Rocks removed from the vineyard (above and below)

In order to be able to plant the Reddes removed some massive rocks from the vineyard

Michel Redde et Fils has a new vineyard called Les Champs des Froids. In time this will be a new cuvée in their lieu-dit series. The vineyard, which is beside the road (D from Saint-Satur to the A77 is very decidedly planted on silex (flint) in parts there is virtually no soil just a mass of flints. The Reddes are planting the site in sections. Alain Cailbourdin and Benjamin Dagueneau also have vines here. 

Although the area is cold – hence the name Les Champs des Froid, the flint acts as a radiator providing heat for the vines and the grapes.

A mass of flints between the vines  (above and below)

Sébastien Redde points out the new plantings

The vineyard lies east of Sancerre and La Loire

   

View towards Sancerre from above Les Loges 

Further additions to vintage impressions from Pouilly-Fumé here.

Sébastien Redde (Michel Redde et Fils) and the nascent 2011 Pouilly-Fumé

Apologies for a rather belated report on our visit to some producers in Pouilly-Fumé on afternoon of Friday 23rd September.

Although we didn't have time to visit very many, and a couple of people we wanted to see weren't around, our impression was that a number of producers here have been very pleasantly surprised at how 2011 has turned out and that their fears at the beginning of the harvest have not been realised. Certainly the nascent wines that I tried were all clean and precise with no off flavours.

Valérie Dagueneau (Serge Dagueneau et Filles): "I was afraid before the harvest that the grapes would not have enough potential alcohol, that many would be rotten and that the acidity would be low. Certainly we needed to be very selective – we now pick a third of our vines by hand. We started on Monday 5th September and finished on Friday 16th. The Sauvignon came in at around 12% potential and had kept a good level of acidity. Our Chasselas is at 10.5%, which is a good level for this grape, which is very rot resistant."

Jean-Michel Masson and Melanie

Pierre Masson

In the centre of Pouilly-sur-Loire I dropped in and tasted at Masson-Blondlet, who were also happy with the outcome, despite the threat of rot in early September. They harvested between Thursday 8th September and Monday 19th.

Alain and Loïc Cailbourdin

Picked between 6th and 16th September.

Cailbourdin winery extension

Sébastien Redde

Sébastien Redde: 'The Ban des Vendanges was on the 5th September but we had a special derogation to start on Friday 2nd because of the threat of rot in some of our parcels. We finished on Friday 16th. Everything is picked by hand – this year we had a team of 60 pickers and a sorting table in the cellar." Sébastien and his father, Thierry, think that 2011 may be better than 2010.

After tasting with Sébastien we went to see a new Redde vineyard – see a separate post shortly.

2011 Sauvignon Blanc@Tracy

As well as having a quick look at some Sancerre vineyards on Monday we also crossed over the Loire into Burgundy to have a look at Pouilly-Fumé. Again as in Sancerre there is some rot but from what I saw (a rapis impression) it is not too serious assuming that the weather remains dry and sunny with fairly low humidity. If there is rain, especially with high humidity and little wind, then the situation could turn nasty. Fingers crossed it won't.

Tracy: touch of rot on a bunch

We had time to have a look at the vines close to Château de Tracy, on the road out of Bois Gibault and around Château de Nozet (Ladoucette). 

2011 Sauvignon Blanc near Château de Nozet (above and below)

Pouilly-sur-Loire: 13th August
Samedi 13 août les vignerons de l'association "Caves Ouvertes" ouvrent leurs caves pour vous faire découvrir le vignoble de Pouilly-Fumé à travers des visites thématiques et des dégustations commentées de leurs vins.

