Chenin Blanc@Château de Fesles 13th October

Series of photos from Chinon-based courtier Charles Sydney.

 Chenin Blanc@Château de Fesles 13th October

Denis Goizel La Montagne, Bonnezeaux

Domaine des Rochelles, Coteaux de l'Aubance

Château Pierre-Bise: Chenin starting to concentrate helped by a ladybird

Château de Targe: Coteaux de Saumur

Château de Targe: Coteaux de Saumur (concentrating)

My thanks to Charles for the excellent photos. Good to see that there may well be some good sweet wines in Anjou-Saumur this year.

Claude Papin@the tasting room of Pierre-Bise

During our tasting last Saturday with Claude Papin at Château Pierre-Bise, Claude talked about the unequal struggle between large companies making industrial blends and the small producer making wines that reflect their terroir as well as the vigneron's personality. The large companies have such resources of communication.

Although it is true that the large global companies do have big communications budgets, in this age of the net all is not as uneven as Claude imagines. Properly used the net can be a fantastic resource for the small producer. I fancy that Claude very rarely if ever surfs the net. Yet a Google search on Claude Papin reveals 9980 references. I can't promise that every reference refers to the owner of Château Pierre-Bise but the vast majority appear so to do. If Claude can garner nearly 10,000 references by neglecting the net (no website or blog), how many more people might he reach if started to take up the advantages the net offers.

Château Pierre-Bise

A Google search on Château Pierre-Bise brings up even more results: 35,000. This compares to 301,000 results for Gallo wines and I suspect that Claude's advertising budget is nowhere near 11% Gallo's spend. The picture is a little different from searches on Able Grape. Claude Papin has 2240 results, Pierre-Bise – 5910, while Gallo notches up 90,605.

Claude may feel that with a good number of references on the net for minimal effort he might as well continue to concentrate on his vines and not be diverted by the net. However, this purely passive role doesn't necessarily allow Claude and Château Pierre-Bise to get their particular message out on the net.

Château Pierre-Bise

I'm delighted that Claude and Joëlle Papin's lovely 2007 Quarts de Chaume, Château Pierre-Bise has won the Sweet Loire over £10 Trophy at the 2009 Decanter World Wine Awards. This wine is a beautiful example of a 2007 sweet Loire at its best. It has rich apricot and citric fruit, great precision and purity so typical of 2007 and clean length. Delicious now it has an astonishing ageing potential.

Joëlle, Claude and their sons take extraordinary care in the vineyards. Claude is a real specialist on geology and terroir and is one of the region's great thinkers about many aspects of Loire wines.

Claude Papin

Although I'm the regional chair for the Decanter World Wine Awards, all the wines are tasted blind and I have no idea what wine have been entered, so it was brilliant news when I got an advance copy of the Loire results on Monday.

The trophy is thoroughly deserved as the Papins make a lovely range of sweet wines from different parcels in the Layon, which are still very reasonably priced. The dry whites – Anjou Blanc and Saviennières – and the reds – remarkable Anjou Gamay and fine Anjou-Villages should also be tried.

Across the Layon: October 2005

Now in only its sixth year the Decanter World Wine Awards has become the world's biggest wine competition with 10,285 wines entered this year. The wines are tasted by small panels made up of experts from the region whose wines they are judging. Another characteristic is that the chief organisers are all women – Sarah Kemp, Christelle Guibert and Sophia Dempsey.

Claude and Joëlle Papin Château Pierre-Bise 49750 Beaulieu-sur-Layon

Tel: 02.41.78.31.44 Email: chateaupb@hotmail.com

UK stockists for the winning wine are: Lay & Wheeler, Lea & Sandeman and the RSJ Restaurant