Questionable claims that Eurotunnel is the greenest way of crossing the Channel

Off to the Loire and Bordeaux today.

 Sign for the Loire vineyards on the Autoroute A28

Always pretty – brief glimpse of le Loir as we speed past

 Other attractions: Le Lude and Poncé-sur-Le-Loir

I didn't get a chance to taste many Loire wines at the London Wine Trade Fair this year but I did stop by the Ackerman stand to try their popular rosé fizz, which is made from Pineau d'Aunis sourced in the valley of Le Loir. X Noir has the characteristic spicy, peppery flavour of Pineau d'Aunis. First launched in 2007 X Noir's main customers are young women up to the age of 35. X Noir has its own blog.

A number of very attractive rosés are made from Pineau d'Aunis in the Cher Valley. Usually they are pale coloured as the grapes are pressed immediately without any skin contact. For the moment these are usually sold as Appellation Touraine but under the proposed bizarre reforms of the Touraine appellation pure Pineau d'Aunis rosés will not be allowed. A local variety, Pineau d'Aunis after some years in the wilderness is now inceasing valued. As well as making attractive spicy rosés, it also makes good, light and delicious summery reds.       

 
X Noir's tag

A28: A brief glimpse of Le Loir@Château-du-Loir

Drove down yesterday in bright sunshine once we approached the Loire Valley. It is always fascinating traveling through France in early springtime to see how much more advanced the trees etc. come as you move southwards. In northern France it was still winter bleak with light sign of green, whereas from Le Mans southwards it became greener and with more blossom in evidence. Of course if we had carried on down to Bordeaux it would have become still greener. However, even down in the Loire London is probably more advanced due to its special micro-climate, doubtless helped by the pollution. I believe that you have to go as far south as Lyon to find a major city that has a higher average temperature than London.

Heading towards Tours: heavy traffic on the A28

Very enjoyable relaxed dinner at friends starting with the 2007 Varière Coteaux de l'Aubance, whose fresh, citric character makes this a good aperitif – not over sweet. Then I confidently mistook a 2006 Bourgogne Aligoté for a minerally Sauvignon Blanc. I did a little better with the red thinking it was Côt, which is was in part. The rest being Cabernet Franc and the whole was the 2006 Cuvée Pif from the Clos Roche Blanche. We had an excellent but simple first course – fresh local goats' cheese whizzed up with fresh basil to make a few creamy mouthfuls. Delcious.

Unfortunately today is showery and pretty miserable and the forecast for the rest of this week is not very special. Still the ground here is quite dry, so there hasn't been a lot of rain recently.

(1st August 2008)

Domaine Les Maisons Rouges: Elizabeth and Benoît Jardin (Jasnières, Coteaux du Loir)
Staying overnight in the Hotel de France in the centre of La Chartre-sur-Loir, we head off to Ruillé, on the north bank of Le Loire and about five kilometres away, for our late afternoon appointment with Elizabeth and Benoit Jardin, who make bith jasnières and Coteaux du Loir. Domaine Les Maisons Rouges is on the hillside to the east of Ruillé and has a peaceful view over the pastoral valley of Le Loir.

Jasnières is one of those small Loire appellations that nearly died out between the 1960s and 1980s, despite its renown when the first appellations were being agreed that ensured that it got its AC status in 1937. Furthermore The famous gastronome Curnonsky (1872-1956) declared that "three times a century, Jasnières is the best white wine in the world". As far as I know he never explained how the other 97 vintages might rate. Le Loir is at the extreme north to ripen Chenin Blanc. In cool, difficult years Jasnières can be very austere and can present a challenge even to the most rabid Loire Chenin enthusiast. The vineyards of Le Loir are also now the most northerly of Western France, although in the 19th century vines were grown as far north as Argentan, some 120 kilometres further north. Jasnières stretches in the west from Les Molières above L’Homme eastwards to Sous les Bois, just east of the hamlet of Dauvers.

Sketch map of Jasnières and Coteaux du Loir@Les Maisons Rouges
Yellow is Jasnières and orange: Coteaux du Loir.
Jasnières starts just under the green in line with the MasterCard sign
and describes a crescent westwards stopping just before the nearly vertical road.

