For comments on the vintages in general, please see the Beaujolais notes here, the Romorantin notes are there and so on.
I tasted quite a bit of chenin in the last couple of weeks in France, and I think I will generally organize those notes here, though if a producer has one or two non-chenin wines in the mix, I may include those.
The following calendar commentary may be a bit of inside baseball for those of you scoring at home, but I mention briefly that the whole business of showing the new vintage of the wines of the Loire in particular is in a state of fairly considerable disarray these days. Many merchants and importers showed up in France a couple of weeks ago for the big Millesime Bio fair in Montpellier (I didn’t quite arrive in time). The following weekend was the Dive Bouteille in Breze, in the Loire. The establishment Salon des Vins de Loire did not kick off until the Monday of the week after that, making it impossible for many of us (your correspondent included) to attend. This problem was obvious to many of the interesting and thoughtful growers, who objected strenuously, but to no avail. The guys who run the Salon are heavily influenced by the larger industrial producers, and the folks who buy those wines don’t really care whether they taste Closel, Puzelat, and the like or not, or whether the buyers of such wines find it convenient. So they kept the Salon on its usual track the Monday and Tuesday after the Super Bowl and lost many good producers. Francois Chidaine, who was on the Loire Valley wine board also resigned last week, complaining of large budgets misdirected. Fortunately, many of the folks I used to see at the Salon were either at the Rene Mosse/Puzelat thingy in Angers, or a couple of blocks away at the Vins Bio Loire show, or the couple of days before at the Joly Renaissance des AOCs in the same Greniers St. Jean, a lovely spot in Angers. There were also many exciting non-Loire growers in the mix at those splinter/satellite shows. I hope I can get to them all. But the Salon has become somewhat marginal, with many excellent producers no longer attending. I regret missing Huet, Baudry, Filliatreau, and a few others at the Salon, but I was a bit shocked that I managed to stay in France for ten days as it was. I hope the Loire growers can get their act together, it doesn’t really help anyone to have so many events on so many days, nice as most of them were.
On to chenin. As I mentioned, I did not get to taste the Huet wines. Perhaps the Pinon experience will give some hints. I was quite delighted to see Francois at the Vins Bio Loire bash, I had feared he would only be at the Salon and I would miss him. He had his 2010s to pour, and some older sweet wines on which I did not get notes, though the ’89 sticky is plenty memorable if it comes your way. He was far enough west to have had some rain around the harvest and to have to pick quickly. He had the thoughtful comment that sometimes vintages with a bit of difficulty made more interesting wines than easy vintages with clear sailing, adding that he felt he got extra complexity in 2010 compared with 2009. I would have to agree, though easy vintages like 1959 definitely produced some pretty fine Vouvray. His current Brut in the US is based on 2009, and it is great stuff. Ripe but crisp, I prefer the non-dose version, but the lightly dosed Brut probably has wider appeal. I should drink more of this. His 2010 sec is from a clay site, and is an exemplar of Vouvray sec, complex with a bright and long finish. It runs 13.2%, with 6 g rs and 5.6 TA. (I remind my readers that the French have their own currency for TA.) I’m not sure whether the sec makes it into the US in this vintage. For several years now, Francois has separated the terroirs of what used to be the Tradition bottling, typically a demi-sec. This year’s Silex site (as the name implies, it has a lot of quartz) gave its usual open, expansive aromas and comparative delicacy, with good refreshing but not hard acid. It’s 12.4%, with 14 g. rs and 5.2 TA, so the sugar is perceptible but not prominent. He split the Silex out first, and for a while continued to bottle his clay site wine as Tradition, but in 2010 he will call it Les Trois Argiles and ditch the name “Tradition.” The clay gives a more powerful and somewhat straightforward wine at this stage, though it will doubtless develop considerable aromatic complexity over the next 20 or 30 years. It is 12.9%, with 17 rs and 5.4 TA. I seem to be missing notes on his other wines. I blame Michel Abood.
