Loire producers @2017 Millésime Bio + brief comments (Part 1)

Jean-Jacques Bonnet, Domaine Bonnet-Huteau, 

Muscadet Sèvre et Maine 

Makers of fine Muscadet 

Rémi Bonnet (below)

 

Thomas Carsin, Clos de l'Élu, Saint Aubin de Luigné, Anjou

Excellent Chenins 

Xavier Cailleau, Château Bois-Brinçon, Anjou

Good range of Anjou

Fred Niger, Domaine de l'Ecu, Muscadet Sèvre et Maine 

The great experimenter

 

Philippe Vatan, Château de Hureau, 

Saumur and Saumur Champigny 

has long made a good range of Chenins and Cabernet Francs

Laura Semeria, Domaine de Montcy, 

Cheverny and Cour-Cheverny 

Laura started in 2007

Sadly has been hit a number of times by frost 

Denis Jamain, Domaine de Reuilly
Excellent white and red Reuilly

Benoît Landron, Domaine Landon Chartier

Muscadet Coteaux du Loire  

Good Muscadet's including potential 

future cru Champtoceaux

 Some of the range of wines from Domaine Landon Chartier,

which is in the commune of Ligné on north side of the Loire 

between Ancenis and Nantes 

 

#2015Loire – Muscadet – picking La Butte + elsewhere

Picking La Butte (Domaine Luneau-Papin): Tuesday 22nd September 

Blue sky but frequent showers, so pickers wearing 

rain coats and capes

2015 Melon de Bourgogne 

Marie Luneau preparing the traditional rain 

dance to ward off the showers  

 La Butte overlooks the Marais de Goulaine 

with Nantes in the distance

Complicated vintage in Muscadet 

– careful grape selection needed 

 Pickers and hod-carriers @La Butte

(above and below)

Monique Luneau

Cutting edge footwear in the Pays Nantais

Pierre Luneau posing for Mick Rock

 

Mick Rock (Cephas) @work

 

 

Domaine de l'Ecu – Fred Niger Van Herck's amphores etc. breed faster than rabbits 

a couple of years ago there were around three – now 50 +!!

#2015Loire: day trip to Muscadet

Guy Bossard's considered opinion of the 2015 vintage 

Off to Muscadet for the day. Unfortunately en-route we soon ran into rain, which was forecast but as occasional showers. However, this rain was decidedly more persistent and sustained. Later in the morning it cleared up but late afternoon there were some heavy showers.

This rather illustrated the complications of the 2015 vintage in the Pays Nantais. Until the end of the last third of August an exceptional vintage looked possible. Unfortunately a succession of heavy rain storms brought rot with big variations from parcel to parcel. According to Joseph Landron the grape ripening was blocked by the rain and then a lack of heat unlike earlier in the summer.

Jo can't remember a vintage when there was so much heavy rain. Although when the harvest started in the first week in September the grapes were still healthy so machine picking wasn't problematic, both Jo and Fred Niger van Herck - they both pick everything by hand - worry that with some 80% of Muscadet harvested by machine, that the later parcels harvested by machine will have mixed healthy and rotten grapes. Jo said that his picking teams were checking the grapes over twice in the vines. Firstly the pickers have been told to discard rotten grapes and then grapes are rechecked on a selection table before going onto the winery.    

Guy's successor Frédéric Niger van Herck

is more optimistic although stresses the need to hand pick 

and that hand picking in 2015 is a long time 

because of the need for rigorous selection 

Marie Luneau (Domaine Luneau-Papin) calling the pickers to order 

Jo Landron

moustache en guyot double...

Good to see Jo Landron today but very sorry to hear that he suffered a serious accident about a month ago falling 3.5 metres off the roof of house he was helping his son to renovate. Although he broke a vertebrae and various ribs and will need to be patient to recover properly, it could have been so much worse. Apparently his fall was broken by some bushes.

Best wishes to Jo for his recovery and for the wisdom not to try to push things too fast.   

Fred Niger@Domaine des Amphores, Pays Nantais

Fred and his growing family of amphores

including the two newest acquisitions just to his right

On Thursday afternoon, after we left the Luneau family, we dropped in on neighbouring Frédéric Niger Van Herck @Domaine des Amphores (autrefois Domaine de l'Ecu). Like the Luneaus, Fred was very happy with the 2014 vintage. After two weeks of harvesting he had finished the whites yesterday afternoon (Wednesday 23rd September). The yield has averaged 40 hl/ha with potential alcohols in the Melon of up to 12.5% at the end – with an average of 12% and 5.5 acidity. The Chardonnay (13.5% – 5.5 acidity) and the Pinot Noir has also been picked. Now Fred is waiting for the Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon to ripen.

As elsewhere in the Loire a warm dry September has transformed prospects after a wet and cool August. Around Friday 19th Fred was worried by a very dark sky but the storm fortunately passed them by. Elsewhere in the Loire hail storms at this time caused heart-breaking late damage to some very unfortunate producers like Corinne Laurent in Saint-Pourçain.

As well as tasting some of the fermenting 2014s, I also tasted the interestingly rustic 2013 Egiodola. This variety was originally developed in France's South West but Fred has a parcel close to the winery.        

Reaching for 2014 Chardonnay – seven days of maceration

(above and below)

2014 Chardonnay  – Fred amphoric!

2013 Loire Vintage: photos of Frédéric Niger and Guy Bossard

Frédéric Niger 

After seeing the Luneau family, shortly to be increased by one as Marie Chartier, Pierre-Marie's wife, is expecting their second child in November (makes sense to augment the picking gang!), we headed just up the road to Fred Niger and Guy Bossard's Domaine de l'Ecu. It is good to see that Fred is bringing a new dynamism to this estate. Most visible are the élèvage jars and the single amphore for creating something similar to the orange wine of Georgia. This is exactly the same type of amphore as I saw at Thierry Michon's Domaine Saint Nicolas last Friday. All part of a delivery of three amphores – Joseph Landron has the other one. 

The amphore has to be filled with water before it is used. They are much more water-tight/wine-tight that the élèvage jars show below. These lose 20% of the liquid put into them. With Fred I tasted his 2012 Cabernet Franc aged both in the barrique and jar. The fruit on the barrique sample was much more vivid with more noticeable tannins, while the one from the jar was softer, rounder with more integrated tannins. The final wine will be a blend of the two.        

Guy@an underground tank – a feature of wineries in the Pays Nantais

Guy Bossard and the amphore

The élèvage jars

Photo by CRM

 2013 Melon 

Fred with the cap of the domaine's Pinot Noir 

Fermenting Pinot Noir