Oswaldo Costa
Oswaldo Costa
Loire Part 2: Taking it on the Chinon
Unlike unexceptional Angers, Chinon is cute as a button. So was our hotel, the Gargantua. Our room was lovely and we had no complaint about the dcor. We dropped off our bags, and sped off to our first appointment.
A Good Adventure
Like most of the wineries that we visited, Chateau de Coulaine is run by a husband & wife team. tienne et Pascale de Bonnaventure. tienne is local and Pascale is Parisian. tienne is shy and Pascale is outgoing. tienne makes the wine and Pascale puts it out there. They had, until recently, a B&B on the property, but no more.
On arrival at the lovely roadside chateau we were greeted by Pascale, who walked with us among the vines and took us to the underground cellars, explaining herself with charm and warmth, in a French so crystalline that it brought out the best in ours. We marveled at the notion that the networks of cellars and tunnels, found everywhere in the Loire, are the underground negative of the above-ground positive, consisting of all the edifications that were built with excavated material. Pascale then took us to a largish industrial shed where we exchanged a few words with tienne, a man of few words, busy with the grunt work of cleaning barrels and the like. Like all the other vignerons we met (except, to some extent, Mosse), they are pleased with the 2010 vintage, and had no problems with the September rains.
Coulaine is hardly on tip of every hipsters tongue, but we found the wines to be excellent, and noted the respect in which they are held by those to whom we mentioned them. They are not sans soufre, or radical about anything, but have the natural touch, and are judiciously esthetic about details. Witness this flower arrangement, the sort of think Pascale does as a matter of course.
During an eclectic conversation that ranged from Chinon politics to the local obsession with Joan of Arc, Pascale mentioned that massale planting is forbidden in the Chinon AOC. I was sure I couldnt have understood this correctly, so made her repeat it several times to avoid relaying an egregious untruth.
2009 Chinon 13.0%
Field blend. Cherry and chalk. Simple but balanced, clean and pure, quite lovely. Ideal house or bistro wine.
2008 Chinon Bonnaventure 12.5%
Cherry and leather. Also lovely, nice fruit but more muted, good acidity. Must decant.
2008 Chinon Clos de Turpenay 13.0%
From massale vines planted by tiennes father in 1960. Cherry, raspberry, leather, hint of brett. Lovely fruit, balanced, pleasant tannins. Delicious.
2008 Chinon Les Picasses 13.0%
80Y vines, 15Y vines. Muted nose. Fruity and balanced, cherry and raspberry. Darker, attractive tannins. Sees 1/3 new oak, 1/3 1Y, 1/3 2Y.
2008 Chinon La Diablesse 13.0%
Oldest vines (70-90Y) from north slope of Les Picasses. Muted nose, with some cherry. Fruity, herbal, balanced.
2008 Chinon Blanc 12.0%
Aromatic, straw, white flowers, chalk. Light oak, good density, attractive.
As part of an exchange program in which local wineries present each others wines to visitors, Pascale poured us another white:
2008 Domaine Melaric Billes de Roche Saumur Puy-Notre-Dame 13.5%
Rich, white flowers, hay, honey. Mouth shows quince and peach; slightly excessive ripeness, bitter finish.
Dinner at La Licorne, Fontevraud-LAbbaye
That night we went to dinner at this highly-touted restaurant, supposedly a hang-out of the Foucault brothers. Hard to believe, as it is pretentiously decorated and expensive. We ate well, of course (one nearly always eats well in recommended restaurants; perhaps because, even if they are uninspired in the kitchen, the ingredients are so fine), but what makes an experience memorable has much to do with the attitude, the decoration, the proportions of the room(s), how happy they pretend to be when they see you, where they seat you, the general vibe. etc. And, of course, how much they maul you when you ask for deliverance. It better be proportional to the pleasure.
On the way, Amlia gave us a fright by hurtling us down a narrow, winding and extremely bumpy sand-gravel road, through the heart of a dense forest, in pitch black darkness, for what felt like an eternity. At any moment, it seemed like we would be ambushed by the descendants of Robin des Bois. This is how we learned that one must never program a GPS to choose the shortest route. One must always choose the other option, the so-called fastest.
So, we chose a pair of half bottles to go with our courses. The Laureau let us down but the Delecheneau was good.
2008 Damien Laureau Savennires Les Genets 13.5%
Smells oaky, with hay and white flowers. Fruity, but too much wood.
2008 Domaine de la Grange Tiphaine (Damien Delecheneau) Ad Libitum Touraine 12.0%
Blend of Ct (35%), Gamay (25%) and Cab Franc (40%). Raspberry and forest floor. Good fruit, lovely acidity and balance. Tastes carbonic, but I dont think it is.
GPS sidebar: I found the gizmo a mixed blessing. It made our life easier more frequently than it made mistakes, but the latter generated unwanted tension in the cockpit. The control freak in me felt spatially alienated by not having any idea where the cardinal directions lay. Marxs point about capitalism alienating the working class from the means of production kept flashing on my teleprompter as I decided that the invention is part of a devious plot to estrange humans from their surroundings before the final takeover by machines with soothingly bossy female voices. Marcia, however, got along great with Amlia, and kept defending her. Must be a girl bonding thing. Now she misses Amlia.
Friday, October 15
Domaine Sbastien David
The world order always feels mildly skewed when someone has a first name for a last name. I dont want you to think that I am being familiar when I refer to Sbastien David as David.
Even though Sbastiens father had a winery, young David avoided the easy route and spent ten years working elsewhere, notably the US, but also Chile, before taking over the familial property in the late 1990s. This visit turned out to be one the most fascinating because of the variety of vinification techniques employed, even though I had a hard time following Davids fast and blurry delivery. He is clearly studious, with a self-assured command of technical matters, but is also a born tinkerer. Most important, the wines were delicious, and among the most interesting that we encountered.
The first vat we saw contained grapes undergoing traditional carbonic maceration.
Regular carbonic
Next came the surprise of the visit, semi-carbonic maceration taking place in barrel for the Kezako cuve. I had never heard of this procedure, but David said thats how they did it in his fathers time. A wire mesh is used, like a sieve, to select destemmed grapes of the desired size, and they are left to macerate entirely in the barrel.
Carbonic in barrel
Then we were taken to see barrels in which wine was being made the regular way (i.e., non carbonic). David said that people think its easier to make carbonic, but its actually more demanding because the method is more sensitive to picking ripeness. His main concern, when picking, is sweetness of tannins. On the subject of old barrel micro-oxygenation, David has an interesting take that might tie up some loose ends.
Fiat Lux moment #2: Ive heard differing opinions about whether or not wines oxygenate in old barrels when the pores become clogged after a few years of use. David said that, in the first year of a barrels use, roughly half the oxygenation comes from bunghole seepage and half from the open wood pores. But the pores lose 70% of their capacity in the first year, 25% in the second, and the remaining 5% in the third. After that, oxygenation comes solely from bunghole seepage. But that remains a significant reason for preferring old wood barrels to airtight stainless steel.