Francois Chidaine was probably busy typing his resignation letter, I didn’t get to say hi at the Renaissance des AOCs. They do a longer, slower fermentation than some, which produces wines that may be more flattering young. The 2009 Petillant is kind of crazy-ripe. Big nose, but really not much rs. Relatively rich CB goodness in a sparkling form. The 2010 Clos du Breuil has a great nose, though it shows a bit of SO2 so you may wish to decant. Quite classic with very good structure. The 2008 Les Choisilles was similarly clean and bright, with 2008’s firm acids but good long flavors. The 2009 was a bit indistinct in contrast, showing both SO2 and softness. I’d buy ’08 of the two. The 2009 Bournais showed very well, but this is good in many vintages. You will recall that the site lacks the flint of many sites in Montlouis, and that it was reclaimed just a few years ago by the Chidaine. The ’09 is floral, a little plush and soft on the palate, but the fruit is really pretty. It’s often my favorite wine from them. The 2010 Clos Baudoin is a big step up for me from the ‘09 (you will further recall that this is a site on the premier cote in Vouvray that FC is reclaiming from its time of neglect during the last years of the reign of Prince Poniatowski). It is pretty and harmonious, with nice length and a pleasing structure of acid and chenin phenolics. 2010 Clos Habert is riper than the Baudoin as is usually the case, it is demi-sec, and is that a hint of botrytis that I smell along with a little SO2? It shows a bit of alcohol along with its rs, but I don’t have stats. The long finish shows more acid and phenolics than depth of fruit currently, but it’s not bad at all. The 2008 Les Tuffeaux was a slightly odd wine to me. Structurally it seemed that it might have some uneven ripeness—there are lean/green flavors along with quite ripe ones. It has some sugar to balance its bright 2008 acid on the long finish. The 2009 version was too plush for my taste, as was 2009 Le Bouchet, though many would differ with me.
Vincent Careme’s wines were also at the Renaissance, though he had twisted his ankle and couldn’t come. He is mostly finished with his conversion to Biodynamie, so this was his first year at the Renaissance. His 2010 Vouvray was clean, with good energy and nice medium-bodied fruit. Careme is stylistically perhaps more aligned with Chidaine than with Huet and Foreau, with a slow fermentation giving more flattering wines to taste. You could cheerfully drink his sec. The 2010 Le Peu Morier is from a single site with flint and clay about a meter deep over limestone. It wears its 10 grams of rs well and is a pretty wine in good balance. The 2009 Ancestrale pet-nat has only a small bit of pet-nat fur to add complexity and is a lot of fun.
I tried some wines from Les Vignes Herbel that ran too far into Chapoutier-decried hippie territory for me. The 2010 Anjou blanc was a bit too ‘natural’ and unwashed on the nose, and appley from oxidation. The ‘La rue aux Loups’ was clearly from good material, but was way too oxidized into cider territory for me. Eric Bordelet’s stand was only 10 meters away if I wanted cider. Their reds from Anjou were mostly funky and/or hard and not to my taste. I often find Anjou reds to be a bit hard for their fruit, and these are squarely in that category. They also showed a chenin that was a blend of 2008 and 2010 that was crazy volatile, with a mix of VA and botrytis and quite sweet. I really don’t need too many of these in my diet.
On a happier note, I tasted with Eric Nicolas of Belleviere. His 2010 Premices is from young vines in Jasnieres and is in conversion to bio. It has 19 grams of rs in good balance, and is pleasant but unserious. The Rosieres is also younger vines from Jasnieres and has long been in bio. The 2010 is very nice indeed after its year in barrel and brief time in bottle. It is quite classic Jasnieres, minerals and clean fruit, with enough acid that its 12 grams of rs passes unnoticed. The 2010 L’Effraie is Coteaux du Loir from 35 year old vines, and the age shows as more stoniness. It has a long, pleasantly phenolic chenin mineral finish, I like it a lot. Eric says that Coteaux du Loir is always higher in acid than Jasnieres, perhaps from lower typical ripeness? The 2009 VV Eparses was 20 months in barrels and has only 4.5 grams of rs. It has the rich ripeness of 2009, but nice chewy mineral depth. It’s a softer more approachable package, with a somewhat cushioned but good finish. The 2009 Caligramme (VV Jasnieres) is assembled from ripe grapes from a variety of plots. Even in 2009 it’s only 10 g/L residual. It has a pretty but not effusive Jasnieres nose and feels a little plush. I wouldn’t keep this forever, but a few years should make a big difference. It’s nice to see Eric making good wines like these, I root for him. I didn’t get to try any reds.
