Pierre-Marie Luneau

Pays Nantais

The ban des vendanges was on Wednesday 24th August. La famille Luneau (Domaine Luneau-Papin, Muscadet Sèvre-et-Maine: Pierre, Monique, Pierre-Marie and Marie) will be starting at 8am on 30th August.

Anjou-Saumur

Picking the Chardonnay and Pinot Noir for the Crémant de Loire, Anjou and Saumur Mousseux started on Tuesday 24th August.

Touraine

Big thunderstorm in the Cher Valley overnight. Lots of lightning with flashes continuing for a couple of hours. Some 15 mm (0.6 inches) rain recorded in Epeigné-les-Bois. More rain further east in the Cher – around 23/25mm at Mareuil, 32mm at Noyers-sur-Cher but only 15mm at Thésée and 9 at Saint-Julien-de Chédon. May well not be good news for the Gamay that tends to act like a sponge sucking up water and diluting the juice. A few showers continuing this morning, which feels decidedly autumnal. Fortunately the forecast for the next few days is better – sun and cloud and around 20˚C.

Jacky Blot's team (Domaine de la Taille aux Loups) carried out their first maturity checks on their grapes in Montlouis and Vouvray yesterday. I tasted the domaine's 2010s – Rémus and Clos Michet (Montlouis); Clos de la Bretonnière and Clos de Venise (Vouvray) that will be bottled in the next fortnight. All four cuvées looking very good – more akin to 2008 with precision and minerality than the richer 2009s.

Central Vineyards

Picking due to start in Reuilly and Quincy next week with Sancerre and Pouilly the following week – beginning of September.

Sign for La Mère Hamard





La Mère Hamard

Last night we finally got to stay at La Mère Hamard in the small village of Semblançay, just to the north of Tours. We had tried to stay here in 1987 when the group that bought the house in Epeigné-les-Bois came out that February on a scouting/buying expedition. Either La Mère Hamard was full up or more likely given the time of year it was closed. Instead we stayed at Les Fontaines at the western end of Rochecorbon, which actually turned out to be more convenient for most of the places we looked at during that slightly extended weekend. Subsequently, of course, we have not had the need to find a hotel in this area. Last night was an exception as the house was full and we needed somewhere to stop on the way down to Pauillac, so a good opportunity to try La Mère Hamard, which has been an hotel since at least 1903 though with many changes of ownership.

We weren't disappointed with the recently refurbished rooms and a good dinner outside on a gloriously warm evening. Our experience was capped this morning when the chef recognising that one of our party, who has reduced mobility would have trouble getting up the stairs to the upstairs breakfast room, set us up with our own special table downstairs.

The Chef

We set the mood of the evening by starting with a bottle of the 2008 Clos de la Bretonnière, Vouvray from Jacky and Joëlle Blot's Domaine de la Taille aux Loups. There was a choice of vintage and I opted for the 2008 in preference to the 2009. The 2008 is more austere, more mineral than the more opulent 2009, which doesn't have the same precision as the 2008.

   

 

We followed this with Yannick Amirault's 2006 Les Malgagnes, St-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil, which is drinking well now with its soft opulent black fruits. 2006s are generally attractive and ready to drink although they lack some of the complexity and structure of the 2005s, which is very likely to be the long lived vintage.  

La Mère Hamard, which is conveniently situated for the A28 autoroute (Rouen to Tours) is certainly recommended for anyone looking for a comfortable stop when journeying through France. 

   

Jacky and Joëlle Blot are holding their annual Spring open days at Domaine de la Butte in Bourgueil from Thursday 2nd June until Sunday 5th June. They make some of the best Bourgueils to be found. 

  

2010 harvest in mi-pente: the best parcel of La Butte

2010 Cabernet Franc@La Butte

2009 Chinon, Domaine de la Perrière, Baudry-Dutour

Over the past two days we have revisited a couple of 2009s from Chinon and Bourgueil respectively. I had previously tasted these wines – Domaine de la Perrière, Baudry-Dutour and Le Haut de la Butte in December. Both appear to have taken on a little more weight since December, especially the Perrière, although the accent here is still very much on red fruits with quite marked refreshing acidity in the finish.   