The Les Maisons Rouges farmhouse dates from the beginning of the 19th century when it belonged to the Château de Ruillé. It would have been a mixed farm. We were met by Elizabeth Jardin, who explained how they came to be making wine here.

Benoît comes from Flers in the Orne department in Normandy. His training in Tours was in raising horses but he was seduced by wine and he and Elizabeth moved to Les Maisons Rouges in Ruillé in 1994. Today they have seven hectares of vines – three of Jasnières and four in the Coteaux du Loir. In 2000 they started to convert moved to organic viticulture and two years ago became registered organic. Since 2004 they have practised ‘natural vinification’ only using SO2 at the point of bottling – none beforehand. “It is too risky not to use sulphur when bottling,” they say. They are in good company here as the renowned Mark Angeli of La Ferme de la Sansonnière in Thouarcé came to realize after doing without sulphur for a number of years when his potentially wonderful wines showed extreme bottle variation and were occasionally prone to referment.

View across the valley of Loir from Les Maisons Rouges

Elizabeth: “We have been using barriques Bordelais. However in the future, we are moving to 400 or 600 litre barrels. The potential area for Jasnières is 127 ha but there is between 70-80 ha in production. Normally we vinify parcel by parcel but in 2006 and 2007 we grouped them together as those two harvests were small.”

We talked about the soils, in particular Elizabeth told us about les perrons – large stones and how they are particularly large and prevalent at the top of the hillside. Also about patches of schist as well as white clay and the alluvial soils of the valley floor.

Elizabeth: “Our best vines are in the middle of the coteaux where the vine roots go deepest, especially the old vines.”

We taste outside, starting with the soft textured 2006 Dans les Perrons Coteaux du Loir (€9.50) with a touch of honey and good length. 10%-15% of the wine spent 10 months in new oak. Dans les Perrons comes from four parcels at the top of the coteaux.

Next the rich but more mineral and persistent 2006 Clos des Molières Jasnières (€11) – bottled at the end of 2007. Elizabeth: “As the vineyard is on chalk, it takes longer for the aromas to develop.”

Like 2007 conditions in 2008 are proving to be challenging. “Mildew and oidium are present this year. We work with plants but don’t dynamise them as you do in biodynamics. We use powdered fenugreek against oidium before the flowering.”

On to Sur le Nez 2006 (€17) – this comes from vines in the Clos des Jasnières and the Clos de la Gidonière. The vines are old – a minimum of 70 years old and planted between 1900 and 1935. More golden hued, this has an attractive honeyed texture with some floral notes and good length but less marked by minerality.

2007 Les Vieilles Vignes d’Aunis Coteaux du Loir will be a rare bottle as cold during the flowering and little juice in the grapes reduced the crop of Pineau d’Aunis down to 20% of normal. Coulure (poor setting) is a problem this variety.

Elizabeth: “The maximum yields we want from the Pineau d’Aunis are 35-37 hl/ha. If the yields are too high you can get rot at the end of the season – in 2006 rot spread quickly. That year we had 50% of a normal crop. This year we anticipate that yields will be around 30 hl/ha. As it is easy to extract astringency with the alcohol, we use a long cold soak for about 15 days before the start of the alcoholic fermentation. The total maceration time is three to four weeks.”

The 2007 VV is characteristically peppery and spicy. It needs a little time to soften. We learn that some clones of Pineau d’Aunus have long bunches which makes them difficult to ripen, however there is a version that produces small bunches which do mature properly.

We finished with the attractive, rich quince and apricot 2005 Inclinaison Jasnières (€23), which should have the potential to age well. The grapes were picked at the end of October, has 14% alcohol and 29 grams of residual sugar and is fermented and aged in barriques for 25 months.

Between 20%-30% of their production is exported with Holland and japan being good markets.


I came away impressed with Elizabeth and Benoît’s wines and look forward to tasting them again. After a quick wander around the byways of the Jasnières AC we headed back to the Hotel de France with its long association with motor racing at Le Mans and collection of photos of racing drivers, including Graham Hill, Jochen Rindt and Jim Clark, from the 1960s and 1970s.

Domaine Les Maisons Rouges
26 Route des Hautes Touches, 72340 Ruillé-sur-Loir.
Tel: 02.43.79.50.09
Email: mr@maisonsrouges.com
Web: www.maisonsrouges.com

To come shortly: Joël Gigou and Le Briseau.