I dropped in yesterday to Vinopolis for this annual event featuring some 75 independent wine producers from around France. Although the event was advertised to finish at 5.30 even at 4.30 when I arrived a number of the producers had already left. I was later arriving than I had intended, so it was a bit of a rush and naturally concentrated on Loire producers. Although I did manage to taste wines from a good number of them I didn’t manage to get to all of them.

Sadly there was little here to get excited about – certainly nothing sensational.

Probably the best wine was a 2007 Coteaux du Giennois (Sauvignon Blanc) from Domaine Langlois Père et Fils, run since 1996 by Catherine and Michel Langlois, which had attractive grapefruit character, some weight and good length. Their 2008 version – gooseberry and grapefruit – looks promising and will be bottled in February. The Langlois white’s showed better than their reds, which helps to confirm the disappointment I felt at the poor showing of Coteaux du Giennois reds at the tasting of Central Vineyard reds I did in Sancerre on 19th December 2008. Putting the light bodied 2007 Le Champ Galant (90% PN, 10% Gamay) in barrique for a year doesn’t strike me as a good idea and has imparted some harsh wood flavours to the finish. However, their 2005 was certainly the best of the Giennois I tasted in Sancerre.

A couple of other wines to mention – a 2008 Touraine Sauvignon and a 2007 Pinot Gris from Reuilly.

The 2008 Touraine Sauvignon from Domaine Le Haut Chesneau of Thesée in the Cher Valley is from old vines and a yield of 45 hl/ha per hectare looks promising with good concentration. Currently on its lees it will be bottled in May. Owners Jean-Marc and Béatrice Villemaine have 23 ha of vines with 10 planted with Sauvignon Blanc. Jean-Marc told me that they had been lucky in 2008 harvesting with their normal yields of around 60 hl/ha. Apparently the frost that hit Muscadet on 7th April also affected parts of the Cher Valley even though the young buds were still in their cotton bud stage then. Initially it had been assumed that they had escaped with damage only becoming apparent later.

Unfortunately the Villemaines’ other wines are less impressive, especially the reds. The difference being, I suspect a question of higher yields. Take the 2007 Gamay, which is dilute. This is hardly surprising given yields of 60-62 hl/ha. This Gamay’s limitations were all too clearly revealed by the 2006 Gamay from the Clos Roche Blanche, just across the Cher Valley from Thesée, that we drank over dinner last night. Admittedly 2006 is a different vintage but this has fruit, texture and concentration. Why? Because of significantly lower yields.

2006 Gamay Clos Roche Blanche: Touraine Gamay
doesn't have to be dilute

This is a pity as these wines are well made and a reduction in yields, would soon reap rewards qualitatively. I suspect that bringing the Gamay down to around 50 hl/ha would make a significant difference. However unfortunately the increase in quality might well not allow the Villemaine’s to charge a little more for their wines. This is one of the problems of the Cher Valley and, indeed, many other parts of the Loire – it is often possible to make a better living from making dilute wines from high yields than making high quality wines from low yields. Although in Sancerre and Pouilly people are prepared to pay a decent premium for high quality, the same is not true in a number of other Loire appellations, so quality is not rewarded and the quest for quality brings the penalty of a lower income. Of course, there may come a time when the market no longer wants dilute wines. Indeed it is difficult to see that dilute Touraine Gamays can have much appeal in the UK

The 2007 Reuilly Rosé, made from Pinot Gris, came from Domaine Jacques Vincent. Of their nine hectares, 4.5 are planted with Reuilly’s traditional variety – Pinot Gris. The naturally pale coloured 2007 is lightly spicy with good mouth filling ripe fruit and good length – a delicious and charming rosé. Unfortunately Pinot Gris here is in decline in favour of Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir – just 34 hectares now in Reuilly out of a total of 192 ha in production. The Pinot Gris rosé is Reully’s most individual wine – I hope it continues to be made.

There were a few 2008s on show and these confirmed that high levels of acidity could well be a problem for those who picked too early. A few shares in Rennies might be a wise investment.

Photo: CRM

Above and below: ice floes speeding down the River Cher at Montrichard this morning. Just shows how cold it has been.

