Various Loire infos: Pouilly Fumé @80, Brunchez en Loire, Gité de Nerleux

14th and 15th July Pouilly-sur-Loire: celebrations to mark 80th anniversary of the creation of the appellations of Pouilly-Fumé and Pouilly-sur-Loire. Details here.

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Every Thursday morning at 10 am during July and August cruise on the Loire to taste Bourgueil and Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil from the Cave des Vins de Bourgueil. Embark at Chouzé-sur-Loire. 15€ for adults, 7€ for children between 5 to 10 years old. Reservations on 06.43.47.40.90/ 02.47.97.32.01

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Gité des Nerleux @ Domaine de Nerleux, St Cyr en Bourg, near Saumur 

Chers clients et amis,

Nous sommes ravis de vous annoncer l'ouverture du Gîte des Nerleux, le nouveau volet d'activités du Domaine !!!

D'une capacité de 8 à 12 personnes, cette maison entièrement rénovée en 2017, vous séduira par son environnement : les pieds dans le vignoble de Saumur Champigny.

Pour venir visiter le Domaine de Nerleux ou découvrir notre jolie région, venez en famille ou entre amis, profiter de ce gîte de charme.

Plus d'informations et de photos sur www.gite-vignoble-nerleux.fr

Remise de 10 % pour toute réservation sur 2017, effectuée avant fin août 2017.

Au plaisir de vous accueillir,

L'équipe du Domaine de Nerleux

Details here

Off on an adventure: Day 20 – Amélie Neau

Amélie Neau, Domaine de Nerleux,
Saumur-Champigny, Saumur and Coteaux du Saumur

 As I suspect there will be limited time to post on Jim's Loire while we are away – there are posts prepared in advance that will feature pics of Loire producers and may be from elsewhere plus some recently enjoyed bottles.   

Some 2014 Saumur-Champignys – delicious drinking now!

2014 Saumur-Champigny Domaine Antoine Sanzay

2014 Cabernet Franc based Loire reds are already proving to be very attractive to drink now. They have lovely rich, bright fruit and have lovely balance with a freshness in the finish. Although not as rich as vintages such as 2005 and 2009 they are very seductive. Over the last week we have enjoyed four Saumur-Champignys shown here. 

Antoine Sanzay's range of 2014 reds are excellent. Above is the straight domaine, which has lovely black fruits and is richly textured. Certainly can be enjoyed now but has the potential to be kept – probably for up to 10 years. 

   

La Croix de Chaintres, 2014 Saumur-Champigny, Domaine Filliatreau is a lighter, early-drinking cuvée with attractive red fruits and is sensibly closed with a screwcap. 

The 2014 Saumur-Champigny, Domaine de Nerleux comes between the Antoine Sanzay and the Filliatreau in terms of weight with attractive texture and black fruits. It is drinking well now but can easily be kept for five or more years.

2014 Clos de l'échelier, Saumur-Champigny, Thierry Germain, Domaine des Roches Neuves. This is a relatively new cuvée from Thierry. It comes from a clos in Dampierre just above the Loire. Thierry acquired it in 2012 when the previous owner, who sent his grapes to the cooperative decided to retire. Nicely textured with some structure, we enjoyed this with roast duck. It certainly has the potential to age and should develop further in bottle.    

  

La Croix de Chaintres, 2014 Saumur-Champigny, Domaine Filliatreau

2014 Saumur-Champigny, Domaine de Nerleux

2014 Clos de l'échelier, Saumur-Champigny, Thierry Germain, 

Domaine des Roches Neuves 

1989 Les Chatains, Saumur-Champigny, Domaine de Nerleux

1989 Les Chatains, Saumur-Champigny, Domaine de Nerleux 

Last night at the RSJ Restaurant, London SE1, Saumur was the theme for the first of the monthly autumn tastings. The star of the show was the 1989 Les Chatains, Saumur-Champigny from Régis and Babette Neau's Domaine de Nerleux. It was showing beautifully from its still good colour to its sweet, rich soft fruit. Typical of 1989, the Chatains is from a 7-hectare plot of old vines planted in 1933 and 1950. Sadly 1989s are becoming more difficult to find but this was an excellent reminder of how good 1989 Loire reds can be.        