Barrel samples:
2010 Patrimoine
From gravel soils. Cherry, lard, forest floor. Zingy pre-malo acidity.
2010 Vieilles Vignes
Bramble and cherry. Still fermenting, very tannic and acidic, but great fruit to match.
2010 Kezako
Kezako is Languedoc slang for quest-ce que cst. Sample from a barrel full of fermenting grapes. Very sweet. Curious.
Bottle samples:
2009 Hurluberlu 12.5%
25 day carbonic maceration. Screw cap. Heady raspberry aroma. Attractive tannins, balanced, fresh yet serious.
2009 Le Ptit Herisson
From sans soufre bag-in-box. David says he has never had problems with exploding bibs. Mix of grapes left over from Hurluberlu, Kezako and Ni Dieu Ni Mitre. Cab Franc leather. Very pleasant, light, attractive.
2009 Kezako 12.8%
Musky berry aromas. Lovely balance, perfect tannins, round, sweet, delicious. Really liked this.
2007 Ni Dieu Ni Mitre
Macerated 40 days with weekly pigage. Bottled in December after spending two years in barriques and tonneaux. From a less ripe vintage. Animal, herbs, cherry, fresh. Soft, balanced, exotic, round. Lovely.
2008 Patrimoine
Elegant cherry. Good fruit, but acidity a bit fierce at this point.
As we drove from this instigating visit, feeling remiss for having too much wine-related pleasure without visiting any of the famous chateaux, we pointed the bonnet of our car towards the hood of Azay Le Rideau, a poorly maintained jewel box of a chateau, but one of the most beautiful.
Azay-le-Rideau
I am botanically challenged, but my indifference was challenged too.
Winner: Tree of the Trip Award
British Fleet
Yannick Amirault is one of Frances natural wine pioneers, and I was curious to try his wines, even though he doesnt seem to be getting much love lately. The admiral himself was busy maneuvering in the vineyards, but Mme Amirault graciously took us through the line-up.
2009 Bourgueil La Coudraye 12.5%
Bottled 8/30. From sand and gravel soils. Simple cherry aromas. Juicy, fruity, good balance, appealing tannins. Delicious entry level.
2008 St Nicolas de Bourgueil La Mine
Bottled in May. 40Y vines planted on gravel. Richer, with forest floor. Excellent texture, good acidity, balanced.
2008 Bourgueil Les Quartiers
Bottled August. 50Y vines planted on clay-limestone. More complex nose. Lovely structure, balanced. Impeccable.
2008 Bourgueil Le Grand Clos
Bottled 8/30. From clay-limestone. In 2008, included grapes from La Petite Cave vineyard. Closed. Good structure, strong acidity and tannins, needs boatload of time. Very promising.
2008 St Nicolas de Bourgueil Les Malgagnes 13.0%
From oldest vines in St Nicolas. Reduced, with berry and grilled meat. Wow, explodes in the mouth. Dark, brooding, complex, mouth-coating. Superb.
2009 Ros dEquinoxe
Lovely peach and citrus aromas. Attractive texture and body, good acidity.
For dinner, we went to a tiny (25 seat) restaurant recommended by Pascale de Bonnaventure. Foss St. Ange is run by a husband & wife team who live in Paris (he bow-tied executive, she redhead decorator) and spend Thursday through Sunday in a town not far from Chinon called Richelieu. She cooks while he does everything else (if there are aliens in the pantry, we didnt see them).
Yellow Windows
The restaurant was quite good, but was really blew us away was the town of Richelieu itself. It was built by the eponymous Cardinal, designed by King Louis XIIIs architect, populated by offering tax incentives, and finished in 1642, the year the Cardinal died. It is the anal retentive control freaks dream, an esthetically homogeneous ideal city built within a walled 620 x 390 meter rectangle, accessible by three monumental gates (a fake fourth exists to preserve symmetry). An amazing example of French urban rationalism, one that everyone should drop everything to visit right now.
(for info: http://www.ville-richelieu.fr/)
We ordered a Chateau de Coulaine as a gesture of thanks to Pascale.
2004 Chateau de Coulaine Chinon Les Picasses 13.0%
Plums and pine resin. Good balance, strong and astringent tannins. Young and austere, should eventually grow into very goodness.
Saturday, October 16
The long-awaited visit to Domaine Bernard Baudry took place on a sunny Saturday morning, with at least ten other people present, in contrast to our other visits (except Huet, later the same day), when we had the floor to ourselves. Many of those present seemed to be down from Paris for the weekend, and were taking the opportunity to stuff their car trunks, taking advantage of winery pricing. Envy. Matthieu Baudry greeted us in the parking lot, where we chatted before going in to taste.
In disorderly fashion, I asked about the franc de pied. In 2005, they had to pull out of their franc de pied vines (all in the Clos Guillot vineyard) because of phylloxera. There are only 0.3 hectares left, producing annually anywhere from 4 to 5 barriques, or 1,200 bottles. All Baudry vines are selection massale. Croix Boise comes from 30/40Y vines. The oldest vines are in Les Grzeaux. Chinon has a wide range of soils, and Matthieu says they want to express that variety using the brilliant concept of monocpage. Baudry is not a sans soufre shop, and use 15-25 mg/l at bottling. In the tasting room, there is an instructive display of the different soil samples.
Paydirt
In previous vinous excursions, I have not paid enough attention to matters of the soil, but this visit marked the beginning of wisdom. With the sounds of trumpets, I began to understand that I have a weakness for argilo-calcaire. Yes siree, sand-gravel has its moments, but clay-limestone is slowly becoming the earth on which to kneel (consistent with that, I shall henceforth privilege Domaine over Les Granges).
2009 Croix Boise Blanc 14.0%
White flowers, straw. Smooth, good body, good balance, delicious.
2008 Cuve Domaine 13.0%
80% clay-limestone and 20% gravel. Slightly candied cherry. More acid than sweet, austere, not the round, fruity, fresh wine I expected. Matthieu says its still too young, should be better next year. 2007 is a lighter vintage that is drinking well now.
2008 Clos Guillot 12.5%
Denser, some reduction. More acid than sweet, tannic, austere, needs time. Matthieu says to leave it alone until 2012.
2008 Croix Boise 13.5%
From Limestone. Much more complex aromas, dense cherry, sumptuous. Tremendous structure. Fresh, balanced. Tannins still a bit raspy, need time. Very pure.
2007 Croix Boise
Exotic, lovely, enveloping spicy cherry aromas. Perfect balance, rounder tannins, charming, seductive, delicious.
2009 Les Granges 12.5%
From 100% gravel. Dusky, chalky cherry. Attractive mouth feel, good balance, but could use some limestone.