Renseignements : Office de tourisme au 03 86 20 63 85

Ils vous proposent des visites thématiques et des dégustations commentées tous les jours, de 15h à 19h.   
Les viticulteurs qui participent à l'opération Caves Ouvertes sont : - Marchand Pierre et Fils, Les Loges, 58 150 Pouilly-sur-Loire 03 86 39 14 61 "les stades d'évolution de la vigne au cours des saisons et les travaux qui s'y rattachent" - Grebet Père et Fils, Les Loges, 58 150 Pouilly-sur-Loire 03 86 39 00 11 "le labour et les façons culturales" - Blanchet Gilles, Le Bourg, 58 150 Saint-Andelain 03 86 39 14 03 "l'historique du Pouilly à travers le siècle dernier" - Barillot Père et Fils, Le Bouchot, 58 150 Pouilly-sur-Loire 03 86 39 15 29 "du pressurage à la mise en bouteille" 
 

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Sury-en-Vaux

Sury-en-Vaux

Fête au village : la Sabotée sancerroise

Lundi 15 août le célèbre groupe local la Sabotée Sancerroise vous donne rendez-vous à Sury en Vaux pour une journée placée sous le signe des folklores du monde…et du Sancerre. Entrée gratuite. Restauration sur place.

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Pouilly-sur-Loire

Foire aux vins de Pouilly sur Loire

Lundi 15 août profitez de la journée pour découvrir ou redécouvrir les vins de l'appellation Pouilly-Fumé ainsi que les autres appellations du Centre-Loire. Entrée gratuite

Picking in Sancerre (Chez Vincent Grall) September 2009

On Thursday 30th March there was the opportunity to taste 56 Sauvignon Blancs (all 2010s) from the Central vineyards with examples from Coteaux du Giennois, Reuilly, Quincy, Menetou-Salon, Pouilly-Fumé and Sancerre. The wines weren't selected, rather it was down to the producers to decide whether they wanted to enter their wines into this tasting. The tasting was held at The Sampler in London's South Kensington.

Overall these 2010s emphasised the difference between this year and 2009 with the 10s leaner, considerably less rich and opulent. This is a more classic Loire vintage with lower alcohol levels but higher acidity. Many of these wines had only recently been bottled so were quite tight and I expect they will take on some more weight over the next few months.

Coteaux du Giennois

 

Of the five Giennois on show, this crisp and lemony wine from Domaine de Montbenoît (Sainte-Gemme) was my preferred wine with Rivotte from Domaine Poupat et Fils (Rivotte) as the runner-up.

 

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Quincy

 

The soft, quite spicy and weighty Domaine Trotereau (Quincy) was my preferred wine from 10  Quincys shown followed by Les Vignes d'Adèle, Domaine Adèle Rouzé (Quincy) and Domaine Vincent Siret-Courtaud (Lunery). Vincent Siret-Courtaudis promising young vigneron, whose wine I first tasted at this year's Salon des Vins de Loire. Vincent also has vines in Châteaumeillant and is not the only vigneron in Quincy to have holdings in both appellations. He is joined by Nicolas Lecomte (Domaine Lecomte) and Domaine Roux.

Menetou-Salon
Although there were only six wines presented from this appellation it had my highest hit rate of the six ACs in this tasting. Two stood out – the grassy and goosebery Domaine Chavet (Menetou-Salon) and the weighty and well balanced Domaine de Châtenoy (Menetou-Salon) followed by Cave Gilbon (Soulangis) and Domaine Pellé (Morogues).

Followed by:

 

Pouilly-Fumé
Out of the ten examples from Pouilly-Fumé, one stood out – the floral and long flavoured Harmonie from Domaine Chatelain (Saint-Andelain) with the Domaine Cédrick Bardin as runner-up.

Sancerre 
Since this is easily the largest appellation it was hardly a surprise that Sancerre supplied 21 wines. My preferred wines were: Les Chasseignes, Domaine Claude Riffault ((Sury-en-Vaux); Vin d'Homme, Dionysia (Auguste Natter in Montigny); Les Classiques, Domaine Henry Natter (Montigny); Domaine Yves et Pierre Martin (Chavignol); Origine, Domaine Matthias et Emile Roblin (Mainbray); and L'Authentique, Domaine Thomas-Labaille (Chavignol).   

 

Close behind were Domaine Daniel Crochet (Bué) and Tradition from Domaine Bernard Fleuriet et Fils (Menetou-Ratel).

 

Reuilly
None of the three Reuillys shown really stood out. The quite lean and minerally La Raie from Domaine Lafond being the best.

 

Following on from the two 2008 Pouilly-Fumés drunk earlier this week, last night I tried the 2009 Tradition from Serge Dagueneau et Filles. This has the richness that I expect from the 2009 vintage and while it doesn't have the same concentration and complexity that their 2008 Clos des Chaudoux has, it does have well balanced grassy and citric fruit well balanced with mineral acidity. In any case you would expect the single vineyard Clos des Chaudoux to be a more interesting and complex wine than the Tradition, which is Dagueneau's 'entry level' Pouilly-Fumé.

