Scene at the 2009 tasting The annual tasting of organic and biodynamic wines on the eve of the Salon des Vins de Loire will once again be held at the Greniers Saint-Jean in Angers. This year it will run on Saturday afternoon from 3pm to 7pm and all day Sunday from 10am to 7pm. Nicolas Joly will be giving a conference at 2pm on the Sunday. Last year the tasting was limited to Sunday as the Greniers had already been booked for a wedding. This year Mark Angeli, the organiser, must have got in quickly to ensure the tasting could run over two days.
The tasting has previously been called Renaissance des appellations but the title has been dropped. This may well reflect the move by a number of producers, including Mark Angeli, to opt out of the appellation contrôlée system and instead sell their wines as vins de table as new rules now allow them to include the year and place of production on the label.
Naturally there will be a big presence from the Loire but also producers from all over France plus a few from Spain and Italy. The tasting is always an interesting and perhaps bizarre mix of some of the best wines from the Loire and some of the worst – an opportunity to taste the full quality gamut of 'natural wines'. Quite often the worst wines are the same price as the best and sometimes more expensive probably because some Parisians think it fashionable to pay high prices for faulty wines. Click here for an earlier report on one such wine.
The tasting is open only to those who work in the wine trade.
The tasting has previously been called Renaissance des appellations but the title has been dropped. This may well reflect the move by a number of producers, including Mark Angeli, to opt out of the appellation contrôlée system and instead sell their wines as vins de table as new rules now allow them to include the year and place of production on the label.
Naturally there will be a big presence from the Loire but also producers from all over France plus a few from Spain and Italy. The tasting is always an interesting and perhaps bizarre mix of some of the best wines from the Loire and some of the worst – an opportunity to taste the full quality gamut of 'natural wines'. Quite often the worst wines are the same price as the best and sometimes more expensive probably because some Parisians think it fashionable to pay high prices for faulty wines. Click here for an earlier report on one such wine.
The tasting is open only to those who work in the wine trade.
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Plus:
Domaine Champalou (Vouvray) nouvelle adresse mail: champalou@orange .fr