2009 Franc de Pied
Muted nose, stalky cherry, cloves, refined. Lovely density, very structured, spicy, tannic, perfect balance.
At this point Matthieu brings out a very moldy bottle, saying its a divinette (guessing game).
2003 Clos Guillot
Sour cherry, reduction poop, animale. Rich, dark, ripe fruit, fresh, with good acidity. After revealing the vintage, Matthieu suggests that its an example of how terroir trumps weather, even though its still ripe by Loire standards. Convincing.
Another moldy divinette:
2002 Croix Boise
Dark, ripe plum, animale. Spicy, excellent balance, good mouth feel, round, mouth-coating tannins.
We didnt see Bernard around, but Matthieu was am highly personable host, brimming with pride in his wines, yet entirely devoid of affectation. A pleasure to meet.
In the afternoon, we were running late for our Huet appointment in Vouvray, so we just peeked into Manuela Chidaines La Cave Insolite store in Montlouis to see if the prices were worth returning for. I found them a bit high but, most of all, didnt like the vibe/attitude of the person minding the shop. Still, we intended to return to taste the Chidaine wines open on the counter, but never got around to it.
Sugar, Sugar
The equally long-awaited visit to Huet, in contrast to Baudry, was a bit of a letdown. I admire modern architecture as much as anyone, but found the polished modernity of the tasting room a visual index of what I avoid in wine.
Too much wood
But this is only in retrospect. We walked in with great expectations, and joined a handful of other visitors standing before a large, futuristic looking counter. The knowledgeable and upbeat Johan Le Callonec began to pour.
2005 Ptillant Brut
Apple and peach aromas. Quite acidic; carbonation too strong. Whats this, soda pop?
2009 Le Haut Lieu Sec
Almost colorless. Peachy, with light upfront sweetness, quickly dominated by green apple acidity.
1994 Le Mont Sec
Strange. Looks like moelleux (deep yellow), smells like moelleux (honey & botrytis) but tastes dry, with good balance. The dried apricot/green apple fruit has a baked quality.
2008 Le Haut Lieu Demi-Sec 13.5%
Honey and peach aromas. Good weight, decent balance, displeasing final bitterness.
2008 Le Mont Demi-Sec 13.5%
Honey and peach, sweeter than the Haut Lieu. Acidity outgunned.
2009 Le Haut Lieu Moelleux
Honey and peach, again. Flaccid, acid & minerals overwhelmed by sugar.
1985 Le Clos du Bourg Moelleux
Honey, peach and botrytis. Finally, some good weight, balance, and complexity.
There was a sign saying that, due to limited quantities, the 1er Tries were not available for tasting, but I think Johan divined my general dissatisfaction, so he fetched some, snatching victory from the mandibles of defeat.
2002 Le Mont Moelleux 1er Trie 12.5%
20% botrytized. Honey, peach and botrytis. Balanced, rich, lovely, bordering on awesome.
2009 Le Mont Moelleux 1er Trie 12.5%
No botrytis, only super mature grapes. Peach and honey. Rich, complex, balanced, light final bitterness.
Though the 1er tries saved the day and Johan took fine care of us, it is perhaps worth bitching that, in an avocation where small is beautiful, Huet was the only winery where our by-then utterly spoiled selfsames werent received by a member of the ruling family.
Dinner at LAuberge du Val de Vienne, Sazilly
Frustrated at not being able to visit Clos Rougeard (less on that later), I found out that LAuberge du Val de Vienne, across the street from the Joguet winery, had Le Bourg at a price compatible with US retail, so off we went to dinner. The dark, wood-paneled ambiance was a bit starched, but the food was quite good and the gestalt felt closer to my ideal of a warm country restaurant. The owner took our order and, when I named the wine, raised an eyebrow and asked, not unkindly, are you familiar with this wine? Taken by surprise, I said yes and no.
2003 Clos Rougeard Le Bourg Saumur-Champigny 12.5%
Nose starts reduced, with some vulcanized rubber that soon fades. Cherry, eucalyptus and powdered cocoa. Elegant mouth feel, grainy tannins, excellent acid/sweet balance, considerable density without bulkiness. Silky, with no sense of excessive ripeness, though the acidity began to lag towards the end of the meal. Good experience, but I wonder how representative.
Sunday, October 17
Speaking of not being able to visit Clos Rougeard (have I mentioned that already?), on Sunday morning we didnt pause to rest, and went to visit Antoine Foucaults Domaine du Collier, tucked away in the forlorn southwestern corner of the main square of Chac. Gingerly we knocked, and found everyone more or less asleep, as well as extremely hung over from the previous night, when they had celebrated the end of the harvest with a dinner for the workers. But Antoine, who, on top of everything, had a bad cold, scrambled into clothes and graciously took us down to the cellar for some barrel samples.
The large underground cellar looked remarkably ancient, so I asked Antoine what winery he had purchased it from. Appearing surprised, he replied that it used to belong to Clos Rougeard. Hmm, one more piece in the estrangement puzzle. What estrangement puzzle? Maybe youre not even puzzled.
Antoine said that 2010 had been a good harvest, but very long because of heterogeneous maturities. It began on September 27, and had only ended the previous day, October 16. His whites may not undergo malos; if they dont, Antoine seemed sure that it wouldnt happen later. Why? He uses 15/20 mg/l of sulfur at bottling. The whites spend two to three years in barrels, without racking, he stressed. Interestingly, Collier was the only winery where untasted barrel samples were not poured back into the barrels. Antoine said thats because the wines in the barrels are not protected from oxygen by sulfur, so he doesnt want to pour back wine that has been exposed to more oxygen.
I forget in what connection Antoine said this, but it seems interesting enough to relay: more alkaline soils produce more acidic wines and vice-versa. Richard Leroy had spoken admiringly of Foucault, and now it was the latters turn to reciprocate; they had been drinking Les Nols de Montbenault the previous evening and it was wonderful. This mutual admiration society is particularly interesting given the oxidativeness and oak that we found in young bottlings from both. Yet the underlying raw material seems remarkable if given the benefit of time and decanting.
2009 Saumur Blanc barrel sample
Lemony citrus and floral. Delicious.
2009 Saumur Blanc La Charpentrie barrel sample
100Y vines. Citrus. Extra lovely mouth feel. Antoine says it needs another year in barrel to become drier.
2009 Saumur Blanc barrel sample
From a different barrique, that ripened much faster. Very dry already.
At this point we went up to the garden, where Antoine opened some bottles in the chilly open air, where we were briefly joined by his charming wife, Caroline.
2007 Saumur Blanc La Charpentrie
Oxidative reduction, oak and fennel. Awesome mouth feel, dense, chewy, classy. Antoine says this vineyard yields only 12 hectoliters per hectare.
2006 Saumur Blanc
Citrus and fennel. Dense, chewy, oaky, but still utterly lovely. Asked about the wood, Antoine acknowledged that it appeared stronger in 06, but said this was due to the vintage; every year the whites get the same treatment, yet the concentrations and wood flavor vary.