I tasted with Marc Angeli himself, which is not always my preference since I find him a bit unsympathetic. Anyhow, he has some interesting and unusual wines in 2010. The La Lune was quite atypical to my taste. It is declassified dry Bonnezeaux, and does indeed often taste like a dessert wine without sugar, somewhat broad and powerful, sometimes with some rs. Not so in 2010. It is complex, interesting, seemingly volcanic, earthy, dry, and more linear than I expect. Good stuff. I wouldn’t drink this every day, but it is fun to have one or two in the mix. The 2010 Les Fouchardes is riper, richer, clearly not a calcareous chenin, but something from farther west. It is long and powerful, with good acidity, and dry. The 2010 Rose d’un Jour is a little volatile, but it also has some fun strawberry jam, some rs, and its usual good acidity. It is a bit rich for frivolity, but .sasha will find that the Olgas go for this in a big way. The rose “Fin de journée” was more volatile and sweeter and I didn’t go for it.
I tasted with several folks in Savennieres. I expanded my usual group a bit because I wanted more context to try to understand the Joly wines, but I didn’t really achieve that. I was glad to see that N. Joly seemed to be in good health, since I’d heard that he had been ill last year. There was no particular evidence of that as I passed by him in the fair. But my understanding is that Virginie has much more to do with the wines in the last couple of years in any case. I was therefore looking forward to trying the wines with more enthusiasm than I have felt in recent years. But the first glass, of 2010 Les Vieux Clos (is this the successor to the Clos Sacres?) was a big disappointment. It was quite volatile and also hot on the nose, with a hardness to the phenolics and a volatile finish. Not good. It claimed 14.5% on its label. Unpleasant wine. The 2010 Clos de la Bergerie was also hot and volatile, but not the mess that the LVC was. More minerality, more suave, not bad if a bit hot in the finish, but you would want to drink this well chilled if you have the occasion. 2010 Coulee de Serrant also claims 15.5%, and it is much better wine than either of the preceding. It is hot, but has an honest chenin nose and real finish. Virginie had a picture on the table showing lightly botrytized, very ripe grapes. Harvesting with a little extra concentration and complexity from botrytis was long the recipe at Coulee de Serrant, but I wonder whether they shouldn’t rethink that practice. When you are at 15.5% (or more?), extra concentration is probably not the way to go. Was the LVC caught in the rain? I didn’t get a chance to ask, Virginie was in a conversation with another winemaker when I tasted and I didn’t get back.
What I did instead was to taste with some other winemakers in the hope of context. I was quite delighted to see Evelyne de Pontbriand from Closel/Vaults at the Vins Bio Loire salon, since I’d feared missing her if she was only at the Salon. She’s a lot of fun, and I like many of her wines. She showed the 2010 Jalousie, which was bottled last September. This is a very useful vintage of this, I think. Quite clean and precise, with bright acidity. It isn’t overly rich, but the flavors are very pretty. I could drink this regularly. The 2009 Caillardieres is very much in the style of that ripe wine from sandy soils in a good vintage. It is a traditional style in the region, a wine with a bit of rs, and in this vintage maybe a bit of botrytis or is that just honeyed ripe fruit? But it is a style that is not for me, and even though it has a long finish and good acid and is well made, it’s not my thing. I wonder what it is about chenin from limestone that I don’t mind having some rs in it, but I have a much harder time with Savennieres. Dunno. Anyhow, she also showed some Papillons. The 2006 you may recall. In line with many whites from that vintage, it ripened fast just ahead of harvest and came out with more power and alcohol than I personally prefer. It’s clean and has some grip, but it’s not my thing. The 2007 is much more my speed. No shrinking violet, of course, not from that vineyard, it shows a bit of alcohol, but to my taste this is the good stuff and I will get some. The 2008 is also good stuff. Does it have a hint of botrytis? Maybe, but it also has a big open nose, a long finish, and maybe a touch of alcohol. There is also a crazy verdelho (I forget the details, but someone brought it to Savennieres in the 19thC), it is quite tasty, with some interesting green fruit and good zip. Their 2010 Anjou rouge is all from cabernet franc. It has the herbal CF thing going, which is fine with me in this dosage, it’s fresh and medium-lean without hard Anjou tannins. You could use this for dinner with the right meal. The 2010 rose, OTOH, is all cabernet sauvignon, picked very ripe and pressed immediately. It has sweetness of flavor and fruit, but finishes dry with good grip. Quite nice.
