This was an attractive bottle we enjoyed about a week ago. Deep coloured it had dense ripe black fruit – prune and plum. Some evolution and is drinking well now – soft tannins are well integrated – but there is no rush to drink this 2005 up and it can happily be kept for at least another two or three years or more.

Christian Papin in September 2010

Jean-Hubert and Jean-Yves Lebreton tasting

Tried taking photos of Jean Hubert and Jean-Yves sitting around an interestingly lit table with decanters. Unfortunately I couldn't get the lighting right. Ideally they would have been sat the other side of the table but that would have been difficult as it was against the wall. Anyway I like to think there are some intruing effects here, even though it is too dark despite some adjustments on photoshop.

Table with decanters

Nigel Wilkinson (RSJ Restaurant) tasting @Domaine des Rochelles

 

8 November 2009

Christophe Daviau checking Chenin Blanc in mid October 2009

I caught up with Christophe Daviau (Domaine de Bablut, Brissac-Quincé) on the phone this evening:

Christophe: "We finished on Thursday 29th October when we were still enjoying the summer weather. I'm very glad that we finished then as we have subsequently had quite a lot of rain. On the Friday it was still fine and summery but it got very humid on Saturday and we had rain on Sunday 1st November and we continued to have rain during this week.

Domaine de Bablut, Grandpierre Chenin Blanc 2009

"Although we will obviously have to see what the wine is like once it has finished fermenting, I'm very happy with the Coteaux de l'Aubance. The last tri of Grandpierre was 19% potential. I'm also happy with the Anjou Blanc sec. For the reds the quality is good but it would have been good to have had about 10hl/ha more. I haven't done the calculation yet but I estimate that the yield for the red was around 30hl/ha."

Cabernet Franc destined for 2009 Petra Alba, Anjou-Villages Brissac

17th October 2009

2003 Anjou Villages Brissac, Domaine de Bablut, Christophe Daviau
1990 Anjou Villages Domaine Vincent Ogereau

Having started our Saturday evening with the 1982 Roche aux Moines, Savennières from Château de Chamboreau followed by a interlude provided by a bottle of Jacky Blot's Triple Zero, we moved onto a couple of Anjou Villages wines, which both showed extremely well.

2003 Anjou Villages Brissac, Domaine de Bablut, Christophe Daviau

Made from 100% Cabernet Franc, this has all the power and richness of a 2003 – sweet black fruits, soft but powerful structure, length and a lower level of acidity than is normally customary in an Anjou Villages. There are some that maintain that the 2003s will not last. As yet this shows no signs of tiring and I think it is likely that this 2003 will develop further.



1990 Anjou Villages Domaine Ogereau, Vincent and Catherine Ogereau
This was a real delight – a fine mature bottle showing at its best with soft, silky prune and figgy fruit, fully integrated tannins. 1990 is another vintage that has been attractive from its youth but yet has stayed the course. I'm not sure that this will develop further but it should happily last for at least another five years would be my guess. Probably made from 100% Cabernet Franc but may have had a proportion of Cabernet Sauvignon as this was before the Ogereau's bottled their Cabernet Sauvignon separately.

It would be interesting to taste these blind against some good Bordeaux and see how they fared. They are certainly more reasonably priced.

Visit 1st February 2009

Following our visit to Philippe Germain at Château la Roulerie we (I was with Tom King of the RSJ Restaurant) decided we had time on the way back to Angers to drop in on Victor Lebreton at Juigné-sur-Loire. Victor is in both the Coteaux de l’Aubance and Anjou-Villages-Brissac. Driving back along the top of the Layon, we passed Château du Brueil bathed in the bright late afternoon sunshine and looking magnificent after its recent renovation. I nearly got Tom to stop the car, so that I could take a picture but decided we ought to press on. Of course, I now regret that I didn’t – so it goes!

It was open day at Montgilet on the eve of the Salon de Vins de Loire. Victor wasn’t around when we arrived, so we were looked after by Xavier, the commercial and export manager. We started with a soft and easy drinking 2008 Grolleau VDP made using carbonic maceration and due to be bottled soon and then an attractive 2008 Anjou Gamay with good juicy fruit.

Anjou has a tradition of Gamay primeur and I asked whather Montgilet still made it. “We make about 3000 bottles that are sold locally,” said Xavier, “there is still a demand.”

By this time Victor had returned. “As far as our reds are concerned we are 30% down in volume in 2008,” he explained. We got frosted on 22nd April, there was a ‘petite sortie’ (small number of potential grapes on the vines), then coulure due to poor conditions during flowering and later hail damage as well.”

The 2008 Anjou Rouge is a blend of 70% Cabernet Franc and 30% Cabernet Sauvignon – generally quite soft but with quite marked tannins in the finish. The 2008 L’Encerre Anjou-Villages-Brissac is again a blend of Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon with attractive and delicate red fruits. L’Encerre is a lieu-dit and the wine will be aged in barriques (un vin, deux vin, no new wood). The 2008 Les Yvonnais Anjou-Villages Brissac is richer, fuller and more structured than L’Encerre. We finished the reds with 2007 L’Encerre – quite soft, well balanced and with some length. A good effort for 2007.

