2016 Les Chanteaux, Chinon Blanc, Couly Dutheil

2016 Les Chanteaux, Chinon Blanc from Couly-Dutheil is the the first of six of their wines to try. Although with the integration the eight new communes to the west of the Chinon appellation has seen a significant increase up to 83 hectares in the amount of Chenin Blanc planted in the Chinon appellation, Chinon Blanc remains dwarfed by red Chinon. 

The 2016 has attractive concentration – both floral and quince notes – with well balanced acidity in the finish. Les Chanteaux is good to drink now but will surely keep for at least a decade. 

Petit Thouars + Domaine de la Noblaie – two samples to try

 Château Petit Thouars, AC Touraine 

Sébastien du Petit Thouars 

and wine-maker Michel Pinard

I dropped into see Sebastien on Friday to catch up on where they were with the 2016 harvest. They were fortunate that they weren't hit by the late April frost. Sebastien told me that they would pick their Chenin Blanc tomorrow (Saturday) and then the Cabernet Franc next week. Currently their Chenin was at 13% potential and 6 acidity, while the Cabernet Franc was at 12.5% and 5 acidity. 

Sébastien kindly gave me a bottle of their 2015 Touraine Chenin Blanc – next year this can be labelled as Chinon Blanc as from the 2016 the Chinon appellation has been expanded to the south west. There is, however, a doubt for if Thouars 2016 has a similar quantity of residual sugar in it to the 2015 (over 20 grams) it won't meet the regulations for Chinon Blanc, which specify a maximum of 6 grams of residual sugar. 

Anyway the 2015 is very attractive – richly textured but with enough acidity not to make the wine cloying. It works as an apero but would I think be better with a rich paté/foie gras, blue cheese but also with pork and a rich sauce or pheasant à la Normande – cooked in apple and cream – or similar.  

Jérôme Billard, Domaine de la Noblaie 

At the Domaine de la Noblaie in Ligré (AC Chinon) we were given a bottle of 2008 Pierre de la Tuf – the domaine's special cuvée that is made in a limestone vat. The 2008 is delicious to drink at the moment – slightly herbal reflecting the relatively cool 2008 vintage but now with very soft and integrated tannins.   

Very good 2009 Chinon Blanc from Baudry-Dutour

2009 Cuvée Chenin, Chinon Blanc, Baudry-Dutour

Tonight we drank a very good 2009 Chinon Blanc from Baudry-Dutour. If I remember rightly this cuvée was decidedly lean when it was first released in Spring 2010. In the interim it has fleshed out with attractive texture, rich citrus fruit with a small touch of honey. Brilliant drinking at the moment and no indication that it won't happily age for at least another decade or more.

This Cuvée Chenin is vinified in stainless steel and is bottled in the spring following the vintage. 

Always worth squirrelling away a few bottles to see how they develop. 

The 2014 equivalent is available at 9.5€ a bottle.    

Domaine Jourdan, Chinon – formerly Philippe Pichard

Annick and Francis Jourdan

On the 1st February 2012 Domaine Philippe Pichard (also called Domaine de la Chapelle) in Chinon changed hands. Following health problems Philippe Pichard sold the 17-hectare estate to Annick and Francis Jourdan. Although they have no previous experience running a vineyard, the Jourdan's are experienced farmers as they had a farm in Normandy. Francis told me that he had long been passionate about wine. 

"I wanted to plant five hectares of Chardonnay at Caen on Les Arpents du Soleil to the south east of Caen but I could not get the necessary droits de plantation." (To my surprise there is a vineyard here, which was created in 1995 by Gérard Samson – details).   

Following a family tragedy, the Jourdans wanted to immerse themselves in a new project: they sold their Normandy farm and started looking around France for a suitable vineyard. By chance last summer they were staying in a chambre d'hôte in the Châteauneuf-du-Pape area. Jean Ernest Sauvion, who previously owned Château du Cléray and the négociant house of Sauvion in the Pays Nantais before selling to Grands Chais de France in 2007), had also stayed at this bed and breakfast and left a card. The Jourdans got in touch with Sauvion, who now lives near Ligre in the Chinon appellation, which led to a deal being done with Philippe Pichard. Philippe, who is the fifth generation of Pichards at the domaine, is continuing to be involved in the running of the estate.    

The domaine has been organic since 2000 and converted to biodynamics between 2007 and 2011. Half the vineyard is on the Vienne's gravel terraces and half on the limestone coteaux. All is Cabernet Franc apart from 40 ares of Chenin Blanc. Unfortunately since taking over the Jourdans have experienced a baptism of fire – hit by the frost of 17th April their vines have been affected between 30%-70%. More recently have suffered some hail damage – "not too bad" says Francis.

Although I had not previously visited the domaine, which is in the hamlet of Le Puy part of Cravant-les-Coteaux, I have tasted with Philippe Pichard on several occasions during the Salon des Vins de Loire and have been impressed by his wines. 

When we visited the domaine on Monday, we tasted the 2009 Chinon Blanc, which has around 6 grams of residual sugar. The 2009 has attractive weight but lacks a little freshness in the finish. The 2011 Mystere (9.50€), the entry level red Chinon, is soft and easy drinking with plenty of red and blackcurrant fruit. It is, however, quite expensive for this style of Chinon. We subsequently shared a bottle of Mystere (a sample) on Tuesday night with friends and it proved be be a real hit. 

