2008b Le Bouchet, demi-sec, Domaine de la Croix des Vainqueurs (Laurent Bonneau) 

This 2008 demi-sec was further confirmation of the quality of Laurent Bonneau's Vouvray. This made a very attractive apéritif shared with Susan and Simon from Days on the Claise on a sunny Friday in Epeigné. The light sweetness is counterpointed by the precision and minerality.  

2006 Vieilles Vignes, Saumur-Champigny, Domaine Filliatreau

From Laurent Bonneau, a recently installed vigneron in AC Vouvray, to Domaine Filliatreau long established leaders in Saumur-Champigny. This 2006 VV is still quite youthful with a good concentration of black fruits and quite soft tannins. Underlines that although 2006 is less celebrated than 2005 there are some very good reds from this vintage.

20 August 2009

Laurent in his vines@Vernou

Having been so impressed with Laurent Bonnard's wines at Vouvray's Foire aux Vins the previous Sunday, I arranged to visit him the following Thursday afternoon at his chai in Chançay. As soon as I arrived we headed off to see his vines, which are in neighbouring Vernou. Although there are some vines close to Laurent's cellar at Chançay they don't produce high quality grapes as the soil is cold – OK for sparkling wine but not for good still wine.

Ripening Chenin Blanc – bunches well exposed and aerated (above and below)

Laurent now has eight hectares of vines – three in Vouvray and five in Vernou. He is lucky to not to have lots of parcels of vines spread all over the place: in Vernou he has 2.5ha in one block and the rest is close by. This means they are much easier to work, although there is the downside that if he is hit by frost or hail the damage could be considerable. Laurent's first vintage was 2006 and he hopes to produce between 55,000 and 60,000 bottles this year. The vineyard is grassed over – in some places where the vines need competition special grasses are planted, otherwise it is natural cover. Deleafing is done on the sunshine side but not on the sunset side where the power of the sun is strong and, on hot days, can lead to the grapes being burnt if they have no leaf protection. 50% of the harvest picked by machine and 50% by hand.

Old Chenin vine

Vine age varies between five years old and nearly 60 – the youngest vines being planted in 2004 and the oldest in 1956. Laurent made a very impressive sweet wine in 2007 called Cuvée Leo and this came from a parcel here that was planted in 1972. Laurent is good friends with the Vigneau-Chevreau brothers, who are also based in Chançay. Jean-Michel, their late father, started to convert the estate to biodynamics in 1995 – it received its certification in 1999. Influenced by them and Vouvray producers like Huet, Laurent is moving towards making increasingly natural wines: this year he is planning to use natural yeasts.

Very flinty soil in parts of the vineyard – type of soil called perruche here

Esca, the vine disease, is also a problem here, although Chenin is less affected than Sauvignon Blanc

Looking across a plateau of vines@Vernou

From the plateau looking toward the Vallée des Vaux

When Laurent was setting up in 2006 he had vines in Vernou and Vouvray but needed a place to vinify and mature his wines. He found them in Chançay. A vigneron, Francis Denis, with a domaine called La Croix des Vainqueurs was retiring, so Laurent bought his cellar and the right to the name. He would have liked to have bought one of the houses on either side of the cave that had belonged to Monsieur Denis but these had already been sold. So, for the moment, he is commuting from Beaulieu-les-Loches nearly 50 kilometres away.

New ventilation chimney has helped to cut down the dampness in Laurent's cellar

Since his arrival Laurent has made various improvements to the cellar. One of the most important has been putting in a couple ventilation chimneys that have significantly reduced the humidity in the cellar. He has also installed a humidifier.

Vouvray mousseux sur-latte

Part of Laurent's tuffeau cellar

Quite a line up – one 1945 and three 1947s

Although he has started to export, no-one is importing Laurent Bonneau's wines into the UK and he is keen to sell his wines here. This ought to be a real opportunity for an enterprising independent merchant looking for good quality Vouvray from an exciting new producer. I have no financial ties here.

Laurent Bonneau, Domaine de la Croix des Vainqueurs
20 bis Rue d'Amboise, 37210 Chançay.
Tel: 02.47.52.25.16. Email: l.bonneau@hotmail.fr

More words to be added............

