2007 Domaine Leblanc, Menetou-Salon

Over the weekend I had two Central Vineyard 2007 reds – La Commanderie , Reuilly from Jean-Michel Sorbe of Brinay and Domaine Leblanc from Jacques Leblanc of Aubinges, a hamlet a little to the south of Morogues.

The 2007 La Commanderie (9.9€) was picked by hand with a yield of 35 hl/ha. It is Jean-Michel Sorbe’s top red cuvée, the straight domaine (6.90€) is machine picked. It showed well at the tasting (19th December), although I thought the tannins were a little harsh. With this second bottle this was confirmed and have the wine a rather rustic feel. – too ambitious for its own good in this difficult vintage.

2007 La Commanderie Reuilly, Jean-Michel Sorbe

In contrast the lighter and less ambitious 2007 Domaine Lebanc Menetou-Salon – machine picked, 52 hl/ha – had attractive red fruits, easy and refreshing to drink although surprisingly higher in alcohol (13.4%) than the Reuilly (13%) and was a good match with skate and garlic chips.

The 11th stage of next year’s Tour de France will pass through Berry on Wednesday 15th July. The 192 km stage starts in Vatan in the Indre and ends in Saint Fargeau in the Yonne and will take the riders through Reuilly, Quincy and Menetou-Salon before passing through the western and southern edge of Sancerre’s vineyards and through Pouilly. The riders will pass through Montigny, Veaugues, Vinon Saint-Bouize and then cross the Loire into Pouilly over the bridge that marks the halfway point of the Loire. Then onto Saint-Andelain before leaving the vineyards at Sully-la-Tour. This looks likely to be a sprinters' stage probably with a long breakaway caught not long before the finishing line in Saint Fargeau. A stage made for Mark Cavendish perhaps?

Sancerre, Menetou-Salon and Touraine (8th October 2008)

Report on Roger Champault added to this post.

More to follow soon .....

Henry Natter's vines on the coteaux overlooking Montigny

Our last day in Sancerre and the Central Vineyards. Quite heavy rain overnight starting around midnight and continuing for several hours. Rather cloudy this morning. Activity around Sancerre started today from around 6am and now just before 8am there is a continuous drone of machines and the lights of vans and tractors moving around on the still dark hillsides.

Hand picking near Bué: 8.10.2008

Today’s visits: Sancerre: Vincent Grall, Alphonse Mellot, Domaine Fouassier, Roger Champault, Henry Natter; Menetou-Salon: Henry Pellé; Touraine: Henry Marionnet.

L'equipe Henry Natter – Henry Natter family and team

Once again there is surprise and satisfaction from the vignerons that 2008 is turning out remarkably well after the very indifferent summer.

First stop was a quick chat with Vincent Grall (see posting: Vincent Grall: vintage in Sancerre’s streets). Leaving Vincent we headed out to the vineyards just to the south of Sancerre to take pictures of Pinot Noir in the rather damp vineyards. Looking down across at La Moussière we could see a picking team busy in the vines. As I suspected this was an Alphonse Mellot team and, having established that Les Deux Mellots – snr et jnr – were both the winery at Sancerre we headed off to Porte César.

Alphonse Mellot

Alphonse snr – Salon des Vins de Loire 2006

As we left the vineyard it was good to see that the old cabane des vignes (stone vineyard cabin) in the vines at La Moussière is being restored. Sadly these stone cabins that were once a regular feature of many of the Loire vineyards are disappearing – abandoned and falling into disrepair. They belong to a time when people walked out to their vines – before the days of tractors and small vans.

La Moussière: Cabane des Vignes near Sancerre

Alphonse Jnr: “We are finishing La Moussière this morning and that will complete Sancerre. This afternoon we start on the Coteaux Charitois (Les Penitents). Because of the hail it’s a tiny harvest – only 12 hl/ha for the classic La Moussière Rouge. Two hectares of La Moussière were completely wiped out by hail. It is better for Generation XIX, Grands Champs and Les Les Demoiselles – 27 hl/ha, which is our normal yield for these wines. But we are happy with the quality.”

Tasting the juice, the colour is already dark. Everything here is picked by hand.

“For the white the average yield is 40 hl/ha.”

Alphonse, junior

Alphonse introduced me to Antoine Michon, the son of Thierry (Domaine Saint-Nicolas) – the star of Les Fiefs Vendéens. Antoine is doing a stage with the Mellots, so I get him to tell me about the harvest in the Vendée.

