to Les Monts Damnés.– powerful but fine with lovely minerality. “The best of Didier’s Mont Damnés that I’ve tasted,” says Benoît later.

Temperature control for barrels

“People ask what is the difference between Pouilly-Fumé and Sancerre, which for me is really the wrong question as it is much more which type of soil, in both appellations, does the wine come from. If you taste a Pouilly-Fumé and a Sancerre from the same soil type it is difficult to tell which is which. The Monts Damnés is argile-calcaire (clay limestone) whereas around here it is argile-silex (clay and flint). The problem with the Monts Damnés is that to get the fruit properly ripe you have to wait and this means that the alcohol levels are high.”

We finish with Silex – certainly the most complex and complete of the 2007s and a fitting tribute to Didier.

Before we go we taste some of the new juice. “We started picking Silex and Buisson Renard last week – Wednesday/Thursday. Here we lost 75% of the crop through the hailstorm at the end of June. There is still La Folie, Blanc Fumé de Pouilly and Pur Sang to do. We’ll pick the Monts Damnés on Thursday/Friday of this week."

The latest investment

Initially Benjamin had been subdued – hardly surprising as our visit was unannounced and although he knows Benoît Roumet well, I’d only met him once and that as part of a press group in September 2007, so no reason for him to remember me. During our visit Benjamin became increasingly animated, especially when showing us his latest investment – a 15 hl wooden vat – that he and Didier had bought.

Benjamin@Le Temple Sept 2007

Benjamin: “We will buy more in the future.” He spoke of all the experiments that his father had made with barrels – the size and the form, including the cigar shape. Benjamin has vision and you sense a quiet determination. The wines will continue on the path set by Didier but there will be evolution and further experimentation.

Emblem above the entrance to the winery:
Domaine Didier Dagueneau

Michel Redde
Following our visit to Domaine Didier Dagueneau we passed by the vines and château of Patrick Ladoucette on our way to Michel Redde, where we initially saw Sébastien Redde. “We started on the 29th September. This year we invested in some new, small picking boxes, which have holes to allow the free-run juice to drain away. Of our 40 hectares 25-30 are picked by hand. Eventually we aim to everything by hand. Where we have hail damage the yield is only 18 hl/ha. Elsewhere it is 36 hl/ha due to there being little juice. In a normal year it is 45-50 hl/ha.” While we were talking to Sébastien, his father, Thierry, came back from the vines. “Because of the high acidities and the lack of juice in the grapes, 2008 is the first time as a vigneron that I have been happy to see a little bit of rain at harvest.”

Sébastien Redde

Thierry talked about the five different terroirs of Pouilly and revealed that they will soon be launching a new cuvée called Les Toupées from vines on Oxfordian limestone at Villiers not far from Château de Favray at the eastern end of the appellation.

We left Sébastien and Thierry to join their pickers for lunch, while we headed for the Auberge l”Ecurie in the centre of Sancerre, where Benoît’s cousin Denis, director of Les Maisons des Sancerres, joined us. We chose a bottle of André Vatan’s 2006 Sancerre Rouge – pleasant enough without being memorable.

Benoît Roumet, director of BIVC: 14th century cellar

Benoît Roumet, director of BIVC, in the vineyards of Pouilly

Afternoon:
Sancerre: André Vatan, Pascal Reverdy, Claude Riffault, François Crochet.


André Vatan

After lunch we headed off to Verdigny to see André Vatan but without success as he was across in Burgundy harvesting his Pouilly-Fumé. We did have a brief chat with André’s Belgian father-in-law, who was positive about the harvest

This is the second time I’ve tried to drop in on André without success. When unexpectedly the wine detective and I had a little time during our August visit we dropped by but nobody was around. Still, at least now I’ll have a response ready, when, at the Salon des Vins de Loire, André asks why I have never been to see him.

Vineyards above Maimbray with Pascal's
team picking at the top of the slope.

Pascal Reverdy
We headed on to see Pascal Reverdy in Maimbray, which is a hamlet of Sury-en-Vaux. Maimbray nestles in bottom of the steep sided valley whose small stream wanders northeastwards before joining the Loire at Cosne. To the east it is dominated by a great bluff of vines, which, travelling eastwards, is the first slope to face away from Sancerre and not to be part of the bowl of hills and vineyards that surround the town.

There appears to be nobody around but we can see a team of pickers and a tractor of trailer high in the vines. I wander round to the entrance of the winery and disturb Pascal’s wife, Nathalie, snatching a quick rest while waiting for the next load of Pinot Noir to arrive. “ The yields are low,” says Nathalie, “because of the drying effect of the north wind. The Pinot is particularly short – we won’t be making much red and rosé. But the quality of the fruit is good – there’s no rot.”

Below the winery there is an encampment of tents and caravans where the pickers stay as everything is picked by hand here. Pascal arrives with a tractor load. After a quick hello we leave them to it.