The estate's top wine is L'Ancestrale, which comes from vines around 45 years old planted in clay and flint soils on the Coteaux. It is aged for 16-18 months in barriques – a third new, a third which has been used once and third twice. The currently favoured barrique supplier is Adour based in South West France. The 2009 L'Ancestrale has good concentrated, dense black fruits, a length of flavour and needs a few more years to show its best.   

Annick and Francis Jourdan

Entrance to the cellar

Part of the cellar with stain glass window featuring Philippe Pichard's grandmother

Looking down to the lower part of the cellar

Concrete vat – there are also stainless steel vats

Vineyard close to the chai

Cabernet Franc flowering

Francis Jourdan tasting the 2009 Chinon Blanc (above and below)

In the UK humble grape stocks the Jourdan 3 Quartiers and L'Ancestrale.  

Domaine de la Noblaie: visit report now complete

Vines@Domaine de la Noblaie, Ligré, AC Chinon

Report on June 2011 visit to Domaine de la Noblaie now complete. See here.

A few recent bottles

2002 Chinon Blanc, Christophe Baudry

Time for a round up of recent bottles starting with this very attractive 2002 Chinon Blanc from Christophe Baudry, which must have been made prior to the tie up with Domaine de la Roncée and the founding of Baudry-Dutour. Nicely evolved with honey and tufa (the aromas of a dry, clean limestone cellar), this has the typical balance of the 2002 vintage. Enjoyed it as an apéro over several nights and if anything it got better and fuller with time. 

2007 Les Millerands, Côte Roannaise, Domaine Robert Sérol

Two reds from Domaine Robert Sérol that I visited last August. The 2008 Cuvée Troigros (name of the famous 3-star Michelin restaurant in nearby Roanne) is a typical easy drinking Gamay, which can be drunk on its own or with a light lunch. Rather mistakenly I tried with a magret de canard and as I should have realised it was too light for the duck. Les Millerands, even though it was a 2007, would have been better as it has more structure but we had opened that a couple of nights previously with cold chicken – a good match.

2008 Cuvée Troigros, Domaine Robert Sérol

 

2008 Touraine Sauvignon, Antoine Simoneau

Antoine Simoneau is a family estate in Saint-Georges-sur-Cher. This 2008 has a few grams of residual sugar that rounds the wine out making attractive and easy to drink with ripe grassy and goseberry scents.The domaines whites tend to be more successful than the reds. Unfortuntaely there is a reliance on the use of weedkillers, which in some vineyards with a slight slope causes some erosion. It would be good to see a reduction in their use.    

 

2003 Anjou Villages, Domaine de Bablut, Christophe Daviau 

Domaine de Bablut in Brissac-Quincé is biodynamic and this rich and powerful 2003 is very typical of this heatwave vintage. Lot of concentrated black fruits giving the impression of coming from somewhere well to the south of the Loire. Still very much on good form and looks to be good for a number more years.

The tyranny of French sommeliers?

Yesterday there was this telling comment on the wine-forum of Tom Cannavan’s wine-pages about some 2007 Vouvrays that he bought from Bernard Fouquet:

‘Mark Henderson: I bought a mixed case of Aubuisieres but my only reservation has been that both the Silex and the Girardieres (demi-sec) are under plastic cork.’

I certainly agree with Mark’s reservations about putting plastic corks into good quality Vouvray that is capable of aging well over several decades. Pull the cork on either of these two wines in 10-15 years they may well be badly oxidised under these plastic corks. Even after five years this may well be the case. Surely the better option to avoid the problem of corked bottles would have been to go to screwcaps.

Unfortunately the take-up of screwcaps in the Loire, outside of the big groups, has been slow despite many of the white wines being ideally suited. The opposition of many French sommeliers to screwcaps may have played a significant role here. During the Salon des Vins de Loire Jean-Marie Bourgeois told me that he was surprised by the sommeliers’ continued opposition, while Pierre Sauvion (Château du Cléray, Muscadet de Sèvre-et-Maine) said he would move to screwcaps if there was less resistence to it from sommeliers in France.

Fed up with the incidence of corked wines, a number of Loire producers have opted for plastic corks – not really a problem for wine to be consumed young, although these corks can still be difficult to remove from the bottle – but certainly a mistake for wines capable of medium to lomg-term aging.

I suspect the sommeliers’ opposition is largely about protecting their roles by guarding the mystique that can be built up around extracting a cork from a bottle and checking that the cork hasn’t spoiled the wine. If I am right then they will have much to answer for if good Vouvray turns out to have been oxidised because of the use of plastic corks.

2007 Chinon Blanc, Baudry-Dutour

Good to see that leading Chinon producers, Baudry-Dutour, have put their 2007 Chinon Blanc into screwcapped bottles – an admirably modern and stylish presentation. Screwcapped bottles do not have to look cheap.

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Elsewhere pertinent comments by Michel Smith about blending white and red to make rosé on Hervé Lalau's blog.