For further context, I hopped across the aisle to the Domain aux Moines. Their 2010 Roche aux Moines was to be bottled the day after the tasting and I liked it. It’s 14.5%, with 8.6 TA. It’s bright, relatively lean, and fresh. They seem to have dialed back the SO2 here quite a bit since the old days, this wine had 8 free and 36 total, a very modest amount, and they didn’t plan to add more at bottling. It’s from a blend of stainless and old wood. Good stuff. The 2011 was of course still in tank, and was a bit cloudy and reduced. Could it have had a bit of pyrazine? Good structure and material, but it will take more time to see how it turns out aromatically. A sample from a barrel was more open and less bright, but still cloudy and a bit reduced. There is a botrytis cuvee in 2010 with a very pretty apricot nose. It’s well balanced with a light perception of sweetness, but really it has 60 grams of rs and 5.3 of TA. My sister would totally love this.
Rene Mosse’s wines have come a long way in recent years, to my taste. They are not scrupulously hygienic, but they have cleaned up and I like them much better than I used to. This is good, because I like Rene and I enjoy drinking his wines and thinking of him and now I can. His 2011 Anjou blanc is surprisingly rich and long. You can detect the 6 grams of rs in the finish, but it has good acid to balance and is good wine. His 2010 “The Magic of Ju-Ju” (get David Lillie to explain the joke, or perhaps Eden will indulge us) is purchased chenin from Quarts de Chaume and very much reminds me of a dry vintage of La Lune (but not the 2011), with its “wait a minute, am I a dessert wine or not?” identity. But it has good Anjou phenolics and is a lot of fun. The 2011 Le Rouchefer has a bit of wood showing in Anjou fashion, but it also has excellent minerality, acid, and length. Good stuff. The 2010 Savennieres from purchased grapes is a tiny bit old-style (hipster of a decade ago), a bit furry and slightly oxidized in the finish, but it is also long and interesting. This is from purchased grapes. The 2010 Savennieres ‘Arena’ is his own. It shows a touch of wood, good grip, plenty of complexity, and a hint of fur in the tail. Solid structure, though. I like it quite well.
I had a quick run at a few others. Jo Pithon’s wines at Pithon-Paillé were good, but my notes were not. The 2010 Bonnes Blanches is from a quartz/slate site with a northern exposure down to the Layon river. It is all barrel fermented, and 15% of the wood is new, but it is not obtrusive. It’s good stuff, but shows more of its 14% right now than I would have thought. The Coteau des Treilles is a volcanic slope on the opposite bank. It’s apparently crazy steep (30-70%), and thus has very thin (30 cm) soil over the rock. The vines are young, the site is warm, and the oak is up to 20% and more apparent in the wine. But Jo knows what he’s doing, and the wood is not vulgar, the minerality is good, and the acidity ripe but plentiful. It’s close to being too much right now, but perhaps some age will mellow it. He continues to do this style very well, even if his sideburns are still frightening.
Richard Leroy only showed the 2010 Les Rouliers. His wines are increasingly to my taste as his barrels have aged a bit. This was very clean and pretty, good wine, but not terribly deep or complex. Jerome Lenoir had a 2007 Chinon blanc, but my bottle may have been off. It was a bit oxidized and had some spritz. There wasn’t anyone manning the stand when I passed by late on the first afternoon of the Dive, so I didn’t learn more. Thierry Germain’s 2011 Saumur blanc, which I thought was called Cuvee Michel but can’t precisely identify on the webz, was pleasant and good enough, but didn’t move me. The 2011 Cuvee Insolite, also a Saumur blanc was good, straight up, bright clean chenin but didn’t change my life. That one is fermented in mixed big and small wood.