2006 Saumur Blanc La Charpentrie
Fennel. Excellent structure and density, oak less apparent. Another superb white.
I was hot to trot to try the reds, but Antoine said that unfortunately there were none for us to try; but if the whites are any indication, they should be excellent.
OK, Ill tell you because youve made it this far: the last piece of the estrangement puzzle came together during one of our other visits. We were told that, back in the day when, against Nady Foucaults wishes, Antoine wanted to break away from Clos Rougeard, the patriarch (Charlie and Nadys father) sided with Antoine and gave him a piece of Clos Rougeard. The premises we visited were impressive, and the quality of the La Charpentrie material outstanding, so the rift seemed understandable.
After visiting Domaine du Collier, we drove to the nearby Chteau de Brz, home to a network of underground tunnels and former troglodyte caves. I dug the faucets in one of the bathrooms.
Foie-gras playing everywhere
The chateau is a functioning winery, and our ticket included a tasting, which we limited to three whites:
2005 Saumur Blanc 12.5%
Mechanical harvesting. 55 hl/hectare. White flowers, fennel and mushrooms. Liked this best, suggesting that a bit of age, under certain circumstances, can be preferable to manual harvesting.
2007 Saumur Blanc Cuve Dreux
Manual harvesting. 35 hl/hectare. Rich and deep white flower aromas. Good density, but slightly candied sweetness.
2009 Saumur Blanc 12.8%
Manual harvesting. 45 hl/hectare. Thinner mouth feel, less satisfying.
That afternoon we visited the imposing ruins of Chinon Castle, where Joan of Arc petitioned the Dauphin to let her save France. From there, there is a superb view of the surrounding countryside, including the rooftops of Chinon.
Dinner at Bar Vins de la Promenade in Bourgueil
Probably our favorite meal of the trip, in terms of the overall experience, took place that evening at an unpretentious bar-a-vin that had been recommended by both Pascale de Bonnaventure and Sbastien David. We cannot over-recommend this place, if you are ever in the area after, say, visiting Richelieu. The animated and expansive husband & wife team of Ludo and Sophie made us feel very much at home, and we chose a Sbastien David wine from a cellar well-stocked with natural wines at decent prices, with the excellent French system of imposing modest markups for tabular consumption. We liked Ludo and Sophie so much that we gave them a bottle of cachaa that we had in the car. They, in turn, gave us a bottle of a natural wine that we had never heard of, and that we drank with great pleasure in Paris on the last night of our trip (importer alert!).
2008 Foreau Demi Sec
Peach and honey. Simple, balanced, with good density.
2007 Sbastien David St Nicolas de Bourgueil Ni Dieu Ni Mitre 12.0%
Somewhat closed, but a splash decant brings out the dark and dusky raspberry and cherry. Balanced, initially very pleasant, growing increasingly lovely as the evening and the humors spiraled upwards.
Monday, October 18
After checking out of our hotel, we set off for Domaine Breton, another eagerly awaited visit. We were greeted by Pierre Breton, who said that Catherine (with whom we had made our appointment) was terribly under the weather, so he would have to conduct the visit instead. No complaints. After a quick look at the barrel cleaning and racking operations going on aboveground, we stepped down into a long and narrow vaulted cellar with a particularly ensconcing volumetry. This gives you an idea.
Circles and semi-circles
Pierre sat us down and launched into a fascinating description of the surrounding geology, talking too fast for me. The Loire and its affluents used to overflow regularly, so the local towns were built on the edges of the areas subject to inundation. Now that the rivers have been channeled and no longer misbehave, the alluvial soil, too rich for vineyards, is used for agricultural crops, while the vineyards occupy the less fertile land around and between the villages, particularly the slopes behind them. The region we were in not only marks the transition from the Brittany basin to the Paris basin, with their different soils, but from the semi-oceanic weather of Bourgueil to the semi-continental weather of Vouvray.
Assorted tidbits: this part of the Loire is too humid for Pinot Noir. Pierre prefers later harvests; they impart more complexity. He likes to play with clay-limestone v. sand-gravel. Carbonic maceration, at the beginning, tends to mask the vintage, but it manifests itself later. 2010 is a vintage where he wont need to search for extraction. It is looking similar to 2009 in terms of the sand-gravel wines, but clay-limestone wines are looking better in 2010. They still have 0.17 hectare of franc de pied vines, yielding approximately 1,200/1,300 bottles (same as Baudry). Like Sbastien David, Breton has had no problem using sans soufre bibs. As we talked, we tasted.
2009 Bourgueil La Dilettante 12.0%
Catherines project. Carbonic, from old vines on gravel. Rich cherry, fresh and lively. Pleasant, balanced. Simple, but quite lovely.
2009 Bourgueil Avis de Vin Fort 11.8%
A pun on the nautical term avis de vent fort. Pierre went to considerable yet futile lengths to explain to me how this is made like a ros, yet macerates for a week. It is meant to be a convivial wine, for easy drinking with your buddies. Nose is less pronounced than La Dilettante. But pleasant and balanced.
2009 Bourgueil Les Galichets 12.5%
From gravel soils. Sour cherry and chalk. More acid than sweet, good structure, appealing minerality and tannins.
2008 Bourgueil Clos Snchal 12.0%
Rich, dense, complex. Attractive sweetness and tannins. Excellent balance; rich and delicious.
2008 Bourgueil Perrires 12.5%
From 70Y vines planted on clay-limestone. Aged 24 months, just bottled. Cherry, mushrooms and spices. Smooth, dense, structured. Lovely.
2008 Chinon Beaumont 12.0%
From 40Y vines planted on clay-limestone, aged 12 months. Closed, but showing some ripe cherry. Silky and smooth, but less rich and complex.
2007 Chinon Saint Louans
From 60Y vines planted on clay-limestone, aged 12 months. Rich, complex, cherry and spice. Balanced and lovely.
2008 Vouvray La Dilettante
From clay-silex soils. Barrique fermented. Beautiful white flower perfume, very mineral. Good density and balance, light bitterness, not too dry.
2009 Vouvray La Dilettante Ptillant
Yeasty, white flowers and peach. Sweet, attractive, good aperitif.
N.V. Vouvray Brut
Assemblage of 04, 06 and 07. Nice perlage. Vibrant white flowers. Good structure, sapid and frothy.
At this point, I wondered out loud about the impossibility of making a sweet wine without sulfur. Pierre challenged this and went rummaging. He brought out a bottle covered in mold, containing:
2003 Vouvray Brut Ptillant Naturel
80g rs and sans soufre. Intense yeast, almond and white truffle aromas. Sweet, dense, syrupy, compote fruit flavors. Hey, but a bubbly crammed with CO2 doesnt count! Serves me right for issuing a challenge without laying down the rules...
