Alphonse Mellot jnr in their cellars that run under the town of Sancerre

Quick visit yesterday afternoon to see Alphonse Mellot jnr.

Alphonse: "We started on 29th August. We have finished in Sancerre and are now picking in Les Pénitents (Charitois).  

 A bunch of Chardonnay from Les Pénitents (Charitois)

 Chardonnay arriving in case from the Charitois (above and below)

Pinot Noir

Christophe Daviau (Domaine de Bablut, Brissac-Quincé)

Christophe (5.9.11): "We started picking our Chardonnay for the Crémant today. Later this week we'll pick the Sauvignon and the Grolleau. The Grolleau is around 11% potential alc. and part will be used for the Rosé de Loire and part for Topette (Christophe's fresh, easy drinking red closed with a screwcap). The Sauvignon is at around 12.4% potential alcohol with 5.2-5.4 acidity. Then early next week we'll pick the Chenin and Cabernet Franc for the Crémant.  

"It has been a really bizarre year with a lot of rain during the early part of the winter until January and then very dry after that until July. Hot and summery in April, May and the early part of June. Cold and unsettled in July and August with the occasional heat spike, especially around 18th-22nd August.

"There's no panic to pick – it is only early September. We'll pick the early varieties and then wait for the Chenin, Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon for the still wines. The Chenin and the Cabernet Sauvignon are looking good, while the Cabernet Franc (on limestone for Petra Alba) is more complicated. The flowering was very drawn out and the last Franc berries only changed colour at the end of August. I will wait until the Franc is really ripe – end of September beginning of October. Planted on limestone Franc resists rain weather as the limestone acts as a sponge and the grapes don't take up the rainwater." 

*

Christophe's Coteaux de l'Aubance was recently selected by Biocoop – see video here. 

 

Bunch of Sauvignon Blanc waiting to be picked at Clos Roche Blanche

I gather that the first estate to start picking in the Cher Valley was Domaine Jacky Marteau, now run by Jacky's son – Rodolphe. They machine harvested on Thursday. It looks like a number of producers will be starting here on Monday including Thierry Delaunay (Domaine Joël Delaunay), who will picking Chardonnay for his sparkling wine. Thierry told me that his Sauvignon Blanc is now at 12.5% potential but with 4.5 acidity.

Thierry Delaunay

Across the valley at Thésée Vincent Ricard will also be starting Monday picking Sauvignon Blanc. Vincent expects to be picking quickly as none of his fruit is below 12% potential with acidities at 5.2/5.3 – higher than at Clos Roche Blanche and Thierry Delaunay.

Vincent Ricard

Elsewhere in Touraine picking for Noble Joué (rosé made from Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and Pinot Gris) can also start on Monday.

2010: Sauvignon Blanc@Clos Roche Blanche

Following the sunny and dry weather from March through to early-mid June, things have been more complicated subsequently. Grape maturity for some vines became blocked due to the early drought, and the cold and wet July together with a fairly cool August had set the vines back. However, the last week or so has been hot with temperatures going over 30˚C so, for some, the vintage has now come forward again.

Frédéric Brochet (Ampelidae, Poitou) will start picking his Chardonnay for the sparkling wine on Thursday (25th August) and Didier Barouillet has just recently informed Catherine Roussel the 2011 Clos Roche Blanche (AC Touraine) vendange will start on Friday, so Catherine is now busy assembling her band of pickers so that they can be ready to start on the Sauvignon. "The alcohol degrees are not high," says Catherine, "but the acidity levels are dropping."



In 2010 they were still picking their Sauvignon on 20th September, so 2011 is going to be around three weeks earlier.

Ludovic Chanson (Montlouis) with his PetNat – sans pagne

Following a tip from Christelle Guibert (Decanter magazine) I went taste Ludovic Chanson's wines yesterday afternoon. He has taken over the vines that used to belong to Alex Mathur, formerly Levasseur. In 2008 he worked in a partnership, which didn't work out, so in 2009 he went solo and his first vintage is certainly impressive with great purity of fruit. Yet another impressive producer in Montlouis! He is on stand J242.

(Further details to be added when I get back to London this evening.)

Ludovoc Chanson has 6.2 hectares – all Chenin except for 70 ares of Chardonnay and 80 ares of Sauvignon Blanc. The estate started its conversion to organic cultivation in 2006 and was approved in 2009. I was impressed by the purity and precision in Ludovic's wines and it was no surprise to learn that he had a great admiration for the late Stéphane Cossais. He has a couple of PetNats – one (Les Prions) made from Chenin and the other (sans pagne) from Chardonnay. Both are well made but I preferred purity and precision of Les Prions. 2009 Gavroche is an attractively ripe style of Sauvignon Blanc with a touch of spice. Of the three 2009 Montlouis I tasted – Les Cabotines (sec), Les Pêcheurs (demi-sec) and Safran (moelleux) – I was particularly impressed with Les Pecheurs (19gms of residual sugar) with its great balance of fruit and acidity.    

