Flowers and vines in the Clos Roche Blanche – Joe's type of vineyard 

I was very sorry to learn this evening that Joe Dressner of Louis Dressner Selections died last night after a long and remarkably courageous battle with a brain tumour that was discovered in the latter part of 2008. Joe chronicled this battle is The Amazing Misadventures of Captain Tumour Man – a humourous and often surreal blog. There is an appreciation of Joe by his son Jules here on the Louis Dressner site.

Unfortunately I never met Joe. It would have been good to have met this champion of many small, individual and exciting Loire producers. To appreciate why Joe was important you only need to look through the list (here) of producers that Louis Dressner imports into the USA and then to read on about the company and their philosophy. Also see a fine portrait of Joe by Bertrand Celce on Wine Terroirs.

2009 Gamay, Clos Roche Blanche         

Joe has long imported the wines of the Clos Roche Blanche (Catherine Roussel and Didier Barouillet) and did much to establish an enviable reputation for them and their wines, so it was very appropriate that I was drinking their delicious 2009 Gamay when I heard the news of Joe's death. Cheers Joe!

Pierre Luneau (Muscadet Sèvre-et-Maine) imported into the US by Louis Dressner Selections

Very sorry to learn this evening that Joe Dressner (Captain Tumour Man) of Louis Dressner Selections has very recently had surgery on two new brain tumours. Apparently the original one remains static but test last week revealed two new tumours.

Joe is a great champion of interesting Loire wines and Louis Dressner Selections is a roll-call of serious producers including the Clos Roche Blanche, Tué-Bouef and Thierry Puzelat, François Pinon, Bernard Baudry, Frères Foucault, the Angelis, René Mosse and Domaine Pierre Luneau-Papin.  

Our best wishes to Joe.

Pickers@Le Clos Roche Blanche enjoying a well-earned mid-morning break: September 2008

Good to see from his Captain Tumor Man blog that the legendary US wine importer, Joe Dressner, is continuing to recover from his brain tumour. The wines of the Loir et Cher will be theme of Louis Dressner's October tasting and will feature the Loir et Cher song by Michel Delpech as Joe explains:

'Loir-et-Cher is the theme of our October 27-28th tasting. Many great wines and great winemakers hail from this magic area and it is finally time that they receive the exposure they so richly deserve in New York City.

Of course, the theme song for the event is the brilliant song by Michel Delpech which depicts the struggles and history of the Loir-et-Cher region.'

Click here for the song. on youtube, which has some great black photos from the earlier part of the 20th century, although not all of them come from the Loir-et-Cher. There are some from the Morvan and certainly one from Alsace.