Antoine Michon: “We were hit by the frost of 7th April, so it’s a tiny production this year – only 12 hl/ha. We started on 13th September and will finish this week. However, the quality is very good with the Chenin up to 14% potential.”

Next we visited Domaine Fouassier (see post: Domaine Fouassier (Sancerre) to go biodynamic 15th October 2008) and then headed to Champtin:

Roger Champault et fils
(8th October 2008)
Late morning we dropped in on the Champaults in the hamlet of Champtin, which is just a couple of kilometres west of Bué. We saw Claude Champault and his father, Roger. Laurent, the other brother, was out in the vineyards.

A delivery of grapes – note conveyor

“We started last Thursday,” said Roger, “and there are about three days harvesting left.” While we talked Claude and a couple of workers were trying to fix the belt of the conveyor that takes the grapes into the press. Machines breaking down at vintage time are always a problem. So much of the equipment, like presses and conveyors, needed during the vintage is only used for a maximum of two or three weeks in the year. Only after their long lay-off to be used almost continuously, so breakdowns are inevitable.

Using conveyors means that the fruit is treated much more gently than pumping it in through a pipe. It is very noticeable how much more care now take over the handling of grapes.

Claude had time to let me taste some of the 2008 juice, which was very clean – just as it has been with all the producers visited in Sancerre and Pouilly. “We picked the Pinot Noir in Menetou-Salon yesterday,” said Claude. “We harvest about two hectares a day and I expect that we will finish on Friday. Yields are averaging 60 hl/ha.”

As we left Claude pointed out their shiny new Italian Defranceschi pneumatic press. Just a few more days work before it gets a long rest before the 2009 vintage!

View from south-west towards Champtin and its vineyards

Henry Pellé, Menetou-Salon
Following a memorable few hours spent with the Natter family, we headed off to Morogues to drop in on Anne Pellé and her son, Pierre-Henry, of Henry Pellé. They were in the middle of their harvest.

Pierre-Henry: “We started picking in Menetou on 30th September. We are taking our time waiting for fully ripeness. Our Sauvignon Blanc from Morogues is coming in at 13-13.5% potential. Our yields this year are 40 hl/ha for the Pinot Noir and 45-50 hl/ha for the Sauvignon.“

Anne and Pierre-Henry Pellé

From Morogues we cut across country avoiding the speedier route via Bourges and on to the autoroute. It was well worth the extra time – driving mainly through forests with sensational autumn colours. Cutting across country always emphasises the sheer size of France in comparison to the UK. We reached Soings-en-Sologne around 5.30 pm.

Henry Marionnet, Touraine
Henry and his son, Jean-Sébastien, were decidedly relaxed as they had finished their harvest.

Jean-Sébastien

The office at Domaine de Charmoise

Henry: “We started on Wednesday 17th September, finished on Saturday 4th October and harvested quicker than usual. The harvest is small – we were hit by hail on 30th May and the flowering was difficult – the Côt suffered from coulure. Yields for the Sauvignon are between 20-35 hl/ha with the Sauvignon Vinifera at 20 hl/ha. However, the Gamay is at 50-55 hl/ha.

“Although there was a little rot, the quality is very good. After the poor summer, the weather in September 2008 is proof that God exists!”

Henry recalled vintages when nature had destroyed the harvest. “In 1988 we were hit by hail in August, then in 1991 there was the April frost and we only made 2-3 hl/ha.”

Together Henry and I tasted various 2008 juices. The depth of the Gamay’s colour stood out – “similar to 2005 with a pronounced black cherry flavour,” said Henry. The Vinifera Côt was even darker – almost black, while the ungrafted Romorantin planted in 1850 was a floral and peachy. Only 10 hl/ha from 36 ares, the final wine will be fascinating to taste.

Romorantin: pre-phylloxera vines planted in 1850

Romorantin: pre-phylloxera vines planted in 1850

I asked Henry about the Place Alexander Marionnet in the centre of Soings-en-Sologne that showed up on the GPS. Apparently Alexander was a nurseryman. Henry explained that his paternal ancestor was a master carpenter from the Vendée, who arrived in the area 150 years ago and found work here. Curiously this would have been around the time that the famous parcel of Romorantin was planted. Despite being left-wing and his boss right-wing, he married his boss’ daughter. At that time and until the 1960s the Domaine de la Charmoise practised polyculture – the pattern of cultivation found throughout the Loire with very few people concentrating solely on growing vines. Today the Marionnets have 60 hectares of vines.

