2012 Decanter World Wine Awards: Day 4 – trophy day

Katie Exton (Chez Bruce) 

Four days, four gold medals and two regional trophies 

Yesterday concluded our four days of judging Loire wines for the 2012 Decanter World Wine Awards. It was an interesting and varied day showing once again what diversity of styles there are in the Loire. We looked at sparkling wines – white and rosé, some more Sancerre in all three colours, dry and demi-sec rosé and concluded with various reds from Cheverny, Valençay and AC Touraine. During the afternoon we hit a high point with a 2010 Sancerre Rouge, which was awarded gold.  

Victoria Stephens-Clarkson 

Katie Exton, sommelier at Chez Bruce, and Victoria Stephens-Clarkson, formerly wine buyer for Liberty wines and now with the family wine business in the Cotswolds, joined Nigel Wilkinson (RSJ Restaurant).

Our day ended with a re-tasting of our gold medal wines and assessing whether any of these were good enough for a Regional Trophy. Our answer was yes, so this year the Loire has an unprecedented two Regional Trophy winners – Red Loire over £10 and Sweet Loire over £10. These two wines will now go forward to be tasted with their peers from other parts of the wine world to decide the International Trophy winners. 

The regional results will be announced during the London Wine Trade Fair, while the International Trophy Winners won't be known until the awards dinner in September.

We tasted just over 300 wines over the four days – easily the biggest Loire DWWA entry ever. My thanks to all the Loire judges: Yves Desmaris MS, Katie Exton, Chris Kissack, Ken Mackay MW, Victoria Stephens-Clarkson and Jason Yapp.  

Special thanks to Sebastian Denton, our red shirt who looked after us brilliantly. He didn't even throw a wobbly when the regional chair insisted on a complete change of glasses after a flight of Rosé d'Anjou and Cabernet d'Anjou before more onto our final flight of reds!

          

2012 Decanter World Wine Awards: Day 3 on the Loire panel

It was undeniably cold in the Worx early on but tasting in an outdoor 

coat and gloves was perhaps going a little far!

Inevitably after the high of yesterday with that marvellous flight of 2010 sweet wines from Anjou-Saumur today was quieter. Chris Kissack and Nigel Wilkinson were again on the panel with Ken Mackay MW, who was with us on Monday, returning.     

We started with a flight of Valençay, Cheverny and Cour-Cheverny before the main business of the morning – three flights of 2011 Sancerres. Unusually, overall the Sancerres showed less well than the Pouilly-Fumés that we tasted yesterday. In previous years the Sancerres have shown better. Tomorrow we will have some 2010 Sancerres, which may show better. 

The afternoon was given over to Red Loires – mainly Cabernet Franc, with easily the largest ever entry and we still have some Sancerre Rouge tomorrow. We looked at Chinon through to Anjou-Brissac. The wines were variable but we did award a Silver and seven Bronze medals.         

No Golds but a good day's tasting. Tomorrow is the Loire's last day. On the panel will be Nigel Wilkinson plus newcomers Victoria Stephens-Clarkson, wine buyer for Liberty Wines, and Katie Exton, sommelier at Chez Bruce. Ken is back to work at Waitrose, while Chris has flown back to Edinburgh and his day job. Good to have both of them on the panel. Particular thanks to Chris for flying down and giving us three days of his time.  

        

Decanter World Wine Awards 2012: First day on Loire panel

Sarah Kemp, Decanter's publishing director (centre by window), briefs judges@the start of the judging week

Today in footballing parlance was a game of two halves: in the morning we tackled a range of decidedly uninspired Sauvignon Blancs and then in the afternoon it was Melon de Bourgogne with lots of good wines.

Yves Desmaris MS

On the first day panel were Chris Kissack (The Wine Doctor and well established panel member) plus new members Yves Desmaris MS and Ken Mackay MW.   

The Sauvignon Blancs in our morning session were a mix of vin de pays, Touraine, Quincy, Reuilly, Coteaux du Giennois and Menetou-Salon. Sadly, with the exception of a very good 2010 Menetou-Salon that gained a silver medal, they were hard work with many of the 2011s disappointing.

Chris Kissack

Having tasted together a very poor range of 2011 Muscadets in London back in January Chris and I rather feared the worst. We were in for a very pleasant surprise, especially as this year for the first time since the DWWA was launched in 2004 we had a really sizeable entry from the Pays Nantais. The overall quality was far higher than the Sauvignons we tasted in the morning, although to be fair we still have Sancerre and Pouilly to come. A good number of the wines were 2011 – a far from easy vintage in Muscadet – plus some 2010s a 2009 and a fine 2007. We were able to give a good range of Bronze Medals, a number Commended and, best of all, a Silver Medal to a 2007, which I suspect was one of the new crus communaux. Decidedly good news and a reminder that if you haven't tried Muscadet for a while the quality has improved very significantly and good wines can be had for very reasonable prices. 

Ken Mackay MW

The one significant downside was the number of corked bottles, especially in the afternoon session. On two occasions we called for two replacement bottles and both were also corked. I didn't count the number of corked bottles today but it must have certainly been between 10%-15%. Why producers continue to insist on putting a delicate white like Muscadet under cork rather than screwcap is beyond me!

'This blogger' – the regional chair   

See Chris Kissack's take on his Wine Doctor blog.

        

Decanter World Wine Awards 2012

Chris Kissack: the Wine Doctor 

It's going to be a busy week as it is judging time for the 2012 Decanter World Wine Awards. Once again I will be regional  for the Loire and, for the first time, judging for the Loire will now stretch from Monday to Thursday. I have a blend of old and new panel members. 

On Monday's panel will be Chris Kissack, The Wine Doctor flying in from Edinburgh and a well established Loire DWWA judge. He will be joined by master sommelier Yves Desmaris and Ken Mackay MW, whose buying responsibilities for Waitrose include the Loire. 

Amongst other things it will be fascinating to see how the 2011s are developing and how closely they correlate to how they were tasting only a few weeks ago in the valley itself.        

John Livingstone-Learmonth: King Roan considering the form

The week is also a great opportunity to catch up with many wine people from around the world. 

I gather that once again the DWWA has attracted a record entry this year with over 14,000 wines. As I said it will be a busy week!