Happy with the visit, but already beginning to feel the cumulative exhaustion of our investigations, we set off for our third and final hotel, near Amboise. From there, we mounted our final raids. Eastern Touraine has some of the more eccentric natural wine practitioners, and promised the vinous equivalent of extreme sports.
Coming up next: Loire Part 3: Amboise, Idaho
Unlike unexceptional Angers, Chinon is cute as a button. So was our hotel, the Gargantua. Our room was lovely and we had no complaint about the dcor. We dropped off our bags, and sped off to our first appointment.
A Good Adventure
Like most of the wineries that we visited, Chateau de Coulaine is run by a husband & wife team. tienne et Pascale de Bonnaventure. tienne is local and Pascale is Parisian. tienne is shy and Pascale is outgoing. tienne makes the wine and Pascale puts it out there. They had, until recently, a B&B on the property, but no more.
On arrival at the lovely roadside chateau we were greeted by Pascale, who walked with us among the vines and took us to the underground cellars, explaining herself with charm and warmth, in a French so crystalline that it brought out the best in ours. We marveled at the notion that the networks of cellars and tunnels, found everywhere in the Loire, are the underground negative of the above-ground positive, consisting of all the edifications that were built with excavated material. Pascale then took us to a largish industrial shed where we exchanged a few words with tienne, a man of few words, busy with the grunt work of cleaning barrels and the like. Like all the other vignerons we met (except, to some extent, Mosse), they are pleased with the 2010 vintage, and had no problems with the September rains.
Coulaine is hardly on tip of every hipsters tongue, but we found the wines to be excellent, and noted the respect in which they are held by those to whom we mentioned them. They are not sans soufre, or radical about anything, but have the natural touch, and are judiciously esthetic about details. Witness this flower arrangement, the sort of think Pascale does as a matter of course.
2009 Chinon 13.0%
Field blend. Cherry and chalk. Simple but balanced, clean and pure, quite lovely. Ideal house or bistro wine.
2008 Chinon Bonnaventure 12.5%
Cherry and leather. Also lovely, nice fruit but more muted, good acidity. Must decant.
2008 Chinon Clos de Turpenay 13.0%
From massale vines planted by tiennes father in 1960. Cherry, raspberry, leather, hint of brett. Lovely fruit, balanced, pleasant tannins. Delicious.
2008 Chinon Les Picasses 13.0%
80Y vines, 15Y vines. Muted nose. Fruity and balanced, cherry and raspberry. Darker, attractive tannins. Sees 1/3 new oak, 1/3 1Y, 1/3 2Y.
2008 Chinon La Diablesse 13.0%
Oldest vines (70-90Y) from north slope of Les Picasses. Muted nose, with some cherry. Fruity, herbal, balanced.
2008 Chinon Blanc 12.0%
Aromatic, straw, white flowers, chalk. Light oak, good density, attractive.
As part of an exchange program in which local wineries present each others wines to visitors, Pascale poured us another white:
2008 Domaine Melaric Billes de Roche Saumur Puy-Notre-Dame 13.5%
Rich, white flowers, hay, honey. Mouth shows quince and peach; slightly excessive ripeness, bitter finish.
Dinner at La Licorne, Fontevraud-LAbbaye
That night we went to dinner at this highly-touted restaurant, supposedly a hang-out of the Foucault brothers. Hard to believe, as it is pretentiously decorated and expensive. We ate well, of course (one nearly always eats well in recommended restaurants; perhaps because, even if they are uninspired in the kitchen, the ingredients are so fine), but what makes an experience memorable has much to do with the attitude, the decoration, the proportions of the room(s), how happy they pretend to be when they see you, where they seat you, the general vibe. etc. And, of course, how much they maul you when you ask for deliverance. It better be proportional to the pleasure.
On the way, Amlia gave us a fright by hurtling us down a narrow, winding and extremely bumpy sand-gravel road, through the heart of a dense forest, in pitch black darkness, for what felt like an eternity. At any moment, it seemed like we would be ambushed by the descendants of Robin des Bois. This is how we learned that one must never program a GPS to choose the shortest route. One must always choose the other option, the so-called fastest.
So, we chose a pair of half bottles to go with our courses. The Laureau let us down but the Delecheneau was good.
2008 Damien Laureau Savennires Les Genets 13.5%
Smells oaky, with hay and white flowers. Fruity, but too much wood.
2008 Domaine de la Grange Tiphaine (Damien Delecheneau) Ad Libitum Touraine 12.0%
Blend of Ct (35%), Gamay (25%) and Cab Franc (40%). Raspberry and forest floor. Good fruit, lovely acidity and balance. Tastes carbonic, but I dont think it is.
GPS sidebar: I found the gizmo a mixed blessing. It made our life easier more frequently than it made mistakes, but the latter generated unwanted tension in the cockpit. The control freak in me felt spatially alienated by not having any idea where the cardinal directions lay. Marxs point about capitalism alienating the working class from the means of production kept flashing on my teleprompter as I decided that the invention is part of a devious plot to estrange humans from their surroundings before the final takeover by machines with soothingly bossy female voices. Marcia, however, got along great with Amlia, and kept defending her. Must be a girl bonding thing. Now she misses Amlia.
Friday, October 15
Domaine Sbastien David
The world order always feels mildly skewed when someone has a first name for a last name. I dont want you to think that I am being familiar when I refer to Sbastien David as David.
Even though Sbastiens father had a winery, young David avoided the easy route and spent ten years working elsewhere, notably the US, but also Chile, before taking over the familial property in the late 1990s. This visit turned out to be one the most fascinating because of the variety of vinification techniques employed, even though I had a hard time following Davids fast and blurry delivery. He is clearly studious, with a self-assured command of technical matters, but is also a born tinkerer. Most important, the wines were delicious, and among the most interesting that we encountered.
The first vat we saw contained grapes undergoing traditional carbonic maceration.
Next came the surprise of the visit, semi-carbonic maceration taking place in barrel for the Kezako cuve. I had never heard of this procedure, but David said thats how they did it in his fathers time. A wire mesh is used, like a sieve, to select destemmed grapes of the desired size, and they are left to macerate entirely in the barrel.
Then we were taken to see barrels in which wine was being made the regular way (i.e., non carbonic). David said that people think its easier to make carbonic, but its actually more demanding because the method is more sensitive to picking ripeness. His main concern, when picking, is sweetness of tannins. On the subject of old barrel micro-oxygenation, David has an interesting take that might tie up some loose ends.
Fiat Lux moment #2: Ive heard differing opinions about whether or not wines oxygenate in old barrels when the pores become clogged after a few years of use. David said that, in the first year of a barrels use, roughly half the oxygenation comes from bunghole seepage and half from the open wood pores. But the pores lose 70% of their capacity in the first year, 25% in the second, and the remaining 5% in the third. After that, oxygenation comes solely from bunghole seepage. But that remains a significant reason for preferring old wood barrels to airtight stainless steel.
