Sarah kneading the pasta

Sarah Ahmed (Portuguese Wine Writer of the Year 2009) and friends headed to the RSJ Restaurant early this morning to help prepare today's Sunday lunch with Ursula Ferrigno.

  This is pasta joke...

Seem to have lost the thread here...

Ursula's amused

Sarah in Sancerre in August 2008

It's that time of December when people devise lists of the best of the year. Wine is no different and here are two lists of best Loire wines tasted and enjoyed in 2010. First from Sarah Ahmed (the wine detective) who selects her top 5. Secondly this from Cathy Shore of the Tasting Room who has chosen their six best of the year.      

I fear Jim's Loire will cop out claiming that I can't make such a short selection, having tasted too many good Loire wines over the course of 2010!

Sarah Ahmed

Sarah Ahmed, one of the Loire judges for the Decanter World Wine Awards and sometimes my Loire travelling companion, has revamped her website and also launched a blog, despite previously declaring that she had no intention of having a blog. Her site can be found here and the blog here. She is the Portuguese Wine Awards Wine Writer of the Year for 2009.

Sarah Ahmed

Off tomorrow to the Worx in Parsons Green to judge the Loire entries for the Decanter World Wine Awards 2009. I'm the regional chair for the Loire and on my distinguished panel this year we have Sarah Ahmed (the wine detective), Chris Kissack (the wine doctor) and Nigel Wilkinson (RSJ Restaurant). We'll taste the Loire entries tomorrow and Thursday. Then on Friday the regional chairs judge the trophies.

Nigel Wikinson

Vignobles de France annulled by Le Conseil d’Etat

On Friday 20th February Le Conseil d’Etat, France’s highest court, annulled the statute that set up Vignobles de France, a vin de pays designation that covered most of France’s wine producing regions (64 départments) thus allowing blending across regions. Vignobles de France was set up on 28th February 2007, following a proposal from Viniflor (Office National Interprofessionnel des fruits, des legumes, des vins et l’horticulture).

The legal challenge was brought by the Fédération Régionale des Vignerons Indépendants du Languedoc-Roussillon, Le Syndicat des Vignerons de l’Hérault et L’Association La Cause du Vin, who felt you couldn’t have a vin de pays that covered most of the whole country. Also the vin de pays producers of the south of France believed that Vignobles de France would compete with their wines. The EU had had similar doubts about the legality of a countrywide vin de pays and refused to publish details of the Vignobles de France.

In its short life 70,000 hl of Vignobles de France were produced.

This is yet another example of an attempt to reform the French wine industry that has got nowhere. Over the past 20 years various reports have been produced, proposals made and so far nothing. The predecessor to Vignobles de France was Cépages de France and was another attempt to facilitate the sort of cross-regional blending that has always been possible in Australia and which might assist France in building large volume brands to compete in the world market. This proposal was also killed off by opposition from producers in the Midi.

The reclassification of the Bordeaux’s Cru Bourgeois and the Grand Cru Saint-Emilion were also knocked out by legal challenges.

A lethal combination of the French Government and the French wine producers seem to be happily tearing off the wheels of the French wine industry bus as it hurtles over the cliff.

•••

Much more positive note

Sarah on the case in Sancerre during the 'summer' of 2008

Sarah Ahmed, the wine detective and recent winner of the Annual Portuguese Wine Awards Wine Writer of the Year 2009, has just published her notes on wines tasted both at the Salon des Vins de Loire 2009 but also her trip to the Loire last August.

Sarah listens intently to Jean-Laurent Vacheron@Les Belles Dames vineyard.

(13 August 2008)

Some ten years ago Sarah Ahmed (aka The Wine Detective) left her high powered and remunerative job as an international lawyer to seek her fortune in wine. She is a Loire and Chenin Blanc aficionado. Sarah looks after the Loire section of the Oz Clarke Pocket Wine Book, as well as Portugal, and is a valued member of the Loire panel of judges for the Decanter World Wine Awards. She has a particular interest in the Loire’s organic and biodynamic producers.

"Anything you say will be noted and may be
used as evidence against you ..........."

Sarah is one of the very few UK wine journalists and writers, who is a regular at the annual Salon des Vins de Loire. held in Angers. Most of the UK wine press can't be arsed to take advantage of this friendly, well organised Salon that, every February, covers the whole of Loire – France's third largest wine region. Just four of us represented the UK at the 2008 edition – what a contrast to the UK wine buyers who are well represented. The 2009 edition is from 2nd to 4th February.

Sarah Ahmed: www.thewinedetective.co.uk
Salon des Vins de Loire: www.salondesvinsdeloire.com

(1996 Sauvignon Blanc, Clos Roche Blanche)

(10th August 2008)
Sarah Ahmed, the wine detective (www.thewinedetective.co.uk) and fellow writer, arrived from London to spend a week visiting producers together. Monday to Wednesday will be spent in Sancerre and Pouilly. Thursday it’s off to Bourgueil, Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil and Chinon. Friday is the 15th August – a national holiday, so no visits. We will finish with a day in Montlouis on Saturday.

To get ourselves tuned up for the Central Vineyards we looked at a number of aged Sauvignon Blancs, mainly Sancerres, over dinner. First up was a 1996 Touraine Sauvignon from Clos Roche Blanche, which is run by Catherine Roussel and Didier Barrouillet. Although the 1996 had some evolved Sauvignon characters, it still had an attractive fresh minerality – difficult to guess that it was 12 years old. Farmed organically and previously biodynamically Clos Roche Blanche between the villages of Mareuil and Pouillé in the Cher Valley has long been a beacon of excellence and Catherine and Didier have inspired a number of other local producers like Jérôme Sauvète, Jean-François Merieau and Vincent Ricard.




A rich 1995 Côte de Champtin Sancerre from Roger Champault et fils was next up. The Champaults are based the small village of Champtin, which is just west of Bué. The Côte de Champtin is a steep, south-facing slope above the village. Roger Champault has now retired and the family vineyards are now run by his two sons Claude and Laurent.

Two contrasting vintages – 2000 and 1997 – of the MD of Henri Bourgeois from the steep slopes of the Monts Damnés that overlook the village of Chavignol. The 2000 was quite austere and mineral, while the 1997 from a hotter year was rounder and softer. Both accompanied our cold salmon trout with perhaps the 2000 as the better match.

We finished with the grape that dominated Sancerre’s vineyards before the arrival of phylloxera towards the end of the 19th century – Pinot Noir trying a bottle of Alphonse Mellot’s Generation XIX 2004 Sancerre Rouge. The concentrated but still slightly angular 2004 still needs time but to me shows how red Sancerres have progressed over the past ten to fifteen years. Sarah is less convinced citing the oak.

Clos Roche Blanche, 19 Route de Montrichard, 41110 Mareuil-sur-Cher. Tel: 02.54.75.17.03
Roger Champault, 5, Route de Foulot - Champtin, 18300 Crézancy. Tel: 02.48.79.00.03
Email: roger.champaultetfils@neuf.fr