Jérome Choblet

It is somewhat frustrating: I should really be out in the Loire seeing the vintage rather than being in London, despite the prospect today of tasting some interesting wines at 'the dirty dozen' tasting.
Unfortunately when CRM and I made our plans for 2011 we assumed that if we returned to the Loire in mid-September we would catch, as usual, much of the vintage. Due to various commitments it hasn't been possible to change our plans. Thankfully we were in Touraine at the end of August so caught the start in the Cher Valley. As it is we are now unlikely to see any of the 2011 harvest in the Pays Nantais, although we hope to catch the end of the vintage in the Central Vineyards.  
So it is good to get news from producers. Here is an update from Jérôme Choblet.

Domaine des Herbauges

Muscadet Côtes de GrandLieu Sur Lie

Bonjour Jim !

C'est parti !!!!

Après un printemps nommé "été", un été plutôt automnal les vendanges ont démarrées sous une météo bien capricieuse…

Depuis le 23 août, les conditions climatiques incertaines et les risques pris par nombre de vignerons (profitant d'un printemps clément, ont préféré s'en remettre à la nature plutôt que de faire minutieusement leur travail) les vendanges ont démarré très (trop) tôt dans le muscadet pour cause d'une dégradation de l'état sanitaire.

De notre côté avec un vignoble bien protégé et surtout un enherbement naturel vieux de plus de 20 ans, la vigueur de nos vignes et donc l'état sanitaire à été parfaitement contrôlé. Début de semaine dernière à la vue que nous étions les seuls à ne pas démarre nos vendanges, nous avons réalisé des test de maturité, lundi 29 août puis jeudi 1er septembre… La maturité n'était pas au rendez vos !

Nous avons passé alors 2 journées complètes avec toute l'équipe à parcourir toutes nos parcelles et Clos afin de déterminer où en était le Botrytis… Après de nombreuses réflexions il nous fallait attendre, beaucoup de stress car pas facile de se dire qu'il faut attendre alors que tous ses voisins ont fini ! Bref nous avons repris cette semaine et excellente surprise apres 4 jour beau temps chaud la maturité à bien avancée, l'état sanitaire est resté très bon et je pense que cette année sera donc une VRAIE année de "Vigneron" professionnel et passionné qui ont tout fait pour leur récolte.

Voilà donc les premières nouvelles, le Fief Guérin sera magnifique et excellent les essais d'hier montre un TAP de 11,5 % pour une AT de 4,7 donc très satisfaisante, la Roche Blanche est elle aussi très belle et bien mure, quand au Château de la Pierre les grains sont bien doré et le soleil des jours à venir va finir de la faire murir parfaitement.

Demain c'est Clos de la sénaigerie, qui approche lui aussi les 11,5 % et pas un grain de pourri !

J'ai déjà félicité l'équipe de Vigne du Domaine qui a fait un travail extraordinaire pour nous amener cette belle vendange à maturité optimum une année comme celle ci, si compliquée !!!

À très bientôt, 

Jérôme CHOBLET

jerome.choblet@domaine-des-herbauges.com 

On Monday just had a short time to pop into this tasting held at The Deck of the National Theatre before heading off to the RSJ's 30th anniversary dinner. The wines in the tasting are recommended by wine writers in several price categories. There were some interesting Loires included.

Wines tasted:
 

2009 Muscadet Sèvre et Maine sur lie, Domaine Bois-Maligne (£5.99 Morrisons)

Easy drinking, lemony Muscadet. Selected by Tom Cannavan.

2009 Fief Guérin, Muscadet Côtes de Grandlieu sur lie, Jérôme Choblet (Waitrose £5.99)

Crisp and lemony with more weight and length than previous wine. Selected by Sarah Ahmed.

Screwcap for Jérôme's wine – surely the way ahead for Muscadet!

2009 Romorantin, Vin de France, Un Saumon dans La Loire, Frantz Saumon (£15.50 Les Caves de Pyréne)

 Fine Romorantin from Frantz Saumon, wearing his négociant hat. Attractive lemony and minerla weight, touch of honey and good length. Selected by Sarah Ahmed.

2007 Le Volagré, Montlouis, Stéphane Cossais (£29.99 Les Caves de Pyréne)

The wine of the tasting showing the talent of the late Stéphane and revealing that his wines were getting better and better. Sadly we will never know what heights he might have reached. Rich, mouthfilling wine with lovely precision and length. All the cleanness of 2007 with a hint of honey and a tuch of oak still. A fitting tribute to a great winemaker and generous and unassuming character. Selected by Anthony Rose.