Barrel samples:
2010 Patrimoine
From gravel soils. Cherry, lard, forest floor. Zingy pre-malo acidity.
2010 Vieilles Vignes
Bramble and cherry. Still fermenting, very tannic and acidic, but great fruit to match.
2010 Kezako
Kezako is Languedoc slang for quest-ce que cst. Sample from a barrel full of fermenting grapes. Very sweet. Curious.
Bottle samples:
2009 Hurluberlu 12.5%
25 day carbonic maceration. Screw cap. Heady raspberry aroma. Attractive tannins, balanced, fresh yet serious.
2009 Le Ptit Herisson
From sans soufre bag-in-box. David says he has never had problems with exploding bibs. Mix of grapes left over from Hurluberlu, Kezako and Ni Dieu Ni Mitre. Cab Franc leather. Very pleasant, light, attractive.
2009 Kezako 12.8%
Musky berry aromas. Lovely balance, perfect tannins, round, sweet, delicious. Really liked this.
2007 Ni Dieu Ni Mitre
Macerated 40 days with weekly pigage. Bottled in December after spending two years in barriques and tonneaux. From a less ripe vintage. Animal, herbs, cherry, fresh. Soft, balanced, exotic, round. Lovely.
2008 Patrimoine
Elegant cherry. Good fruit, but acidity a bit fierce at this point.
As we drove from this instigating visit, feeling remiss for having too much wine-related pleasure without visiting any of the famous chateaux, we pointed the bonnet of our car towards the hood of Azay Le Rideau, a poorly maintained jewel box of a chateau, but one of the most beautiful.
I am botanically challenged, but my indifference was challenged too.
British Fleet
Yannick Amirault is one of Frances natural wine pioneers, and I was curious to try his wines, even though he doesnt seem to be getting much love lately. The admiral himself was busy maneuvering in the vineyards, but Mme Amirault graciously took us through the line-up.
2009 Bourgueil La Coudraye 12.5%
Bottled 8/30. From sand and gravel soils. Simple cherry aromas. Juicy, fruity, good balance, appealing tannins. Delicious entry level.
2008 St Nicolas de Bourgueil La Mine
Bottled in May. 40Y vines planted on gravel. Richer, with forest floor. Excellent texture, good acidity, balanced.
2008 Bourgueil Les Quartiers
Bottled August. 50Y vines planted on clay-limestone. More complex nose. Lovely structure, balanced. Impeccable.
2008 Bourgueil Le Grand Clos
Bottled 8/30. From clay-limestone. In 2008, included grapes from La Petite Cave vineyard. Closed. Good structure, strong acidity and tannins, needs boatload of time. Very promising.
2008 St Nicolas de Bourgueil Les Malgagnes 13.0%
From oldest vines in St Nicolas. Reduced, with berry and grilled meat. Wow, explodes in the mouth. Dark, brooding, complex, mouth-coating. Superb.
2009 Ros dEquinoxe
Lovely peach and citrus aromas. Attractive texture and body, good acidity.
For dinner, we went to a tiny (25 seat) restaurant recommended by Pascale de Bonnaventure. Foss St. Ange is run by a husband & wife team who live in Paris (he bow-tied executive, she redhead decorator) and spend Thursday through Sunday in a town not far from Chinon called Richelieu. She cooks while he does everything else (if there are aliens in the pantry, we didnt see them).
The restaurant was quite good, but was really blew us away was the town of Richelieu itself. It was built by the eponymous Cardinal, designed by King Louis XIIIs architect, populated by offering tax incentives, and finished in 1642, the year the Cardinal died. It is the anal retentive control freaks dream, an esthetically homogeneous ideal city built within a walled 620 x 390 meter rectangle, accessible by three monumental gates (a fake fourth exists to preserve symmetry). An amazing example of French urban rationalism, one that everyone should drop everything to visit right now.
(for info: http://www.ville-richelieu.fr/)
We ordered a Chateau de Coulaine as a gesture of thanks to Pascale.
2004 Chateau de Coulaine Chinon Les Picasses 13.0%
Plums and pine resin. Good balance, strong and astringent tannins. Young and austere, should eventually grow into very goodness.
Saturday, October 16
The long-awaited visit to Domaine Bernard Baudry took place on a sunny Saturday morning, with at least ten other people present, in contrast to our other visits (except Huet, later the same day), when we had the floor to ourselves. Many of those present seemed to be down from Paris for the weekend, and were taking the opportunity to stuff their car trunks, taking advantage of winery pricing. Envy. Matthieu Baudry greeted us in the parking lot, where we chatted before going in to taste.
In disorderly fashion, I asked about the franc de pied. In 2005, they had to pull out of their franc de pied vines (all in the Clos Guillot vineyard) because of phylloxera. There are only 0.3 hectares left, producing annually anywhere from 4 to 5 barriques, or 1,200 bottles. All Baudry vines are selection massale. Croix Boise comes from 30/40Y vines. The oldest vines are in Les Grzeaux. Chinon has a wide range of soils, and Matthieu says they want to express that variety using the brilliant concept of monocpage. Baudry is not a sans soufre shop, and use 15-25 mg/l at bottling. In the tasting room, there is an instructive display of the different soil samples.
In previous vinous excursions, I have not paid enough attention to matters of the soil, but this visit marked the beginning of wisdom. With the sounds of trumpets, I began to understand that I have a weakness for argilo-calcaire. Yes siree, sand-gravel has its moments, but clay-limestone is slowly becoming the earth on which to kneel (consistent with that, I shall henceforth privilege Domaine over Les Granges).
2009 Croix Boise Blanc 14.0%
White flowers, straw. Smooth, good body, good balance, delicious.
2008 Cuve Domaine 13.0%
80% clay-limestone and 20% gravel. Slightly candied cherry. More acid than sweet, austere, not the round, fruity, fresh wine I expected. Matthieu says its still too young, should be better next year. 2007 is a lighter vintage that is drinking well now.
2008 Clos Guillot 12.5%
Denser, some reduction. More acid than sweet, tannic, austere, needs time. Matthieu says to leave it alone until 2012.
2008 Croix Boise 13.5%
From Limestone. Much more complex aromas, dense cherry, sumptuous. Tremendous structure. Fresh, balanced. Tannins still a bit raspy, need time. Very pure.
2007 Croix Boise
Exotic, lovely, enveloping spicy cherry aromas. Perfect balance, rounder tannins, charming, seductive, delicious.
2009 Les Granges 12.5%
From 100% gravel. Dusky, chalky cherry. Attractive mouth feel, good balance, but could use some limestone.
2009 Franc de Pied
Muted nose, stalky cherry, cloves, refined. Lovely density, very structured, spicy, tannic, perfect balance.
At this point Matthieu brings out a very moldy bottle, saying its a divinette (guessing game).