Stéphane checking the fruit over as it goes up the conveyor belt

Stéphane Riffault@Domaine Claude Riffault

On your way back to Sancerre town we made a quick stop at Claude Riffault in Maison Sallé, a hamlet of Sury-en-Vaux. Stéphane is busy loading Sauvignon Blanc into a pneumatic press. Everything is picked by hand here. Using a vibrating table the grapes move gently onto a conveyor into the press. Truly cosseting the fruit!

Vibrating table with grapes dropping onto conveyor belt

Stéphane: We started on the 29th and we’ll finish the Sauvignon this evening and make a start on the Pinot Noir tomorrow. Our Sauvignon is between 12.5%-13.5% potential with the acidities at 6-6.5 gms and the maturity is fine with good aromatics. Pinot is between 12-13%. I expect that yields for both varieties will be around 50 hl/ha. This is partly due to coulure from the difficult conditions at flowering and the drying wind we have had lately.”

Gérard Cherrier

Gérard Cherrier, Château de Sancerre
During a brief stop up by Sancerre’s Porte César, I bumped into Gérard Cherrier, the long time régisseur for Château de Sancerre, owned by Marnier Lapostelle.

Near to Porte César, Sancerre

Gérard: “We started in the middle of last week. We’ve picked part of both the Sauvignon and the Pinot Noir. I guess we are about halfway through. We’ve stopped for the moment – waiting for the acidity and the sugars to come into balance.”

Pouilly – part two

Quentin David and 2008 Sauvignon juice

Quentin David: Château de Favray

Time to head back across the Loire and to the eastern hinterland of the appellation to see Quentin David at Château de Favray in the commune of Saint-Martin-sur-Nohain. About eight kilometres south east of Cosné and 11 north-east of Pouilly, vines only play a small part of the agricultural mix here.

Records of Château de Favray go back at least to the 16th century and cultivation of vines here quite probably date from the same time. However, the appearance of phylloxera at the end of the 19th century meant that they were virtually abandoned until in 1980 Quentin revived the vineyard here. Today there are 15 ha under vine.

Quentin: “The Sauvignon has matured slowly this year. Although we have started, most of the grapes will be harvested next week. Fortunately we are able to take our time. Nor were we hit by the hailstorm of late June.”

As elsewhere the 2008 juice was clean and promising.


Masson-Blondelet

We headed southwards to Pouilly passing through Saint-Laurent-de-l’Abbaye, which has what looks like an imposing château – will have to return sometime to explore further. Jean-Michel and Michelle Masson have a tasting room right in the centre of Pouilly and their winery is a few doors up where I find Michelle.

Michelle: “We started yesterday. The grapes are very healthy – the Sauvignon is 13.1%-13.2% potential with 5.1 gms of acidity. Like others in Pouilly we have some hail damage. Jean-Michel is out in the vines. I think there is a problem with the picking machine, which he is trying to fix. We have another 12 days of picking to go.”

Sign on bridge at Pouilly

Back to Sancerre

François Crochet
We left Pouilly crossing the bridge that marks the halfway point of the Loire’s journey from the southern part of the Massif Central and the Atlantic Ocean and headed to Bué, via Saint-Bouize, to the François Crochet winery, where François and his team are dealing with a load of Sauvignon Blanc.


François: “People are comparing this vintage with 1996 but I was too young then, so I’ve no memories of that vintage. We started the Sauvignon on 26th and the Pinot on 2nd October – we’ll finish the Pinot on Sunday. The fruit is very good. On Friday we’ll pick Les Amoureuses (François’ top white).” As he searches for a vibrant, minerally style François is happy with the high acidities of 2008. “There will be a new cuvee this year from a flinty vineyard in Thauvenay.”

•••

I have been struck on this visit by the precautions that many producers in the Central Vineyards are now taking over the handling of their fruit. There is a renaissance of picking by hand, picking into small containers is increasingly common and almost everyone I have seen over the past two days is checking over their fruit either in the vineyard or when it arrives at the winery or both. Some producers now have vibrating platforms on their trailers so that the grapes can be checked over and moved gently from there and onto a conveyor belt to the vat or press.

At the end of the day I took a walk in the Clos de la Poussie, possibly the most famous vineyard of Bué. I was shocked by the lamentable state of parts of the vineyard – see next post (Clos de la Poussie – in a lamentable state).

We spent a very enjoyable evening with Jean-Laurent and Jean-Dominique Vacheron sharing a grape pickers' dinner accompanied by the very fine and minerally 2007 Les Romains Sancerre Blanc and their very impressive 2006 Belle Dame Sancerre Rouge with a lovely concentration of fruit, soft texture and supple tannins. Both wines again demonstrate that J-L and J-D are taking Domaine Vacheron up a further notch. The Vacherons have 6 ha of Sauvignon to pick. They will be starting on the Pinot Noir on Thursday and expect to finish Thursday week.