2009 Sauvignon de Touraine Domaine Mardon (£8.95 Swig Fine Wines)

Quite an aggressive and in your face style style of Touraine Sauvignon. Zesty, nettley and certainly hits the popular image of Loire Sauvignon Blanc. Selected by Jane Parkinson.

2009 Fié Gris, vdp Val de Loire, Eric Chevalier, Domaine de l'Aujardière (£14.95 Lea & Sandeman)

Front and back label

Have tasted and drunk Eric's Fié Gris over the past two or three years and it always impresses – on this occasion spice, touch of tar, real character and length. Given how good Fié Gris can be – Eric's, of course, but also from Jacky Preys in Touraine – it is surprising that it isn't more widely planted in the Loire since the rare examples are often more interesting than many Sauvignon Blancs.

2009 L'Ardoise, Anjou Rouge, Domaine des Rochelles, JHC Lebreton (£7.95 The Wine Society)

Onto the reds with this Anjou from Jean-Hubert Lebreton – soft and juicy with sooty aromas, grip in finish and acidity in finish. Needs to be drunk with food. Selected by Sarah Ahmed.

2008 Chinon, Domaine du Colombier (£5.99 Sainbury's)

Sainbury's have long stocked this Chinon, this 2008 is in a quite ripe, light style with sooty fruit. Selected by Tim Atkin MW. 

2007 Les Cailleries, Sancerre Rouge, Domaine Vacheron (£17 The Wine Society)

Hint of a gamy aroma with the precision and edge of the 2007 vintage – quite lean and needs food. Selected by Amy Wislocki.

 

Jérôme Choblet with a glass of 2010 Muscadet juice

Our last visit on Tuesday was across in Bouaye, one of the main towns of the Côtes de Grandlieu, where we dropped in on Jérôme Choblet. "We started on Monday 13th September and we expect to finish tomorrow," Jérôme told me. "The grapes average 12% with an acidity level below 4 – around 3.8-3.9. Wine drinkers will be pleased as they don't like acidity."

Jérôme was very pleased with a new picking machine called Selectiv' Process made by Pellenc that he had rented during the harvest. Unfortunately he had had to return it the day before so we didn't get to see it. A new machine costs 190,000€, so the Choblets had wanted to try it out before investing in one.

*

Serge Batard checking the press

Part of a trailer load of hand picked grapes

On Wednesday morning we paid a short visit to Serge Batard (Domaine les Hautes Vignes in Saint-Leger-les-Vignes). Of the seven vignerons that we visited in Muscadet Serge was the only one who was not enthusiastic about 2010.

"It is a delicate vintage," Serge reported. "There is more rot than in 2009. We had a storm on the 7th/8th September with 50mm of rain, which restarted some rot, which had appeared in July but had dried out. I reckon we have lost about 10%-15% of the harvest because of this. The younger vines seem to have been hit more than the older vines. 2010 is not the vintage of the century for us!"

Serge reckoned he had about three days of picking left.  Even though Serge was not very happy with the vintage the grapes that I saw on the trailer looked pretty good – presumably the pickers had done a good job in the vineyard rejecting rotten grapes.

*

Eric Chevalier: Domaine de l'Aujardière, Saint-Philbert-de-Grand-Lieu
Since he took over from his father, Gérard, on 1st April 2006, Eric has rapidly established himself as one of the new stars of the Pays Nantais, so it was good to be able to make a quick visit to his domaine, which is to the south east of Saint-Philbert-de-Grand-Lieu.

Although Eric's domaine is only about 18 kilometres away (in a straight line) from Serge in Saint-Leger, he didn't get the early September storm that has disrupted Serge's harvest. "Storms often pass on one side of the Lac or the other," Eric explained. He had just arrived with a trailer of machine-picked Fie Gris (Sauvignon Rose/Sauvignon Gris). 'We started this morning at 7am – yesterday it was 5.30am. It's coming in at 12.6%, so again no need to chaptalize (adding sugar to the must) this year, which makes it three years in a row. We started on the Fie Gris Jeunes Vignes last week. Picked the Melon on Friday and Saturday. The yields are good along with the quality – 85/90 hl/ha for the Chardonnay vin de pays."

We tasted various juices – Chardonnay (rich and clean), Pinot Noir for the rosé, Fie Gris and Melon. All tasted clean and promising, so will be good to taste the finished wine. At least five generations of the Chevalier family have farmed here. Gérard, Eric's father, was the first to decide to specialise in wine. He was also one of the first in the district to plant varieties to make vin de pays – pulling out Gros Plant and Melon to plant Chardonnay and Fie Gris.   