2003 Clos Guillot
Sour cherry, reduction poop, animale. Rich, dark, ripe fruit, fresh, with good acidity. After revealing the vintage, Matthieu suggests that its an example of how terroir trumps weather, even though its still ripe by Loire standards. Convincing.
Another moldy divinette:
2002 Croix Boise
Dark, ripe plum, animale. Spicy, excellent balance, good mouth feel, round, mouth-coating tannins.
We didnt see Bernard around, but Matthieu was am highly personable host, brimming with pride in his wines, yet entirely devoid of affectation. A pleasure to meet.
In the afternoon, we were running late for our Huet appointment in Vouvray, so we just peeked into Manuela Chidaines La Cave Insolite store in Montlouis to see if the prices were worth returning for. I found them a bit high but, most of all, didnt like the vibe/attitude of the person minding the shop. Still, we intended to return to taste the Chidaine wines open on the counter, but never got around to it.
Sugar, Sugar
The equally long-awaited visit to Huet, in contrast to Baudry, was a bit of a letdown. I admire modern architecture as much as anyone, but found the polished modernity of the tasting room a visual index of what I avoid in wine.
But this is only in retrospect. We walked in with great expectations, and joined a handful of other visitors standing before a large, futuristic looking counter. The knowledgeable and upbeat Johan Le Callonec began to pour.
2005 Ptillant Brut
Apple and peach aromas. Quite acidic; carbonation too strong. Whats this, soda pop?
2009 Le Haut Lieu Sec
Almost colorless. Peachy, with light upfront sweetness, quickly dominated by green apple acidity.
1994 Le Mont Sec
Strange. Looks like moelleux (deep yellow), smells like moelleux (honey & botrytis) but tastes dry, with good balance. The dried apricot/green apple fruit has a baked quality.
2008 Le Haut Lieu Demi-Sec 13.5%
Honey and peach aromas. Good weight, decent balance, displeasing final bitterness.
2008 Le Mont Demi-Sec 13.5%
Honey and peach, sweeter than the Haut Lieu. Acidity outgunned.
2009 Le Haut Lieu Moelleux
Honey and peach, again. Flaccid, acid & minerals overwhelmed by sugar.
1985 Le Clos du Bourg Moelleux
Honey, peach and botrytis. Finally, some good weight, balance, and complexity.
There was a sign saying that, due to limited quantities, the 1er Tries were not available for tasting, but I think Johan divined my general dissatisfaction, so he fetched some, snatching victory from the mandibles of defeat.
2002 Le Mont Moelleux 1er Trie 12.5%
20% botrytized. Honey, peach and botrytis. Balanced, rich, lovely, bordering on awesome.
2009 Le Mont Moelleux 1er Trie 12.5%
No botrytis, only super mature grapes. Peach and honey. Rich, complex, balanced, light final bitterness.
Though the 1er tries saved the day and Johan took fine care of us, it is perhaps worth bitching that, in an avocation where small is beautiful, Huet was the only winery where our by-then utterly spoiled selfsames werent received by a member of the ruling family.
Dinner at LAuberge du Val de Vienne, Sazilly
Frustrated at not being able to visit Clos Rougeard (less on that later), I found out that LAuberge du Val de Vienne, across the street from the Joguet winery, had Le Bourg at a price compatible with US retail, so off we went to dinner. The dark, wood-paneled ambiance was a bit starched, but the food was quite good and the gestalt felt closer to my ideal of a warm country restaurant. The owner took our order and, when I named the wine, raised an eyebrow and asked, not unkindly, are you familiar with this wine? Taken by surprise, I said yes and no.
2003 Clos Rougeard Le Bourg Saumur-Champigny 12.5%
Nose starts reduced, with some vulcanized rubber that soon fades. Cherry, eucalyptus and powdered cocoa. Elegant mouth feel, grainy tannins, excellent acid/sweet balance, considerable density without bulkiness. Silky, with no sense of excessive ripeness, though the acidity began to lag towards the end of the meal. Good experience, but I wonder how representative.
Sunday, October 17
Speaking of not being able to visit Clos Rougeard (have I mentioned that already?), on Sunday morning we didnt pause to rest, and went to visit Antoine Foucaults Domaine du Collier, tucked away in the forlorn southwestern corner of the main square of Chac. Gingerly we knocked, and found everyone more or less asleep, as well as extremely hung over from the previous night, when they had celebrated the end of the harvest with a dinner for the workers. But Antoine, who, on top of everything, had a bad cold, scrambled into clothes and graciously took us down to the cellar for some barrel samples.
The large underground cellar looked remarkably ancient, so I asked Antoine what winery he had purchased it from. Appearing surprised, he replied that it used to belong to Clos Rougeard. Hmm, one more piece in the estrangement puzzle. What estrangement puzzle? Maybe youre not even puzzled.
Antoine said that 2010 had been a good harvest, but very long because of heterogeneous maturities. It began on September 27, and had only ended the previous day, October 16. His whites may not undergo malos; if they dont, Antoine seemed sure that it wouldnt happen later. Why? He uses 15/20 mg/l of sulfur at bottling. The whites spend two to three years in barrels, without racking, he stressed. Interestingly, Collier was the only winery where untasted barrel samples were not poured back into the barrels. Antoine said thats because the wines in the barrels are not protected from oxygen by sulfur, so he doesnt want to pour back wine that has been exposed to more oxygen.
I forget in what connection Antoine said this, but it seems interesting enough to relay: more alkaline soils produce more acidic wines and vice-versa. Richard Leroy had spoken admiringly of Foucault, and now it was the latters turn to reciprocate; they had been drinking Les Nols de Montbenault the previous evening and it was wonderful. This mutual admiration society is particularly interesting given the oxidativeness and oak that we found in young bottlings from both. Yet the underlying raw material seems remarkable if given the benefit of time and decanting.
2009 Saumur Blanc barrel sample
Lemony citrus and floral. Delicious.
2009 Saumur Blanc La Charpentrie barrel sample
100Y vines. Citrus. Extra lovely mouth feel. Antoine says it needs another year in barrel to become drier.
2009 Saumur Blanc barrel sample
From a different barrique, that ripened much faster. Very dry already.
At this point we went up to the garden, where Antoine opened some bottles in the chilly open air, where we were briefly joined by his charming wife, Caroline.
2007 Saumur Blanc La Charpentrie
Oxidative reduction, oak and fennel. Awesome mouth feel, dense, chewy, classy. Antoine says this vineyard yields only 12 hectoliters per hectare.
2006 Saumur Blanc
Citrus and fennel. Dense, chewy, oaky, but still utterly lovely. Asked about the wood, Antoine acknowledged that it appeared stronger in 06, but said this was due to the vintage; every year the whites get the same treatment, yet the concentrations and wood flavor vary.
2006 Saumur Blanc La Charpentrie
Fennel. Excellent structure and density, oak less apparent. Another superb white.