It is interesting to taste Victor’s reds now. When I first tasted them at the beginning of the 1990s, they were big bruising wines with a lot of tannin rather built on the lines of Victor, himself. Now they are way better with real delicacy and balance and the fruit shows through properly no long crushed by a massive tannin attack.

So on to the whites starting with a 2008 Sauvignon VDP, which was a bit vegetal on the nose and short. The 2007 Anjou Blanc, however, that followed was very attractive – made from very ripe grapes with a small proportion of botrytis giving honeysuckle and honey flavours with some floral characters as well. It spent 7/8 months in 450 litre barrels and was bottled in June 2008.


(to be continued...)

Victor and Vincent Lebreton
Domaine de Montgilet
10 Chemin de Montgilet
49610 Juigné-sur-Loire
Tel: 02.41.91.90.48
Email: montgilet@wanadoo.fr
Website: http://www.montgilet.com/

Domaine des Rochelles

(This report follows on from the report on the visit to Domaine Ogereau)

Jean-Hubert Lebreton

Following a very enjoyable lunch – simply but well cooked (Catherine Ogereau always promises us a simple meal with no starter but cheese and dessert always follows the main course) – it was off to the Lebretons at Domaine des Rochelles in Saint-Jean-de-Mauvrets close to the Loire and north of Brissac-Quincé.

Here Tom King (RSJ Wine Company) and I were looked after by Jean-Hubert Lebreton. Jean-Hubert used to be the assistant-wine maker at Hardy’s Banrock Station in Australia, where just one tank held more than the entire production of Domaine des Rochelles. On average the Lebreton’s press 700 tonnes of grapes – at Banrock Station it was 35,000. He also worked in Bordeaux at Pichon-Baron and Lynch-Bages.

As elsewhere the Lebretons had a small crop in 2008 – down overall by 15%-20% due to a combination of frost damage, poor flowering and small grapes with little juice. Normally they make 350-400 hls each of Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon, making a total of around 800 hls of Anjou Villages. In 2008 they made only 180hls-200hls of each. Jean-Hubert mentioned that they are now selling 240 hls of VIn de pays Sauvignon in bag-in-box.

Both the 2008 and 2007 Anjou Blanc, which is vinified in 400 litre barrels, were attractive. The 2007 showing moiré honey, while the 2008 at this stage a more mineral character. The 2008 L’Ardoise Anjou Rouge (10% Cabernet Sauvignon and 90% Cabernet Franc) has a sooty nose and quite ripe, easy drinking fruit – as an Anjou Rouge should be. (Ardoise means slate – one of the rocks of Anjou.)

Tom King tuning into the French language

The 2006 Anjou-Villages (80% Cabernet Franc/ 20% Cabernet Sauvignon) initially has soft, floral black fruits with quite tarry tannins in the long finish. As you would expect the 2007 AV is less rich. It is also less tannic, so best to drink this while waiting for the 2006 to show its best. “It is difficult to get Cabernet Franc soft and supple – it needs time,” commented Jean-Hubert. “It is easier to sell La Croix de la Mission.”

The 2007 la Croix de la Mission (90% Cabernet Sauvignon/10% Cabernet Franc) has pretty impressive richness and structure for a 2007 with remaining soft.

Jean-Hubert: “2007 wasn’t easy. The Cabernet Sauvignon was picked some 10 days after the Franc – the yield was 45 hl/ha. With Cabernet Sauvignon it is possible to push the maturity further than with Cabernet Franc because Franc’s skin is not as tough and robust. The wine had three weeks maceration.

“In 2008 we picked La Croix de la Mission on 1st and 2nd November with the fruit coming in at 13.5-14% potential for 35 hl/ha.”

The 2008 La Croix is very deep coloured with sweet, richly concentrated fruit with good length. A this stage it is a bit cloying but is still has a long way to go before it will be bottled.

Onto the very rich and powerful 2005 Les Millerits, Anjou Villages, which comes in at 15% with blackcurrant and coffee notes. Still too young, this needs leaving in the cellar for at least another three or four years. Les Millerits is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon from a vineyard planted on friable, yellow schist. In contrast the 10 ha La Croix de la Mission is on quartz-red schist. It is aged for 18 months in barrels – partly new, partly one wine and partly two wines.

Jean-Hubert: “We didn’t make Les Millerits in either 2006 or 2007. The 2008 is not yet in barrel. It went through malo in tank but in future we’d like it to do its malo en barrique once we have enough cellar space available. While I was at Pichon-Baron we did some experiments on this and found that malo en barrique made the wines rounder and richer. ”

La Croix de la Mission close to the vineyard

The infant 2008 Les Millerits is like the 2005 – dark and brooding, with very rich, concentrated fruit and unlikely to be ready to drink before 2015.

