Salon des Vins de Loire in 2015 – still 'incontournable'?

The 29th edition of the Salon des Vins de Loire closed its doors last Wednesday at the Parc Expo in Angers. Any fair that has been held every year since 1987 including in 1992, the year following the devastating frost of April 1991 deserves respect. But is the Salon really still 'la place de marché incontournable de la filière vin ligérienne' as the press release of Wednesday night claimed? Undoubtedly this is a claim that could have been made a few years ago but in 2015? Far from sure!

If the Salon really is 'incontournable' why no Couly-Dutheil, Baudry-Dutour, Bouvet-Ladubay, Joseph Mellot, Henri Bourgeois, Castel, Château de Tracy or Domaine Huet to name a few famous names absent from Angers?

The main hall of the Salon was noticeably reduced with some of it partitioned off. The organisers claim nearly 9000 visitors to this edition. Is this unique visitors or visitors, who were counted each day they attended? It was noticeable that on the Wednesday there were a number of student visitors. Good that there is interest from the younger generation but a bald figure of nearly 9000 visitors doesn't tell us very much.  

Most of the journalists present were from France plus a number from Belgium including Les 5's Marco & Hervé. I saw Alice Feiring at the Renaissance tasting on Saturday but didn't see her at the Salon. Instead I guess she headed for La Dive Bouteille event at Saumur. Otherwise I didn't see any other journalists from America. As has become customary over the past few years the only two UK journalists at the Salon were Chris Kissack (The Wine Doctor) and myself. This year budgetary constraints meant that Chris and I had no financial support for our hotel. In previous year the Salon has paid for one or two nights at the Hotel du Mail, where I have stayed for at least 15 years now. Had we moved to the Mercure we could have had a night or two but we preferred to stay put in our favourite hotel in Angers. C'est comme ça!   

Of course it is not all bad news. Tasting the 2014 vintage confirms the promise of the harvest last September and October. The reds have ripe fruit and attractive texture. The dry whites are similar with attractive fruit with good balancing acidity. The sweets are the best since 2010 and 2011. Although it is still early I doubt if the 2014 sweets are at the level of those two very fine sweet wine vintages but there will be some attractive wines nevertheless – probably less concentrated but well balanced.

It was good to see La Levée de Loire, the organic producers, attached to the Salon over three days rather than having a one-day Salon in the centre of Angers. la Levée clearly gained by this with 123 exhibitors compared to the previous 90 and 2077 visitors against 400-500 that attended each of the first two editions. It was a pity that La Dive Bouteille held their tasting in Saumur on the Sunday and Monday as it would have been good to see all the offs and the Salon together in Angers. 

As usual the Renaissance tasting on the Saturday and Sunday before the Salon was crowded. This was in marked contrast to the first edition of Demeter, which was embarrassingly empty when I dropped in on Saturday afternoon. Hardly surprising as they had done zilch promotion! 

Where does the Salon go from here?

The dates for 2016 – the 30th anniversary edition – are fixed – Monday 8th - Wednesday 10th February at Parc Expo, Angers. This is a week later than normal. There have been suggestions that the Salon should just be over two days, that it should move to Paris, be held once every two years, or that there a Grand Nord tasting in Paris – the northern version of Vinisud. A suivre!

The Angelic Mark – the high priest of Renaissance 

 Renaissance tasting on Sunday around midday packed

 The embarrassingly empty Demeter tasting: mid-Saturday afternoon

2015 Salon des Vins de Loire: Tuesday 3rd February (part 2 – Villebois)

A selection of photos of the principal people in Villebois 

 Tom – an important investor in Villebois  

(above and below)

 Joost de Willebois, general manager

(above and below)

 Thierry Merlet, the winemaker

(above and below)

2015 Salon des Vins de Loire: Tuesday 3rd February (Part 1)

Bertrand Minchin, Domaines Minchin 

A few photos from Day Two of the 2015 Salon des Vins de Loire with some comments to add.

 Domaines Minchin

 Patricia @Lamé Delisle Boucard, Bourgueil

 Stephanie @Lamé Delisle Boucard, Bourgueil

 Cyril Robert and Catherine Médard (Vignoble Alain Robert, Vouvray)

Thierry Germain, Domaine des Roches Neuves 

(Saumur and Saumur-Champigny)

Edouard Pisani-Ferry, Château de Targé (Saumur, 

Saumur-Champigny, Coteaux de Saumur)

(above and below)

Bourgueil meets Savennières: Pierre Breton (Domaine Breton – Bourgueil and Chinon) 

and Evelyne de Pontbriand 

 (Domaine du Closel, Château des Vaults – Savennières, Anjou)

Salon de Vins de Loire + La Levée de la Loire: Monday 2nd February 2015

  Laurent Herlin, Bourgueil

Marie Chartier-Luneau et Monique Luneau 

(above and below)

Spot that!!

