Jim's Loire: #dwwa

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Thursday, 28 April 2016

Frost in Loire the night of 26th/27th April 2016 – grim and heartbreaking news (an update)

La nature est parfois difficile avec ceux qui pour autant l'aime encore.
Exemple confirmée à La Charpenterie.

Photo by

Sabrina Cyprien Caslot-Bourdin

Near La Chapelle-sur-Loire

(Photo taken from a post by Sabrina Cyprien Caslot-Bourdin.

I hope my use of her very sad photo will be acceptable.)

Sadly the news coming out of the Loire continues to be largely grim.

Unfortunately due to my commitments as the Regional Chair for the Loire at the Decanter World Wine Awards this week at Tobacco Dock, it has been difficult to spend much time checking on the damage caused by the frost early in the morning of Wednesday 27th April.

Central Vineyards

A brief update from Benoît Roumet, director of Les Vins du Centre Loire:

Pouilly-Fumé, Menetou-Salon, Quincy and Reuilly have been hit to varying degrees in places very severely. He will have a better idea of the damage next week. However, once again Sancerre appears to have been lucky with apparently little damage.

Touraine – Vallée du Cher

Report from Vincent Lacour, Domaine Lacour, Saint-Georges–sur-Cher:

'Sur St Georges tous les bas de coteaux sont gelés et même certains endroits sur les hauts des coteaux.

Aucune exploitation n'est épargné avec des situations différentes allant de 10 a 80 % de perte selon les exploitations.

La situation va etre tres compliqué car les stocks sont bas et les récoltes faibles des années précédentes ont fragilisés les trésoreries. Beaucoup d'exploitation vont se retrouver dans des situations critiques et on se demande comment les marchés vont réagir.

A priori plus on va vers St Aignan moins il y a de degats mais des secteurs comme Couffy, Lye and Saint-Romain a priori sont très touchés également

Bléré est tres touchés egalement et sur Civray c'est proche des 90% de degats.

Voila ce que je peux dire pour l'instant j'en saurais plus cette apres-midi, mais on connaitra le bilan veritable la semaine prochaine.

(Vincent reports that many parts of Saint Georges-sur-Cher, which is the commune in the Cher Valley with the most significant area under vine, has been hit especially the lower parts of the coteaux but even some parcels of vines high up have suffered damage. No-one has escaped with losses ranging from 10%-80%.

As you move further east up the Cher Valley towards Saint-Aignan the damage appears to be less but the communes of Couffy and Lye to the east of Saint-Aignan have been hit as has Saint-Romain to the north of Saint-Aignan.

West of Saint-Georges-sur-Cher – Civray has been very badly hit as has Bléré.

Pays Nantais

Damage reported here and in the Fiefs Vendéens.

Vouvray

Benoît Gautier, Domaine de la Châtaigneraie, Vouvray is reporting considerable damage to some of his parcels of vines.

Better news: Jérôme Billard, Domaine de la Noblaie, Ligré, AOP Chinon repoprts that only 20% of his vines have been affected and I believe these are mainly the Cabernet Franc vines that Jérôme uses to make his rosé which are not the best parcels and on the lower part of a slope that would be frost prone.

••

Now that the Loire DWWA judging is now over, I will have time to get fuller information, so I expect to post further updates in the days to come.

Wednesday, 27 April 2016

Frost in Loire the night of 26th/27th April 2016 – grim and heartbreaking news

La nature est parfois difficile avec ceux qui pour autant l'aime encore.
Exemple confirmée à La Charpenterie.

Photo by

Sabrina Cyprien Caslot-Bourdin

Near La Chapelle-sur-Loire

(Photo taken from a post by Sabrina Cyprien Caslot-Bourdin.

I hope my use of her very sad photo will be acceptable.)

Parts of the Loire were hit by a sharp frost early this morning with temperatures falling well below zero, with reports of temperatures as low as -6˚ in some places.

My concern started late last night with reports of plunging temperatures, clear skies and photos of candles, frost pots, etc. out in the vineyards in an attempt to save the fragile vine buds.

