Frédéric Brochet and Ampelidae expands into Touraine

Already easily the largest player in Haut-Poitou, the dynamic Frédéric Brochet and Ampelidae have now expanded into Touraine taking over the management of the Bourgueil and Chinon vineyards that belonged to Pierre-Jacques Druet. Ampelidae have also taken over the running of the Touraine AC and Montlouis vines of Clos du Porteau based in Saint-Georges-sur-Cher. All the wines will be organic.

Aynard de Clermont Tonnerre from the Clos du Porteau has now been appointed to look after the commercial side of Ampelidae. Clermont Tonnerre used to be a banker with Commerzbank.

With 230 hectares now under their control Ampelidae are becoming an increasingly important player in the Loire. 

    

bioTyfoule@Tours: Salon des vignerons bio tourangeaux

 Hervé Grenier, Domaine Vallée Moray, Montlouis 

– very expressive with his hands  

(above and below)

Some photos taken today at 2015 bioTfoule – Salon des vignerons bio tourangeaux. The Salon is on again tomorrow at the Hotel de Ville in the centre of Tours and is well worth a visit. 

 Vincent Bergeron, Domaine Vallée Moray, Montlouis 

 Julien Pinon, Domaine François Pinon

The Pinon wines continue to be a precise as Julien's moustache!

 Johann Spelty, Domaine Johann Spelty

Good Chinon Blanc (below) and 2014 Cuvéés Les Folies from Vienne plain 

 Johann Spelty: 2014 Chinon Blanc – comment sa perdre en Chenin .... 

(easy fail to make sure that the camera is properly focused on the label!)

Rémy Mabileau, Domaine Frédéric Mabileau 

Rémy is now working with hid dad mainly in the 

vines but sometimes in the chai

 Fine 2014 Les Culs de Boeufs, Touraine Amboise. Domaine Mesliard 

from vignes on les primières côtes de Limeray

 (on north bank of the Loire facing south)

 Thierry Landry (Chinon) 

 Impressive 2011 Clos Guillot, Vieilles Vignes, Chinon,

Thierry Landry. €10.50

Thierry has the upper part of the Clos Guillot (1.80ha),

while Domaine Bernard Baudry has the lower part  

 2011 Moulin de Rochette, Vieilles Vignes, Chinon, Thierry Landry

Also impressive and great value €7.50

 Nicolas Paget, Domaine Nicolas Paget, Azay le Rideau and Chinon

Since the 2014 vintage Nicolas has opted to destem his reds grapes by hand.

The result is impressively soft and attractive  

2014 Les Cabotines, Montlouis, Ludovic Chanson 

Very precise, honeyed, touch of quince with real potential to age

More details of wines tasted to be added in a further post. 

#2015Loire: Montlouis and Vouvray

Yesterday afternoon we had a quick look in Montlouis and Vouvray. I stopped first at Domaine Flamand Delétang where Olivier Flamand told me that they had finished last Thursday. Oliver: "This is our last vintage. We had sold the estate to a couple in their late 30s who are currently in the Côtes du Rhône – Antoine and Coralie. Previously both were teachers of history before being bitten by the wine bug. Now Antoine is working in Côte Rôtie, while Coralie is an oenologist.

"Our Chenin come in between 11.5%-18.5% potential. We have made a small amount of sweet wine. This has been a good year but the heatwave of late June and July held back the maturation. We needed rain in August and September but not as much as we got. Our Montlouis yield this year was 37 hl/ha.

"Although we have sold the domaine we will continue to live in the area and I will continue to be a wine consumer!"   

We had a brief stop at the Domaine de la Taille aux Loups where Dominique brought me up to date: "We finished harvesting in Bourgueil on Saturday just before the rain started. We are still picking in Montlouis. We have done a première tri for a moelleux Montlouis. The Clos Michet is finished and we will be picking and finishing the Clos Mosny tomorrow."

While Jacky Blot is still picking, I gather that François Chidaine finished last Saturday. 

In Vouvray I saw Alexandre Monmousseau of Château Gaudrelle. "We have a day and half of picking left. I expect we will finish sometime next week. This year has certainly been complicated. There is an incredible gap in the level of maturity of the Chenin even within the same bunch. The grapes are aromatically very rich with plenty of acidity."

 

"Although it is better to make a small amount of good wine rather than plenty of rubbish our yields are lower than we expected – around 35 hl/ha. When you pick up a bunch of grapes it is lighter than you would expect.

"2015 is full of surprises. You pick a parcel of vines that you expect will be around 12% potential and destined for dry wine but it turns out to be 14% instead! Happily we have a tri for a sweet wine at 20% potential."

We tasted a interesting experiment – tressage. Rather than regularly trimming the vines when they reach the top of the wines, they are plaited over. The results are noteworthy – the grapes mature 12 days earlier, with 1.7% of potential alcohol. This comes at a high labour cost as it took 35 hours to plait this parcel.        

A parcel of vines in Montlouis still waiting to be picked

Signs on the front of François Chidaine's winery in Husseau 

Alexandre Monmousseau, Château de Gaudrelle 

 Alexandre Monmousseau (Château Gaudrelle, Vouvray)

Fermentation froth

#2015 Loire – Montlouis and the threat of rot

On Friday afternoon we went across to have a quick look at Montlouis to see how the Chenin was coping with all of the rain over the past few days – between 60-85 mm from last weekend. 

It was very interesting, although too brief a look to be a real scientific test, to see how the differences between the way that vineyards are cultivated and the level of rot. A vineyard, which had been totally blitzed with weedkiller, was obviously threatened with serious rot.   

 100% weedkillered vines

 Grassed over vineyard without leaf plucking

Slow riopening and rot developing especially where 

leaves touch grape bunches 

Grassed over vineyard with well separated 

bunches of grapes well aerated – free of rot

Franz Saumon's 2008 Minérale + sees us back in London

2008 Minérale, Montlouis, Franz Saumon 

Wednesday early evening saw us back in London after a trouble-free drive back from Epeigné carrying a bottle of Franz's 2008 Minérale + in the car fridge, which was duly opened within minutes of being back in Forest Hill. With a slight touch of sweetness the golden coloured 2008 Minérale + is an ideal reviving draught after a long drive up through France. Beautifully clean and precise it is both a reminder of how good are dry whites in the 2008 vintage but also what high quality wines Franz makes. Time to buy some more wine from Franz when we are back in September!

Good to report that contrary to whatever concerns the Vouvray Syndicat and the INAO may have about the Loire being a barrier Franz's 2008 not only survived crossing the Loire, the Seine and then a train journey under La Manche (English Channel) to sing once poured into our glasses....