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………..

Freddy is now picking his Cabernet Franc. “We are harvesting in the sunshine,” said Natalie Mabileau. “The quality is very good with the grapes between 11.5% and 13% potential depending on the parcel. But unfortunately the yield is tiny – varying between 10 hl/ha and 30 hl/ha. Tomorrow we will be in Le Puy-Notre-Dame to make our first tri (selection) of the Chenin Blanc for our white Saumur."

Frédéric and Thomas welcoming Sarah Ahmed

to Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil

(14 August 2008 – following on from our visit to PJ Druet)
We managed to get to Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil and Frédéric Mabileau just after 12.30, so we weren’t too horrendously late. Straight into tasting with Frédéric and Thomas Meunier, who looks after the commercial side. The main purpose of our visit was to taste the bottled version of the first vintage of Fred’s Saumur Blanc. I have tasted this 2007, made from 100% Chenin Blanc from vines at Le Puy-Notre-Dame, at various stages in its development from the end of October last year.

Until just after the Second World War many producers in Saint-Nicolas made a little white wine from Chenin Blanc, which used to be planted on the coteaux until Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil gained its appellation status in 1937. As there no was appellation for the white, the Chenin was pulled out. The Mabileaus bottled their last white in 1947, the year Frédéric’s grandfather, Armand, took over the domaine from his father.

2007 Chenin Blanc, Saumur – the Mabileaus first white since 1947

The vines in Le Puy are rented, although Frédéric is looking to buy vines there. The grapes were picked on two separate occasions. The first tri was on 29 September when they picked the golden coloured grapes – taking 20% of the crop. Then on 12 October, when the grapes, now violet and thin skinned, were about to be affected by noble rot. 30% of the must was fermented in new oak, while the rest was fermented in stainless steel. Fréd’s 2007 Saumur Blanc was attractively floral, honeyed with apricot notes and good length. At a little over 13% it is quite powerful. I tasted the wine again about ten days later and it had tightened up considerably and become quite austere. I expect it will open up again in a few weeks.

Somewhat to our surprise Frédéric told us that the grapes this year were being held back because it was too dry – the véraison was blocked. Clearly Saint-Nic didn't have the rain that Sancerre had earlier on in the week. We tasted Les Rouollières 2007, which makes up 80% of the domaine’s production, and the Anjou Rouge 2007 from 100% Cabernet Sauvignon in Chouzé-sur-Loire, which is just to the west of the Saint-Nicolas appellation. Both were easy drinking, while Couture 2007 (Saint-Nic) was deeper hued, more full-bodied and showing well – due to be bottled in mid-September. Couture 2006 was silky and delicate, while Racine 2005 and Eclipse 2005 were impressive – both showing pruny fruit but sadly both long sold out.

A swift but delicious lunch prepared by Natalie Mabileau accompanied by several wines including the fine 2000 Cuvée du Bel Ouvrage, Savennières from Domaine Laureau. When Thomas kindly asked us to stay to lunch I’d said a quick snack (casse-croûte) would be great. Clearly ‘quick snack’ doesn’t translate into French!

And so to Chinon to see Bernard and Matthieu Baudry and then Pierre and Bertrand Couly.

Frédéric Mabileau, 6 Rue du Pressoir, 37140 Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil
Tel: 02.47.97.79.58
Email: frederic@fredericmabileau.com
Web: www.fredericmabileau.com