I feel that I must have tried some other chenins, but I can’t find them in my notes, so that’s all you get.
I tasted quite a bit of chenin in the last couple of weeks in France, and I think I will generally organize those notes here, though if a producer has one or two non-chenin wines in the mix, I may include those.
The following calendar commentary may be a bit of inside baseball for those of you scoring at home, but I mention briefly that the whole business of showing the new vintage of the wines of the Loire in particular is in a state of fairly considerable disarray these days. Many merchants and importers showed up in France a couple of weeks ago for the big Millesime Bio fair in Montpellier (I didn’t quite arrive in time). The following weekend was the Dive Bouteille in Breze, in the Loire. The establishment Salon des Vins de Loire did not kick off until the Monday of the week after that, making it impossible for many of us (your correspondent included) to attend. This problem was obvious to many of the interesting and thoughtful growers, who objected strenuously, but to no avail. The guys who run the Salon are heavily influenced by the larger industrial producers, and the folks who buy those wines don’t really care whether they taste Closel, Puzelat, and the like or not, or whether the buyers of such wines find it convenient. So they kept the Salon on its usual track the Monday and Tuesday after the Super Bowl and lost many good producers. Francois Chidaine, who was on the Loire Valley wine board also resigned last week, complaining of large budgets misdirected. Fortunately, many of the folks I used to see at the Salon were either at the Rene Mosse/Puzelat thingy in Angers, or a couple of blocks away at the Vins Bio Loire show, or the couple of days before at the Joly Renaissance des AOCs in the same Greniers St. Jean, a lovely spot in Angers. There were also many exciting non-Loire growers in the mix at those splinter/satellite shows. I hope I can get to them all. But the Salon has become somewhat marginal, with many excellent producers no longer attending. I regret missing Huet, Baudry, Filliatreau, and a few others at the Salon, but I was a bit shocked that I managed to stay in France for ten days as it was. I hope the Loire growers can get their act together, it doesn’t really help anyone to have so many events on so many days, nice as most of them were.
On to chenin. As I mentioned, I did not get to taste the Huet wines. Perhaps the Pinon experience will give some hints. I was quite delighted to see Francois at the Vins Bio Loire bash, I had feared he would only be at the Salon and I would miss him. He had his 2010s to pour, and some older sweet wines on which I did not get notes, though the ’89 sticky is plenty memorable if it comes your way. He was far enough west to have had some rain around the harvest and to have to pick quickly. He had the thoughtful comment that sometimes vintages with a bit of difficulty made more interesting wines than easy vintages with clear sailing, adding that he felt he got extra complexity in 2010 compared with 2009. I would have to agree, though easy vintages like 1959 definitely produced some pretty fine Vouvray. His current Brut in the US is based on 2009, and it is great stuff. Ripe but crisp, I prefer the non-dose version, but the lightly dosed Brut probably has wider appeal. I should drink more of this. His 2010 sec is from a clay site, and is an exemplar of Vouvray sec, complex with a bright and long finish. It runs 13.2%, with 6 g rs and 5.6 TA. (I remind my readers that the French have their own currency for TA.) I’m not sure whether the sec makes it into the US in this vintage. For several years now, Francois has separated the terroirs of what used to be the Tradition bottling, typically a demi-sec. This year’s Silex site (as the name implies, it has a lot of quartz) gave its usual open, expansive aromas and comparative delicacy, with good refreshing but not hard acid. It’s 12.4%, with 14 g. rs and 5.2 TA, so the sugar is perceptible but not prominent. He split the Silex out first, and for a while continued to bottle his clay site wine as Tradition, but in 2010 he will call it Les Trois Argiles and ditch the name “Tradition.” The clay gives a more powerful and somewhat straightforward wine at this stage, though it will doubtless develop considerable aromatic complexity over the next 20 or 30 years. It is 12.9%, with 17 rs and 5.4 TA. I seem to be missing notes on his other wines. I blame Michel Abood.
