Montrichard: Festival des vins de Touraine - how was it?

Lionel Gosseaume, vice-president of l’ODG Touraine

'OGD: organisation de gestion et de défense de' 

For 33 years Montrichard, a small town in the Cher Valley, hosted a Touraine Primeur (Gamay) celebration every November when the new wine was released. Unfortunately I never caught one of these events as for some reason I am never in Touraine in mid-November. This June is was announced that this event would not be run this year. Instead there would be a new event at Montrichard involving wine and food with the focus on the range of Touraine wines rather than just Gamay Primeur.  

From La Nouvelle République  (2nd June 2018)
La manifestation montrichardaise ne sera pas reconduite. Tout au moins pas sous la même forme. Une aventure trentenaire s’achève. Non sans regrets.

Some local mayor were sad to see a popular event go after 33 years. However, as Lionel Gosseaume explains below in another article in La Nouvelle République, Touraijne Gamay Primeur was no longer enhancing the reputation of the wines of Touraine. Its sales only represent 0.4% of the appellation's production. It has become an ultra-marginal product, so continuing to spend 10% of Appellation Touraine's promotional budget on the annual two-day Touraine doesn't make any sense.  

Explanation by Lionel Gosseaume in the NR: 21.11.18 
Décider de ne plus communiquer sur le touraine primeur n’a jamais autant fait parler du touraine primeur ! Le paradoxe fait sourire Lionel Gosseaume, mais pour le vigneron de Choussy, responsable de la stratégie de communication de l’AOC touraine, il n’y a aucune ambiguïté. « Le touraine primeur est devenu une production ultra-marginale, à peine 0,4 % de la production, et on mettait près de 10 % de notre budget dessus. En début d’année, le nouveau conseil d’administration a voté à une très large majorité l’abandon de cette action, pour s’engager dans une nouvelle stratégie de valorisation de toute l’appellation touraine. »
 
Instead Appellation Touraine decided to hold last weekend their first Festival des Vins de Touraine in Montrichard. It featured 35 local Touraine producers included a number of top Touraine vignerons as well as a top chef Rémy Giraud, chef de cuisine des Hauts de Loire à Onzain to head up their food offer.

35 Vignerons who showed their wines:
Cave des Producteurs de Montlouis-sur-Loire
Divin Loire
Domaine Château de Fontenay
Domaine de la Chaise
Domaine de la Chapinière
Domaine de Marcé
Domaine des Caillots
Domaine des Chezelles
Domaine des Echardières
Domaine des Pierrettes
Domaine Desroches
Domaine du Clos Roussely
Domaine du Colombier
Domaine Jean-Christophe Mandard
Domaine Jean-Marie Penet
Domaine Jeremy Villemaine
Domaine Joël Delaunay
Domaine Josselin Ragot
Domaine Laurent Le Bihan
Domaine les Vaucorneilles
Domaine Lionel Gosseaume
Domaine Mérieau
Domaine Mesliand
Domaine Raphaël Midoir
Domaine Sauvète
Domaine Xavier Frissant
Le Cellier de Beaujardin
Les Caves du Père Auguste
Les Pierres d’Aurèle
Les Vignerons des Côteaux Romanais
Manoir de la Vignière
Montdomaine
  
Was the Festival a success? As I wasn't there I will rely on a Scottish couple, who live a good part of the year near to Montrichard, for their view on the first edition of this new festival. My grateful thanks to them: 
   

Photo by Martha and David McCorkindale

'Happy to give our impressions of the Festival des Vins which took place at the weekend in Montrichard.

Saturday turned into a bright sunny day, so we decided to go into Montrichard mid-afternoon - the guingette with live music was under way at the place next to the Mairie, under a large clear tent, with a dance floor.  They had a selection of different kinds of music, all good, but not many people there. This was also the case in rue Porte aux Rois and the caves under the donjon where the vignerons had their stalls (I attach a photo taken late Saturday afternoon).  There was an opportunity to collect any wine bought round the corner off place General du Gaulle, which meant the exhibitors didn't have to keep their stock beside their stalls. As usual the vignerons were happy to talk about their wines and it was a great opportunity to sample local produce.  We passed l'hotel Effiat where again there were ateliers culinaires (including ones for children) with samples of produits du terroir and experts happy to share their knowledge.

We thought it was a very well organised event, but disappointing that so few people appeared to be there (at least while we were there).  Unfortunately yesterday was dull and very wet, hope that word had got round and numbers had increased.

If you have been to any of the Montrichard Touraine Primeur events in previous years (33 in total apparently), you'll know that it was difficult to move through the streets because of the large number of people. Not sure if the reduction in attendance is because it's a new/separate event, with different organisers.  The link to an article in the local paper possibly gives an explanation as to the reason:

https://www.lanouvellerepublique.fr/loir-et-cher/touraine-primeur-la-fin-des-rendez-vous

This is a report from La Nouvelle Republique on the inauguration of the event on Saturday morning, which appears to have been better attended:

https://www.lanouvellerepublique.fr/loir-et-cher/le-festival-des-vins-a-trouve-son-public

We hope the event will continue to be held in future years, in whatever format, because it really does give local producers an opportunity to market their wines and food to a wider audience, and for a relatively small town, Montrichard is really excellent at hosting external events throughout the year.'

Any new event is likely to take time to establish itself. Hopefully, if there is a second edition there will be more publicity prior to the event. I was unaware that it was happening until the day before the event. Is late November the best time? There are lots of other competing wine events on at this time? Would it be worth considering another season when there are more visitors in Montrichard?