September 2008: Côt in the Cher Valley

Returning to yesterday’s posting on Alice Feiring’s The Battle for Wine and Love and to her assertion that in the Loire there are ‘maybe forty regional producers who make exquisite wine’, here is my list of producers in a small part of the Cher Valley between Bléré and Saint-Aignan who work with passion and commitment and whose wines are worth tasting and good to drink. There may well be others whose wines I haven’t yet tasted.

Michel Augé – Les Maisons Brulées, Pouillé
Mikaël Bouges – Faverolles-sur-Cher
François Chidaine – AC Touraine holdings in Chissay
Bruno Curassier, Domaine de la Grange, Bléré
Jean-François Merieau – Les Bois Vaudons, Saint-Julien-de-Chédon
Pascal Potaire – Faverolles-sur-Cher
Vincent Ricard – Thesée
Vincent Roussely – Clos Roussely, Saint-Georges-sur-Cher
Catherine Roussel and Didier Barouillet – Clos Roche Blanche, Mareuil-sur-Cher
Jerôme Sauvete, Monthou-sur-Cher

Plus a producer whose methods Alice probably wouldn’t approve of but whose wines are worth trying anyway: Thierry Delaunay of Domaine Joël Delaunay

That’s 11 producers already in no more than 40 kilometres and there are still hundreds of kilometres of Loire vineyard left.

Here we are in the heart of ‘plain’ AC Touraine – most of the vignerons cited use this appellation, although a few prefer to opt for vin de table. This part of the Cher Valley is well worth exploring and can offer wonderful wine at very reasonable prices. Look out particularly for Côt and Gamay, Sauvignon Blancs that can be way better than many more expensively priced Sancerres and Pouilly-Fumés and an increasing number of pétillants naturels.

Mikaël Bouges@Les Couilles d'Anes 2006, standing by
an entrance to one of the caves cut into the limestone

This afternoon two good first-time visits to two vignerons – Mikaêl Bouges and Pascal Potaire – who are both based in Faverolles-sur-Cher. Both influenced and inspired by Catherine and Didier of the Clos Roche Blanche and both work organically.

Both are based in the Route de Tours – the old main road up the Cher Valley that passed through Saint-Julien-de-Chédon, Angé, Pouillé, Marueil-sur-Cher etc. This old road has long been superseded by the D976, which bypasses this string of villages that hug the base of the coteaux on the southern side of the Cher. Nowadays the Route de Tours is a no through road with a several imposing houses that face Montrichard.

Mikaël Bouges: “50 years ago there were 25 vignerons along this stretch of road. It was a popular site as it was the main road to Tours. All the way along the road there are small caves cut into the tuffeau (limestone). Most sold their wines on vrac (in bulk) but where Pascal Potaire lives at No 6, the producer used to sell by the bottle.”

Mikaël is at No 20 and it was a decidedly gloomy, overcast, raw cold afternoon when he welcomed me to the premises where he has a small house used as office and storeroom, a yard that has the press and some tanks and a couple of cellars dug out of the tuffeau.

Mikaël's small 'winery' and cellar

From 2000 Mikaël worked with his father, Elie Bouges at the 17-hectare family estate ¬– Domaine de la Puannerie in Saint-Julien-de-Chedon, the neighbouring commune to Faverolles-sur-Cher. Unfortunately when his father retired in 2005, Mikaël didn’t have the capital to buy his father’s share. La Puannerie was sold to Michel Devillers.

Mikaël now has eight hectares – six in Faverolles and two in Saint-Julien-de-Chédon. Half are very young vines and half are vines of between 60 and 80 years old. There are 3 hectares of Sauvignon Blanc, 1.5 ha of Menu Pineau and Chenin Blanc plus 30 ares of Gamay. Menu Pineau is related to Chenin Blanc and Mikaël’s vines are 80 years old. His main interest is in the Menu Pineau, Pineau de la Loire (Chenin Blanc) and Côt. Mikaël’s vines in Faverolles are on the ‘Grand Coteau’ or Le Pente de Chavigny – the south-facing slope that overlooks the small village of Faverolles. He has been working organically since 2002.