Francois Chidaine was probably busy typing his resignation letter, I didn’t get to say hi at the Renaissance des AOCs. They do a longer, slower fermentation than some, which produces wines that may be more flattering young. The 2009 Petillant is kind of crazy-ripe. Big nose, but really not much rs. Relatively rich CB goodness in a sparkling form. The 2010 Clos du Breuil has a great nose, though it shows a bit of SO2 so you may wish to decant. Quite classic with very good structure. The 2008 Les Choisilles was similarly clean and bright, with 2008’s firm acids but good long flavors. The 2009 was a bit indistinct in contrast, showing both SO2 and softness. I’d buy ’08 of the two. The 2009 Bournais showed very well, but this is good in many vintages. You will recall that the site lacks the flint of many sites in Montlouis, and that it was reclaimed just a few years ago by the Chidaine. The ’09 is floral, a little plush and soft on the palate, but the fruit is really pretty. It’s often my favorite wine from them. The 2010 Clos Baudoin is a big step up for me from the ‘09 (you will further recall that this is a site on the premier cote in Vouvray that FC is reclaiming from its time of neglect during the last years of the reign of Prince Poniatowski). It is pretty and harmonious, with nice length and a pleasing structure of acid and chenin phenolics. 2010 Clos Habert is riper than the Baudoin as is usually the case, it is demi-sec, and is that a hint of botrytis that I smell along with a little SO2? It shows a bit of alcohol along with its rs, but I don’t have stats. The long finish shows more acid and phenolics than depth of fruit currently, but it’s not bad at all. The 2008 Les Tuffeaux was a slightly odd wine to me. Structurally it seemed that it might have some uneven ripeness—there are lean/green flavors along with quite ripe ones. It has some sugar to balance its bright 2008 acid on the long finish. The 2009 version was too plush for my taste, as was 2009 Le Bouchet, though many would differ with me.
Vincent Careme’s wines were also at the Renaissance, though he had twisted his ankle and couldn’t come. He is mostly finished with his conversion to Biodynamie, so this was his first year at the Renaissance. His 2010 Vouvray was clean, with good energy and nice medium-bodied fruit. Careme is stylistically perhaps more aligned with Chidaine than with Huet and Foreau, with a slow fermentation giving more flattering wines to taste. You could cheerfully drink his sec. The 2010 Le Peu Morier is from a single site with flint and clay about a meter deep over limestone. It wears its 10 grams of rs well and is a pretty wine in good balance. The 2009 Ancestrale pet-nat has only a small bit of pet-nat fur to add complexity and is a lot of fun.
I tried some wines from Les Vignes Herbel that ran too far into Chapoutier-decried hippie territory for me. The 2010 Anjou blanc was a bit too ‘natural’ and unwashed on the nose, and appley from oxidation. The ‘La rue aux Loups’ was clearly from good material, but was way too oxidized into cider territory for me. Eric Bordelet’s stand was only 10 meters away if I wanted cider. Their reds from Anjou were mostly funky and/or hard and not to my taste. I often find Anjou reds to be a bit hard for their fruit, and these are squarely in that category. They also showed a chenin that was a blend of 2008 and 2010 that was crazy volatile, with a mix of VA and botrytis and quite sweet. I really don’t need too many of these in my diet.
On a happier note, I tasted with Eric Nicolas of Belleviere. His 2010 Premices is from young vines in Jasnieres and is in conversion to bio. It has 19 grams of rs in good balance, and is pleasant but unserious. The Rosieres is also younger vines from Jasnieres and has long been in bio. The 2010 is very nice indeed after its year in barrel and brief time in bottle. It is quite classic Jasnieres, minerals and clean fruit, with enough acid that its 12 grams of rs passes unnoticed. The 2010 L’Effraie is Coteaux du Loir from 35 year old vines, and the age shows as more stoniness. It has a long, pleasantly phenolic chenin mineral finish, I like it a lot. Eric says that Coteaux du Loir is always higher in acid than Jasnieres, perhaps from lower typical ripeness? The 2009 VV Eparses was 20 months in barrels and has only 4.5 grams of rs. It has the rich ripeness of 2009, but nice chewy mineral depth. It’s a softer more approachable package, with a somewhat cushioned but good finish. The 2009 Caligramme (VV Jasnieres) is assembled from ripe grapes from a variety of plots. Even in 2009 it’s only 10 g/L residual. It has a pretty but not effusive Jasnieres nose and feels a little plush. I wouldn’t keep this forever, but a few years should make a big difference. It’s nice to see Eric making good wines like these, I root for him. I didn’t get to try any reds.