That evening we opened a bottle of the straight Henry Marionnet’s Touraine Gamay 2007 – deliciously easy drinking with bright red fruits and considerable concentration.

Vines@Montigny (AC Sancerre)

During the harvest it is easy to get carried away with the vignerons' understandable enthusiasm for their newly-born vintage but, as elsewhere in the Loire, in 2008 I think we are seeing the birth of a surprisingly good vintage. Yes, the acidity levels are higher than usual and the weather yesterday and today has not been very special but very little rain has actually fallen. Also it’s cool so any rot will take time to get established. As the following photos show the fruit is very clean and it is difficult to find any rot.

Claude Lafond and his team sorting Pinot Noir:

little rot mainly picking out stalks

Claude Lafond at the sorting elevator

Tasting recently-pressed grape juice in Reuilly, Quincy, Menetou-Salon and Sancerre, the richness is impressive but, most importantly, the flavours are clean and precise.

Today we visited Claude Lafond (Reuilly), Jean Tatin and Chantal Wilk (Quincy and Reuilly), Pierre Jacolin (Menetou-Salon), Henry Natter (Sancerre), Jean-Max Roger (Sancerre and Menetou-Salon), Vincent Pinard (Sancerre), Lucien Crochet (run by Gilles Crochet – Sancerre), Vacheron (Sancerre) and Henri Bourgeois.

Claude Lafond (Reuilly)

We started in Reuilly. Almost at the end of the harvest Claude was clearly a happy man. “We started picking the Sauvignon Blanc on 22 September then the Pinot Gris and we will finish the Pinot Noir tomorrow. The Sauvignon is coming in at 13% to 14.5% with the acidity between 5 and 5.5.” We tasted the Sauvignon juice and that had begun its fermentation – it was rich, clean and precise. We also tasted some Pinot Noir juice with two vats having a slightly earthy flavour, while the third was very clean-flavoured. Doubtless the slight earthiness will soon disappear.

Perfect little bunch of ripe Sauvignon Blanc@Quincy

Jean Tatin checking the Sauvignon Blanc in Quincy

Jean Tatin and Chantal Wilk (Quincy and Reuilly)

Chantal and Jean were equally pleased with the harvest. “We started the harvest on 26 September and we are still picking.” Chantal gave us directions to the Quincy growers grape reception facility, where we found Jean. “It’s like 2006, which was a very good year,” enthused Jean, “The Sauvignon is coming in between 13% to 14% similar to 2006, which had a level of ripeness that hadn’t been seen in Quincy since 1959! It was September that has made the difference. Even though the temperatures have not been high during the good spell of weather it’s the wind from the north that has concentrated the sugars and acidity.” About 50% of Quincy is now picked and the rest is likely to be finished this week.

Sauvignon Blanc at Quincy with some noble rot

Pierre Jacolin, la Prieuré de Saint-Céols (Menetou-Salon)
"We’ve just started – Morogues is always later to ripen than Menetou-Salon and Sancerre. We are taking our time – we’ll pick some more later this week and then finish sometime next week.” I tasted juice of both the Sauvignon Blanc (clean like others already tasted). “The Pinot Noir is more complicated – I think the style will be similar to 2007.”

Pierre Jacolin, St Cerols (AC Menetou-Salon)
getting a sample of the 2008 Pinot Noir juice

Henry Natter (Sancerre)

We dropped in briefly to see Henry and Cécile Natter in the little village of Montigny. Henry was busy making preparations for the start off the vintage tomorrow. Being a little higher than Sancerre, Montigny, with rare exceptions like 2003, picks a little later than Sancerre.

Cécile Natter: "The year has been delicate and not an easy one. We expect the harvest to take about 12 days – ripeness is quite variable this year. The grapes have really developed well over the last eight days. We now have two of our children ¬– Auguste and Matilde – working with us.”

The Natter family now has 30 ha at Montigny, which includes 7 ha that Auguste and Matilde own jointly. We arranged to come back on Wednesday to see how the harvest is coming along.