Central Vineyards – une année spéciale?

Vines@Montigny (AC Sancerre)

During the harvest it is easy to get carried away with the vignerons' understandable enthusiasm for their newly-born vintage but, as elsewhere in the Loire, in 2008 I think we are seeing the birth of a surprisingly good vintage. Yes, the acidity levels are higher than usual and the weather yesterday and today has not been very special but very little rain has actually fallen. Also it’s cool so any rot will take time to get established. As the following photos show the fruit is very clean and it is difficult to find any rot.

Claude Lafond and his team sorting Pinot Noir:

little rot mainly picking out stalks

Claude Lafond at the sorting elevator

Tasting recently-pressed grape juice in Reuilly, Quincy, Menetou-Salon and Sancerre, the richness is impressive but, most importantly, the flavours are clean and precise.

Today we visited Claude Lafond (Reuilly), Jean Tatin and Chantal Wilk (Quincy and Reuilly), Pierre Jacolin (Menetou-Salon), Henry Natter (Sancerre), Jean-Max Roger (Sancerre and Menetou-Salon), Vincent Pinard (Sancerre), Lucien Crochet (run by Gilles Crochet – Sancerre), Vacheron (Sancerre) and Henri Bourgeois.

Claude Lafond (Reuilly)

We started in Reuilly. Almost at the end of the harvest Claude was clearly a happy man. “We started picking the Sauvignon Blanc on 22 September then the Pinot Gris and we will finish the Pinot Noir tomorrow. The Sauvignon is coming in at 13% to 14.5% with the acidity between 5 and 5.5.” We tasted the Sauvignon juice and that had begun its fermentation – it was rich, clean and precise. We also tasted some Pinot Noir juice with two vats having a slightly earthy flavour, while the third was very clean-flavoured. Doubtless the slight earthiness will soon disappear.

Perfect little bunch of ripe Sauvignon Blanc@Quincy

Jean Tatin checking the Sauvignon Blanc in Quincy

Jean Tatin and Chantal Wilk (Quincy and Reuilly)

Chantal and Jean were equally pleased with the harvest. “We started the harvest on 26 September and we are still picking.” Chantal gave us directions to the Quincy growers grape reception facility, where we found Jean. “It’s like 2006, which was a very good year,” enthused Jean, “The Sauvignon is coming in between 13% to 14% similar to 2006, which had a level of ripeness that hadn’t been seen in Quincy since 1959! It was September that has made the difference. Even though the temperatures have not been high during the good spell of weather it’s the wind from the north that has concentrated the sugars and acidity.” About 50% of Quincy is now picked and the rest is likely to be finished this week.

Sauvignon Blanc at Quincy with some noble rot

Pierre Jacolin, la Prieuré de Saint-Céols (Menetou-Salon)
"We’ve just started – Morogues is always later to ripen than Menetou-Salon and Sancerre. We are taking our time – we’ll pick some more later this week and then finish sometime next week.” I tasted juice of both the Sauvignon Blanc (clean like others already tasted). “The Pinot Noir is more complicated – I think the style will be similar to 2007.”

Pierre Jacolin, St Cerols (AC Menetou-Salon)
getting a sample of the 2008 Pinot Noir juice

Henry Natter (Sancerre)

We dropped in briefly to see Henry and Cécile Natter in the little village of Montigny. Henry was busy making preparations for the start off the vintage tomorrow. Being a little higher than Sancerre, Montigny, with rare exceptions like 2003, picks a little later than Sancerre.

Cécile Natter: "The year has been delicate and not an easy one. We expect the harvest to take about 12 days – ripeness is quite variable this year. The grapes have really developed well over the last eight days. We now have two of our children ¬– Auguste and Matilde – working with us.”

The Natter family now has 30 ha at Montigny, which includes 7 ha that Auguste and Matilde own jointly. We arranged to come back on Wednesday to see how the harvest is coming along.

Montigny

Jean-Max Roger (Sancerre)
The village of Bué is chock-full of vignerons – a road sign says that 40 are ready to welcome you. Jean-Max was our first stop. “We started last Monday with the Sauvignon Blanc that had been affected by hail, especially at Thauvenay. Today we have been picking the Pinot Noir for our rosé. The grapes are between 11.5% and 12%. Tomorrow we’ll attack the Menetou-Salon. Then we expect to pick Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Our Sauvignon is between 12.5% and 13.5% with 5.5 gms acidity. This harvest is like 20 years ago – it’s a really classic year. We are very relaxed – taking our time and picking when the grapes are ready.”

Just to show how relaxed Jean-Max is – there was no sign of him when I arrived: he was out shopping, leaving his sons Etienne and Thibault to look after the Pinot Noir coming in.

