A few recently enjoyed Loires – Forez, Savennières, Chinon, Vouvray

2010 Savennières, Domaine du Petit Métris, 

Joseph Renou et Fils  

Lovely richly textured Savennières from Joseph Renou et Fils, a 30-hectare domaine based in Saint-Aubin-de-Luigné. 2010 is a wonderfully well balanced vintage. From Byrnes of Clitheroe £12.99. 

  

2011 Baronnie Madeleine, Chinon, Couly-Dutheil 

Rich and powerful – 14.5% 

no alcohol burn but plenty of concentration 

but a little OTT? 

From one of Chinon largest and leading producers  

Byrnes of Clitheroe £11.59

2013 Les Grives Soûles, Vouvray, Domaine Perrault-Jadaud 

Very precise, crisp, quite austere still young Vouvray Sec from very promising young estate – Domaine Perrault-Jadaud. Here is a previous post on Jim's Loire on the domaine.

2015 La Volcanique, Côtes du Forez, Cave Verdier - Logel

Juicy and very attractive young 2015 Gamay from Odile Verdier and Jacky Logel (Cave Verdier-Logel) in the Côtes de Forez – the appellation just to the north of Saint-Etienne and the most southernly of the Loire. Cave Verdier-Logel is a now long established – since 1992 when almost all the production came from the Cave Co-opérative. Odile and Jacky were pioneers. 

I enjoyed this at the RSJ Restaurant with Tom King when Jérôme Billard (Domaine de la Noblaie, Chinon) was over in London.     

Vouvray – Tanguy Perrault and Anne-Cécile Jadaud: Domaine Perrault-Jadaud

The house at Chançay with the cave set into the hillside
 

In the cellar  

 
 Anne-Cécile and Tanguy in their vineyard 
by Le Clos du Bourg, Vouvray.

I was very pleased to discover a new Vouvray producer at the VinaViva tasting at Saint Etienne de Chigny a little to the west of Tours. I certainly can’t claim to be anything like the first to taste the wines of Tanguy Perrault and Anne-Cécile Jadaud as their first vintage was in 2008.

It is always good to find new producers who are making exciting wines and, in particular, in Vouvray. Particularly exciting in Vouvray as it has been less dynamic than its smaller but closely related cousin – Montlouis – on the south side of the Loire. Although Montlouis is substantially smaller than Vouvray over the past 30 years it has been much more dynamic and attracted a host of impressive newcomers. A major factor here has been the difference in the vineyard prices between the two appellations making Vouvray both much more unaffordable than Montlouis and so more difficult to find suitable vineyards to buy.

Nevertheless Tanguy Perrault and Anne-Cécile Jadaud, who had no background in wine, started out on their adventure in Vouvray in 2008 with just 0.8 hectares making a PetNat and a little moelleux. 2009 was really their first vintage when the domaine had grown to all of a hectare. Gradually they built up their domaine until they now have 4.2 hectares with Tanguy keen to acquire more if possible. Tanguy and Anne-Cécile have around 15 small parcels, which makes it complicated to work but, on the other hand, does spread the risk from hail and frost. 

They are fortunate in having some parcels on the premières côtes both in Vouvray itself and further east in Noizay. One of their parcels in Vouvray is right by the Clos du Bourg. In 2011 they moved into their present premises in Chançay. 

 

One of their parcels is a rented steeply terraced vineyard at Domaine des Bidaudières, an upmarket chambres d'hôtes in the commune of Vouvray. These vines used to be farmed by their friend and mentor Vincent Carême. As Vincent now has some 15-hectares of vines, this parcel takes too much time to cultivate so he has passed it onto Tanguy and Anne-Cécile. Carême plays an important role in appellation by encouraging new and young producers          

 Domaine des Bidaudières

 The well exposed vineyard facing the Loire

Tanguy, who hails from Brittany, is a trained viticulturist, while Anne-Cécile, whose parents live in Tours is an oenologist. Both have taught at the Lycée Agricole d’Amboise.

