sully-sur-loireBeyond Sancerre: Wines of the Loire
In September, three other wine writers and I spent five days in the Loire Valley, France’s largest (in size) wine region. Despite the fact that the Loire Valley is the most popular tourist destination in France after Paris and the Riviera, Americans typically come here for the plethora of chateaux, not for the wine.
Nantes, at the mouth of the Loire River, is home to Muscadet, the crisp, refreshing white wine that is a traditional partner for oysters and other shellfish. The intense summer heat pushed up the harvest by several weeks and created high expectations in the minds of producers and wine drinkers alike, particularly in this cool region where it is a struggle to achieve ripeness in all grape varieties, including the Melon de Bourgogne (yes, it’s native to Burgundy) used in Muscadet.
It has always been my contention that we don’t get a lot of the really good Muscadet in the United States.This trip confirmed it, especially at a luncheon and tasting at Guilbaud Freres, a family winery in Gorges. Most of the wines we tried were quite delicious. But what really impressed me and my traveling companions was how well Muscadet ages. The axiom has always been that the fresher Muscadet is the better. Yet we were all knocked out by Guilbaud’s 1976 Le Soleil Nantes Muscadet. Still fresh with bright acidity, it had evolved with a nose that was almost Burgundian. While ripe and crisp, Guilbaud’s 2000 Chateau de la Pingossiere Muscadet actually needed more bottle age before it would reach its peak.
Owner Pascal Guilbaud said that some winemakers in the region are experimenting with oak aging. “If the wine can take it, that’s okay,” he said but added “We want to be taken seriously in the world market and that usually means oak.” I, for one, hope Guilbaud and his colleagues don’t take oak too seriously. In wines that do not use oak, creaminess and complexity is achieved by extended lees contact. Hence, you’ll see on many Muscadet labels, sur lie (Lees are the dead yeast cells and grape particles that accumulate during fermentation and aging.)
Traveling east, we stopped for lunch with a group of winemakers at Domaine du Closel in Savennières, a small appellation (only about 250 acres) southwest of the city of Angers in the Anjou/Saumur region. Here reigns the Chenin Blanc grape, which, along with Riesling, is the most versatile in the world because, like Riesling, it can be made bone dry, honeyed sweet, off-dry, still, and sparkling. As with Riesling, Savennières have incredible acidity that keeps them light on their feet—even when vinified as dessert wines—and helps them to age gloriously. Savennières also have a wild, earthy quality (sometimes with an oxidized note) that is a welcome contrast to the cuddly warm climate fruit bombs from places like California and Australia.
One difference from Riesling is that Chenin Blanc wines, at least from here, can handle new oak, as was the case with the 2000 Roche au Moines (one of the appellation’s two Grand Cru vineyards) from Chateau de Chamboureau, which spent 11 months in barriques (small, new oak barrels) giving it a buttery, creamy mouthfeel. But the 1999 Clos du Papillon from Domaine du Closel was plenty rich too, even though it was aged in large, old oak barrels, which impart little of the wood’s character. I also like the fact that wineries such as Domaine du Closel bottle age their wines for a few years, which adds to their complexity. Other wines of note from the tasting included the 1995 Domaine aux Moines Roche aux Moines, Cuvee d’Avant from Chateau de Chamboureau and a 2001 Clos du Papillon moelleux, or dessert wine. Savennières can match up with an amazing variety of food, as we discovered at the luncheon, from the always difficult asparagus to seafood with cream sauce. I’d even try older Savennières (1989 was a legendary vintage) with game birds and red meats like lamb.
Saumur Blanc is a less well-known expression of Chenin Blanc. It can be an excellent value, however. At Domaine Saint Vincent, just outside the city of Saumur, these wines had a quality I often find in Alsatian Pinot Gris, that of chamomile and lanolin. The 2000 and 2001 Domaine Saint Vincent Saumur Blancs had amazing richness for wines that cost between $10 and $15. Saumur Champigny is a red wine of the region made with the Cabernet Franc grape that is better suited to cool climates than Cabernet Sauvignon. The 2000 Domaine Saint Vincent Les Adrialys is made from 50-year-old vines and shows remarkable character for a wine that only costs $12. Even more impressive is the 2001 Domaine Saint Vincent Lea, which has great fruit, spice and structure yet sells for only $16.