Tasting these powerful Anjou-Villages Cabernet Sauvignons is once again a reminder that you can get good results with Cabernet Sauvignon in Anjou but that it is very site-specific. To get ripe fruit you need a warm soil, so that the vines get off to an early start. Planted in cold soils it is very rare to get ripe Cabernet Sauvignon here. The Lebretons are fortunately to have some of the best vineyards for CS in the area.

Finally onto the sweet wines with the quite rich, nicely balanced and citric 2007 Coteaux de l’Aubance the first up. This is fermented and aged in 400 litre barrels. Not super sweet but one to enjoy as an aperitif or with blue cheese. The agreeably citric 2008 is lighter and without the same length as the 2007. It illustrates that 2008 is not a sweet wine vintage in the Loire. Providing you don’t pay very much for them, there are some perfectly pleasant wines to be enjoyed young and drunk as aperitifs or with rich pork and chicken dishes.

We finished by tasting the rich and concentrated 2007 L’Ambre, the Lebreton’s top L’Aubance with its fine peach and apricot flavours. Unsurprisingly L’Ambre was not made in 2008.

We talked about the rumours of some Anjou producers turning in 2008 to osmosis machines to try to make sweet wine without taking risks. Picking at 14%-15% potential and hoping the machine would work its magic. I guess this is an unfortunate illustration that despite the big renaissance of sweet wine in Anjou over the last 15 years that there are still producers who think that osmosis machines or chaptalisation for sweet wine are acceptable. They are not and we agreed that the sooner Anjou bans chaptalisation for sweet wine the better. Apparently the L'Aubance producers are considering banning chaptalisation – bravo I hope they soon take this long overdue step.

2003 Petra Alba

2003 Petra Alba, Anjou Villages Brissac
2003 Anjou Blanc

During the past few days we’ve enjoyed these two wines from Christophe Daviau’s Domaine de Bablut (Brissac–Quincé). The Daviau family have been vignerons here since 1546. The domaine is now biodynamic.

Both wines are marked by 2003, the year of the heat wave in France, particularly during August. In the Loire the vintage was the earliest since 1893 with picking beginning in the Pays Nantais, Touraine, Quincy and Reuilly around 18th August. Even in Sancerre the vintage started in early September.

We drank the 2003 Petra Alba, which is 100% Cabernet Franc grown on limestone, with a simply roasted free-range chicken. Deep coloured and with rich, full fruit – plums and prunes. Tasted blind you would think that this comes from the south of France – the effect of the sunshine and high temperatures of 2003. For me, although CRM disagreed, there is a slightly roasted quality to the fruit particularly in finish that detracts a little from the wine, although it still a very enjoyable bottle.



The 2003 barrel-fermented and aged Anjou Blanc (100% Chenin Blanc) is the more successful wine. It has a lovely golden colour, rich honeyed fruit with just a touch of oxidative evolution that adds to the complexity. Unlike a number of 2003 whites it has enough freshness and acidity in the finish to balance the rich fruit. We drank it as an aperitif but it would I’m sure be a great match with richly sauced fish dishes or grilled sea bass or similar. Along with a number of other Anjou producers this is further evidence that, despite the poor image of Anjou Blanc, it is certainly possible to make very fine whites here from 100% Chenin Blanc.

Christophe now makes two cuvées of Anjou Blanc – Ordovicien which is the equivalent of the above, spending 12 months in barriques and bottled around 18 months after the harvest – and Petit Princé, which is bottled earlier, around nine months.

Château de Brissac venue for the dinner

Sarah Ahmed, the ‘Wine Detective’, is one of the very few UK wine journalists who is a regular at the annual Salon des Vins de Loire in Angers. On Friday she accepted an invitation to the Anjou Villages Brissac and Coteeaux de l’Aubance dinner on the eve of the Salon and asked for a vegetarian option.

Sarah was very considerably taken aback and offended by the following blunt email she received today from the PR agency looking after journalists attending the Salon.

Dear Sarah,

Unfortunately the menu for the Brissac evening was already planned and starter and main meal are not vegetarian.

- entrée : terrine de foie gras accompagné d'une gelée à l'Aubance, de toasts aux figues et d'une salade légère
- plat principal : civet de canard, sauce griotte avec une touche de cacao accompagné de petits legumes
- dessert : poire pochée à l'Aubance et feuillantine au thé et raisins

I will understand if you decide not to come. Please let me know.
Best regards,

Agence Clair de Lune


As she finds the Brissac event a useful opportunity to get an overview of Anjou Villages and Coteaux de l’Aubance, Sarah is now hoping to find a way of getting out to Brissac to taste the wines and then get back to Angers to have dinner.

Staggering that in 2009 no arrangements are made for people who do not eat meat and what a good way to win friends!