Four Loire producers @Beyond the Classics tasting

Pierre-Antoine Giovannoni, Château de la Viadière, 

Champ-sur-Layon, Anjou 

Today some 30 of Les Vignerons Independants came to London to show their wines. Four came from the Loire. 

Château de la Viadière, Champ-sur-Layon

I hadn't met Pierre-Antoine Giovannoni or tasted his wines from this 33-hectare property in Champ-sur-Layon, where he is a near neighbour to Domaine de la Bergerie. Pierre-Antoine said that La Table de la Bergerie was his canteen – lucky man! Although the domaine has been run on organic lines for a number of years, it is now in its second year of conversion. Pierre-Antoine has now adopted bio-dynamics.

I enjoyed the Viadière wines, especially the two Chenin Blancs – 2015 Chenin IGP (attractive texture, minerality and austerity in the finish) – and Pierre Blanche 2014 Anjou AOP, which is vinified in 300-litre French oak barrels. This is more concentrated and structured but needs further time in bottle. 

Jean-François Merieau, Domaine Merieau, 

Touraine

Hitherto Jean-François Merieau's domaine (Bois Vaudons) has been based in the small village of Saint-Julien-de-Chédon just to the east of Montrichard in the Cher Valley. Recently he has bought the old Paul Buisse premises in Montrichard from Pierre Chainier. Chainier bought Paul Buisse in 2009 as Paul had no successor wishing to take over and he had reached retirement age. Jean-François plans to open his new premises this April. Being in Montrichard he will be much better placed to attract visitors.

Jean-François showed a good selection of six wines – three white and three red. I found the 2013 Boa Moa the most interesting: it is made from 100% Sauvignon Rosé, a long established grape variety in this part of the Loire and predating the arrival of Sauvignon Blanc. It often has more finesse than SB and this 2013 is no exception. Idiotically under the reform of Appellation Touraine 100% Sauvignon Gris will not be permitted. Jean-François believes that this stupid reform may never be implemented. I hope he is right!   

Jérôme Houssin, Domaine des Tilleuls, 

Muscadet-Sèvre-et-Maine, Vallet

The remaining two producers are from Muscadet Sèvre-et-Maine. I have tasted their wines on a number of occasions. Together they continue to underline the quality found in Muscadet these days. Although it won't be bottled until April, Déramé's 2016 Domaine du Moulin is currently stunning with good rich texture, racy finish and lovely balance. Also notable is the 2014 Cuvée Famille Déramé from 80 year old vines. It spends two years sur lie and will be a future Mouzillon cru communaux once the French minister finds a pen and signs the décret. 

Alexandre told me that the proposal promoted by the négoce to permit other grape varieties than Melon de Bourgogne to be used for Muscadet was no longer on the table. If so this is very good news, although Alexandre did caution that "you never know in our region". 

From Jérôme Houssin's Domaine des Tilleuls my favourite wine was the weighty but youthful 2013 Vieilles Vignes Muscadet Sèvre-et-Maine sur lie, which spends 12 months on its lees before bottling.  

Alexandre Déramé, Domaine Déramé, Muscadet-Sèvre-et-Maine, Mouzillon

VitiLoire 2013: photos of some vignerons

Charles Pain (Chinon)

Photos of a few of the vignerons present@the 11th edition of VitiLoire in Tours last weekend.

Francis Jourdan (Domaine Félines-Jourdan, Chinon)

 Guitars on a Bourgueil stand

 Jean-François Mériau (Vignoble des Bois Vaudons, Touraine)

 

 Pierre Morgeau (Domaine La Tour Beaumont, Haut-Poitou)

20 hectare estate established in 1860 with one hectare

 Pascal Desroches (Reuilly) – above and below

Philippe Elliau (Domaine de la Fuye, Le Puy Notre Dame)

above and below

 Philippe Sevault (Jasnières)

Above and below

Miss Vicky 

Fête du Vélo à Tours 1st July (17th edition)

 

A kind offer ..... but I'll pass ......

#Vitiloire12: more photos and comments

Emmanuel Charrier, Domaine de l'Epineau 

With temperatures around 30˚C Saturday afternoon@Vitiloire 2012 conditions were far from perfect for tasting, so I spent more time taking photos than I did tasting. I did, however, try Emmanuel Charrier's attractively fresh and citric 2010 Prémices, Domaine de l'Epineau from the Coteaux du Giennois. 

