#EWBC: Gala dinner – 1988 Coteaux de l'Aubance

1988 Coteaux de l'Aubance, Domaine de Montgilet, Victor et Vincent Lebreton
#EWBC12

Our bottle of the 1988 L'Aubance (100% Chenin Blanc) should have gone to the BYOB dinner on the Thursday night (9th November). However due to the late arrival of our train into Izmir we decided to take it as an apéro to the Gala Dinner instead – where it made  a lot of friends.

Golden hued, it was beautifully balanced with some honeyed and light apricot fruit. Quite rich but not over-sweet perfectly set off by its acidity. It made an ideal apéro and would have been good, I fancy, with cheese. Unlikely, however, to have worked with desserts.

This bottle from Victor and Vincent Lebreton (Domaine de Montgilet) in Juigné-sur-Loire is a reminder of what a good vintage 1988 can be for whites, having a similar seamless balance found in 2002, 2008 and 2010.      

Victor Lebreton: Domaine de Montgilet

Visit 1st February 2009

Following our visit to Philippe Germain at Château la Roulerie we (I was with Tom King of the RSJ Restaurant) decided we had time on the way back to Angers to drop in on Victor Lebreton at Juigné-sur-Loire. Victor is in both the Coteaux de l’Aubance and Anjou-Villages-Brissac. Driving back along the top of the Layon, we passed Château du Brueil bathed in the bright late afternoon sunshine and looking magnificent after its recent renovation. I nearly got Tom to stop the car, so that I could take a picture but decided we ought to press on. Of course, I now regret that I didn’t – so it goes!

It was open day at Montgilet on the eve of the Salon de Vins de Loire. Victor wasn’t around when we arrived, so we were looked after by Xavier, the commercial and export manager. We started with a soft and easy drinking 2008 Grolleau VDP made using carbonic maceration and due to be bottled soon and then an attractive 2008 Anjou Gamay with good juicy fruit.

Anjou has a tradition of Gamay primeur and I asked whather Montgilet still made it. “We make about 3000 bottles that are sold locally,” said Xavier, “there is still a demand.”

By this time Victor had returned. “As far as our reds are concerned we are 30% down in volume in 2008,” he explained. We got frosted on 22nd April, there was a ‘petite sortie’ (small number of potential grapes on the vines), then coulure due to poor conditions during flowering and later hail damage as well.”

The 2008 Anjou Rouge is a blend of 70% Cabernet Franc and 30% Cabernet Sauvignon – generally quite soft but with quite marked tannins in the finish. The 2008 L’Encerre Anjou-Villages-Brissac is again a blend of Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon with attractive and delicate red fruits. L’Encerre is a lieu-dit and the wine will be aged in barriques (un vin, deux vin, no new wood). The 2008 Les Yvonnais Anjou-Villages Brissac is richer, fuller and more structured than L’Encerre. We finished the reds with 2007 L’Encerre – quite soft, well balanced and with some length. A good effort for 2007.

It is interesting to taste Victor’s reds now. When I first tasted them at the beginning of the 1990s, they were big bruising wines with a lot of tannin rather built on the lines of Victor, himself. Now they are way better with real delicacy and balance and the fruit shows through properly no long crushed by a massive tannin attack.

So on to the whites starting with a 2008 Sauvignon VDP, which was a bit vegetal on the nose and short. The 2007 Anjou Blanc, however, that followed was very attractive – made from very ripe grapes with a small proportion of botrytis giving honeysuckle and honey flavours with some floral characters as well. It spent 7/8 months in 450 litre barrels and was bottled in June 2008.


(to be continued...)

Victor and Vincent Lebreton
Domaine de Montgilet
10 Chemin de Montgilet
49610 Juigné-sur-Loire
Tel: 02.41.91.90.48
Email: montgilet@wanadoo.fr
Website: http://www.montgilet.com/