My concern grew at 5am BST when I saw photos on Facebook of thermometer temperatures down to -2˚. Worst fears were soon confirmed within a few hours.

Today was the third day tasting Loire wines at The Decanter World Wine Awards. Although we tasted some very good wines, especially from the 2014 and 2015 vintages, the bad new from the Loire for the 2016 vintage was always at the forefront of my mind.

It is difficult at the moment, and from a distance, to know how bad and how widespread this frost has been. Certainly some vineyards have suffered catastrophic losses with the 2016 vintage already wiped out or virtually so.

The damage appears to be worst in Bourgueil, Chinon, Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil and Azay-le-Rideau. Reports also suggest that Vouvray, Montlouis and Noble Joué may have been badly hit.

Vineyards in the Loir-et-Cher may have been less badly hit. In any case it will take a few days to really be able to evaluate the damage.

Frost never comes at a good time but this year's frost, and there had been some frost damage during the night of Sunday/Monday 18th April, has come at a particularly bad time. There has been an increasing awareness that there are some very good things happening in the Loire and the wines are increasing in fashion.

After a number of short vintages, especially 2012 and 2013, many Loire producers' stocks are low and finances already tight. Even 2014 and 2015 for many have not been over-generous – not helped by the ongoing losses to Esca, which typically may be 5-10% a year.

Although it is a long time back, the stock situation in 1991 – the worst Loire frost in recent memory – may well have been better as 1990 was both a very good but also generous vintage.

My thoughts are very much with my Loire vigneron friends this evening.

••

From http://www.boursorama.com:

'Les vignobles en Indre-et-Loire des appellations Chinon, Bourgeuil et Saint Nicolas de Bourgeuil ont été durement touchés par des "gelées noires" dans la nuit de mardi à mercredi et "au moins la moitié de la récolte est perdue", selon les responsables du secteur.

"C'est assez clairement une gelée historique, de l'ordre de celle de 1994, et peut-être de 1991", lorsque la presque totalité de la récolte avait été perdue sur ces appellations, a déclaré à l'AFP M. Guillaume Lapaque, directeur des associations viticoles d'Indre-et-Loire et de la Sarthe.

"Tout l'ouest du département a été touché par des gelées allant de -3 à -4°, avec des pointes à -6°, alors que les vignes sont en plein débourrage (ouverture des bourgeons, ndlr), c'est à dire à un moment extrêmement critique", a-t-il précisé.

Pour M. Lapaque, "c'est paradoxalement un effet du réchauffement climatique: les hivers doux avancent la date du débourrage, tandis que les gelées tardives ont toujours lieu à la même époque".'

Saturday, 3 May 2014

Dinner with the Wine Doctor and Tony Aspler

2012 Le Haut-Lieu Sec, Vouvray, Domaine Huet

2012 Clos du Bourg, Vouvray, Domaine Huet

Taking advantage of the Decanter World Wine Awards we held a dinner with Chris Kissack (The Wine Doctor) and Tony Aspler, Canada's leading wine writer and wine novelist.

We started by tasting the second bottles of Domaine Huet's 2012 Le Haut-Lieu Sec and the Clos du Bourg Sec. Chris and I had tasted both wines back in early October and been disappointed by them – see here. It would be good to be able to report that a further six months in bottle had given these two wines greater complexity and interest. Sadly they were little changed with the Clos du Bourg the more exciting of the two but both lacked depth and length of fruit. The 2012 Le Mont, tasted at the pre-Salon des Vins de Loire Renaissance event in Angers, was certainly the best of the three Huet 2012s.

2013 Chenin Château Petit-Thouars,

AC Touraine or IGP Val de Loire?
Excellent label design!

After the two Huets we tried the first Chenin Blanc produced from Château du Petit-Thouars from vines planted three years ago. This was bottled at the beginning of April and I have been holding off trying it just to allow time for the wine to recover from the shock of bottling. Although still obviously very young, this is an impressive start with both concentration and character along with Chenin typicity. I have two more sample bottles to try, so it will be very interesting to see how this Chenin develops.