The 2009 Le Haut de la Butte remains considerably more softly opulent and concentrated than the Perrière as one would expect given that Le Haut is quite a bit more expensive than B-D's Perrière. 

These two wines indicate that the tough period some of the 2009s went through in mid-late January is now over and the normal charm of the 2009 reds has returned.

The Clos Mosny looking towards the château

Two previous posts finished off this afternoon: visit on 4th January with Jacky Blot to his newly acquired Clos Mosny and the tasting of 2009s at Couly-Dutheil.  

Jacques Couly

Pipette and glass@the cave Domaine de la Taille aux Loups

I spent this afternoon with Jacky Blot (Domaine de la Taille aux Loups) first visiting his new vineyard – Le Clos de Mosny – and then tasting from barrel a number of his 2010 Montlouis and Vouvray.

Jacky looking towards the south western end of the Clos

Jacky and Joëlle Blot took over the historic Clos Mosny from Monmousseau after the 2010 harvest. See the details here. Driving along the D40 from Saint-Martin-Le-Beau to Montlouis you pass the southern end of the Clos, whose walls completely encircle the 12ha vineyard and the Château de Mosny making 1.6 kilometres of wall to look after! Jacky has already hired a stonemason called Antoine to repair and look after the walls. I suspect he will be busy!

Ivy infested gateway

Although I had previously looked through the gate at the Clos I had never been inside, so it was particularly interesting to visit it with Jacky yesterday. It seems very likely that not all of the Clos will produce the same quality of grapes. The soil is a mix of flint and sand. Typically the soil in Montlouis becomes more sandy as you approach the southern part of the AC around Saint-Martin-le-Beau. The Clos slopes gently down from its northern end to the D40 road. It seems likely that the best part of the Clos, which faces south – south-west, will be from the upper and the middle parts. In the lower part the soil may be deeper with more clay. There looks to be a frost prone hollow at the south-western end. Some of the vines are around 50 years old.

The intention is that the best fruit from the Clos will be used for a single vineyard cuvée with the lesser fruit going into either Les Dix Arpents or to the base wine for Triple Zéro.

Pruning in the Clos (above and below)

Vines beyond the wall are part of the Clos Michet

Pruning has already started in the Clos as the cold snap at the end of November has allowed producers to start pruning earlier than normal. It makes particular sense in the clos as all the posts, etc. will be replaced here once pruning has finished. Yields will be drastically reduced – Jacky suggested that yields here in 2010 could have been in the order of 120/130 hl/ha, which was reduced at vintage time around 70hl/ha by discarding rotten bunches.

There is also a winery at the entrance to the Clos with a ground florr and cellar, which has a stock of bottles from the Monmousseau purchase. 

The Blots have a virtual monopoly of the Clos except for a small patch of untended vines (see below) at the northern end which belongs to the Château de Mosny, more an attractive manoir than a true château.

The Château de Mosny

It is a pity that the vineyard and the château have been in separate hands for some years now as there is a potential to make the Clos Mosny a show place for Montlouis.

Barrel tasting of 2010s

After visiting the Clos we headed back to the village of Husseau to taste the 2010s from both Montlouis and Vouvray from barrel – many of them still fermenting. It is always fascinating to taste wine at all of its stages, although it is difficult to fully know how the finished wine will taste, especially if there is still some sugar left to ferment and the blend is yet to be made. However, you can discern the broad outlines. At this early stage in their life they seem reminiscent to the 2007s and 2008s – very precise, clean flavours with quite strong acidity.

Among the many samples we tasted was the Clos Michet. 2009 was the first vintage of this Clos, which is adjacent and just to the west of the Clos Mosny. Michet is also 12 hectares but has a number of owners with Jacky now having some 4 hectares here as the deal with Monmousseau included some parcels in this Clos. My current impression is that Michet has less weight than Rémus, which comes from a number of parcels, but has delicacy, finesse and precision. We also tasted wine from the Château de la Bourdaisière, whose harvest Jacky has been looking after for the past three or four years.

