loire vintages pre-1989

V

vaughn tan

vaughn tan
anyone know where i can get a bit more information about vintages and likelihood of deliciousness for pre-1989 vintages from the loire?

(this is the green man and french horn, which had a 1990 c&p breton "les perrieres" on the list—really wonderful, soft, aromatic, fresh wine. which lasted about 90 minutes before crumbling quite rapidly.)
 
I would think there are some knowledgeable members of this bored that could answer specific questions, but I am definitely not one of them. You might also poke around here: Jim's Loire
 
originally posted by vaughn tan:
loire vintages pre-1989anyone know where i can get a bit more information about vintages and likelihood of deliciousness for pre-1989 vintages from the loire?

(this is the green man and french horn, which had a 1990 c&p breton "les perrieres" on the list—really wonderful, soft, aromatic, fresh wine. which lasted about 90 minutes before crumbling quite rapidly.)
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59 and 61 Huet have been very nice, '59 and 89 D'Orleans were both nice in the past 18 mos.
'29 Huet Molleux last New years was amazing...can't speak about older ones
'47 Fourier Goutte d'Or was incredible about 3 yrs ago

Just being a smart-ass....love the older Loire wines
 
i've only had a few of their wines young and always found them gritty and unapproachable—but the 1990 was in perfect condition (apparently direct from the breton cellars to the GMFH, via their investors/wine merchant).

drssouth: not quite so old as that.

michael: jim's loire is indeed handy but his vintage coverage stops at 1989 (other than to warn us off 1977 and provide a not very useful note about 1976. almost everyone seems to start tracking seriously with the 1989 vintage. and there seems to be some agreement that 1964, 1959, and 1947 were all great. but what about all the other years?
 
If all you are really after is a vintage chart and you do not have specific questions, then you should probably first try Google or another intertoobz search engine of your choice. For example, I came up with this vintage chart in about 10 seconds: Useless chart. The Loire, however, is a big place where many different types of wine are made, so I am not sure how much use generalizing about old vintages across the Loire will be. I can attest that 1921 Huet Le Haut Lieu Moelleux is still uniquely interesting, but there is probably no reason to drink a Sancerre from 1921 at this point. You mentioned Breton. Are you interested in specific producers, specific appellations, specific types of wine? We could narrow this down to a discussion of what you might actually want to go seek out.
 
Yes, it is a very big region and generalizations across all geographies, producers, and cepages may not be the way to go.

Though everyone seemed happy in 1959.
 
You could find a copy of

JACQUELIN Louis, POULIN, René. — The wines and vineyards of France. New York: G.P. Putnam, 1962

It has tables of vintage info and stats for the Loire as well as the rest of France going back to the 1800s. It reads like the back of a baseball card in places. Oy!
 
As BJ said, Friedrich's Loire book from 1996 may be your best bet. I'll look through this weekend and post on how much info there is.
 
i'm specifically interested, since i am going back there next tuesday with someone who is paying and has deep pockets in what might be nice to explore in the back of this here list (scroll back to the old gold section starting on p20).

the producers i think i'd be curious for specific intel on are:
domaine les roches
domaine de la chevalerie
chateau de ligré
domaine des roches neuves

and how do robinot's whites do with age? i have never had one older than 6 years from vintage.

there's some interesting stuff in this list as well. i'd not had ganevat's vin de mistelle before, but it was great with bleu d'auvergne (unsurprising).
 
re: roches neuves—the reason i'm curious is that i got a chance to taste some of the 2009 terres chaudes and it was ok but didn't seem super special. but then, what do i know?
 
Now we're talking. What a great list. Personally, I'd be tempted by some of the older Domaine Les Roches (Lenoir) red wines, as they age well. The '89 rouge is magical. Wish I could say I tried some of the vintages even older than that, but at least now I have something to do next time I find myself in London.
 
originally posted by Michael Lewis:
Now we're talking. What a great list. Personally, I'd be tempted by some of the older Domaine Les Roches (Lenoir) red wines, as they age well. The '89 rouge is magical. Wish I could say I tried some of the vintages even older than that, but at least now I have something to do next time I find myself in London.
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i live here now, so if you want someone to go with you just say the word.
 
originally posted by Mike Evans:
I'm sure you're familiar with it, but I'd have a hard time passing up the '89 Luneau-Papin.
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as a matter of fact, it was one of the bottles last week when i went to the GMFH. delicious and very restrained. even after a reluctant decant, it took two hours to begin to open up. not that i know so much about old muscadets (or anything really), but i bet this one has a ways to go yet.

the 1990 "les perrieres" from breton, on the other hand, was perfect. just perfect.
 
originally posted by vaughn tan:
originally posted by Michael Lewis:
Now we're talking. What a great list. Personally, I'd be tempted by some of the older Domaine Les Roches (Lenoir) red wines, as they age well. The '89 rouge is magical. Wish I could say I tried some of the vintages even older than that, but at least now I have something to do next time I find myself in London.
Click to expand...

i live here now, so if you want someone to go with you just say the word.
Click to expand...
Might happen next week. Will advise.
 
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