Loire 2017 – some past harvest photos in anticipation

 Man in sombrero – picking in the Pays Nantais 

Picking Melon de Bourgogne – 2010

Dealing with Sauvignon Blanc @Vincent Grall's

garage winery in Sancerre 

Loïc Cailbourdin (Pouilly-Fumé) dealing with the press

Sorting table @ Bernard Baudry, Chinon

Photos from Thorman Hunt tasting and The Real Wine Fair

 Christophe Surget, Couly Dutheil, Chinon

Christophe will be busy taking on 

some of the responsibilities of the late Jacques Couly

A few photos of Loire producers from the Thorman Hunt tasting on Monday 18th April at The Merchants Taylors Hall in the City of London.

 Loïc Cailbourdin, Domaine Alain Cailbourdin, Pouilly-Fumé 

2015 Les Cornets, Pouilly-Fumé showing well +

2012 Triptyque

 Jean-Pierre Chevallier, Château de Villeneuve, 

Saumur/Saumur-Champigny 

2014 Grand Clos Saumur-Champigny 

showing a lot of finesse

Maud and Firmin Dézat, André Dézat

Firmin rather in the shadow of Maud here –

I must remember not to stop the camera down 

so low when using the 85 lens! 

I particularly liked their 2015 Pouilly-Fumé Domaine Thibault

The Real Wine Fair, Tobacco Dock, Wapping, London  
After the Thorman Hunt tasting I headed to Tobacco Dock and The Real Wine Fair.

 Brendan Tracey, Domaine le Clocher, Vendôme

above and below

 Hervé Villemade, Domaine du Moulin, Cour-Cheverny

 Louis Germain, Domaine des Roches Neuves, 

Saumur, Saumur-Champigny

 Louis, son of Thierry who for the moment 

does not talk quite as fast as his dad...

Pierre Breton, Domaine Catherine & Pierre Breton,

Bourgueil and Vouvray 

(above and below)

 Benoît Landron, Domaine Landron-Chartier, 

Coteaux d'Ancenis

 (above and below)

 !!!

 Marc Pesnot, Domaine de la Sénéchalière, Pays Nantais

Good to taste with Marc Pesnot again. He makes very interesting Vin de France wines from the Pays Nantais using Folle Blanche and Melon de Bourgogne using nuitage a process of long maceration (overnight or more) before pressing the ripe grapes with grande pression to extract more matter from the skins.   

Staying with the Pays Nantais good to see Jo Landron back fully fit after his nasty fall last summer, although he still finds it impossible to fully raise his left (?) arm fully. Fortunately this is not too great a handicap as Jo is able to raise a glass to the required height to drink comfortably. I enjoyed his 2014 Melonix (Vin de France), 2013 Le Fief du Breuil and 2015 La Louvetrie – both Muscadet Sèvre-et-Maine.

Alex Thorp, under the bonnet, 161 Kirkdale (@161Kirk)

Staying the Nantais area I met Alex Thorp, who was serving Matthieu l'Hotelier's Les Champs Jumeaux wines. Alex is part of under the bonnet Ltd, who imports these wines, as well as the Sydenham wine bar in London 161 Kirkdale.   

Before setting up Les Champs Jumeaux in 2012 Matthieu, who is an electronic musician,  did a taster course on winemaking while on the dole and then worked with Marc Pesnot. Les Champs Jumeaux (2.5 hectares) is in the commune of Montrelais at the eastern end of the Coteaux d'Ancenis appellation. There used to be 300 hectares of vines in this commune but now only those of Les Champs Jumeaux remain. The whites are made from Chenin Blanc, the red from a blend of Gamay and Grolleau, and the rosé from Gamay and a hybrid.        

Off to Pouilly: 5th October (part 1)

Alain Cailbourdin

Loïc pushing grapes along the press

Following the visit to Florian Mollet we headed across the Loire into Pouilly, where like in Sancerre there was some picking activity despite the miserably wet weather. First stop was to Domaine Cailbourdin in Maltaverne where Alain Cailbourdin has now been joined by his son, 23 year-old Loïc.

They had started picking last Tuesday and worked through to the weekend but hadn't picked on Monday. Everything is picked by machine and they had started again Tuesday morning but stopped because of the weather. "We have got another four days picking," said Alain. "Alcohol levels are averaging out at around 12.9% with 5.6 acidity with yields varying between 45 hl/ha to 60hl/ha depending upon the parcel and age of the vine."

Our next stop was up in Saint-Andelain to see Benjamin Dagueneau, who was clearly very pleased to have virtually finished picking. "95% is in," he said. "We started last Thursday and finished on Sunday. Degrees vary between 12.5%-12.7% with the acidity around 5.5." We tasted the some very clean and precise juice from a number of vats. Benjamin is particularly pleased with the potential of the 2010 Buisson Renard.    

Benjamin Dagueneau in September 2007