Chassin – Jacky's preferred barrel maker

Jacky Blot (above and below)

**

I gather that sometime over the past year Domaine Deletang (20ha) was sold to Michel Antier, a wine producer (Domaine de Cray) and restaurateur (La Cave à Montlouis).

Made from 50% Gamay and 50% Grolleau Noir and like the Triple Zéro white it has no added sugar at any point in its production. Dominated by red fruits, red currant in particular, it has an attractive touch of bitterness in the finish. Jacky Blot (Domaine de la Taille aux Loups) feels that this rosé could do with a bit more zip – to be more 'tonique'. One solution would be add around 10% of a Chenin base wine to this. Although for reasons beyond my understanding a still rosé (AC status) in the EU cannot be a blend of red and white wine, this is perfectly acceptable for sparkling wines.   

2009 Perrières, Domaine de la Butte

Having discussed with Jacky the purchase of Le Clos Mosny (Montlouis), we moved on to tasting the 2009 Bourgueils starting with the soft, supple and charming La Pied de la Butte, which was bottled in April 2010. Dominated by red fruits it includes press wine that is aged in barriques of four and five years old. This is a wine to enjoy young, although the 2009 would happily keep two or three years but I'm not sure there is much point – better to enjoy the youthful fruit and buy one of la Butte's more structured cuvées for aging. La Pied was 7€ but is now sold out at the domaine and you will have wait until April 2011 for the 2010 to be available.

2009 La Haute de la Butte

The 2009 La Haute de la Butte (bottled at beginning of September 2010) represents a considerable step up in terms of concentration, quality and complexity as one would expect as La Haute is priced at 12€. The 2009 is deeper in colour with some aromas of sous-bois and gibier. This is more black fruits than red. It is quite structured but with ripe tannins surrounded by the fruit. This certainly needs food and could easily be cellared for five years or so.

Les Perrières (15€ – bottled end of October 2010) is another step up with opulent, concentrated black fruits including black cherry but not over-ripe and a freshness in the long finish. Certainly, although the 2009s are immediately seductive, it would be best to put this away for a couple of years and it has the potential to age for 10-15 years.

We also tasted a impressive sample of 2009 Mi-Pente (18€ – available March 2011), which has now come out of barrel and is in stainless steel awaiting bottling at the end of February - beginning of March. Although Jacky believes that long-term both his 2008 and 2010 Mi-Pente will be better than 2009 (a more lauded vintage for reds), the 2009 probably has the potential to age a good 15 years.

The 2009 reds remind me to an extent of the 1997s, which like the 09s were always crowd pleasers with soft opulent fruit. I had my doubts about how long the 97s would last. In fact they have held up pretty well, although I think they may now be beginning to decline and certainly they haven't aged long term as well as the 1996s. The 97s have, however, given much pleasure. The difference I think between the 97s and the 09s is that the latter appears to have more structure. Certainly the Cabernet Franc reds from the fine trio of 2008, 2009 and 2010 will provide some fascinating comparisons in the future.

Le Clos du Château de Mosny

We arrived at the Domaine de la Taille aux Loups just after Joëlle and Jacky had finished lunch. As we were the first of the afternoon callers we had time to chat to Jacky about his recent acquisition of Le Clos du Château de Mosny (AC Montlouis). This is quite a complicated story.

Around 2007, while chatting to a representative of Monmousseau, the sparkling wine company based in Montrichard, Jacky expressed an interest in Le Clos Mosny should Monmousseau ever be interested in selling. The rep had told that Jacky even though they had reps in 38 of the US states they were unable to sell their Montlouis there. Instead the grapes from the Clos were going into their sparkling wine range. This made little economic sense as they could buy grapes cheaper on the open market than they could be produced at Le Clos.

Soon the boss of Monmousseau contacted Jacky and they started to negotiate. However, just as they were about to sign in the latter part of 2007, Monmousseau pulled out of the deal. The 2007 vintage was short and Monmousseau were unable to source all their grape requirements, so they decided that it was best to hold onto their vineyards as business was then good. Needless to say Jacky wasn't best pleased!