Ludovic Chanson

3 Chemin Creux, 37270 Montlouis-sur-Loire

Tel: 06.15.97.46.01 (mobile)

Email: ludovicchansonvigneron@gmail.com

 

2005 Chardonnay, Les Pénitents, Alphonse Mellot

On Sunday we had a small gathering of friends to mark late August. Among the bottles we put on the table were a couple of the 2005 Chardonnay, vin de pays des Coteaux Charitois, from Alphonse Mellot. We left people to help themselves. I was surprised that several friends remarked that they were taken aback that this was a Chardonnay. Used to big, oaky, blowsy Chardonnays from Australia, Chile etc. they didn't recognise this much fresher style as coming from the same grape variety, which they normally don't like.

2005 was the Mellots first vintage from the Coteaux Charitois having bought the vineyards that year from the consortium that developed the vineyards at Chasnay near La Charité. Initially quite successful the consortium ran into problems with frequent changes of winemaker and slow sales.

Of course it isn't really a surprise that this Chardonnay is very different from rich versions from hotter climes as Chasnay is only 100km from Chablis.      

Quadrille, Crémant de Loire, Langlois-Chateau

Enjoyed a bottle of Quadrille over the weekend, which I think I must have had some time as it was attractively evolved – quite golden, honeyed aromas along with a touch of oxidation. The cork has remained straight – not splayed out at all. It appears to be non-vintage. At least I can find no mention of any vintage even on the cork. Quadrille normally has a vintage. Certainly the later editions do but I fancy this is quite an earler example, so perhaps it was non-vintage when Quadrille was launched*.  

The blend is 50% Chenin Blanc, 35% Chardonnay, 15% Cabernet Franc and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon. Certainly this demonstrated how well Loire sparkling wines can age.

* My guess proved to be right as Elizabeth Ferguson, marketing and PR director for Mentzendorff who are Langlois' UK importers, checked this wine out for me with Langlois in Saumur.

This is their response:

The first cuvée of Quadrille was launched in 1993. At the beginning it was a non vintage cuvée.
Then we decided to add the vintage and the first on was 1995. (we didn’t made Quadrille with the vintage 1994)
The blend is always the same
-       50 % Chenin blanc
-       30% Chardonnay
-       15% Cabernet Franc
-       5% Cabernet Sauvignon 

Therefore this bottle must be from 1993, the first vintage of Quadrille – showing very well at nearly 17 years old.  

 

Well mature: the Quadrille cork

   

2007 La Chatelaine, Valençay, Jacky Preys

From vines planted on flint, La Chatelaine is mainly Sauvignon Blanc rounded out with a little Chardonnay. This blend works well, perhaps especially well in an austere, quite high acid vintage like 2007. The Chardonnay rounds out the grassy and citric flavours of the Sauvignon softening the acidity. Good as an aperitif this would also work well with shellfish as well as goat's cheese. This comes from Domaine Jacky Preys in Meusnes. The Preys family produce both AC Valençay and AC Touraine. 

2008 Valençay Sébastien Vaillant (Colchester Wine Company £9.50 mixed case or £10.55 a bottle)

I can find little information about Sébastien Vaillant*. A Google search suggests that he may be Claude Lafond's (Reuilly and Valençay) oenologue but the specified site no longer exists and a new version of Claude's site is now under construction. Any further information about M.Vaillant would be gratefully received.

Sébastien Vaillant (tasting Liberty Wines, London 19.1.2010)

Anyway this 2008 is bottled at Le Cave de Valençay at Fontguenand (http://www.cave-valencay.com/) a few miles north of Valençay. It is a blend of 80% Sauvignon and 20% Chardonnay – the legislation for the Valençay appellation obliges producers to add a percentage of Chardonnay to their Sauvignon as pure Sauvignon is not allowed. Why? you might well ask. I suspect that this has more to do with wine politics than famously hallowed typicité. As you can see the label is modern – also the bottle is closed with a screwcap. The wine is clean and well-made with refreshing lemon and grapefruit characters and the addition of the Chardonnay rounds and fills out the palate. It has a citric and mineral finish. Good as an aperitif with fish, especially shellfish, and probably with a goats' cheese from Valençay, which comes in the form of a truncated pyramid.

* 24th January 2010: I'm told that it is Sébastien's brother who works for Claude Lafond in Reuilly. Sébastien trained with Jean Tatin (Domaine des Ballandors/Domaine de Tremblay) in Quincy before returning to Valançay. I gather that Sébastien, along with a friend called Damien, have resurrected the Valançay cooperative, which used to be a fairly large coop until it fell into disrepair. The coop now has just two members making it a serious candidate to be the smallest coop in France.   

