#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!