Jacky Blot's relaunched website

Anne-Françoise in the cellar@Husseau: January 2009

Good visit this afternoon as ever to Jacky and Joëlle Blot's Domaine de la Taille aux Loups where we tasted mostly 2007s and 2008s with Anne-Françoise Blot.

At the end Anne mentioned that their website had been relaunched and now includes two videos showing how they work at both Montlouis and Bourgueil. Certainly worth checking out as the videos show some of the necessary steps to make high quality wine.

Will shortly post some notes on today's tasting but first must finish writing up Tuesday's visits to Chinon.

Tasting 2008s with Anne-Françoise Blot

Anne-Françoise drawing a sample of 2008

Visit this morning to the Domaine de la Taille aux Loups to taste the 2008s, which are still fermenting gently. Tasted with Anne-Françoise, the daughter of Jacky and Joëlle who are currently sunning themselves in the West Indies, having sensibly fled the cold of the Loire for a brief holiday before getting ready for the Salon des Vins de Loire.

Although still babies, the 2008 Montlouis and Vouvrays here look very promising, although it is too early to write detailed notes on them as they are still fermenting. They have a similar precision and purity as 2007, although perhaps with a little more weight. However, as they are still fermenting it is really too early to say.

Anne-Françoise: 'There was a very big difference between the level of acidity when we started to pick in early October to when we finished on the 29th October: levels started at 7 g and we finished on 5.5. So we see a big difference between le 1er passage and le 2eme passage. In 2008 Rémus is the heart of our Montlouis harvest."

Jacky Blot believes that 2008 is a great vintage for dry Chenin. Today's tasting, even at this early stage, suggests that he may well be right.

Anne-Françoise joined her parents at the domaine in 2006 after working for 11 years as a librarian. She had a six-month stage in Edinburgh in 1994 and then from 1995 to 2006 at the Bibliothèque Universitaire de Tours as well as some time working in Paris. "But I was always involved in the wine and came back for the vendange," she says.