Entrance to the foire in the Caves de la Bonne Dame, Vouvray

I dropped into Vouvray's foire aux vins for a couple of hours this morning. This events are often interesting: they allow you to taste a number of different producers quickly and, although, the big names are often absent you may discover an exciting new producer. This was certainly the case today – no sign of Champalou, Foreau, Fouquet, Gaudrelle or Huet. Instead the best known producers present were Vigneau-Chevreau and Bourillon-Dorléans and furthermore I did discover an exciting producer who was new to me: Laurent Bonneau of the Domaine de la Croix des Vainqueurs in Chançay.

Laurent Bonneau

Laurent Bonneau is somewhat of a rarity in Vouvray – both a newcomer, who has started from nothing, and someone who had a a previous career before choosing to make wine. Laurent comes from Loches and worked previously in l'environment. After work experience at Château la Garde in Pessac-Leognan, he started in Vouvray two and a half years ago and has eight hectares. I tasted three of his wines (Le Bouchet) from 2008 – sec, demi-sec and moelleux. I was impressed by their purity and minerality. The demi-sec is vinified in barriques of two and three wines. These are bought from Château Pape-Clément. The 2008 demi-sec has a touch of spice, some concentration and attractive apricot and peach flavours. His apple, quince and honeyed 2008 Moelleux has 50 grams of residual sugar. It was picked between 18th-20th October and has a good balance between the sweetness and acidity with an emphasis on the fruit. "Last year the harvest was very late," Laurent explained. "We started picking for our sparkling wines on the 6th October. depending upon the year I make 50% sparkling and 50% still. "

Laurent Bonneau

Laurent's first vintage was 2006 – not an easy start. However, he told me about a liquoreux that he made that year. "After the 2007 vintage I visited Jacques Beaujeau (Château la Varière, Brissac-Quincé) and saw how he makes his Bonnezeaux and Quarts de Chaume. As I still had a grapes left on some of my vines I decided to have go at a making a liquoreux, so I got some of the pickers to come back and we picked on 11th November. The resulting wine has 180 grams of residual sugar and 9 gms of acidity." Laurent's sweet wine was clearly a success as it has impressed Noël Pinguet, who is not given to excessive compliments. "Noël came to visit recently and told me that my liquoreux was the best 2007 sweet wine in Vouvray. He did go on to say that Huet had made the best sweet Vouvray in 2006 and I agree with him."

It is good to see an exciting newcomer in Vouvray as Montlouis has recently been making much of the running recently.

Laurent Bonneau, Domaine de la Croix des Vainqueurs
20 bis Rue d'Amboise, 37210 Chançay.
Tel: 02.47.52.25.16. Email: l.bonneau@hotmail.fr

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Other wines that impressed at the Foire:
Initially I chose to taste just the secs from the 20 producers showing their wines at this foire. I find tasting the dry wines a useful approach to select interesting producers – with little residual sugar to gloss over the defects. Like other foire aux vins there is a considerable range of quality and there were some very poor wines on show here – green, dilute and not fully clean. Some of the producers here sell most of their production on vrac (en citerne) to négociants, who I suspect are often more interested in price and quantity than quality. Regrettable but quite understandable if their business is supplying supermarkets with premier prix Vouvray.

Following on from the tasting back in late May at Thorman Hunt in London I was again impressed by the Vigneau-Chevreau wines. Christophe and Stéphane now run the estate, which has been biodynamic since 1999, taking over from Jean-Michel, their late father. I particularly liked their 2008 Sec, the 2007 Clos de Vaux demi-sec and the 2003 Château Gaillard Moelleux.

The Bourillon D'Orléans wines were well made – of the three secs (2008, 2007 and 2005) I tasted I preferred the 2005.

It was intresting tasting the wines of Daniel Jarry, which used to be imported into the UK by Yapp Brothers. I tasted their secs from 1998, 2000 and 1990 – all quite intriguing, especially the 2000, but very definitely old style.

Perhaps worth another look: Jean-Claude and Didier Aubert, Domaine Freslier, and Jean-Michel Gautier.

The tasting usefully confirmed that the top producers, who weren't present, overall deserve their positions at the top of the Vouvray tree.

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Prospects for 2009?
Several producers expressed cautious optimism for the forthcoming vintage. Vouvray has so far escaped the hail that has hit some other parts of Touraine and the Central Vineyards, in particular Menetou-Salon. August is currently very hot – up to around 35˚ yesterday and today. The hot weather is forecast to continue. The current feeling is: 'une belle vendange en prospect' with the harvest starting at the end of September beginning of October. However as ever, what happens from now to the vintage will be crucial.