Certainly it is a more interesting and complex wine than the 2008 de Ladoucette. Furthermore it is considerably cheaper: wine-searcher shows that it can be bought in France from 11.80€, while the de Ladoucette is now from 17.99€.

2009 Pouilly-Fumé, Domaine des Fines Caillottes, Jean Pabiot et fils

The Jean Pabiot domaine is based in Les Loges and I think it is one of the most reliable of Pouilly-Fumé producers. The 2007 has already featured on a number of occasions on this blog. The 2009 is naturally richer and fuller than the 2007.  Apricot and peach are to the fore with the 2009 vintage.  Although it has enough acidity and doesn't have a tendency to be cloying as is the case with some 2009 Loire Sauvignons, it is best to serve this quite well chilled.  

 Florence Dagueneau in August 2008

We dropped into to see Valerie Dagueneau (Serge Dagueneau et Filles, Les Berthiers, Saint-Andelain) and she kindly invited us to stay for lunch. This was the first time that I had visited the domaine since the very sad and sudden death of Florence Dagueneau in mid-February. It was clear that Florence has left a big hole in this close knit family and I imagine that her absence is being particularly keenly felt at vintage time. 

Over a simple harvest lunch, which included a delicious home-made pork and rabbit terrine made by Rémy from rabbit shot by Serge, we tasted their current range. This included a 2009 Pinot Noir from the Côtes de la Charité (formerly called Coteaux Charitois). Medium weight with attractive black fruits with length and freshness in the finish. "C'était Flo's truc," said Valerie.  

"We started last Tuesday," said Valerie, "beginning picking by hand the young and old vines. The old vines came in at 13% and 5.5 acidity. Fruit coming in from those parcels we machine-pick is at nearly 12% with a little under 6.0 acidity. Our Pinot Noir from Saint-lay has been picked and has a potential of 12.3%. We are about halfway through picking."

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Landrat-Guyollot
We also dropped in to see Sophie Guyollot (Landrat-Guyollot also in Les Berthiers). Sophie reported that they had started last Wednesday with the grapes coming in at between 11.0%-11.5% with 6 acidity. "We have five days of harvesting left and we need now to pick as quickly as possible."

Michel Redde et Fils
I also stopped off at Michel Redde and saw Sébastien, Thierry Redde's son. "This year we are picking 50% by hand and 50% by machine – essentially it is our Petit Fumé which is machine harvested. However, the objective is to move to 100% hand picking into 10-12 kilo cagettes. We started picking last Monday (27th September) and we should finish on Thursday or Friday. The fruit is between 12%-12.5% with around 5.8 acidity. I think 2010 will probably be similar to 2007 and 2002."

 

Alain Cailbourdin

Loïc pushing grapes along the press

Following the visit to Florian Mollet we headed across the Loire into Pouilly, where like in Sancerre there was some picking activity despite the miserably wet weather. First stop was to Domaine Cailbourdin in Maltaverne where Alain Cailbourdin has now been joined by his son, 23 year-old Loïc.

They had started picking last Tuesday and worked through to the weekend but hadn't picked on Monday. Everything is picked by machine and they had started again Tuesday morning but stopped because of the weather. "We have got another four days picking," said Alain. "Alcohol levels are averaging out at around 12.9% with 5.6 acidity with yields varying between 45 hl/ha to 60hl/ha depending upon the parcel and age of the vine."

Our next stop was up in Saint-Andelain to see Benjamin Dagueneau, who was clearly very pleased to have virtually finished picking. "95% is in," he said. "We started last Thursday and finished on Sunday. Degrees vary between 12.5%-12.7% with the acidity around 5.5." We tasted the some very clean and precise juice from a number of vats. Benjamin is particularly pleased with the potential of the 2010 Buisson Renard.    