I tasted with Marc Angeli himself, which is not always my preference since I find him a bit unsympathetic. Anyhow, he has some interesting and unusual wines in 2010. The La Lune was quite atypical to my taste. It is declassified dry Bonnezeaux, and does indeed often taste like a dessert wine without sugar, somewhat broad and powerful, sometimes with some rs. Not so in 2010. It is complex, interesting, seemingly volcanic, earthy, dry, and more linear than I expect. Good stuff. I wouldn’t drink this every day, but it is fun to have one or two in the mix. The 2010 Les Fouchardes is riper, richer, clearly not a calcareous chenin, but something from farther west. It is long and powerful, with good acidity, and dry. The 2010 Rose d’un Jour is a little volatile, but it also has some fun strawberry jam, some rs, and its usual good acidity. It is a bit rich for frivolity, but .sasha will find that the Olgas go for this in a big way. The rose “Fin de journée” was more volatile and sweeter and I didn’t go for it.
I tasted with several folks in Savennieres. I expanded my usual group a bit because I wanted more context to try to understand the Joly wines, but I didn’t really achieve that. I was glad to see that N. Joly seemed to be in good health, since I’d heard that he had been ill last year. There was no particular evidence of that as I passed by him in the fair. But my understanding is that Virginie has much more to do with the wines in the last couple of years in any case. I was therefore looking forward to trying the wines with more enthusiasm than I have felt in recent years. But the first glass, of 2010 Les Vieux Clos (is this the successor to the Clos Sacres?) was a big disappointment. It was quite volatile and also hot on the nose, with a hardness to the phenolics and a volatile finish. Not good. It claimed 14.5% on its label. Unpleasant wine. The 2010 Clos de la Bergerie was also hot and volatile, but not the mess that the LVC was. More minerality, more suave, not bad if a bit hot in the finish, but you would want to drink this well chilled if you have the occasion. 2010 Coulee de Serrant also claims 15.5%, and it is much better wine than either of the preceding. It is hot, but has an honest chenin nose and real finish. Virginie had a picture on the table showing lightly botrytized, very ripe grapes. Harvesting with a little extra concentration and complexity from botrytis was long the recipe at Coulee de Serrant, but I wonder whether they shouldn’t rethink that practice. When you are at 15.5% (or more?), extra concentration is probably not the way to go. Was the LVC caught in the rain? I didn’t get a chance to ask, Virginie was in a conversation with another winemaker when I tasted and I didn’t get back.
What I did instead was to taste with some other winemakers in the hope of context. I was quite delighted to see Evelyne de Pontbriand from Closel/Vaults at the Vins Bio Loire salon, since I’d feared missing her if she was only at the Salon. She’s a lot of fun, and I like many of her wines. She showed the 2010 Jalousie, which was bottled last September. This is a very useful vintage of this, I think. Quite clean and precise, with bright acidity. It isn’t overly rich, but the flavors are very pretty. I could drink this regularly. The 2009 Caillardieres is very much in the style of that ripe wine from sandy soils in a good vintage. It is a traditional style in the region, a wine with a bit of rs, and in this vintage maybe a bit of botrytis or is that just honeyed ripe fruit? But it is a style that is not for me, and even though it has a long finish and good acid and is well made, it’s not my thing. I wonder what it is about chenin from limestone that I don’t mind having some rs in it, but I have a much harder time with Savennieres. Dunno. Anyhow, she also showed some Papillons. The 2006 you may recall. In line with many whites from that vintage, it ripened fast just ahead of harvest and came out with more power and alcohol than I personally prefer. It’s clean and has some grip, but it’s not my thing. The 2007 is much more my speed. No shrinking violet, of course, not from that vineyard, it shows a bit of alcohol, but to my taste this is the good stuff and I will get some. The 2008 is also good stuff. Does it have a hint of botrytis? Maybe, but it also has a big open nose, a long finish, and maybe a touch of alcohol. There is also a crazy verdelho (I forget the details, but someone brought it to Savennieres in the 19thC), it is quite tasty, with some interesting green fruit and good zip. Their 2010 Anjou rouge is all from cabernet franc. It has the herbal CF thing going, which is fine with me in this dosage, it’s fresh and medium-lean without hard Anjou tannins. You could use this for dinner with the right meal. The 2010 rose, OTOH, is all cabernet sauvignon, picked very ripe and pressed immediately. It has sweetness of flavor and fruit, but finishes dry with good grip. Quite nice.