 New joint stand featuring Domaine Pierre Luneau-Papin (Muscadet), Clos des Quarterons (Saint Nicolas de Bourgueil and Bourgueil), Nicolas Grosbois, Domaine Le Rocher des Violettes, Henry Pellé

 

Unusually serious Pierre Luneau of Domaine de Pierre Luneau-Papin

 

 Entrance to the Press Room

 Pierre Ménard, Le Quarts des Noëls, Anjou 

(above and below)

2013 Le Quarts des Noëls, Anjou, Pierre Ménard  

On the basis of his first release – the 2013 Le Quarts des Noëls – Pierre Ménard is an exciting new producer in Anjou. This was one of the wines that stood out in the tasting of Anjou Blancs at the Salon. It is from a small parcel of old vines from the beginning of the 1920s planted on schist in a vineyard (0.2 ha) at Faye d'Anjou that overlooks the Layon. Pierre's 2013 is attractively saline, very clean and precise. It spent 12 months in second-use 225 litre barriques bought from Haut Brion.  

Emmanuel Ogereau taking over from his parents

@Domaine Ogereau   

Yannick Amirault, Domaine Amirault, 

Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil and Bourgueil

 The Wine Sleuth, journalist Denise Medrano

Journalist and writer Carolyn Henry

Vincent Roussely, Domaine Roussely, Touraine 

Richard Desouche, Château de Chaintres, Saumur-Champigny 

Young Bernard Sirot, Vino Magazine

2015 Salon des Vins de Loire: aiming for coherence but too late?

Arnaud Bourgeois (Domaine Henri Bourgeois)@2014 Salon 

Arnaud and Domaine Henri Bourgeois won't be at 2015 edition

There will be some significant changes at the 2015 Salon des Vins de Loire (Monday 2nd – Wednesday 4th February) but will these be enough to arrest the fair's recent decline? 

Here are the changes:

'Le Salon des Vins de Loire 2015 évolue et élargira sa gamme d’offre, pour mieux répondre aux besoins des visiteurs. Cinq grandes nouveautés seront au programme de l’édition 2015 : 

Les « Off Bio » au Parc des Expositions

Le groupement de vignerons « La levée de la Loire« , qui proposait un salon « Off » jusqu’en 2014, intègre le Parc des Expositions d’Angers du 2 au 4 février. L’occasion de découvrir une offre bio du Val de Loire plus complète, à travers la présence de plus d’une centaine d’exposants.'

For the last two editions of the Salon there has been a couple of competing fairs on the Monday – La Levée de la Loire (organic producers) at the Greniers de St Jean in Angers and La Dive Bouteille around Saumur.

This year Angers Park Expo have agreed to run La levée de la Loire in a separate building on the Expo site. I understand that the set up will be similar to that at MillesiméBio with every exhibitor having the same sized table and the cost to show your wines there will be a fraction of the cost in the salon itself. Ludo Ragot of Café de la Promenade (Bourgueil) is in charge of the food at La Levée. It will all be organic.    

The Renaissance tasting will be on the Saturday 31st January and Sunday 1st and La Dive Bouteille on Sunday 1st and Monday 2nd. 

Although in the past producers could have exhibited at all three of these 'off' they had wanted, I understand that vignerons will have to make a choice between three 'off' salons and only be able to attend one.

'Un pôle « Jeunes Vignerons »

La 29e édition du Salon des Vins de Loire favorise la venue des producteurs ligériens installés depuis moins de 4 ans, avec le Pôle « Jeunes Vignerons » qui permet à ces jeunes professionnels, de présenter leurs vins sur un espace dédié et faciliter l’entre au Salon avec un tarif adapté et proposer une offre élargie aux visiteurs.'

There will be an area dedicated to Loire producers, who have recently started up – less than four years ago.  

'Des Workshops au Salon des Vins de Loire

Cet espace de prospection, au coeur du Salon, proposera des interventions courtes et interactives sur 3 thèmes principaux : Consommation/Marché, Points de ventes, Vin 2.0. Ces workshops ont pour objectif de proposer un lieu central d’information, de discussion, de débat et d’échanges.

Une Journée « Grande Distribution »

Cette journée, destinée aux directeurs, chefs de départements et de rayons de la Grande Distribution se déroulera le mercredi 4 février 2015, avec conférences « Bonnes pratiques du rayon vins », l’aménagement de linéaires, exposition, etc.'

That's the good news. The bad news is that some major long-time supporters of the Salon over many years will not be there in 2015. The biggest absentee that I know of so far is Domaine Henri Bourgeois. It was noticeable this year in February that the Bourgeois had downsized their stand.

Jean-Marie Bourgeois told me on Monday that they would not be going. He said he was tired of making suggestions for how to improve the Salon only to find that each year these were ignored. Jean-Marie is in favour of a bi-annual Salon, although given that the market tends to want the youngest vintage possible of many Loire wines I'm not convinced that this is the best formula for a Loire Salon.

Later on Monday afternoon I saw Benoît Roumet, director of Les Vins du Centre, who talked about the greatly increased competition from other professional wine fairs that the Salon des Vins de Loire is now facing – far more than when the Salon was established in 1987. Benoît said that the 2014 edition of the salon des Vins de Loire was so quiet that he found Jean-Marie doing his emails on the Tuesday morning when in past years the Bourgeois stand was continuously buzzing. 

On the other hand Jean-Dominique Vacheron (Domaine Vacheron) said that they would be at the Salon as normal and that the Salon had done much to put the Loire on the map.

Hopefully the Salon des Vins de Loire can find a formula that works as it would be a great shame for the Loire to lose this opportunity to show wines from its entire viticultural length from the Côtes de Forez to the Pays Nantais.