 Montrichard

The Cher@ Montrichard

Fury over ODG demand to hold Touraine 2016 prices

AC Touraine vineyards completely blitzed 

by weedkiller in late March  

Last Thursday I spent the day with Aynard Clermont-Tonnerre, the export manager for Ampelidae. Aynard used to run Le Clos du Porteau in Saint-Georges-sur-Cher. However, in 2009 the business went into administration and then filed for bankruptcy in October 2014. 

Aynard lives in Saint Georges-sur-Cher, so we drove down together to Haut-Poitou. This gave us plenty of time to chat – mainly about wine, of course. 

One topic we discussed was the letter (see below) from Alain Godeau, president of the Organisme de Défense et de Gestion de l’AOC Touraine et ses dénominations. Aynard was furious that the president of the ODG for Touraine was urging growers not to increase their prices despite the very small harvest that many, although not all, Touraine producers are facing in 2016.  Overall the 2016 harvest in the Loire is 32% down on 2015.

This year's very complicated vintage – affected by frost, often a poor flowering, widespread mildew, followed by drought and grapes burnt by the fierce sun – is just the latest in a series of short vintages starting with the April frost of 2012. 

Not only are recent harvest volumes down due to the climatic conditions of 2012-2016 but this is exacerbated by the losses from vines killed every year by Esca. 

Although it would clearly be foolish for Touraine producers to increase their prices dramatically, a modest price increase would surely be reasonable to enable producers here to make not only a decent living but also have sufficient funds to make investments. The current bulk price for Sancerre is around 800€ per hectolitre – very substantially higher than 205€ for Touraine Sauvignon – annexe below.   

If it is true, as Godeau asserts, that Touraine producers are making a good living at current prices, why is it that the use of weedkillers is so shamefully widespread in the Touraine appellations? It is noticeable that in Loire appellations, such as Saumur-Champigny, where producers can sell their wines at higher prices, the use of weedkillers is much less widespread. Blitzing a vineyard with weedkiller is the cheap option; alternative methods of weed control cost more.    

       

Organisme de Défense et de Gestion de l’AOC Touraine et ses dénominations

Noyers sur Cher, le 20 septembre 2016

Cher(e) collègue, 

Suite aux différents épisodes climatiques qui ont frappé le vignoble cette année, la récolte en Touraine s’annonce fragile et inégale sur l’ensemble du territoire.
 Depuis quelques années maintenant, les cours du vrac (cf. en annexe les cours moyens de la campagne 2015/2016), notamment en Sauvignon, sont bons et permettent de rémunérer le travail du vigneron. Cependant, la fluctuation de notre production impacte directement le marché avec des augmentations trop brusques des cours les années de plus faible récolte, impactant la commercialisation en aval, une trop forte augmentation des prix ne pouvant être acceptable par les distributeurs et le consommateur.

Nous avons déjà vécu cette situation en 1991, essayons de ne pas reproduire la même erreur... Il convient donc d’être raisonnable et de ne pas spéculer : une telle stratégie en période de faible disponibilité n’a jamais été bénéfique sur le long terme.

Dans ce contexte, une certaine stabilité des cours par rapport à la campagne qui vient de s’achever est indispensable de manière à ne pas déséquilbrer nos marchés, et ce pour l’ensemble de nos appellations.
 De plus, le Touraine ne se limitant pas au sauvignon, il serait stratégiquement intéressant de raisonner la commercialisation globale des produits du domaine, en ne misant pas tout sur le sauvignon et en maintenant de bons niveaux de rémunaration également pour les autres produits tels que les rouges et rosés, mais également les vins de base mousseux dont les cours augmentent progressivement.

Espèrant vous avoir convaincu de l’importance de la solidarité et du collectif sur notre vignoble, je vous transmets mes salutations et mes encouragements pour ces vendanges.

Le président de l’ODG Touraine Alain Godeau 

Frédéric Brochet and Ampelidae expands into Touraine

Already easily the largest player in Haut-Poitou, the dynamic Frédéric Brochet and Ampelidae have now expanded into Touraine taking over the management of the Bourgueil and Chinon vineyards that belonged to Pierre-Jacques Druet. Ampelidae have also taken over the running of the Touraine AC and Montlouis vines of Clos du Porteau based in Saint-Georges-sur-Cher. All the wines will be organic.

Aynard de Clermont Tonnerre from the Clos du Porteau has now been appointed to look after the commercial side of Ampelidae. Clermont Tonnerre used to be a banker with Commerzbank.

With 230 hectares now under their control Ampelidae are becoming an increasingly important player in the Loire. 

    

2012 Sauvignon Blanc from Domaine Villebois

2012 Sauvignon Blanc, Villebois, AC Touraine

Three 2012 Sauvignon Blancs from Villebois in Eastern Touraine at the village of Seigy. Thierry Merlet, who specialises in Sauvignon Blanc, is the winemaker. All three have attractive fresh fruit with good balancing acidity – showing that for the early ripening varieties 2012 was a good vintage, even if at times volumes were tiny. The range starts with the Petit Villebois, an easy drinking vin de pays Val de Loire. Then two Apellation Touraines – the straight Villebois and the Prestige Cuvée. I particularly liked fresh, crunchy and vibrant fruit of the straight Villebois. The Prestige has a little more concentration but I'm not convinced that it is really better than the straight Villebois – perhaps with a little more bottle age.