Saumur produces a remarkable amount of well-made, if unspectacular, sparkling wine from Chenin Blanc and/or Cabernet Franc. (Small amounts of Chardonnay are also used.) However, they are often good values, selling mostly in the $10 to $20 range. Before a tasting put on by Fines Bulles (fine bubble) producers, we toured a fraction of the hundreds of miles of underground caves created from carved out limestone that found its way into a remarkable number of buildings in France and England, including Westminster Abbey. There are six appellations allowed to use the Fines Bulles designation, the largest being Saumur Brut, Cremant de Loire, and Vouvray. My favorites from the tasting were: 1997 Chateau de Montgueret Saumur Brut Tete de Cuvee, Langlois-Chateau Cremant de Loire Brut ($9), Maison Langlois-Chateau Cremant de Rosé Brut ($10), Quadrille de Maison Langlois-Chateau Cremant de Loire Cuvee de Prestige ($15), Bouvet Ladubay Tresor ($19), Bouvet Saumur Blanc de Blancs Brut ($17), 1997 Bouvet Saumur Saphir Brut, 1995 Veuve Amiot Saumur Cuvee Elizabeth, and the 2001 Veuve Amiot Brut.
The next day we headed east again to Vouvray in the Touraine region. No other appellation produces a greater variety of wines, from sparkling sweet to bone dry still. At a tasting at Monmousseau, a producer and negociant of Loire wines I was impressed with the exotic spice, tropical fruit nose and richness of a 1986 Chateau Gaudrelle. Older Vouvrays, like Savennières, are great with rich meats, fowl and game. (A 1989 Vouvray was one of my favorites with Christmas goose. Read more about Christmas goose in the December newsletter.) But young, frothy sparkling Vouvrays such as Clos du Chateau de Mosny Brut ($12), can be fetching in their own way.
Chinon is the best known red wine (from Cabernet Franc) appellation in Touraine. As with Muscadet, we don’t always see the best this region has to offer. Case in point: At Domaine Dozon, only one of the wines we tasted, Le Clos du Saut au Loup, is available in the United States. The 2001 version is meaty and ripe with very good acidity. This wine can age well if the 1989 version (admittedly, a great vintage) is any indication. Big, earthy and meaty, it still needed time in the glass to open up.
The Centre Loire region is a bit confusing. While it lies at the far eastern end of the Loire, it is called Centre because it is, almost literally, in the center of France. Here is the home of Sauvignon Blanc in such famous appellations as Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé. Normally these wines have such bracing acidity they hurt your teeth. But this year because of the heat, winemakers told us they may have to acidify wines (for which they needed European Union approval) because acidity is lower than in anyone’s memory. Benoit Roumet of the Bureau Interprofessionnel des Vins du Centre (and our guide), also mentioned that because this area is cooler than other parts of the Loire, more work has been done in the last 10 years in the vineyards to get fruit to ripen sufficiently.
Though Sancerre is better known, I was impressed by the 2002 Sauvignon Blancs from the smaller appellations of Quincy (pronounced can see), Reuilly, and Menatou-Salon. “Juicy” is the word I seem to have written down frequently to describe the Quincy wines. Though generally light in body, a 2001 Silice de Quincy (from grapes on 80-year old vines) was positively Burgundian. Among the Reuilly wines, I really liked the 2002 Domaine de Reuilly. Menatou-Salon is larger than Reuilly and Quincy combined. Its Sauvignons are rounder and fuller with more depth like the 2002 Domaine Henry Pelle Les Cres or the 2002 La Tour Saint Martin we had with a lovely dinner one night at Le D'antan Sancerrois restaurant in the town of Bourges. Menatou-Salon also makes some nice, fleshy reds from Pinot Noir.
The following morning we tasted 26 Sancerres from the 2002 vintage. My overall impression was that, compared to the wines of Quincy and Reuilly, these wines were more minerally and more acidic with less upfront fruit. Most needed time and/or food to be appreciated because they were too acidic, herbal or grassy. (That shouldn’t be the case with the warmer 2003 vintage.) Still, I can recommend wines from Jean-Max Roger, Domaine Andre Neveu, Le Clos du Roc, Phillipe Raimbault, and Domaine Andre Vatan.
Later that day Roumet took us on a tour of the terroir of Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé. One of the things I love about visiting wine regions is that you really get a visceral sense of what makes the wines taste the way they do. Such was the case when I trudged up the slate slopes of the Mosel Valley in Germany. Here Roumet showed me why Pouilly-Fumé often has a smoky note (hence, its name). He took two flint stones, which cover the appellation, and struck them together as if making a fire. Sure enough, the smell of gunsmoke emerged.
We wound up our stay in the Loire with a two-hour wine and goat cheese tasting (the Loire is the goat cheese capitol of the world) at the Andre Dezart et Fils winery, followed by a fine meal at Le Cote des Monts Damnes restaurant in Chavignol. The cheeses were the small rounds called Crottin de Chavignol, among the tastiest goat cheeses in the world. They were from Dubois-Boulay, which buys these morsels from various local cheesemakers, then ages and sells them. The wines of Monsieur Dezart, a genial septuagenarian, were terrific. I’ve never had better Sancerre Rouge (made with Pinot Noir). His older Pouilly-Fumes and Sancerres (going back to the 1996 and 1997 vintages) were also amazing.
Getting to the Loire from Paris is easy. A train ride to Nantes is only three hours. Driving to Sancerre is even faster.