The cellar in the tuffeau

In 2005, his first year on his own, he was able to vinify at Levin, the winery in Bourré owned by David Levin of the Capital Hotel. Sadly Mikaël wasn’t allowed to use these facilities in 2006, so had make alternative arrangements at the last moment.

Mikaël: Unfortunately by the time I had sorted out wine-making facilities at No 20, my Sauvignon Blanc grapes were already too high in sugars – 14.5˚-15˚ to be able to make the very mineral style of Sauvignon that I like to make.”

As is general elsewhere in the Loire, the 2008 harvest here is small.

Mikaël: 25 hl/ha for the Sauvignon Blanc, 17 hl/ha for the Côt, which was hit by mildew and coulure, while the Menu Pineau was affected by vers de la grappe.” (Vers de la grappe is caused by a small butterfly. The use of sexual confusion sachets that emits pheromenes is one way of combating this butterfly.) Also July 2007 was cold and wet when the grape bunches were being formed for the following year.”

We started with a tank sample of the promising 2008 Le Pente de Chavigny Sauvignon Blanc – quite rich and mineral. The 2007 Le Pente de Chavigny (6.50€ from the domaine) has rich nose and a lemony and mineral grip. It benefits from being decanted when it opens up.

Mikaël talked about the different clones of Cabernet Francs. He has some vines that are 70 years old that have small berries, whereas some of the modern clones have large berries that don’t ripen as well. Also about the Menu Pineau, a traditional variety in this area that ripens early, that Mikaël uses for his Pétillant Naturel. Menu Pineau is related to Chenin Blanc but has become quite rare. He also told me about the galets noirs (round black stones) found at Saint-Julien-de-Chédon. Of which more in a minute but first we tasted the deep coloured 2007 Côt Haut with its rich and expressive nose of black fruits and soot and lasting flavour. This comes from a warm vineyard at Faverolles that faces due south and is planted on gravel.

Then onto my favourite and most impressive wine of the tasting – 2006 Les Couilles d’Anes, which again is 100% Côt. This deep, dense coloured wine has lovely rich concentrated fruit and spends a year in barriques. It needs two or three years in bottle to show its best. The name Les Couilles d’Anes (donleys’ balls) links back to the galets noirs and is a play on the stones and the balls of the donleys, that in the days when donkeys were used in the vineyards, would have been in front the vignerons all day.

Some of Mikaël's wines: Le Pente de Chavigny, Côt Haut, Les Couilles d’Ânes

To finish we had a look at a still fermenting 2008 Pineau de la Loire, which was picked on 30th October with 15% potential alcohol – all fermenting apple flavours.

Mikaël stressed that although he is makes ‘natural’ wines he is keen to avoid the extremes of the movement, particularly in relation to excessive oxidation. On this showing Mikaël’s wines are certainly worth following. It is seems unfortunate that he was not able to take over the family vineyards, which are commonly handed down from generation to generation, and that instead of his father passing them to Mikaël they were sold.

Pascal Potaire

Pascal Potaire in his cave@Angé

After I had finished the tasting at Mikaël it was just a short walk along the road from number 20 to number 6 to meet Pascal, who has five hectares of vines.

Before setting up on his own Pascal worked with Nicolas Renard, both in Jasnières and then while Nicolas was employed by Prince Philippe Poniatowski at the Clos Baudoin in Vouvray. Then in 2002 Pascal worked for a female Japanese wine producer in Thesée. The following year, while still working for her, he acquired vineyards in Pouillé and Angé (both small wine villages on the south side of the Cher Valley to the east of Montrichard). In 2005 Pascal started working entirely for himself. He has been working organically from the start.

Pascal has six varieties planted in his five hectares: a hectare each of Chardonnay and Sauvignon, 1.3 ha of Gamay, 80 areas each of Menu Pineau and Chenin Blanc and, finally, all of 20 ares of Cabernet Franc. His speciality is the increasingly fashionable pétillant naturel.

To be continued.....

1st June 2008: flood at Chisseaux, just upstream from Château de Chenonceau in the Cher Valley

Less dramatic than the recent floods in the upper Loire, this is
a reminder that the Loire and its tributaries do flood quite frequently.
Unlike the Loire the Cher is canalised with a series of locks.