They farm organically and their wines are impressively pure from low yields.  They use a range of barrels – classic barriques (225 litres) for their PetNat and mainly 300 litre barrels for their still wines, which are preferably to 400-litre ones which are heavy to manoeuvre. Some of their barrels were bought from Henri Bourgeois and Anne-Cécile was full of praise for the very professional way the transaction was carried out. Jean-Christophe Bourgeois showed them all the barrels, which were still full of wine, and they could taste the wines so that they could select barrels, whose characteristics they thought would suit their wines best. 

 Henri Bourgeois – Chavignol en Vouvray!

 

maturing PetNat 

Although they try to use as little sulphur as possible, they feel that their wines need a little bit of protection so they are not part of the non-SO2 brigade. A third of their production is sold direct from the domaine, a third to cavistes/restaurants and a third is exported.

When I tasted their wines both at VinaViva and when I went to visit them last week, I was very impressed with their Vouvray PetNat which spends 24 months sur latte giving it the complex, honeyed and toasty aromas and flavours. Equally impressive is the 2013 Les Grives Soûles Vouvray Sec – brilliantly precise, clean and long. Anne-Cécile explains that Grives-Soûles doesn’t mean drunken thrushes, rather thrushes wonderfully replete after plenty of corn to ready them for their migratory journey south at the end of the summer.

 

Their parcel adjacent to the Clos du Bourg

Rare wild tulips in the nearby Le Haut-Lieu parcel    

The very good Haut les Choeurs PetNat   

 2013 Les Grives Soûles, Vouvray Sec

A shorter version of this post first appeared on Les 5 du Vin on 14.4.2015. 

Early signs of Spring in Touraine vineyards

 9th April 2015: first signs of budbreak I've seen in an AC Touraine 

I am assuming this is Sauvignon Blanc  as it is amongst the first to bud

Rare wild tulips in Le Haut-Lieu vineyard 

(Domaine Huet, Vouvray)

Apparently these tulips are only found amongst the vines in Vouvray  

and I'm told not in the other communes of the appellation

Across the road from Le Haut-Lieu parcel 

 – vineyard with many replacement vines showing 

the serious ravages of the vine disease Esca 

 

 Weeping vines at Château des Bidaudières

(cultivated by Domaine Perrault-Jadaud,Vouvray)

Traditional celebration of the arrival of Spring in some vineyards

 – turning vineyards orange and gold 

(above and below)

 (from above) ..... to achieve this

Some photos from 2015 Vinaviva – Saturday 28th March

 The stars who help to make the event happen

i/c car parking

Yesterday was my third visit to Vinaviva – a small consumer Salon now in its sixth year. It is a simple two-day affair in the Salle des Fêtes of Saint-Etienne-de-Chigny – a village to the west of Tours on the north bank of the Loire.

I try to get there soon after the Salon starts, so that I can get in about two and a half hours of tasting before moving on to have lunch at the Café de la Promenade in Bourgueil with Ludo and Sophie Ragot.

 Tanguy Perrault

Anne-Cécile Jadaud

I was delighted to discover a new to me and very exciting producer in Vouvray: Tanguy Perrault  and Anne-Cécile Jadaud of Domaine Perrault-Jadaud. I was very impressed with their range of Vouvrays – sparkling, dry through to a lovely sweet 2011. They started in 2008 and had just 2.5 hectares of vines in various different parcels until 2013 when they expanded to four hectares. Some of their vines are on the première côte above Vouvray. 

 Sébastien Cornille of La Roche Bleue

Also from La Roche Bleue

I was also impressed by Sébastien Cornille of La Roche Bleue, Jasnières, especially his very fine 2013 Clos des Molières, Jasnières which has concentration as well as being beautifully clean and precise.  

Alain Couillaud

Alain Couillaud of Le Haut Planty in Le Landreau in Muscadet was another interesting discovery as I don't recall tasting his wines before. I liked his 2013 Haut Planty (Vin de France) and the 2013 Vieilles Vignes Yonnières, Muscadet de Sèvre et Maine. The domaine is in its final year of conversion to organic viticulture. 

More photos from Vinaviva tomorrow.