Shameless, indulgent nostalgia .........

 1986: Wearing a Redmon Cycling Club sweat-shirt

During a slightly overdue tidy-up I came across some photos from the 1980s and 1990s. My apologies for the nostalgic and rather egotistical memories.  

 1986 Vaucluse: Max Hasender of Schwarzenfeld, 

Jim and Paul, Max's eldest son 

 

1986 Cycling in Bavaria 

 

 1986 Bavaria: Almost a white shirt – what can he have been thinking of?

1986 Bavaria: Max Hasender, Jim, CRM and Richard Hasender, Max's father

 February 1989 Muscadet CRM with a 

once serious wine writer visting François Bonnehomme

(above and below) 

on first assignment for Decanter

Pays Nantais with Gilbert Bossard  

Not sure of the date

 

Pays Nantais with Jean-Ernest Sauvion 

then of Château du Cléray and Maison Sauvion  

September 1992: being intronised into 

Les Entonneurs Rabelaisiens de Chinon

Glass of Chinoin already empty......

 

2012 Loire: vintage@Château du Cléray

Pierre Sauvion, winemaker@Château du Cléray

 

Château du Cléray (now part of Grands Chais de France)

The 2012 vintage at Château du Cléray, Vallet (Muscadet Sèvre-et-Maine), is very similar to other estates in the region. Pierre Sauvion, the winemaker, said on Wednesday: "We started on Monday. We are taking it gently this week but will accelerate next week. The yields are low: between 12hl/ha and 35hl/ha. The dry weather of August and September has concentrated both the sugars and the acidity, so we have around 12.8 potential alcohol and 5.4-5.5 g/l acidity. Once we finish we may end up with an average yield of 30hl/ha. Although the quantity is small the quality is good." 

Certainly tasting the juice there was good concentration, some acidity and, as elsewhere, very clean.  

   

Pierre Sauvion with 2012 juice

 Melon grapes@Cléray

 Close up of Melon de Bourgogne  with evidence of millerandage (hen and chicken)

 Cléray through the vines

Olly Smith and white Loires@Majestic tasting

A surprised Olly Smith

Today Majestic (Wine Warehouse) held their Summer tasting in Central London showing a 150 wines. These included a small selection of 2011 Loire dry whites. All of the wines will have been relatively recently bottled, so it is quite likely that they will take on more weight over the next two or three months.     

2011 Château du Cléray, Haute Culture Sauvion, Muscadet Sèvre et Maine sur lie

Now owned by Grands Chais de France, although the wines are still made by Pierre Sauvion. This has good crisp, lemony fruit, although it currently lacks a little weight and length in the finish but may fill out a bit with more time. £8.99 a bottle – £7.99 if you buy two bottles. 

 2011 Pouilly-Fumé 'Les Cascadelles' Caves de Pouilly-sur-Loire

Attractively lively citric character with weight and length, this confirms the good impression the 2011 Pouilly-Fumés made during the Decanter World Wine Awards last week. £10.99 per bottle. Buy two bottles for £9.99 a bottle. 

 2011 Les Baudrières, Sancerre, Dominique Baud

Grassy and grapefruit with some weight of fruit but lacks a little precision in the finish. £10.99 for a screwcapped bottle. £8.99 for each bottle if you buy two bottles (24.4-11.06) and £9.99 if you buy two bottles (12.6-3.9). 

  

 2011 Vieilles Vignes, Sancerre, Domaine Paul Cherrier, Verdigny 

This old vine Sancerre was certainly the best of the dry white Loires being shown at this tasting with lively grassy, citric flavours with some mineral character in a longish finish. £12.99 a bottle – £11.99 each when buying two bottles. 

Olly Smith   

Pierre Sauvion: Château du Cléray

(24 September 2008)

Last November La Maison Sauvion, which includes Château du Cléray near Vallet, was sold to Grands Chais de France. This is part of the recent strategy of Grand Chais de France to build a range of luxury wine brands. As part of this strategy they bought Château de Fesles in Anjou earlier on this year. Pierre Sauvion, the nephew of Jean-Ernest Sauvion who previously ran the company, remains in charge of the company’s affairs.

Pierre Sauvion in the cellars of Château du Cléray

“We made a small test on Monday 15 September and then started properly on Thursday (18 September) and we’ll finish either today or tomorrow. With the frost of 7 April we lost 60% of the crop. Before we started harvesting we thought that yields would be around 24/25 hl/ha but the actual average yield is 20 hl/ha. However, this is not as bad as 1991 when it was just 10 hl/ha. However, even without the frost, I don’t think we would have had a big harvest this year because of the difficult flowering last year. We’d probably have had around 40 hl/ha.”

The Loire as well as other parts of Western France including Bordeaux was very badly hit by frost on 21/22 April 1991. Just as happened on 7 April this year much of the damage in 1991 was apparently caused by the heat of the early morning sun being magnified by the ice droplets encasing the tender young vine shoots.

“I’m quite optimistic about the quality of 2008, which I think may be similar to 2000 and 2001, perhaps especially 2001 which was a good vintage that has kept well. There are no wrong tastes in the 2008 musts, although the acidity is quite high and I may do a malo on some vats to soften the acidity. I was pessimistic about 2008 at the beginning of August but, leaving aside today, we have now had two and half weeks of good weather with the wind from the east.”

Pierre Sauvion@Château du Cléray with a glass of 2008 Muscadet juice

Pierre hopes that that the short 2008 harvest will lead to a repositioning of Muscadet. “The price will have to go up. We cannot cover our costs of production on this year’s yields. I hope that bad Muscadet sold at too low a piece will disappear and that the Muscadet will be sold at a price that reflects its true value. Muscadet should be the top wine from the area and any wine that isn’t good enough should be sold under a second label and not be called Muscadet.” Pierre explains that to cover costs this year the price would have to double. “Of course this isn’t possible but the price of Muscadet needs to rise to a level that will allow youngsters to start and for producers to gain a proper margin.”

Château du Cléray - Sauvion en Eolie
BP 79453, 44194 Vallet Cedex
Tel : 02.40.36.22.55
GPS : 47°09'590"N 01°14'686"W
Email : sauvion@sauvion.fr
Web: www.sauvion.fr