1995 Muscadet Sèvre & Maine,

Domaine Pierre Luneau-Papi

As the first course was cerviche of salmon and smoked haddock with some salad leaves I thought the 1995 from Pierre Luneau would be a good and interesting idea. Sadly the wine initially had a mushroomy character. Hoping that this would disappear I served the wine but although initially there were some other interesting characteristics, full blown TCA became all too evident especially in a glass with a wide bowl. The unusual frustration of having kept a bottle for several years only for the cork to let you down!

In the light of the TCAed Luneau the Domaine Ogereau 2007 Clos le Grand Beaupréau, Savennières was pressed into service – with a quick spell in the freezer! – its attractive concentration and racy acidity worked well with the fish.

Onto the main course a daube of beef with black olives, sundried tomatoes, orange juice and peel and some mushrooms. I chose to hightlight a couple of Loire Pinot Noirs. We started with the 2006 Cuvée de la Comtesse, Reuilly from Denis Jamain (Domaine de Reuilly). Over the last couple of years we have treally enjoyed the 2005 Cuvée de la Comtesse that spends a year in local oak barrels. Sadly the 2005 was too good and we have polished off all the bottles, so it is onto the 2006, which has good and attractive concentration but needs some more time in bottle to develop further.

We followed the Reuilly with a rare bottle of La Pertétuelle, Sancerre 1996-2008 from Claude and Laurent Champault. This comes from a solera system that Claude and Laurent started in 1996. The wine is aged in a 600-litre barrel. They take out a third every year and refill with the same quantity. It had good, sweet Pinot character and drank well.

Rather mischieveously I asked Chris and Tony to guess the vintage. Chris went for 2008, so was half right!

Following the daube we moved onto the 1998 Menetou-Salon from Bertrand Minchin and the 2007 Cuvée Sarah Coteaux du Saumur from Domaine des Champs Fleuris to partner the cheese.

1998 Menetou-Salon Morogues, La Tour Saint Martin

Bertrand Minchin

This 1998 Menetou-Salon was a strong candidate to be wine of the dinner with lovely aromatics – ripe but restrained asparagus notes and yellow plum, good concentration and a long finish. Additional complexity from aging in the bottle but still at its best and not at all in decline after nearly 16 years.

2007 Cuvée Sarah, Coteaux de Saumur,

Domaine des Champs Fleuris

Attractive mid-weight sweet wine from Saumur with sweet citrus flavours not one to match with desserts but a good foil for blue cheese or as an apéro or equally after a meal or as an alternative to a dessert.

marc sancerrois Famille Vacheron

A curiosity to end with a marc sancerrois from the time of Jean Vacheron. A touch rustic but with a mark of the terroir. Ideal to set us up for the first flight tomorrow@the 2014 Decanter World Wine Awards!

Friday, 2 May 2014

#DWWA 2014 – over for another year with 4 Loire regional trophies!

Entrance to Tobacco Dock

The regional tasting are over for another year. This time the Loire panel threw caution to the chill May winds and awarded seven (7) golds – leading to four regional trophies! (more to follow).

Tony Aspler: Canada's Finest hard@work

Henry's Bar: the gathering place

MWs@breakfast Philip Tuck and Pedro Ballesteros Torres, Spain's only MW

It's not very warm in the tasting room –

perhaps I should have worn some long-johns today!

I've got mine on!

Richard – the excellent and very attentive red shirt

who looked after the Loire panel brilliantly this week

and who has just started working for Laithwaites

Wednesday, 30 April 2014

Decanter World Wine Awards: Day One for Loire

Chris Kissack

The Loire panel had a good day yesterday@the Decanter World Wine Awards 2014 starting with some sparkling wines, then onto Muscadet before progressing to a range of Sauvignon Blancs. The Sauvignons ranging from IGPs through Touraine to Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé. We ended with a short flight of various reds mainly Pinot Noir based. Although we didn't award any golds, we found a number of silver, bronze and commended wines. We quickly got to grips with our iPads with only the occasional technical fault holding us up.

Unfortunately Nigel Wilkinson is ill, so his place on the panel was taken by Stephen Skelton MW. Chris Kissack and Stephen Skelton MW will be on today's panel along with Chris Hardy from Majestic.