Charrier has five hectares in the Coteaux du Giennois and just one in Pouilly-Fumé. I also tried his 2010 Pouilly-Fumé, which was less of stand out than the Coteaux du Giennois.  

See also here.

Emmanuel Charrier, Domaine de l'Epineau 

Jean-François Mérieau, Domaine des Bois Vaudons, Touraine 

Jean-Max Manceau, Domaine de Noiré

Philippe Boucard: Lamé Delisle Boucard, Bourgueil 

Les 5 du Vin will be in Bourgueil this weekend for a programme of tastings and visits. Philippe warned me to get plenty of rest this week! Clearly he has in mind some long days and equally long nights!

Valérye Mordelet (Les Loges de la Folie): châpeau!

Jean-Daniel Kloeckle (Les Loges de la Folie) 

2010 Vendange in the Cher – full speed ahead!

 

Sauvignon  Blanc@Jacky Preys

Empyting a picking machine@Jean-François Merieau

This week has seen most Touraine producers start picking with some, like Vincent Ricard, accelerating following the heavy rain Thursday night/ early Friday morning.

This afternoon we had a quick drive round to see a number of producers – just dropping in to see how the harvest was progressing.

Joël Delaunay on his picking machine (La Tesnière, Pouillé)

Jean-Christophe Mandard (Mareuil) measuring the potential alcohol in his Sauvignon Blanc juice

 

Jacky  Preys (Meusnes) watching Sauvignon Blanc grapes being unloaded

Two post-vintage visits in Cher Valley: Vincent Ricard and JF Merieau

Jean-François (Jeff) Merieau with his deep coloured 2009 Côt (see below)

Dropped into see Vincent Ricard (Domaine Ricard, Thésée-la-Romaine) and Jean-François Merieau (Vignobles des Bois Vaudons, Saint-Julien-de-Chédon). Both have now finish their 2009 harvest – Vincent on Friday (having started on 12th September) and Jean-François this morning finishing off some seven rows of Cabernet Franc that remained. Both are equally happy with the quality and the quantity that this year has brought. Fortunately both escaped the hail that devastated parts of the Cher, especially parts of Angé and Monthou.

View of the Domaine Ricard winery

I tasted 2009 fermenting wines at both properties and once again the weight and purity of the 2009s is impressive, although will have to wait and see how the finished wines are. "2009 is a year when you can have both quantity and quality. My average this year is around 57/58hl/ha – Le Petiot at 60 hl/ha, while 42hl/ha for Les Trois Chênes." This suggests similarities with 1990 when the quality was excellent even with high yields, although Vincent would not remember 1990 as I guess he was still at schoool then.

"The 'gros bêtes' came in at over 14% potential. I've got 5000 litres of Gamay at 15.5%, so I'm goiung to make a moelleux rosé – 11.5%-12% alcohol and the rest as residual sugar."

Vincent has recently acquired a new 3.6 ha vineyard called Le Bouc overlooking the centre of Thésée. It was planted with "Gamay pourri" and other poor quality clones, which Vincent has ripped out and replaced with Sauvignon Blanc, for which he gets assistance from the EU towards restructuring the vineyard. They pay for the plants, the wires and the posts. Vincent now has 23 ha.

Vineyard posts

We also tasted some 2008 Sauvignon Blancs. Both 2008 Le Petiot (6.40€ at the cellar) and Les Trois Chênes (8.50€) are showing really well now, having taken on considerably more weight since I last tasted them in April. Just shows that some of these Sauvignons from the Cher valley are drunk too young and really need a year or so to be at their best. '? 2008' was bottled just before the start of the harvest. There is a lot of concentration there but it's quite lean and austere at the moment – just needs more time in bottle. The vines for '? 2008' are over 75 years old and were the first Sauvignon Blanc to be planted in the Cher Valley.

Jean-François with his 2009 Côt

Jean-François Merieau, Vignobles des Bois Vaudons
I started by tasting through the current range. The following wines showed best: the creamy Pétillant Blanc Brut, which is good value at 6.30€, the light and delicate 2007 Le Bois Jacou, Touraine Gamay (5€), and the powerful and concentrated 2005 Les Grands Champs Touraine Cabernet Franc (6€) – all smoky black fruits and needing more time. Apparently a US importer dismissed the idea of importing this 2005 Grands Champs saying 'it was too old'!