Benjamin Dagueneau in September 2007

 

La Tour du Pouilly-Fumé

During a visit to Serge Dagueneau et Filles yesterday, Valerie Dagueneau recommended that we visit the newly opened La Tour du Pouilly-Fumé, so we dropped in at the beginning of the afternoon. It is an exhibition centre for the wines of Pouilly, somewhat in the style of la Maison des Sancerre, and shares premises with the Pouilly tourist office. We had also met Georges Perret, a photographer, over a pickers' lunch with the Dagueneau family. Georges took the very fine photos of the Pouilly vineyards in all the seasons that have been used in the audio-visual displays at La Tour.

The exhibition and tourist office are housed in a historic group of buildings in the centre of Pouilly with la Tour dating back to the 15th century. The centre was inaugurated on 16th September, although it was unofficially open during the summer. 

La Tour features an audio-visual presentation that is spread over three rooms. In the first room 'Paroles de vignerons' concentrates on the history and development of the vineyards and wine of Pouilly-sur-Loire. The next room has 'les 4 saisons du Pouilly-Fumé' which shows the work in the vineyard throughout the year and in the last room producers talk about vinification and the style of wine. The visit concludes with a tasting of four wines – a Pouilly-sur-Loire and three Pouilly-Fumés from different terroirs – clay limestone, marne-kimmeridgean and silex (flint).

Overall the presentation is very well done and well worth the charge of 6€ and it is good to see something like this at Pouilly-sur-Loire, which hitherto has been rather moribund, especially in comparison to the dynamism of Sancerre, whose inhabitants seem to regard the people of Pouilly with the superior amusement that the rest of France reserves for the Belgians and are similarly the butt of jokes.

There are further plans: in 2011 l'observatoire de Saint-Andelain will open giving visitors a 360˚ view from Nevers to Gien and across to Bourges. Then in 2012 it is planned to open a restaurant in the old chai of La Tour de Pouilly.  

A couple of small points: the English translation is sometimes not quite right and the bottle of Pouilly-sur-Loire tasted was nearly empty and may have been open a few days, so was rather faded. The French word taille was translated as cutting when, in the context, 'pruning' would have been better.

 

La Tour du Pouilly-Fumé

30 Rue du Walbeck Rousseau

58150 Pouilly-sur-Loire

Tel: 03.86.24.04.70

Email: centreinterpretation@tourdupouillyfume.fr

Internet: http://www.pouillysurloire.fr/

 

 

View of the vineyards from Les Berthiers, Pouilly-sur-Loire

My apologies I had meant to get the results of the two day tasting at the offices of the Bureau du Centre at the beginning of June earlier but various things have intervened.

I have often been critical of the overall quality of Pouilly-Fumé. However, on this occasion they showed pretty well and were more homogeneous than those from neighbouring Sancerre, where in a number of instances lacked freshness probably due to high alcohol levels brought about in part by the small yields following the succession of hail storms. The best of the 2009 Pouilly-Fumés had a fine balance of ripe fruit and refreshing acidity.

Château Favray

The top wine: 
I had one clear favourite: Château de Favray from Quentin David. This stood clear of all the rest from the appellation. One of the people who joined me for the tasting was Mathilde David, the daughter of Quentin who was doing a stage at the Bureau du Centre. All the wines were tasted blind so it was a good surprise when the wine's identity was revealed. The 2009 Favray has attractive grassy aromas, ripe yellow plum flavours, good weight and a lovely balance which really makes the wine. 54 hl/ha was the yield for this wine with the grapes being picked by machine. Given the cleanness of the fruit in the 2009 vintage.

 

Quentin David: 2008 vintage 

 

Very well noted wines:

Régis Minet: Vent d'Anges  (hand picked)

Tinel Blondelet Cuvée Genetin (machine picked)

Well noted wines:

Caves de Pouilly Le Bergerie  (machine picked 60%, hand picked 40%)

Domaine de Boisfleury, Les Champs Billards (machine picked)

Francis Blanchet, Calcaire  (machine picked)

Eric Louis, Les  Affaubertis (machine picked)

Also noted

Domaine Fournier _ Les Deux Cailloux (both machine and hand picked)

Domaine Chatelain, Les Chailloux (machine picked)

Domaine Joseph Mellot, Le Chant des Vignes (machine picked)

Domaine Seguin (machine picked)

Tinel Blondelet Arrêt Buffante (machine picked)

Jean-Pierre Bailly  (machine picked)