The Clos: October 2010

Then, of course, in September 2008 the financial world virtually collapsed and the situation changed. In time Monmousseau got back in touch with Jacky and negotations started again in 2009. By this time Ackerman had become involved as they were looking to buy the sparkling wine side of Monmousseau, which is based in Montrichard. Ackerman were not interested in the vineyards and one of the conditions of purchase was that Monmousseau should dispose of their vineyards before the sale went through. Naturally Jacky was now playing poker with six aces!

Monmousseau was keen that Jacky should take the 2010 harvest from Le Clos Mosny but he wasn't interested. "The crop level was far too high," he told me. Eventually agreement was reached and Jacky signed the contract on Saturday 2nd October and I believe that the Ackerman's purchase of Monmousseau then went through the following Monday. Under the sale Jacky Blot has bought the company running the vineyard, which includes the various agricultural buildings. The vineyard, which totals 20 hectares – 12 in Le Clos and 8 outside – is in fermage for 19 years. At the end of the 19 years it will become part of the Domaine de la Taille aux Loups.

I'm delighted that the Clos de Mosny, which is on the road between Montlouis and Saint-Martin-le-Beau is now in the hands of a dynamic individual producer. There may well be possibilities for developing wine tourism here. Jacky intends to make a single vineyard cuvée from the best parcels of the Clos. "I'm sure not all of the Clos has the same terroir or potential for quality," Jacky explained. "I hope we can identify four or five hectares for Le Clos Mosny. This will be plenty for a single cuvée. grapes from the less good parts of the Clos will either go into Les Dix Argents or into Triple Zéro."

By this time customers were starting to turn up, so we tasted the range of 2009 Bourgueils (see a separate post to come) and departed with some 2009 reds along with a judicious investment in the new Triple Zéro Rosé.

PetNat la Folie Lucé

Next stop after Frédéric Mabileau was the Pot de Lapin in Saumur. We started with a glass of PetNat rosé. This time from a new producer – Loïc Terquem at La Folie Lucé, who has taken over Yves Drouineau's vines in Dampierre. 2009 was Terquem's first vintage. His PetNat is a little sweeter than some with attractive red fruits. Later on in the meal Olivier Thibault, owner of Le Pot, gave us Terquem's soft and fruity 2009 Saumur-Champigny to try. 

Having talked about Yves Drouineau and the quality of the wines that he made it seemed appropriate to choose a bottle of his 2000 La Seignère, Saumur-Champigny. Still quite youthful, although showing just a touch of brickiness, Yves 2000 is medium weight with attractive mellow fruit. Good for a few more years, this shows the quality of Yves as 2000 was not an easy vintage in the Loire.

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While on the subject of pétillants Jacky Blot told us that over the weekend he had decided to bring forward the first release of his Triple Zéro Rosé to this December. Bottled in January it will have had nearly 12 months sur latte by the time it is released. The rosé is a roughly equal blend of Grolleau and Gamay.    

   

Domaine de la Butte: Jacky Blot@mi-pente yesterday sporting shades and designer stubble

Jacky Blot: Domaine de la Butte, Bourgueil

We caught up with Jacky and Joëlle Blot at their Bourgueil domaine as they were well into the harvest. Having tasted with them last Saturday we knew they were moving a team of 30 pickers from Montlouis down to Bourgueil on Monday to pick the 15 hectares of Cabernet Franc as quickly as possible.

Joëlle was showing some visitors around their striking cellars, while Jacky was marshalling his picking team on Mi-Pente. The grapes looked so good I forgot to ask him the customary questions about potential alcohol and acidity. My guess is that they must have been around 13%. Although the grapes looked in very good condition, they get sorted twice before descending straight down a wide tube into the vat below. There is a sorting table in the vineyard where the good grapes are put into cagettes and transported to the destemmer. Once destemmed they are further sorted over by hand and by machine.

They expect to finish in Bourgueil today. In comparison to here, Jacky described Montlouis as catastrophic with the small team they have left behind there obliged to cut and leave large quantities of grapes on the ground. "C'est une demi-recolte là!"