Domaine de Nerleux, Saint Cyr en Bourg (Saumur): Portes Ouvertes 11th, 12th, 13th May

Details of the Domaine de Nerleux, run by Régis, Babette and Amélie Néau, here on their website.

Domaine de Nerleux: portes ouvertes: 7th and 8th May

Régis Neau in the vines at the moment of harvesting Chenin for the Coteaux de Saumur

Domaine details here.

Portes Ouvertes: Domaine de Nerleux 8 -9 May

Domaine de Nerleux in Saint-Cyr-en-Bourg is run by the Néau family and is a long established family estate making a very consistent range of wines.

Lunch@L'Aubinière, Saint Ouen-les-Vignes

1st April 2010

Five of us had a very agreeable, relaxed lunch at L'Aubinière yesterday. We all took the 34€ menu – I had mousseline of trout, gigot d'agneau and chocolate pudding. All the dishes were very good, although without the same inventiveness that you find at Jacky Dallais' La Promenade. 

For our apéro we had a very attractive bottle of 2005 Montouis demi-sec from Domaine Flamand-Deletang run by Olivier and Corinne Flamand, who have 8ha in Saint Martin le Beau. This is quite a rich, honeyed demi-sec from 2005 with well balanced acidity and not unreasonably priced at 30€.

2007 Clos de Rougemount, Vouvray sec, Domaine Vigneau-Chevreau

With the first course we took the 2007 Clos de Rougemont, Vouvray sec from Domaine Vigneau-Chevreau (28.50€). This special cuvée comes from the historic Abbaye de Marmoutiers on the eastern edge of northern Tours and had all the qualities associated with good 2007 Loire dry whites. Very clean and precise with good mineral length, this was a fine match with the mousseline of trout.

2006 Cuvée des Loups, Saumur-Champigny, Domaine de Nerleux

I knew the 2006 Cuvée des Loups (40€) from Régis and Elizabeth Neau was likely still rather young and so it proved. Powerful, well fruited (black) wine this was attractive to drink now but it is clear that with another two or three years in bottle that this will be more supple and complex as currently it is still a bit angular.

Hotel-Restaurant L'Aubinière,
29 Rue Jacques-Gautier
37530 Saint-Ouen-les-Vignes
Tel: 02.47.30.15.29
www.aubiniere.com

1996: the best vintage of the 1990s?

I was reminded today by a tasting note on the wine forum of Tom Cannavan's wine-pages that I have been meaning to post something on the 1996 vintage.

Tim York noted that the 'Chinon 1996 from L’Echansonne Sélection Noël Pinguet - Olga Raffault was a nice youthful seeming, savoury and robust Chinon full of red fruit, especially plums and damsons, abundant acidity offset by good body and an appealing wet leather tang'.

1996 Clos Rougeard, Les Frères Foucault,
Saumur-Champigny

For some time I have thought that 1996 is the best vintage the 90s decade, especially for reds, notwithstanding the fine and very appealing 1990s. 1996 is a classic good Loire vintage. It has a lovely balance of fruit, structure and acidity and has aged well as Tim's comment 'nice youthful seeming' bears out. 1996 and 1997 were both good years and naturally frequently compared. 1997 has always been ripe and opulent – a crowd pleaser. While the best have lasted better than they thought they might, they don't have the same level of balance and complexity found in 1996 reds. 1995 was potentially a good year for reds too but while I've had a few good 1995s the high level of acidity has meant that they have taken a long time to come round and it seems likely that marked acidity will continue to be a feature of the 1995s.

As well as the Clos Rougeard above other 1996 reds I have recently drunk and enjoyed include Les Châtains from Domaine de Nerleux, Grand Clos from Château de Villeneuve and the Anjou Villages from Domaine de Bablut. The 1996 Gamay from Clos Roche Blanche was showing well about two/three years ago – will have to check on its progress.

Not the Clos Roche Blanche's Gamay
but the 1996 Touraine Sauvignon

1996 is also a fine year for dry whites and demi-secs along with good sweet wines. With the sweets 1995, 1996 and 1997 make a fascinating trio with perhaps the 1997s being superior.