The domaine has 30 ha of vines – 12 Melon de Bourgogne and 18 vin de pays.  30% of their sales are from the cellar door and between 30%-40% export. Eric is imported by Kermit Lynch into the US and by Lea & Sandeman and SWIG into the UK.  

See my report on Eric Chevalier following the 2010 Salon des Vins de Loire here.

Eric getting a sample of 2010 Chardonnay juice for us to taste

The Naked Grape, 2009 Sauvignon Blanc, Vin de Pays de Charentais

I went along to the Waitrose press tasting today. There was a substantial number of wines to taste – some 225. Rather than try to taste a huge number I preferred to concentrate on the Loire and then taste a few from elsewhere.

First up was the Naked Grape 2009 Sauvignon Blanc. I know that the Charente isn't normally considered part of the Loire but it does have a connection that I knew nothing about until today. This 2009 Sauvignon (£6.99) is attractively grassy, crisp and well made. The Loire connection is Henri Bourgeois of Chavignol, who advise the growers of the co-operative and then select the vats that will be sold under the Naked Grape label.

2009 Fief Guérin, Muscadet Côtes de Grandlieu

Waitrose showed two 2009 Muscadets: one from Sèvre et Maine, made by Grands Chais de France (Champteloup label - £5.99) and the other the Fiefs Guérin (£6.49) from the Choblet family in Bouaye. I thought the Fiefs Guérin was well worth the additional 50p as it has crisper, more vibrant fruit with an attractive salinity in the finish.

(More wines to add but it is time to get settled in to see the result of the UK's 2010 General Election.)

30 September 2009

Jérôme Choblet and his young family tasting 2009 juice before it has started fermenting

Having seen two producers in the Sèvre-Maine AC – Bernard Chereau (Château de Chasseloir) and Pierre, Monique, Pierre-Marie and Marie Luneau (Domaine Luneau-Papin) not forgetting Domaine de Topaze – we headed across to Bouaye to see Luc and Jérôme Choblet. Like Bernard and Pierre, they were both thrilled and exciting by the quality of the vintage – not surprising after the misery of last year's frost.

Jérôme Choblet: "The quality is extraordinary and as well we have a normal yield for the first time since 2005 – the last three years have been very difficult. We have finished the Melon de Bourgogne. Nothing came in under 11.5% potential and most of the crop has been around 12% potential. Acidity is between 3.5g-3.8g. We have 55hl/ha for the Melon and 65hl/ha for the Chardonnay vins de pays. We'll finish the Chardonnay tomorrow morning. It's been coming in at 12.96%-13.30% with the acidity between 4.2-4.4g.

Luc Choblet grins as he reverses one of the last trailer loads of Chardonnay towards the winery

Tasting the juice of both the Chardonnay and the Melon showed both to be impressively rich, clean but with good freshness in the finish. Indeed very like all the juice that I have so far tasted in various parts of the Loire over the past week.

Driving away from Bouaye towards our chambres d'hôtes in Monnières the exterior temperature at 6.20pm was still 24.5˚C – quite extraordinary!

(to be finished)

Jérôme Choblet: Domaine des Herbauges with 2008 juice

Jim: Bonjour Jérôme. Quelles nouvelles pour les vignes. Floraison bien passés? etc.

Jérôme: Bonjour Jim. Pas en France en ce moment mais quand je suis partis tout allais pour le mieux dans les vignes

Jim: C'est bon. En vacances?

Jérôme: Non en Chine, cela va vite devenir notre premier marché

Jim: Intéressants! vite?

Jérôme: Et la Chine ne s'arrête jamais donc l'été c'est le seul coin du monde où on peut encore faire des affaires.

Jim: Tu reviens quand? Parce que je vous donnerai un coup de Skype pour parler vignes en 2009.

Jérôme: Ici nos Muscadet Côtes de GrandLieu Sur Lie sont reconns comme de très grands vins blancs français, et nous pouvons les valoriser beaucoup plus que dans le reste du monde

Jim: Tes Muscadets sont en Chine depuis quand?

Jérôme: Depuis un peu plus de 2 ans

Jim: Incroyable croissance!

Jérôme: On en a vendu 38.000 Bt en 2 ans, et on a déjà plus de 50.000 Bt en commande pour livraison fin d'année, ça augmente très vite

Jim: Felicitations!

Jérôme: Ils adorent, même si il ont dans la tête les vins rouges, lorsqu'ils goûtent ils préfèrent largement les vins blancs.