 

Second sorting process: emptying grapes onto belt to be destemmed

Grapes on conveyor belt

Destemmed grapes: further sorting by fan

Sorting by fan

Selected grapes dropping by gravity into the vat a number of feet below

Frédéric Mabileau, Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil We got to the Mabileaus just as they were settling down to lunch, so it was a quick visit although we were invited to join them. It was very tempting as Odette Mabileau, Frédéric's mother is a very good cook, and it was a lovely sunny day ideal for a lunch outside. We had, however, made other arrangements – a table at Le Pot de Lapin in Saumur and then visits to Saumur producers in the afternoon. 

Fred was pretty happy, although he thought the grapes had probably been a little diluted by the recent rain. They had started last Thursday but had had to stop with the rain on Monday – restarting on Tuesday afternoon. We tasted some juice, which was attractively fruity and clean. 

Frédéric: "The Cabernet Franc is coming in at between 12% and 13% with an average of 4.5 acidity. Yields are around 40-45 hl/ha. We did our first sweep through the Chenin at Le Puy Notre Dame last Saturday (2nd October) with the picked grapes at 12.5%.

Frédéric Mabileau@Le Puy Notre Dame October 3rd 2009

Grey rot – rejected grapes 

Although the red grapes seem to be withstanding the less favourable weather conditions, the Chenin in Montlouis and Vouvray certainly has an increasing amount of rot meaning that those who pick by hand are able to cut out and sort the good grapes from the rotten. Not something that can be done by machine of course, although there is a new generation of picking machine that does apparently sort good from bad. However, I don't think many producers are equipped with these machines, which cost around 190,000€.

These photos were taken during the first sweep through the vines. The best grapes have been left on the vines to ripen further and will probably go into the Rémus cuvée.

Jacky Blot – sorting grapes in Montlouis 

After sorting: the good grapes 

One of the galeries in the cellars of Langlois-Chateau

Firstly a piece from Chris Kissack on a tasting of Vins Clairs at Langlois-Chateau at the beginning of February – a soirée during this year's Salon des Vins de Loire.

Then a couple of recent pieces from Bertrand Celce's wine terroir site – one on Mathieu Coste in the Coteaux du Giennois and one on Jacky Blot's Domaine de la Butte in Bourgueil. 

To finish there is an excellent and detailed blog on the construction of the new tramway in Tours. Called un tram pour Tours it is written by 19 year old Arnoul Maffre. Article on him here.

2005 'Rémus' Montlouis, Domaine de la Taille aux Loups

Last night we had a bottle of the 2005 Rémus, Jacky Blot's top dry Montlouis as an apero. This Rémus reflects its year with its rich fruit and relatively low acidity. It lacks, however, the tension and precision that is apparent in the 2007s and 2008s, which will need time to shown their best. The 2005 is more a crowd pleaser – nothing wrong in that but long term I fancy the 07 and the 08 will often prove to be the better wines. 

This illustrates, I think, the difficulty of trying to classify the overall quality of Loire vintages because of the diversity of wines made. By general consent 2005 is a very good vintage for reds but it is not necessarily the top for dry whites because the hot weather that is likely to produce a good red vintage  may well not be ideal for dry whites either from Chenin Blanc or Sauvignon Blanc. Here the varieties are better served by the long, slow ripening cycle of 2008. Equally, although the sweet wines of 2005 are attractive again they don't have the thrilling purity of 2007. In contrast 2007 reds are well below the level of 2005.  

Given the difficulty of remembering the quality of vintages around the world it makes sense that people look for a short cut, so the attraction of a quick global assessment of a region is understandable.  I am, however, increasingly aware that this does not really work for the Loire. 

 

River Indre in Loches passing the George Sand hotel and restaurant

 A message received yesterday:

'Dear Jim,

I just stumbled across your blog about loire valley wines. My family and I will be traveling to Loire soon. Specifically, we are staying near Loches for a week. We love our wine but are by no means experts. I was wondering if you might give me some suggestions of wineries not to be missed. With so many options I am a bit overwhelmed. Any info you could pass on would be of great help however, please do not feel obligated to respond. I know you must get lots of questions like this. Thank you so much.'

