Concealed bottles ready to taste
 

Today was the occasion to choose Le Master (Muscadet de Sèvre-et-Maine) for 2010. The almost unanimous choice was the 2010 from Charpentier-Fleurance in Le Landreau-Bretonnière.
 
Launched in 1984 the concept of Le Master was established in the 1980s when Donatien Bahuaud was still family owned. The final selection would be made by a panel of tasters including oenologists, journalists etc. with the winning wine sold under the name of Le Master. When Donatien-Bahuaud went bust and was bought by Grand Chai de France this practice ceased. However, when Ackerman bought the Donatien brand in 2009 from Gabriel Meffre, they decided to relaunch Le Master. Once more there is a super-jury that makes the final selection.

I was invited last year to judge but unfortunately was in the UK, so unable to make it. This year as the tasting is a bit earlier it was possible with an early start from Bléré-la-Croix by train to Nantes.

Just as last year the tasting, followed by lunch, was held at La Cigale, a café-brasserie that is a Nantais institution.

We had ten bottles of 2010 Muscadet Sèvre-et-Maine to taste. Much of our work had already been done with a pre-selection process whittling down some 68 samples to ten.

My favourite wine turned out to be the overall winner – no 4 in the order. Next was Joseph Petiteau – Vigne et Saveurs and the third – Luneau Courtage, Vignobles Delaunay. I found Charpentier-Fleurance the best balanced with a lemony, mineral nose and good palate weight plus a long fresh finish. It certainly stood out in the line-up.

Tasters@work

All the stress of collating the results!

La Cigale: outside and the bar inside

Shellfish stall outside La Cigale

Preparing oysters

Bernard Jacob, director-general of Ackerman

Charpentier-Fleurance

La Bretonnière 
44430 Le Landreau
Tel: 02 40 06 43 39 

Looking across the Marais towards the city of Nantes

A report in Presse Ocean here on the unknown Marais de Goulaine, the area of marshland on the south side of the Loire to the east of Nantes. The Château de Goulaine, famous for its butterfly collection and its Muscadet, is on the western edge of the Marais.

'Le marais de Goulaine reste encore méconnu. Le site vaut pourtant le détour. Plongée au coeur du poumon vert.'

Read the rest here.

Following reading reports yesterday in Presse Océan and Ouest-France of heavy rainfall around Nantes over the last few days with the Nantes by-pass closed through flooding, I decided to have a look at the rainfall figures on France-Météo for Nantes, Angers and Tours for the last three months of 2009.

October continued the year's dry theme with Nantes having 65.4mm (82.8mm average from 1971 -2000), Angers 49.8mm (60.6mm -av) and Tours 36.6mm (63.4mm). Rainfall for all three towns below average.

November was decidedly wet with Nantes having a whopping 181mm (85mm-av), Angers 122mm (61mm-av) and Tours 106.2mm (65mm-av). Rainfall for all three towns all well above average.

December remained wet in the west but drier in the east with Nantes having 105mm (93mm-av), Angers 79mm (65mm-av) and Tours 46.2mm (72.1mm). Tours notably well below the average rainfall.

Annual rainfall totals for 2009, admittedly with one day yet to go, are below the average. Nantes has 749.3mm (798.2mm-av), Angers 605.4mm (646.7mm–av) and Tours 526.5mm (694.1mm–av). The total for Tours is noticeably down on the average.