(30th December 2008)

2008 vendange: Catherine and other pickers

To the Clos Roche Blanche (AC Touraine) yesterday afternoon to taste the 2008s with Catherine Roussel and Didier Barouillet. As usual the welcoming committee – the dogs Margot and Pif – were already out as we arrived. Sécotine, the very friendly striped cat, and Pélagie, the wild black one, were also in attendance – Pélagie only briefly. Before tasting we chatted with Catherine and Didier, who was getting a consignment ready to go to the States. Around 50% of the Clos Roche Blanche’s production now goes to the States. Although with the current economic crisis, sales are dropping fast everywhere.

We talked about retirement – Catherine and Didier are cutting back from 18ha to 9ha, also about Joe Dressner and his amazing Captain Tumour Man blog. Apparently Joe is hoping to get over for the Salon des Vins de Loire at the beginning of February as his course of treatment will have finished by then. We also talked about the recent 4th edition of the Fête du Coin, featuring 20 vignerons, held this year at Chitenay over the weekend of 6th/7th December. Depsite la crise this edition attracted 700 visitors who bought a total of 6000 bottles.

We started the tasting of the 2008s with several Sauvignons at various stages of development with several still fermenting. The 2008 whites have high alcohols, which has made Didier’s winemaking job difficult along with the need to lower the high acidities of 2008. The still high levels of acidity at the end of September meant that alcohol levels were high by the time the grapes were ripe. One of the Sauvignon vats is at 14.5˚.

Didier tasting 2008 Pif and doubtless wondering
what proportion of the 2008 vintage this glass represents.

Didier: “Sugar levels on white grapes always go up more quickly than they do in red varieties.”

Of the four vats I tried I liked the first one best. It had finished its alcoholic fermentation but hadn’t been through malo. 13.8% alc and 5.5 acidity, it had very attractive grapefruit flavours – very precise. Didier explained the various methods he had used this year to reduce the high acidities. These included maceration carboniquee, 15 days of cold stablisation and allowing a ‘voile’ to develop on the surface of the Sauvignon, as they do in the Jura. I thought this might be the same as the flor that occurs in Jerez but apparently it is different.

Next up a lemony and quite weighty Chardonnay followed by a slightly fuller coloured than usual Pineau d’Aunis rosé, which still has some 10 gms of residual sugar.

Next onto the Gamay, which at 22 hl/ha, was the most generous yielding variety in the very small harvest of 2008. The 2008 Gamay has lovely spicy, black fruits and will be delicious. The second and last red was the rich, concentrated, deep coloured and spicy Pif – 50% Cabernet and 50% Côt. Sadly due to the penurious vintage there will be no Pineau d’Aunis Rouge, no pure Côt or Cabernet.

Before leaving Catherine lent me her signed copy of Alice Feiring’s The Battle for Wine and Love or How I saved the World from Pakerization, which I am now enjoying reading. Catherine also kindly gave me a bottle of Pascal Potaire’s Piège à filles pétillant naturel. (Both will doubtless be subjects for future postings on the blog.)

View over the Cher Valley from the Clos Roche Blanche

We dropped in on the Clos Roche Blanche (AC Touraine) hoping to catch them picking the last of the Chardonnay but the well-drilled team finished earlier than anticipated. Happily this meant that Catherine Roussel had time to chat about the vintage.

“At the beginning of September I was really depressed and feared the vintage would be a catastrophe. Then I thought we are not at harvest-time yet the weather can improve – and it has! This morning we picked part of the Gamay – the grapes are really good with about 12.2 potential alcohol. When Didier checked them over he only found five bunches that were rotten! It’s difficult to say at the moment but the yield is probably around 40 hl/ha. This year the grapes don’t have very much juice – the north wind that has been blowing for the last fortnight or so has dried the grapes.” Also, although the summer was cool, it was fairly dry.

“We have finished the Sauvignon. It’s a tiny crop this year – we have probably only made 15-20 hl/ha! The problem is that they are high in potential alcohol – 14%. Didier has done a macération carbonique to try and reduce the level of alcohol a bit.”

On top of the harvest Catherine has to field calls
about the now famous Gamay 2007!

We talked about the article in the NY Times by Eric Asimov this week that praises the Clos Roche Blanche Gamay – Eric is obviously a man who knows what he is talking about!

‘One area with a small amount of gamay is the Loire Valley, which may be France’s greatest region for wine bargains. For the past few years my Thanksgiving red for the big crowd at our family celebrations has been the Touraine gamay from Clos Roche Blanche. The 2007 gamay, which I found for $15.99 (it was around $10 three or four years ago) is exhilarating to drink, with its earthy, minerally flavors and great gamay fruit.’

Eric Asimov ‘Modest Luxuries for Lean Times’ The NY Times
23rd September 2008

Detail of the house of the Clos Roche Blanche – vines and bunches of grapes

Monday morning they will be picking the Gamay at La Tesnière. I hope to get some pictures then. I fancy Eric Asimov can look forward to drinking and enjoying the 2008 Touraine Gamay with quiet confidence.

Despite being the toast of the NY Times, Catherine
still cleans the pickers' buckets

Clos Roche Blanche, 19 Route de Montrichard, 41110 Mareuil-sur-Cher.
Tel: 02.54.75.17.03