**

Loches is a little way out from the Loire's main wine producing areas. For instance both Vouvray and Chinon are about an hour's drive away with Montlouis slightly closer at around 50 minutes. Closer are the two main producers of Touraine Noble Joué – Jean-Jacques Sard and Rousseau Frères in Esvres about half an hour away from Loches in the direction of Tours. Noble Joué is a little known but long established rosé made from three Pinots – Noir, Meunier and Gris. Of the two Rousseau is the larger concern with nearly 20 hectares of vines offering a range of other wines as well as Noble Joué. 

Also around 30 minutes away from Loches are the producers in the Cher Valley. People to visit would include Jean-François Mériau (Vignobles des Bois Vaudons) in Saint-Julien-de-Chédon and Vincent Ricard in Thésée.  

Going further afield then Jacky Blot's Domaine de la Taille aux Loups in Husseau (Montlouis) where you can buy his Vouvray and Bourgueil as well as Montlouis is certainly recommended as is the François Chidaine's La Cave Insolite in Montlouis. 

Across the river in Vouvray my choices include Domaine Huet, Champalou, Foreau, Bernard Fouquet (Domaine des Aubuisières) and Alexandre Monmousseau's Château Gaudrelle, whose tasting room and winery in now at the western end of Rochecorbon. 

If you decide to go to Chinon my choices would include Baudry-Dutour (tasting room in Cravant-les-Coteaux), Charles Joguet (Sazilly), Domaine de Noblaie (Jérôme Billard in Ligré) and Château de Coulaine (Etienne and Pascale Bonnaventure in Beaumont-en-Véron).

There are many other possibilities and much depends upon how far you want to drive and how many places you wish to visit. Mentioning them all would make for a very long post! 

A modération of geese

 As is well known, Modération is now  the most popular name for pets in  France whether for cats, dogs, guineapigs or various tame birds including parrots. This ensures that the French people comply with the Loi Evin, consuming wine 'avec Modération'. It has also meant that few pets are now allowed out in the evening. 

Last Saturday night we had a group of friends over to dinner and we looked at a number of wines – not all the bottles were emptied.  

 Crémant de Loire, Domaine de la Grange

As we don't have a pet we have to use a moderation substitute – in this instance a modération of geese.We started with Bruno Curassier's Domaine de la Grange soft and creamy Crémant de Loire, which is a blend of Chenin & Chardonnay. Then moved onto one of our favourite fizzes – Triple Zéro from Jacky Blot, which did not disappoint.

Triple Zéro, La Taille aux Loups

1996 Vieilles Vignes, Chablis, Domaine Sainte Claire, Jean-Marc Brocard

Not from the Loire but not far away and a lovely bottle of wine – or rather a lovely magnum. Quite opulent evolved nose with some buttery honey with that typical aged character Chablis takes on – mousseron mushroom and still fresh in the finish. Went well with the warm salad of local goats' cheese, mushrooms – Paris and oyster – and lardons.

 Le Vilain P'tit Rouge, AC Touraine, Vincent Ricard

2004 is not a particularly easy vintage for red Loire – yields tended to be high after 2003 when there had been some frost and which was also the year of the heatwave. Le Vilain P'tit Rouge from Vincent Ricard and also in magnum was showing very well with soft, ripe black fruits and none of the unripe aromas – rooty and green pepper – that some 2004s have. Le Vilain worked well with a very good joint of beef – bought from a very good, new butcher near the Plough in East Dulwich, London SE22 – that we had brought over with us and served with individual Yorkshire puddings and roast potatoes. 

2004 La Closerie, Touraine, Clos Roche Blanche

The onion gravy for the beef was made using a bottle of the 2004 Clos Roche Blanche La Closerie – probably better not to tell Catherine and Didier, although it was for a good cause. Like Le Vilain Le Closerie also tasted well – now softening out and properly ripe. 2004 is one of those years when the name of the producer is particularly important.     

Post to be completed