Salon des Vins de Loire in 2015 – still 'incontournable'?

The 29th edition of the Salon des Vins de Loire closed its doors last Wednesday at the Parc Expo in Angers. Any fair that has been held every year since 1987 including in 1992, the year following the devastating frost of April 1991 deserves respect. But is the Salon really still 'la place de marché incontournable de la filière vin ligérienne' as the press release of Wednesday night claimed? Undoubtedly this is a claim that could have been made a few years ago but in 2015? Far from sure!

If the Salon really is 'incontournable' why no Couly-Dutheil, Baudry-Dutour, Bouvet-Ladubay, Joseph Mellot, Henri Bourgeois, Castel, Château de Tracy or Domaine Huet to name a few famous names absent from Angers?

The main hall of the Salon was noticeably reduced with some of it partitioned off. The organisers claim nearly 9000 visitors to this edition. Is this unique visitors or visitors, who were counted each day they attended? It was noticeable that on the Wednesday there were a number of student visitors. Good that there is interest from the younger generation but a bald figure of nearly 9000 visitors doesn't tell us very much.  

Most of the journalists present were from France plus a number from Belgium including Les 5's Marco & Hervé. I saw Alice Feiring at the Renaissance tasting on Saturday but didn't see her at the Salon. Instead I guess she headed for La Dive Bouteille event at Saumur. Otherwise I didn't see any other journalists from America. As has become customary over the past few years the only two UK journalists at the Salon were Chris Kissack (The Wine Doctor) and myself. This year budgetary constraints meant that Chris and I had no financial support for our hotel. In previous year the Salon has paid for one or two nights at the Hotel du Mail, where I have stayed for at least 15 years now. Had we moved to the Mercure we could have had a night or two but we preferred to stay put in our favourite hotel in Angers. C'est comme ça!   

Of course it is not all bad news. Tasting the 2014 vintage confirms the promise of the harvest last September and October. The reds have ripe fruit and attractive texture. The dry whites are similar with attractive fruit with good balancing acidity. The sweets are the best since 2010 and 2011. Although it is still early I doubt if the 2014 sweets are at the level of those two very fine sweet wine vintages but there will be some attractive wines nevertheless – probably less concentrated but well balanced.

It was good to see La Levée de Loire, the organic producers, attached to the Salon over three days rather than having a one-day Salon in the centre of Angers. la Levée clearly gained by this with 123 exhibitors compared to the previous 90 and 2077 visitors against 400-500 that attended each of the first two editions. It was a pity that La Dive Bouteille held their tasting in Saumur on the Sunday and Monday as it would have been good to see all the offs and the Salon together in Angers. 

As usual the Renaissance tasting on the Saturday and Sunday before the Salon was crowded. This was in marked contrast to the first edition of Demeter, which was embarrassingly empty when I dropped in on Saturday afternoon. Hardly surprising as they had done zilch promotion! 

Where does the Salon go from here?

The dates for 2016 – the 30th anniversary edition – are fixed – Monday 8th - Wednesday 10th February at Parc Expo, Angers. This is a week later than normal. There have been suggestions that the Salon should just be over two days, that it should move to Paris, be held once every two years, or that there a Grand Nord tasting in Paris – the northern version of Vinisud. A suivre!

The Angelic Mark – the high priest of Renaissance 

 Renaissance tasting on Sunday around midday packed

 The embarrassingly empty Demeter tasting: mid-Saturday afternoon

Salon des Vins de Loire: helicopter furore a symtom of deeper malaise

Château la Grille, Chinon  

Detail of the château

 New facilities including visitors' centre under construction: June 2011

Not surprisingly the chief topic of conversation at both the official 2013 Salon des Vins de Loire and the off-salons was the difficulty of the 2012 vintage and the remarkable quality of some of the wines made. Or at least it was until the Baudry-Dutour's helicopters landed and created a furore. See here and here.  

It was already surprising that Baudry-Dutour did not have a stand at this years Salon as Jean-Martin Dutour is the president of InterLoire, one of the partners of the salon. Surprise turned to fury for some of the exhibitors when they discovered that Baudry-Dutour had invited some journalists and other guests from the Salon to visit Château la Grille on the Tuesday morning (5th February). Their guests would be flown by helicopter to Château la Grille on the north outskirts of Chinon to see the recently renovated winery. Three trips, lasting a little over two hours, were offered: 10.30, 13.30 and 16.00. The helicopter would take off some 500 metres from the Parc des Expositions, home of the Salon. 

I was invited to go but turned it down because I was at the Salon to see the vignerons there and I can revisit Baudry-Dutour on another occasion later in the year to see the renovated chai etc. Furthermore we were leaving for the UK early afternoon.     

Jean-Martin Dutour

As they weren't exhibiting Jean-Martin Dutour as president of InterLoire ought to have been aware that the helicopter excursion would provoke a strong reaction. This is, however, just a symptom of a deeper malaise. Press releases about the Salon still proclaim it to be 'le rassemblement incontournable de toute la production de la Loire'. This used to be true but sadly this claim is now under serious threat. Although happily the number of visitors was up on last year – it would have been disastrous if they weren't, there were apparently some 70 to 80 fewer exhibitors this year. Jean-Martin Dutour and Christophe Baudry were far from only producers not present at this years Salon.
 

The number of Salons-Off increases exponentially year on year. This year there were seven/eight – 16 in 2014? Some, like Renaissance, are held during the weekend before the Salon, others like the organic Salon la Levée de la Loire (4th February), were held during and in competition with the Salon. I think events before the Salon can help to draw more people to Salon but holding off-events during the Salon seems to me to be a dangerous nonsense. This year there were exhibitors at the Salon who were also at la Levée. How are buyers, who may only be visiting the Salon the Monday to know where to meet the producer and have the time to travel from the Salon to the centre of Angers? Suicidal!

There needs to be some joined up thinking and a willingness to compromise by all parties to avoid the Salon declining in importance.The threat is already uncomfortably present.