Montigny

Jean-Max Roger (Sancerre)
The village of Bué is chock-full of vignerons – a road sign says that 40 are ready to welcome you. Jean-Max was our first stop. “We started last Monday with the Sauvignon Blanc that had been affected by hail, especially at Thauvenay. Today we have been picking the Pinot Noir for our rosé. The grapes are between 11.5% and 12%. Tomorrow we’ll attack the Menetou-Salon. Then we expect to pick Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Our Sauvignon is between 12.5% and 13.5% with 5.5 gms acidity. This harvest is like 20 years ago – it’s a really classic year. We are very relaxed – taking our time and picking when the grapes are ready.”

Just to show how relaxed Jean-Max is – there was no sign of him when I arrived: he was out shopping, leaving his sons Etienne and Thibault to look after the Pinot Noir coming in.

We had time to taste three wines from 2007. The quite rich, gooseberry flavoured Menetou-Salon Le Petit Clos was showing particularly well.

Clément Pinard in their chai pouring a sample of Harmonie 2008

Vincent Pinard

Vincent is about 150 metres down the road from Jean-Max. Vincent is happy to entrust his two sons – Florent and Clément – with looking after the vinification and the reception of the grapes, while he wields the secateurs with their team of pickers in the vineyard. Everything here is picked by hand with all the grapes, particularly the reds, checked over. Florent joined his father in 2001 and Clément in 2005.

“We started on Friday 26 September,” says Clément, “with the Sauvignon Blanc and finished on Wednesday 1 October. The SB degrees are between 13%-13.5% with 6 g acidity. We expect to finish the Pinot Noir (13% potential) tomorrow. We are very happy with the quality.”

We taste the juice from various cuvées – Clement comments favourably on their minerality and salinity. As with other producers the yields are down: 30-32 hl/ha in their parcels in Thauvenay – hit by hail; elsewhere 40/45 for the Sauvignon Blanc and 30-35 hl/ha for Pinot Noir.

Florent Pinard directing operations

Florent Pinard checking Sauvignon Blanc

Vincent Pinard checking his Pinot Noir

Gilles Crochet of Lucien Crochet
We arrived just as Gilles was coming in with his pickers at the end of the day with a load of Pinot Noir. I managed to snatch a few moments with him as he and his team were busy checking over the newly arrived Pinot Noir before it went onto the conveyor belt and into the vat. The fruit was clearly very clean with little needing to be discarded.

Sorting Pinot Noir at Lucien Crochet

Gilles: “We started picking last Monday (29th) and we are about half-way through the harvest now. Yields are probably between 45-50 hl/ha and the potential degree for the domaine wines is around 12.5. Apart from the 2008, we have just bottled our 2007 Chêne Marchand, which will be on sale in two to three months.”

I tasted Sauvignon Blanc juice from a couple of vats – as elsewhere clean and precise flavours.

Sorting Pinot Noir at Lucien Crochet

Domaine Vacheron
Here we encountered another three happy vignerons: Jean-Laurent, Jean-Dominique and Denis Vacheron.

J-L and J-D “We started on Friday 26 September with the Sauvignon at Saint Romble, which had been hit by hail. Here the yield was 30 hl/ha. We harvested Saturday. Had a rest on Sunday and then harvested from Monday to mid-day Thursday when we stopped and started again this morning. We started on the calcaire (clay-limestone) on Tuesday 30th and on Les Romains the following day. We didn’t want to wait any longer, otherwise we would lose the minerality. Les Romains is already 13.5% potential but with 7.1 g acidity. We have picked about 60% of the Sauvignon and will start on the Pinot Noir this Thursday. Compared to 2007 there is more concentration in 2008, which we think will keep well.”

We tasted the juice for Les Romains 2008 – already very mineral with precise flavours.

Jean-Dominique Vacheron assessing the 2007 La Belle Dame

Jean-Marie Bourgeois – Henri Bourgeois
Jean-Marie was equally enthusiastic about 2008. One could be cynical and say – of course the vignerons are going to be enthusiastic about their new vintage. After all they have invested a lot of angst and worry since mid-March – concerns about frost, hail, conditions during the flowering, the treatment of mildew and other diseases plus the decision of when to pick – go too early and the grapes may not be properly ripe or go too late and the grapes are past their best. Few mothers are prepared to write off their newly born babies and, after all, the vignerons will have to start to sell their new wines in a few months' time. However, looking at the fruit in the vineyards, watching it come into the wineries and tasting the juice, it is clear to me that the vintage is way better than one could have imagined at the end of August. The fruit is clean, healthy with almost no rot.

