Off on an adventure: Day 26 – Jérémie Huchet

Jérémie Huchet Muscadet Sèvre-et-Maine 

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.   

Biodynamics dépassés par Eco-Luneau....!

Marie Chartier (Domaine Pierre Luneau-Papin) demonstrating 

a return to an age-old tradition to analyse 

the newly born 2014 Muscadet Sèvre-et-Maine  

It is an immutable law of nature that there comes a time when even the most cutting edge, starry movement slows and is overtaken by something new. Last Thursday we had the good fortune to discover that this may well now be underway in Muscadet Sèvre-et-Maine. There is now a palpable sense that biodynamics is beginning to appear jolly fatigué!

Pierre-Marie Luneau – listening to his nascent 2014 Muscadet

Eco-Luneau is a return to hallowed traditions and values, including one long forgotten aspect of wine – its sound.

Trail-blazer Pierre-Marie Luneau (Domaine Pierre Luneau-Papin) explains: "We have forgotten how to listen to wine. Of course, the sight, aroma and taste are very important but we must never forget the sound of wine – the fourth sense. Unfortunately all the current wine notation systems, including of course the 100-point scale, concentrate exclusively on the three senses ignoring sound so only assess a part of a wine's qualities."  

Pierre Clavel, Domaine Clavel in the Languedoc  

(Millésime Bio, Montpellier January 2012)

 

Pierre-Marie acknowledges the pioneering and inspirational work carried out by Pierre Clavel into the audiology of wine over the past few years. 

The Luneau family with their promising 2014 Muscadet Sèvre-et-Maine:

Pierre-Marie, Marie, Monique et Pierre 

(above and below)

Marie with the finely calibrated divining stick

 Monique Luneau with a stereo of 2014 Muscadet Sèvre-et-Maine

 Muscadet Sèvre-et-Ligeoise:

there will be some exciting new flavours 

emerging from the Pays Nantais this year

French Wine Discoveries: more photos

Dominique Hardy and his son: 

Domaine de la Grange, Muscadet Sèvre-et-Maine 

(above and below)

Jérôme Houssin, Domaine des Tilleuls, Muscadet Sèvre-et-Maine

Prieuré la Chaume

Christian Chabirand, Prieuré la Chaume, IGP Val de Loire Vendée

French wine discoveries: Pascal Drouard (Domaine de la Noë)

Pascal Drouard, Domaine de la Noë, Muscadet Sèvre-et-Maine

with the Fiefs de l'Ancruere which is aged in chestnut barrels

The family Drouard established the Domaine de la Noë in 1878 in the western part of the commune of Château Thebaud. The Drouard family now has 74 hectares of vines – producing Muscadet Sèvre-et-Maine and a number of varietal Val de Loire IGPs in all three colours. I concentrated on tasting the Muscadets.

Pascal told me that, although as for everyone else 2012 had been a short vintage, 2013 was virtually a normal vintage in terms of volume.    

Pascal Drouard with the 2008 Domaine de la Noë

Pascal's grandfather was a cooper as well as a vigneron. Then barrels in the Pays Nantais, as well as in other parts of the Loire, were made from chestnut. Chestnut has been superceded over the last 30 years or so by oak, partly because chestnut tends to dry out the wine giving some bitter over-tastes but it may also be a question of fashion. To keep the tradition going, and in memory of his grandfather, Pascal uses chestnut barrels on his Fief de l'Ancruere cuvée. I tasted the 2012 which has an attractive texture and a salty, iodine character.   

Like many of the other Muscadet producers present Pascal showed his 2008 Granite, which is very much in the spirit of the crus communaux as this spends 63 months sur lie and wasn't bottled until May 2013. This long aging on its lees gives extra weight and complexity.     

Domaine Pierre Luneau-Papin: Saturday 30th November with friends

Portes Ouvertes this Saturday 30th (tomorrow) from 10h-19h: with Pierre-Marie, Marie, Monique, Pierre, Jeanne and Joseph Luneau (Domaine Pierre Luneau-Papin) with friends Romain & Gwenael Paire (Côte Roannaise) and Carine & François Crochet (Bué, Sancerre). Details here. 

 Marie and Pierre-Marie Luneau@RSJ Restaurant London May 2013 

 New PDG: Joseph Luneau

Monique, Pierre-Marie, Marie et Pierre: fin Vendange 2011

François Crochet

Burgundy? No Muscadet actually!

1993 Manoir La Grange, Muscadet de Sèvre & Maine, Pierre Luneau-Papin

On Thursday evening when I handed CRM a glass of golden wine her immediate reation was "Burgundy?" "A Puligny or Chassagne Montrachet?" Not at all, although yes the wine had a clear resemblance to mature white Burgundy and it also has a family connection to Burgundy through its grape variety – Melon de Bourgogne. The 1993 from Pierre Luneau-Papin had a lovely evolved buttery character, good weight and texture while remaining fresh and clean in its long finish. It was a fine match with our grilled sea bass bought from Billings in Sydenham. 

This Manoir la Grange was vinified in oak. 

Geeky detail! I notice that the label says Muscadet de Sèvre & Maine and this is in line with other bottles from the same period. At some point the de was dropped, as the appellation is now Muscadet Sèvre etc. Must check when this happened. Does anyone know please?

Who said Muscadet doesn't age! I'm sure we could have kept this 1993 for a number of more years without it spoiling.

Good Muscadet is one of the wine world's great bargains. Worried that Burgundy prices are going sky high after last weekend's Hospice de Beaune auction? Time to explore the wines of the Pays Nantais!

2013 Loire vintage: Muscadet – Jo Landron

Domaines Landron@La Haie Fouassière 

 

 Portable Jo Landron: mobile is now an 

indispensible piece of harvest equipment

Monday (30th September): As others are in Muscadet Jo Landron and his pickers were working flat out to get the harvest in, especially they had had 30mm of rain in just 10 minutes from a storm on Sunday afternoon. Curiously Guy Bossard and Fréd Niger, who are only four or five kilometres away had not had a drop. Jo said that the incidence of rot was very variable: very little in his best parcels like Le Fief du Breil (10%) and Amphibolite but much more in the less good terroirs.  Potential alcohol degrees are between 10.7˚– 11.2˚.

When I saw him on Monday afternoon they were picking in a parcel with quite a lot of clay and there was a significant amount of rot, although as elsewhere the grapes still tasted clean without rotten flavours. The rot appeared appeared to be partly noble. Jo's pickers were having to carefully discarded the rotten berries in each bunch.  

 

Cutting out the rotten berries

 Trailer of grapes

 Hod carrier with watertower à le Muscadet

Stylish picker!

Another hod carrier

Video of Jo Landron talking in Chicago just prior to the vintage about his hopes for the 2013 vintage. 

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

2013 Loire vintage – some photos from Luneau-Papin (Muscadet)

2013 Melon de Bourgogne (Monday 30th September) 

(above and below)

Photos taken of picking in the Clos des Allées on Monday 30th September@Domaine Luneau-Papin, Muscadet Sèvre-et-Maine. Part of their vineyard is picking by machine, while the best parcels are picked by hand.

Monique Luneau

Hod carrier 

Another hod emptied into the trailer  

 Melon de B in the Clos des Allées

 Signs of rot – partly noble. Rotten grapes tasted clean 

without unpleasant flavours while we were in 

Muscadet on Monday and Tuesday   

Muscadet rocks?