Straight ahead the church of Souzay-Champigny and to the right Château de Villeneuve

1999 Les Cormiers, Saumur Blanc
1998 Saumur Blanc

It is easy to forget how well top quality Saumur Blanc will age and two lovely whites from Jean-Pierre Chevallier act as a reminder. Both were served as aperitifs but on separate occasions. Firstly the 1999 Les Cormiers, JP’s top white cuvée fermented and aged in 500 litre barrels – one half new and one half one wine. This has always been one of JP’s great vintages of Les Cormiers. It has lovely rich honeyed fruit, minerality and freshness in the finish – wonderfully complex. The 1999 shows no sign of tiring and served blind it would be difficult to say that it is nearly 10 years old and it is a fraction of the cost of top Burgundy, though comparable in quality.

The 1998 domaine is more mineral and austere but still wonderfully fresh. Fine but without the complexity of the 1999 Les Cormiers it remains an impressive effort from the least good vintage of the second half of the 1990s. I think the 1998 would have been entirely fermented and matured in stainless steel. From the early part of this decade Jean-Pierre has fermented and aged an increasing proportion of this cuvée firstly in 500-litre and now in 400-litre barrels. Like the 1999, the 1998 shows no sign of tiring, although I did wonder how this would have held up when I pulled it out of the rack.

"What about screwcaps?" Jean-Pierre Chevallier pulling the cork on his 2004 Saumur Blanc – August 2005

Bearing in mind the quality of Jean-Pierre’s wines – both white and red – along with a number of other producers in the area, it was sad to read a comment by Keith Prothero about Saumur on Jamie Goode’s Wine Anorak blog:

‘Must go back sometime. Went 4 years ago and stayed in a posh hotel near Saumur overlooking the Loire. All very nice except for the fact that it pissed down the three days we were there,and hence decided to abandon ship and drive to Brittany!! Not a big fan of the wine apart from mature Huet Vouvray.’

August 2005: Jean-Pierre with his 2004 Saumur Blanc

I imagine Keith must have been staying at Le Prieure Chenehutte-Les-Tuffeaux hotel to the west of Saumur. Heartbreaking to be so near to discovering wonderful wines and yet so far………..

Having made fish cakes with what remained with the salmon trout, we had this as a quick brunch before our celebratory meal starting in the late afternoon. Although quite rich – tendre/demi-sec – François Chidaine’s Les Tuffeaux 2004 provided a good match, especially as there was sufficient acidity to carry off the touch of sweetness.

For the aperitif I had intended to have Domaine Huet’s 1999 Pétillant but on discovering that there was only one bottle left, we had Jacky Blot’s Triple Zero instead, which naturally was no hardship.



The salad of foie gras de canard as the first course presented some problems. Initially I considered a sweet wine – something from the Layon or l’Aubance. However, I rejected this option as the foie gras was part of a salad and not being served alone. Chidaine’s Les Tuffeaux would, I suspect been ideal but we’d already opened that, so I selected Mark Angeli’s 1998 Vieilles Vignes des Blanderies. However on opening it, delicious as it was and would prove to be a couple of days later as an aperitif, I wasn’t convinced that its oxidative style would be the best match with the foie gras salad, so instead opted for a bottle of 1998 Les Cormiers Château de Villeneuve that had both the weight and vivacity to be complemented by the salad. 1998 was the least good Loire vintage, especially for reds, of the second half of the 1990s. However, both Mark Angeli's and Jean-Pierre Chevallier's 1998s showed well and both could be kept for a severalo years more.

1998 Les Cormiers Saumur Blanc Château de Villeneuve

Traditional turkey and ham partnered by two red Burgundies – not Loire I know but they do use the same grape variety as Sancerre. First up a 1986 Nuits-St-Georges 1er Cru from Léonce de Valleroy – some charm but now needing to be drunk. Then a 1996 Nuits St-Georges 1er Cru Les Boudots from Maurice Chevallier, showing more concentration and which could be kept a while longer.



We finished with a 1960 Vintage Port from Croft, which on Christmas Day was quite spirity but when finished off on 27th had mellowed with the spirit properly integrated. Interesting that, despite the diversity of Loire wines, there has never been a tradition of fortifying them. Fortified wines I guess tend to come from hotter climes, producing more potential alcohol and therefore better adapted to stopping the fermentation, as in Port and Vins Doux Naturels.

I was reminded today by a tasting note on the wine forum of Tom Cannavan's wine-pages that I have been meaning to post something on the 1996 vintage.

Tim York noted that the 'Chinon 1996 from L’Echansonne Sélection Noël Pinguet - Olga Raffault was a nice youthful seeming, savoury and robust Chinon full of red fruit, especially plums and damsons, abundant acidity offset by good body and an appealing wet leather tang'.

1996 Clos Rougeard, Les Frères Foucault,
Saumur-Champigny

For some time I have thought that 1996 is the best vintage the 90s decade, especially for reds, notwithstanding the fine and very appealing 1990s. 1996 is a classic good Loire vintage. It has a lovely balance of fruit, structure and acidity and has aged well as Tim's comment 'nice youthful seeming' bears out. 1996 and 1997 were both good years and naturally frequently compared. 1997 has always been ripe and opulent – a crowd pleaser. While the best have lasted better than they thought they might, they don't have the same level of balance and complexity found in 1996 reds. 1995 was potentially a good year for reds too but while I've had a few good 1995s the high level of acidity has meant that they have taken a long time to come round and it seems likely that marked acidity will continue to be a feature of the 1995s.

As well as the Clos Rougeard above other 1996 reds I have recently drunk and enjoyed include Les Châtains from Domaine de Nerleux, Grand Clos from Château de Villeneuve and the Anjou Villages from Domaine de Bablut. The 1996 Gamay from Clos Roche Blanche was showing well about two/three years ago – will have to check on its progress.

Not the Clos Roche Blanche's Gamay
but the 1996 Touraine Sauvignon

1996 is also a fine year for dry whites and demi-secs along with good sweet wines. With the sweets 1995, 1996 and 1997 make a fascinating trio with perhaps the 1997s being superior.