(Jérôme explaining that the Chinese treat Muscadet as one of France's 'grands vins blancs' and accord it greater value than do many other markets around the world. Although he has only been exporting to China for little more than two years, Jérôme has already sold 38,000 bottles and has orders for another 50,000 to be delivered before the end of this year. Jérôme says that although the Chinese think they like red, when they taste they actually prefer white wines.

Hopefully the 2009 vintage will be of average volume, which will ease the supply crisis after two small vintages, especially the frost devastated 2008.)

Jérôme Choblet tasting 2008 juice: 23.9.08

Quick Skype call this morning to a buoyant Jêrôme Choblet (Domaine des Herbauges, Muscadet Côtes de Grandlieu). “The vines are looking very good at the moment, so much better than they did at this time last year after the early 2008 April frost. So far we have had no frost and no hail. There has been a belle sortie (good number of potential bunches – flowering won’t happen until late May/early June). Because we pruned a little bit longer this year, in case we were hit by another frost, our potential crop is a little too big. Once the risk of frost is past – in 15 days time – then we will start removing some of the buds to reduce the crop.”

I asked Jérôme whether he thought we might see a very big crop in 2009 similar to the huge crop of 1992 that followed the terrible 1991 frost. (When the vine shave a year off they tend to produce a big crop the following year – all that pent-up energy!) “No I don’t think it will be like 1992. There has been a big change in the way the vineyards are managed since then. For instance, there is much less fertiliser used today. The vineyards are now grassed over to reduce vigour. Also because of the esca disease there are missing vines in many of the vineyards.”

Jêrôme assured me that none of the vineyards in the Côtes de Grandlieu uses the total weed kill used in parts of Touraine – instead the vineyards are grassed over. “No one uses the old conventional viticulture, now it is either la lutte raisonnée or organic farming.”

The most important thing in 2009 was for the Muscadet producers to avoid another serious frost. Barring a last minute frost that fortunately looks to have happened. Depending upon what happens during the flowering 2009 could be a ‘normal’ harvest in terms of volume after the short vintages of 2007 and 2008. Fingers crossed!

Melon de Bourgogne 2008

Due to the severe frost in early April the volume of the 2008 vintage is well below normal. Overall the estimate is that the frost destroyed 50% of the crop. However, this varies from sector to sector. “We lost between 20%-70% of the crop depending on the parcel,” said Monique Luneau of Domaine Luneau-Papin, Le Landreau in the Muscadet de Sèvre-et-Maine. “Overall we will make 40% of normal,” added Pierre. Pierre says that Joseph Landron has only made 12 hl/ha. Across in the Muscadet Côtes de Grandlieu Jérome Choblet of Domaine des Herbauges says: “Before we started picking we had hoped for 25 hl/ha but now we have started we will be lucky to get 20 hl/ha. With around 130 ha – 105 of Melon – Herbauges is the largest producer in the Grandlieu appellation.

One of Pierre Luneau's pickers with grapes destined for Cuvée Excelsior

Fortunately the weather is good here: sunny but not very hot – the maximum temperature yesterday was just over 20˚C and the nights are decidedly fresh. Here and elsewhere in the Loire it seems a lot drier than during August – the grass is less green and the ground in the vineyards is dry and dusty.

“We started picking yesterday,” says Jérôme. “We checked the grapes on Monday a week ago (15 September) but they weren’t properly ripe ¬ only 9˚ alc but 8.2 acidity. Now we have 10.5˚-11˚ depending upon the parcel and 5.7 acidity. Waiting a week was very stressful as most of the producers around here were picking. 80% of all Muscadet has now been picked.” Assuming that their neighbours’ grapes were similarly barely ripe, it will be a good year for the bettravistes – sugar beet farmers of northern France. However, the high levels of acidity will be a problem.

Jérome Choblet with 2008 Muscadet juice

At Luneau-Papin they are finishing the hand picking – yesterday was the last day – and the rest of the grapes will be picked by machine. Pierre Luneau was very relaxed yesterday – his main concern appears to be trying to get his new mobile phone to work properly.

"Hello! Hello!" Pierre Luneau struggling with his mobile

Someone has to work: Pierre-Marie Luneau checks the harvest

Pierre Luneau admiring grapes destined for Excelsior

Monique Luneau: la vendangeuse en chef

One of the givens of the harvest is that machines will break down – usually at the most inconvenient time. While we talked to Jérôme, his father Luc was busy repairing the picking machine, so that it would be ready to go next morning.

Luc Choblet: "I think it goes this way..............."

"That's better – cracked it!"

(25 September 2008)

Unfortunately the sky is grey this morning and it’s raining – a complete contrast to yesterday.