For further context, I hopped across the aisle to the Domain aux Moines. Their 2010 Roche aux Moines was to be bottled the day after the tasting and I liked it. It’s 14.5%, with 8.6 TA. It’s bright, relatively lean, and fresh. They seem to have dialed back the SO2 here quite a bit since the old days, this wine had 8 free and 36 total, a very modest amount, and they didn’t plan to add more at bottling. It’s from a blend of stainless and old wood. Good stuff. The 2011 was of course still in tank, and was a bit cloudy and reduced. Could it have had a bit of pyrazine? Good structure and material, but it will take more time to see how it turns out aromatically. A sample from a barrel was more open and less bright, but still cloudy and a bit reduced. There is a botrytis cuvee in 2010 with a very pretty apricot nose. It’s well balanced with a light perception of sweetness, but really it has 60 grams of rs and 5.3 of TA. My sister would totally love this.
Rene Mosse’s wines have come a long way in recent years, to my taste. They are not scrupulously hygienic, but they have cleaned up and I like them much better than I used to. This is good, because I like Rene and I enjoy drinking his wines and thinking of him and now I can. His 2011 Anjou blanc is surprisingly rich and long. You can detect the 6 grams of rs in the finish, but it has good acid to balance and is good wine. His 2010 “The Magic of Ju-Ju” (get David Lillie to explain the joke, or perhaps Eden will indulge us) is purchased chenin from Quarts de Chaume and very much reminds me of a dry vintage of La Lune (but not the 2011), with its “wait a minute, am I a dessert wine or not?” identity. But it has good Anjou phenolics and is a lot of fun. The 2011 Le Rouchefer has a bit of wood showing in Anjou fashion, but it also has excellent minerality, acid, and length. Good stuff. The 2010 Savennieres from purchased grapes is a tiny bit old-style (hipster of a decade ago), a bit furry and slightly oxidized in the finish, but it is also long and interesting. This is from purchased grapes. The 2010 Savennieres ‘Arena’ is his own. It shows a touch of wood, good grip, plenty of complexity, and a hint of fur in the tail. Solid structure, though. I like it quite well.
I had a quick run at a few others. Jo Pithon’s wines at Pithon-Paillé were good, but my notes were not. The 2010 Bonnes Blanches is from a quartz/slate site with a northern exposure down to the Layon river. It is all barrel fermented, and 15% of the wood is new, but it is not obtrusive. It’s good stuff, but shows more of its 14% right now than I would have thought. The Coteau des Treilles is a volcanic slope on the opposite bank. It’s apparently crazy steep (30-70%), and thus has very thin (30 cm) soil over the rock. The vines are young, the site is warm, and the oak is up to 20% and more apparent in the wine. But Jo knows what he’s doing, and the wood is not vulgar, the minerality is good, and the acidity ripe but plentiful. It’s close to being too much right now, but perhaps some age will mellow it. He continues to do this style very well, even if his sideburns are still frightening.
Richard Leroy only showed the 2010 Les Rouliers. His wines are increasingly to my taste as his barrels have aged a bit. This was very clean and pretty, good wine, but not terribly deep or complex. Jerome Lenoir had a 2007 Chinon blanc, but my bottle may have been off. It was a bit oxidized and had some spritz. There wasn’t anyone manning the stand when I passed by late on the first afternoon of the Dive, so I didn’t learn more. Thierry Germain’s 2011 Saumur blanc, which I thought was called Cuvee Michel but can’t precisely identify on the webz, was pleasant and good enough, but didn’t move me. The 2011 Cuvee Insolite, also a Saumur blanc was good, straight up, bright clean chenin but didn’t change my life. That one is fermented in mixed big and small wood.
I feel that I must have tried some other chenins, but I can’t find them in my notes, so that’s all you get.