I don’t have the experience or expertise to divine from tasting newly pressed juice how the final wine will turn out but any of us can taste grape juice and say whether the juice is clean and enjoyable to taste or whether it has rotten flavours. Everywhere the 2008 juice tastes clean with no false flavours.

“We started picking last Thursday,” says Jean-Marie as we head up the steep road towards the offices and winery. We start by tasting the Petit Bourgeois juice – their vin de pays made from juice they buy in from producers in the Cher Valley, who have to operate under strict quality controls but who are paid well over the going rate. The juice is impressively good – pure and with considerable richness. It’s the same with the rest of the juice we taste.

“We picked some of the Pinot on Saturday – between 12.55% and 12.8%. We are between a quarter and a third of the way through the harvest.” I ask Jean-Marie after his son, Arnaud, and Jean-Marie leads me to what appears to be a wooden panel at the top of the winery – on the same level as the grape reception. Here there is a secret, small wooden enclave where Arnaud, Jean-Christophe and Lionel Bourgeois are squeezed in, busy poring over the maturity data to decide where they should be picking tomorrow.

(15 September 2008)
Only the first three wines are still available, rest were drawn from the RSJ's reserve stock.

Aperitif:

1] 2006 Sauvignon de Bablut £7.85
Christophe Daviau, Domaine de Bablut, VDP du Val de Loire.
From Brissac-Quincé in Anjou. Some weight, easy-drinking Sauvignon. Softer acidity than generally found in the wines from further east.

Then:

2] 2007 Quincy, Domaine des Ballandors £9.75
Jean Tatin & Chantal Wilk

Racy, lemony typical of the clean, precise flavours of 2007. Jean and Wilk’s wines tend to take on weight after a few months in bottle. Well liked.

3] 2006 Menetou-Salon ‘Clos de la Cure’ £9.75
Roger Champault et Fils
Disappointing: quite fat but dumb – lacked zip.

4] 1999 Sancerre [in magnum] André Dezat
Opened up in the glass, citric and mineral, still youthful. Well liked by many of those present.

5] 2000 Pouilly Fumé ‘La Rambarde’
Domaine Landrat-Guyollot
Showing well – yellow plum on nose, some weight with racy acidity in the finish.

First course:
Warm goats' cheese
Roasted peppers & ciabatta crostini

Château de Tracy 1997: sadly oxidised

6] 1997 Pouilly-Fumé, Château de Tracy
Comte Henri d’Assay

Disappointing, both bottles badly oxidized. Served it anyway as an example of oxidation. Not clear whether corks were to blame or whether the fault lies elsewhere. Is this a similar problem to that suffered by some top end Burgundies from the same period?

7) 1996 Sancerre Dominique Midgeon
Last minute addition to replace oxidised Tracy. Still very youthful, quite lean.

8] 1997 Sancerre Les Culs de Beaujeu
François Cotat

Powerful, rich fruit matched by balancing acidity in the finish. Very good match with the fish.

9] 2004 Quincy, Cuvée Sucellus
Jean Tatin

Tasted on its own the oak was not yet fully integrated leading one to wonder whether there was enough concentration to carry the wood. However, much improved with the fish and a particularly good match with the salmon. Sucellus was the Gaullish god of agriculture, forests and alcoholic drinks.

Main course
Scallop, monkfish & salmon
Cress, crushed new potatoes
Peas & broad beans
White wine veloute

Cuvée Sucellus

10] 1989 Cuvée Pierre ‘Vendange tardive’
Joseph Balland Chapuis

Something of a curiosity. Not especially sweet with some honeyed and barley sugar flavours. Predictably overwhelmed by the dessert. Vin de table français as Sancerre appellation is only for dry wines.

Dessert: Spiced orange cake with plums & whipped yogurt

Full details of the RSJ Restaurant’s autumn tasting programme on: http://rsj.uk.com as well as on the new RSJ News: http://rsj-news.blogspot.com This site will soon become part of the RSJ Restaurant site.

RSJ Restaurant, 33 Coin Street, London SE1 9NR
Tel: 020-7928 4554
Email: tom.king@rsj.uk.com