The tasting concluded with two Boa wines that have extended wood aging. Boa le Rouge (13.50€) is a 2006 Gamay. It has attractively soft Gamay fruit but the wood is quite dominant and drying in the finish. Not convinced that the wood brings much to the party – perhaps it just needs to be used more sparingly. Instead of Boa le rouge I'd rather have two bottles of the 2005 Cabernet and the change. Guele du boa (2006 Côt – 14.10€) is more successful – Côt has more power and structure to support the wood and this has good smoky, concentrated black fruits. Even so the wood is still dominant and this needs more time.

Then we went down to the winery and tasted the impressive 2009s in progress. I was very interested to learn from Jean-François that in the past the vignerons used to plant a few vines of Alicante Bouchet to give colour to their reds. Alicante Bouchet is a teinturier (a red fleshed variety). It is a Mediterranean variety, so it was a surprise that it ripened sufficiently in these cooler climes.

Hand destemming Cabernet Franc

While I was at the winery two workers, including the son of Xavier Frissant who is on a stage with Jean-François, were busy destemming the last of the Cabernet Franc by hand.

La Rosée and a Touraine sunset

2008 La Rosée, AC Touraine Jean-François Merieau

Delicious glass of the rosé from Jean-François Merieau (Bois Vaudons, Saint-Julien-de-Chédon). Made from Pineau d'Aunis, it has a characteristic hint of pepper before the red fruits, especially strawberry and raspberry kick in. It has been opened the day before when apparently it was rather tight and severe. Clearly a bit of air had worked wonders!

Later on quite a dramatic sunset@Les Bergers, Epeigné-les-Bois ...........


..... then a rather unsettled sky. The weather forecast for Indre-et-Loire, however, is good until Friday. To be followed by a very wet Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

The Wine Detective

(1996 Sauvignon Blanc, Clos Roche Blanche)

(10th August 2008)
Sarah Ahmed, the wine detective (www.thewinedetective.co.uk) and fellow writer, arrived from London to spend a week visiting producers together. Monday to Wednesday will be spent in Sancerre and Pouilly. Thursday it’s off to Bourgueil, Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil and Chinon. Friday is the 15th August – a national holiday, so no visits. We will finish with a day in Montlouis on Saturday.

To get ourselves tuned up for the Central Vineyards we looked at a number of aged Sauvignon Blancs, mainly Sancerres, over dinner. First up was a 1996 Touraine Sauvignon from Clos Roche Blanche, which is run by Catherine Roussel and Didier Barrouillet. Although the 1996 had some evolved Sauvignon characters, it still had an attractive fresh minerality – difficult to guess that it was 12 years old. Farmed organically and previously biodynamically Clos Roche Blanche between the villages of Mareuil and Pouillé in the Cher Valley has long been a beacon of excellence and Catherine and Didier have inspired a number of other local producers like Jérôme Sauvète, Jean-François Merieau and Vincent Ricard.




A rich 1995 Côte de Champtin Sancerre from Roger Champault et fils was next up. The Champaults are based the small village of Champtin, which is just west of Bué. The Côte de Champtin is a steep, south-facing slope above the village. Roger Champault has now retired and the family vineyards are now run by his two sons Claude and Laurent.

Two contrasting vintages – 2000 and 1997 – of the MD of Henri Bourgeois from the steep slopes of the Monts Damnés that overlook the village of Chavignol. The 2000 was quite austere and mineral, while the 1997 from a hotter year was rounder and softer. Both accompanied our cold salmon trout with perhaps the 2000 as the better match.

We finished with the grape that dominated Sancerre’s vineyards before the arrival of phylloxera towards the end of the 19th century – Pinot Noir trying a bottle of Alphonse Mellot’s Generation XIX 2004 Sancerre Rouge. The concentrated but still slightly angular 2004 still needs time but to me shows how red Sancerres have progressed over the past ten to fifteen years. Sarah is less convinced citing the oak.

Clos Roche Blanche, 19 Route de Montrichard, 41110 Mareuil-sur-Cher. Tel: 02.54.75.17.03
Roger Champault, 5, Route de Foulot - Champtin, 18300 Crézancy. Tel: 02.48.79.00.03
Email: roger.champaultetfils@neuf.fr