I was hot to trot to try the reds, but Antoine said that unfortunately there were none for us to try; but if the whites are any indication, they should be excellent.
OK, Ill tell you because youve made it this far: the last piece of the estrangement puzzle came together during one of our other visits. We were told that, back in the day when, against Nady Foucaults wishes, Antoine wanted to break away from Clos Rougeard, the patriarch (Charlie and Nadys father) sided with Antoine and gave him a piece of Clos Rougeard. The premises we visited were impressive, and the quality of the La Charpentrie material outstanding, so the rift seemed understandable.
After visiting Domaine du Collier, we drove to the nearby Chteau de Brz, home to a network of underground tunnels and former troglodyte caves. I dug the faucets in one of the bathrooms.
The chateau is a functioning winery, and our ticket included a tasting, which we limited to three whites:
2005 Saumur Blanc 12.5%
Mechanical harvesting. 55 hl/hectare. White flowers, fennel and mushrooms. Liked this best, suggesting that a bit of age, under certain circumstances, can be preferable to manual harvesting.
2007 Saumur Blanc Cuve Dreux
Manual harvesting. 35 hl/hectare. Rich and deep white flower aromas. Good density, but slightly candied sweetness.
2009 Saumur Blanc 12.8%
Manual harvesting. 45 hl/hectare. Thinner mouth feel, less satisfying.
That afternoon we visited the imposing ruins of Chinon Castle, where Joan of Arc petitioned the Dauphin to let her save France. From there, there is a superb view of the surrounding countryside, including the rooftops of Chinon.
Probably our favorite meal of the trip, in terms of the overall experience, took place that evening at an unpretentious bar-a-vin that had been recommended by both Pascale de Bonnaventure and Sbastien David. We cannot over-recommend this place, if you are ever in the area after, say, visiting Richelieu. The animated and expansive husband & wife team of Ludo and Sophie made us feel very much at home, and we chose a Sbastien David wine from a cellar well-stocked with natural wines at decent prices, with the excellent French system of imposing modest markups for tabular consumption. We liked Ludo and Sophie so much that we gave them a bottle of cachaa that we had in the car. They, in turn, gave us a bottle of a natural wine that we had never heard of, and that we drank with great pleasure in Paris on the last night of our trip (importer alert!).
2008 Foreau Demi Sec
Peach and honey. Simple, balanced, with good density.
2007 Sbastien David St Nicolas de Bourgueil Ni Dieu Ni Mitre 12.0%
Somewhat closed, but a splash decant brings out the dark and dusky raspberry and cherry. Balanced, initially very pleasant, growing increasingly lovely as the evening and the humors spiraled upwards.
Monday, October 18
After checking out of our hotel, we set off for Domaine Breton, another eagerly awaited visit. We were greeted by Pierre Breton, who said that Catherine (with whom we had made our appointment) was terribly under the weather, so he would have to conduct the visit instead. No complaints. After a quick look at the barrel cleaning and racking operations going on aboveground, we stepped down into a long and narrow vaulted cellar with a particularly ensconcing volumetry. This gives you an idea.
Pierre sat us down and launched into a fascinating description of the surrounding geology, talking too fast for me. The Loire and its affluents used to overflow regularly, so the local towns were built on the edges of the areas subject to inundation. Now that the rivers have been channeled and no longer misbehave, the alluvial soil, too rich for vineyards, is used for agricultural crops, while the vineyards occupy the less fertile land around and between the villages, particularly the slopes behind them. The region we were in not only marks the transition from the Brittany basin to the Paris basin, with their different soils, but from the semi-oceanic weather of Bourgueil to the semi-continental weather of Vouvray.
Assorted tidbits: this part of the Loire is too humid for Pinot Noir. Pierre prefers later harvests; they impart more complexity. He likes to play with clay-limestone v. sand-gravel. Carbonic maceration, at the beginning, tends to mask the vintage, but it manifests itself later. 2010 is a vintage where he wont need to search for extraction. It is looking similar to 2009 in terms of the sand-gravel wines, but clay-limestone wines are looking better in 2010. They still have 0.17 hectare of franc de pied vines, yielding approximately 1,200/1,300 bottles (same as Baudry). Like Sbastien David, Breton has had no problem using sans soufre bibs. As we talked, we tasted.
2009 Bourgueil La Dilettante 12.0%
Catherines project. Carbonic, from old vines on gravel. Rich cherry, fresh and lively. Pleasant, balanced. Simple, but quite lovely.
2009 Bourgueil Avis de Vin Fort 11.8%
A pun on the nautical term avis de vent fort. Pierre went to considerable yet futile lengths to explain to me how this is made like a ros, yet macerates for a week. It is meant to be a convivial wine, for easy drinking with your buddies. Nose is less pronounced than La Dilettante. But pleasant and balanced.
2009 Bourgueil Les Galichets 12.5%
From gravel soils. Sour cherry and chalk. More acid than sweet, good structure, appealing minerality and tannins.
2008 Bourgueil Clos Snchal 12.0%
Rich, dense, complex. Attractive sweetness and tannins. Excellent balance; rich and delicious.
2008 Bourgueil Perrires 12.5%
From 70Y vines planted on clay-limestone. Aged 24 months, just bottled. Cherry, mushrooms and spices. Smooth, dense, structured. Lovely.
2008 Chinon Beaumont 12.0%
From 40Y vines planted on clay-limestone, aged 12 months. Closed, but showing some ripe cherry. Silky and smooth, but less rich and complex.
2007 Chinon Saint Louans
From 60Y vines planted on clay-limestone, aged 12 months. Rich, complex, cherry and spice. Balanced and lovely.
2008 Vouvray La Dilettante
From clay-silex soils. Barrique fermented. Beautiful white flower perfume, very mineral. Good density and balance, light bitterness, not too dry.
2009 Vouvray La Dilettante Ptillant
Yeasty, white flowers and peach. Sweet, attractive, good aperitif.
N.V. Vouvray Brut
Assemblage of 04, 06 and 07. Nice perlage. Vibrant white flowers. Good structure, sapid and frothy.
At this point, I wondered out loud about the impossibility of making a sweet wine without sulfur. Pierre challenged this and went rummaging. He brought out a bottle covered in mold, containing:
2003 Vouvray Brut Ptillant Naturel
80g rs and sans soufre. Intense yeast, almond and white truffle aromas. Sweet, dense, syrupy, compote fruit flavors. Hey, but a bubbly crammed with CO2 doesnt count! Serves me right for issuing a challenge without laying down the rules...
Happy with the visit, but already beginning to feel the cumulative exhaustion of our investigations, we set off for our third and final hotel, near Amboise. From there, we mounted our final raids. Eastern Touraine has some of the more eccentric natural wine practitioners, and promised the vinous equivalent of extreme sports.
Coming up next: Loire Part 3: Amboise, Idaho
