More photos from 2015 Vinaviva – Saturday 28th March

 

The Sales des Fêtes @ Saint-Etienne de Chigny

Claude Aupetitgendre, Domaine de Montoray
Montlouis and Touraine

I was impressed by Claude's Bulles de Chenin non dosé, Montlouis (9.30€)  – very clean and well made – and also the 2013 Libreval sec Montlouis (8€) with its attractive texture. This was the only still cuvée they made in 2013.

Guillaume Reynouard, Manoir de la Tête Rouge, Saumur

(above and below) 

Best wines 2010 Chapitre Saumur Blanc + 
2010 L'Enchentoir, Saumur Notre-Dame (12€)

Vincent Chauvelot, Châteaumeillant

My best wine from Vincent was 2012 La Vignonnerie

90% Pinot Noir, 10% Gamay (8€)

Quentin Bourse, Azay le Rideau

(above and below)

I first met Quentin Bourse, albeit very briefly, at La Levée de la Loire at the Salon des Vins de Loire. He is based in Azay-le-Rideau, and taking over the vines of Pascal Pibleau. Pascal has decided that he want to concentrate on his sparkling wine business – carrying out the secondary fermentation process and aging on behalf of growers. Similar to Berger, for example, at Saint-Martin-le-Beau. 

I tasted the 2013s from Pascal and then the 2014s from Quentin. This is an interesting development, worth following to see how it develops. I do, however, wonder about the price increase from Pascal to Quentin. The 2013 L'héritage d'Aziaum (Pascal), a blend of 55% Côt, 25% Cabernet Franc and 20% Gamay is 8.30€ for a single bottle. The youthful 2014 Aziaum (Quentin) – 70% Côt and 30% Cabernet Franc is 25€ a bottle. I can think of many of bottles from excellent Loire producers which are substantially cheaper than this.

     

VinaViva 2014: some photos from April 5th tasting

Two of the organisers 

VinaViva is an annual tasting put on by an organisation at Saint-Etienne de Chigny, a village on the north bank of the Loire between Tours and Langeais.

 

 Putting theory into practice

 Brendan Tracey (Vendômois): "Of course I'm a big fan of the Ramones!"

Claude Aupetitgendre: Montlouis and Touraine

Géraldine Pialoux from the Roannaise

Marie Thibault-Cabrit: Azay-le-Rideau

 Matthieu Coste: Coteaux du Giennoise (above and below)

 Pascal Pibaleau: Azay-le-Rideau

Vincent Chauvelot: Châteaumeillant

The 2015 edition of VinaViva will be on 28th and 29th March 2015.

1989 Azay-le-Rideau Moelleux, Pascal Pibaleau

Saturday night's apéro was a delightful surprise – a 1989 Azay-le-Rideau from Pascal Pibaleau. 1989 is, of course, a great vintage and Pascal Pibaleau is a good producer but the surprise was how wonderfully good this was. Lightly golden the wine had a lovely balance of delicate sweetness and vibrantly ripe acidity. It also went very well with our selection of cheeses, especially the excellent sheepmilk blue, bought from the very good and recently opened cheese shop in Bléré – La Balade des fromages, 6, rue Général-de-Gaulle, Bléré, tél. 02.18.06.17.75. See article in La Nouvelle République. 

I'm not very good at estimating the amount of residual sugar in a wine but my guess is that it was around 60-70 grams. This is another instance that underlines the idiocy of labelling these lovely wines as 'dessert' wines. Like Vouvray white Azay-le-Rideau can come in various levels of sweetness from sec to moelleux. Never as far as I know is an Azay moelleux super sweet. Fortunately I think we have another couple of bottles of the 1989 left. Azay white has to be 100% Chenin.