Real Wine Fair – 8th May 2017 – frost haunts Tobacco Dock

 David Fourbet, La Folle Berthe, Saumur (4.5 ha domaine)
One of the lucky ones with 
little frost damage in Le Puy Notre Dame 
just in a parcel of Pineau d'Aunis)

It was good to be at The Real Wine Fair at a decidedly chilly to meet up with some Loire producers but there was an overall sadness due to the extent of the damage caused by the series of frosts in late April. For all too many there will be little or no 2017 harvest. Already there are rumours of producers having to give up because of the succession of small crops and, in particular, two years of often severe Spring frosts in 2016 and now 2017. 

It is stark that producers, who have lost up to 20% of their crop, count themselves as lucky as nearby colleagues have lost their entire crop – 'plus que rien' or almost all of it.     

Sébastien David and Stéphanie Caslot representing the Loire 

Sébastien just a loss of 10% in 2017

Stéphanie again badly hit more than 60% estimated loss  

Stéphanie Caslot at Tobacco Dock 

Marc Pesnot, VDF Melon (Muscadet)

Relatively unscathed in Nantais with 20% loss max

Jo Landron – 35%

Benoit Landron (Muscadet, Coteaux de la Loire): 50% loss 

Odile et Lucile Verdier, Cave Verdier-Logel (Côtes de Forez) 

Not frosted 

Antoine Michon, son of Thierry, 

Domaine Saint-Nicolas, Fiefs-Vendéens  

15ha frosted out of 39 ha in 2017
25 ha out of 39ha frosted in 2016 

Brendan Tracey, Domaine le Clocher, Vendôme

Severely frosted

 

Pascal Verhaeghe, Cahors, Château de Cèdre 

The late April frost had a big impact elsewhere 

in France and beyond not just the Loire. 

Cahors suffered a series of frosts with 

Friday 28th April being the most destructive 

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.        

Les Vins Contés: report on open day 7th May

Olivier Lemasson

On the afternoon of Saturday 7th may we headed across to Fougères-sur-Bièvre to the portes ouvertes held by Olivier Lemasson (Les Vins Contés), which featured a few other vignerons in addition to Olivier.

Pascal Potaire (roi des PetNats)

I started with Pascal Potaire, who we had intended to see a couple of weeks earlier when he was at an open day in Cheverny with Philippe Tessier, when our car developed a radiator problem and so forced us to creep back to Epeigné instead.

My favourite wine from Pascal was the agreeable and easy-drinking 2010 Rosé PetNat, a blend of 2/3 Côt and 1/3 Gamay. With red fruits to the fore it will make a fine summer apéro. The 2009 Orbois Menu Pineau is quite soft and weighty but mineral in the finish. Pascal makes good Menu Pineau, which are often more mineral and austere than the 2009 but this reflects the richer nature of the vintage. They age well. The 2008 Vignnason Sauvignon Blanc has some varietal character and length but I found the other two wines he was showing more interesting. 

Jérôme Lenoir

Next was Jérôme Lenoir, who with his dad – Alain, has 3.5 hectares in Beaumont-en-Véron (AC Chinon) planted on north-facing slopes. He had various vintages to taste 2001, 2003, 1989 and 1990. The 2001 and 2003 were quite light, although delicate. I preferred the more concentrated 1989 and 1990, although both also had delicacy. 

New producer: Jérémy Quastana 

The owner of Jérémy Quastana, who has two hectares in Touraine, was showing of a couple of wines from his first vintage. Firstly 2010 Buena Onda, a fun, clean, lightly sweet PetNat Rosé made from Gamay. Then a juicy, concentrated, still Gamay called L'insurgé with fair length.  

2010 L'insurge (above and below)

Olivier Lemasson has three hectares of his own vines in Monthou-sur-Bièvre and buys in grapes from a further six hectares. We started with the attractively ripe 2010 Sois Mignon made from 70 year old Sauvignon Blanc vines. Then onto the clean and precise 2010 bOis saNs sOif that is an equal blend of Menu Pineau and Romorantin, which should keep well. The funky but spicy and juicy 2010 Le P'tit Rouquin (Gamay from 20 year old vines) was the first red. 2010 Poivre et sel followed showing the typical spicy notes of a Pineau d'Aunis. R10 is a blend of Gamay, Pinot Noir, Grolleau, Pineau d'Aunis and Côt with attractive, sweet spicy fruit and good length although with slightly grainy tannins – it has 40 days of macération.

2010 Gama Sutra is all Gamay from 100 year old vines with ripe concentration and length. I finished with the fine, rich and long 2009 Cheville de Fer – Côt from vines between 20 and 50 years old. It spends a year in demi-muids (barrels normally of 500/600 litre size). This cuvée should age well.

  Marc Pesnot

The last producer was Marc Pesnot of the Domaine de la Sénéchalière in the Pays Nantais. Marc is careful to stress that although he uses Melon de Bourgogne he doesn't make Muscadet. "In 2001 I decided to take another route from Muscadet," he explains. The first wine was the 2010 La Bohême, which has some slight oxidation and sweetness. I liked the second wine much better: the 2010 Cuvée Miss Terre from old vine Melon, which has good concentration, minerality and length. Unusually Nuitage is made by treating the Melon grapes as though it was a typical Beaujolas as it has a 12-hour carbonic maceration. "To liberate the grapes' perfume," explains Marc. The 2009 has touch of white flower and is certainly very different from a traditional Muscadet. Fascinating character and wines worth exploring further, Marc is someone I need to see when I'm next in the Pays Nantais.  

Marc Pesnot