We had time to taste three wines from 2007. The quite rich, gooseberry flavoured Menetou-Salon Le Petit Clos was showing particularly well.

Clément Pinard in their chai pouring a sample of Harmonie 2008

Vincent Pinard

Vincent is about 150 metres down the road from Jean-Max. Vincent is happy to entrust his two sons – Florent and Clément – with looking after the vinification and the reception of the grapes, while he wields the secateurs with their team of pickers in the vineyard. Everything here is picked by hand with all the grapes, particularly the reds, checked over. Florent joined his father in 2001 and Clément in 2005.

“We started on Friday 26 September,” says Clément, “with the Sauvignon Blanc and finished on Wednesday 1 October. The SB degrees are between 13%-13.5% with 6 g acidity. We expect to finish the Pinot Noir (13% potential) tomorrow. We are very happy with the quality.”

We taste the juice from various cuvées – Clement comments favourably on their minerality and salinity. As with other producers the yields are down: 30-32 hl/ha in their parcels in Thauvenay – hit by hail; elsewhere 40/45 for the Sauvignon Blanc and 30-35 hl/ha for Pinot Noir.

Florent Pinard directing operations

Florent Pinard checking Sauvignon Blanc

Vincent Pinard checking his Pinot Noir

Gilles Crochet of Lucien Crochet
We arrived just as Gilles was coming in with his pickers at the end of the day with a load of Pinot Noir. I managed to snatch a few moments with him as he and his team were busy checking over the newly arrived Pinot Noir before it went onto the conveyor belt and into the vat. The fruit was clearly very clean with little needing to be discarded.

Sorting Pinot Noir at Lucien Crochet

Gilles: “We started picking last Monday (29th) and we are about half-way through the harvest now. Yields are probably between 45-50 hl/ha and the potential degree for the domaine wines is around 12.5. Apart from the 2008, we have just bottled our 2007 Chêne Marchand, which will be on sale in two to three months.”

I tasted Sauvignon Blanc juice from a couple of vats – as elsewhere clean and precise flavours.

Sorting Pinot Noir at Lucien Crochet

Domaine Vacheron
Here we encountered another three happy vignerons: Jean-Laurent, Jean-Dominique and Denis Vacheron.

J-L and J-D “We started on Friday 26 September with the Sauvignon at Saint Romble, which had been hit by hail. Here the yield was 30 hl/ha. We harvested Saturday. Had a rest on Sunday and then harvested from Monday to mid-day Thursday when we stopped and started again this morning. We started on the calcaire (clay-limestone) on Tuesday 30th and on Les Romains the following day. We didn’t want to wait any longer, otherwise we would lose the minerality. Les Romains is already 13.5% potential but with 7.1 g acidity. We have picked about 60% of the Sauvignon and will start on the Pinot Noir this Thursday. Compared to 2007 there is more concentration in 2008, which we think will keep well.”

We tasted the juice for Les Romains 2008 – already very mineral with precise flavours.

Jean-Dominique Vacheron assessing the 2007 La Belle Dame

Jean-Marie Bourgeois – Henri Bourgeois
Jean-Marie was equally enthusiastic about 2008. One could be cynical and say – of course the vignerons are going to be enthusiastic about their new vintage. After all they have invested a lot of angst and worry since mid-March – concerns about frost, hail, conditions during the flowering, the treatment of mildew and other diseases plus the decision of when to pick – go too early and the grapes may not be properly ripe or go too late and the grapes are past their best. Few mothers are prepared to write off their newly born babies and, after all, the vignerons will have to start to sell their new wines in a few months' time. However, looking at the fruit in the vineyards, watching it come into the wineries and tasting the juice, it is clear to me that the vintage is way better than one could have imagined at the end of August. The fruit is clean, healthy with almost no rot.

I don’t have the experience or expertise to divine from tasting newly pressed juice how the final wine will turn out but any of us can taste grape juice and say whether the juice is clean and enjoyable to taste or whether it has rotten flavours. Everywhere the 2008 juice tastes clean with no false flavours.

“We started picking last Thursday,” says Jean-Marie as we head up the steep road towards the offices and winery. We start by tasting the Petit Bourgeois juice – their vin de pays made from juice they buy in from producers in the Cher Valley, who have to operate under strict quality controls but who are paid well over the going rate. The juice is impressively good – pure and with considerable richness. It’s the same with the rest of the juice we taste.

“We picked some of the Pinot on Saturday – between 12.55% and 12.8%. We are between a quarter and a third of the way through the harvest.” I ask Jean-Marie after his son, Arnaud, and Jean-Marie leads me to what appears to be a wooden panel at the top of the winery – on the same level as the grape reception. Here there is a secret, small wooden enclave where Arnaud, Jean-Christophe and Lionel Bourgeois are squeezed in, busy poring over the maturity data to decide where they should be picking tomorrow.