The start of another year: a bud in a vineyard at
Brissac-Quincé, Anjou: early April 2007

Coming soon final report on our visits of 16th August – tasting with Jacky Blot plus a further Montlouis profile and some from Jasnières and Anjou

Jacqueline Friedrich is currently in the throes of completely updating her classic A Wine & Food Guide to the Loire for University of California Press, which was originally published back in 1996 It is easily the best book on Loire wines, although without detracting from Jacqueline's achievement there is shamefully little competition. The Wines of the Loire by Roger Voss (Faber & Faber) is a slight volume (a small advance didn’t allow for substantial research) and as it was published in 1992 is now hopelessly out-of-date. Even more outdated is James Seely’s anecdotal and patchy The Loire Valley and its Wines, published in 1989. The only other substantial book, apart from some wine touring guides, on Loire wines is Hubrecht Duijker’s excellent The Wines Of The Loire, Alsace and Champagne published as far back as 1981 – almost prehistory now! So Jacqueline’s new edition is certainly something to look forward to.

As part of her research Jacqueline has been tasting a lot of Sancerres recently and this has led her to reassess Loire Sauvignon Blanc.

‘First, I must admit that my feelings about Sauvignon Blanc as a grape variety have evolved – largely due to the Sancerres I’ve been tasting for the update of my Loire book. I basically wrote off Sauvignon as a very useful grape, one making an an easy wine to like and an easy one to understand but not a varietal that would really express pedigree, raciness, majesty. Added to that, I was underwhelmed by the overall quality of wines in the Sancerrois as well as the lack of dynamism and vitality as compared to the wines and the vignerons of Muscadet and Anjou.

After tasting hundreds of Sancerres – with more to come – for Loire 2, I have new respect for both the grape and the region. The quality of Sancerre wines has improved exponentially – and I know I’ll spend a great deal of time talking about it in the book. And my mind has been blown by the elegance, the beauty, the gravitas of more than a few of the Sancerres I’ve tasted. (The fact that a number of them become Wines of the Week testifies to that.)

As great as PC and GC Chablis, the wines they most remind me of. Look at a map and consider the soils and that’s no surprise. The two are practically kissing cousins.

The big difference is cépage. And what I find breathtaking about fine Chablis and fine Sancerre is that the grape fades to the background. Those simple, pungent varietal flavors that make Sauvignon blanc the first grape debutant tasters can recognise blind is replaced by a ripe, mellow yet fresh vinosity, a resilient support for achingly exquisite minerality, of stone, of tisane and citrus zests. These are wines that have their place alongside the best Chablis.’ (www.jacquelinefriedrich.com/bio.htm)

I agree with Jacqueline – Sauvignon Blanc is not my favourite white Loire variety. It has neither versatility, complexity, fascination nor the incredible ability to age for decades even centuries, that Chenin Blanc has. Professionally it is often a very tiring variety to taste: fatiguing your palate and making you crave for something else.

She is spot on that the Sancerres that are worth drinking completely transcend Sauvignon Blanc’s two-dimensional varietal character – at their worst the rank reek of cat’s pee with or without a gooseberry bush. The best Sancerres often have a thrilling minerality and precision of flavour found in many of the wines Sarah and I tasted in August. With age, as was the case with the Vacheron 1996 Les Romains with its honeyed complexity, the variety becomes almost undetectable blind. This is equally true for the best of the Sauvignons from the Cher Valley.

In contrast the Sauvignon Blancs that I tasted this week at the annual Wines of Chile tasting in London were rooted and confined by their varietal character.

Vineyards above the church of Thésee in the Cher Valley

I certainly recommend adding Jacqueline’s site to your favourites and, while you are doing this, to add Chris Kissack’s The Wine Doctor. Chris is an intensive care doctor in Edinburgh, so quite how he finds the time to update his site so regularly with such detailed and extensive postings is a considerable puzzle.

Jacqueline Friedich: The Wine Humanist:
www.jacquelinefriedrich.com
Chris Kissack: The Wine Doctor: www.thewinedoctor.com

(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